An Open Letter to Mr. Hardik Patel

Respected Mr. Hardik Patel,

I, Dip Joshi, am a common citizen of Gujarat... I would like to make it clear right at the beginning that reservations are something I don't support... I think that caste based reservation increase caste difference rather than remove them as was the original intention... I have been a firm believer that reservation should only be given to people with economically weak background... However over the last 60 years it was used as a political tool...

Now coming back to the original topic... I did not know who you were until a few days ago... And I have a feeling I will be seeing a lot more of you now... I have read that your organisation, Patidar Anamat Andolan Samiti (PAAS), came into existence less than a month ago... I believe you think that the Patidar community is losing out in the development race because of reservation quota...

I completely agree with you.... Reservations are the problem... One thing I don't understand is, if you think reservations are a problem, why are you asking for it...???
In a television interview, you said that the Government should either give reservation to the patidars or remove reservation all together...

On one hand you are saying that reservation causes problems and on the other hand you are demanding it too... If the Patidar community gets reservations, it will still be a problem for the rest of the citizens.. And the Patidar community will go from being against the problem to being a part of it... As someone who is a strong supporter of the Patidar community, why are you letting this happen to the reputation of the community...???

You claim to be fighting for Youth.. but how, by demanding reservation..???
What a joke..!!!
You should help Patel Youth in finding more opportunities instead of spreading such a disease further in the society...

I was also curious about a few thing that I saw during your rally... In a state where majority of your audience speaks in Gujarati, your speech was completely in Hindi... Who was your real audience..???
Your speech had reference about naxalism, terrorism, farmer suicide, development etc... What all this topic have to do with the development of your community...???
Your yesterday’s speech where you were showing disrespect to Gujarat CM Anandiben and our PM Narendra Modi but showing immense support for Arvind Kejriwal & Nitish Kumar is enough reason for me to stay away from any such movement... Because its not a movement, but a political propaganda for self promotion... Tell me, how is Nitish Kumar related to Patel community reservation demand..??
By the way Nitish Kumar has declared you “Leader of youth”... Congratulations on that... But i firmly believe in Chanakya's quote : “Supporter of opportunist leaders can never be trusted”....
We have seen how, in the past, Kejriwal used youth of entire nation and fooled them... How he killed a sacred anti-corruption movement for his political gains... Media is interested in this story because they like such type of negativity and it helps in gaining TRP...

Anyways, coming back to what happened yesterday... You wanted to hold a rally to demand reservations for Patidar... It is your right to demand anything you want to from the Government as long as it is peaceful... Government told you that they would give you official permission to use the GMDC ground to hold your meeting and even permitted that you walk all the way to the government office from that place... The road blocks by your supporters caused a lot of inconvenience to a lot of people but the government still let you do it...

Now You got the ground... You got the permission for a rally right through the heart of the city... You even got thousands of police personnel to ensure that no one disrupted your rally and everything was peaceful....

But you were given permission to use the GMDC ground till 8 pm... No one questioned or stopped you from using it till that time... At 8pm, when the police asked you to vacate government property, why did you not agree..???
Why are there photos and videos of your fellow patidars shouting slogans and destroying public property..???
Doesn't the government have the right to ask you to move out after the permission expires..??

You refused to vacate and so the police arrested you and took you to the police station which had jurisdiction... You were let go after sometime... But while you were in the police station, your supporters burned a lot of private vehicles and buses which belong to the city transport department. They even destroyed a few shops...

I don't see how your supporters think any of these things will help their case... If they were angry at you being arrested, there are legal ways to go about it... If they were angry that they are not in the reserved category then also there is a pre-defined procedure to ask for it.... Government authorities decide if your community is eligible for reservation... There are set guidelines/checklists to do this....

Freedom of expression is a great thing to use but Government has the right to stop it when it clearly violates other citizen's freedom to live peacefully and feel safe....
It was also great to see people come in really expensive cars to rallies and then claim to be 'under priviledged'... As a lot of people have noted, a 'show of strength' to prove that you are one of the 'weaker castes' is ridiculously ironic... If the money spent in organizing this rally was used to help the poor families of your community, no one in the community would even need reservation....

And you claim to choose this path following the footsteps of Sardar Patel, Let me take a moment to remind what Sardar Patel had said addressing students at Gujarat Vidhyapeeth on 19th Feb 1939...

"One can take the path of revolution but revolution should not give a shock to the society...
There is no place of violation in revolution..."

