Need for Jallikattu - Bull taming sport of TN

When I was a small boy, on the second day after Pongal, i.e. on the 3rd of Makara (as per Tamil almanac), we used to have a celebration of the cattle helping the farmer in the fields and also giving milk to the family which was and continues to be an essential nutrient. The cattle will be taken to the rivers and given a bath and brought back home. After extensive polishing with a soft brush/cloth, the cattle will be decorated with turemeric, kumkum, sandal paste and garlanded with flowers and also with a garland made of a plant called Netti. This plant used to grow on the river banks. The people used to cut it,dry it and color it to make lovely colorful garlands. The cows and bulls will have a sumptuous feast made of cooked rice, jaggery and will be fed with bananas. The cattle will be worshiped as demigods as they provide enough nutrients and also help the farmer in his cultivation activities. The dung and the urine of the cows and the bulls will be collected along with the waste hay in a pit at the end of the house to prepare a good manure which will be used at the time of ploughing the land for cultivation. Then on the next day, the boys and young men in the village will assemble at around 3 PM in the village streets. First a bull called a temple bull (கோவில் மாடு) will be let lose from the temple premises at the western end of the street. The entire village will be assembled in the streets either on the Thinnais or on the streets to witness the event. The temple bull will be allowed to go without any one trying to capture it. Then one after the other the bulls from the houses will be brought out and let out (after removing the ropes tied to their noses and also the neck - மூக்கணாங்கயிறு மற்றும் தும்பு). The young men will try to capture the bulls and the bulls will be running helter skelter to escape. Slowly during my youth I learnt that this is a major tourist attraction and done professionally with lots of prize money on the bulls. There are many persons in central and western part of the state who reared bulls only for this purpose. The Kangeyam town is known for the bulls which are reared for this sport. The Kangeyam bulls also known for their ability to work hard and also the uncastrated bulls were used for mating to produce the best bulls and cows. This was during the days of my school and college days. Slowly the work culture absorbed me into the world of its own. Now in the last few years, I read that the association called PETA called for a ban and was awarded one by the highest court of India. What this PETA is doing is an extensive damage to the local cattle variety of India and especially South India. The Kangeyam bulls, Nandyal bulls and the Punganoor Cows are all highly priced possessions which are being reared with utmost care and love. I had seen a young boy of about 3 or 4 controlling the ferocious bull very easily and it followed him everywhere like a domesticated dog. Be that as it may, the decision to ban this sport has a very serious repercussions to the local cattle variety. If this sport is not there, the young male calves will be sent to slaughter house for meat and hide and the young female calves will have no local stud bull for mating. This over a period of time will erase the entire local cattle population. Once upon a time India did have five times the number of humans as cattle. Possessing cattle was considered wealth. Even in scriptures, there are enough references to cattle, where the kings donated cows to the brahmins for their upkeep and rearing as the milk and ghee made of the milk from the cattle were used in the daily chores of the brahmins. Now with the local cattle on the threshold of extinction, it is for the government of the day at the center and the state to act with alacrity to save them. When the same PETA in Spain objected to their matadorian festival bull fight,the government of Spain dismissed the charge and no court of the country came to the help of the PETA. The bull fight continues even today in Spain. Forget it being a national sport. The cattle breed is to be saved from extinction and this Jallikattu is one form of keeping the male calves alive.

Native Oils and Cattle - A similarity

We used to buy sesame oil and ground nut oil for use at home. We used to buy coconut oil for any medicinal purposes or for grooming the hair. Or at times,the tenant cultivator will bring the yield of sesame from the field. So we used to get the sesame dried in the open terrace and then take it to the oil press (old wooden one with a bull turning the mortar and the pestle remaining more or less motionless). As a young boy and also later a young adult I used to sit on the long arm to which the bull is yoked when the oil merchant used to put the dry produce (sesame, groundnut or coconut) into the press to extract oil. he used to put a little bit of jaggery into the press if it is sesame. He also used to have a small torch made of a stick with cloth tied around at one end and lighted. This he used to stick it into the press and he used to say that this would extract more oil from the produce. I graduated from the formal collegiate education in the mid 1970s and the hunt for a job started. Once I landed a job in a reasonably big city (Bangalore those days was not even comparable to present day Coimbatore in terms of size and population but climatically the best of places all round the year), the question of the oil press and the sesame, groundnut or coconut oils were totally forgotten. In the fag end of 1979,once I joined the bank, there was no turning back to the country oil press or the oils produced with a very high quality and the smell from the oil press.

The early part of 1980s saw the advent of the new types of oils extracted from various oil seeds and also rice bran. This onslaught was taken further with the advent of TV in almost every home post 1982 Asiad games. Slowly the sesame oil,ground nut oil and coconut oil lost shelf space to Soybean oil, Sunflower oil, Kharadi oil, cotton seed oil, rice bran oil etc. The TV adverts were targeting the gullible audience hitting them with ideas that the native oils like sesame oil, groundnut oil and coconut oil are not good for health and may be the reason for all cardio related diseases. This produced the mass hysteria among the population who immediately switched over to the imported palmolein, sunflower oil, rapeseed oil, cotton seed oil, soybean oil etc. Once the market for these oils are firmly set now the goodness of the earlier native oils are being propagated with refined oils being marketed locally or imported. We as usual, fell for this gimmick and now buy the refined variety of the same oil that we were using unrefined for ages till about 1970s.

The early part of 18th century saw export of some of the cattle from India to the Americas. These cattle were from some of the best breeds which could withstand the tropical extremities of climate. These cattle were imported into the Americas both in north and in south. The variety came to be known as Brahman possibly due to the very high cattle ownership with Brahmans in the early part of 17th century. These cattle have a peculiar hump in their back and also produce a very nutritious milk which the scientists claim is A2 (these classifications were not known until very recently to many of us) which contain some of the best nutrients for growth. This milk is suitable for babies and also for aged and infirm. How the people of India were keeping the cattle? They used to worship the cows, use the bull for all the labour and also for mating for reproduction. Once upon a time not long ago, the cattle population was far in excess of the human population of the country. Slowly the west started the same strategy that they adopted for oil with the cattle. They are slowly killing the local cattle by adopting first increasing the meat and leather exports from the country, then using their agent PETA to get a ban on the local cattle sports. There is a ban on the cattle cart race and also the bull taming (jallikattu). The same western countries and their businesses and also their agents PETA do not want and also could not do anything with the bull fighting in Spain where the Matador kills the bull in the arena or the water buffalo racing in Thailand. These countries' local cattle do not pose the threat to the Jersey cows that the Indian cattle do. The corrupt politicians do not understand the agenda behind these actions of these agencies and they get carried away by the colour of the greenbacks shown to them. Otherwise, what is the need for the MOS in charge of environment at that point of time who was a politician from TN to grant permission to PETA in the first plac. The irony is his party is now fighting the party in power in central government on the same issue of bull taming.

Agitation in TN and state finances

When the agitation was going on for Jallikattu in TN, I was one of the votaries for the same and I sincerely felt that there is a concerted move by the vested interests to kill the local cattle population and increase the jersey cattle population. The agitation took totally a different turn and direction in the last two/ three days leading one to suspect that the age old separatism is rearing its head in Tamilnadu. Otherwise, there was no need for such blatant and open derogatory posters against the CM of the state and the PM of the country. It is high time the political masters understand the undercurrents in such agitations and take appropriate actions in time to nip the same in the bud so that such anti national sentiments do not get propagated so openly.

