Welcome to Bihar!

BIHAR WELCOMES MAURITIUS PRIME MINISTER

By Manuwant Choudhary

A statue of the first Mauritian Prime Minister Sir Sewoorsagur Ramgoolam has been hastily erected and decked up with flowers at a very congested Gandhi Maidan-Exhibition Road intersection the unveiling of which is a main program of the visiting current Mauritian Prime Minister Navinchandra Ramgoolam.
For the Prime Minister it is return to the land from where his ancestors came from...a land from where thousands of Bihari's were taken to Mauritius to work on sugarcane farms.
They later not only worked on the farms but won Mauritius its freedoms.
Economically Mauritius grew in strength and today Bihar welcomes its own who have been successful.
But my story is not about Mauritius...its about Bihar.
Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar visited Mauritius last monsoons when the waters from Nepal drowned half its people. When he returned to a marooned people shouting for help and politics gone all wrong...and visited Darbhanga a local journalist impishly asked the chief minister, "Tab Kya-kya kiye Mauritius mein...??" (So what all did you do in Mauritius?)
While this time Mauritius is coming to Bihar...and will perhaps enjoy the winter sun here...in a few months from now waters from Nepal will once more flood Bihar and destroy the lives of lakhs of people.
And this chief minister already in his third year has done nothing on that front except distribute a 100 kilo of wheat to a marooned people who did not have the fuel to even cook that wheat!
The questions I am raising is not that we should not honour the Bihari but that we must focus on the more pressing needs of Bihar.
We will not rejoice over Presidential visits when Biharis are being attacked and driven out from Maharashtra.
India's President Pratibha Patil says nothing to prevent such attacks and sadly even the media prefers not to ask uncomfortable questions.
And does the chief minister Nitish Kumar have time for Biharis living within Bihar?
Bihar is without electricity and roads and corrupt to the core so why would an investor invest in this state?
Nitish Kumar has been chief minister for two-and-a-half years and for two-and-a-half years my home has been without electricity. The reason being a transformer of the state electricity department got burnt.
The corruption fee for replacing the transformer is Rs.20,000, which means in a village every electric consumer coughs up Rs.400 each. And if you live alone you pay all of Rs.20,000.
I refused to pay.
I met Bihar's minister for power Bijender Yadav four times and on my fourth visit he called up the chairman of the Bihar State Electricity department and ordered the replacement of the transformer.
That was six months ago. I went on an India tour and only last week the transformer arrived.
An electricity official said, "It has cost me Rs.1600 to transport the transformer from the district. You can pay at least that...but even if you don't its ok."
I didn't.
My home saw electricity after two-and-a-half years but the supply is for two hours daily only.
Still out of courtesy I thought I must thank the power minister only to find that the minister is in New Delhi begging the centre to increase Bihar's share of the electricity quota.
Nitish Kumar got an opportunity to change the old laws and signal private investments in a state which is crying for help. Power companies would come in and buy land from farmers directly without any government help or coercion and produce electricity, satisfy Bihar and even light up this country.
Recently, a Reuters correspondent visited Bihar and visited Hajipur industrial area.
A local enterpeneur from Treat icecream showed him a packet of Rs.500 notes which had just been returned by the electricity department.
Correspondent, "Oh, they must be honest."
Industrialist, "No, they returned it because it was not enough. They want more."
The correspondent visited my friends factory in his village and in the interview Rajesh said the only thing is Bihar is not Somalia. In Somalia you get shot!
I called up Rajesh to correct him that he is wrong you do get shot in Bihar.

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY

FORGET THE RAJ THACKERAYS, BAJRANG DALS AND SHIV SENA'S - A VERY HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY
PIC: BY VIKRAM KUMAR

North Indians flee violence in Maharashtra

GOONDA RAJ IN MAHARASHTRA

IMPOSE PRESIDENTS RULE

THE ONLY PERSON RAJ THACKERAY HAS KILLED HAS BEEN A MARATHI RAMESH KINI

By Manuwant Choudhary

Raj Thackerays spitting venom against those from Bihar and UP contributing to the economic growth of Maharashtra and his goons roaving the small town streets attacking innocent people are not just images...its a real situation...and latest is that people are boarding the trains. This is not just an attack on migrant labour..it is an attack on India itself.
And the Congress-NCP government is a mute spectator to the violence, just as they were to the Bombay riots following the Babri Masjid demolition. They are counting their shifting votes instead of acting and protecting the people of this country.
People in Bihar and UP must rise and vote against all parties to this violence including Congress and the NCP.
There is no reaction from the BJP either...arent noth Indians Hindu???
The only person Raj Thackeray has killed is a Marathi by the name of Ramesh Kini and why because some Gujarati builder wanted his house to build an apartment. And yes even in that case the Congress government failed to get Raj convicted.
So Maharashtra is not being built but its being destroyed.