I hope I have made my point... I have a feeling I will see you more often atleast till the 2017 elections in Gujarat... I hope you use your power to bring positive change in the country... Youth in India rarely get this chance, don't spoil it for the rest of us... Don't malign the reputation of your community/city/state....

If you ever take start a peaceful campaign to remove reservations, I will stand by you... For now, lets stop this and bring back normalcy to our city and state...

Here's to hoping for a more peaceful tomorrow...

Thank you..

- A Common Gujarati Citizen...

Curious Case of Adil Shahryar

Amidst a washout of the monsoon session of the parliament, an interesting flashback triggered with a term called “Quid pro quo”....

Congress' accusation of Quid pro on Sushma Swaraj, came back as a boomerang... Sushma Swaraj roaring with a reply of what quid pro quo means and how Congress executed it... Mention of Adil Shahryar and Mohammad Yunus by Sushma Swaraj opened up a list of questions for this generation...

Who is Adil Shahryar...??
Who is Mohammad Yunus...??
How is Adil related to Nehru family..??

Adil Shahryar is the son of Mohammad Yunus... Mohammad Yunus was an officer at the Indian Foreign Service and served as an ambassador in few countries... Mohd. Yunus was born in 1916 in Abottabad to a wealthy family... During the fight of independence, Mohd. Yunus had become so close to Nehru’s daughter Indira Gandhi that he chose to stay in India, post partition...

Now it’s a known fact that relations between Firoz and Indira wz not at the best and both stayed in separate houses but not divorced... Mr. M.O. Mathai, then private secretary to Mr. Nehru writes in his article called “SHE” (From the Book "Reminiscences of the Nehru Age"),
“She said that when she came from her dressing room to drink her usual glass of milk, she discovered that there was finely powdered glass in it. The powder was floating on the thick cream. At the first sip she immediately sensed it in her mouth and spat it out. She said that from her dressing room, she heard her husband sneaking into her bedroom and making an exit. She controlled herself..."

Now here by the time of Sanjiv’s birth (younger son of Indira), Mohammad Yunus who had become a long time resident of Nehru House... He ensured within the first week of Sanjiv’s birth, he was circumcised on the excuse of the baby having a disease called “phimosis”... But it was carried out in Islamic tradition... This information is available in Yunus’ book, “Persons, Passions & Politics”...
Now it’s up to the us, the readers to search on who is Sanjiv’s father... As there are many articles and books available claiming that Sanjiv wz not a son of Firoz Gandhi...

[ Off-topic information; Sanjiv was renamed to Sanjay after the British police arrested Sanjiv for car theft in the United Kingdom and seized his passport... India’s ambassador to UK (name undisclosed), ensured Sanjiv’s name change to Sanjay and obtained a new passport for him...]

So now Mr. Mohammad Yunus, had another son (not from Indira) called Adil Shahryar... Adil, Rajiv, Sanjay grew up together and were close to each other....

In the early 80s, Adil Shahryar had a company called "Caribbean international Investment Corporation" which had signed a deal with "Shapton Producers" to supply video cassettes... Instead, he supplied scrap paper... Shahryar had fallen out with the suppliers and later attempted to set fire on his hotel room... He was taken to custody in Miami in 1981... He was charged with a fraud with shipping authorities as well as American Express International Banking Corporation... He was also charged with use of fire-arm while in felony... As a result, he was sentenced to 35 years in jail by the US fed court....

Here in India, on 2nd December 1984, in Bhopal, from pesticide plant of Union Carbide India Limited (UCIL), a toxic gas Methyl Isocyanate leakage caused 3700 deaths, blinded atleast 20,000 and over 5 lakh were affected adversely.... Anderson was arrested in Bhopal on Dec 7, 1984... And wz placed under house-arrest in carbide guesthouse... Within a few hours of his arrest, Chief minister of Madhya Pradesh, Arjun Singh received a phone call from Delhi to ensure the safe release and escape of Anderson back to the United States.... Point to be noted here is that Rajiv Gandhi wz the Prime Minister of India at that time...

In June 1985, Ronald Reagan Govt. in the United States, grants presidential pardon to Adil Shahryar... Also important is the fact that Ronald Reagan signed the pardon papers of Adil on June 11 1985... Incidentally it’s the day when Rajiv landed in Washington... Rajiv secured the release of Adil in exchange for the gesture on releasing Anderson earlier... After returning India Rajiv Gandhi was heard saying that “Adil was wrongly imprisoned”....

