Mullaperiyar Dam:A fight for safety and water

Two most burning topics of South India are Koodankulam nuclear power plant and the Mullaperiyar dam. What is common to both? - It's the fear of death!  When the Tamil Nadu government says that the Koodankulam nuclear plant is unsafe they do not  realize the fact that it's the same fear that prompts the people of Kerala to ask for a new dam. Instead, they are assuring safety to the Mullaperiyar dam. When an eminent scientist like Dr.A.P.J Abdul Kalam ascertains the safety of a nuclear plant(He is a Tamilian) how can the people of Kerala believe the words of Smt.Jayalalitha who doesn't have a scientific background at all? These two issues should have a common solution.

Apple of discord

1. How did this issue come out suddenly from out of the blue?


This issue was not created all of a sudden. It was in the news in 1970's. It broke out again in 2002. The real problem that caused this matter to emanate is the reports that the Minister for Water resources of Kerala P.J.Joseph obtained. The analysis conducted in the wake of intermittent tremors of magnitude 2 to 3(which can not be felt really) in the Idukki district of Kerala says that the Mullaperiyar Dam which has already developed cracks, can not withstand tremors of magnitude greater than 5.6 on the Richter scale. Unfortunately, the Idukki district falls in the earth-quake prone area. This report made a new solution to the the Mullaperiyar Dam issue.



2. Why are the governments not conducting an interstate talk on this?


The Kerala CM Oommen Chandy has expressed his will to conduct inter-state talks in the mediation of the central government. However, the Tamil Nadu CM Jayalalitha says that the matter is being studied by Justice Anand commission empowered by the H'able Supreme Court of India. She wants the report by the Anand Committee to come out.

3. Then why not wait for Anand Committe report?


The right to live is an inevitable right of every human being. When an issue of serious concern is hanging like the sword of Damocles any citizen has the right to protest for his/ her own safety. Even killing an attacker for self-protection is excused by the Indian penal code. No empowered committee can foresee the timing of a impending natural calamity. Either the committee should expedite its study on the Mullaperiyar Dam issue and submit report or the central government should call off the committee and take the initiative to find an amicable solution.

4. Is a new dam essential?


Yes. As per the reports the Mullaperiyar Dam can not withstand an earth quake of higher magnitude. The arguments that the Idukki dam would be able to hold the water in the Mullaperiyar Dam in case a disaster occurs is absurd because there are many families living in the area between the Mullaperiyar Dam and the Idukki dam. No one can predict the path of a huge overflow of inundated water. It will also take away the flora and fauna in that region. It will convert the affected area into a wet land. The very same farmers who are protesting against a new dam will face the consequences of water scarcity in case the Mullaperiyar Dam breaks. There is a global forum on safety of dams. The Rio De Jenera convention has came out with a precautionary principle which says that any dam if found unsafe can be decommissioned. The environmentalists in India including Medha Patkar supports a new dam.

5. Why the Cental government is not taking initiative?


The government at the centre is already envisaging a lot of allegations of bad administration and corruption. They take this issue in a political perspective. If they extend support to Kerala's genuine demand, they will lose 39 important Loksabha seats from Tamil Nadu. But since Kerala contributes just 20 seats to the centre it wouldn't make a significant change in the centre.  The ratio 39:20 is the mathematics behinds the political stand point.

6. Is violence a headache?


Yes. There are a lot of Keralites living in Tamil Nadu and there are a lot of Tamilians living in Kerala. Moreover, since this is a pilgrimage season to Sabarimala there is a huge inflow of devotees from Tamil Nadu to Kerala. In such a circumstance peaceful protests are advised. Violence will mar the cause. Some of the political parties with vested interest are fishing in troubled waters. They spread false notions amongst the people and get them provoked. They are taking advantage of the situation and creating unnecessary division between the people of the two states. The vandalism against the shopped owned by people belonging to a different state shows the negative face of regionalism. The overwhelming emotions should not result in hooliganism. They are publishing irrelevant news saying that the people of one state is being harassed and manhandled at the other state. Such divisive anti-social elements should be isolated. 