Maharishi Mahesh Yogi

Not Just A Beatles Guru

India's Income Tax Department Drove Mahesh Yogi out of India!

By Manuwant Choudhary

I don't believe in Godmen or Gurus and as a journalist I have rather gone after the corrupt and the violent, yet the passing away of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi brought back memories of some ten years ago when I was still a cub reporter with the Afternoon Despatch & Courier. I got a call from my friend Nitai Mehta, son of the late Madhu Mehta, that an American friend of theirs had just entered India without an Indian Visa!
So I took a double decker bus to Bombay's Nepeansea Road to meet a Nancy Cook De Herrera. I asked her what she did and she replied, "I teach Transcendental Meditation (TM). And gave me a book to read `Beyond Gurus'. My knowledge of the Maharishi is through Nancy.
Nancy had visited India some 34 times in the past 30 years and she even forgot that one needed a visa to enter India. So in Bombay a policeman with a belly sat with us as she spoke to me. She asked the cop, "Do you meditate?"
Beyond Gurus has a chapter on `Selling of a Guru'! Plus how the Beatles landed up at Rishikesh and how the international media camped at the gates to get a glimpse of the Beatles Guru! And how the Indian media reported crates to beer entering the ashram for the Beatles.
Nancy says in her book that Mahesh Yogi was a shy person and did not really care for the media or how the publicity would benefit him. He just wanted to teach meditation. It took them some time to convince him that the international media deserved a glimpse of the Beatles Guru and then they would return.
So Nancy borrowed a helicopter from a Parsi freind in New Delhi and the Guru and the Beatles posed for the media in front of the helicopter. That photo made it to the cover of Time Magazine and made Mahesh Yogi famous!
But Nancy also tells us of the helicopter ride over the mountains of Rishikesh where dozens of naked sadhus came out from their caves on hearing the roar of the helicipter.
Nancy's book Beyond Guru has a photo of a naked Sadhu on the Cover taken by her son Richard who worked for the National Geographic. The story went that the sadhu was immortal and that he would never die. One follower believed that to such an extent that he took a pistol and shot the Sadhu. The Sadhu died instantly.
I asked Nancy why Mahesh Yogi left India and she replied, "Its the Income Tax department. They hounded him. I told the Indian government that for a few crores you are going to lose millions of tourists."
In fact Nancy never supported Mahesh Yogi's decision to leave India. Although she supported him in other ways when he was abroad like introducing him to Hollywood and walking across America selling an Indian Guru!
Mahesh Yogi passed away in the Netherlands at 91 so I remembered Nancy.
Nancy herself is quite a story. She was an Ambassador-at-large of the United States of America expected to promote American culture in the world. That took her to almost every country in the world and she met all the top leaders.
An event that changed all that was when she along with her husband drove across the Nevada unaware that a nuclear test was taking place nearby. Solidiers later stopped their vehicle and checked for radiation on their car. It was high. Her husband died of that a few months later.
Nancy became America's biggest campaigners against nuclear tests.
When I met Nancy ten years ago she said she was 81. I asked her where she would be going next and she replied, "Rishikesh for river rafting on the Ganga!"
I called Nitai today and asked him where is Nancy and he replied, "Going strong at 91!"
I remember when my article appeared in the Afternoon Despatch & Courier, I got a postcard from New Delhi, "Thanks, Do visit Beverly Hills!"

Congress Protects Bal Thackeray

Congress goes Communal

By Manuwant Choudhary

News today is a secular Congress Party shielding Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray in the 1992 riots.
All those who have lived in Bombay during those horrbile years will tell you how one man Bal Thackeray sitting in a suburban house Matoshri and spitting fire in a communal newspaper Saamna is responsible for the killings of hundreds.
The Srikrishna Commission set up to inquire the riots in Bombay in the aftermath of the Babri Masjid demolition at Ayodhya held Thackeray guilty yet the Bombay High court held him not guilty.
Now instead of Maharastra's Congress government appealing against that decision they are soft-pedalling the riots and shielding Bal Thackeray.
Everyone who lived in Bombay during those years will also tell you how a Congress government then simply watched as the mahaartis continued every evening with communal Hindus marching the streets and then the violence from which Bombay will perhaps never recover.
The Congress Party is as communal as the BJP.
Its not surpring why the Shiv Sena supported the Congress nominee Pratibha Patil over their own NDA nominee Shri Shekhawat.
It was simply a deal for Thackeray!

Remembering Mahatma Gandhi

Not just who killed Gandhi but why was Gandhi killed?