Now there is another move in the state; to ban all the soft drinks being made and marketed by MNCs in the country. It is rolling back to 1975 when Coca Cola and IBM were thrown out of the country and it took 16 long years for the government to woo them back into the country. Though the soft drinks do not subscribe to the health of the country, it generates, employment, revenue and add to the GDP of the country. This cannot be wished away. There is an argument that the soft drinks majors take away the foreign exchange out of the country and also the exchange rate of the Indian Rupee is very much skewed thanks to these.

Let us look at a similar scenario. Almost all cars in the country, except Tata and Mahindra, are manufactured by MNCs. Two of the most popular brands, Maruti and Hyundai apart from Honda, Ford, Skoda, Volkswagen etc. are the market leaders and the Indian brands are nowhere near them. If the people stop buying these MNC cars, then the value of the Rupee will go up substantially as the royalty transferred by these companies on the sales will come down with the reduction in sales of the vehicles. Isn't it so? Can we extend the same logic to other things from our morning paste for brushing out teeth, to morning cup of tea or instant coffee, to noodles, medicines etc.? Will we not be able to increase the value of the Rupee substantially going by these logic? What will happen if these companies either in automobile manufacture or in FMCG have a serious reduction in sale? They will reduce the workforce. Isn't it? Then it will increase the unemployment. Will not affect other areas? YES; of course; it will affect.

Let it be aside. Let us look at a totally different picture that has emerged recently in the last five to ten years in the state of TN. The parties had vied with each other to provide liquor at every street corner by opening outlets owned by a corporation set up by the state. The revenue and the profit had crossed all reasonable estimates in the last count. What has been done in the last decade with this very high ever increasing revenue? The parties who came to power tried to overdo the other by providing freebies to the BPL public. It is just not essentials like rice, lentils, and provisions etc. It reached such proportions, everything that a middle income person in the country can think about from his hard earned money, be it a fan, mixer grinder, television set etc., was made available to the BPL public totally free. Even after all these high revenue from liquor sales the government coffers were filled with loans and today the TN government is reportedly sitting on a quantum of close to two lakh crores in loans carrying varying rates of interest payable to different agencies. What economic activity started in the last decade to increase the revenue to support the government is a moot question that I leave it. One of the major auto makers who set shop has taken his expansion plan to Gujarat. The greenfield airport planned for Chennai is still in paper only. No further action seen on that. The area surrounding the original site identified is now filled with residential buildings. This will jack up the cost of acquisition of land for the greenfield project. No new industry has come to the state despite tall claims made by the parties in power in the last decade. Forget about industry. Even in drinking water management the state had done nothing in the last decade. When the city of Chennai was marooned last year, it was expected that there will be plans to improve the water storage for long term solutions. But it was not to be. The very next year the state is going around with a begging bowl to the neighbouring states for water. There had been little done to improve the water management like de-silting the lakes, tanks, water storage dams etc during lean season and use the storage for maximum storage during better seasons. These ideas seem to be alien to the executive and also to the political class in the state. Among the states,if a survey is done, possibly the state may find itself somewhere in bottom regarding the corruption index. When no new major economic activity is started in the state in the past decade, no industry has invested either for expansion or new capex, existing agricultural economic activity is given go by, the state is on a sliding board with every inch is accelerating the downward slide.

In this bleak economic scenario if the fringe elements as stated earlier have a free run in the state, then the day is not far off when the state will be comparable to the BIMARU states, three out of four in that are already out sickness and show exemplary growth both economically and socially.

Budget & expectations

Once more an annual event had happened without much fanfare. All armchair experts made their own demands on the social media as to what is their expectation from this annual tamasha. Some has made their statutory or mandatory noises for or against this exercise looking at it from which side of their piece of bread is buttered. The persons who were saying that an increase of 100 in price of lentils is exorbitant but a reduction in tax to the tune of 15000 is too little. That is the irony of this annual exercise. Some say that the budget lacks imagination. Some say that Modi does not have economists or taxation experts to support him prepare the budget. Every one seem to forget that the exercise is done by the bureaucrats who have been doing it for many years; the colour and content differ based on the priorities of the party in power in that year and also the compulsions of the party based on the happenings, The CEA (Chief Economic Adviser) to the government is a seasoned economist and the MOF has many stalwarts who had been shaping the budgets for the past many years. The persons at the top level in Secretary or Jt. Secretary are getting changed or transferred. But the lower level people who actually work on the budget in the budget team remain more or less the same and who are in the know of things about the macro economics, taxation or law. There were a few comments doing rounds in the social media about what are likely reactions from many quarters of politics, business, finance,media etc. from yesterday (31/01/2017) morning. Most of which are standard and there was absolutely no change in the reaction from such sources except a few words here and there. Otherwise the sum and substance was the same. With election in a few states around the corner, you cannot expect a budget to be devoid of attention to rural areas, more sops to the populist schemes, enhanced allocation to poverty alleviation programmes etc. The one thing that stand out like a sore thumb is the 5% tax for the first slab which could have been avoided by increasing the base slab to 4 lakhs and retaining the tax at 10% for the first slab from 4 to 10 lakhs ( or even tinkering with the slab itself). This way the salaried would have felt relieved. With the introduction of GST around the corner during the next fiscal, there had been not much of change in respect of various duties and taxes. The DeMon effect could have been rewarded a little more by giving some more sops to the common man both salaried and non salaried. Why keep the agriculture out of the income tax when slowly the country has moved away from agrarian economy to industrial economy beats me. This has paved the way for Singhs, Pawars, Patels, Gandhis, Badals and name any one to declare their entire wealth as income out of agriculture and get it totally exempt. What agriculture activity done by these politicians can be explained to common folk for them emulate these political bigwigs to reap similar benefit of income from agriculture. By keeping a significant segment of income generation and a major component of GDP out of income tax, the country and the government have opened a way to evade tax on any amount of income either legally or illegally. No one can be wiser.

Media and highlighting Negativity

We as a nation rejoice in negativity. The press is no exception. For them if the dog bites a man it is no news whereas if it is the other way around then it is a hot selling news. With the satellite TV channels telecasting news 24 hours and competing with each other with about a dozen or so main channels and about a hundred or so minor ones catering to regional requirements, everything from a stray dog menace in a corner of the country to the shooting of the naxals or terrorists become breaking news for all channels irrespective of whether it is seen across the globe or otherwise. The speeches of the principal campaigners in the on going elections to the largest state in the country has thrown such negativity that one CM of the state is calling the PM of the nation as a donkey and another ex CM of the state is expanding the name of the PM in a highly derogatory manner. The prince in waiting, he can be compared to Prince Charles forever waiting for the post of PM of the country, is blabbering his way. The most attractive campaigner of all, albeit with the image of her grandmother in her make up and hair do, is also not far behind. There was a thread in the face book that the PM should not stoop so low in his campaign and leave such repartee to the second or third level campaigners.

In this context, if you look at what is happening around, one leader says he would visit a jailed ex MP in his cell. I don't know whether he meant he would be visiting him him in jail or he also would join him. In another thread there was a news item that the jailed lady from TN in a prison in the adjoining state is looking for ways to get back to the state though as the guest of the state prison department. There are lots of conjectures as to the reason behind such move. In the last month or two, the MSM including the TV channels had been busy with airing the highly negative news of what is happening in the state. Everything is speculated from money changing hands, to arranging women for the interested ones, liquor, food, a few kilograms of gold etc. Do anyone in his/her sane mind will be taking a side in a tussle just for these things overlooking the fear for his life. The media and the social media commentators very conveniently forgot that the other side is equally bad and was part of the larger group until yesterday. It appears to be a case of sour grapes or if you want to say apples,be it so. The power hungry persons behind these moves have wrought unthinkable distortions to the social and moral fabric of the state in the last two months. The fabric is almost at the point of getting torn completely thereby the state will fall into a bottomless abyss getting out of which will be a Herculean task for the future generations to come. The state was hailed as one of the stellar states in respect of social schemes, education both in local language and also in English, best higher education standards, industrial development etc. This was about a decade or so back. But today sadly the state can claim no such victories or trophies to take home. Repeated assault on social and moral fabric had rendered the state in producing people with education who can not be employed. Unemployable technical graduates galore.

