The Contemporaneous India: Account by an Unknown Hindustani

By Sat Sharma

India is a lumbering, elephantine State that cannot be expected to pivot around its heels, irrespective of the capability, intentions and skills of its present mahout. That may explain why it took 67 long years to resurrect prime minister-ship by electing for the first time a deserving astute down to earth eminently-suited politician who had tasted poverty and hard work and seems to be the one to relate to citizens’ aspirations and needs. He possesses vision and necessary will to transform a fledgling country into a mega economy and world power. Narendra Modi, as a truly nationalistic politician, may be taller than Nehru. He became the first ever PM to visit INA Memorial in Singapore. And the first Indian in four centuries to inspect a ‘Guard of Honor’ from the British Army in London! However, thanks to Congress party’s dirty politics, he inherited a deeply divisive polity, rusted three pillars of democracy muddled with long-nurtured anti-nationalistic media. Modi earned kudos whichever nation he visited. His maiden American trip four months after taking over was a raving success hitherto not achieved by any of his predecessors that included three trips each by Nehru and Indira and double that number by Modi’s incompetent and ineffectual immediate predecessor – a puppet in the hands of his Italy-born white Catholic lady boss! During the 18 months, Modi has been showing promise by undoubtedly raising the stature of the country globally. Back home, deeply and widely pervading corruption, divisiveness, illiteracy and lack of nationalism are sinister and life-threatening ailments needing drastic cure. We are corrupt and, therefore, elect corrupt politicians. The latest is Bihar's humongous mandate on communal lines: First-time MLA sons of a convicted (for corruption) politician become ministers – the ninth class-fail deputy CM and 12th class as health minister. Till the time we become dutiful, nationalistic and sincere the status quo is not going to change. We must ‘educate’ our masses in general but our youngsters who are the future custodians of the country in particular but not up to the mark in many ways. The generations born after independence have to understand the true account/value of the hard-won freedom and imbibe our civilization and culture. Only then the misconceptions on created ‘fictional’ heroes can be rectified. Only then our younger folks can appreciate the importance of their duties to their motherland. Our politicians must become Hindustanis first and foremost, start working for the benefit of their compatriots rather their own families. They must forthwith stop eschew vote-bank politics. Only when all of us are patriotic enough we can offer a united front against biggest threat to us from terrorism incited and inflicted by Pakistan for decades; aided and abetted by so many anti-nationalistic political parties who also will have to mend their nasty ways and allow the parliament to function smoothly so that agenda on economic reforms can move forward. All of us have to contribute whole-heartedly for progress and development. Every citizen irrespective of caste/creed must exhibit an apparent firm and free will to work towards the betterment of the land. We must weed out the mindset where people live here but their loyalty lies elsewhere as dictated by the leaders of their faith. No religious law can take priority over the national law. There has to be common civil code so that everyone is treated equally. The way things stand today, we are only going down and down. This will continue unless we correct our mindset and course radically! Hindus’ extreme tolerance during last millennium led to rise of intolerant Islam aided and abetted by Congress and its cronies and like-minded parties. Hindustan has been looted and marauded by foreigners and bled high and dry of its richness and natural resources. Alas! This loot continued after independence by parties in power. Modi has somehow disturbed the looters’ political tho

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris AU
• Release date: Jan 26, 2021
• ISBN: 9781664103269

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Copyright © 2021 by Sat Sharma.

ISBN:      Softcover      978-1-6641-0325-2

                eBook          978-1-6641-0326-9

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Rev. date: 01/14/2021

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CONTENTS

Dedication

Disclaimer

Acknowledgements

The Prelude

Hindustan

American Ambiguities

Black Money

Cheating and Dishonesty

Congress Party & its Dirty Politics

Consumerism & Safety

Corruption

Crime against Women and Children

Democracy

Divisiveness, Nationalism, Patriotism

Dynastic/Proprietary Politics

Economy

Education

Emigration, its Scandals and Slavery

Extremes/Contrasts/Beliefs in India

Fooling the masses

Foreign Policy

Forgotten Heroes

Gender bias

Hinduism: Hindu Holocaust & RSS

Indo-Pak relations/conflicts

Intolerance

Islamic State’s Threat and Danger

Journalists & Media

Kashmir

Malnutrition

Medical Profession

Pakistan

Police and Law & Order

Politicians and Party Symbols

Poverty

PMs and Country’s Defense Capability

Prime Minister’s First visit to America

PM Modi’s interview with Time magazine, And More

Rapes

Religiosity & Fanaticism

Scams

Senior Citizens

Shoe-ting

Slapping

Traffic & other Laws of Land

Terrorism

Vyapam Imbroglio

Whistle-blowers

WikiLeaks

Youth

Postlude

DEDICATION

This book is dedicated to forgotten generations of my compatriots who suffered tremendously for a millennium under foreign subjugation/torture through various tyrannical methods including proselytizing carried out by rulers belonging to imported alien religions of Islam and Christianity. Admittedly they fought vehemently against those bizarre forms of oppression of their freedom. Unfortunately, those true Hindustanis were not accorded their due in the history books engineered by our alien rulers in the past and the new brown leaders after independence. This book is dedicated as well to those who continued to suffer in an otherwise ‘independent’ India. My salute goes especially to the Punjabis on either side of our present Western border created (by a British judge Radcliffe) by ‘artificially’ dividing the erstwhile culturally flourishing subcontinent that had contributed greatly in different spheres and walks of life benefitting mankind globally. Righteous persons are often misunderstood anywhere in the world. Generally, it is for the crooks to rule the roost. This is more so in a country like ours where the people are not taught/refuse to be taught and are callous enough to imbibe our age old great civilization or even try to understand the real history of our freedom struggle and to learn the basic principles/values of life especially the real meaning of democracy, their rights and duties towards their motherland. This has been the handiwork of unscrupulous politicians who were handed over power undeservedly. Strangely, may be due to colonial mindset, our citizens choose to ‘remain’ ignorant, subservient, ever ready/willing to be fooled at the drop of a hat, and unwilling/oblivious to their most important nationalistic debt towards their motherland. May nationalism prevail in the minds and actions of every Hindustani so that we can reach the heights we rightly deserve because of our intelligence and hard work!

DISCLAIMER

This Book is based on an account based on various sources and kinds of information – conventional, modern, technological, oral history or otherwise. The objective was to give a bird’s eye view of the present scenario affecting us Hindustanis and to highlight some of the numerous problems we face today in an independent country even 68 years after attaining ‘freedom’.

