Aam Admi and Unholy Cows
The French history will never forget the remark that if there is no bread go and eat cakes. That was a beginning of a Renaissance in France. A political party which conducted its annual convention in a five star hotel (named Renaissance) and practiced India shining was also thrown out by Indian Citizens. It is a subtle example that how the politicians should not behave. But today we have leaders like the MoS External Affairs who remark people traveling by the economy class flights as cattle class. I do not know what will be his words for people traveling by second class in trains or for that matter on bullock carts. A constituency which he represents has 60% population as rural population who may not even have bullock carts. Congress spokesperson says that the comment is not in sync with the Indian politics but is the gentleman in sync with Indian sentiments and history of Congress party. The foundation of the party was strengthen by a leader who shed his lawyers suits and adopted Khadi. Even the MP from Thiruvananathapuram in his book – Nehru, the invention of India writes “to put his principles into practice, the Mahatma lived a simple life of near absolute poverty in an ashram & traveled across India in third class railway compartment”. I think that is austerity. But someone who has lived 30 years outside India may not understand the concerns and issues of India. A person who can put his foot in mouth in India has a potential to be a diplomatic disaster for India.
Anyways the track record of MEA is also not working in his favor. MEA has turned a blind eye towards Chinese incursions. It has failed to do anything for Indian citizens in Australia. No headway by MEA with Pakistan to investigate the accused of Mumbai attacks. Fresh attacks on Indian priests in Nepal and helplessness of Indian embassy despite having advance information on same. Nothing done for welfare of Tamils (civilan population) in Sri Lanka at Diplomatic level. Goof up by India on Indo-pak joint statement. Delay in Passport Seva project and more. But the Foreign Ministry was very quick to take the issue of Sharukh Khan detention in US with the US authorities. With the said ministers the priorities of Ministry of External Affairs are quite evident. Further individuals known for their pro-US and pro-Israel views can never frame up an independent foreign policy for India.
We also need to understand the reference made to holy cows as to the cattle class. The two congress leaders reported in media for their austerity measures and traveling by economy class were UPA Chairperson Smt Sonia Gandhi and Finance Minister, Pranab Mukehrjee. The tallest leader of the congress party and the most powerful person (wrt to finances) in India have been referred as holy cows ( or it was entire political class) . It is strange that the congress leaders and even the opposition is keeping mum on it. Having told to move from a five star hotel the leader has shifted to Navy Guest House. But why not Kerala Bhawan ? When he wants to make its capital a world class city, why not begin with kerala bhawan in Delhi. But some one who was not born in Triruvananathapuram , nor was educated there and is not even fluent in Malyalam may not understand the sentiments of Indian citizens. During elections he was seen in Khadi, hugged babies, threw garlands but appears that the marketing and advertising is over. The product has already been sold out and the constituency has paid a heavy price for it.
Modest Chairman of UID Authority of India has shifted to Karnataka Bhawan, drives his own Indigo, moves without a red light or security personnel and may be he is amongst the richest man in country (with infosys shares),. Our leaders must understand that politics is opportunity for Public Services and not an opportunity to earn name and fame or travel by business class. . Congress party must learn that appearance is not everything - substance is also important. Jyanthi Natrajan says that the Ministers are the prerogative of the Prime Minister but Dr Singh could have taken him as Princial Secretary on Foreign Affairs in rank of MoS. Why elections and Minister ship. Ticket for Lok Sabha election was the prerogative of Congress party. In my submission the MoS must be relieved from his ministerial duties so that he can stay in a five star hotel and can travel in Business class.
Showing posts with label Manmohan. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Manmohan. Show all posts
Thursday, September 17, 2009
Sunday, June 7, 2009
The Most Inclusive Religion of the World
The Most Inclusive Religion of the World
In my quest for truth I referred more and more literature and wanted to know about the concept of diversity and inclusiveness in the various religions. No doubt Hinduism appeared to be the most diverse religion of the world. But Sikhism in my understanding came out to be the most inclusive religion of the world. I say so because it is one religion which says that there is no discrimination before God. The principles of universal equality and brotherhood are most important pillars of Sikhism. The religion says that before God - No discrimination is allowed on any basis whether it is caste, race, sex, creed, origin, color, education, status, wealth, region etc. (infect no discrimination whatsoever even in the areas which were not specifically mentioned in the text). Infect I am told that the Sikh men have Singh as last name and all Sikh women are Kaur, because it lays down the principles of equality. It is not that the word Singh is added to signify the term Lion. Infect if we understand details in Sikhism there is no Singh who is King. Infect all Singhs are equal and there is no king, subject or any one unequal in the religion. The concept of a King in Sikhism (hope Akshay understands it...) is totally against the Foundation of the religion.
