Holi & Holidays !

Like a riot of colours is so much better than the Gujarat riots.

Even Amit Shah with all the abeer looks less dangerous.

As for his boss Narendra Modi...on Holi he has become a twitter follower of Arvind Kejriwal.

I think Modi's favourite song is this Alisha number from the 90s...Made In India.



But despite everything India's economy isn't looking up.

And every day we hear of more new taxes...cigarettes become costlier by Rs.2/-.

Its like Narendrabhai Damodardas Taxwallah Modi.

The hard truth is Narendra Modi does not know how to govern.

Not that the Congress knows any better.

Yet, people did vote for Modi in the hope that he will deliver `Vikaas'. (Development)

Instead we are caught up in cows, temples & sedition.

I wonder why Modi and all our ministers just talk on twitter....all of India is not on twitter.

If talk and bhashan's could develop India then we would have been the most developed in the world.

Just when we seem to be getting down to work then we have another mass yoga session or some Guru holding his Sabha.

Do these Guru's have a kriya for work ?

Why Can't Ivanka Trump Run For President ?

My Blue Salaam 2 - The Temple In The Zoo

By Manuwant Choudhary

India's Saffron Brigade just hate the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) and long before the Kanhaiya episode I faced their wrath once.

Here is the full story.

The Patna Zoo or Sanjay Gandhi Jaivik Udyan is Patna's lungs with its 153 acres of greens, which includes 300 trees and 800 animals and 6 species of snakes, is located bang in the middle of the city just like its airport.

As a journalist with NDTV I got this news that someone was encroaching the Zoo premises and even building a temple Brahmsthan.

So I decided to find out.

Sure enough a temple had come up and they have even broken down the zoo wall opposite the airport gate for entry to the temple.

It was  clear someone wanted to grab this prime property.

Temples are usually programs close to the communal parties.

But on inquiry I was told that it was some Shankracharya who was behind the project.

And the reason he was so powerful was because he was Lalooji's Guruji...having accurately predicted every Laloo victory.

I had finished covering the temple and interviewing the people concerned and was returning with my team back to the exit when suddenly a group of men followed me.

One person in the group loudly said, "Iss Mudde Par Mujhe bhee kuchh bolna hai.." (On this issue even I want to say something..)

I politely told him that I had completed my story and was not interested.

But he insisted still.

I kept walking.

He kept shouting.

I kept walking.

He kept following.

It was menacing..and his group looked equally annoyed with me.

But I held my ground.

It was tough but I did not budge.

I had decided not to allow a single second airtime to someone like this...when he himself blurted out..."Jaante nahin hum Kaun hain....mera naam Dr. S.N. Arya hai...."

I kept walking.

He then tells his group loudly, "Yeh bilkul JNU ka hai !"

I smiled quietly and left them fuming. (I was later told he had strong links with the Vishwa Hindu Parishad)

I then wen to to interview the Shankracharya himself...sent the NDTV visiting card only to be told the Shankracharya does not give interviews.

As I was about to leave I met a retired police officer who knew my family personally and he asked me what I was here for. On being told that I wanted to interview the Shankracharya he said he will put in a word.

So the officer went and told something to the Guruji (perhaps about my ancestry) and the Guru agreed to talk to me.

It was a decent interview and my story was telecast.

The Patna High Court intervened and stopped the temple's construction, the broken wall was repaired and the property restored to the zoo.

A day later a group of TV crew went to meet the Guruji but his supporters pelted stones at them.

One journalist called me, "The Shankracharya is cursing you...."

A few years later the Dr. who threatened me was given a Padmabhushan by the Congress Party.

But in my quieter moments I wonder what I have in common with JNU.

Sonam Kapoor is to play a JNU girl and perhaps she needs to find out as well.

My Blue Salaam (1) !

By Manuwant Choudhary

Both Kanhaiya Kumar and Narendra Modi speak with an earnestness that really scares me.

They are both eloquent and speak from the heart.

They both represent two ideologies (Red & Saffron) that has had a field day for the past 60 years and see where India is.

On his release from prison Kanhaiya Kumar made this rousing speech at JNU on Azadi....Azadi not from India but within India.

 In the same breath he spoke about Azadi from Poonjiwadi (Capitalism)

He also spoke about how he believes in the Socialist Indian Constitution.

Then he went on to Azadi from Jaatiwaad.

And almost back-to-back  he spoke about two bowls on his food platter he was served in prison - one was Red and the other Blue....he explained what he and his colleagues want...a unity between the Reds and the Blues (by blue he meant the blue in B.R. Ambedkar's flag).

An alliance between the left and the dalits ! (is this not casteism?)

Anyway even Modi talks about Ambedkar even in Shanghai for the same reason.

Azadi from bhook (Hunger) but has socialism ever solved this problem ?

Arakshan, Samaantaa, samajwaad, loktantra, des, gareeb, border par sipahi, chai-wallah, kisaan ka beta all form the lingua Kanhaiya shares with Modi.

And then the chants....Lal Salaam, Lal Salaam....like in street plays by left groups.

My blue salaam to both Kanhaiya & Modi.

My blue, unlike Ambedkar's, is of a lighter liberal shade..so don't confuse.

And the Samvidhan (Constitution) that Kanhaiya and Modi defend does not allow my Blue to even contest an election.

Loktantra..kaisa loktantra....is des mein to loktantra hai hee nahin. (There is no democracy in India)

Yes, there is a half-baked Socialism,

I recall my meeting with Minoo Masani, a member of the assembly that framed India's constitution and he told me an anectode.

Minoo Masani, "As a student in London my father asked me to meet a friend of his who was a British Member of Parliament."

British MP, "Son, what is your politics?"

Masani, "I am a socialist."

British MP smiling, "Son, if at 20 you are not a socialist then you have no heart but if at 40 you are still a socialist then you have no brains."

The MPs vision was so accurate that when Minoo Masani turned 40...as Mayor of Bombay in 1944 he wrote a book `Socialism Reconsidered' where he renounced socialism and accepted capitialism and Gandhian trusteeship as an economic model for India.