Emergency Anniversary : Unlearnt Lessons

Modi disguised during Emergency(?)

By Someswar

TODAY, June 25, is the anniversary of the day when 43 years ago a power-hungry leader converted India into a jail for 19 months.

Indira Gandhi imposed Emergency in 1975 to stay on In power just because a court set aside her election as MP and barred her from becoming Prime Minister for six years..

As an Emergency victim whose newspaper was shut down, editor arrested and office occupied by the police, I left the national capital to edit a friend’s small newspaper, not accepting a ‘national’ daily’s offer. I gave an account of that fateful night in a book ‘A TOWN CALLED PENURY – the Changing Culture of Indian Journalism’. No

That a person who jailed all political leaders who were not her sycophants and committed many other atrocities just to pepetrate her dynasty, could win an election to return to power was unbelievable. But that did happen.

The sycophants chose a pilot with no administrative experience as her successor just because he belonged to the dynasty.

When he met the same fate as his mother the dynasty devotees wanted his foreign-born wife, inexperienced like him, to rule india.

And she chose to weild power without responsibilty through a dummy PM just because her own son, as dynastic successor, was too obviously unfit to rule.

That the valiant Sikh state of Punjab would elect a party which sent the Army into the sacred Golden temple and make an ex-Captain of the same Army the Chief Minister sounded aqually impossible. But that is exactly what happened.

So it is certain that a Congress chief who was referred to as Pappu and who competed with himself to make ridiculous statements would one day become the Prime Minister of India.

Caste, appeasement and bank politics show we are all dynasty devotees who like to be ruled by Rajas.

We refuse to learn the lessons of history and are condemned to repeat them.

(Written on phone)

Modi Must Be Wrong, So Oppose Plastic Ban

By Someswar

Whole nation is a garbage dump

A social media posting vehemently opposed Maharashtra plastic ban.

It declared that a ‘notion’ that plastic is hazardous and should not be used was wrong. it felt plastic ban meant using more of paper for which trees will have to be cut, resulting in global warming.

In a reply someone pointed out that some oppose anything done by Prime Minister Modi or his party. Another said similar liberals wrote articles ridiculing his Swacch Bharat (Clean India) drive too.

It is argued that lacs of people get employment and livelihood due to plastic which also yeilds considerable revenue to government. Does it mean consumption of cigarettes and liquor, or even crime, should be promoted for the same reason?

Suddenly they want to save trees to stop global warming and have not heard of old newspapers being used for paper bags and packing.

Plastic waste is blamed on failure of municipal waste management and people not using dustbins. Change of habits instead of banning plastic is suggested by those who had never complained about lack cleanliness and environmental pollution.

Politicians, they feel, are playing with common man’s life for political mileage. They have no problem with decades of dynasty rule which did nothing about cleanliness and the habit of not throwing waste outside.

Banning plastic for them, meant going back to 18th century. They tink it is same as banning all gadgets and cars.

Obviously these people don’t take a walk daily. Walking 5 km in rural areas daily, I see huge dumps of plastic waste. It is appalling.

Almost all plastic bag users throw carry bags and plastic wrappers outside, often into gutters which get clogged by it & overflow onto roads

A plan to mix plastic waste in tar for black topping of roads is being talked of for decades but it is not implimented as cement companies can bribe political leaders. Rag pickers can‘t.

Cement roads prevent percolation of water into subsoil and reflect heat, but are preferred even if they make cities hotter. Politicians go in AC cars and don’t feel the heat.Their homes, offices and even toilets are airconditioned.

A whale was washed ashore recently with thousands of plastic bags inside. Cows, abandoned and uncared for, eat carrybags – to die.

‘Liberal’ plastic ban opponents are happy that a symbol of communal Hinduism is dead. Symbolism is all that matters.

The plastic ban will remain just a symbol, unless people believe in it and administration enforces it sincerely.

Law and ban cannot achieve what sincere belief can.