The tradition of Singh for men and kaur for women started because in India through the last name one generally distinguishes what caste an individual is from. With the last name individuals were identified as low, high or middle class. The concept of the Caste name therefore was against the foundation of Sikhism and it is said that therefore the Guru eliminated the last name from all the Sikhs so that no one could tell the caste and thus achieved equality for all Sikhs. The women were given the name as Kaur (kaur means princess) to give respect to all women and to tell them that they do not have to adopt the name of the family she went into after their marriage. The step was to ensure the equality of women.
But despite that we hear names like Navjyot singh Sidhu, S S Alhuwalia, K P S Gill, M S Gill, Simranjeet Singh Mann, Prakash Singh Badal (why discrimination based on place of origin as well?) and so on. But I think even Guru also ensures that a disciple who understands the concept of inclusiveness and equality reaches the top and I think the soft spoken Dr. Manmohan Singh (Does any one knows his caste or family name ?) has risen to the top because of his understanding of the true facts of the religion. Singh is not about a roaring lion who comes out with a sword but in my submission Singh is about equality and inclusiveness of all. Infect Sikhism is not about a Singh but about the word "Sikh" which means disciple or student. Individuals who still use Gill, Sandhu and Sidhu actually want to preserve their caste and are not clearly following their Guru (http://www.realsikhism.com/faq/lastname.html).
Infect the purpose of the langar as I understand is also not to give food to poor (then why even rich goes to Gurudwaras to have langar), but the same is to eliminate any type of caste system and look to view all humans as equal. While eating langar together, there remains no difference between rich and poor, and a superior or inferior person, for all present are eating the same food at the same level.
The only thing having a higher authority in Sikhism is Guru Granth Sahib, and that is why we have a person waving a whisk over the holy scripture signifying the tradition of service to the only higher authority.
Sikhism is the one religion which says that every person has a right to life and recognizes that all living beings - plants or animals are created by God. The most important thing as it is understood by me is that the religion accepts and is open to every new thought. Infect it is said that the Golden Temple or Harmandir Sahab as is called has four entrances spread across four sides of the temple. These four open sides signify the importance of acceptance and openness for all. Infect even in the word Gurudwara the word Gur is for Guru. Dwara is like door. So Gurdwara is the door to house of God. It is a place where the sacred Sikh scriptures, Guru Granth Sahib resides.
But these days there are Gurudwaras where the four entrances do not exist, there are others who keep three out of four entrances closed (to avoid dust or new thoughts ?), there are others who have put in glasses on two of the entrances. But this symbolism is probably also because of Guru's will. When probably He realized that his disciples are restricting new thoughts, there are groups emerging between his disciples, wherein the acceptability and openness to all is deteriorating probably then He thought that let Me shut my doors accordingly. The places where He thought that acceptance and openness are still the way of life all four doors to reach Him remained open but where ever He thought otherwise, he symbolically shut the doors and most of the time through the hands of His favorite disciples or Granthis.
The purpose of swords and large circles around the alter where the holy Sculpture is kept is also significant. The same are not to raise a holy war, but these signifies that a true Sikh as to raise his voice against injustice done to anyone. And the fact that the weapons are lying lower than the scripture conveys that the weapons and the warrior part of Sikh takes the secondary position than the spiritual part.
In essence I believe Sikhism is about hope and progress ( Asha + Uneeti). It is a call to fight against any form of injustice and discrimination.
And I think every Sherry (read representative of common man) will come forward with this hope and progress to undo injustice done to anyone. I think the message must have gone to The One who like the Golden Temple resides in hearts of people of Amritsar.
Regards,
Sameer Sachdeva
reference
1. http://www.realsikhism.com/
In my quest for truth I referred more and more literature and wanted to know about the concept of diversity and inclusiveness in the various religions. No doubt Hinduism appeared to be the most diverse religion of the world. But Sikhism in my understanding came out to be the most inclusive religion of the world. I say so because it is one religion which says that there is no discrimination before God. The principles of universal equality and brotherhood are most important pillars of Sikhism. The religion says that before God - No discrimination is allowed on any basis whether it is caste, race, sex, creed, origin, color, education, status, wealth, region etc. (infect no discrimination whatsoever even in the areas which were not specifically mentioned in the text). Infect I am told that the Sikh men have Singh as last name and all Sikh women are Kaur, because it lays down the principles of equality. It is not that the word Singh is added to signify the term Lion. Infect if we understand details in Sikhism there is no Singh who is King. Infect all Singhs are equal and there is no king, subject or any one unequal in the religion. The concept of a King in Sikhism (hope Akshay understands it...) is totally against the Foundation of the religion.
