New RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das – unfit for being MA History, not St.Stephens
INDIAN LIBERALS ARE horrified. A Governor of the Reserve Bank of India has resigned. It is the biggest blow ever for Indian economy. It will collapse. India will go begging in the international community. The country will be ruined.
But was India not begging the World Bank and IMF before?
Liberals: Oh, that was different. It was before Indira Gandhi ‘hataoed’ all ‘Garibi’ (removed all poverty) in the country. One press of the button and her son Rajiv Gandhi swept India into the 21st Century and prepared for the conversion of the entire country into more progressive faiths than the reactionary and backward Hinduism.
Liberals: But RBI governors had resigned before.
Dr Y.V. Reddy had resigned during Congress-led UPA-1 government (Sep 05, 2008).
A Ghose had resigned after differences with Rajiv Gandhi Government.
within 20 days after his appointment, on February 4, 19885.
M. Narasimham had resigned on May 02, 1977 after being for just six months in office as RBI Governor. He was appointed only on November 30, 77.
N. C. Sen Gupta was RBI Governor only from May 19, 1975 to August 19, 1975 a’ He tendered his resignation after just three months.
Dr Man Mohan Singh too did not complete his three year term as the then Prime Minister, Rajiv Gandhi had removed him on January 14, 1985.
Amitav Ghosh replaced him, but lasted only for about 20 days.
R.N. Malhotra took over from Ghosh.
Dr Manmohan Singh as the then Finance Minister in P.V. Narasimha Rao Government removed S Venkitaramnan as RBI Governor. Venkitaramnan. an ex- IAS officer. was in the post for only one year as Dr Singh wanted C Rangarajan as RBI Governor
But the new Governor Shaktikanta Das, also ex-IAS, is an MA in History. He is not from St. Stephens or Doon School, which means he is illiterate.
Liberals, Please Google and find out the educational qualifications of all ex-Governors of RBI and all politicians in India who were in power at some time or the other.
And also as why an old man was preferred over a Stephanean graduate with Wharton (USA) degree of MBA to the CM of Rajasthan.
Liberals: Anyone who says this is a Modi Bhakt (devotee), communal and…..
Today’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi and tomorrow’s — Rahul Gandhi
THE DEFEAT OF the Bharatiya Janata Party in three Hindi hinterland States of Madhya Pradesh, Chattisgarh and Rajasthan not only spelt the revival of the Congress Party which was almost becoming extinct, but may also be a trailer for the 2019 parliamentary election
Political analysts are busy listing the reasons for the failure of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the BJP’s main leader. Neutral observers feel Modi’s party lost because non-issues like renaming of cities and roads, rebuilding of Ram temple in Ayodhya, pro-Hindutva acts like cow vigilantism, raised by the fringe elements in the party, became dominant and stole headlines.
It cannot be denied that Modi remained silent and did not check these fringe groups – perhaps because he has to depend on them in elections. Though he himself attacked the Congress only politically and on ideology, there were too many loose cannons in the BJP and the government shooting their mouths off.
On the other hand the Congress, ruled by a dynasty, has to depend only on one family as
Muslim cap, Cross and janeu (sacred thread)
it does not belong to any of its numerous caste-factions which consider defeating each other more important than being democratic as against dynastic.
The common man in India understands abusive language better than anything else and Congress leaders indulged in calling Modi a thief, bluffer, chaiwala (tea-seller) low-born (neech aadmi) and worse. The illiterate voters understands only gutter language and it is only they who vote. Educated ‘intellectuals’ enjoy the holiday and think politics is ‘dirty’
So the dynasty sycophants won and Modi Bhaakts lost. The rural voter. cannot understand that ‘Bhakti’
(devotion) is better than boot-licking and that a tea seller being PM is a tribute to democracy, (as against all grass-root level hard work and sacrifice being preferred to loyalty to the dynasty).
Modi did not lose the three states because of the 2002 ‘massacre in Gujarat’ ,or demonetisation. Renaming cities that glorified autocrats and invaders is a big crime, as is installing the Statue of Unity.