Agriculture which is the backbone of the country in the last many millenium has given way to the industrialisation and is now relegated way below. There is no plans to improve the agricultural activity in the country or in the state which boasts of highest agri output (though in the years of adequate monsoon). Here if an agriculturist dies,may be due to any reason, then this news is picked up to project it as the failure of the policies of the government. If a person has died of heart attack in the hot sun, the prime time TV channels demand an apology from the PM of the nation holding him responsible for that. The recent failure of three successive monsoons in the state had seen that there is a crop failure and also the agriculturists who had gone ahead with planting had found the crop withering due to lack of water. The team from the center and also deployed by the state government had visited and also examined the claims of the people. The TV channels lost no time in showing the dead crop, dried lands, parched tanks and dry dams as visuals. The failure of the administration to store the water in surplus years had not been questioned by any one. All highlight only the negativity of the present.

Jai Ho Negativity. Long Live Negativity.

Students in the crossfire of political ambitions

There had been lots of posts in the Facebook denigrating the memory of the fallen soldier by calling his daughter many names. She herself had downgraded the sacrifice of her father while fighting the terrorists in J&K. The students are being used a pawns in the political one-up-manship by the vested interests. The current imbroglio in the capital where one person has called for freedom for Kashmir. The media and the left leaning politicians call this as FOE provided for in the constitution. If a person can call for seceding from the union and the same is hailed as his birth right to express his opinion, then where are we heading. The non stop coverage by the electronic media of the events that are unfolding in the capital in the student unrest is nothing short of blowing things beyond proportions. The social media has taken the debate to further low. Are we living in a civilised society where opinion of an individual can be countered with reasoned arguments or where the opinion of an individual is countered with muscling the person with threats.

If you look at the events that are unfolding in the DU and also in J&K in the last few months culminating in the Ramjas College incident, you will be able to discern a pattern emerging from the same. The political class who seem to be facing oblivion in the present times want to be in the lime light and to make their presence felt. The only tool that they can use against the present administration is the same tool by which the present administration came to power. The students who are tech savvy and who can be easily moulded into the thinking of the political class and also ignited to carry on the fight as a proxy for the political class. The student agitation of mid 1960s in TN sowed the seeds for transformation in the ruling set up and the dravidian parties came in to ruling class. The call of JP Narayan and the rise of student power saw the change in the government in the center in mid 1970s. Similarly the student power saw the enactment of a law in TN to support the jallikattu, the bull taming sport. Now the situation appears that the marginalised political class and the media are instigating the student community in the capital so that there will be an uprising against the administration. The unfortunate victim in this political chess game is people like Gurmehar Kaur the daughter of the fallen hero.

Water Woes of Tamilnadu

Tamilnadu boasts of having the second longest coastline among all states in the country. There is a large population of people depending on the sea for their livelihood. The entire state in alternate years is facing a natural calamity of one or the other. In one year there is an excess rain leading to water flooding everywhere and the fear of the slums on the river banks in the state capital Chennai going under water. In another year the people of the state have to walk miles like in the deserts of Rajasthan to fetch water for drinking. There is a fight in every street corner to get a pot of water from the water tanker. The water tanker makes the appearance once every week in some places and it is the tanker driver who determines which area and which street in that area to be given water. The main river in the state Kavery from being a seasonal river has become permanently dry. To add to the woes of the people along the river banks, there is indiscriminate sand mining going on in the river beds from Erode in the west to Kallanai in the east and even further eastwards. This has resulted in the ground water going down in many areas in the river banks. Where water was available in about 50 feet, now the people have to dig borewells to the depth of 150 feet to get water supply. The river bed resembles a bush country in some African state.

The government is not serious about solving the water problem. The politicians are busy vying with each other to make money and trying to upstage the other. The government can think about sending a team of experts and bureaucrats to Israel to study the water management in that country. In 1945 when Israel became a nation in the promised land carved out by the British from Jordan along the Mediterranean Sea, the nomadic Arab population of that area sold the Jews, who migrated from Europe to that area, the lands that no one else would buy. All swamp lands and water starved lands were sold to them by the Arab. Today with their ingenuity Israelis have converted the semi-arid region into a greenery and produce all fruits, vegetables, grains that the population require. They are surrounded by enemies on all sides. Their efforts do not go only to protect themselves and producing war machinery; they also spend their effort to produce what they require for their sustenance locally without depending on imports. 

If no serious efforts are taken to address the water problem in a few decades from now, the state will be like a sub-Saharan country. Presently the state is begging for water from other neighboring states. The political class and ordinary citizens are raising their voice if a neighboring state builds a check dam or even raise the height of an existing dam within their state across a river which feeds the river flowing through the state of TN. To what end. The neighboring states work to alleviate the problems faced by the people those states. Except filing a case in the SC or orgetting the final decree of the SC published in the gazette of the GOI, or making demands for setting up of a Kavery Water Tribunal what constructive work had been in the last four to five decades by successive governments for a long-lasting solution to the water problem in the state. Why not follow the model of Israel which is almost half of the state in terms of size and having a coastline on the sea? Why not set up Desalination plants along the coast every 50 odd kilometers and pump the water inland to use in agriculture and for drinking? Why not switch over to drip irrigation and less water intensive crops? When the state is reeling under water crisis almost every alternate year why permit MNC cola companies to draw water from semi perennial rivers for their cola plants thereby denying the due water supply for drinking and irrigation purposes? Is it not high time to shut down the water intensive leather tanning industry?

Merger of Banks with SBI and some issues

Any progress and development will be disruptive in nature for the present status quo in the short term and also some major disruptions in HR issues. Especially when the development is associated with some M&A. The major project will always be working on low hanging fruits for the benefit of the population affected before embarking on completing the project or take the project forward. This we can see in most of the road projects in the country where part of the road near the town/village is completed and the people are allowed to use the newly laid road without any user fee for the same. Why all these idle thoughts now about the project, project management or the benefits to the common man when the prologue was about the HR issues?

The impending mega take over or acquisition by State Bank of India (SBI) its own five subsidiaries (legally still only subsidiaries despite they are being referred to as Associates) is the reason for this prologue on a ticklish issue. The need and reason for this mega acquisition (why not call it merger as some would prefer to is a question that is dogging me as well) by SBI is well known and discussed and debated in this forum by eminent bankers and finance professionals apart from the political discussions within and outside the parliament. The mega merger or takeover is starting effective from tomorrow that is 1st April 2017. SBI which is taking over its own subsidiaries and merge them into in its own fold had indicated to RBI that it will be 3 months before the entire process is completed. In the meanwhile, the banks have issued a notification to the employees and officers offering a VRS that may or may not be beneficial to the individual who had put in 20 years of service or attained 55 years of age. The bank expects about 6 to7000 of the eligible staff to opt for VRS thereby reducing the intake of the staff to reduce their hassles of the HR issues that may come up in the immediate future.

