AN EXCELLENT ARTICLE BY ANSHUL CHATURVEDI

"Rahul has got all those qualities and capabilities that are needed for a good Prime Minister", Singh, who has been working closely with the young leader, who turns 41 on June 19, told reporters… Describing Rahul as "quite mature", Singh said he has got the understanding of social and political issues. Besides being a member of the Gandhi family, he has the qualities of head and heart to strike rapport with people, he said. -

PTI report, June 19

Dear Rahul

Digvijay Singh has been stunning us to the point of incredulity the past week with his repeated assertions of undying loyalty, disguised as assessment reports certifying your immediate readiness to step into Dr Manmohan Singh’s chambers. If you skim through the stories and the responses of readers, you’d realize that he’s done more to draw sustained flak on to you than anything the opposition could have done. Since there’s no point addressing Diggy at the moment, given his state of mind, this small set of observations is addressed to you:

* Anybody halfway in a politically relevant position can “become PM”; it’s not as Herculean a task as it sounds, and acquiring the PM-ship has hardly been necessarily the same as achieving political primacy. Charan Singh became PM. Chandrashekhar became PM. Deve Gowda became PM, and yawned through most of it. IK Gujral became PM. Big difference it made to us – or to them. The chair is only as big as the stature of its occupant. So even if they thrust the PM-ship willy-nilly down your – and our – throats, as some sort of gift at some stage, it’ll hardly help give you greater stature.

* The biggest questions facing the political system have been questions of integrity. This is not to say that this is a Congress issue alone – there’s hardly any political organization that’s not part of the rot – but for someone who is apparently all set to run the country, it would be nice to know what you thought of the CWG management, or of the 2G spectrum scam, or of Adarsh. Or, for that matter, of Osama. The reality is that I have little clue; if I have to resort to Google to get an idea of your having said anything on the political issues of the day, well, that’s not how I’d like to know my PM-in-waiting. We’d like to know better what you think – not what the second rung of the Congress thinks of you. I mean, seriously, if they went on record to say you weren’t equipped to be PM, they wouldn’t be in the Congress, so what exactly are they proving by their assessment?

* Rita Bahuguna is making a joke of the issues facing farmers by deciding to make your birthday “farmer’s rights day”. I’d assume it would make you squirm as much as any outside observer. Please tell your party’s leaders that the more bizarre the levels to which they go to exalt you to score internal brownie points, the sillier they look – and make you look the same, since your silence can only be read as happy acceptance.

* The PM already has had enough damage to his reputation and standing; the man who was an exemplary Finance Minister keeps on being derided for being a stand-in for the family. How are we expected to take his functioning as PM with any degree of gravitas if every other day Congress leaders tell us that the only reason he’s not been asked to vacate yet is because you have graciously chosen not to step into 7 RCR. As it is, nobody outside the Congress says a good word for the man any more; at least give him his dignity within the system.

* There is a school of thought – you’d surely be aware of it – which says the whole exercise of letting things be the way they are the Centre as they currently are, is to pitch things for an internal regime change; to give the public a Rahul-led regime as relief from the quasi-paralysed Manmohan tenure. Each time people like Digvijay go public with such quasi-hysteric declarations, they merely strengthen that impression.

There’s no reason why anyone who can command a majority support in the Lok Sabha should not be Prime Minister, be it you or anyone else. Neither I nor anyone else need have a point of view on who can and who cannot be PM. But, please, let it not be handled as a running joke. Let the party celebrate your birthday; but let it not pitch to the country the spectacle of the prime ministership of India as a birthday present, all gift-wrapped, waiting for you to unwrap it. Seriously. Some things look better earned than gifted. Better to achieve greatness, even if a trifle late, than to have it thrust upon you - and that too, by Diggy Raja

BEST OF LUCK BJP

Indian politics would be dull if there was no BJP. It is only with the BJP in the 1990's that India for the first time had an effective opposition party, very important for Democracy, and an alternative government to the corrupt aimless somewhat sinister Congress Party.

Of course you can argue that the other great Democracy, Japan had one party ruling the country for 60 years, under the LDP......But the Congress Party is no LDP, and Indian bureaucrats don't measure up to their Japanese counter-parts.

It is the Japanese bureaucrats who played the primary role in Japanese post war success.

For that reason it is very important for INDIA to have an alternative party to choose from, even within a coalition framework.

So I urge the BJP to get its act together for 2014. The BJP needs to look to the future strategically, beyond their feet if they can as soon as possible. They need to reduce their links with the RSS as their philosophy will NEVER work in India (It will be a disaster)....and thus attempt a reincarnation of the Vajpayee style of government which sets broad horizons, under the cosmopolitan leadership of Arun Jaitley.

lack of governance and mis-governance.