Congress-led genocide of Sikhs in1984, and the Army attacking the Golden Temple did not stop the dynasty coming back to power in Punjab or a Sikh minister embracing the Pak army chief, belittling his own CM as “only an Army captain” while Rahul was the captain of the whole nation as the grandson of Feroze belonged to the Dynasty. While Gujarat riot cases resulted in convictions, Congress rewards a Sikh genocide ‘hero’
Several WhatsApp groups received the following post, by a Modi ‘Bhakt‘ obviously,(only slightly edited):
MODI LOST BECAUSE OF 100 MISTAKES ‘opposed’ by those who go to Pakistan and seek help to depose India’s PM, who back J&K stone-pelters and want black money and Swiss bank accounts to remain untouched.
These elements openly appealed to one community, backed casteism and relied on anti-Hindu vote banks. That, of course, is secular!
Modi’s 100 mistakes are:
1. Surgical Strike against Pakistan which they disliked and questioned.
2. Implementation of the historic GST scheme which they kept in cold storage
3. Demonetization which hit their stashed wealth
4. Providing bullet proof jackets to the Indian Army
5. Providing modern weapons to the Armed Forces
6. Providing electricity to 18450 villages which leads to development, as they want backwardness – their main source of votes
7. Introducing Ayushman Bharat medical insurance
8. Not letting the terrorists into India like the UPA government
9. Opting for generic medicines
10. Reducing the prices of stents
11. Mainiaining good relations with Russia, USA and China
12. Providing employment through ‘Make In India‘ scheme
13. Having not a single corruption charge in four years of government
14. Making a Dalit the President of India when Rahul claims to be a ‘januadhari’ Brahmin
15. Making a woman India’s Defence Minister
16. Making an Olympic medalist as Sports Minister and promoting sports
17. Working 18 hours a day for the nation
18. Striving towards making India known and respected all over the world
19. Providing 33 % reservation for women in police department
20. Repaying Rs 2 lakh crore loan taken by the UPA government with interest
21. Making India a lending nation from a loan-receiving nation
22. Detecting three lakh shell companies thanks to GST
23. Controlling black money
24. Curbing stone pelting with note ban
25. Detecting thousands of crores of illegal trade by linking Aadhaar and PAN
26. Providing subsidy to Khadhi industry employees of and saving Rs 150 cr.
27. Breaking the backbone of urban terrorists and naxalites
28. Finding the missing 500 students and uniting them with their family
29. Detecting 13,000 fake teachers
30. Deleting 1.43 crore fake ration cards from Tamil Radu alone
31. Working towards ban on cow slaughter
32. Improving bonds with Japan
33. Bullet train project
34. Securing highest number of medals in Asian Games
35. Distributing LPG to five crore poor families through Ujwala Yojana
36. Doubling MSP on several agricultural products
37. Closing 250 fake companies
38. Launching digital India and easy and quick money transfer
39. Starting Swacch Bharat to promote cleanliness
40. Launching Skill India programme
41. Giving special package to agriculture
42. Introducing NITI Ayog
43. Enhancing India’s security
44. Strengthening international ties
45. Initiating Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao schemes
46. Making India the world’s third highest electricity producer
47. Making crores bank account holders through the Jan Dhan scheme
48. Drive to voluntarily forego LPG subsidy
49. Saffronising 22 states
50. Supporting women empowerment
51. Introducing the Smart City scheme
52. Launching Sukanya Samrudhi Yojana
53. Reintroducing Kisan Vikas Patra
54. Subsidising agricultural equipment
55. Making India a mobile-phone making hub
56. Communicating with people in Man Ki Baat and on his website
57. Subsidising fertilizers
58. Getting World Yoga Day accepted
59. Imposing death penalty for rapists of children
60. Bringing the girl child under Indra Dhanush scheme
61. Establishing AIIMS hospitals throughout India
62. Covering 50 crore people under Modi medicare
63. Making progress in Clean Ganga plan
64. Implementing One Rank One Pension in defence services
65. Spreading and modernizing BSNL which was on the verge of closure
66. Reducing Air India’s losses and trying to revive it
67. Electrifying ALL Indian village though Deen Dayal Upadhya Gram Jyoti scheme
68. Reaching nuclear agreements with Russia, Japan, Canada and France
69. Modernising Indian Railways and making it profitable
70. Indian Postal Payment Bank
71. Getting Naxals into the mainstream
72. Solar power schemes all over India
73. Using Israeli military techniques in India
74. Improving diplomatic ties throughout the world
