WAIT FOR REALLY WET MONSOON

                                

Misfortune of monsoon did not give any relief in last two years of the NDA Govt. It did not only paralyse the agricultural sector but the people at large in many parts of the country have been struggling hard for scarce potable water to keep themselves alive. As a result, a huge amount had to be diverted for disaster management, hampering the overall economic growth. The affected lot hardly knows the scientific reason of this natural calamity and lay the blame at govt’s door. After reading some authentic weather forecasts, now I can assure the suffering lot that the coming monsoon will be really wet and ‘achchhe din’ will shower.

Seeing some data regarding percentage of rainfall since last June, it is evident that it has been deficient every month. The lifeline of ndian agriculture, the monsoon plays truant due to oceanic wind conditions, often known as EL Nino, LA Nina etc. Both of them are major factors for rain or drought in the land mass of Indian sub-continent. When the EL Nino is strong, it suddenly increasres the temperature of the equatorial Pacific ocean surface which obviates the chances of wet cloud formation. The abnormal heat evaporates them into the sky. This monsoon hide and seek in last two years has been keeping Indians in several regions thirsty. This fatal thirst is due to end within three weeks.

As against the EL Nino effect, there is yet another but opposite wind condition in the same area of the Pacific ocean known as LA Nina. When it is prevalent, it creates a cooling atmosphere which helps the clouds to be pregnant with watery contents and rain. The forecast says that by now, the AL Nino has started being down the hill and by April end it will give way to the matching opposite LA Nina conditions. The weathermen say tha this welcome scenario will be in full swing by Aug.2016 when almost all parts of thirsty India will take a sigh of relief. We know that despite many other auxiliary measures to augment water supply, the monsoon rain is our mainstay.

In this backdrop, we may expect adequate rainfall, though with some tolerable delay. No ‘yagya’, no ‘ashtyam kirtan’ just sing “Hey monsoon, come soon”.   

TRUTH ULTIMATELY SURFACES

                                

On our great institutions including the Parliament, the Sanskrit mantra, ‘satyamev jayate’ is boldly written and displayed. While defining this famous sermon, volumes have been written which sometimes confuse the common man. I venture to explain that it simply means, you may hide the truth but ultimately it is bound to surface despite the length of involved time . This gospel truth is well visible in the present Indian polity.

It is a fact that Narendra Modi alone swayed the Indian electorate at the hustings in 2014 and after a long gap, the country got rid of the bitter experiences of coalition governments. His poll eve assurances impressed the voters so much that they mercilessly shortened the height of Congress, RJD, JD/U, BSP etc. These crestfallen political outfits adopted a one-point programme since he took oath to fulfil those expectations including return of black money in foreign banks. The pressure was so high that in their view, the entire hawala money was in Modi’s pocket and he was not distributing it among the public.

Despite this damaging campaign, two opposite winds kept on blowing in last 18 months. Firstly, the NDA govt. lost no time to embark on very common projects touching the last man in the queue. The projects pertained to LIC policy for all at govt cost, all subsidies directly to the bank accounts of the beneficiaries, ‘beti bachao, beti padhao, massive rural electrification and road communication. The benefits are directly reaching the concerned and the dirty middlemen, who minted money, to their dismay, found the heyday blowing in the wind. Futuristic bold steps in defence, foreign trade, foreign policy, education, industrialization, ‘make in India, Startups etc. after the required gestation period, have started fructifying. As a result, the people so far rearing high expectations, have started getting the feeling that the ‘achchhe din’ are round the corner.

Secondly, the money launderers are getting the noose tighter round their neck. The smart ‘jamai babu’, an expert of land deals, is in dock in Haryana. Those involved in scams including Coalgate, are foreseeing the writing on the wall via judiciary. Mrs. Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi, Motilal Vohra, and a couple of others have been caught for fleecing National Herald property in Delhi, Lucknow, Mumbai and Panchkula (Haryana). Courts have taken notice, courtesy Dr. Subramanian Swamy and they being on a slippery wicket, are shaky to defend themselves. On the other hand P. Chidambaram, via his son Karti is also in a deep soup.

Thus, by now, both truth and untruth with regard to Indian politicians have started coming on surface. While the positive works of the NDA govt. is becoming evident everyday, its critic are taking an unceremonious nosedive.