In the Banks that are taken over presently, the employees have a bargaining position in that the umbrella organization is an affiliate of the All India Bank Employees Association. The employees of SBI are having a different union and that being a majority the employees even if they opt to continue to have allegiance to the AIBEA will still be a group without any union recognized by the management. How and to what extent the interests of the employees from the Banks that are being taken over will be safe guarded in the absence of the union to which they belong now is a moot question. Some of the employees I chanced upon during the last few days were quite apprehensive about their position to continue in their respective places post-merger.

In the earlier take of two other subsidiary banks by SBI in the last decade, the seniority of officers of the taken over banks were reduced by a formula for different grades and this resulted in some of the very bright officers from these taken over banks remained in the position they were until their retirement, which would not have been the case had the takeover had not happened. Some of them might have moved to the next grade which post-merger did not happen due to their loss of seniority. A similar or the same formula to reduce the seniority of the officers of the taken over banks may result in a few of them languishing in their present position until they retire in a few years hence.

The question of retirees of the taken over banks is another question that everyone seems to relegate to the back burner as if that is of no consequence. There is a lot of difference between the retirement benefits of SBI and that of the subsidiary banks. Just take the pension alone; the SBI there is a cap on the pension and the % is not the same as that of the retirees from subsidiary banks where it is 50% of the average of last 10 months pay (as in government service). In SBI this % is slightly lower as they are paid the bank’s contribution to the provident fund. The retirees from subsidiary banks do not get the banks’ contribution to the PF. The basic pension also does not get refitted whenever the pay and allowances of the serving staff is renegotiated and reworked, though in the pension rules there is a regulation governing such practice. This puts an anomaly in the overall scheme of pension paid to the retirees. An officer who retired a decade back will be getting a lower pension compared to the clerk who retired post 2012 or retiring post 2017 settlement. How these anomalies are going to be addressed by SBI is another question that is a big mystery.

There is a huge corpus of funds with the union of employees and association of officers collected over a period since the union and association came into existence. How these funds are going to be disposed of by the respective union and association is another question that is one more mystery.

Environmental damage & deforestation

A few days back I posted in FB a photo of an elephant walking on the road in the night. It evoked such a response some of them were quite hilarious. A friend of mine posted in FB agains a photo of a peacock in all its splendour in a place where the construction for an apartment complex is going on. There was another post in FB decrying the construction of building on the traditional elephant corridor near the vellingiri hills by a yoga teacher and by a private university. There was a comment in my post about man-animal conflict. The friend posted that when he was in Bangalore in late 1970s there was no need for ceiling fans or ACs in the homes or the hostel where he was staying at that point of time. A friend from Coimbatore made a comment that in the last almost two centuries this year is the hottest for Coimbatore. The summer rains in Coimbatore have become history, though occasionally it rains in Bangalore. The Pune of 1970s had given way to a place which without an air-conditioner in almost all rooms you cannot survive the summer months of April and May. The queen of Deccan known for its salubrious climate has become a hot bed except for the two months of December and January. Bangalore’s explosion of population and building construction is a world record and unmatched the world over. Coimbatore known as a place with the maximum temperature in the worst summer to go to about 33 degrees Celsius has become a city of history. Why this change in the climatic conditions of these places known for their salubrious climates and places most sought after by one and all to spend their retired life?

We seem to forget that we are responsible for all this denuding of the forests and tree cover which reduces the rain fall over the years. The rain fall in almost all the cities listed above had their tree cover go down by almost 50 to 60% in the last three decades. The degradation that had happened resulted in mushrooming of concrete buildings everywhere dotting the landscape in all these cities. The places that I remember from my first visit to Coimbatore about 4 decades back are full of buildings totally unrecognisable. The places which had total tree coverage with either coconut gardens, banana cultivation or areca nut etc. had given way to buildings. The huge individual villas that were dotting the old city area which were once considered elite area had lots of tree surrounding the villas. Now the villas are a few with many multi storey office complex or residential apartments in their places. The trees had given way to the concrete pavements around the building for smooth driveways. This has prevented the rain water from seeping into the ground around the building. The level of ground water is now totally depleted. Even at 450 feet there is not enough water to sustain the complex having about 48 to 60 apartments in the complex.

With low rain fall due to very few forest cover on the mountains surrounding the city, and the ground water depleting with no recharging mechanism available in the sudden downpour occasionally, the water scarcity is looming large over the city not just this summer months but in the years to come. Similar is the case in the other cities mentioned above. The tree cover and the large villas with trees surrounding them have given way to concrete buildings and concrete pavements with the same result. When are, we going to stop this mad rush for building these monsters replacing the tree cover? The day is not far off when we may have to buy air for breathing.

Army's action and political reactions

Yesterday, there was an attack near the LOC when the Pak based Border Attack Team (BAT) sneaked into the Indian territory crossing the LOC and beheaded one JCO and one constable of BSF. This is just not barbaric it is happening for the second time vis-a-vis Pakistan and Indian security forces. It was reported earlier that the Indian army retaliated for a similar barbaric attack by sneaking into the Pakistan Occupied Kashmir and killing their army personnel. However, there was no confirmation either from the political establishment of those days or the army. When there was a surgical strike with lot of publicity post action, the then MOS (Internal security) and later FM, Mr. Chidambaram affirmed that such strikes had happened even in the past.

Now in the context of present barbaric act by the Pakistan security forces, there are varying voices coming from the political establishment. There seems to be no concern for the army or the country among the politicians of opposition ranks in the country. When the US had its nightmare on 9/11, entire country rose as one to fight against the unseen enemy and supported the action of the government in going on war against the Al Queda. Here in our country, despite cross border terrorism, barbaric action on the security forces by the enemy security forces, the political establishment seems to enjoy finding fault with the administration than condemning the enemy.

One of the leaders seem to enjoy the activity in his state when the security forces are hit by stone pelters and he goes on record to almost castigate the army and another politician from his party says that the army has overstepped its authority when he found that a stone pelter was strapped to a jeep. The entire opposition and the media appeared to be ranged against the army on this issue. What prompted the commander to use such tactics had never been discussed. Only in the social media the facts emerged as to the reason by the actions of the commander.

The glorified mayor CM of the Capital city, is now left licking his wounds and better sense prevailed to keep his mouth shut failing which we would be having a few more sound bytes against the army and the government.

The Diggybaba of the GOP had time and again put both his feet in the mouth and was seen lauding the naxals in the recent killing of CRPF in Sukma. The Yechury, Karat, T Pandian, D Raja, Nallakannu, SoGa, RaGa etc., did not seem it fit to denounce the actions of the Naxals. Nor they found time to denounce the actions of Pakistan army.

The media is a circus. They will immediately have a debate running for days and get one or two 'experts' from across the border. This was started by Arnab Goswamy when he was in Times Now and copied and continued by all channels now. Did you any time see the televison of France or Belgium or Germany or US calling the IS sympathisers or the IS activists or the Al Queda on phone lines to discuss the security problem in their respective countries caused chiefly by the IS or AQ? To my knowledge none of the TV stations across the globe called the enemy speakers to voice their opinion on the bombing or truck ploughing through tourists or revelers or plane hitting the tall building thereby killing a few hundred to few thousands in the process. The Indian TV channels are a tamasha and a circus in a separate league of its own.

India is a country that came into being as we know today mostly after the British but the country was in existence much before and will continue to remain even after all these politicians are dead and gone and replaced by new set of people who care for the country.