Goodbye to Democracy, We need Election Reforms!

• Our democracy is an old hat which has just a symbolic value
• If we want to change the dirty side of India's face, we need a change
• The change that we, the people of India can bring......
• As a tribute to the martyrs who fought and gave up their lives...
• For the glory of our nation....

After reading this article, if you feel AT LEAST ONE of my suggestions is good and needed for our country please SHARE it to your WALL..or make it your status...Remember in the e-era...revolution doesn't need a person as a whole...it's the massive support to an idea that wins.......!

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            The movement Anna Hazare and his team put before us has given a momentum for all Indians to think strongly about the drawbacks of our system. One of the many placards extending support of Anna Hazare was read “Change the system”. Immediately after breaking his fast, one of the key things Anna reiterated was the need for election reforms.

            The election process in India is pivoted around the commonwealth concept of representative democracy which was once thought to save the world from monarchy and autocracy. Even though the representative form of democracy has succeeded in driving the nation for the past 60 years, can we completely acknowledge the practical side of it? What we see today is that an elected representative enjoys all privileges and takes his duties for granted. They go unasked for the dereliction of duty, influence peddling, nepotism, cronyism and willful negligence. They walk scot-free, have no qualms about wrongdoing and again get elected which bears testimony to their denigration of the democracy of our country. Of the 64 years of post-Independence era, almost 60% of time in office was directly owned by prime ministers belonging to one family and 12% of the time in office is being owned currently when the power of ruling is indirectly vesting in the person from the same family, neglecting hundreds of other eligible, efficient but unfortunate political activists. What is the term that suits the perquisite of owning a country’s political system, is it democracy or oligarchy? These criticisms take us to the need of strong election reforms in India.

            The reforms must touch all levels of election- Submission of candidature, protocols in office, performance of governance and a scrutiny of administration. The candidate must have an experience of social service for at least 10 years where social service doesn’t mean political party service. This field should be made mandatory in the submission form and the election commission should be given the right to cancel the candidature of people providing faux pas information. This will reduce the number of dummy candidates. People having criminal background, sordid history and convicted for criminal offences must be made ineligible. People accused of corruption and criminal offences can be made ineligible for election depending on whether High Court or Supreme Court finds him prima facie guilty or not. A chart may be prepared to distinguish between petty and heinous criminal cases to decide whether a person is eligible or not. A specific number of seats must be reserved for women as well.

                                                 

            India has seen power being made a hereditary title in various states and in the centre. There should be a rule which states that if a person is the Chief Minister or holding the power of any of the five major ministries of any state, his son or daughter can not take part in the elections in THAT STATE. Similarly if a person is the Prime Minister or holding the power of any of the five major ministries of India, his son or daughter should be made ineligible for participating in the elections in the CENTRE. This will not totally take away the chance of hairs who wish to pursue politics as their career since they have options in other states. Such a rule will give other eligible people an opportunity which otherwise was denied to them due to greed, selfishness and nepotism of the rulers.

            The election campaigns should be made as silent as possible. Posters, fluxes, wall graffiti and clamorous loud speaker speeches must be banned. The election commission can use the candidate fund to prepare formal notices which include name, qualification, number of years of social service, significant contributions in the field of experience and more importantly the bucket list of developments and policies he assures to bring in his constituency in case he gets elected. The national television may be used for open debates, speeches and public campaign. Open ground talks between candidates may be conducted under the vigilance of election commission or a mediator entrusted by the same. Such changes can retrench the huge amount of black and white money fled in the name of elections. It will also put stringent control over freebies and money canvassing often preferred by political parties as a method of persuading the gullible and impoverished.