    

POPULIST BUT NOT SO POPULIST

Being a distant observer of political developments, some ideas struck my mind which are small enough to miss a headline in any publication of any standard. Alone they do no matter but together they give a picture that the men at helms have heart  for the suffering sections.
What is the difference between Pt. Nehru and Arvind Kejriwal? Strange question? Nehru was in a haste to industrialise the country for its financial strength so that it could carve out a niche on international plane. The world class steel factories in Durgapur, Bhilai, Rourkela and Bokaro were conceived by him. Similarly several fertilizer, petro-chemical in Barauni and heavy engineering factories in Ranchi saw the light of day during his tenure. We are reaping their good harvest after half a century. Since they were long term projects, which take time to come on the ground, the men on the street felt having been left in lurch. Similar fate of this policy, later awaited chief ministers like Chandrababu Naidu, O.P. Chautala and some others who had to vacate their position.
Taking a cue from this, the Leftists in West Bengal tried another logic. They found that the Bengali Bhadralok had remained lukewarm to their violent processions, demonstrations and repeated strikes . So to activae the deprived sections became their top priority. They allowed the educational institutes to deteriorate so much so that the Calcutta University, internationally reputed, became a sick boy of Asia. Finding it worth, Lalu gripped this trick. He not only allowed universities and colleges to die a slow death but cared a fig for pot-hole ridden roads as he found that his electorate had no four-wheelers.
Loopholes in above parochial logics became evident very soon as both the ruling regimes had to lick the dust. Politicians now started thinking that they should work for the common man and they found road, water, electricity and education touching everybody’s life. The new experiment came in Gujarat where road  connectivity and  electrification came on the top. Then came Nitish’s tenure in Bihar where road construction was so intense that he got through in the following election easily. Arvind Kejriwal in Delhi went a step further. The day he took oath in Delhi, he announced concession in power bills. The beneficiary public were so moved that in the following election AAP had a cakewalk. He is trying  a similar idea on water front.
In this backdrop, one more such down to earth trend has come to notice which pertains to the women of procreating age group. It is our backward mind set that we hesitate to talk about toilet, sex and periods. At the same time it is a fact that every woman does not remain normal during periods. She is ill and irritating. Not only her family members should understand and cooperate but also her employer and colleagues should have a feeling heart. I am happy to know that in some countries and even in some states in India including Bihar, such ladies are  permiitted two-day off per month. Maternity leave and periods off are not to appease a woman. As a matter of fact it is society’s respect to motherhood. Such a social welfare measure is welcome and more and more should be tried to embrace one and all.

GENDER DISCRIMINATION

                         

From my childhood, one thing which lingers to emain baffling is relegation of women to the category of second grade citizens in almost 5,000 years of human civilization. Nobody ever paused to question the society to claim to be civilized  despite deliberately keeping half of the population ignorant. Besides a few negligible oasises, by and large it has remained patriarchal in which the fair sex played the role of second fiddle. Particularly after the advent of Islam, in which veil sytem has the sacrosance of a faith tenet, they were pushed behind the walls and public appearance was almost banned. Even in other cults, barring a counted few exceptions, women were not permitted to come on the fore as public figures. Generally, this pitiable scene was in vogue as late as till the first half of the last century.

In many developed and rich countries like France and Saudi Arabia, they were denied franchise till recently. We are all born of mothers but the dominating males have decided that the presence of women in religious places will make them impure. Islam does not permit them entry into mosques. What is the male attitude towards the female members of the families of Caliphs? In some other religions also this discrimination is prevalent. Ladies have no enytry in the Shabrimala pilgrimage of South as well as Shani temple Sidnapur. Under this bias, rarely you will find women pandit, purohit, mullah, maulvi or Shankaracharya. The society having goddesses galore being so faithfully adored befools itself by pushing the womenhood behind.

Things look a bit better in certain pockets. In the hilly and mountainous regions like Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, North East etc. women work shoulder to shoulder with their male counterparts. Similarly, for female, the conditions are comparatively better in Kerala and West Bengal for two reasons -  some sort of matriarchal families and spread of education. Due to these two leading factors, the male and female demographic ratio never became pathetic like in some other states including Haryana. This also leaves a hint that if the govts stressed female education, the gender bias will peter out by and by.

The above points further disturb me that despite nearly 70 years of political freedom, in India, the participation of women in governance has been negligible. If the illiterate and criminal family members of politicians could be ministers, why not the common ladies? Today there are hundreds of illiterate ladies working as mukhiya, sarpanch and panch. Then who are delaying 33% reservation to them. Known senior leaders of RJD and SP are on record to have opposed any such move tooth and nail. Are not their own family ladies occupying important positions in states and at the Centre? Are they keeping their daughters illiterate?  Can they claim to be democrat? Is this a healthy trend for our democracy? Jara sochiyega !