For a country on the throes of evolving as one of the economic giants pushing some of the known economies back, it is high time that it secures it borders from such actions and also set right the internal security and problems. It is is high time that the present administration thinks about having a permanent senior minister in charge of Defense of the country and also in charge of internal security. The present set up having a senior minister in-charge of two heavy ministries of Finance and Defense and also the Home Minister taking care of the internal security does not serve the purpose. The act as stated in the opening paragraph require immediate and composite retaliatory measures/ actions without any loss of time though it calls for lots of planning for ingress and egress across the LOC/ IB. The army facing such challenges for almost three decades now in J&K should be having a blue print with frequent update for putting in place an action team and energising it. The political clearance requires some fast thinking and free of other wrap arounds. With a single person in charge of two ministries and another not able to devote full time to internal security, the political decision making lags. Suspect the present government is not able to take a firm decision for a clear and perfect tactful response to the atrocities committed by both internal and external enemies. The forthcoming presidential election should not be a hamper when dealing with such sensitive security issues.

TV Debates on the human shield by an Army major

Today while surfing the TV channels, I found that there was a news item in Times Now with the lawyer congress leader Salman Kurshid espousing his great theories on how the nations behaved with each other despite a very acrimonious relationships. Just prior to that there was another frame in which the photo of the Pak Ambassador to India Basit leaving in his car with smirk on his face with the ticker tape running that he smirks while Pak beheads Indian security personnel. Though appears on the face of it unrelated, it tells the story fully. Let me get to the point.

When US and Japan sat in the ship for discussion post WW2 it was after Japan was defeated with A bombs and totally surrendered. Until then the US base in Philippines was in danger of being over run by Japan. Those who had read the history of WW2 remember that the presence of Japanese warships on the seas near Philippines sent shivers down the spine of many US commanders as they had tasted the damage done by these ships in Pearl harbour. Singapore was already lost to Japan with them breathing down from Malaya peninsula. That was the time the US administration decided to use the A bomb despite knowing fully well the destructive capacity of the same.

UK/USA did not sit with Germany post the WW2 for any discussion. The nation rebuilding was done with lots of inputs from both the countries to the western part of the dividing line and the eastern part of the dividing line was supported by USSR. This lesson also will be well known to many. There was Potsdam conference and later Nuremberg trials of war crimes and the camps of Nazis. People who read the papers will remember that the entire war machinery and also industries in Ruhr were destroyed as per the agreement reached in Potsdam. The Donitz government was sacked on the orders of Eisenhower,to prevent some one like Hitler to resurrect the old quarrel with other nations.

But from what Mr. Kursheed said on TV, it appears that he does not remember these lessons in history which were made immortal in many WW2 movies. The point of talking to the enemy comes only after the enemy's abject surrender and not when the covert war is going on. The enemy will go on inflict thousand cuts on your army and nation and you will spread the red carpet for talks with him. What stupid idea this man has. Let us first decimate the present military establishment of the enemy and do away with their support to the terrorists and separatists. Once it is done let us sit down with whoever is left for a talk. Let us not invite them now for any talks be it official or unofficial. All these people will immediately try to build bridge with their so called Aman Ki Asha. Their only aim seems to discredit Modi for whatever happening in the country either internally or externally.

The TV channels will well remember to stay away from the Pak establishment people or people (so called experts) from Pakistan in their TV debates, news items etc. This does not go with their so called image of being neutral. Being neutral does not mean you have to get a sound byte from your enemy. It is to report the news as is where is condition without adding your comments/ colour or opinion to the news. But the news media in the country abhor this idea of news reporting either in print or in visual media. As a surprise and welcome fresh breeze of air,there was a telephone interview with Capt. Amarinder Singh, CM of Punjab in India today channel. He was forthright in his view and said that he would have done the same as the young major to confront a crowd of about 900 to rescue the CRP people and also the election material. There was nothing wrong in what the major did. He even suggested that the army and government to felicitate the major for the quick thinking act of his. He also said that for everything like what happened in Kashmir or Sukma, you cannot blame Modi. What happened in Sukma is lack of training to the CRP. While condoling the death of the CRP personnel, he also said when 25 CRP were killed in an ambush, what happened to the remainder of the company. The total strength was 100. Why and where the remaining 75 left without fighting the Naxals. He also said unless the government both center and state have an upper hand in the state there is absolutely no point in talking to the people. The people who pelt stones have to be dealt with severely. These views coming from a ex army captain who is a politician to boot is like a fresh breath air. None in the opposition had the courage to call a spade a spade which this CM did exceptionally well.

NEET & its fall out in Tamilnadu

While I was in service, sometime during the beginning of the new century, there were talks that the parent bank will hold a common interview for the promotion to higher ranks in the bank pooling the vacancies in all the subsidiary banks. This was seen as an attempt by the parent bank to reduce the actual vacancies by the parent bank. A few senior officers were bullish about this idea and when it finally came into effect for all the ranks of DGMs and above, the one bank which benefited the most was the bank I was working for. There were as many as 22 persons got promoted to the rank of DGMs and in one of the later years, as many as six General Managers from the same bank were promoted as CGMs thereby virtually blocking promotion opportunities to the others in the other banks for a considerable time. Why this reminiscing of the promotion in the bank I served and left almost 5 years back now. Does it have any relevance to me as a retired person now enjoying the days in retirement? Yes it has a parallel in what happened in the country recently which left many perplexed and also agitated for different reasons.

ON the last Sunday the country went through the process of National eligibility and entrance test (NEET) for selection of students who have completed +2 for joining the government quota in all the medical colleges across the country. This test was opposed politically by the previous CM of the state and her party on the grounds that the students from the rural areas of the state are not well equipped to take this exam and their city counterparts will fare better in the exam. Can there be anything far from truth in such claims? There are rural areas and aspirants from rural areas in other states also. The disparity in standard of education between a student in city school and the one in rural school is very high almost across the country. Therefore,the argument that the student from rural setting will not be able to clear the exam falls flat.

The standard education in one of the foremost states of the country, had been regularly reduced and today you find that the school system brings out students who score 1200 marks out of 1200 scoring a 100% in all the subjects which include the languages. Gone were the days when you scored a 60 in languages and you considered yourself excellent. With such watering down of the standard of education and lenient valuation of the exam papers,what you get is millions of students every year graduating from schools looking for seats in professional colleges is increasing in geometric progression.

The Centralised exam for medical seats had been conducted even last year when the state got an exemption. This resulted in the TN students did not get the chance to study outside the state. There were malpractices and the same was looked down upon by the SC who directed the agency conducting the test to seriously look into all the chances for malpractices for clearing the exam. Backed by the SC order the CBSE which conducts the test, started issuing directives to the students and also the invigilators in the halls. This is what got the goat of many. There were allegations that even the inner wear of the girl students were checked in a state and the full sleeves were asked to be trimmed down in another state.

I feel with this centralised eligibility and entrance test there are ample opportunities for the students from the state to study in other states and excel in their studies. The total number of seats and the pooled quota for this has increased and therefore there are better chances for the bright students from the state to get a seat in the medical college in possibly a state far removed from his/her comfort zone. But still he will get a medical degree to start with. But in our short sighted wisdom,we object everything.

Road cess in the cost of petrol & diesel

Wind back to the times of 1996-99. The country saw a PM for 13 days, again for 13 months and for a full five year term. In all these the principal actor was the same person Sri. ABV. During his times, he recalled the famous speech of the POTUS, JFK and ordered that the interstate highways under NHAI are strengthened and widened so that there will be better connectivity across the country. He for the first time in the road building area brought in the private public partnership for the above stated purposes. The oil prices were still only administered prices and not freely determined by the OMCs in those days. His finance minister in one of his budget speeches, announced that there will be a levy of Re.1/- towards better roads and roads maintenance on the cost of petroleum products of petrol and diesel and Rs.5/- on the cooking gas.