Limitation of Liability/Disclaimer of Warranty: Whereas the author and publishers have used their best efforts in preparing the Book, they make no representation or warranties with respect to the accuracy and completeness of the contents of the Book and specifically disclaim any warranties of merchantability or fitness for any particular purpose.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I am deeply indebted to so many individuals among my mentors, seniors, peers, friends, juniors and my wife as well as our children who continue to help and inspire/prod me into writing and making this treatise possible in its present form. Their contributions and suggestions from time to time have been invaluable to me. It may not be possible to thank each individual personally but my heart goes to everyone among them. Not the least from my two lovely granddaughters who willingly try to make me understand the nuances of American English – the language of this book. My daughter has been the driving force ever in re-enforcing my nationalistic fervor towards my compatriots especially hers and the younger generations in making them appreciate their roots, to allow them to be more conversant with their motherland’s history as well as the problems. I am just trying to furnish them with the goings on during the cotemporaneous times so that we all can work towards building a better Hindustan knowing the strengths of our civilization and culture in getting rid of the deficiencies, fault lines, lacunae and false perceptions about the enormous problems we face today because of the failed/faulty leadership thrust upon the country from time to time during the pre- and post-independence times. It takes a generation’s age to undo the damage done for so long. Let us make a beginning. The efforts need to be ongoing and constantly pursued with patience and perseverance and purpose. The proffered solution can work more effectively and fairly quickly if our countrymen shed the colonial mindset and out of the shell of inaction: An ounce of action is better than a ton of talking, I believe in Lord Krishna’s advice rendered in the Bhagwadgita: ‘Karmanyev adhikaraste ma fleshu kadaachan’ (One must perform his/her duty diligently, honestly and relentlessly).

I owe my gratitude to numerous nationalistic authors, writers and documentary makers for their content as well as Bollywood directors and producers who have been ever alive to the ailments, disorders, ills and the problems of our society and the system that has rusted a lot thanks to the long-term efforts of the highly self-centered, selfish and not so nationalistic but crooked politicians with skewed thinking; and the many generations of their followers/successors for changing/distorting the factual content of the truthful history and sequence of events on account of their ugly ulterior motives by tempering with the facts and realities about the course taken by my once great country during the last nine decades or more. Unless we know the real facts on the enormous price paid in terms of unselfish sacrifices made by uncountable young freedom fighters and revolutionaries who chose gallows or confrontation against the treacherous British Raj either in the battle front or otherwise in the prime of their lives, we can never appreciate the true significance and value of independence and hence will not be able to defend it with all our might and sensibilities.

My thanks are due to Xlibris division of Penguin Random House Publishers. Firstly, to their Edilson Marks, Supervisor Publishing Sales for getting this book published at a nominal cost; and Frank J Williams, Business Consultant. There have been a number of his colleagues who interacted with me from time to time during the past 22 months i.e. from the day of my understanding with Xlibris to the submission of the final manuscript. I may be missing out on some but the ones coming to my mind in alphabetical order are Ms Amery Laurel, Publishing Consultant, Xlibris America; Ms Kelly Smith, Operations Supervisor; Jackie [Jaqueline] Yu & Richard Kent, Senior Book Consultants; Ms Roni Irvin, Author Service Representative and finally the dames in constant touch – Ms Ann Porter, Ms Gwen Dwayne and Ms Stephanie Maywell.

THE PRELUDE

We, as responsible citizens of the country, have always to be pragmatic and deeply concerned with the welfare of our compatriots and motherland through our action and words! We must always remember what the longest-serving US President Franklin D Roosevelt said: "Let us never forget that government is ourselves and not an alien power over us. The ultimate rulers of our democracy are not the President, Senators, or the Congressmen and the government officials, but the voters of this country… I feel forced to remind my co-citizens what the current US Vice President Joe Biden said since it applies equally to us: I believe we have to end the divisive partisan politics ripping this country apart…. Compromise is NOT a dirty word (at all)." Any responsible citizen must make a strong resolve to end the divisive politics since independence or even before it. We must not lose sight of what our great ancestors and scriptures taught us about the principles of tolerance, nationalism and mutual co-existence.

We must always remember that a vast majority of our intellectuals – economists, sociologists, historians, political ‘scientists’ – have been a bunch of Left-leaning ‘poverty entrepreneurs’ led by Nehruite-Stalinist chauvinistic individuals rarely ever concerned with the welfare of their countrymen/motherland but always remained covert promoters of Congress-Communist collusion. Even today all are feeding off the same empty Congress trough having learnt no lessons. Now that the trough is empty, they are howling at the moon.

In recent years another group sprang up — the breast-beating ‘institution-wallahs’, and more recently the Sahitya Akademi awardees with their awarders. Just as the Marxists and their Sufis in the Congress party tried to fit everything into a poverty paradigm, these ‘institution’ types ascribe everything to you guessed it ‘liberal democratic’ or precisely speaking ‘demoncratic’ institutions. That’s fine except that for them whether an institution is in good health or not depends on whether or whatever they say so. The fact that the best institutions adapt to the needs of the day is irrelevant to them. Universal law is: the institutions that don’t adapt to the changing times get bypassed. You only need to read British constitutional history to see whether this is true. Intellectual hypocrisy is the leitmotif here in my country since personal aggrandizement, benefits, money especially ill-gotten wealth get precedence over patriotism and nationalistic duties! With a staunchly nationalist selfless chief executive now at the helm of affairs of the country, things are expected to change for the better if Hindustanis really want to.

One indication of that was beginning of a slew of developments at the UN. After his maiden address, Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon observed, "Yoga Day is a wonderful addition to the UN calendar. I commend Narendra Modi and Government of India for taking this initiative." Likewise, India’s growth story had started earning accolades and endorsements from top executives of leading global companies even before PM Modi’s second visit to the US this year. These include GE’s Jeffrey R Immelt, Toyota’s Takeshi Uchiyamada, Microsoft’s Satya Nadella, Google’s Sunder Pichai, Qualcomm’s Paul Jacobs, Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg, Adobe’s Shantanu Narayan, Foxcom’s Terry Gou, Alibaba’s Jack Ma, and their likes. Now it remains to be seen how much they can contribute for making my country self-reliant and a strong economy!

Coming back to our band of ‘intellectuals’, the laments of this group are essentially rooted in the Western view of society. Just as the Marxists still use an imported (Chinese) idea to judge their societies, these people also use imported ideas. Earlier on, these ideas used to come from England because of their education and steadfast loyalty rooted in that country coupled with long years of their British subordinacy/slavery. Now the ideas come from the US – the self-acclaimed pretender torch bearer of ‘freedom’ and ‘human rights’. That’s the only difference. Those people occupy so much of the ideas that they assume their view is the only valid one. Logically, however, their views are not superior or inferior to any other rooted in a different world view. Even this arrogance would be fine, or at least human, had its proponents been consistent. That, alas, is also not the case because there is no objective test available. India, according to both these types of ‘intellectuals’, doesn’t have a brain, at least not the one that is of any use at all. Most recent was a flood of returning ‘honors’ given/purchased from Sahitya Akademi or even awarded by the President allegedly ‘connecting it’ to the Dadri lynching of a 54-year Ishfaq by an irate mob on 29th September following a rumor he was eating cow meat.