Sushma Swaraj's reply on Quid Pro Quo opened up many questions and facts which were not known to many of this generation...

References :

• http://www.rediff.com/news/report/who-is-adil-shahryar-and-why-was-he-part-of-sushmas-reference/20150812.htm

• http://www.wikipedia.org

• http://www.scribd.com

• http://www.thefrustratedindian.com/2015/08/

• Article "SHE" by M.O. Mathai

• Reminiscences of the Nehru Age by M.O. Mathai

• Book "My Days with Nehru"

• Book “Persons, Passions & Politics” by Mohammad Yunus

- Jai Hind...

History Of Nagaland and Naga Peace Accord

“The best way to destroy an enemy is to make him a friend...”
We saw this happen when the Prime Minister Narendra Modi signed a Peace Accord with the rebel Naga Group, the Nationalist Socialist Council of Nagaland (Isak-Muivah) aka NSCN (IM)... Modi government deserves all of the praise for this accord with the one of the most notorious groups in the North East region... The implication of this accord, if Nagas stick to their commitment, will be a game changer for this region... Bcz most of the development projects in NE region were hampered by such rebel unions, a peaceful NE will rapidly inch towards growth and development...

Initially, NSCN’s demands were far from reality... Demand was for a sovereign “Greater Nagalim” with all Naga inhabited areas of Nagaland, Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur and even some area of Myanmar... NSCN’s way to achieve it wz rebel and insurgency...

The Naga insurgency is not a recent issue... It is there since Independence... Under the leadership of Angami Zapu Phizo, the Naga National Council(NNC) declared Nagaland an independent state on August 14, 1947... The rebellion group grew among the Naga people... Even Phizo formed an army to fight for the sovereign Naga state...

To address the problem of growing insurgency in the NE, Indian Govt. passed Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act, 1958... Since then, hundreds have lost their lives in armed conflicts... After passing AFSPA, the Govt. always kept a door open for peace talks with rebellions... Shillong Accord of 1975 was an outcome of such initiative... The NNC agreed leave the path of armed rebel and accepted the Indian Constitution... However a faction of NNC led by Thuingaleng Muivah, was not happy with the idea of giving up the demand for a sovereign Naga State... He along with Isak Chishi Swu and S S Khaplang formed National Socialist Council of Nagaland (NSCN) in 1980... Internal conflict among the leaders of NSCN resulted in splitting of the outfit into :
[A] NSCN-IM (Isak-Muivah), led by Isak Chishi Swu and Thuingaleng Muivah...
[B] NSCN-K led by S S Khaplang...

If we look at the last two decades, we can see NSCN-IM being associated with almost all major rebellion incidents in the region...

Apart from the Indian Government, the Nagas are also in conflict with other ethnic groups... Conflict with the Kukis is the major example... The Kukis demand a Kuki majority district in Sadar Hills which is also inhabited by Nagas... Nagas claim that Kukis are later migrants to the Sadar Hills and hence it’s a part of “Greater Nagalim”...

PM Modi while addressing at the event on August 3, 2015 said that the Naga problem “is a legacy of the British rule”... It indeed is... The British had settled Kukis in the Sadar Hills during mid-eighteenth century to counter the Nagas... The fire of hatred hasn’t died since then... And There have been incidents of violent conflicts between the Kukis and the Nagas claiming many innocent lives...
( How true was Mr. Shashi Tharoor in his recent speech saying "Maintenance and even creation of religious, ethnic and communal tension in many of the coutries was a result of British Colonization...!!!!" )

The India Govt had taken numerous attampts to bring NSCN-IM to the table for a peace talk... Past Prime Ministers did their bit to restore peace to the NE India... But nothing concrete could be achieved... P V Narasimha Rao met Muivah in Paris in 1995... Three years later, PM AB Vajpayee met him in the same city... Mr. Vajpayee visited Kohima in 2003...

During that time, NSCN-IM gave up the demand for sovereign “Greater Nagalim”... In 2003, they settled for a special status within the constitution of India, which gave them more socio-political scopes... Point to note here is that Nagaland already enjoys special status under Article 371-A, which ensures that “Acts of Parliament shall not apply to Nagaland unless so decided by the Nagaland Legislature with regard to:- (i) religious or social practices of the Nagas; (ii) Naga Customary Law and procedure; (iii) administration of civil and criminal justice involving decisions according to Naga Customary Law; (iv) ownership and transfer of land and its resources”....
(Ref. OpIndia.com)

NSCN-IM now wants the enlargement of this special status... Apart from that, there were two other issues need to be addressed... First the rehabilitation of the rebellion Nagas and pending criminal case against their leaders... There was a proposal to rehabilitate Naga fighting cadre in the Indian army, paramilitary forces or state police... Dropping criminal cases against Naga leaders will not be a bad deal... It will be interesting to see if the Modi, the government has agreed to this...