Between then and now the amount of petrol and diesel sold in the country would have netted the OMCs a huge corpus running into a few billion INR if not in trillion. Whether the OMCs are prompt in parting with the government treasury as it is a levy for a particular purpose is not known. The balance sheet of the OMCs (which are now listed companies) do not reflect this fact. Whether the government is serious about collecting this levy from these OMCs for the stated purposes is also not known.

The successive governments since then,be it the then NDA or the UPA-1 or UPA-2 or the present NDA did not/do not seem eager to get this funds from the OMCs. The governments in their eagerness are interested in continuing with the PPP model for road building and maintenance and levying the hapless commuters a toll fee, collection of which is creating all sorts of ugly tension and a huge pile up of vehicles in such toll stations on busy highways leading to loss on account of increased fuel burnt. Why the government at least now should notcollect the amount from the OMCs and demand an audit of the same by the CAG, and also spend the money for payment of the dues to the private players who are part of the PPP model in road building? The parliament and its members seem satisfied with their welfare taken care of than looking into all these aspects.

Quality & Standard of Education in Tamilnadu

The results for SSLC and HSLC in TN have been declared and the TN government had put a ban on declaring the ranks and also stopped the schools from giving out ads in papers with the photos of top students and their marks etc. It is a good move to create a level playing field for all the students to feel that they have achieved something. Be that as it may, looking at the results one wonders what is the examination pattern or valuation system in the examination? Whether the intelligence of the students is being tested or their ability to memorise the book is being tested? While I was talking to a teacher who teaches different subjects in a reputed school, it was news to me that in many maths questions or accountancy or commerce even the numbers in the book do not change. In science subjects the questions are taken from the end of the lessons (which are normally given to find the understanding of the lesson by the students). In languages, the questions are nothing but repeat from the books and class works. No wonder that the students are able to score 492 out 500 in SSLC and 1195 out of 1200 in HSLC.

Be that as it may,this type of making the students only a memory bank is nothing peculiar to one state and it is a malady spread across the country. What this has enabled is that it has killed the creativity in the child right from his/her KG days. The system is so imperfect that the child is not able to think and do something new. There is lot more of importance given to learning the grammar in languages. For a student who is studying to take up a professional work like engineering, medicine, commerce, bio technology, information technology etc. what is the need for learning the grammar of the language and how useful it is going to be in his/her professional work?

There was a thread with a video in the FB saying that what all the America invented, we have provided them with the CEOs. There were many IT related institutions, finance related institutions, soft drink majors etc. Oh. Sure it is a proud moment for the people who have become CEO in a very tough market where only performance in the given area is the key driver and nothing else. The share holders wealth increase is another parameter based on the performance determines how long the CEO will continue.

What have we done other than providing man power for the top notch posts in MNCs and also in various other companies? Have we been able to make any earth shaking discovery or invention in the country? None. The majority of the students coming out of the professional colleges be it a state institution or a private institution fail to get a decent job or at the worst just unemployable.

The reason for such state of affairs is mainly because of what I wrote in the first paragraph. The education at present is not making the students to think and also run to the library for reference. Unless there is a drastic change in the way we teach the students, the country may not be in the list of countries with their people inventing and discovering things.

Anti Hndi agitation in Tamilnadu

The brutal majority of the Members of Parliament from the states of UP, MP, Bihar, Rajasthan demanded that Hindi be made the National language and accordingly a bill was introduced in the parliament for debate in the yearly 1960s during the times when JN was the PM. It was due to the persistent demands and debating skills of later CM of TN Late CNAnnadurai that JN was forced to give a promise in the floor of the parliament that English will be continued as long as the people of TN want it. This promise had been kept up but in a broken form time and again.

In the year 1965, when there was change in the Chief Minister of the state, (Kamaraj stepped aside and Bhakthavatsalam became CM) there was a huge scarcity of food items in the state (imagine the country was literally living on the benevolence of PL 180 of USA and got the food delivered to the ports of Mumbai, Kolkata and Madras). Added to this the government was forced to give into the demands of the brute majority of MPs from the states mentioned above and HIndi was being introduced surreptitiously in all areas of interaction with the central government. It was slowly becoming a thorn in the neck of the non Hindi speaking states where Hindi is not even spoken locally even in cities. The original promise of the then PM JN was being slowly being forgotten. This gave rise to the anti Hindi agitation in the state of TN. The anti Hindi agitation paved the way for the DMK to come to power. This also made thousands of teachers who were teaching Hindi and Sanskrti in schools and colleges jobless as the government decided to discontinue teaching both the languages in the educational institutions starting from primary to post graduate. The Dakshin Bharat Hindi Prachar Sabha, which was formed to propagate Hindi in the southern states, also kept a low profile for obvious reasons.

Thus started the language wars in the country. Tamil was made the state language along with English and slowly it was made compulsory. The administrators who joined the IAS from other states were made to pass a test in Tamil to continue to work in TN. A few of them excelled themselves in the process. The students of the state were deprived of learning one more language be it Hindi or Sanskrit. Tamil was made compulsory in all schools till the school final. There were very few schools with CBSE affiliation where Hindi/ Sanskrit was being taught. Whereas in almost all the other states, Hindi/ Sanskrit was being taught with the local language and in a few cases English. In most of the states of Hindi heartland, English was being relegated to only optional language. Even that status was not given to Hindi in TN.

The past almost fifty years saw a group of lakhs of students coming out of the school/ college system in the state who are finding it increasingly difficult in the places outside the state as the locals did not understand English or Tamil (except in a few southern states and cities in those states). The students from the state did not know Hindi to converse fluently with the local people there. This resulted in a big problem for getting employment when the economy opened up in 1991 and industry started expanding and employment increased. They were hiring vigorously but the lack of Hindi knowledge was a big impediment to the candidates from TN. The IT sector which opened up in 1995-96 was another area where the absence of Hindi was being felt acutely.

To balance this malady, during the time MGR was CM of the state, he opened up the education sector with more schools got affiliation with CBSE and Hindi/ Sanskrit becoming a language to be taught. But even this was very minimal action as the candidates from interior districts found it difficult to get jobs in other states without knowledge of Hindi.

The politicians played with the emotions of the people by playing the language card every time the felt threatened to lose power. But they safely made sure that their progeny is assured of the benefits of learning Hindi. In the successive ministries of NDA-1, UPA-1 and UPA-2 the ministers from the TN regional party were predominantly Hindi knowing and Hindi speaking persons despite outwardly they were opposing Hindi. Even in the election to the LS from a seat in Chennai where predominantly Hindi speaking population reside, they used Hindi posters. This much for their anti Hindi stand.

Now, very recently when the main opposition party finds itself not able to wrest the power thru any means, their leaders had started talking of anti Hindi agitation if Hindi is imposed on the people. Again the people of TN will go after these empty slogans and lose out in the bargain. I have a question for these parties who are shouting anti Hindi slogans and also threatening the agitation will be started: You keep your political agenda separate. What right you have to stop a person from learning a language of his/her choice?

DEMISE OF AGRAHARAMS IN VILLAGES

There was a post in social media bemoaning that in the villages the streets that had lots of houses occupied by Brahmins have become deserted and now occupied by people of different faith. The temple in the village is barricaded for people to visit for doing their worship in a few places. In another place the temple is in shambles and under the control of a person of a different faith but there are no vigrahas there. Let us look at this from a different perspective.