India lacks adequate governance, which is extensively required to pull the country up to a first world status by 2050.

There is only so much the private sector can do. For the country overall, for the sake of its cohesion............ socially, politically, economically, morally its the governments duty and responsibility to do the rest strategically in a planned looking forward manner. One is quite certain the Ambani's or any other businessman when they deeply look at future business investments don't do so socially, politically, economically, morally......most of the time, but whether their business investment will make a profit and given them steady returns.

This lack of governance is simply indicated by the national budget in Delhi which represents a paltry 15% of GDP (the official GDP, and not the one with the black economy included which would mean India's actual GDP is closer to $4--4.5 billion).

Pranab Mukherjee sahib can India have a peoples budget of $400 billion for 2012-2013? With massive expenditures and investments in the job creating INDUSTRY and INFRASTRUCTURE sectors.

This lack of governance means only 30 million Indians out of a population of 1200 million Indians (including supposedly 250 million middle class Indians) pay tax. There is ample computerized systems in India from Bangalore, and national ID cards are being introduced, so lets double the taxable base to 60 million for the 2012--2013 budget. Apparently $1.5 trillion worth of Indian money is lying idle in Swiss accounts, and we don't know the true figure for the rest of the 70 odd tax havens.

Clearly in the tax sector there is a lack of effective efficient governance.

This lack of governance means large swathes of Indian society are little impacted by government actions. To them the government in Delhi is irrelevant.

Then you have mis-governance...which means the little impact with the little money the government does use to exercise its writ is itself misused, hence the corruption scandals about everything from Defense contracts to staging the Commonwealth Games, and the source of the only joke I Knew for quite a while:

Indian Neta in Washington invited to a rich Congressman's mansion overlooking the Potomac. They start on their 15 course meal served on an elegant mahogany table, including roast duck, lamb, the finest caviar and Belgian chocolates. The Congressman shyly ushers the neta to the window, at the end of the feast and speaks.."You see that bridge on that river over there.......10%....I made 10% from that."

The neta impressed invites the Congressman to his Dili mansion over looking the Yamuna, and in his white marble colonial style mansion he too offers up a 15 course feast for his American counterpart. At the end of the meal the neta beckons the Congressman to the window with a SLY GRIN and the traditional Indian nod of the head and as they both peer through the huge window, the neta whispers in child like delight......"You see bridge over there by the Yumuna.....can you see it?"

The Congressman is puzzled, "Bridge what bridge?"

Neta pointing to himself, "100%......me got it all! Son in Harvard, and my money in Mauritius/Hong Kong....wife daughter in London for the summer shopping"

Whats that oft repeated cliche? India is doing reasonably well despite its government.

Krittika Biswas..is it really racism

It all started with George Fernandez, as visiting Indian defense secretary being strip searched by American airport authorities in DC and another place twice in 2002 and 2003, and I thought....nah...must be April fools.....then ex-President Kalam is ID frisked on an American airline on his way to India more recently.......then the same to Azim Premji apparently, the billionaire IT businessman who is also a celebrity in India......Aamir Khan strip searched too in Chicago 2002, the most creative of new wave Hindi movie actors and directors........and SRK questioned for 66 minutes about certain unknown matters.......SRK says 2 hours, and that his name had triggered the questioning for 2 hours........"Is you name Khan" ....."Yes"....."Where are you from"......."India".............2 hours of this?.........Do all Khans from around the world who visit the USA go through this for 2 hours?........................Muslim name of Central Asian origin that originates from Ghengiz Khan.............and is a very popular name for Muslim's in Afghanistan, Pakistan, India and Bangladesh.

Could you imagine the Russian defense secretary being strip searched??? Or the Brazilian defense secretary?? Of course not..........there would be serious diplomatic repercussion; diplomatic expulsions....and so on. Brazil has already responded like with like.....reciprocity, "OK gringo you fingerprint our nationals visiting America, so we fingerprint your nationals visiting our country."

So the explanation?

Often this mistreatment against Indian public figures is explained in terms of 9/11 and the new "situation" in America.

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/FG14Df05.html

But I do not accept this, since presumably all other senior government figures from around the world of 192 nations should also logically be treated the same way as Fernandez. But there isn't a deluge of stories around this happening to other Public officials in other countries.

Because of Islamic names.................George Fernandez an Islamic name? Azim Premji stands out as an Islamic name?

Could it be simple racism? Yes but again there are many brown people countries, great and small around the world, and one does not hear stories of ill-treatment at airports against such people.