The tradition of Singh for men and kaur for women started because in India through the last name one generally distinguishes what caste an individual is from. With the last name individuals were identified as low, high or middle class. The concept of the Caste name therefore was against the foundation of Sikhism and it is said that therefore the Guru eliminated the last name from all the Sikhs so that no one could tell the caste and thus achieved equality for all Sikhs. The women were given the name as Kaur (kaur means princess) to give respect to all women and to tell them that they do not have to adopt the name of the family she went into after their marriage. The step was to ensure the equality of women.
But despite that we hear names like Navjyot singh Sidhu, S S Alhuwalia, K P S Gill, M S Gill, Simranjeet Singh Mann, Prakash Singh Badal (why discrimination based on place of origin as well?) and so on. But I think even Guru also ensures that a disciple who understands the concept of inclusiveness and equality reaches the top and I think the soft spoken Dr. Manmohan Singh (Does any one knows his caste or family name ?) has risen to the top because of his understanding of the true facts of the religion. Singh is not about a roaring lion who comes out with a sword but in my submission Singh is about equality and inclusiveness of all. Infect Sikhism is not about a Singh but about the word "Sikh" which means disciple or student. Individuals who still use Gill, Sandhu and Sidhu actually want to preserve their caste and are not clearly following their Guru (http://www.realsikhism.com/faq/lastname.html).
Infect the purpose of the langar as I understand is also not to give food to poor (then why even rich goes to Gurudwaras to have langar), but the same is to eliminate any type of caste system and look to view all humans as equal. While eating langar together, there remains no difference between rich and poor, and a superior or inferior person, for all present are eating the same food at the same level.
The only thing having a higher authority in Sikhism is Guru Granth Sahib, and that is why we have a person waving a whisk over the holy scripture signifying the tradition of service to the only higher authority.
Sikhism is the one religion which says that every person has a right to life and recognizes that all living beings - plants or animals are created by God. The most important thing as it is understood by me is that the religion accepts and is open to every new thought. Infect it is said that the Golden Temple or Harmandir Sahab as is called has four entrances spread across four sides of the temple. These four open sides signify the importance of acceptance and openness for all. Infect even in the word Gurudwara the word Gur is for Guru. Dwara is like door. So Gurdwara is the door to house of God. It is a place where the sacred Sikh scriptures, Guru Granth Sahib resides.
But these days there are Gurudwaras where the four entrances do not exist, there are others who keep three out of four entrances closed (to avoid dust or new thoughts ?), there are others who have put in glasses on two of the entrances. But this symbolism is probably also because of Guru's will. When probably He realized that his disciples are restricting new thoughts, there are groups emerging between his disciples, wherein the acceptability and openness to all is deteriorating probably then He thought that let Me shut my doors accordingly. The places where He thought that acceptance and openness are still the way of life all four doors to reach Him remained open but where ever He thought otherwise, he symbolically shut the doors and most of the time through the hands of His favorite disciples or Granthis.
The purpose of swords and large circles around the alter where the holy Sculpture is kept is also significant. The same are not to raise a holy war, but these signifies that a true Sikh as to raise his voice against injustice done to anyone. And the fact that the weapons are lying lower than the scripture conveys that the weapons and the warrior part of Sikh takes the secondary position than the spiritual part.
In essence I believe Sikhism is about hope and progress ( Asha + Uneeti). It is a call to fight against any form of injustice and discrimination.
And I think every Sherry (read representative of common man) will come forward with this hope and progress to undo injustice done to anyone. I think the message must have gone to The One who like the Golden Temple resides in hearts of people of Amritsar.