Cong-rats! Irresponsible Creatures No More

RATS ARE NO MORE the irresponsible creatures they were believed to be.

They are now held responsible for the collapse of flyovers in Congress-ruled Punjab and eating away currency notes worth ₹ 12 lakhs from an ATM in another state.

Old-time auditors narrate how entries in inventory registers used to show “eaten away by white ants” against missing items of furniture or files, especially in remote frontier areas.

One such entry was for a road roller which an unscrupulous official sold to a road contractor. White ants, did not, however, eat away the brains of the auditors who unveiled the scam.

A missing road roller is a mere mouse compared to the elephantine scams that marked the 10 years of the UPA regime led by the Congress.

Now collapse of a multi-crore rupee bridge, building or flyover need not scare the engineers and contractors who used cheaper material to save enouh to pay the usual 10 per cent of ‘mamool’ to the Minister or a babu who passes the bills.

Or the official loading the ATM with less money and pocketing thr rest.

With the new responsible roles of the rodents, rats can now be blamed.

Cong-rats rats. You are responsible creatures now.

Audio Books Needed in Indian Languages

Someone keeps sending a post on WhatApp again and again about how great Telugu is.

But he/she STILL CAN’T READ Telugu script, like most others in my and many other families.

Either start learning to read and write Telugu or start a firm to make/sell Telugu audio books. I’ll join it. Many others responded with 👍🏻.

All want it, but would do nothing to help.

IT professionals India can get the technology.

It is not just tape recordin books with someone reading. That can be done on CDs.

Audiobooks can be downloaded into smart phones or laptops. One can stop anywhere and restart, even months later, just there. One can go back or forward 10 seconds, chose which chapter to start and get back to paras they want hear again or note down.This is not possible with CDs

There are

several such softwares in use. Toronto has a free public library
lending sudiobooks for 20/25 days. There may be many more in other countries.

How to get the software and use it is the question.Can anyone in USA or elsewhere help?

Telugus living all over India and world can speak and understand it but can’t read. I found a Maldive blogger say that thousands in Maldives, Malaysia and other countries, who are not Indians, have Telugu as mothertoungue and still speak. But they cannot read.

Pathashala Inc., started by a Telugu American in US, launched classes in India supported by AP and TS governments. It is also deleloping online courses.

That is for reading. Audiobooks in Telugu will help even if you can not read. Few other languages in India face this problem but they may do so in future, with more migrating for jobs or business.

Millions are buying smartphones and laptops in India. An audiobook library in Indian languages can do wonders.

. There may be many more in other countries.

How to get the software and use it is the question.Can anyone in USA or elsewhere help?

Telugus living all over India and world can speak and understand it but can’t read. I found a Maldive blogger say that thousands in Maldives, Malaysia and other countries, who are not Indians, have Telugu as mothertoungue and still speak. But they cannot read.

Pathashala Inc., started by a Telugu American in US, launched classes in India supported by AP and TS governments. It is also deleloping online courses.

That is for reading. Audiobooks in Telugu will help even if you can not read. Few other languages in India face this problem but they may do so in future, with more migrating for jobs or business.

Millions are buying smartphones and laptops in India. An audiobook library in Indian languages can do wonders.

lf there is already one please let all know

We Are Not Just Corrupt, Dirty Too

IN A BLOG POST a few weeks ago, I had wondered if India, where government jobs are sought for “extra earnings” and where we try to bribe even God with ‘offerings’, is corrupt as a country.

The seizure of huge amounts of cash during the recent elections, especially in Karnataka which acquired notoriety as one of the most corrupt states, as well as the other foul means used by all parties to get votes and the large number of raids by Income Tax Department, Enforcement Directorate and other agencies, has provided the obvious answer. All political leaders swear to fight it. Most of them practice it – monetary or of other types

There is no social stigma attached to corruption and just laws and politically-controlled government departments cannot ensure a society free of corruption. What is legal is not always ethical. Ethics are bound, not by laws but by social norms and character which our education system and culture have failed to promote.