By Manuwant Choudhary

I have never visited Rajghat in New Delhi yet today I wish to pay my respects to Mahatma Gandhi who sacrificed his own life for our freedoms.
It is well known that Mahatma Gandhi was shot dead by a Hindu fanatic Nathuram Godse as he was on way to his prayer meeting at Birla Bhawan, New Delhi. And every year on this day politicians pay their routine floral tribute to the Mahatma and soon thereafter they get on with their business to loot this country.
Most just talk about `Who Killed Gandhi?', and not `Why was Gandhi killed?'
If you try and find answers to the second question then you will see its more difficult but let me say what if Gandhi was not killed? What would India be like today if Gandhi lived a few more years?
I would say very different.
I recall attending a presser many years ago of Sushila Nayar in Bombay. She was the sister of Pyarelal, Gandhi's secretary. She said soon after India's partition and independence Gandhi called upon his supporters to stay where they were and continue their work. Sushila herself was in the newly created Pakistan and according to her Gandhi planned to walk across the border into Pakistan.

Socialism challenged in India's Supreme Court

`Our' Socialist Agenda: the time to oust it has come


By Barun Mitra

The world has come to admire India’s democratic institutions. However, many may be unaware that in this, the largest democracy, all political parties have to profess the same political ideology—socialism. The Supreme Court has now asked the government and the Election Commission to explain this apparent paradox. Under the Representation of the People Act, all political parties in India have to pledge allegiance not only to the Constitution and integrity of India, but also to socialism.
The socialist intent of the Preamble has been extended by law to the Representation of the People Act, 1951, (RP Act) through an amendment in 1988. Section 29 A (5) of the Act now states that the application for registration “shall be accompanied by a copy of the memorandum or rules and regulations of the association…shall bear…allegiance to the Constitution of India…to the principles of socialism, secularism and democracy, …uphold the sovereignty, unity and integrity of India.”
Rajiv Gandhi’s government introduced this amendment when the ruling Congress party enjoyed three-fourths majority in Parliament. The amendment was carried without any dissenting vote.
But at the root of this change, was the infamous 42nd Amendment to the Constitution, enacted by the Congress government under then prime minister Indira Gandhi during the days of national emergency, in 1976. The Bill had proposed nearly 60 amendments—one of these amended the Preamble to the Constitution to term India a “sovereign, secular, socialist democratic republic.”
When the Janata Party formed government after the Congress lost the 1977 election, it sought to undo a lot of the draconian provisions of the 42nd Amendment, but retained the section that pertained to socialism and secularism in the Preamble. While Indira Gandhi wanted to lean towards socialist policies and diluted protection of property rights in order to pursue a more active intervention in the private sector, Morarji Desai’s government actually deleted the right to property as a fundamental right from the Constitution in 1978. Clearly, there was an almost unanimous opinion in Indian politics that socialism was the preferred path for the country.
At stake is the democratic and political process, which includes campaigning and convincing the people of any particular political ideology
However, B.R. Ambedkar, the man who helped draft the Constitution, specifically gave his reason for the non-inclusion of the word “socialism” when it was sought to be inserted into the Preamble by another member during the deliberations. Ambedkar did not want the Constitution to tie down future generations. He said in the Assembly on 15 November, 1948 : “(H)ow the society should be organized in its social and economic side are matters which must be decided by the people themselves according to time and circumstances. It cannot be laid down in the Constitution itself, because that is destroying democracy altogether… It is perfectly possible today, for the majority people to hold that the socialist organization of society is better than the capitalist... But it would be perfectly possible for thinking people to devise some other form...which might be better than the socialist organization of today or of tomorrow.”
In 1950, when the Constitution was adopted, the Preamble read: “We, the people of India, having solemnly resolved to constitute India into a sovereign, democratic republic and to secure to all its citizens…”
Six decades after Ambedkar’s caution, three decades after the amendment which added socialism in the Preamble and two decades after the change in the election law that made it mandatory for all political organizations in the country to affirm to the cause of socialism, there is now an opportunity to seriously reconsider this whole issue. The Supreme Court recently issued a notice to the government, in response to a public interest petition questioning the validity of the affirmation of socialism. The court wanted to know the practical and legal implications of having a socialist intent in the Preamble, as reflected in the RP Act.
The Swatantra Party in Maharashtra has been trying to challenge this provision in the high court for more than a decade, with little success. If all political parties are to have the same ideology, we would hardly need multiple parties. If we don’t have parties, there would be no need for contested elections. If we don’t have free and fair elections, we won’t have representative democracy. If we don’t have democracy…does this path sound familiar?
What is at stake is not whether one believes in the tenets of socialism or secularism. At stake is the democratic and political process, which includes campaigning and convincing the people of any particular political ideology; and the freedom of the people to choose from the competing policies.
Democracy is not just about majority rule, it is also about the freedom enjoyed by those who hold a minority opinion today to win over their fellow citizens. Without that freedom, democracy cannot have any substance. It is no coincidence that countries which had incorporated socialism as the only political ideology of the state inevitably degenerated into one-party dictatorship. This can’t be the goal of the most vibrant multiparty democracy in the world—India.




The writer is Director, Liberty Institute, New Delhi.
Article Courtesy: livemint