So what is going on?

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1. Cases of this kind does not appear to happen to senior officials, and public figures of other nations great and small........unique to Indian Public Figures ONLY......of obvious public status, usually involving men who are clearly near retirement stage...........Grey hair, frail in the case of some....old, .................we are not talking of 20 something, 30 something stooges/patsies of Western intelligence out to do harm to little defenseless ole America.

2. Could be a simple issue of racism......brown country....though one should add that the USA will become a brown country by 2050, and is already a considerable mutli-racial society (34% non-European). But it does not seem to happen to important public figures of other brown country peoples, the bigger nations or the smaller ones....so whats up?

3. Some sections of American society are envious of India's rising status within the global society both as a military power, and an economic power, and by doing such things it is an expression of their dislike, and frustration at the gradual rise to prominence of India as a significant nation in the world............equally significant that these things have been happening very recently as in the last few years, in parallel with the rise of India's profile in the world........

Explanation number 3 seems to be most likely.
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RS 5 HIKE IN PEROL

India is rich. Its actual economy measured by PPP is around $3600--3800 billion; the fourth richest nation on earth, and which will become the third richest in just a few years. India has money and India has resources. The Indian government frequently spends billions on worthless foreign defense equipment...billions...billions...billions, when focus should be made on domestic production of defense equipment, even if its substandard.

This practice carries on by all parties because it makes certain politicians, netas, senior military officers and arms middlemen in India rich, and they deposit the money in off shore accounts (Indira Gandhi and her family have been implicated, as have others)..............now imagine this elite putting the same amount of effort into securing India's gas & oil needs, by investing the necessary funds and implementing the necessary policies to make India self sufficient in gas and oil.

BUT they won't .

What is 3,000 crore fuel subsidy by the government?.......0.05% of GDP ($638 million) of the official Indian economy of $1300 billion. According to Karan Thapar this subsidy bill will rise to 98,000 crore or $20 billion in this financial year which the Indian government allegedly can't sustain.

Unfortunately this subsidy bill is seen as a COST, a burden on the state, rather than seeing it as another indicator of the India's economic rise, and booming economy.............like the Ambani building his $2 billion penthouse; Shobha De bragging on about her latest foray into a luxury hotel in India and outside........or India spending $10 billion or is it going to be eventually $20 billion on a 4th generation jet fighters whose technology will soon be out of date, from a foreign country.

Seeing fuel subsidy for the masses as a COST and burden which the government can't pay for is a neo-liberal alien Western concept. $20 Billion or 98,000 crore estimated fuel subsidy bill this year is still 0.5% of the real Indian economy as measured by PPP of $3600--3800 billion.

The Indian Budget of $200 billion is woefully too small. Only 15% of the official GDP...........a neo-liberal paradise. The government thus must find serious strategies to increase the budget to GDP ratio from the current 15% to at least 25% of GDP, through an effective new tax regime. Then in such a prosperous confident India governments won't feel mean spirited about spending a paltry 1% on fuel subsidy.

Subsidies are the only way, in the complete absence of a SOCIAL SECURITY SYSTEM to give a little help to the masses.

Thus I support annual subsidized national health-care to the tune of 4-5% of GDP.

I support annual subsidized national education for all up to the age of 16, spending 6% of GDP on education.

I support annual subsidized national development and infrastructure investment to the tune of 10% of GDP.

I support annual subsidized agricultural policies to the tune of 3% of GDP.

I support annual subsidized fuel to the tune of 1% of GDP, at least.

These can only be achieved by governments who accept that in power and in government they have a moral duty to uplift the masses beyond paying lip service to their needs, whilst privately pursuing neo-liberal banana republic policies which slowly steals even the meager basics of the masses, such as food and fuel.

WHY CULTURES DIE....BU J.D.UDWIN

Why Cultures Die
With the breakdown of sexual morality, the blood ties that unite a nation are dissolved as the people treat sexual reproduction as an aspect of simple pleasure and breed with immigrants and strangers - and thereby the nation and culture is destroyed.








Sexual Restraint and Social Energy in Diverse Cultures:

The Findings of J.D. Unwin


Scholar J.D. Unwin, Ph.D., in his seminal work Sex and Culture,* draws a connection between the flourishing of cultures and the sexual norms present at the time those cultures flourished. He studied over 80 different societies and repeatedly came to the same conclusion: When a society limited sexual freedom for an extended period of time, the society flourished; it expanded its territory, thrived intellectually, advanced technologically and progressed architecturally. When few or no regulations were placed on sexuality for an extended period of time, societies made little technological, intellectual and architectural advancement, ceased to expand and were at times even conquered. In short, sexually lax societies lacked what Unwin calls social energy.

