In The Mood For Reason

The interview was not to be. “Justice Ganguly is usually extremely punctual...,” a senior colleague of A.K. Ganguly, the chairman of the West Bengal Human Rights Commission, tells us. We are at WBHRC’s Calcutta Office. It’s 1:30 pm. We had an appointment with Justice Ganguly at 11:30 am. “His life has changed after the allegations were made.... Every day he has to wade through hundreds of protestors demanding his resignation as he enters office. The media is hounding him. Today a group of women was brandishing shoes, brooms and shouting slogans.... And press photographers were there, ready to capture his exasperated expression. We dissuaded him from coming in. He feels extremely heckled.”

Indeed, Justice Ganguly has been in the eye of a storm ever since his name was made public as the retired Supreme Court Judge who a law intern accused anonymously in an online blog of sexually harassing her in a hotel room in New Delhi on the night of December 24, 2012. Since then, angry voices demanding punishment for him and justice for the victim have been pouring forth. And politicians, the press, the general public and legal professionals such as additional solicitor general Indira Jaising have all spoken out. When we spoke to Justice Ganguly on his mobile, he was still at his home. “I cannot meet you today,” he said. He sounded exhausted.

In Calcutta, among those to most vociferously bay for his blood is the ruling party, Trinamool Congress. From CM Mamata Banerjee, who wrote to the president demanding that action be initiated to sack him as WBHRC chairman, to TMC MPs Derek O’Brien and Kalyan Bandyopadhyay. Speaking to Outlook, Bandyopadhyay, himself an advocate, said, “It is a matter of shame that the head of a body like the WBHRC stands accused in such a heinous crime. This is why we are demanding that he immediately step down.” In an open letter addressed to Justice Ganguly, TMC general secretary Mahua Moitro urged him thus: “For the last time, Sir, resign!”

Lawyer and former Calcutta mayor Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharya said, “If people in high offices are forced to resign at every complaint made against them, who will work? It will set a bad precedence if Justice Ganguly is coerced to resign by such character assassination.” While it could be debated why persons in high office should not be made to step down if they stand accused of committing a crime such as sexual assault, legal experts argue that such resignations were dependant on various factors. (See box). Most ‘supporters’ of Justice Ganguly claim that they are not dismissing the allegations, but merely demanding that he be judged according to the laws of the land. “My position is very clear,” said former speaker Somnath Chatterjee. “I am not for once saying that the allegations against him are false. What I am saying is that we don’t know what exactly has happened until he has been tried in a court of law.... Until he is proven guilty, he is innocent.... Only the conviction of a court of law can remove him,” Chatterjee explained.But then, the brickbats tell only one side of the story. In recent weeks, many voices of support for him too have emerged. Among them are members of the CPI(M), who see in the TMC demand for Justice Ganguly’s resignation “a political expediency”. While careful not to dismiss the allegations by the law intern, the CPI(M)’s Mohammed Selim told Outlook that the TMC may be targeting Ganguly, as the WBHRC under him urged the state government to compensate victims of alleged human rights violations (see In A Negative Frame, Outlook, Dec 16). Furthermore, on December 18, even as the protests raged against Justice Ganguly throughout the city, Calcutta High Court lawyers took out a rally in support of the besieged former SC justice. The reasons for extending their support were varied.

There have also been protests in Cal­cutta demanding the resignation of the VC of Visva Bharati University, Sushanta Dutta Gupta, after a recent RTI report rev­ealed that he was appointed even after being accused in 2005 of sexual harassment by a woman colleague when he was director of Satyendra Nath Bose National Centre for Basic Sciences.

A SCAM WORTH CRORES OR A PROGRESS WORTH CRORES THE DECISION IS UR's

When the COALGATE was exposed our standing PM said :
" The coal blocks were sold because now coal is of no use and so it was given to the people at cheap rates... "
Today the this SONIA ruled PM says :
" The Coal Ministry must ensure increased production by Coal India Limited. .. "

This is the stand of ur chosen PM.. This is the reason we tell u to do some homework before u vote.... U choose a robot for 3 terms consecutively... The option lies in ur hand again today...

‪#‎Do‬ caste ur vote to the deserving candidate only ... not to money and liquor ...
A vote can costs crores of production or crores of scam... CHOICE is urs...
JAI HIND

- SAKSHAM ARORA

15 BIG Questions for Kejriwal's AAP

1. Why Kejriwal took NO Action on this incident on Raghu (MTV) & Shazia ilmi?
2. Why Kejriwal wants support from Maulana Tauqir Raza who is arrested in making Riots in Bareilly and who declared Rs 5 Lakh Price for Killing Taslima Nasrin and 1 crore for killing former American President George W Bush?
3. Why Kejriwal supports Batla house terrorist?
4. Why Kejriwal gave ticket to Deshraj Raghav (Well-known Rashon Mafia of Delhi)?
5. Why Kejriwal is giving tickets to BJP's mayor who was fired from BJP for the Corruption charges?
6. Why Kejriwal is giving tickets to the brother of Kidnappers?
7. Why Arvind kejriwal never gives his opinion on Pakistan / J&K / terrorism?
8. What was the reason of him for writing a letter only to just 1 community (Muslims) saying Batla house encounter was fake and Ishrat Jahan was an innocent who was killed in Fake encounter?
9. Why AAP Party is soft on terrorism?
10. Why AAP wants to give Kashmir to Pakistan?
11. Why Anna Hazare, Kiran Bedi and Genaral VK Singh left Kejriwal alone?
12. Why Kejriwal asked Congress youth secretary to do fraud surveys?
13. Why Kejriwal blames Modi & RSS for Muzzaffarnagar Riots without any proof?
14. Why Arvind Kejriwal & his wife were never transferred out of Delhi in their entire career if they were fighting against Corrupt Govt. unlike Ashok Khemka or Durga Shakti?
15. Is Arvind Kejriwal just a Power hungry who is eyeing for becoming CM?

