Most beautiful first lady of all time

One and only Jackie Kennedy qualifies for this award. Such a gracious and heart warmening lady she was. She had toured India in 1962. India's relations with Unitettyd States remained smooth until her Husband John F Kennedy was assassinated. After which bilateral relations suffered which got smoothed only after Indian economy was liberalised in 1991 by Dr Manmohan Singh.

Jacqueline Kennedy (32) at Taj Mahal posing for a photo during her visit to India (March, 1962)

Plural flavor of Indian Secularism

I have seen many Indian politicians visiting religious places of all the religions in India. In last few decades we have seen that they have been often criticized by culturally right semi-literate people.

I advice them to take out some time and read some history books on Indian culture right from 4000 BC to today. I bet they will come to know about great tradition of plural culture respected by then Samrat Ashoka and Akbar.

Now, let's come back to current year. I think it is not wrong on part of politician when he visits a religious place, but precaution should be taken by him in a diverse country like India. If you are visiting a temple then you should also treat Mosques and Churches with same parameter. Let me put forth some letter conversation between conservative Rajendra Prasad who was president in 1950's and liberal Nehru who was Indian prime minister at that time. Situation is Rajendra babu was invited for inauguration of restored Somnath Temple in Gujarat. 

Nehru wrote to him -

‘I feel that it would be better if you did not preside over this function.’

Rejendra babu in his speech there said -

‘I respect all religions and on occasion visit a church, a mosque, a dargah and a gurdwara.’ 

This should seal the debate. It is not that only Hindu politicians visit Mosques, if you google a little you will find that contemporary J & K CM Omar Abdullah used to visti visit temple in a state where Hindus are in minorities. One can wish to call it tokenism but I want to urge that since this tokenism reassures minority community that their rights would be upheld, I find it any time better than majoritarianism.

Also, there are some elements in India one comes from Hyderabad and another from Gujarat. You will not find them visiting religious places of other religion. I don't want to name them. If you are wise you know them. One last request keep your eyes open to differentiate between Secularism and pseudo-Secularism at the same time do differentiate between Nationalism and Religious Nationalism too.

This reply made my day

@a20nitin Your faith, your trust is sacred to us. Together we will create a world class Delhi. http://t.co/MlsIT5R85r
— Arvind Kejriwal (@ArvindKejriwal) February 4, 2015

Misguiding in the name of Ambedkar

These days a debate has been initiated by some mischievous elements in the Society about Dr B R Ambedkar's stand about the words Secular and Socialist in preamble of the constitution. Meanwhile, Information & Broadcasting (I&B) Ministry’s Republic Day print advertisement on Monday omitted the words "socialist, secular" in the image of the Preamble to the Constitution. After which some people on social media started a petition to present strong disapproval to this act by govt of India.

Condemn the mischievous govt ad on 26th January, omitting 'secular' and 'socialist' from the... http://t.co/Av7oaxUZxF
— meena kandasamy (@meenakandasamy) January 28, 2015

While some other defended this act of government.

‘secular’ and ‘socialist’ words are dropped from the Ministry of I&B advertisement from Preamble. Great Initiative.
— Hindu Legal Cell (@hindulegalcell) January 28, 2015

So, when were these words added to constitution and by whom? 

These words were added to the preamble in 42nd amendment by Indira Gandh govt in 1976 but were not removed by Janta Party govt when they came to power in 1977. Though these words were not inducted in the original preamble, a spirit of Social and Secular nature was always there as one can identify by reading preamble and if not sure by further reading the 11 volumes of working of constituent assembly as recorded.

Original unamended preamble
of
the constitution of India 

Let's try to gather some facts i.e some real quotes from Ambedkar. I will quote him. Some of these quotes have directly taken from 11 volumes of parliamentary / constituent assembly debate.

Secular 

This is not mine but Ambedkar's own quote -

It (secular state) does not mean that we shall not take into consideration the religious sentiments of the people. All that a secular state means that this Parliament shall not be competent to impose any particular religion upon the rest of the people. That is the only limitation that the Constitution recognises

He further says -

The State should guarantee to its citizens the liberty of conscience and the free exercise of his religion including the right to profess, to preach and to convert within limits compatible with public order and morality

I interpret the above lines as Indian state will preserve plural culture of nation. Hence, you cannot doubt the secular credentials of this man though we can agree on a fact that word Secular is inherently expressed in Fraternity.

Socialist 

Now, coming to his views on Socialist state. His various works and articles shows that Ambedkar believed in State Socialism in which he advocated private property of the individual. He said-

My social philosophy may be said to be enshrined in three words: liberty, equality and fraternity. My philosophy has roots in religion and not in political science. I have derived them from the teachings of my master, the Buddha.