            While in office, each MLA and minister should provide the details of duties he/ she has undertaken along with the deadline. If he/she fails to perform the action by the d-day he/she should be penalized with a fine amounting to a specific percentage of his income. The details of duties undertaken should be made public through an open website. Every year, the governors of each state and the president should conduct an administrative audit to decide the performance of each minister. They should be given the power to penalize all lackadaisical and delinquent ministers. If an MLA or minister is found to be failing time and again to meet his deadlines the governor should impeach him with the consent of Honourable High court. They should also be given the power to decide whether he stay in office or step down and face the investigation if one is found to be corrupt or involved in criminal offences while in office. A yearly referendum may be conducted to analyse the performance of the ruling government. Internet and mobile phones can be used for this purpose. If the governor finds the ruling government a big failure in terms of the policies and developments and if the referendum goes against the ruling government by a large ratio he may opt for mid-term election with the consent of High Court, Supreme Court and the President of India. This is a proposed method of Electronic direct democracy which has been attempted in several countries, for instance, Sweden and Switzerland which fall in the list of top 10 least corrupted countries in the world has attempted it in their political system.

            There was proposal to include a ‘None of the above’ button in the voting machine. A disadvantage of this proposal is that using this button is equivalent to not attending the election since a negative vote for all candidates never makes any difference in the final calculation. A good idea would be to add positive and negative votes for each candidate (The same LIKE and DISLIKE idea of social networking sites). If a citizen finds two persons eligible, he can opt both and if he finds none he can cast negative votes for all. This wouldn’t be a lengthy and time consuming process provided all dummy candidates are warded off based on the qualification described above. After choosing positive and negative votes by pressing a POST button at the bottom he can submit his choice.

            At present we do not have the right to elect ministers. We have the privilege to elect an MLA only and the ministers are elected by the winning party. For instance, the incumbent Prime Minister of India, Dr. Manmohan Singh has never won a Lok Sabha seat which literally means that we have not elected him. It was Mrs. Sonia Gandhi’s decision that sworn him in as the Prime Minister of India. Is it justifiable that a person who has not been balloted by a majority of citizens be handed over the supreme power of a country just because he fell in the wish list of five or six members of the high command of the victorious party? The primary election may be followed by a secondary election for electing the Chief Minister and some of the other ministers (holding the power of significant ministries which may directly affect people) with a minimum of three candidates chosen by the winning party or coalition. This might consume another important day, time, human work and additional expense, but think, which will cost us more? Leaving our country to some unscrupulous politicians and lethargic representatives for a protracted five year term or contributing one additional day for our country? It needs only a simple calculation but the result of which would be a big figure in economics.

America's dirty politics,Osama Bin Laden's death and future of Al-Qaeda and terrorism

The most hyped incident of 2011 is the death of Osama Bin Laden, not only in the broadcasting media but also in the internet arena. Osama Bin Laden is the most tweeted name last month. His death is the most discussed event in facebook and blogosphere. This news even surpassed the royal wedding in terms of the visitors count.

Has the Laden age ended? Has Al-Qaeda accept their defeat? These questions are reverberating since the world knew that he is terminated.


The world was sceptic on hearing this news beacause it was heard this news time and again but couldn't rejoice since they were confirmed to be fake. Eventhough the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) was telecasting this as a hot potato they were reiterating the need of confirmation from the authorised sources. As the world was awaiting, when the Europe was asleep Barak Obama appeared in front of the cameras at the whitehouse and announced that their long-term enemy was been wiped out in a commando operation carried out in Pakistan. They questions started arising since the word 'Pakistan' appeared several times in his speech.


This incident can be described as a pretty old story in 'Arabian nights'. A spectre unleashed by the hero is collected by the hero in a bottle. This incident is exactly the same. The Frankenstein monster unleashed by US has been killed by themselves. It is like a war in the underworld where devils meet devils. Good people are delighted whomsoever succumbs to death.