They have also failed to promote cleanliness. We are not only corrupt but dirty too. When, after 70 years of ‘independence’ a leader called for eradication of corruption and a ‘Swaccha Bharat’ (Clean India) he has been subjected to ridicule. All political parties, which opposed these drives, have ganged up against him.

For decades under Congress rule, some parks on traffic-islands and road sides had been given to corporate firms to maintain and thereby get publicity. Vandalism at heritage monuments has been a problem for decades, but nothing more than mouthing platitudes has been done. When, however, the Prime Minister launched an “Adopt Heritage” scheme for maintenance of such monuments by the corporate sector, he has been accused of “selling the Red Fort” to the Dalmia group which adopted that historic monument along with the Gandipet Fort in Andhra Pradesh for five yeaes.

The Archaeological Society of India (ASI) which maintains these monuments does not have adequate manpower and budget to maintain them declared recently that a clean-up of the Red Fort, which is visited by several thousand people every month, has yielded 22 lakh (hundred thousand) kilos of dirt from its terraces alone. And all around the fort are places anything but clean.

Recently the Maharashtra Government was the latest to ban thin plastic carry bags. As many as 25 states in the country have imposed such ban, but the implementation is so ill-planned, tardy and half-hearted that the ban is mostly on paper. After the ban Maharashtra collected several thousand tons of plastic waste and many times more remains in villages, cluttering roadsides and clogging up drains to cause flooding in the coming monsoon.

Taking a daily five-km morning walk in villages on the outskirts of one of Maharashtra’s cities, I found unbelievable quantities of plastic waste strewn all over. Every sophisticated urban product reaches the villages too, as can be seen by the wrappers and bottles thrown around. Go for a morning walk in Bangalore’s posh Raj Mahal Vilas, New BEL Road or Sanjay Nagar main road – none of these ‘posh’ areas has even a 10-meter stretch of good footpath – and you will be appalled by the amount of filth thrown on the roadsides by the shops and houses. This is true of every Indian city, town or village.

Why can’t we make a habit of collecting dry and wet waste separately and handing it over to the municipal garbage collectors? When I see the obsession with cleanliness of some of my family members who carry small bags with them everywhere and ensure that not even a toffee wrapper is thrown on the street, I wonder why this cannot be taught to everyone. Returning home after visiting or shopping, the first thing done by them is to put the contents of those bads in the trash cans.

A video widely circulated on social media was of a sub-divisional magistrate (SDM) who saw a rich businessman throw some trash into a drain in Ahmedabad, caught him and made him go into the drain and bring back the trash to put it in a bin. Of course many will point out that most roads do not have such trash bins and that waste from dump yards is not cleared for days. Those pointing out this never demanded an explanation from the corporator or municipal councilor of their ward. They would not know who he/she is. For they never vote.

If you are an Indian students in the USA one of the earliest experiences of “culture shock” comes when some teacher or fellow student tells you that you are “dirty” and “stink” of curry. If you stay in any city of the Bay Area of the US you must be very careful about waste segregation or you will find your overflowing trash bin at your front door accompanied by a note that it was being rejected, with the whole neighborhood scorning you.

With all our brahminical obsession with being ‘chaste’ (pavitr) and clean and Gandhian quotes that cleanliness is godliness, we are a dirty country. All the sins of Narendra Modi – real and imagined – can be forgiven for his ‘Swacch Bharat’ drive alone, but the filth that accumulated for 70 years cannot be cleared in five years.

At least he has made a beginning.

IN A BLOG POST a few weeks ago I wondered if India, where government jobs are sought for “extra earnings” and where we try to bribe even God with ‘offerings’, is corrupt as a country.