Opinian Poll war

In the land of astrologers and soothsayers, it is faintly amusing to see our politicians in a lather over opinion polls. The very netas who plan their lives according to the stars are now choosing to call the polls "unscientific"! Barely five months ago, when the polls were predicting a Congress win in Karnataka, the party which now wants polls banned was praising their accuracy. In 2004, the BJP, which now is pushing for the publication of polls, had joined the chorus in demanding that polls be banned once elections were notified. As times change, so, well, does "opinion". Sadly, as always in the noise of surround sound, the facts are in danger of losing out to a mix of ignorance and partisanship.

 

 

Examine the primary arguments against polls. It is being argued that opinion polls must be banned because they are inaccurate and unscientific. Yes, opinion polls have gone spectacularly wrong on occasion in predicting election results. But there have also been several times when they have been remarkably accurate. The point is, psephology is not mathematics: to expect exact numbers is to misread the science of analysing voter behaviour. A good poll is at best a trend-spotter, the actual projections are difficult to measure in a highly localised and competitive election environment.

There's also the counter-argument: if opinion polls are inaccurate, what indeed is more "accurate"? Are journalists who confidently predict which way the wind is blowing the ultimate barometers of the political mood? Are politicians who will proclaim their party is winning a landslide to be trusted? Or is the satta market the real guide to political fortunes? Does hard data assembled through a rigorous polling exercise not matter, or do we simply predict elections on the basis of intuition?

Those who argue that a sample size of a few thousand cannot measure a country as large and diverse as India again have little understanding of either statistics or sampling. The true test of a well done poll is not its size, but how representative it is, and the quality of the questionnaire. The real information gleaned from a poll goes well beyond projecting who is winning elections. For example, one of the more fascinating aspects in a recent poll we did was to measure the popularity of Narendra Modi versus Rahul Gandhi among those voters who had Facebook and Twitter accounts. The viewer may look at the big number of which party stands where; a student of politics will find a minefield of information beyond just victory and defeat.

The second argument made is that polls influence voter behaviour and question the idea of a free and fair election. The evidence here is sketchy at best and, in most instances, defeated by anecdotal history. The 2004 elections when most pollsters failed to predict a UPA surge is perhaps the best example. Right through the campaign period, the polls were predicting a NDA victory. The results revealed both the limitations of polling and the autonomy of voter behaviour. Political workers may be swayed by opinion polls, the average voter has shown no indication of casting a ballot based on poll findings. If anything, the voter may take vicarious delight in proving pollsters wrong!

The third argument and, in this age of declining ethical standards, perhaps the most persuasive, is that opinion polls can be bought and sold. There is little doubt that a few individuals of dubious integrity have entered the opinion poll "business". We have had the unedifying spectacle in recent times of the same poll research agency giving different results to different channels within the space of a fortnight for a 'national' poll. While a highly competitive market may eventually sort out the serious pollster from a fly-by-night operator, there is no reason not to put in place transparent guidelines for election-related polls.

For example, in Britain, the original home of psephology, the British Polling Council (BPC) has been formed to ensure the highest standards of full disclosure so that consumers can judge the reliability and validity of the results. Why can't we have a similar body, mandated by the Election Commission, to establish a code of conduct for polling in the country? Regulation might be one way forward to reduce the credibility deficit confronting opinion polls.

What is not a way forward though is the culture of seeking a ban on opinion polls simply because a particular political party may be discomfited with the findings. This is not simply about the constitutional guarantees provided by free expression. It is increasingly about a sarkari mindset which believes that the best way to control information flow is to enforce bans: don't like a book, ban it; don't like a cartoon, withdraw it; today, it's opinion polls, in future, if you don't like a contrary opinion, you may muzzle that too.

Truth be told, this 'fear' of opinion polls primarily stems from those who can be best described as 'drawing room' or 'television studio' netas. The serious politicians know their future lies in the heat and dust of real India, in the slums, bastis and colonies where voters are increasingly influenced by the governance record of their rulers, not by colourful graphics that buzz on a television screen. Every opinion poll, for example, has tended to under-estimate the silent voter of the Bahujan Samaj party. And yet, Mayawati's mass appeal is not diminished by the fact that pollsters tend to write her off all too easily. Instead of agonising over poll results, may be netas would be better of focussing on rediscovering the common touch which can be decisive on the real day that matters: counting day.

 

Compare the 2 major parties & then caste ur vote...

                                                              Re-think

Note:-
we can change the politics in a day nor can we expect a direct change but all I wanna say in this research of mine is that we can at least choose the better so that we get to see development and progress and not just a bad condition of the nation as a whole... Its time we thought a bit more we need to think for the nation as a whole so that we help in developing a better BHARAT and make India a united BHARAt or the golden bird once again...
We have the power and we can do it if u decide to let it happen....