HISTORY


The history of Laden dates back to the times of cold war. The Soviet Russia was invading Afghanistan. US wanted to detain them and gave birth to Laden by invoking the hidden religious passion in him and his companions. The rise of Laden prevented the Russian army from annexing Afghanistan to their territory.


The US juggernaut started taking a u-turn once Soviet Union collapsed. US had a fear that the truth might be uncovered by Al-Qaeda which by that time has grown beyond the control of US. They were coerced to turn the daggers at Al-Qaeda whose ideology had changed from just aiding the US to a complicated establishment.

In 2010 it was necessary for Barak Obama to regain his image. He couldn't implement the change he spoke about during his election campaign. In order to get his image back it was necessary for Obama to do something extraordinary and the capture of Laden was the apt move.

 The AIM of Al-Qaeda, the word meaning "base", is to form an instituition of jihad(holy war) to fight to achieve a global Islamic khilafat. They dream about a world governed by Islamic laws and literally all citizens certified the tag Islam. The Soudi Arabian goverment has this aim atleast in their minds. Now, that is the reason for their soft corner approach to Laden. The difference lies in the methodology. Al-Qaeda forms different twigs depending on the place they want to operate. Their morphology may vary but anatomy remains the same. In India they work under the names Leshkar-e-Thoiba, Jaishe-e-Mohammed and Indian Mujahideen. They have student organisations that penetrate into campuses and tries to inject their ideas. They convince ordinary Muslim people that they are working for their social cause by exaggerating that they are suffering as a minority in the country. They try to convince them that whatever they do, evenif it is immoral, for the cause of Islam, they will reach the heavenly kingdom and they will be rewarded. This is sheer misinterpretation of Prophet Mohammed's thoughts.


HAS AL-QAEDA DIED?


Al-Qaeda has confirmed the departure of Bin Laden. This doesn't mean that this terrorist gang has been wiped out. The mastermind of 9/11 is Al-Sawahiri. He is a scholar and masterbrain behind all attacks of Al-Qaeda. Obama was rather a symbolic figure for Al-Qaeda. They are planning new attacks. They are using a wide range of latforms to spread their thoughts. On-line methods are most commonly used. Blogs and videos are highly infected with the ideas of jihad. A stringent polciy must be developed to cure this dangerous infection.

PAKISTAN'S IGNOMINOUS STANCE

It is true that Pakistan was aware about the US move to kill Laden. They were a kind of betraying Laden after offering him a safe hideout. Nevertheless they wanted to hide it from India. Otherwise India would demand an operation in Pakitan to catch the evil minded terrorists behind the Mumbai attack. They do not want this step from India.

THE PREDICTION THAT WENT WRONG - Thoughts on Sai Baba

The prediction made by Satya Sai Baba went wrong when he was finally succumbed to death despite the sincere and hard efforts taken by the doctors working under his own trust. He had predicted that his departure would occur only at the age of 94 and some months. The fortune telling just didn’t work when he had to give it up at the age of 85 even though lakhs of believers expected him to recover miraculously the way he did it ten times from cardiac ailments.

The atheists in India do not wish to praise him since they aren’t fond of the custom of ‘eulogizing’ somebody after death. The reactions say that they still stick to their opinion about Satya Sai Baba.

India is country with diverse religions and scattered thoughts. The religions are further split on the basis of caste and land. The belief doesn’t end with God. It goes beyond that. The pace of the modern life style has adversely affected believes also. We learn from Vedas that God can not be perceived as such despite His omnipresence. He takes different forms to help the suffering, anguished and oppressed human beings, called the Avatars. The sages pray for many years to get salvation. However, the modern life style has changed it a lot. People are running after short-cut methods to get their desire satisfied. When they are unable to find the presence of God they are frustrated and desperate. This hopelessness is the key for God man.