Strangely all those ‘intellectuals’ did not bat an eyelid against the State atrocities during the Emergency imposed/perpetrated by a snobbish autocratic PM, Indira after that was drafted by her barrister chamcha five months earlier; and also to the unconstitutional coercions by her even more autocratic younger son.

Those very ‘intellectuals’ once again chose to remain mum and dumb when the ‘loyal’ Congressmen, taking the help of corrupt and useless subservient police, committed the hara-kiri of a planned and well-orchestrated country-wide genocide of thousands of Sikhs post Indira assassination in 1984 possibly on the collusion/orders from her incapable older son who was bestowed upon prime minister-ship as if he ascended the throne as ‘King of India’!

Where were these ‘intellectuals’ when 400,000 Kashmiri Pundits were thrown out of their home and hearths lock, stock and barrel making them refugees in their own land without any fault because the ruling anti-Hindu Congress party turned a Nelson’s eye to atrocities by local Muslims as did the Mahatma to the arson, plunder, conversions of Hindus to Islam and rapes of their females by the coastal Moplas (Malabari Muslims) in the erstwhile Travancore state!

None of the 52 Muslim countries give Haj subsidy which my ‘secular’ country does year after year. Why did the ‘intellectuals’ never blame all the successive Indian governments for allowing such a communalism? Christian institutions are allowed to give preference to their own community. This land belongs to all communities, then why this communalism?

There was yet another group ‘India against Corruption’ attracting whole-hearted massive public support during the early years of the present decade. The younger generation of Hindustanis who are generally intolerant to the prevailing sky-high corruption came to streets. This (Anna Hazare) movement got splintered quickly and fizzled out even though its objective was laudable. One extra-clever unprincipled gentleman capitalized on the sentiment of under-35 affluent younger generations and entered politics, formed a political outfit much against his mentor’s advice. This megalomaniac tried to swim against tide. He formed government in the Union Territory of Delhi with the help of Congress against whose corruption he had won some but not enough seats. He resigned after 49 days to aim for PM’s chair. He lost too heavily against the prime ministerial candidate and so did all but 4 of his 401 candidates. He demonstrated an utmost hunger for publicity, money and power like any other ordinary highly corrupt Indian politician. Strangely he was voted to power again by the dud stupid Delhiites!

How does one define a good leader? Punit Renjen – global CEO of Deloitte, born in the small Haryana town of Hissar – believes that exceptional organizations are led by selfless servant leaders, with clearly articulated and lived corporate belief system(s). So should be the President, and/or the Chief Executive or the Prime Minister of any well-managed good democratic country, ideally speaking. Fortunately, we, in this once glorious civilization battered and looted by ill-cultured Arabs/Muslims/Mongols and destroyed economically by the British, have one now as the prime minister for the first time after 67 years of its independent, mundane and rudderless existence. Better late than never! Our compatriots can benefit only if we use constructive criticism to enable us all to transform this godsend opportunity into the advantage of one and all especially the have-nots in abject poverty!

The ‘20th Century World History’ by Clive Ponting of the University of Wales has been painstakingly-written treatise with faithful chronological account of the century gone by. He wrote: "Most of the world’s people throughout the century lived under regimens that repressed their own people, 100 million having been killed by their own governments. Only a handful lived in decent democracies although number of independent States rose to over 190 in 1990 from just 45 in 1900 – half of them coming from Latin America then!’ Times don’t appear to have changed for the better. Fundamentalism and terrorism that started taking roots during the last few decades of previous century are firmly in place in the present one thanks to the ambiguity of the most powerful country that does not appear to have a vision or foreign policy!

How can one define the contemporaneous times? These may be the present and/or the most recent times in a life cycle. In March 2015, Monica Lewinsky answered that during her TED talk in Vancouver while addressing her experiences with hostile bullying she was made to face. What she had to say is important — for those of us who cover politics, the politicians who get covered and the people like Lewinsky just caught in the maelstrom: "For nearly two decades now, we have slowly been sowing the seeds of shame and public humiliation in our cultural soil. Gossip Web sites, paparazzi, reality programming, politics, news outlets and sometimes hackers traffic in shame. Public humiliation as a blood sport has to stop. We need to return to a long-held value of compassion and empathy." [The Washington Post]

History being the ‘biography of the minds of men’ may be a great equalizer and leveler but has always been perceived differently by contemporary men/historians. Sometimes, history is made to be forgotten. Those who forget will lose their right to write history. "India is known for its sacrifices... One can fight for oneself, but to die for others is different," Modi said in Paris on 12th April 2015 while recounting the contributions by Indian soldiers in wresting French liberty from Nazi Germany in WWII. Unfortunately, in his country with one of the oldest civilizations, its historians failed miserably to record the sequence of events correctly and faithfully. No official version is available on Emperor Asoka-one of three greatest generals, born after Alexander but long before Napoleon. Our history has been harmfully, harshly and heavily distorted and twisted to our disadvantage: first by courtiers of Sultans; then by British colonists who wanted us to look silly: now by INC and its offshoot, Congress (I) and ‘left liberals’ for wrong reasons. Ironically the Congress aped its colonial masters for fulfilling its nefarious ulterior ends. What sentiment of nationalism and patriotism can the post-independence generations carry when they are denied the true accounts and deeds of countless freedom-fighters and young revolutionaries who fought the British tooth and nail from our soil and from foreign lands forcing them to flee its ‘Jewel in the Crown’!

Gandhi’s extreme pacifism under all circumstances is as close to evil as it can be. Markandey Katju, the Chairman of Press Council of India and a retired judge of the Supreme Court, even calls him a British agent. Still a lot is attributed rightly or wrongly to the man who mesmerised the masses and was the unquestioned dictator of the party without even being a Four-Anna member after 1934! His toothless smile appears on our currency notes. A light-hearted comment, to a comparison with the picture of a rather serious looking President Abraham Lincoln on a $5 bill, states: Indian women keep their money close to their chest but the Americans keep few currency bills in their wallet but more commonly use plastic currency!