On one hand we have (Congress) :
1. ruled for more than 15 yrs after narsima rao and all the nation saw was
   a. scams,
   b. worst state of depression,
   c. inflation,
   d. increase maoist & terrorist attacks,
   e. communal divide and violence
    f. further divide amongst people.... etc
2. overall not much of an improvement anywhere except in the money in swizz a/c
3. bad foreign relations
4. more rape cases unsolved
5. increase in crime and foreign influencing on Indian internal matters
6. violence against innocent citizens of the nation
7. bad condition of govt. dept. and buss.
8. increase in tax rates
9. increase in foreign dependence
10. making a fool of India since independence and being involved in smuggling Mahatma Gandhi's valuable to Italy by air india
................. etc and the list may go on
On the other hand we have (B.J.P)
This party was earlier known as janata party but because of the rift in the party it made 2 major parts janata and bhartiya janata party and both were lead by a group of hindus or The RSS....
<The overall findings, not on a few states, bcoz states like Punjab have no scope for either of the governments>
1. saw inflation less in comparison to a 5 yr term of congress
2. developed the process of liberalisation and globalisation which was implemented by the congress in their rule
3. saw fewer cases of violent clashes, cast division, tax rate increase
4. saw fewer cases of unlawful actions
5. best foreign relations were seen
6. currency showed appreciation
7. rapes were bare minimum
8. govt. sector gave a tough competition to the pvt sector
9. less dependency on the foreign states in comparison
10. development of indian ethics and enhancing indian culture
11. made more temples which were unnecessary and gave land which was wasted by religious leaders ut still all of this was less than that of the land conquered by the congress family alone..

Suspetion in Patna Blasts is it just the IM or the JD(U) & Congress ?

The lowest level of politics is clearly depicted here in the exclusive stories by victims of the blast... SHAME ON THE JD(U) & Congress for letting it happen... TODAY THE LIFE OF A COMMAN MAN IS SO CHEAP THAT ONLY AT TIME OF VOTE THEY BEG O...THEr TIME THEY STEAL.... Its Time that we all got together and changed this entire system ....

Some statements make u think nitish was guilty and he purposely took no action :
1. Amit Sadar, a rally supporter, was injured not in the blast, but in stone throwing. “The bomb I saw was of metal. It caused a lot of chaos. People were running helter-skelter. They were throwing bricks, because the police were not doing anything,”
2. “We then went inside to help our people. We saw one bomb which was fixed with a watch and one more gadget. Around 12.30 p.m. it went off. The blast was huge. My head just stopped working,” Mr. Singh said. Many victims said the people alerted the police when they spotted the explosive devices, but the police took no step whatsoever to move people to safety.
3. “For 10 minutes we were screaming for help. After hearing about the railway station blast, we were considering whether to stay at the rally venue or make a move,” Upendra Rai, whose friend was badly injured, said with tears in his eyes.
4. “I fell unconscious for a while when the blast took place. When I regained consciousness, I started screaming, bomb phata [bomb has exploded]! Had I anticipated any danger I would never have come for this rally. I am not going to attend any more rallies.
5. “If he did not want this rally, he should have just stopped it. This is a conspiracy by the Chief Minister,” Mukesh Singh said.
6. it isthe government’s conspiracy. Mr. Kumar wants to take revenge on the people,” Mr. Mishra, an injured BJP worker, alleged.
7. “People tried to defuse the bombs by throwing stones at them,” said Brijesh Kumar Mishra, who also suffered injuries.

Our duties towards idiotic baba's on media

Our Duties:
1. Never underestimate yourself
2. u have the answer to all ur problems all u need is to evaluate or a help of a true friend or guide
3. never rely on what any external person says
4. refrain from being easily influenced by baba marketing schemes
5. don't waste ur hard earned money donating here but rather give it to old age homes and orphanage's
6. check and recheck whatever is told by u to be done and judge practically
7. don't mix coincidence with the saying of a dhongi like radha maa and nirmal baba
8. never ever go alone to such places to meet such people for guidance or blessings councillors are better
9. educate the people around u and tell the media to stop popularising them
10. don't sell urself for such ppl and money that u fake things for them and destroy other people life and hard earned income
11. check the income source and expenditures being done and ask y do u have to pay to listen to them if they are doing charity and getting donation
12. if they have temples ask them y is no education being imparted for free in every centre of theirs
13. ask them y do they travel in business class seats in planes and big luxury cars and who and why did someone give the this amount and for what
14 observe every action carefully
15. always stay alert

 

A little tit bits on Pak attacks...

Its the question of our own dignity and pride...
Not Only is the current attack on us being condemned but every attack from Pak on our pride our own INDIAN JAWANS is being condemned today. Have we ever wondered that a country like India that has the power to take down the entire country of pak why is it being belittled every time . Well on my research on the web I got a few answers to it which are... :-
1)The IsI has information of people with black money and many of politicians and big businessmen are involved in this scam
2)The politicians are playing a very diplomatic game with the nations the fight today is no longer a nuclear fight but a political fight for land and when a small country can control the entire world politics making U.S envy Iran then y should we lack behind in this race of minds
3)We are afraid to loose as Pak is being backed heavily by China, (For those who are unaware china is a country that is not a democratic nation and which is y it wants all the other nation around it to be the same this is also the reason of fight between nations around the china sea like japan) China has decided to grab A.P and as per its map A.P is a part of china, so is C.O.K and Tibet and the fight for grabbing more and more land from India is on because it knows that India wont ever retaliate and it is easy to press such nations that cant speak for its own so it indirectly funds Pak to do this
4)The Phonetics of Pak do not want what the people of Pak want that is to again make an undivided BHARAT and not 2 nations but the organisations dominate Afghan and Pak to such an extent that not only the peace treaties but also the other treaties have become a matter of loss for us
5)Pak is a fake democracy as it is actually made to offend India and if it makes peace its existence is a waste moreover the pak as a nation is governed by the commando general and not the real voice of people what we see isn't the reality in case of pak and its so called freedom...