When our parents were alive and got a decent education they wanted a good job and migrated to the nearest town or city. The parents of those parents were living still in villages and therefore, the umbilical chord was still there to make the parents to visit the villages. Once the parents of those parents passed away, the necessity to visit the villages had been dwindling and it became a unnecessary expenses and visit. Our generation saw that we got education in towns and cities and got a job there at or in another far off city. Thereby, there was a migration from where our parents were settled. But the umbilical chord connecting us to the village was no more there and we also did not visit the village and retain the houses.

Our children now get educated abroad and are getting employed there itself. Slowly the umbilical chord connecting our children to our parents and their place of residence is getting thinner and thinner and one day will totally break. Then the children will find it unnecessary to visit the house of the grand parents in the town. Slowly the house in the town will be facing the same fate as that of the village house of our grand parents.

Over a period of time,the people will be bemoaning that the Brahmin children who migrated abroad do not come back; it will be akin to our grand parents who were lamenting that we never visited the village. The houses in the villages will be purchased by people of a particular faith who have immense wealth at their disposal from foreign sources. Slowly unable to digest their practices of slaughter, meat eating etc.other brahmins in the street would sell their houses and leave. That is what had been happening in the villages. Slowly the streets which were boasting of Veda mantras in Sanskrit and Thevaram, Thruvasagam and Tiruppallandu in chaste Tamil will be singing the verses from the holy book in a language not understandable even to those people of that faith.

If the Brahmins had wanted to, could have stopped this malaise long back. But we did not want to and we continue to NOT want to change that. After the work life was over, and retired from serious work, if the Brahmins migrated back to villages, this situation would not have arisen. We got so much used to the comforts of the city life, we think it will be too difficult in villages.

Sale of Cattle for Slaughter - New Rules

Social Media seems to be the place for all people to vent their anger against the government and pass judgement on issues or actions of the government which are not fully comprehended. The posts in the social media are taken as gospel truth and people react to that without understanding the issue on hand or do some basic search into that to find out the fact or the reasons behind the actions of the government.

Take for instance the charges for ATM withdrawal by SBI. Of course the institution also partly is to be blamed as the information was not fully conveyed in their press release. The SBI had made it clear a customer may make use of their e-wallet services named "SBI Buddy" for any of the services availed purchases made without the use of the debit card. In case the customer withdraws money from his account and there is no sufficient funds in the account, the system will automatically transfer from the e-wallet and the money will be disbursed. For such withdrawal the system will be charging a specified fee.

Now another issue that has cropped up is banning of Cow Slaughter. Cow slaughter ban. The political parties without realising that there is a provision in the constitution that the slaughter of cows and calves are banned under Article 48 have taken up a protest against the government of the day in the center. "In the Directive Principles (Article 48) enshrined in the Constitution, a duty has been cast upon the Government to take steps for preserving and improving the breeds, and prohibiting the slaughter of cows and calves. It is therefore, necessary to have legislation for stoppage of slaughter of cows. " Some of the states have already banned the slaughter of cows and calves. Some states have partially implemented it and in a few states there is no ban on such slaughter. Please refer to the map and the legend accompanying the same.

In today's paper I find a hilarious news that a few people were putting on masks of cattle to protest the move of the central government in implementing the provisions of the constitution. What the government has said in its directions is that the sale of cattle in markets for slaughter is banned. The cattle can be sold in the market only for rearing milch animals and farm animals. The cattle cannot be sold in the cattle market for slaughter purposes. It does not stop a farmer from selling his cattle that is no more productive to any one for slaughter. The slaughter houses can purchase animals from individuals instead of from a market place.

There was another argument put forth by a reputed veterinary scientist that the farmers will lose interest in rearing cattle especially the domestic varieties in the background of this ban. There can be nothing far from truth than this statement from a veterinary scientist. The ban enforced is for selling in the market in bulk for slaughter.

In the meanwhile a wing of the GOP in a state undertook slaughtering of the cow in broad day light and distributing the meat to the people who assembled there. There can be nothing more barbaric than this attitude of the wing of the GOP. It is akin to the beheading of a woman by her husband in broad day light in KSA for having killed their 7 year old son. Both are barbaric and gruesome. The one that happened in KSA is not our concern. But in a civilized society slaughtering the cattle, be it a cow, buffalo,ox, lamb,sheep etc, in broad day light in the presence of a huge crowd of public is nothing short of the people who lost all their sixth sense and relegated themselves to the lower living beings.

The people of a particular faith held a meeting in the city yesterday in a public road and burnt the effigy of the PM and cut the carcass of the slaughtered cattle and threw the pieces of meat on the road and left. What public decency is this especially during the month of their fasting? I have witnessed the hotels in a district predominantly populated by the people of that faith in a state where even the hotels owned by Hindus will be closed during day time in the period of fasting month of them. If you happen to visit any place in that district, you may not even get a cup of tea or a biscuit except in certain major towns. That is the respect shown to the feelings of the people of that faith by the majority community. But see what is happening in most of the places where the people of that faith participate in public slaughtering of cow on the road and distributing the meat just to show their protest against their partial understanding of the "slaughter ban". Highly disgusting.

Communism and Educational Institutions

There was a tiff in the IIT Madras a year or so back with the students blocking the director of the institute from leaving and making and writing many unwanted press releases about the institute. There is a student body called Periyar Peravai in IITM that is threatening every one who does not toe its line of thinking. The incident in JNU is so well known almost internationally it does not require recounting here. The incident involving Vemula a student of Hyderabad Central University is another well known one not requiring recounting. There was an incident in Jadhavpur University in Bengal that was similar in tone and actions to what happened in JNU. A few days back IITM was again in news for all the wrong reasons when one of the students was injured in an incident.

The incident that happened in JNU was later found to have been engineered by anti national elements who were supported by the leftists. The Vemula incident was also another one that was made to look like as if some serious set back happened to a student of a oppressed class which finally turned out to be a made up one. The recent one in IITM in which the media and the political parties have gone to town claiming that it is the ABVP that has attacked the peace loving student who was only eating what he wanted - beef.

The CM of Kerala where the government is headed by a coalition of parties with CPM in the lead and the CM belonging to that party is asking the TN CM to look into the matter of attack on a Kerala student. By now the media and other political parties in TN have already made him a Tamil student that too from oppressed class. Every Tom Dick and Harry in the political spectrum had jumped into the fray with an opinion of his own or borrowed from someone else. Now slowly it transpires that there was a fracas in which the student who were eating beef as part of their protest against the central government order had gone to the mess where a few jain students were eating and sat and started eating beef there; the jain students objected to this attitude of this student Suraj and his followers in which one of the jain students was injured with a broken arm, There is no news in the media. Obvious as it would not suit their agenda. Suraj getting injured is news and that Manishkumar Jain getting his arm fractured is no news for them.

Be that as it may, all the above episodes have to be seen in a different light. The Communist parties having lost their whatever vestige of respect they had in the governance of the country when UPA was ruling, is trying their level best to create a climate of terror and restlessness in the country. The easiest way for them to do this is through the various student bodies in various universities. some of the student bodies are affiliated to communist parties. Therefore, it become easy for them to manipulate the students and incite them to foment trouble in the universities.

Their thinking is that the student unrest and trouble will spell trouble for the government; whatever comfort they had lost they would get back with more concessions from the present administration in the guise of getting the students off the back of the government. The students had been used by many political parties in India and in other countries abroad as well to get the desired changes. The student union elections in various colleges and universities had been fought under various political party funding and affiliation. Of course, the students may make a change in the course but to what effect. For these corrupt political masters to continue to rape the country. The students will do better to understand and stay away from such inciting by the political parties and their agents in campuses.

