TOILETS IN TRAIN

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               

 If you think that the  train compartments are having toilets since the inception of this top transport means, you are wrong. The Indian Railways was started by the colonial rulers in 1853. Then there was no facility for easing out and passengers, particularly of long distances had to go through untold embarrassments. It was in 1893 when on complaints from the passengers, toilets were provided, to start with only in first class coaches. It took nearly another one decade for this convenience to be available for commoners in other second and third class coaches.

But this crude toilet was making the track and platform dirty and stinking. Many attempts were made for improvement but of no avail. It is a matter of great happiness for the commuters that nearly after 160 years of its start, the railway authorities have embarked on an ambitious project of providing very hygienic and scientific bio-toilets. The visitors, coming to the Sulabh International Museum of Toilets, often enquire about toilets in planes and trains. Here, in brief, the functioning of bio-toilet is being explained. After a prolonged joint research by the railways and the DRDO, a formula was evolved. The scientists visited Antartica regions and collected anaerobic bacteria, surviving there. They took it to the cold of Siachin and heat of Rajasthan and found the bacteria sustaining these acute climatic conditions. Thus the research and experiment were successfully completed.

These bio-toilets are installed underneath the coach floor near lavatories. Human waste is discharged into them where a mass of the said bacteria act upon. As a result, the human waste is converted into water and a small amount of gases (methane and CO2). The gases escape into atmosphere and water after clorination is discharged on the track below. Naturally this water does not stay on the track. Thus it is good for the track, platform and the cleaning railway staff as well.

The first train with bio-toilet was Gwalior-Varanasi-Bundelkhand Express which steamed off in Jan 2011. By now, 3,748 coaches have been provided with bio-toilets and with the accelerated pace, it is hoped that cent-percent success wil not be far away. The stinking platforms and tracks will be an experience of the past.      

GODMAN OR FRAUDMAN

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               

In a very interesting TV debate on Aug 26,2013 Asaram, the self proclaimed ‘sant’ and godman was named as a fraudman. In the wake of a serious sexual charge against him, the abusive epithet appears quite befitting.

A girl of 16 years of Shahjanpur, Up along with her family was a blind follower of Asaram. For the family, he was a real godman. Her father, running a transport company there is financially well off. He got admitted his two sons and one daughter in the Chhindwara (Chhatisgarh) located school of Asaram after donating a huge amount. Over and above, he was paying Rs 3 lakh annually towards the school fee and hostel charge. When the daughter complained of some lingering physical ailment, the father talked to the godman, who advised him to send the girl to the Jodhpur ashram in Rajasthan. When the minor girl reached there, she was taken to a dark room where Asaram was waiting, who bolted the door and forcefully raped her. He threatened to kill her parents if she revealed anything.

When she opened up before the father, both came to Delhi and she lodged her written complaint with the local SHO, Kamla Nagar. The police got her statement recorded before a magistrate and got her medically examined which confirmed encroachment upon her virginity. Then the  police registered a zero number FIR under different sections of IPC including 376 (rape) and forwarded it to Jodhpur where the crime had taken place. The sections were sufficient to arrest him straightway. Instead the Jodhpur police issued him a notice to appear on or before Aug 30 before the police. The media is exposing the politics being played by the Congress and BJP to soft-pedal the case as Asaram’s followers constitute a good vote bank. Despite the huge and prolonged protest activities all over the country on the 16/12 incident, none appears to have learnt a lesson. Shame! shame!! and shame !!!

SOCIALISM VS FAMILY RULE

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               

Today there was an interesting discussion between Mulayam Singh Yadav (MP/LS/SP) and Mahanth Avaidyanath (MP/LS/BJP) in the Lok Sabha on 84-kosi Prikrama Yatra of the VHP -led saints. Yadav charged that in the name of Yatra, the volunteers of VHP, BJP and others were behaving like goondas and so the state Govt behaved accordingly with them. Strongly resoponding to this charge, the Mahanth wanted to know which type of Socialism was being propagated by Mulayam. He added that Mulayam himself was the president of the SP and a Lok Sabha MP, his two brothers were the general secretaries as well as ministers in the state, his son was the Chief Minister and perhaps he would have liked to add that his ‘vahu’ Priyanka Yadav is a MP/LS. He posed, was it family rule (vanshvad) or socialism?

This joke of family rule and casteism being given the name of socialism is being shamelessly practised in UP, Bihar and some other places as well. When in connection with the fodder scam, Lalu had to relinquish chief ministership, he could hand over power to his almost illiterate wife, Rabri Devi. Other qualified leaders of the party like Prof Raghuvansh Prasad Singh, Shivanand Tiwari, Prabhunath Singh, Ram Vilash Paswan etc were autocratically sidelined. At that time his both sons were minor. Now he has started projecting his one son to assume the charge of RJD. Similarly, R.V. Paswan for leading his pocket party LNJP has selected none else than his son Chirag who failed in filmdom and has returned to his father’e political empire which is supposed to be a softer and greener field. We know that Nitish did not have a cordial family relation so he has no choice of perpetuating his family.