 Solution as per me :
We must forget all our political barriers get together and respond back to the PAK in order to shut them up , we can not afford another mistake like POK in our life all over again ever

See More

Overturning discussion leads to corruption...

After three days of the FIR getting filed against ex Coal Secretary PC Parakh, noted industrialist Kumar Mangalam Birla and his company Hindalco, I still cannot understand what the grounds for this FIR are. It appears that the fact that Parakh overturned the screening committee decision on allotment of a mine to Hindalco is the basis of this FIR. This is bizarre for several reasons.
Firstly, if the Coal Secretary is legally authorized to overturn the decision of the screening committee, then why is that provision there at all, if not to be exercised at times? If the screening committee was the final authority, then no matter what Parakh or the PM wanted to do, they could not have overturned it. The reality is that the final authority is the Coal Secretary and the Coal Minister, who are deemed to be more competent than the screening committee. In that case, one may wonder, why have the screening committee at all? The answer of course, is that such overturning decisions are rare, and made usually when the authority feels the screening committee has erred, as in this case.
Secondly, if the Coal Secretary did not overturn a decision even when he was convinced it was a wrong decision, then what kind of an authority is he? He would be better called a clerk. If we had to have a government of clerks, then why even have such a celebrated cadre as the IAS in place?
Thirdly, to establish any criminal case of corruption, there must be someone charged with giving money and someone with receiving. Who are those people here? Is the CBI saying that Birla and Hindalco paid a bribe? And Parakh and the PM received it? Then surely the CBI can show us some money trail? If the money trail isn’t there, then what kind of a charge is this? Then the “Why was the decision overturned?” question would become merely a case of administrative decision making, and not corruption. Sure, the authorities would have to reply to the public about why the decision was overturned, but the CBI would have no case at all.
So why did Parakh overturn the screening committee decision? I think the mid 2000s was a period of when the government was hell bent on achieving a high growth in investments. The government was pushing all segments of the industry to invest, build capacity and increase production. This would lead to job creation, alleviation of poverty, distribution of wealth, social equity etc. It is such policies that led to the fastest growth India has seen since independence. It is such policies that brought alive the India story in the first place. Had India continued to grow at the BJP growth rate of the previous six years, it would never have attracted the kind of foreign investments it did since 2004. Likewise, the reason the number of coal mines allotted was so much higher than during the UPA period was the same – there was much more investment-spurred demand for coal.
The answer to Parakh’s action is very clear. But before I come to that, it’s worth mentioning that it was probably the same reason that made Naveen Patnaik recommend that Hindalco be given a share of the mine, after the screening committee had turned it down. It’s the same reason that made the PM ratify Parakh’s decision. None of these people needs to worry; nor run away from what was clearly a legitimate decision.
The reason for the overturning was the huge capital investment that Hindalco had planned in the steel sector. As per ET dated yesterday (http://tinyurl.com/42bjvkk ) “A coal ministry official said Hindalco has invested as much as Rs 17,000 crore in the attached 900-mw captive power plant, a 1.5 million tonnes aluminium refinery and a 3.5 lakh tonne smelter in Odisha”. What’s wrong if a mine was provided under extant policies to Hindalco to facilitate this investment? Maybe the question one should ask is why the screening committee took the wrong decision. Why did it favor the government’s own companies, when there is no such provision under any law. PC Parakh himself said this in The Mint dated October 16^th (http://tinyurl.com/n5cgk6z ) “We decided in favour of Neyveli Lignite because it was a government company; it was also my own ministry’s company, so we have considered Neyveli (over) Hindalco”. That’s hardly a fair reason to allot a mine to Neyveli.
Also, the overturning was not as if Neyveli was thrown out. All that it amounted to was allotting Hindalco a 15% share in the mine. If corruption was the reason for the decision, what stopped Parakh and the PM from allotting 100% to Hindalco? Or 75% or 50%? Why only 15%? The answer is obvious: the 15% was sufficient to take care of the requirements of the attached power/aluminium plant. It was a specific allocation for a specific project.

So we have no money trail. No grounds not to believe the overturning decision. And yet, what does the CBI do? It files an FIR alleging corruption. How do they even do this? Of course the SC will have to be convinced. And of course, the SC will ask the same questions. Chances are that if this is all that the CBI has got, then the case will be thrown out. But even though so many cases get thrown out, it takes so long that the reputation of the accused gets sullied for good. Would the CBI have anything to say then? Our media will certainly not given any weightage to the acquittal. It would help if the SC expedited its own working, and brought a closure to such silly cases quickly.
The real truth is what I have written twice in the last three days. The CBI has shot itself in the foot and in fact, justified why it should remain caged. The institutions – CBI, CAG, SC – have all failed us at different points in time. If this continues, we should be prepared to see an exodus of our biggest businessmen (ever wondered how difficult it is for Ambani/Tata/Mittal/Birla to shift base to a Singapore or HK or London or NY?). And for India to return to the Hindu rate of growth of 3% per annum…..

Article 370

Article 370 of the Indian Constitution, which is of a temporary nature, grants special status to Jammu and Kashmir. Under Part XXI of the Constitution of India, which deals with “Temporary, Transitional and Special provisions”, the State of Jammu and Kashmir has been accorded special status under Article 370. Interestingly, till 1965, J&K had a Sadr-e-Riyasat for Governor and Prime Minister in place of Chief Minister !