On 24th October 2014, (the anti-Modi) Firstpost posted an unusual report: ‘RSS mouthpiece suggests Godse chose wrong target – Gandhi instead of Nehru’. "Kerala’s RSS unit published an article in its mouthpiece ‘Kesari’ on the Congress’s efforts to distort our history. That work highlighted Nehru as the sole reason behind major national tragedies, for instance the avoidable Partition of the subcontinent; Gandhi’s assassination; Kashmir imbroglio; 1962 debacle vis-à-vis China. B Gopalakrishnan goes on to say how Godse was a better person than Nehru. The latter psychologically killed Gandhi but the former ‘pulled the trigger on (politically dead) Gandhi’s chest after a respectful bow. It was unlike Nehru who stabbed Gandhi from behind and greeted him from front’. The implication is that Godse should have targeted Nehru. A report in ‘The News Minute’ quoted the author as saying: If history students honestly verified the historical facts before partition and also the views of Godse, they may arrive at the conclusion that he had chosen the wrong target. Nehru indulged in dirtiest politics during Partition. The article spoke about how Nehru clinically (sterilized) eliminated Gandhi from the last round of talks with the British for his petty (totally personal) ends. A highly self-centered and selfish Nehru merely wanted Gandhi’s khadi and cap as the symbol for the Congress. A report in ‘The Deccan Chronicle’ proved that Godse was not a RSS swayamsevak as deceitfully propagated by Congress and its dynastic heir apparent Rahul (who is facing a court case on this) and that RSS had nothing to do with Gandhi assassination. Of late, an opinion is gaining ground that Godse was more nationalist than Gandhi. Efforts were afoot to celebrate the day of his hanging as the ‘Balidan Divis’ [Day of Sacrifice] on 15th November from this year onwards.

Exactly a month earlier, Wednesday, the 24th September 2014 became a day written in golden letters for India by witnessing two landmark events:

One: Hindustan and her ancient wisdom, traditions and pluralist ethos live on in our hearts whether we live in India or anywhere in the world. Our genius is evident and reflected even during present times! The ‘Mars Orbiter Mission’ (affectionately nicknamed MOM) settled into orbit on that morning, as planned, allowing the country to join the USA, European Space Agency, and the former USSR in the elite club of Martian explorers. It is a major fete for a developing country of 1.27 billion people, most of whom being poor. India has a robust scientific and technical education system that produced millions of software programmers, engineers and doctors. With home-grown technology and a remarkably low budget of $75 million, India became the first to conduct a successful Mars mission in its maiden attempt. Over half of the previous attempts — 23 out of 41 missions — have failed, including attempts by Japan in 1999 and China in 2011. Scientists were giddy when the orbiter reached the outer sphere of Mars’ gravitational pull on Monday, when the main liquid engine successfully fired after being dormant for 300 days as the satellite traveled 666 million kilometers (413 million miles) since breaking away from Earth’s gravitational sphere on 1st December 2013. The Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) confirmed that MOM had a perfect burn for 4 seconds as programmed that adjusted the spaceship’s trajectory. PM Modi joined scientists at the agency’s command center in Bangalore to monitor the satellite’s final insertion into orbit on Wednesday morning. The 1,350-kg (nearly 3,000-pound) orbiter would join NASA’s Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution mission, or MAVEN, that reached its position around the Red Planet on Sunday for a price tag of $671 million — nine times that of MOM’s!

Two: Besides this stupendous achievement, we have a darker side too! CJI-led 3-judge bench of the Supreme Court quashed allocation of all but four coal blocks allotted to various companies since 1993. Out of four blocks retained: one belonged to NTPC and SAIL each and two to Ultra Mega Power Projects. Consequently, the NDA government had to come out with an ordinance to safeguard the interests of the country and penalize the guilty allottees.

Thus there was total breakdown of individual and collective responsibility during the decade-long UPA regime led by an ‘economist dummy’, rudderless, spineless, meek and weak PM who, being totally overawed, worked under the diktat and shadow of his boss, an Italy-born Sonia and her immature dud son Rahul who proved to be a liar par excellence much like most of their sycophant ‘stalwarts’ in his party from time to time. This is terrible for the country and her citizens. This guy is slated to head the Congress party soon. For heaven’s sake, we are bad enough as we are but with this guy at the helm, we will plumb the depths. Such a realization has to dawn upon people the soonest if we have to move forward. Dr Subramanian Swamy was probably right when he said: "If Rahul can fill his Nomination Form by himself I will quit politics." We saw Congress VP signing the condolence book at Nepal Embassy in Delhi by reading written notes from his cell phone. ‘Rahul at it again! OMG! Is this guy real? Unbelievable, he even needs assistance in signing a condolence message’. There was a text about Rahul making rounds on WhatsApp during those times: "Friend, were you an idiot by birth or have you done an advanced course (in idiocy) from some good varsity?"

Right from the hay days of their fore-father Gandhi, the Congressmen being not so nationalistic but corrupt proved to be liars par excellence besides having been cheaters and crooks. In Lalit Modi affair, during June 2015, the sycophants of the dynasty namely Chidambaram, Khurshid and Throor concocted a superbly fabricated story about Union external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj. Closer scrutiny revealed the outgoing Congress-led UPA government at fault. It is utterly surprising to note that Lalit had to leave the Indian soil in 2010 under threat to his life by Dawood gang after the then Congress PM failed to assure his personal security. This incidenent reminds us of one instance in every decade when the Congress governments under ‘worthless’ PMs enabled a safe passage to white criminals of foreign origin: Warren Anderson, CEO of infamous Union Carbide of momentous Bhopal Gas Tragedy notoriety in 1984 by Rajiv; Sonia’s close friend Ottavio Quattrochi in 1995 by Narasimha Rao; and Kim Davy who dropped weapons in Purulia, Bihar in 2006 by Manmohan.

Do Congressmen have a colonial mindset, subordinacy and weakness for the owner of party? It is the sheer misfortune of Congress party to have pygmies and sycophants (chamchas) rather than men of substance ever since August 1920 when the so called Mahatma took over its reins, made it into a proprietary firm and started dictating terms. There have been very few true leaders of some mettle and real substance. Alas! They were allowed to function in the mainstream by mediocre proprietors of the party. Just to quote two instances in full public view: On 9th December 2015, Narayanaswamy, a minister in chamcha Manmohan’s UPA was seen placing chappals under Rahul’s feet in Pondicherry; forty years ago UP CM ND Tiwari did the same for his uncle Sanjay during ‘Emergency’ imposed by PM Indira by suspending the Constitution of India purely for personal and selfish gains just to outdo her disqualification by Allahabad high Court!

Do Congressmen have any ethics and morality? Did the owners of the party possess any birth-right to misgovern Hindustan? Even today after the decimation of his party in the last general elections, Manmohan continues to sit in the parliament like a Madam Tussaud wax figure: expressionless face, eyes unblinkingly staring in front, and making absolutely no difference and no contribution at all to the House proceedings. Fortunately, this totally useless person’s diagonally opposite successor – a staunchly nationalistic and honest man with a vision – is having a clear road map in proceeding with assistance to all concerned from the most meaningful and powerful PMO. Congress, et al, would not like him to contribute. Their cause was not helped at all by the ten-year lusterless tenure of Manmohan marred by numerous corruption scandals, many of gargantuan magnitude typical of his UPA dispensation, and hazy/opaque conduct due to policy paralysis and lack of vision, political will and action that have been adrift in the run up to 2014 general elections leading to the worst ever performance so much so the party could not even qualify for ‘leader of opposition’ position in Lok Sabha. The Guinness Book of Records is unkind to Manmohan by NOT including him by denying him the title: King of Scams he so richly deserves!