We know that in post-independence India, between the extremes of communism and capitalism, a middle path of socialism emerged which was spearheaded by JP, Lohia, Kripalani etc. All the above persons, product of the JP movement of seventies, call themselves as staunch Lohiaites. The honesty, nationalism and dedication of bachelor Lohia are popularly known. Even in heaven Lohia must be twisting sides in desperation hearing that the above individuals claim to be his followers.   

DISTURBED LAND OF PHARAOHS

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               

Sometimes back, to be precise on July 3, 2013 when  the first elected president of Egypt was dethroned by the military, leading to a violent chaotic situation, in a blog here, it was forecast that the unfortunate country was heading for a prolonged period of internal disturbances. More than a month after the arrest of Mohammed Morsi and take over of power by the army, the situation is getting worse every day. Thus the disturbances after the  Arab Spring, which started in 2011, resulting in the dethronement of president Hosni Mubarak, go on unabated, claiming huge loss of life and property.

On Aug 16, I saw a photograph of a heart rending scene. In the army action to curb the followers of the Muslim Brotherhood, the world famous religious centre, Rabaah al-Adiwiya mosque was ransacked and burnt. Both sides are Muslims and so they cannot hurl the blame on any other religious community. On Aug 14 itself, as many as 525 people were killed. The Muslim Brotherhood appears leading an insurgency, which the army finds difficult to tame. The incarcement of Morsi has been further prolonged. The Egyptian army, which was originally propped up by the West, appears losing its foothold within and without. Short of  the public support, no dictatorship can stay longer.

It is a foregone conclusion that once again, democracy alone will emerge as an acceptable way out. But when? Can the world be a mute spectator till that ideal solution surfaces. By then, the country would suffer immense losses in life and property. Barack Obama appears to have realized the impending catastrophe and turned cold feet. Let the world not allow the innocent people getting butchered by the army bullets. 

SOME TIT-BITS

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               

Till  Aug 12, both the USA and the UK were secular in the eyes of the non-BJP political parties of India as they had boycotted Narendra Modi for the Gujarat riots of 2002. From Aug 13, the UK, for these parties has become communal because both the two main political parties of that country have invited NAMO to come there to address the local parliamentarians. Very soon he is going to Thailand and that country will also be dubbed as communal. Will these parties call Omar Abdullah a communalist for the latest  Kishtbar riot?  We are sure, if the NDA did better in the impending parliamentary election, even the USA will  unroll red carpet for NAMO. Not only that, even some political parties, abusing him as a communalist will kowtow to him to jump on the NDA bandwagon. Except Communists and Congress, all other political parties with the then Jan Sangh were together in the Morarji Bhai Desai cabinet. After that pure secularists like Farooq Abdullah, Nitish Kumar and Ram Vilas Paswan were very much in the Vajpayee cabinet even when Gujarat riots had taken place. Nitish was in the NDA for 17 years after which he suddenly decided to be secular. He does not know that there are several other aspirants for the minority votes for which he has taken the risk.

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In the list of disturbed Muslim majority countries, the latest entry is of Nigeria, a major North African Country. Nigeria has a population of 1,500 million, equally divided between the Muslims and Christians. In the Muslim society, there is an orthodox extremist cult, known as the Boko Haram. They are demanding that the country should have a Caliphate system of governance. To press this, they exploded a bomb in a mosque on Aug 13, killing 44 faithfuls. They did so to to punish the clerics who are critical of this cult. We further know that they are simultaneously also attacking the Christians to chase them away from Nigeria. Innocent people are being butchered daily. Who will make them to eschew this demonic mischief?

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Today I read in a newspaper that some 370 people die annually in road accidents in India. Since 2011, some 4,500 people have lost their costly life on road. By and large most of these accidents including incidents of road rage are man-made. In a large number of them, the foolish speed driving is the devil. Such drivers are dare-devil who do not care for their own life and family. What others can expect from them? Remain patient and cool on road, by any transport or on foot to guard against such pathetic and avoidable deaths.   

A SURPRISING PLEASURE

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               

Till recently we knew that certain parts of the country were fertile to certain trade and arts. For example Maharashtra for film and cricket, Punjab for bravery and agriculture, UP for politicians and ideal Hindi accent (Khadi Boli), J&K for natural beauty, Uttarakhand for pilgrimages, West Bengal for culture, Rajasthan for princely states and culture, Tamil Nadu for scholarship and southern culture and Kerala as God’s own country. Today this barrier with fast communications and mass education has disappeared and as a result, achievers of different lines from every part of the country are coming up. In this backdrop, I had a surprising pleasure when I learnt that one more Jha has successfully carved out a niche in the literarary field and that too in English. After Prakash Jha, he is the second of that surname making a mark in the film world as well.