When Indian Government was merging with Indian Princely States and foreign ruled territories using Instrument of Accession, J&K chose to remain independent, but when Muslim Tribes (allegedly supported by the government of Pakistan) attacked Jammu and Kashmir on 6 October 1947, to save his state Maharaja Hari Singh (the then ruler of J&K) chose to accede Jammu & Kashmir to India, so that India could help in defending her. The accession of the state to India is still a matter of dispute between India and Pakistan , and still on the agenda of the U.N.Security Council.

Why special status?
Article 370 is a special clause in Indian Constitution and was extracted in 1950  by Sheikh Mohammed Abdullah after lengthy negotiations with Indian leaders. The architect of the Indian Constitution, Dr. Ambedkar, opposed granting Article 370 but it was on India's first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru's insistence and personal guarantee that it was granted to the state.

Personal Comments :
Article 370 was supposed to be a temporary solution but since none of the governments have raised this issue, J&K government have become more demanding. Recently, current state CM Mr. Farooq Abdullah is demanding even more autonomy. I believe that carving out special status for J&K was a "Historical Blunder". This very Article 370, I think, inhibits the progress of the state. If it had been in the purview of the Central Government completely, things would have been better. Currently, it seems to me that Kashmir is an orphan territory to be occupied by whosoever carries a gun.

Sonia Gandhi - A Blot on the Nation by Mark Tully

Sir William "Mark" Tully, OBE. He worked for BBC for a period of 30 years before resigning in July 1994. He held the position of Chief of Bureau, BBC, Delhi for 20 years. Padma Shree, KBE, Padma Bhushan, one of the most respected journalists in the world, writes on Indian Politics: An eye opener account, not known to most of the Indians.

"I can say without the shadow of a doubt that when history will be written, the period over which she (Sonia Gandhi) presided, both over the Congress and India, will be seen as an era of darkness, of immense corruption and of a democracy verging towards autocracy, if not disguised dictatorship, in the hands of a single person, a non-Indian   and a Christian like me. Truth will also come out about her being the main recipient for kickbacks from Bofors to 2G, which she uses to buy votes."

The sun has already set; darkness is just about to start. Do you blame it on bankruptcy/blindness of Congress or country's misfortune. It is both. Now read the complete analysis, which follows. 

THE TRUTH & THE HIDDEN FACTS. I was surprised when the Congress party gave me a Padma Shri – I am the   only foreign journalist to ever get it. For, in my forty years of political reporting in India, I have always been a vocal critic of the Nehru dynasty. Someone even called me recently: “a vitriolic British journalist, who in his old age chose to live back in the land he never approved”.

It started with Operation Blue Star. I was one of the few western correspondents who criticized Indira. As I have said since then numerous times, the attack on the Golden Temple and the atrocities that followed the army operations, produced in all sections of the Sikhs a sense of outrage that is hard today to alleviate. I believed then that the large majority of Hindu India, even if politically hostile to Indira Gandhi, openly identified with – and exulted in – her will to overwhelmingly humble a recalcitrant minority.

As everybody knows, Indira Gandhi helped my fame grow even more, by wanting to imprison me during the Emergency she clamped and finally throwing me out of India for a short while. But the result was that the whole of India tuned in, then and thereafter, to my radio’s broadcasts, ‘The Voice of India’, to hear what they thought was ‘accurate’ coverage of events.

When Rajiv Gandhi came to power, I first believed that he was sincerely trying to change the political system, but he quickly gave-up when the old guard would not budge. I criticized him for his foolish adventure in Sri Lanka, although I felt sorry for him when he was blown to pieces by Dhanu, the Tamil Tiger.

It is in Kashmir, though that I fought most viciously against his Govt and subsequent Congress ones for its human right abuses on the Kashmiri Muslims of the Valley. The Congress Governments tried indeed several times to censor me and the army even took prisoner my Kashmiri stringer, whom I had to rescue by the skin of his teeth. I am also proud that I was the first one to point out then, that the Indian Government had at that time no proof of the Pakistani involvement in the freedom movement in Kashmir. 

Thus I always made it a point to start my broadcasts by proclaiming that the Indian Government accuses Pakistan of fostering terrorism», or that “elections are being held in Indian-controlled Kashmir”…As I was so popular, all the other foreign journalists used the same parlance to cover Kashmir and they always spoke of the plight of the Muslims, never of the 400.000 Hindus, who after all were chased out of their ancestral land by sheer terror (I also kept mum about it).

As for Sonia Gandhi, I did not mind her, when she was Rajiv Gandhi’s wife, but after his death, I watched with dismay as she started stamping her authority on the Congress, which made me say in a series of broadcasts on the Nehru Dynasty: “It’s sad that the Indian National Congress should be completely dependent on one family; the total surrender of a national party to one person is deplorable. You have to ask the question: what claims does Sonia Gandhi have to justify her candidature for prime-ministership? Running a country is far more complicated than running a company. Apprenticeship is required in any profession — more so in politics”.

I heard that Sonia Gandhi was unhappy about this broadcast. Then, after President APJ Abdul Kalam called her to the Raj Bhavan and told her what some of us already knew, namely that for a long time, she had kept both her Italian and Indian passports,which disqualified her to become the Prime Minister of India, she nevertheless became the Supreme leader of India behind the scenes. It is then that I exclaimed:“the moribund and leaderless Congress party has latched onto Sonia Gandhi, who is Italian by birth and Roman Catholic by baptism”.