On 1st February 2014, a (retired) senior functionary of IB confided with me that Sonia was clear in her mind that Congress might not get over 60 MPs elected during the last general elections. When questioned, this gentleman was confident that the tally may not touch 50. How dead right he was! While Chidambaram refused to comment on the leadership provided by Manmohan, he did say his ‘personal opinion’ was it was time ‘to hand over the torch to the younger generation’ – a typically classical sign of sycophancy of Congressmen. That is a clear expression of the mindset of a typical low-caliber Congressman, overawed by sycophancy (chamchagiri in Hindustani) to the hilt towards dynastic autocracy that has prevailed all through the history of Congress from one (MK) Gandhi to another (Sonia) Gandhi. Call it pragmatism, reading the writing on the wall, or defeatism, for them to say so is hugely significant. A television discussion on 10th November 2013, where Mahatma’s great grandson Rajmohan Gandhi’s recent book on Punjab was being discussed, pointed that against the backdrop of Indians no longer interested in issues such as communal tension or secularism, the citizens wanted only development, economic growth and meritocracy rather than buttering. Still, ignoring the writings on the wall, another Gandhi kin Tushar Gandhi continues to blow his trumpet for his ancestor’s ‘family firm’ in sheer doldrums!

India was finally on the reforms path once again. Modi Government boldly bit the bullet for the sake of the nation’s future. On 18th October 2014, just a day before results of the crucial assembly elections in Maharashtra and Haryana where Congress was entrenched for 15 and 10 years respectively were to be out, the Government kicked-off the much-needed reforms Yatra (path) by deregulating the diesel price, besides approving a new gas price policy and ensuring that the benefit of the LPG subsidy in cash directly reaches the consumers. With that the Modi Government has proved that it will do everything to usher in a higher growth plane. The good news of reforms came from Union finance minister Arun Jaitley: Henceforth, like petrol, the price of diesel will be market-determined. We decided to reduce prices and in Delhi the price of diesel will go down by rupees 3.37 per liter from Saturday midnight," said B. Ashok, the chairman of Indian Oil Corporation that is the country’s biggest fuel retailer It is noteworthy that diesel prices fell for the first time in five years and continue to fall – benefitting the man on the street! The downward trend in petrol and diesel prices continued unabatedly during 2015!

Just look at the historical perspective of Asia’s three largest economies. Japan lost its entire industrial base during WWII. Many cities were obliterated including the largest industrial complex of Mitsubishi at Nagasaki. A large proportion of the working population was killed. Growth in the 1950s started from a very low base. It continued until Japan became the world’s second-largest economy in the 1980s. Since then, growth has stagnated. Between 1930 and 1948, China suffered civil war while also fighting the Japanese. After Mao Zedong came to power, famines and political purges and social cleansing led to 10 million deaths or more. Mao died in 1976. In 1979, China liberalized its economic policies. It has since grown very fast to overtake Japan and become the second-largest economy in the world. In nominal terms, India’s economy is one-fourth as large as China and one-third as large as Japan. India only started liberalizing in 1991 and that too half-heartedly. The macro-economic growth pattern has been quite similar. Today India is more or less where China was in 2001. However, researchers also point out key differences: China had far superior literacy rates and far more female workforce participation in 2001 than India does in 2014. China followed a manufacturing, export-oriented growth model from the 80s onwards. It exploited its much cheaper labor to gain market share versus other export-oriented nations like South Korea and Japan. Now, it is much more difficult for India to compete on these fronts 30 years later! During this period China has accumulated huge foreign exchange reserves of well over trillion dollars and the gap vis-à-vis India is ever widening. Moreover, today the cheap-labor driven export-model has multiple players – Indonesia, Bangladesh, the Philippines, Thailand, etc. China also got a lot of FDI from its well-established overseas Chinese businessmen. India’s upper-crust NRIs are mostly professionals, and they might not be able to match this. India will have its work cut out emulating China. After all the financial strength is the greatest security!

The much-hyped ‘English-speaking’ large Indian workforce is under-skilled. The education system is in a shambles and might not respond effectively to the need to teach labor new skills. In China, the literacy levels were always higher than in India during the past half century. Building scale in new manufacturing areas requires years of effort; need changes in social behavior, labor laws, land laws, etc. The pace of movement in such areas has been very slow. While these things could improve, India’s growth is more likely to be driven by the positive trends that are already evident. There are pockets of excellence in industries, where India is export-competitive, such as IT services, bulk pharmaceuticals, automobiles and auto-ancillaries. There is a huge, under-served domestic market for many services and different types of goods. As poverty reduces, there will be fortunes to be made catering to the lower end of the pyramid to which PM Modi has started to cater. His ‘Jana Dhana Yojana’ allowing have-nots open zero balance accounts with compulsory rupees 100,000 accident insurance on a premium of rupees 12 per annum; and life insurance cover for the same amount on a premium of same amount per month met with roaring success. Modi’s policies of financial inclusion for the poorest of the poor have enthused European nations to follow! There is a massive shortage in physical infrastructure and efforts are being made to address this deficiency. India hopes to tap America, Australia, Canada, China, Germany and Japan for the money and technical know-how.

India’s low ranking in parameters such as global competitiveness (rank 71 out of 144), political stability (rank 123), ease of starting business (rank 128), school life expectancy (rank 109), pupil-teacher ratio (rank 108), knowledge absorption (rank 122) and the art of giving (where our neighbor Myanmar is #1 with nine out of 10 adults donating money to charity and half volunteering their time) 106 out of 145 has been instrumental in its downward journey.

India ranked 66th among 142 countries across the world on their innovation capacity and efficiency as published by Cornell University, INSEAD, World Intellectual Property Organization and Confederation of Indian Industry. This is because we Indians are basically dishonest and possess other characters like being rather callous, corrupt, divisive and selfish, insensitive to others including elders and females, lacking etiquette as well as civic sense and, above all, not too much bothered about our own country. Thus to talk of nationalism or patriotism will be a farfetched proposition. PM Pieter Necas, in a small European state of Czech Republic, resigned in June 2013 following a graft scandal. However, our dishonest PM, a globally acknowledged ‘king of gargantuan scandals’, refused to remit office! On 24th September 2013, his cabinet issued an ordinance undoing 11th July Supreme Court order depriving MPs and MLAs of their membership if convicted in a court of law. UPA wanted corrupt politicians to continue in office. This happened after the UPA government failed to get it passed in Lok Sabha.