On the national level, this whole episode will encourage various Naxalite groups of Chhattisgarh, Odisha, Bihar etc to leave the path of violence and join the mainstream....

Jai Hind...

With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility

Our political leaders, media persons as well as celebrities like film-stars and cricketers all have the power to drive, influence and lead public opinion... As long as they influence public opinion with a view of benefiting the nation, it's good... But what if they overlook that aspect & try to strengthen their market value... What then..?? Would their words do anything other than damaging hope, trust and faith..??

Look at the NDTV-Baba Ramdev interview that is trending on social media these days... It seems that NDTV selectively edited the interview to show Baba Ramdev as a brainless buffoon... Is it fair...??? Well, it generated TRP for NDTV and created enough likes, comments and tags on Social Media for the media house to survive another day... But what did the interview do beyond that..?? It wrecked Baba Ramdev’s image... It spread ill will against him in the society... Probably many of his followers were left wondering- Is Baba Ramdev also like any other Baba..?? His contributions in the area of health and social reforms etc. were overlooked... People began losing hope in a person who has done something good to the country... Ultimately, What purpose did NDTV’s interview achieve beyond creating doubt by damaging hope, trust and faith..???

Now think of Salman Khan’s tweet on Yakub Menon... What purpose did that serve..??? It took our courts more than 20 years to arrive at this verdict... Just think for a second, would the courts not have gone through the case details..?? Would there not be enough evidences..?? For 20 years, relatives of Yakub’s victims have died bit by bit every single day... What about them..???  Did only Hindus die in the ’93 bomb blasts, and even if that is the case, does that reduce the magnitude of crime..?? It is easy for Salman to tweet and then withdraw and apologize, it takes no efforts for Owaisi to shout that people of only minorities are being targeted but what purpose does it serve..?? Once again, it creates doubt... People think our judiciary is so incapable that even after 20 years, it cannot arrive at the correct verdict... People think our system is so unfair that only Muslims are hanged.... People just lose hope, trust and faith...

Lets spare a few lines on Arnab and his hashtags... Today's hashtag probably will be #ModiFailsIndia for the Gurdaspur terror attack.. It would generate likes, comments and retweets... People will abuse intelligence officials, ministers, government and all... What then..??? Will that solve the problem...???

Jeffrey Eugenides once said, "Fair criticism begets positive change, Unfair criticism begets ire, pointless criticism begets scorn." It is easy to ask questions, it is always difficult to answer them, it is even more difficult to take action...

It is easy for any politician to transfer blame... Kejriwal can say Modi isn’t helping him, LG isn’t helping him, police isn’t helping him, MCD isn’t helping him and so on... Modi can choose to say that Congress isn’t helping him... Congress can say Lalu-Mulayam-Nitish aren’t helping them and so on... You can have colourful Dharnas, posters and advertisements around this but who is benefitted..??? You cannot build India by shaming and naming each and every individual...
The poor still go hungry.. The homeless sleep without shelters.. The public still ride on potholed roads.. The residents still complain of overflowing sewage... All this circus for what purpose? To generate publicity and TRPs..??? To shatter hope, trust and faith..??

Hope, Trust and Faith are precious things... One doesn’t appreciate them enough as long as they are there... But when they are gone, there is no direction or promise of the future... We are already ashamed of India in so many ways- bad roads, poor hygiene, traffic, poor policing, pollution and so on.. Our public personalities are working overtime to dent the little trust that still remains... It has become a fashion to curse the system, to damn those in power, to advise those who work in the system. We need to have faith in our institutions, systems, processes, past and future... Only then can India ride confidently into the future....

To our public figures, I would like to say, Think beyond the TRPs and publicity... The nation awaits your lead..!!!

Jai Hind...

Marriage Equality in the USA & A Lesson for India

Probably the biggest news to come out of the USA in the past few days was the landmark judgement by the USA Superme Court which effectively legalises homosexual marriages throughout the country... The reaction on social media was overwhelmingly positive...