She never forgave me for that. Yet, today I can say without the shadow of a doubt that when history will be written, the period over which she presided, both over the Congress and India, will be seen as an era of darkness, of immense corruption and of a democracy verging towards autocracy, if not disguised dictatorship, in the hands of a single   person, a non Indian and a Christian like me.Truth will also come out about her being the main recipient for kickbacks from Bofors to 2G, which she uses to buy votes, as the Wikileaks have just shown.

Finally, I am sometimes flabbergasted at the fact that Indians – Hindus, sorry, as most of this country’s intelligentsia is Hindu – seem to love me so much, considering the fact that in my heydays, I considerably ran down the 850 million Hindus of this country, one billion worldwide. I have repented today: I do profoundly believe that India needs to be able to say with pride, “Yes, our civilization has a Hindu base to it.”The genius of Hinduism, the very reason it has survived so long, is that it does not stand up and fight. It changes and adapts and modernizes and absorbs – that is the scientific and proper way of going about it.

I believe that Hinduism may actually prove to be the religion of this millennium, because it can adapt itself to change. Hindus are still slaves to MUSLIMS and CHRISTIANS. On the name of secularism, lots of facilities and cash incentives are given to Muslims and Christians. Haj subsidy is given to Muslims for Haj yatra, wages of Muslim teachers and Imams are given to Muslims are given by looting the Hindu temples. No such subsidy is given to Hindus for going to Hindu religious places or any wages to Hindu religious priests or Hindu teachers. In fact congress secular government creates many obstacles for Hindus for going to Amarnath Yatra.

Even after 65 years of independence reservation is given on religious grounds while it should have been abolished by this time. If at all reservation or subsidy is needed, then it should be purely on economic grounds rather on the grounds of minorities. Such reservations affect the quality of work. Congress party giving various kinds of allurements to minorities to buy their votes with Hindu money. In the government, many people are with Hindu names but in fact many are Muslims and Christians with Hindu names (**) to fool Hindus and to show in the government, majority   people are Hindus.

 ** The obvious reference is to Digvijay Singh, Ambika Soni etc 

ORIGNAL LINKS : http://history.world-citizenship.org/wp-archive/80

http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/mark-tully-slams-dynastic-politics-of-sonia-led-congress/1/160848.html

They are no GOD so y not treat them like normal humans... ?

Millions of Indians are poor, illiterate and malnourished. They are prone to disease and their life expectancy is low. If a healthy mind requires a healthy body, millions of Indians are incapable of having healthy minds. Millions of Indians are also followers of godmen, whose ranks include people like Asaram.

Spiritual guides, saints and others given to epiphany are common to all cultures around the world, their frequency coming down with the advance of modernity and rationality. Industrial and post-industrial life has seen a sudden decline in the number of miracles and of holy men associated with them.

India remains largely pre-industrial, even today. In 2011, for the first time, the share of the working population engaged in agriculture dipped below 50%. Even now, more than two-thirds of all Indians live in rural areas. Even those who live in towns carry with them the baggage they brought from the village, beliefs and ideas for the most part.

Just last week, at a wayside dhaba in Uttar Pradesh, a man shot dead an 11-year-old who refused to wash a tumbler for him — so what if he did not work at the dhaba and was there only to watch television, he was a Dalit and how could he defy a direct order from his social superior? (Note that television and guns, modern inventions in themselves, did not quite modernise the interaction between the shooter and the television viewer.)

In such a country, it would be surprising if godmen like Asaram did not proliferate. How should the state deal with errant godmen? Exactly as it would deal with errant men. There should be no compromise on this. This is more than just maintaining equality before the law. Refusing to make any special allowances for godmen is part of nation-building in this country where the constitutional ideal of liberal democracy is not an actualised reality but a goal, an ideal, the imperative to attain which should inform every action of the state.

No Place for Godmen

Is such disdain for godmen part of so-called modernists’ disdain for Hinduism? Would people advocating such down-to-earth treatment for Hindu holy men still stick to terra firma when it comes to holy men of minority religions? Isn’t this all part of a larger anti-Hindu conspiracy? This version of offence-is-thebest-form-of-defence has already been launched on behalf of Asaram, with the BJP chipping in with vigour. It belittles Hinduism as a belief system incompatible with democracy and equality before the law.

In reality, Hinduism provides scope for Asarams to exist only because it affords endless flexibility in how people find their spiritual equilibrium. A rigorous articulation of Hindutva’s core concept of advaita (non-duality) would leave no place for gods and goddesses, leave alone for the garden variety of godmen with base instincts.

Tattvamasi (that thou art) was Sankara’s famous reply to someone who asked him to explain the concept of Atman. Atman is not just the ultimate reality but also the only reality. Everything living and lifeless is some or the other manifestation ofAtman.

Things that seem different are the same in their essence. Their difference is illusion. Inability to see the underlying unity of all things is ignorance, delusion. The point of enlightenment is to realise this.

Hinduism is perhaps the only religion to posit the non-duality of what are  commonly perceived as the creator and the created. Such negation of distinction between the creator and the created, and among the myriad bits of the created, opens up radical possibilities.

Kerala’s social reformer Sri Narayana Guru drew on advaita to assert the illegitimacy and invalidity of caste. When all men, apart from all other things, are manifestations of the selfsame Atman, how can some men be inferior, even untouchable?

Radical Hinduism

Apart from being incompatible with the caste system, advaita has other potential disadvantages. Those who appreciate the underlying unity of all things also appreciate that all ethics and morality are social constructs and not divine ordination. Just look at what a high concentration of amoral people has done to global finance to see how dangerous it could be for the world to be full of enlightened ones who are above morality.