The massive national calamity in the hilly northern state of Uttarakhand a few days later causing unprecedented landslides and washing away of practically whole or parts of towns in the Hindus’ sacrosanct ‘char dhaam’ area (Kedarnath, Badrinath, Gangotri and Yamunotri) following heavy monsoons yet again after 1978 proves a well-known nexus between corrupt politicians and greedy builders. Media pointed to a rampant construction, excessive mining and multiple power projects in the northern Himalayan states contributing to the disaster caused by monsoon floods. Newspapers criticized the government for using the convenient option of calling the floods nature’s fury in the states of Uttarakhand as also in Himachal Pradesh whereas the facts point to the contrary. The similar type of unprecedented calamity multiplied several times occurred in J&K exactly a year later caused by unprecedented heavy monsoons causing flooding of the Jhelum and the Chenab resulting in inundating huge areas in deep water leading to colossal damage in terms of lives and materials – the worst in 109 years. Why does this happen again and again? Arrogant, autocratic, vastly non-nationalistic and least patriotic Congress and like-minded parties’ CMs in many states don’t act on the information provided by Meteorological department and activists since they have to fill their deep pockets!

Two years later, RTI activist Bhupendra Kumar extracted information after protracted perseverance that can shame the bureaucracy of any country but much the less of the most corrupt India. Whereas the residents and tourists were fending for their lives and survival, the bureaucrats were making merry by feasting on public money with the connivance of the corrupt Congress politicians. They claimed rupees 2.5 million by way of expenses producing highly inflated bills. Their conduct speaks volumes of the generally corrupt and insensitive nature of our administrators supposed to help and protect the public at all times but more so when countrymen are in distress. Few examples are sensational: They feasted on chicken/mutton; even the juniors putting in hotels at rupees 7,000 per night; buying milk at rupees 388 a liter against normal market price of <30; getting the fuel tanks of their vehicles including two-wheelers filled with gas; and so on. The irresponsible Congress CMs were all in praise for the equally irresponsible subordinate babus. Many a time, they showed in their books that the work was completed even before disaster struck! This was a classic example of our immoral character and conduct.

We Hindustanis care a hoot about our compatriots. The tribals are fighting to stay on their ancestral lands, or those who find themselves living in the backyard of a nuclear power station fighting to keep radiation at bay, or communities being implicated in crimes they did not commit, etc. The government estimates over 6,200 Indians currently languishing in jails in 72 countries with 1,534 being lodged in Saudi Arabia: A woman domestic servant’s hand was chopped recently for no fault of hers; and yet another man without any substantiated crime is under threat of beheading and crucifixion in that rotten Arab country. Women are harassed and raped not just in obscure villages, but on the streets of our most sophisticated cities. Its national capital Delhi aptly happens to be ‘rape capital’ We do not respect women for many (nearly 500,000) female fetuses do not see the outside of a womb, many female children are fed less than male children, many female children drop out of school earlier, and so on. Ergo we have to change the society and its deep-rooted sexist stereotypes before trying to do anything about reducing rapes. Subcontinent’s first great statesman Chanakya once said 2,300 years ago: The ruler of any country that insults the females must be destroyed! Did we learn anything from him? Every female or female relative of anyone is a potential or actual victim in India – the perpetrator is not some drunken lout with twisted mindset. One reads of district labor court judge or an assistant commissioner of police as accused in two rape cases.

Immorality is rife. In typical display of duplicity of our character we blame it on western culture for no rhyme or reason. Even an octogenarian senior Congress leader, a former Union minister and a few-time Chief Minister of two states, had to resign governor-ship for his amorous acts, and had to be ordered by the Supreme Court to submit for DNA test in yet another case of disputed paternity for illegally fathering a son outside his marriage. In India, the authorities are infamous for not moving in the right direction unless some external pressure is exerted. That external pressure can only be us, the public, who stand to lose the most. Aamir Khan has promised to lead a campaign against this carelessness of the government vide his much awaited program, ‘Satyamev Jayate’ which started on the national television on 6th May 2012. It was a roaring commercial success although it was discovered that Aamir Khan is not that nationalistic after all when he became one of signatories for the mercy petition for traitor Yakub Memon, besides a sizeable number of Muslim or half-Muslim actors in addition to a number of Congressmen Muslim or otherwise and even retired judges besides others in a total of 45 signatories in all. Bollywood actors only work for money and publicity! They continue to fool the gullible public, much like the politicians ever doing it since independence.

A staunch nationalist felt that India’s image has taken a severe beating after a spate of high- profile large-scale scams and scandals under a supposedly ‘honest’ prime minister was made public since 2010 and said: Earlier, we only had to be ashamed of our countrymen going hungry, selling their babies, committing suicides out of desperation, and living like animals in fetid slums while their children died of disease and malnutrition. Now we have other things to be thoroughly ashamed of. India is facing problems familiar to the ‘third world’ thanks to the lopsided priorities in handling the affairs of the country by all the Congress PMs, from Nehru onwards. We in India dislike this term preferring to call ours a ‘developing country’ though with hardly any significant path-breaking development/ achievement during all these years.

What are these issues? The important ones dragging country’s reputation internationally and the quality of life of her inhabitants domestically are manifold: outmoded, decaying or non-existent infrastructure; grossly insufficient investment in public good and welfare; tardy/proper implementation of the few laws enacted for the public welfare; lack of access to quality education and healthcare; outdated archaic laws enacted by the colonial rulers in the 19th century; vastly increasing rich-poor divide with ever growing hunger, poverty and unemployment or underemployment; inadequate governance or even non-governance with abounding ever increasing and widening corruption in practically all walks of life resulting in numerous scandals eating away mind-boggling enormously huge sums of money; stashing huge amounts of black money in foreign tax havens; grid-lock in the political system in even addressing such vital issues; anti-national and partisan attitude of many political parties favoring a particular religion; and existence of leaders creating a wedge between the vast original population of Hindus (80 percent) and the next largest population of Muslims (16 percent) with their concerted efforts, along with appeasement of the latter only to satisfy self-serving political agenda of vote-bank politics. In spite of the backward bending by the Congress, Muslims as a community may be more backward than the other communities. Degradation had reached a nadir with Congress president or ‘super prime minister’ of the erstwhile UPA government along with her son and inner coterie allegedly consisting of top ten of her sycophants and looters of nation’s wealth constituted the ‘dirty dozen’ raising the charade of saffron terrorism accusing the 80 per cent population comprising of Hindus belonging to the peace-loving oldest religion of the world. The problem (media bullying): the sparsely-educated Italy-born Sonia is Roman Catholic by faith and upbringing. Hence she and her good-for-nothing son are averse to basic tenets of Hinduism being unable to understand fine nuances.