The seizure of huge amounts of cash during the recent elections, especially in Karnataka which acquired notoriety as one of the most corrupt states, as well as the other foul means used by all parties to get votes and the large number of raids by Income Tax Department, Enforcement Directorate and other agencies, has provided the obvious answer. All political leaders swear to fight it. Most of them practice it – monetary or of other types

There is no social stigma attached to corruption and just laws and politically-controlled government departments cannot ensure a society free of corruption. What is legal is not always ethical. Ethics are bound, not by laws but by social norms and character which our education system and culture have failed to promote.

They have also failed to promote cleanliness. We are not only corrupt but dirty too. When, after 70 years of ‘independence’ a leader called for eradication of corruption and a ‘Swaccha Bharat’ (Clean India) he has been subjected to ridicule. All political parties, which opposed these drives, have ganged up against him.

For decades under Congress rule, some parks on traffic-islands and road sides had been given to corporate firms to maintain and thereby get publicity. Vandalism at heritage monuments has been a problem for decades, but nothing more than mouthing platitudes has been done. When, however, the Prime Minister launched an “Adopt Heritage” scheme for maintenance of such monuments by the corporate sector, he has been accused of “selling the Red Fort” to the Dalmia group which adopted that historic monument along with the Gandipet Fort in Andhra Pradesh for five yeaes.

The Archaeological Society of India (ASI) which maintains these monuments does not have adequate manpower and budget to maintain them declared recently that a clean-up of the Red Fort, which is visited by several thousand people every month, has yielded 22 lakh (hundred thousand) kilos of dirt from its terraces alone. And all around the fort are places anything but clean.

Recently the Maharashtra Government was the latest to ban thin plastic carry bags. As many as 25 states in the country have imposed such ban, but the implementation is so ill-planned, tardy and half-hearted that the ban is mostly on paper. After the ban Maharashtra collected several thousand tons of plastic waste and many times more remains in villages, cluttering roadsides and clogging up drains to cause flooding in the coming monsoon.

Taking a daily five-km morning walk in villages on the outskirts of one of Maharashtra’s cities, I found unbelievable quantities of plastic waste strewn all over. Every sophisticated urban product reaches the villages too, as can be seen by the wrappers and bottles thrown around. Go for a morning walk in Bangalore’s posh Raj Mahal Vilas, New BEL Road or Sanjay Nagar main road – none of these ‘posh’ areas has even a 10-meter stretch of good footpath – and you will be appalled by the amount of filth thrown on the roadsides by the shops and houses. This is true of every Indian city, town or village.

Why can’t we make a habit of collecting dry and wet waste separately and handing it over to the municipal garbage collectors? When I see the obsession with cleanliness of some of my family members who carry small bags with them everywhere and ensure that not even a toffee wrapper is thrown on the street, I wonder why this cannot be taught to everyone. Returning home after visiting or shopping, the first thing done by them is to put the contents of those bads in the trash cans.

A video widely circulated on social media was of a sub-divisional magistrate (SDM) who saw a rich businessman throw some trash into a drain in Ahmedabad, caught him and made him go into the drain and bring back the trash to put it in a bin. Of course many will point out that most roads do not have such trash bins and that waste from dump yards is not cleared for days. Those pointing out this never demanded an explanation from the corporator or municipal councilor of their ward. They would not know who he/she is. For they never vote.

If you are an Indian students in the USA one of the earliest experiences of “culture shock” comes when some teacher or fellow student tells you that you are “dirty” and “stink” of curry. If you stay in any city of the Bay Area of the US you must be very careful about waste segregation or you will find your overflowing trash bin at your front door accompanied by a note that it was being rejected, with the whole neighborhood scorning you.

With all our brahminical obsession with being ‘chaste’ (pavitr) and clean and Gandhian quotes that cleanliness is godliness, we are a dirty country. All the sins of Narendra Modi – real and imagined – can be forgiven for his ‘Swacch Bharat’ drive alone, but the filth that accumulated for 70 years cannot be cleared in five years.

At least he has made a beginning.