Privilege Progress

So while Hinduism counts enlightened knowledge as one route to salvation, it quite practically rules it out for the majority, who are left to contend with worldly delusion through piety, devotion, diligent discharge of duty and so on. It is this freewheeling mix of means that offers the folds and creases out of which godmen operate. The enlightened state should see them for what they are: at best like tutors for those who were remiss in the classroom, at worst exploiting the backwardness that alone makes them possible.

The job of the state is not to take backwardness for granted. To give Asarams privileged treatment is to collude in backwardness, to collude in the shooting of the boy in Uttar Pradesh. India deserves better and Indians now know this.

NEW PENSION SYSTEM

Central bank of India has entered into an agreement with PFRDA (Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority) for functioning as one of the PoP (Point of Presence) for their New Pension System (NPS). Our Bank has designated 1006 Branches to function as Point of Presence- Service Providers (PoP-SPs) for handling NPS accounts.

Main Features and Architecture of the New Pension Scheme

New Pension System(NPS) for all Citizens was introduced  by GOI and managed by  the Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority(PFRDA), the regulator of pension fund in our country,  to secure the old age income by way of giving an annuity i.e. pension, once the subscriber(s) attains the age of 60.

Click here to view offer documents ofPFRDA.

NPS is a voluntary scheme of Pension System of PFRDA (Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority) open to all citizens in the age group of 18-60 years.

• The Scheme is operative from 01.05.2009.
• The objective is to provide old age pension with market driven returns over long term
• Bank's designated branches i.e. Point of Presence-Service Provider (POP-SPs) accept the application form and get the subscriber(s) registered with Central Record keeping Agency (CRA) for generation of the Permanent Retirement Account Number (PRAN). 
• The PRAN will be quoted in all future transactions.
• There are two types of account i.e. Tier I and Tier II. 
• Tier-I account is where subscriber(s) can contribute their savings for retirement into a non-withdrawable account till they reach 60 years and draw pension for the rest of their life.
• In case of Tier I

          1. Minimum contribution at the time of account opening -Rs.500/-

          2. Minimum amount per contribution - Rs. 500/-

          3. Minimum Account Balance at the end of FY - Rs. 6000/-

          4. Minimum number of contributions in a year - 1

• The subscriber(s) can exit the scheme after attaining 60 years of age. He/She has to compulsorily annuitize 40% of the accumulated pension wealth. Option to annuitize 100 % of the corpus is also available. 
• A Tier-II account is a voluntary savings account form which subscriber(s) are free to withdraw their savings whenever they wish.
• The facility of Tier II account is being offered from December 1, 2009 to all citizens of India including Government employees mandatorily covered by NPS.
• The Tier-II would enable the existing Permanent Retirement Account (PRA) holders to build savings through investments over and above those in the Tier I pension account. An active Tier I account will be a pre-requisite for opening of a Tier II account. 
• No additional CRA charges would be levied for account opening and annual maintenance in respect of Tier II. However, CRA will charge separately for each transaction in Tier II, the charges being identical to the transaction charge structure in Tier I
• There are no limits on number of withdrawals in Tier II. 
• There is facility for separate nomination and scheme preference in Tier I and Tier II.
• There is facility of one-way transfer of savings from Tier II to Tier I.
• Bank details will be mandatory for opening a Tier II account. 
• No separate KYC for Tier II account opening will be required; the only requirement is a pre existing Tier I account. 
• In case of Tier II,

         i) Minimum contribution at the time of account opening -Rs.1000/-

         ii) Minimum amount per contribution - Rs. 250/-

        iii) Minimum Account Balance at the end of FY-Rs. 2000/- 

        iv) Minimum number of contributions in a year - 1

• In case of Composite Application for Tier I and Tier II both, Minimum contribution at the time of account opening is Rs. 1500/-.
• The Subscriber(s) will be informed of the Permanent Retirement Account Number (PRAN) by theCRA. Once the CRA provides the PRAN, the subscriber(s) can start depositing his subscriptions through his chosen POP-SP. 

• The CRA keeps a record of all subscriptions.
• A subscriber(s) has three options for his investments(Active choice):

Ø  HIGH RISK HIGH RETURN(Asset Class E): Investments in predominantly Equity Market Instruments

Ø  MEDIUM RISK MEDIUM RETURN (Asset Class c): Investment in debt securities other than Government Securities.

Ø  LOW RISK LOW RETURN (Asset Class G): Investments in Government Securities.

• A subscriber(s) opting for Active choice may select the available asset classes "E", "G", & "C".However the sum of percentage allocation across all the selected asset classes must equal100. Allocation under Equity (E) cannot exceed 50%
• Subscriber(s) can also opt for Auto choice* -lifecycle Fund who do not have the required knowledge to manage their NPS investments. With this option, the system will decide on a mix of investments among the three asset classes, based on the age of the investor. In this option, the investments will be made in a life cycle fund. Here, the percentage of funds invested across three asset classes will be determined by a pre defined portfolio. At the lowest age of entry (18 years), the auto choice will entail investment of 50% of pension wealth in "E" Class, 30% in "C" Class and 20% in "G" Class. These ratios of investment will remain fixed for all contributions until the participant reaches the age of 36. From age 36 onwards, the weight in "E" and "C" asset class will decrease annually and the weight in "G" class will increase annually till it reaches 10% in "E",10% in "C" and 80% in "G" class at age 55.