Technology is ruling the roost today in this world. Basic education as the top priority was never an option for our PMs starting with the first! Modi’s ‘Digital India’ if properly implemented will be the right step in this direction. So are the social networking sites: Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Linked.in, Yahoo groups, Shyte.fam, Skillpages, and others. The first two are extremely popular in India too since believe aping the West without going into her nuances. So much so the younger generation is agitating that they have the right to express their love publicly. There have been umpteen tamasha (sham display) shows in Bangalore-the IT hub and Delhi-the rape capital. This led to clashes with the vast majority of thinkers/followers of our age-old culture (sanskriti), way of life and the police. Like internet, the greatest invention of modern times, Facebook is also being misused by criminals. "Sex Trafficking Gangs are using social media sites (such as Facebook) to lure young women into crime and prostitution", the head of European policing agency Europol said on 25th November 2014. Rob Wainwright said traffickers were drawing victims in by posting advertisements for childcare or cleaning vacancies and once ensnared, controlling their movements with web chats and webcams. They are using modern technological tools to more efficiently monitor an increasing number of victims. So, instead of paying them a visit every day they can use web chat services and also webcams to confirm that they are where they should be, in that brothel waiting for the next customer. In the past pimps and traffickers had to do that by physically visiting them. Now they can just do it at the click of a button and therefore control 50 victims much more easily and readily in virtual form, Wainwright told the ‘Centre for Social Justice Think-tank’ in London. The police chief said criminal gangs regarded trafficking as a low-risk, high profit venture generating c$150 billion a year for criminal gangs. Most of Europe’s estimated 500,000 victims are from Romania, Bulgaria and Hungary with Britain, Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands the most likely destinations. It is not uncommon to see their sisters in the Indian financial capital looking for insignificant roles in Bollywood. Failing that, they are lured into the illegal ‘sex traffics’ since they have to earn more than what they can make in their own country.

We in Hindustan are supporting an ever increasing gigantic population on less landmass with a struggling economy. The famous American ecologist, Garrett Hardin once said, A finite world can support only a finite population; therefore, population growth must eventually equal zero. Unless that happens the land will become grossly inadequate e and that will happen first in India as the density of population is the highest even 2.33 times as compared to the most populous country of the world and there is no effort at all to curb population growth. What is most disturbing is a very high rate of population growth and government’s apathy/inability to counter that. This is the real cause of all our maladies, economic or otherwise. Coupled with the vice-like hold, influence and sway of the inept, corrupt and useless politicians, this forms the basis for keeping the country at the bottom of any development index globally. China is the only country where Communism and hence dictatorship are ‘flourishing’. It is bringing about a rapid industrialization and infrastructural development. India and China have to make concrete progress with regard to the border issue, addressing the trade deficit, and facilitating people-to-people interactions. This has to happen in the next two or three years. America and India are democracies albeit with different models with the latter hardly making any headway in terms of real democratization or even improving the lot of the teaming poor especially in the areas of education, food intake, healthcare, and living standards. It may be interesting to view these first three most populated countries of the world in terms of some important parameters on the commonalities or contradictions and differences or distractions. If ownership of cars is a parameter, the number of cars per 10,000 persons is 12,128 and 765 respectively. We have to travel far! It may not be fair to compare with leading contemporary economies of the worlds. But one of the objectives must be to draw some ‘lessons’ from the progress made by them.

Are we Hindustanis hypocrites? Recently there’s also been some schadenfreude in the air watching our former colonial master prepare to ‘partition’ its own country! For many people in India and elsewhere on the earth, the idea that the UK was about to give away some of its territory voluntarily – and because the British prime minister allowed a vote – was hard to comprehend. Fortunately, Britain could not replicate her forced fate on the subcontinent 68 years ago and that on Ireland even earlier since 55 per cent of the population voted for keeping status quo on one fateful day in September 2014! However, the colonial laws she introduced in the subcontinent over century-and-a-half ago have continued all these years. The Union law ministry, in consultation with other ministries, identified 1,094 laws which can be repealed. Modi government has identified 287 obsolete laws for scrapping in November 2014 (winter) session of parliament. The ‘Treasure Trove Act’ is an 1838 law that says property in an area of the former imperial capital of Calcutta can only be sold to the East India Company, which ceased to exist more than 150 years ago. An 1855 measure removing a certain tribe from the purview of local laws because it was an uncivilized race will also go, the report said. There are other laws that say flying kites without police permission is illegal across India and a World War II decree that outlaws dropping of pamphlets from the air in Gujarat. Another law says that motor inspectors must have a clean set of teeth and anyone with a ‘pigeon chest, knock knees, flat foot and hammer toes’ will be disqualified. The report quoted economist Bibek Debroy as saying: There are instances where the entire statute is dysfunctional. This is India where the law makers never thought about their countrymen for 69 long years when they sat down in the Constituent Assembly to draft a Constitution for the divided country!

Soutik Biswas, India correspondent of BBC once wrote: "We live in a country where the right to be offended has become a fundamental right. Taking offence is a competitive sport in this country. Whether it’s books, paintings, films, we are trigger-happy about demanding bans at the drop of a hat. It could be Muslim organizations calling for a ban on Kamal Hasan’s Vishwaroopam because they don’t like how their community has been depicted. Or, it could be a political party like Congress up in arms about the Punjabi films ‘Kaum de Heere’ (Nation’s Diamonds) saying it glorified PM Indira’s assassins and 1984 (treacherous highly condemnable behaviour of Congressmen and their subordinate/subservient most corrupt police in Delhi and elsewhere). Orthodox Hindu groups attacked Deepa Mehta when she tried to film ‘Water’ in Varanasi (after its heroine Shabana Azmi had shaved her head off for the role). That film was secretly made years later, under a different name, in Sri Lanka. A group of barbers protested against the Bollywood film ‘Billu Barber’ which was eventually released as just ‘Billu’."

Most of us were never made fully cognizant of our ancestry and heritage nor do we make conscious efforts of learning the same. My countrymen especially those born after independence do not know nor appreciate the tremendous sacrifice by tens of thousands of young Hindustanis who never bothered for their comfort or chair (unlike Gandhi and his henchmen) and shook the foundations of the British Empire! We Hindustanis care a hoot about our compatriots especially the elders and the females and about our country and its heritage structures. MSN News substantiated the latter on 8th June 2015 with a news item, ‘Legacy of Nizamuddin dargah crumbles as garbage robs shrine of its glory’: "If the wafting aroma of biryani and kebabs accompanied by the scent of rose petals and incense sticks doesn’t get you, then the stench and sight of trash definitely will. All around, the age-old walls are crumbling under the weight of unauthorized construction and the incessant spawning of roofs and new shops. Windows have been drilled into the ornate walls and the stones that, through their innate character, narrate 700 years’ stories have lost character. Through sheer neglect, deep wide cracks have besmirched the rich calligraphy and floral motifs on the walls. This is the current state of the holy site of Hazrat Nizamuddin’s dargah [Shrine], which is Sufism’s most revered place of pilgrimage. Thousands from all over the world have been visiting here since 14th century, when that saint ruled the minds of people. Now, as the Centre and AAP government jostle on Delhi’s nomination as a UNESCO World Heritage City, much lies in waste and disharmony here. Looking at the shrine, one can only helplessly recall the colorful but decadent Mughal king Mohammad Shah Rangila – who in fact lies buried right next to the dargah. Amidst the accumulated filth, he would probably have said: ‘Hunooz Dilli Door Ast’ (Delhi is still far away). It wasn’t that far for the invader Nadir Shah, and hopefully it won’t be a step too far for the Clean India movement."