The term social energy is important for understanding Unwin's work. He refers to two types: expansive social energy and productive social energy. The first includes "territorial expansion, conquest, colonization and the foundation of a widely flung commerce" (p. 315). This type of energy is directed not simply to what is going on within society - the energy is extended outside of the very country in which it originates. Productive social energy, on the other hand, 'develops the resources of its habitat and by increasing its knowledge of the material univers bends nature to its will" (p. 315). Productive social energy measures advancement within society. "Productive social energy was displayed . . . by the Moors when they invented algebra and the compass, and by the Western Europeans who discovered the use first of steam, then electricity, then of wireless communication" (p. 316). Societies that possessed social energy were said to "flourish." Hence, the flourishing of the Roman Empire is descriptive of its social energy.

It is important to understand that inquiry into the sciences, development of technology, accomplishments in art and the advancement of architecture are things which only men achieve. Animals do not boast of solving problems in calculus; they do not have computers; they do not paint masterpieces; they do not build temples. The reason for this is that men possess the ability to reason, whereas animals do not. Natural impulses, such as the desire to eat, sleep and have sex, are desires that both men and animals share. Men, however, also possess a rational intellect (the ability to reason) and a will (the ability to act according to reason). Animals, because they have no ability to reason, act always upon impulse. When they are hungry, they hunt. When they are thirsty, they drink. There is nothing internal that can dissuade them from acting upon impulse. Men, because they have reason, can make a decision to reject an impulse that arises in order to do something which they perceive as more important. The doctor will put off sleeping in order to study for his exam; a man will fast from eating in order to have his colon examined.



If men never did these things, that is, if they immediately acted upon every arising impulse or desire, there would be little to differentiate them from the animals. When men do not place any restraint on their impulses, they spend a great deal of their time indulging in pleasure for its own sake, and their societies tend to be built solely around the activities of eating, drinking, sleeping and having sex.



However, if society discourages the immediate satisfaction of these impulses through strict sexual norms, men will have energy and time to work on other goals which they would not have had if they had expended this energy on their own useless pleasure. Anyone who has played on a sports team recognizes that discipline of these natural desires is key to achieving great things. Men must refrain from taking breaks whenever they please and show up for practice even when their bodies simply want to sleep. To achieve things as a community, it is generally acknowledged that men must deny themselves some individual pleasures.



Unwin refers to Freud to explain this connection between sexual restraint and the flourishing of societies. Freud says that with natural impulses and desires comes energy to satisfy those desires. Freud says, however, that rather than always satisfying their impulses, men can “sublimate” those desires, which means they can direct their “sexual energy” in some other way than just sexually. In other words, they redirect the energy. Since the sexual urge, according to Freud, contains the most energy of all the impulses, sublimation of a sexual desire would allow for the use of greater energy in another sphere of life.



(Note: While we do not accept all of Freud’s psychological theories concerning man’s nature, his ideas concerning sublimation of sexual energy still contain merit.)



What do these men do, then, when they refrain from satisfying their sexual urges whenever and with whomever they please? History repeatedly shows that they use this energy to achieve more distinctly human goals. They further the sciences, produce artistically, accomplish architectural feats and conquer nations.



Presented for your consideration is the infamous society of the Romans. The Roman Empire is especially important in Unwin’s work, due to the fact that its history is generally known and accessible to the public. When the plebeians rose to power in the 3rd century B.C., they implemented strict sexual principles (p. 393). Following this political change, Unwin calls the energy of the Romans “tremendous.” They took hold of Italy and conquered the entire Mediterranean area. As a distinction has already been made regarding different types of social energy, the reader will recognize this as expansive social energy. Unwin further acknowledges that it is frequently posited that the Roman Empire was “at its strongest” in the second century A.D. (p. 398). “Then in their turn,” Unwin states, “the provincials reversed the habits of their fathers by extending their sexual opportunity” (p. 398-399). Following these changes he asserts that the energy of the empire declined, and that this is clear in 3rd century A.D accounts. Not long after, the Western Empire fell, and we are left to ponder its remains.



This pattern exhibited in the Roman empire is not unique. As regards the Sumerians, Babylonians, Athenians, Anglo-Saxons, and Protestant English, Unwin states:

These societies lived in different geographical environments; they belonged to different racial stocks; but the history of their marriage customs is the same. In the beginning each society had the same ideas in regard to sexual regulations. Then the same struggles took place; the same sentiments were expressed; the same changes were made; the same results ensued. Each society reduced its sexual opportunity to a minimum and displaying great social energy, flourished greatly. Then it extended its sexual opportunity; its energy decreased, and faded away. The one outstanding feature of the whole story is its unrelieved monotony.