Regards,
Sameer Sachdeva
reference
1. http://www.realsikhism.com/
Saturday, May 23, 2009
Diversity in Indian Politics
PM's team lacks diversity
Eleven out of nineteen ministers in the PM's team are drawn from Law background, which puts us into a question that is it only lawyers who make good Ministers. In the nineteen member team inducted on 22nd May'09 the following eleven are with law background:
1. Pranab Mukherjee
2. AK Antony
3. P Chidambaram
4. Mamta Banerjee
5. SM Krishna
6. Veerappa Moily
7. Sushil Kumar Shinde
8. Vayalar Ravi
9. Meira Kumar
10. Kapil Sibal
11. Anand Sharma
And its a fact that parliament spends least time in debating the legislatures which can easily be referred to Ministry of law for legal inputs. We actually need more of specialist to handle portfolios then lawyers to participate in debates. A formal education in the specific area of Ministry will be helpful in understanding the key aspects of that Ministry. The same will help in handling the real bottlenecks in the specific area of expertise. Why not a person with specialist education background / experience be inducted as a Minister ? Lets take a few debates:
1. PG from IIFT (Indian Institute of Foreign Trade) or a former Ambassador as Minister of External Affairs
2. A Professor, teacher or an Educationists as Minister of Human Resource Development
3. A former Army Man as Minister of Defense
4.A farmer as Minister of Agriculture
5. A supply chain expert as Minister for Public Distribution
6. An infrastructure specialist as Minister of Railways
7. A Chemical Engineer as Minister of Chemicals and Fertilizers
8. A small entrepreneur as Minister of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises
9. An industrialist as Minister of Commerce and Industry
10. A sarpanch as Minister of Panchayati Raj
11. A person from North East as Minister of Development of North Eastern Region
12. A Technocrat as Minister of Communications and Information Technology
13. A doctor as Minister of Health & Family Welfare
14. A NRI settled back in India as Minister of Overseas Indian Affairs
15. A management graduate as Minister for Parliamentary Affairs
16.An Engineer as Minister of Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises
17. A Chartered Accountant as Minister of Corporate Affairs
18. A Scientist as Minister of Science and Technology
19. An Environmentalist as Minister for Environment and Forest
20. A former Bureaucrat as Minister for Personnel
21. A journalist as Minister for I& B
22. A Space Scientist as Minister for Space
23. A statistician as Minister for Statistics & PI
22. An Unemployed Youth as Minister for Labor and Employment
23. A Youth as Minister of Youth Affairs
24. A sports person (non cricketer) as Minister for Sports
23.An Economist as Finance Minister
24. A cine-star (so many of them) as Minister for culture
In any case the diverse the cabinet the more diverse experiences will be captured in the development of country. We must start thinking in terms of diversity beyond representation of States. Any further thoughts on other areas of diversity in Politics and Government.
Eleven out of nineteen ministers in the PM's team are drawn from Law background, which puts us into a question that is it only lawyers who make good Ministers. In the nineteen member team inducted on 22nd May'09 the following eleven are with law background:
1. Pranab Mukherjee
2. AK Antony
3. P Chidambaram
4. Mamta Banerjee
5. SM Krishna
6. Veerappa Moily
7. Sushil Kumar Shinde
8. Vayalar Ravi
9. Meira Kumar
10. Kapil Sibal
11. Anand Sharma
And its a fact that parliament spends least time in debating the legislatures which can easily be referred to Ministry of law for legal inputs. We actually need more of specialist to handle portfolios then lawyers to participate in debates. A formal education in the specific area of Ministry will be helpful in understanding the key aspects of that Ministry. The same will help in handling the real bottlenecks in the specific area of expertise. Why not a person with specialist education background / experience be inducted as a Minister ? Lets take a few debates:
1. PG from IIFT (Indian Institute of Foreign Trade) or a former Ambassador as Minister of External Affairs
2. A Professor, teacher or an Educationists as Minister of Human Resource Development
3. A former Army Man as Minister of Defense
4.A farmer as Minister of Agriculture
5. A supply chain expert as Minister for Public Distribution
6. An infrastructure specialist as Minister of Railways
7. A Chemical Engineer as Minister of Chemicals and Fertilizers
8. A small entrepreneur as Minister of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises
9. An industrialist as Minister of Commerce and Industry
10. A sarpanch as Minister of Panchayati Raj
11. A person from North East as Minister of Development of North Eastern Region
12. A Technocrat as Minister of Communications and Information Technology
13. A doctor as Minister of Health & Family Welfare
14. A NRI settled back in India as Minister of Overseas Indian Affairs
15. A management graduate as Minister for Parliamentary Affairs
16.An Engineer as Minister of Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises
17. A Chartered Accountant as Minister of Corporate Affairs
18. A Scientist as Minister of Science and Technology
19. An Environmentalist as Minister for Environment and Forest
20. A former Bureaucrat as Minister for Personnel
21. A journalist as Minister for I& B
22. A Space Scientist as Minister for Space
23. A statistician as Minister for Statistics & PI
22. An Unemployed Youth as Minister for Labor and Employment
23. A Youth as Minister of Youth Affairs
24. A sports person (non cricketer) as Minister for Sports
23.An Economist as Finance Minister
24. A cine-star (so many of them) as Minister for culture
In any case the diverse the cabinet the more diverse experiences will be captured in the development of country. We must start thinking in terms of diversity beyond representation of States. Any further thoughts on other areas of diversity in Politics and Government.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