Table for Lifecycle Fund

Age	Asset Class E	Asset Class C	Asset Class G
Up to 35 years	50%	30%	20%
36 Years	48%	29%	23%
37 Years	46%	28%	26%
38 Years	44%	27%	29%
39 Years	42%	26%	32%
40 Years	40%	25%	35%
41 Years	38%	24%	38%
42 Years	36%	23%	41%
43 Years	34%	22%	44%
44 Years	32%	21%	47%
45 Years	30%	20%	50%
46 Years	28%	19%	53%
47 Years	26%	18%	56%
48 Years	24%	17%	59%
49 Years	22%	16%	62%
50 Years	20%	15%	65%
51 Years	18%	14%	68%
52 Years	16%	13%	71%
53 Years	14%	12%	74%
54 Years	12%	11%	77%
55 Years and above	10%	10%	80%

In case of Auto Choice, reallocation among the asset classes shall take place based on the date of birth of the subscriber(s).

• Net Asset Value (NAV) will be released on a regular basis so that subscriber(s) may be able to take informed decisions.

Neither the Active Choice nor the Auto Choice provides assured returns.

• The 06 PFMs are:

1.    ICICI Prudentitial Pension Funds Management Company Limited

2.    IDFC Pension Fund Management Company Limited

3.    Kotak Mahindra Pension Fund Limited

4.    Reliance Capital Pension Fund Limited

5.    SBI Pension Fund Private Limited

6.    UTI Retirement Solutions Limited

 Swavalamban Scheme benefits for NPS Account Holders:

National pension Scheme was made attractive by "Swavalamban Yojana" for those who are not working in organized sector.  This scheme is applicable to all citizens of India who are in the unorganized sector & meet the eligibility criteria. Under this scheme, the Central Government will contribute Rs. 1000 per year to each NPS account opened in the year 2010-2011 and for the next 3 years 2011-12, 2012-13 and 2013-14. To benefit the citizens who opened their accounts in 2009-10, the Government has declared that, they will also be entitled to the benefit of the Swavalamban scheme, that is if they meet the eligibility criteria. 

Click here to view Swavalamban operational guidelines.

To know more or to open an NPS account, please walk into any of the designated branches. If you have any queries, please write to us at:-

Assistant General Manager

Government Business Department

Central Office, MMO Building

2^nd Floor, M G Road, Fort

Mumbai-400023

email:agmgovtbusi@centralbank.co.in Fax: 022-22621712 or call at 18002001911(TOLL FREE).

You may also access the details of the scheme at http://www.pfrda.org.in orhttp://www.npscra@nsdl.co.in

Most Important Terms & Conditions(MITC) 1.    The New Pension System (NPS) is a scheme run by the Government of India and our Bank is one of the agents authorized to accept contribution and assist in opening accounts. THE RETURNS IN THIS SCHEME ARE ENTIRELY MARKET DRIVEN. 2.    For NPS account opening, subscriber(S) should be in the age group of 18-60 years.  3.    As per KYC norms Photo Id proof, Date of birth proof and Address proof are required to be submitted along with application form 4.    In case of Tier I: I)            Minimum contribution at the time of account opening -Rs.500/- II)         Minimum amount per contribution - Rs. 500/- III)       Minimum Account Balance at the end of FY - Rs. 6000/- IV)        Minimum number of contributions in a year - 1 5.    In case of Tier II: I)            Minimum contribution at the time of account opening -Rs.1000/- II)         Minimum amount per contribution - Rs. 250/- III)       Minimum Account Balance at the end of FY-Rs. 2000/- IV)        Minimum number of contributions in a year - 1 6.    An active Tier I account will be a pre-requisite for activation of a Tier II account. 7.    In case of Composite Application for Tier I and Tier II both,     Minimum contribution at the time of account opening is Rs.     1500/-. 8.    In case of Tier II or Composite application, a cancelled     cheque is also required to be submitted along with the     application form. 9.    Following costs are to be borne by the Subscriber(s) at the time of registration and/or performing any transaction. The contribution will be remitted, net of bank charges. An Initial subscriber(s) registration charge of Rs.100/- and an ad valorem transaction charge of 0.25% of the initial contribution amount from Subscriber(s) subject to a minimum of Rs.20 and a maximum of Rs. 25,000/-. Plus applicable service tax. Any subsequent transaction involving contribution upload - 0.25% of the amount subscribed by the NPS subscriber(s), subject to minimum of Rs.20/- and a maximum of Rs. 25000/-. Plus applicable service tax. Any other transaction not involving a contribution from subscriber(s) - Rs 20/- Plus applicable service tax. 10. Subscriber(s) can register only through Bank's designated branches i.e. Point of Presence-Service Provider (POP-SP).  11. Exit from New pension System (NPS):- At any point in time before 60 years of age: Subscriber(s) would be required to invest at least 80% of the pension wealth to purchase a life  time annuity from any IRDA - regulated life insurance company. Rest 20% of the pension wealth may be withdrawn as lump sum. On attaining the Age of 60 years and up to 70 years of age: At exit subscriber(s) would be required to invest minimum 40% of their accumulated savings (pension wealth) to purchase a life time annuity from any IRDA-regulated life insurance company. Subscriber(s) may choose to purchase an annuity for an amount greater than 40%. The remaining pension wealth can either be withdrawn in a lump sum  or in a phased manner, between age 60 and 70, at the option of the subscriber(s). Death due to any cause: In such an unfortunate event, option is available to the nominee to receive 100% of the NPS pension wealth in lump sum. However, if the nominee wishes to continue with the NPS, he/she shall have to subscribe to NPS individually after following due KYC procedure.