The idea that the sexual act is purely private and has little to do with anyone other than the individuals involved is, quite frankly, false. Unwin’s work is sociological proof that the “free love” mentality is detrimental to society in every sphere. Aside from the private repercussions to individuals who sleep around at whim, sexual laxity produces social laziness, which eventually puts a society as a whole at risk.



Abstinence and marriage education, which seeks to re-instill a sexual norm of restraint, is not religious propaganda; even from a merely sociological view, this type of education has the society’s best interest in mind. Indeed, when societies uphold norms which elevate the sexual act to its proper place in marriage, they benefit in ways that reach far beyond the sexual fulfillment of its citizens.

BRAIN WASHING BY MEDIA

How ominous it is to see Indians transfixed by channels V and Mtv while at the same time the newspapers report about inflation levels and corruption and black money etc.

But how did we reach the stage where scenes from Idiocracy, a satirical movie set 500 years in the future where humanity has “degenerated into into a dystopia where advertising, commercialism, and cultural anti-intellectualism run rampant and dysgenic pressure has resulted in a uniformly stupid human society devoid of individual responsibility or consequences,” seem eerily contemporary in 2011?

Indians are watching more television than ever before, both through conventional TV sets and on the web, as the range of channels continues to expand, the screens get bigger and the quality of the picture increases as new hi-definition and 3D technologies arrest and shorten attention spans to a greater and greater degree.

Indians are now a nation of spectators, watching a shocking average of nearly 5 hours of TV a day, up 20% from just 10 years ago.

Hooked in to this matrix medium that tells them how to behave, what to care about, and how to treat people who deviate from this spoon-fed consensus, people are literally being programmed into accepting a contrived false reality that bears little or no resemblance to what is actually taking place in the real world. This is why the assembly line of zombies being manufactured by this process will roll their eyes when warned about real issues that affect them – the crumbling economy, unemployment, yet will become visibly upset when an event that has no bearing on their existence whatsoever, like where Tendulkar gets out or any other minor things that affects their sensibilties, takes place.

We are literally being trained like dogs to react to meaningless stimuli while burying our heads in the sand in reaction to issues of real significance. This behavior training encompasses an entire outlook, an entire lifestyle that people have adopted to the point where their moral compass, they way they dress, the way they speak, what they eat, what drugs they take, the way they respond to events and how they treat other people is solely a construct of the babylon system to which they are addicted.

The fact that this matrix system constantly promotes damaging and destructive messages is why people are fat, unhealthy, unhappy, addicted to drugs, and unsuccessful in maintaining relationships. They are a product of their brainwashing. Downloading viruses from an infected culture on a daily basis, people’s hard drives – their brains – are corrupted, lethargic, and barely able to function. This is why people seek out destructive pursuits that do nothing to benefit their long-term personal interests. This is why people no longer talk to their neighbors or get involved in their communities.

The controllers of this babylon system have superimposed a fantasy world over reality, they have slapped blinkers over the eyes of millions of Indians who continue to lead deluded, stunted and oblivious lives while the criminals behind the curtain scheme to wreck the country. A perfect example of this is how the government keeps insisting that the economy is getting better while in reality unemployment grows, tent cities pop up in major areas and the housing market gets worse.

When Indians know more about cricket than they do about their own history – to the point now ,that college professors can’t even relate basic facts about the founding of the country – Indian is in danger.

Indian used to be the source of the best and the brightest, but the ravages of a 21st century entertainment monster has contributed to plunging test scores allied to weaker curriculums as Indians school children continue to be outperformed by their counterparts like China.

Freedom and prosperity can only continue to exist in a country where informed and active citizens act as watchmen and women to protect those virtues. History has taught us that decadence, moral and intellectual decay are always followed by a collapse in society as darkness fills in the void that good has vacated.

Indians have to look themselves in the mirror and decide whether or not worshipping TV actors is worth the price of a destitute and demoralized country in which living standards are degenrated and freedoms are easily revoked.


Our job is to issue a jolt of shock therapy to millions of hypnotized Indians who have the establishment-imposed mantra running through their heads that everything will be OK as long as they just continue to ignore reality and keep their head buried in Indian Idol or the IPL season.

Only through a massive media backlash can we reach people and make them understand that they have been conditioned into accepting a false sense of reality and that real happiness and fulfillment can only be achieved, and that Indians can only be rescued, once they fully embrace the truth of what is really happening around them.