Brain Dead accident victims and organ donation

We come across news almost every week/ month that someone met with an accident and in a serious condition brought to the hospital and declared brain dead and his relatives had agreed to donate the body parts to some one or more in need. It is more so in various cities where the traffic congestion and high speed motorbikes and cars are the toys of boys with money to splurge.

We might have seen many tele-serials from Hollywood about medical emergency with the patients almost died but due to the constant and emergency attention given by the doctors was brought back from the brink of death and lived to tell the tale to their grand children. There are any number of tele-serials like Grey's Anatomy, ER, MASH, LA Doctors, House MD etc., which not only provide wholesome entertainment but provide valuable information on how the medical attention is abroad. (may be exaggerated but there will be at least more than 50% match to the reality).

A friend noted in a Face Book post "In 1999, a Swedish medical student named Anna Bagenholm lost control while skiing and landed head first on a thin patch of ice covering a mountain stream. The surface gave way and she was pulled into the freezing current below; when her friends caught up with her minutes later, only her skis and ankles were visible above an 8-inch layer of ice. Bagenholm found an air pocket and struggled beneath the ice for 40 minutes as her friends tried to dislodge her. Then her heart stopped beating and she was still. Forty minutes after that, a rescue team arrived, cut her out of the ice and administered CPR as they helicoptered her to a hospital. At 10:15 p.m., three hours and 55 minutes after her fall, her first heartbeat was recorded. Since then, she has made a nearly full recovery. Bagenholm was the very definition of clinically dead: Her circulatory and respiratory systems had gone quiet for just over three hours before she was brought back to life. But what was happening in her body on a cellular level during the hours she went without a heartbeat? Were her tissues dying along with her consciousness? And how much longer could she have gone with no blood circulation?"

With the above actual event and the various tele-serials on medical emergency we might have seen that the life is treated as a very precious commodity and every effort is made to save it. The reality in the country may not match with those abroad. There may be gaps and also short comings. We have seen many brain dead cases getting reported in the press with the family agreeing to donate the organs to the needy. Whether the accident patient was actually dead and could not be revived at all? Whether full scale efforts taken to revive the patient who met with an accident and brought to the hospital in a very critical condition? Were the relatives forced to agree to donate the body parts or on their own volition agreed to donate them? Was there any monetary angle to the whole issue? These are troubling questions that one get on seeing many such news in the print media of late.

Funding Elections

Fighting elections anywhere in a democracy is a costly affair. Be it USA,UK, France or India. Either the candidate should have very deep pockets to finance the expenses on his own or the party should be able to mobilise funds from the people to get sufficient resources to fund its candidates in any election. It is a known fact that in USA the presidential candidate is supported by millionaires and their corporate companies. Unless the candidate is able to mobilise a size-able war-chest he/she may not be able to fund and fight the election. The numerous allegations about some of the candidates in the recent past are an indicator as to the level of money infused into the system to fight the election by such candidates and the means of acquiring such huge finances for that purpose.

In India, there are 542 parliament seats and the country spread into 30+ states and UT for which the elections are held almost every year though the life of an elected house is 5 years. Therefore, any party that is fighting the election at national level in the parliament elections, local state level assembly elections etc., should have a very huge balance in their war-chest to spend on the organizational and election expenditure.

Some of the regional parties resort to corruption from a very low level and demand that the elected representatives donate a certain sum every month to the party coffers. If an elected member has to donate say about 5 crore a month to the party war-chest, imaging what would be the amount to be collected from various levels that would reach the elected representative to part with the amount to the party. This makes the life of a common man very difficult as he has to part with a size-able sum to get his work done. This money gets accumulated and given to the next higher up after deducting the one's share at the lowest level. This gets escalated until it reaches the elected representative/ minister and finally the party coffers. Therefore, in this way the entire system is thriving on corruption and bribes. The common man finds this to be a very difficult proposition to carry on his living. Most of the parties in the country had been following this practice to amass wealth beyond imagination for its war-chest to fight the elections and in the process the elected representatives and the ministers became extremely rich. This was replicated at national level and the wealth amassed by a few erstwhile national level parties is unimaginable. Even BJP was not an exception to this when one of the late leaders was instrumental in getting funds for his party.

Now, winding back to 2001-02 to the state of Gujarat. A total novice to the administration and politics except that he was a regular in the BJP office and a swayamsevak became the first time MLA and CM to boot. He in his wisdom found that the corruption hits the common man very hard and had also experienced it before becoming the CM. Therefore, he started reforming the administration and used the nascent IT tools available then for following up many ideas that were getting translated into action to eradicate the problem for the public. The ease of doing business in the state increased manifold as compared to other states and the industries started trotting to that state. In the next ten years,he made the state a place where the common man will be able to live without any corruption in his dealings with the government departments. How this translated to getting funds for the party. The industry was welcome and was told that the climate for industry is getting better and all the road blocks are being removed so the industry now owes it to the party and donations are welcome from corporate to the party. The industry-party handshake became very stronger. Similar strategy was put in place by another CM in a south Indian state where also he relaxed the rules making it easy for doing business and all the reforms put in place in the state were followed up meticulously thereby the common man found that he could do business with the government without greasing any palm in the process. This was a true and remarkable achievement in a country known for its sinking into deeper and deeper into well of corruption year after year. The parties to which these two CMs belonged also benefited because of the excellent work done by these two and the war-chest was increasing year after year with constant flow of funds.

In 2014 the BJP came to power on the plank of corruption free governance and got a landslide majority to form the government in its steam and party strength. Despite that the party continued the alliance post election and formed the NDA-2 government. As with his Gujarat legislature entry, here also Modi entered the parliament for the first time and that too as the PM but with about 10+ years of administrative experience in his native state. As with his experiment in his avatar of state CM, here also he initiated many administrative reforms and tightened the grip on officials. Many actions were initiated to clear the cobweb of administrative delays in ease of doing business. One of the most practical things to have happened is the one nation one tax regime of introduction of GST. Another one that the government has to embark upon is the rationalisation of the individual taxation in the country and provide the much needed respite to the common man from ever increasing cost of living. The RERA (Real Estate Act) is another milestone to regulate the real estate sector which had been the cash cow to many of the political parties and many departments and officials involved with real estate. Needless to recount the many violations in planning and execution for which the administrative machinery turning a blind eye.

The main opposition party though seem totally obliterated, its financial muscle is still intact. There was every possibility of this party giving a tough fight to the BJP in the next elections to the parliament and also in the state elections. One way of making the party bleed was to make the cash available with the party useless. Hence the DeMon excercise which made a bulk of the notes in circulation (more than 80%) not legal tender. Another the Benami Act which is finding the proxy holders of the money generated illegally or held at the behest of others either in cash/ gold/ real estate. With these two master strokes, the financial position of the main opposition party had been crippled. No wonder you see/ read in media everyday that the leaders from that party are finding one or the other wrong with the present administration. The tightening of the screws on the foreign contribution to the NGO and the strict follow up with the NGO for the source and use of funds for the stated objectives of the NGO is another one drawing flak. These actions of the present administration has sent a signal to the common man that the PM and his team mean business to provide a corrupt free government.

Once the corruption is removed from the administrative machinery and the elected members do not have to source funds for fighting elections, the common man will be a lot relieved one than what he was in the earlier model. This model may have its own flaws but in the long run the common man's position will improve a lot.