More importantly, the account of freedom struggle has been changed/distorted to falsely give credence to Gandhi’s borrowed philosophies non-cooperation (from Henry David Thoreau) and non-violence (from Swami Sahjanand) – an American and an Indian respectively who flourished long before Gandhi. A dispassionate critical analysis reveals that Congress, its Gandhi and his henchmen had hardly any role in gaining independence for India. They fooled the gullible masses, worked overtime for their personal aggrandizement and petty gains. Nehru who worked whole-heartedly for his prime minister-ship wrote: It is better and more comfortable to live in a jail since it gave ample time for writing books.

On 14th August 1947, Lord Louis Mountbatten read out the message from George VI, the king of England/Emperor of India, "Freedom-loving peoples everywhere will wish to share in your celebrations. For with this transfer of power by consent comes the fulfillment of the great democratic ideal to which the British and Indian peoples alike are firmly dedicated." Was it not independence of India? Or, was it merely transfer of power from Britain to her stooges in India? Obviously, Britain transferred power to its stooges as she had to safeguard the interests of 59 British companies here. Fact remains: Britain was bankrupt after WWII and under enormous debt from America; and its own forces (the army deserters and POWs joining 60,000-strong INA and revolt by 30,000 Indian sailors at Bombay and Vishakhapatnam bases) were not faithful. Matters had come to an impasse as the revolutionaries raised their heads high from late 19th century on the subcontinent and in foreign lands: starting with Gadr Movement on the west coast of America and Canada in the 1890s and number of others working from Britain, France, Germany, Japan, and Switzerland. The Raj was finding the relentless pressure too oppressive to comfortably rule her slave nation. So where was the role of Congress party?

PM Modi gave a clarion call for ‘Good Days’ (Achche Din). Indian people must be naïve to expect good days without discharging their nationalistic duties! First and foremost, we must change ourselves, the nation will then change too! John F Kennedy once said: "Don’t bother to expect what the country can do to you. You must do what you can for your country." Everyone is asking when are the ‘Good Days’ coming? The government officials who shirk work but take bribes, persons not paying proper taxes, people who come late to work or those who leave early from work, those who tease/torment females from very young girls to the elderly, those who do not send their children to school, doctors indulging in malpractices, people violating the stop signal, labor force shirking work in the factory, students running away from their studies, those who chat around or those who do not stand when the national anthem is being played, and above all people betraying the nation ask. This nonsense needs to stop straightaway! Those who are not capable of sorting own affairs or handling their homes are talking about the nation. Does not it sound funny? We have to keep our distance from all those useless good-for-nothing Hindustanis! One must introspect to see if he is a good human being, a good citizen, does his duty diligently, is honest, and dedicated to the nation. If one answers YES, only then can have expectation on ‘Achche Din’!

HINDUSTAN

The subcontinent or Hindustan as it is called since ages is known for its multi-cultural and multi-ethnic ethos, multi-dimensional land, and multi-faceted inhabitants. Ever since independence, there has been continuous aggravation in existing social and economic inequalities, levels of poverty, malnutrition, discrimination based on religion, caste and sex, intolerance and tolerance acting simultaneously. Anti-nationalism and divisionary tactics are rife thanks to prolonged Congress misrule adhering to the British policy of ‘Divide and Rule’ to its perfection! These sinister ailments have NOT been even taken note of but condoned all through the 67 years of existence of this ‘soft’ country yearning to become a well-knit nation. Why are the Kashmiri and other separatists or Congressmen like Mani Shankar Aiyar and Salman Khurshid (making derogatory statements their country on Pakistani soil) not booked for repeated acts of sedition or anti-national activities respectively? If our present Indian government has the real stuff in it and country’s interests in its mind, the proponents of anti-nationalism like Geelani, Yasin Malik, Shabbir Shah, Shahid Engineer, Asiya Adnabi, Syed Salahuddin, et al, – all Kashmiri separatists; Arundhati Roy, Azam Khan, Asaduddin & Akbaruddin Owaisi, Abu Azmi, Majid Memon, and their likes; Bollywood actors and all others signing clemency petition for saving traitor Yaqub Memon from gallows; and those raising the bogey of non-existent intolerance must be charged with sedition and jailed for life! Why can’t these traitors and their brethren supporting Jinnah’s flawed ‘two-nation theory’ be deported to Pakistan?

The ever widening gap between the rich and the poor is the most disturbing element in our society. India ‘breathes an oppressive atmosphere of social inequality’, wrote Soutik Biswas – Delhi correspondent of BBC – on 9th October 2012, quoting Pratap Bhanu Mehta, who heads the Delhi-based ‘Centre for Policy Research’. A ‘deep and pervasive culture of avoidance’ hobbles clear thinking about inequality. Everybody hopes the system will change but absolves the person of the responsibility for bringing about that change, wrote Mehta who has taught at Harvard. The scale of silence is unusual in a society which is richly plural and argumentative and has so called democratic politics. Mehta argued that social distance – caused by divisions of caste and class – reduces trust, makes collective action difficult and perpetuates inequality. Inequality also produces a society which suffers from low self-esteem. Indian politicians are reforms shy. Adam Roberts of ‘The Economist’ wrote that politicians, rattled by the defeat of the ‘most recent reforming government’ led by the BJP in the 2004 general elections, ‘show no wish to be bolder’. He felt: India’s politicians are not, by instinct, reformers. They act when pushed hard. Fewer than 10 per cent of Indians have access to the internet, though this is poised to grow exponentially in the years ahead. In a talk before an elite Delhi audience during mid-2012, Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission Montek Singh Ahluwalia said in a stunning recap of a recent tour of his to China that India is at least 30 years behind China in development. Our parliamentarians cannot even agree as to how to deal with 2G Scam or the CWG Scam, whereas China dispatches the criminals to the gallows — never to return to public life. True, China’s growth rate has fallen below double digit but it is still somewhere close to 8 per cent, whereas, India’s was less than 5 per cent during the last two financial years, slated to reach 7 per cent during the first year of changed regime under the NDA.

The most heinous incident that brought