Did you see the word equality in above mentioned quote? Yes, right, he was a proponent of mixed economy but at the same time we cannot ignore the fact that his life was dedicated to struggle against oppression of Caste system which is different from Class system prevalent in Western world. He always believed in the system of state socialism in which there would be a classless and caste less society and without forming a caste less society one cannot achieve objectives of Socialism ie class less society.

In short we can describe him as a person who advocated a purely secular state like what today France is and free market economy with special consideration to upheaval of oppressed classes.

At the most we can call him economically at the center and in religious context a non-communal or a plural person respecting diversity of culture in India. 

Yes, building an egalitarian society is possible

This man is EMS Namboodiripad. In 1957, after the state of Kerala was formed in the first elections in 1957, the Communist Party won a majority and E.M.S. Namboodiripad became Chief Minister of the first elected Communist ministry in India. It was the EMS ministry which initiated the path breaking land reform legislation and other democratic measures, till the ministry was dismissed undemocratically in 1959. 
As chief minister, Namboodiripad pioneered radical land and educational reforms in Kerala, which helped it become the country's leader in social indicators.

GST: Towards full-fledged Reforms

It is almost 7 years since the announcement of introduction of GST (Goods and services tax) by the then finance minister Mr Chidambaram in 2007-08 budget, but tragedy of reforms in India is that the bill is still pending.

What GST stands for?

GST is a value added tax which is planned to replace all indirect taxes levied on goods and services by the Indian central and state governments. It is aimed at being comprehensive for most goods and services. India is a federal republic, and the GST will thus be implemented concurrently by the central and state governments as the Central GST and the State GST respectively.

Criticisms

Critics claim that CGST, SGST and IGST which will be part of GST are nothing but new names for Central Excise/Service Tax, VAT and CST and hence GST brings nothing new to the table.

Advantages of implementation

Exports will be zero-rated and imports will be levied the same taxes as domestic goods and services adhering to the destination principle. 

Hope from the current majority government

Biggest hurdle in the implementation of GST was its appeal to be “anti-poor”. Hence a coalition govt in the past from 2000 to 2014 were not willing high enough to implement these taxes. Since, for the first time since 1984, union govt is run by a party which has a full majority, let’s hope that current govt headed by ambitious Prime Minister Modi implements the pending GST.

स्वप्नपरी

एक होती anonymous परी ..

जणु चंद्रावरूनच आली होती

होती ती रुपाने दुधासारखी गोरी

first time student section मध्ये दिसली होती

form भरताना झाली होती पहिली भेट

तिला पाहून झाले माझे डोळे तिच्यावर सेट

तिच्या चेहऱ्यावर होते एक तेज

तिला पाहून झालो मी amazed

त्यानंतर माहीत नाही गेली कुठे

अन झाली नाही माझी परत भेट

गेली कुठे ती कुणास ठाऊक  

पहिलीच भेट ठरली अखेरची भेट 

दिसली परत ती final year ला

होतो मी CL च्या elective lecture ला

पार केले तिने Room No. 22 चे दार   

तिने परत एकदा केले माझ्या काळजावर वार

झाले होते तिच्यात transformation

करायचो रोज मी तिच्याशी chatting

 झाली होती ती Amrita Rao पासून Taylor Swift

      She always used to reply ‘ha..’ I think, I wasn’t that interesting

नाही समजलं कधी मला ती माझ्यावर हसायची

कि मला online पाहून हसायची ...

तिला पाहण्यासाठीच मी lecture ला जायचो,

..पण ती कधीच नाही यायची  

Facebook वर रात्र तिच्या ‘ha..’ मध्येच सरून जायची 

दिसली ती मला गुलाबी साडीत on the eve of Trad day

I couldn’t control & my heart started beating

She didn’t wear her spectacles that day

..जरी तिच्याकडे होते चष्मे matching – matching

 समोर येताच लाजून नजर खाली झुकवायची

मी कधी तिच्याशी बोलेल याचीच ती कदाचित वाट बघायची

पण मी तर वाट बघतोय farewell party ची

‘आवडतेस मला तू’ असे कदाचीत सांगून देईल तिला मी 

करत होते माझे मित्र देखील तिच्याशी chatting

समजल्यावर झाले माझे heart-breaking

माझ्या हृदयावर वार करत होते Sam & Ranjit

माझे जीवन तर क्षणभरातच झाले रक्तरंजित

प्रवेश तर केला आहे तिने कधीच माझ्या जखमी हृदयात

कदाचित असेल कदाचित नसेल ती माझ्या जीवनात

पण ती सोज्वळ परी नेहमीच येत राहील माझ्या स्वप्नात

... येत राहील ती माझ्या स्वप्नात ...

- a20.nitin, rOHAN, Ravi Kadam