Yes, I mean Piyush Jha who has simultaneously tried his luck both in literature and film. He was born in Jhansi, UP and moved to Mumbai at the age of eight. He did his graduation and then completed MBA. In 1995, Jha joined the film business as an accounts executive in a multi-national company. Then he started doing creative work for ad films and went a step further by launching his own production company named as Vitamin J Productions. He had accounts with leading business houses like Godrej, Procter and Gamble, Kitply etc. Ambititious Piyush’s next move was to enter into the field of feature films. He wrote screen-play and directed some successful films, including highly acclaimed ones like ‘Chalo America’ and ‘Sikandar’. He is also a widely travelled person.

What makes us happier is his foray into the English literary field. We know that India has a long line of successful writers in English in poetry, prose, novel and story. What Jha himself admits that fiction in crime has not received a fair deal. In this background, his latest publication, ‘ Compass Box Killer’ is getting wide appreciaton as a crime thriller from different parts of the world. Jha also writes short stories but according to him, he has no account of such pieces. Earlier, he had written ‘Mumbaistan’ a similar book containing three crime stories. Piyush is contemplating to make a feature film on this book. He has been approaching prospective producers. Perhaps he himself may launch the film under his own production company banner. We wish him success in both fields.  

PAK TO SETTLE SCORES

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               

In the  pre-independence India, the Muslim leaders had pressed for a separate country, consisting of Muslim majority provinces and districts. Under their pressure, the congress leaders like Gandhi, Pt Nehru and Patel accepted the division of the country. Even after getting their dreamland named Pakistan, they did not stop from continuing the enmity against India. Why? Did you ever think about this strange situation? Pakistan continues with its mischiefs for last nearly 47 years because it  has to settle some scores.

The mother of problems is Kashmir. Just after the independence, Pak authorities wrongly decided to capture J&K forcefully. They hoped that the princely state being overwhelmingly Muslim majority, with whose sympathy, they would succeed in their mission. They attacked and before they could reach Srinagar airport, they were challenged by the Indian armed forces who pushed them back. However, they succeeded in retaining a portion, which is today known as Pak Occupied Kashmie (POK). Still they have not forgotten their defeat and are creating problems through militants to occupy the other part of the state as well.

On the heels of this adventure came the 1965 war in which Pakistan once again tasted a  shameful discomfiture and was compelled by the international forces to join the bilateral talk at Tashkent. Then came the Bangladesh freedom struggle of 1971 in which Pakistan suffered the division of the country and nearly one lakh Pak soldiers had to surrender and they were brought to India as prisoners of war. Pakistan has not forgotten this humiliation and has always been on look out for opportunities to corner India. Even though it is almost half of Jinnah’s original Pakistan, it is determined to seek military parity with India. It is in the pursuit of this objective that copying India, they also joined the nuclear club at the cost of its pathetic economic condition.

The latest cause is the coming withdrawal of American forces from Afghanistan. Pakistan intends to grab this unfortunate country through the Talibans and denying India any opportunity to have a role there. Pakistan thinks that if the disturbances in India through militancy were aggravated, India will remain busy with domestic disturbances and the ground will be free for Pakistan. Who knows, even China at their instance has been repeatedly violating LAC in Ladakh, Arunachal Pradesh and Sikkim. Perhaps in this dirty game too Islamabad will lick the dust as India is aware and making matching security efforts.

NAVY MAKES INDIA PROUD

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               

To start with, after Independence, India fully depended on the west for modern weaponry. Later on, the erstwhile USSR also came in a big way to strengthen our armed forces. But such a dependence did not appear reasonable and India put her best foot forward for self-dependence. This surprised our suppliers as they could have lost a good market for earning huge foreign exchange. So, at the instance of the USA, we were humiliated and denied first the Heavy Water and then the Cryogenic Rocket Engine for our atomic energy programme. Then we realized the importance of standing on our own feet. First we produced HW and then made CRE. We have, now our own space programme ahead.

Similarly, we depended on England and Russia for aircraft carrier ships. Here also we had a bitter experience of dependence on others and we took the decision to produce indigenously aircraft carriers. Accordingly, the Naval Design Centre, New Delhi prepared an imaginative and modern design and the work started in our ship building yard  at Kochi, kerala.  It may be added that in this connection also we had to face delay as the old suppliers denied to give high quality steel for fabricating the hull. Indian scientists deserve congrats for producing the same quality steel locally. Earlier when China imported the pre-fabricated hull from Spain, she suffered objections from Greece and Italy while that huge structure was passing from their continental sea. Even after sorting that out, it took full two years to reach the consignment in China. Our indigenous effort not only saved us from such international objections but also saved time and foreign exchange.