75. reducing corruption in government
76. Seizing Dawood Ibrahim’s assets
77. Striving to make India free from dynasty rule
78. Linking Aadhaar to bank account and thus monitoring fraudulent transactions
79. Enhancing Indian Air Force’s role in India
80. Negotiating with China in Doklam
81. Trying to get back money stashed in Swiss Banks
82. Making India open-defecation free
83. Providing visa on arrival to several countries reciprocally.
84. Reviving plans to link rivers to control floods
85. Trying to ban triple talaq
86. Trying to construct Ram Mandir
87. Making air travel popular – taking India ahead in aviation
88. PM Mudra Yojana in banks
89. Cancelling Haj Subsidy
90. Increasing/doubling the tax base and making more file IT returns
91. Increasing the speed of highway construction like never before
92. Fasal Bhima Yojana (crop insurance)
93. Earning respect for India in the international community
94. Uranium deal with Australia
95. Raising the salary of Grameen Daak Sevaks through 7th pay commission
96. Increasing number of bunkers on the Indo-Pak borders
97. Signing deals to create an anti-nuclear shield for India.
98. Starting 2+2 talks with USA
99. Making India’s economy world’s fastest growing
100. He or the President visiting countries never visited, or the first time in decades.
There are hundreds of more schemes implemented by Narendra Modi which the Congress could never do in its 60 years of rule.
Modi, while striving to make India a Vishwaguru forgot that we are mentally slaves who like dynasty rule.
All we want are freebies promised by the Congress using your and my tax money, not the leaders’ wealth. The big business evades taxes and makes more money by bribing politicians whose minor children too are millionaires without working.
Beyonce, in Indian designed dress, dances at Jodhpur
TWITTER NEEDS JUST any excuse to break into a public debate on any issue, with the users of this social media platform ‘tweeting’ views both far and against the issue.
A Twitter tweet on the American singer-dancer Beyonce dancing at the wedding, in Jodhpur, of Isha, daughter of India’s richest man, Mukhesh Dheerubhai Ambani touched off one such debate. Thousand tweeted – some expressing resentment at Ambani spending 100 million dollars (Rs.7.2 crore), others supporting Ambani and still others admiring the dresses worn by Beyoncé or Isha or saying how cute they looked.
In the good old days when there were no social media like Twitter. such expressions of
Isha Ambani, dress admired
opinion was done by those who gossiped. And the rulers (yes, dynastic kings) kept track of what was being said and acted to satisfy the majority (yes, they were democratic).
Thus it was that Lord Rama of Indian mythology, told that a washerman expressed doubts about Sita’s chastity after she was kidnapped and held hostage by Ravana, asked her to prove it in an agnipareeksha (trial by fire) though he himself had no doubts.
Some tweets on the Isha Ambani marriage were outraged at such extravagant spending in a country where several hundred thousand still lived under the poverty line, where millions were homeless, many villages had dilapidated schools or none at all and where a campaign had to be launched to build toilets in rural homes.
Still others said the show-off of wealth by the Ambanis (whose house in Mumbai cost several million dollars) meant the money went to thousands who provided the services for the occasion and was, therefore, better than being hoarded.
Many calculated how many rural or slum houses for the homeless or rural schools or toilets could have been built with that money. Those used to mentally converting all dollar figures into rupees pointed out that the $100 million meant Rs.726,3300,000 at today’s exchange rate. Some felt it was nothing compare to India’s needs, but others saw it as a huge amount given per capita income in India is Rs.120979.78 per year (average Indian family is of 5 persons, that is almost Rs. 603986 a year per family).
This average included families which earn in millions per month, which means others earn below subsistence income. There can be much said on both sides. For a country of India’s proportions 726.33 million rupees is a paltry sub; for those earning as little as Rs. 10081 it is a huge amount.
It is obvious that ostentatious lifestyles are not for a developing country and that money should be spent productively. Extravagant spending on weddings in India, especially by people who cannot afford it, is a social problem.
The virtues of voluntary poverty or giving away things not really needed (though wanted) as advocated by Mahatma Gandhi are being realised all over the world, including the rich countries.
After all, you come into the world with nothing and take nothing with you when going.