There are sages who never declare themselves as almighty. They live in fame but with a status of an adept counselor or educator. The case of Sai Baba was something different. He wanted to be known as ‘God’ or an incarnation of God rather than a man with a divine desire to serve humanity. In order to prove the element of sacredness in him, he was attempting some contemptible tricks which any magician could unveil. The production of ‘bhasma’ (holy cinders) and apple from thin air gave an impression to the common man that he is capable of saving them. Science has proved these cheap stuffs beyond doubt. It is an astonishing fact that even educated people, film stars and politicians acknowledge these treacherous acts.

Atheists are of the opinion that these self-proclaimed God men have an irrefutable role in turning millions of Indians particularly the youth into lethargic couch-potatoes who do not strive hard to achieve greater heights but seek abridged paths which they believe would be fetched by these God men. The fame of Baba arose in the 60’s when India was taking a vital turn to its path of glory, achievement and education. It is commendable that he has established hospitals, educational institutions and medical centers in the country. The trust named after him has done thousands of good things to the society as well. According to the income tax reports, his trust has a financial pillar worth 40,000 crore bucks. Doesn’t it appear a paradox that a sage who has to be known for renunciation of all worldly pleasures owns immense money in his account?

A sage believes in renunciation. Renunciation of emotions and pleasures and tying knot with prayers is the path an honest saint takes to achieve salvation. He is not interested in money, fame, or even his body. He is devoting his soul to the almighty. Baba has a shaven face with appealing red clothing and crew members to extol him in front of cameras. These are not expected of a saint. The tricks he performs remind of a magician who tries to magnetize the audience in front of him.

Anyway, he is no more. To paraphrase Bhagvat Gita whatever you earn is lost when you die. I can not guess what would happen to the misconception people had about his immortality. Some may still come out with the argument that incarnations die just like the viyoga of Sri Rama and Sri Krishna. It is also hilarious to watch channels describing his death as a ‘Samadhi’. To conclude…an era has gone, an era the description of which depends on your faith. It may described as an era in which people could witness the presence of God or his incarnation right in front of them, they could touch, feel and experience or it may be an era which utterly swindled a mass of educated and uneducated Indians which are yet to recover from the digressed thoughts and benighted beliefs.

Are we worshipping the wrong idols?

Every country has a person or few whose work, skill, service or the very presence used to be idol of the nation. They are often canonized apart from being respected and honored. As far as the Asian and African countries are concerned, many of the years of its history tell the story of invasion from the West. At that juncture, the countries annexed by the British badly needed somebody to lead them for the cause of freedom, the inevitable emotion that locates mind in a zone of mirth and comfort. As did many, and they turned out to be the father of the respective nation for the insiders and the icon of the nation for the outsiders.





If the scenario in India is analyzed, we would observe the only person who deserves to be the icon of the country is the late Gandhiji whose very name is a substitute for humility, fraternity and simple living. Half a century has passed since India won the independence and a thought on how the present generation chooses the icon of the country would be interesting.


Somebody may say the bollywood film stars reflect the identity of the country.
The truth is that most of them remain stars since the industry has been commercialized and the importance of being an actor by its literary meaning has been eroded on the course of money making efforts. If we analyze the national award winning actors’ list, we would find that only few of the so-called stars deserve the country’s supreme honour in this field.


The icons are obviously linked to the politics of the country by all means. When we talk about the icon of the youth the first name that comes to mind may be of Rahul Gandhi. People often like him because he is handsome, born to the congress family, and may become the prime minister of the country within 10 years. The simple reason the poorest and the uneducated citizen of the country loves him may be the appended word ‘Gandhi’ in place of surname. They are not concerned whether he has done an admirable service for the nation, a remarkable event that reminds his love for the common man of the country or an incident that tells his toil for the welfare of the poor in the country. In fact there is nothing to that credit. Whatever he has done so far is to uplift the party in the areas where it is hibernating and to join the youth of the country to his party by the virtues possessed by him.


The people who are often forgotten doesn’t have any complaints for not being the icons of the country because they are not greedy and the service they offer doesn’t come out of the ravenousness of fame but from the bottom of the heart.


{to be continued}