As per the programme, the ship will formally come on sea water on Aug 12, 2013. Other ingredients will be provided and if everything went right, the maiden aircraft carrier will be handed over to the Indian army in 2018. Thus India would be the fifth country for making an aircraft carrier of over 35,000 tons.  As a matter of fact it would be of 37,500 tons. It is so big a structure that from a distance, it would look like a swimming city. Undoubtedly, the safety of such giant ship would be a problem. The manufacturers are aware of this danger. On its air strip, there will be 20 fighter planes and 10 helicopters. Despite that if any enemy tried to rush closer, the 150 km ranged surface to air missiles can effectively deal with that situation.  The ship will have arrangements for nearly 1,500 naval staff to stay there. It will  have all provisions like water, power, fuel, food etc for 45 days. The ship will help us to keep a close eye on the Indian Ocean. It has enhanced our power and prestige.   

DURGA SHAKTI NAGPAL

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               

It may be a government of any type – democracy, monarchy, autocracy, dictatorship or something else, the orders are implemented by the bureaucracy. This important administrative machinery has direct interaction with the rulers on one hand and the people on the other. Whenever a government encourages its bureaucrats to work for the welfare of the subject, it becomes popular and enjoys a long tenure. Contrarily, if the government encourages them to be outrageous, people turn hostile and topple its apple-cart. In the present context,  when  in a democratic country like India, people who have tasted freedom, will not tolerate any high-handedness of the rulers. Despite that, different state satraps have come to notice for forcing the administration to be its  tamed ‘parrot in cage’. Such an example is just available in UP.

Durga Shakti Nagpal, born on June 25, 1985, is an IAS officer of 2010 batch. In the national list of successful aspirants, she occupied 20^th position. With this brilliance and a dream in the eyes, she joined the service  with dedication and honesty. With this academic background, she was allotted UP cadre. Only in the fourth year of her service, she was posted in district Gautam Buddha Nagar as the SDM. She was already aware that the district was defamed for rampant crime including sand mafia and violent ragging in educational institutions. With her strict and imaginative measures, ragging was completely controlled. Then she turned her attention towards the notorious sand mafia, protected by some powerful local leaders of the ruling party. Very soon, she arrested several such illegal operatives, seized trucks and dumpers engaged in the job and got filed several FIRs against the involved criminals. It appeared that illegal mining would very soon be a thing of past which badly disturbed the beneficiary politicians. They were on the look out for some excuse to defame Durga Shakti and get her removed from the scene.

The incident of Kadalpur village came handy to them. The Muslims of the village had constructed illegally a mosque wall on the government land. On July 27,2013 Durga visited the village and told the Muslims about a Supreme Court decision, disallowing such constructions. They were convinced and willingly themselves razed the wall. There is a SP leader named Narinder Singh Bhati, who enjoys minister’s status and patronises sand mafia. He used his affinity to power and convinced the CM that due to the activities of the IAS officer, communal tension had developed in the village. Unbelievably, the Chief Minister immediately ordered her to be suspended and the letter was delivered to Durga the same midnight while she was fast asleep. The DM conducted an on the spot enquiry and gave a clean chit to Durga. Still the CM told the media that her suspension was correct. On the otherhand, Bhati, in a public meeting claimed that he talked to Mulayam and Akhilesh and got Durga suspended in 41 minutes.

Since then all newspapers and news channels have been holding political debates on this issue in which the SP representatives were flayed at. Almost all political parties demanded withdrawal of the suspension order but of no avail. The IAS and IPS officers are under central Government but in order to ensure SP support in the Parliament, sitting from Aug 5, it feels hamstrung. When Mrs Sonia Gandhi urged upon the PM to intervene, the SP posed why Khemka, an IAS officer of Haryana cadre, who was looking into illegal land purchase of her son-in-law, Robert Badra was transferred. Govts come and go and the bureaucracy stays as a result of which the administration enjoys continuity. If the same machinery is so badly humiliated, then it does not augur well for India.    

CELEBRATING WOMANHOOD

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            

“There are many candidates for the title of “last taboo”,  but in 2013, menstruation has one of the strongest claims on it. The power of this taboo has meant that even in the field of WASH, menstruation has remained imprisoned  by silence, stigma and neglect. This is baffling when two million girls and women worldwide are of menstruating age. On any given day, 300 million women and girls will be menstruating , and, in total, most women in the world will  spend 3,500 days of their lives bleeding. The majority of those women and girls will have no access to  clean and safe  sanitary products , nor to a private space in which to wash. Menstruation is supposed to be invisible and silent, and sometimes, menstruating women and girls are supposed to be invisible and silent too. Plenty are kept physically isolated during their periods, or culturally isolated by edicts and restriction”. Jara sochiye.

SOURCE:  http//www.wsscc.org