Dr Khankoje- a rare photoDr Khankoje- a rare photo
IN MY LAST BLOG I wrote about how many who fought for India’s freedom have been deliberately suppressed by those who believed in dynasty rule.
If Rani Laxmi Bai of Jhansi, Subhash Chandra Bose, Rajguru, Bismil, Chandrasekhar Azad and others are remembered, it is inspite of those who ruled India for decades and not because of them.
And their successors are many today, like the professor who called Indian revolutionaries ‘terrorists’ or the Lok Sabha party leader who alleged none of them “bark” for India’s freedom while only the Nehru family did.
Among the many revolutionaries so ignored is Pandurang Sadaashiv Khankhoje who was a Minister in Mexico but believed Nehru when on the eve of freedom, he asked all such patriots to return.
So Dr Khankhoje returned with his Belgian wife to Nagpur, only to be ignored till some local people felt guilty and pressurized Nagpur University to appoint him, of all things, Superintendent of its hostel for boys, as it also had a bungalow just behind it for his family.
Khankhoje was born in November 1884 to a Marathi family at Wardha, where his father (Sadashiv) worked as a petition-writer. Young Khankhoje spent his childhood in Wardha, where he completed his primary and middle school education before moving to Nagpur for higher education. He was at the time inspired by the nationalist work of Bal Gangadhar Tilak. At some time in the first decade of the 1900s, (when he was still a boy) Khankhoje left India on a voyage that ultimately saw him settle in the United States. Here he enrolled in the Washington State College (now called Washington State University), graduating in 1913. His earliest nationalist work abroad dates back to the time around 1908 when he, along with Pandit Kanshi Ram founded the Indian Independence League in Portland, Oregon. His works also brought him close to other Indian nationalists in United States at the time, including Tarak Nath Das. In the years preceding World War I, Khankhoje was one of the founding members of the Pacific coast Hindustan association, and subsequently founded the Ghadar Party. He was at the time one of the most influential members of the party. He met Lala Har Dayal in 1911. He also enrolled at one point in a West Coast military academy.
Through World War I, Khankhoje was intricately involved in the Hindu–German Conspiracy when he was involved in the plans for the mutiny. He visited Europe during the war and subsequently went to Mesopotamia along with other members of what was the Berlin Committee. In the summer of 1915, he clandestinely worked among roops of the Indian expeditionary force, spreading nationalist literature and hoping to incite a mutiny.
Through the course of the war, Khankhoje made his way through Turkey and Persia under different Muslim guises as far as Baluchistan, spreading Ghadarite propaganda en route.
He is known to have attempted insurrections and raised at the Iran-Baluchistan border while Mahendra Pratap‘s Indo-German expedition attempted to rally the Afghan Emir Habibullah Khan against British India.
Towards the end of the war, Khankhoje, like most of the members of the Berlin committee, began turing towards communism.
He is known to have been in Soviet Union in company of the earliest Indian communist, including Virendranath Chattopadhyaya, M. P. T. Acharya, M. N. Roy, Abdur Rab Barq. He met Lenin at Moscow in 1921. For his nationalist work at the time, he was banned from returning to India as a highly dangerous individual.
Khankhoje later moved to Mexico in the 1920s, where he was a professor of Botany and Crop Breeding in the National School of Agriculture in Mexico.
In 1936, Khankhoje married Jean Alexandrine Sindic, a Belgian women in Mexico by whom he had two daughters. He led the Mexican corn breeding program and was appointed director to the Mexican Government’s department of Agriculture.
Pandurang and Jean returned to India after 1947. His application for visa was initially rejected by the Indian government due to the ban by the British Indian Government, but was eventually overturned.
He settled in Nagpur and embarked subsequently on a political career. Pandurang Khankhoje died on 22 January 1967.
His two daughters are Savitri and Maya. The younger one, Maya, was on the editorial board of ‘Monitor’, a student weekly I started as a teenager.
Savitri (now Savitir Sawhney) wrote in an article on her father ” Born into a Brahmin family that treasured learning above all else, Khankhoje was mentored by his grandfather, who taught him to recognize the inequity and violence of British colonial rule. The Indian famine of 1896–97, due to the failure of the monsoon as well as an administrative breakdown engineered by the British, left a deep mark on Khankhoje, one that was to determine his choice of a career bringing together revolutionary and agrarian concerns in pursuit of social justice.