The marriage equality in the USA is rather insightful for other countries, especially India, which quite honestly has not addressed the concerns of the LGBT community... The reaction by Indians on social media has been mixed... While there is a big proportion of naysayers, there has also been an overwhelming trend to change one's display picture to rainbow colors and show one's support towards the LGBT community... Among them, a lot of these people are indeed well-meaning but some wannabe "cool" people among this "rainbow crowd" is making it rather hard to separate the grain from the chaff... If one seriously wants to achieve the same level of inclusion for LGBT people in India, one needs to first improve the quality of public debate...

The US is most certainly not the first to achieve marriage equality... A few weeks earlier Ireland legalised gay marriage... But the economic and political importance of the US makes it by far the biggest country to do so... And has placed LGBT issues on a global platform for the first time... Additionally the similarities between the US and India makes it a better of comparison than countries in Europe...

It might come as a surprise to many of the crowd that the decision to legalise gay marriage in the US has not happened overnight... If one wishes to achieve the same goal of same sex marriage in India, one has to first create a culture and society that is accepting of gays and lesbians... And give them the same respect and dignity as heterosexuals... Legal considerations aside, frankly speaking, Indian society as a whole is no where close to such levels of tolerance... 

There are two steps that India has to go through to ensure that this issue reaches a logical conclusion:

1) Remove section 377, effectively decriminalising homosexuality...

2) Create a society that is accepting of openly gay people...

Point 1 is an absolute no-brainer... But its Point 2 that is the difficult one.. And is a decade long process, probably even a generation long one... Trolling Karan Johar unnecessarily and making a stereotypical comedy like Dostana a box office success is the indication that Indian society is quite a long way away from accepting homosexuals...

Jai Hind...

A Doctor’s 35-hr Shift on 8 Bananas & Sabiston's Textbook

Doctors in Delhi went on strike asking for security, fixed hours and basic equipment. The Indian Express tracks 4 doctors in 4 very different hospitals to check on the complaints.

The following report was written by their journalist Pritha Chatterjee..

"It’s 15 days after their strike ended, and the 32-year-old is back at work at Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital, located on the bustling Baba Kharak Singh Marg in Central Delhi. The hospital gets around 20 lakh patients annually in OPD, 5 lakh in emergency, and the PG resident in surgery is among its 1,000-odd resident doctors, including non-academic junior residents.

Today Dr M’s (name withheld to protect his identity) duty begins in the surgical emergency, and he arrives at 8.50 am, bolstered for the next 36 hours that will follow with a change of shirt, his copy of the Sabiston Textbook of Surgery, three packets of glucose biscuits, eight bananas and two bottles of water.

Dr M is happy today. He has had five continuous hours of sleep.

There are 45 patients in the surgical emergency ward, sharing a total of 20 beds. Two beds are empty — left for patients who may show up with grave emergencies. Two to three patients share most of the occupied beds; a couple of them have up to four.

Dr M and other senior residents begin their round checking on the patients admitted in the previous shift. The patients here are awaiting procedures, either because the operation theatre is not free or because essential pre-surgery investigation reports haven’t yet come in.

Dr M and a senior sort case sheets in decreasing order of priority. The emergency has a single major OT, shared between the departments of general surgery, gynaecology, paediatric surgery, burns and plastic surgery, ENT and opthalmology. And it is always occupied.

There is a minor OT but that is used for mostly sutures or cleaning of open wounds.

In his first round, Dr M does four catheterisations and changes canulas on six patients. Angry relatives of two patients, both awaiting prostrate surgery and sharing a bed, demand to know why their urine bags are leaking — it’s a common problem, the doctors pacify them.

In the next 24 hours of his duty in emergency, Dr M will do at least 500-600 cathetrisations and canula tweaks alone. In a private hospital ER, both these procedures are done by nurses.

Around 10 am, Dr M scrubs in for the first surgery of his shift. It is a 32-year-old abdominal tuberculosis patient who has been awaiting his turn in the OT for a week.

The surgery lasts five hours. A usual surgery in the emergency OT takes around two hours, and there is a restless crowd waiting outside by now. It’s nearly afternoon and no patient who has come this day has been admitted so far. Dr M is sent out to pacify the edgy relatives.

Dr M shouts out to a nurse that one of the “spider lights” — placed atop a surgery OT table — is not working again. The nurse, busy filling out the fast-depleting blood transfusion forms, barely listens.

Gobbling down two biscuits and a banana, Dr M braces himself for his next shift — at the desk — beginning 3.30 pm. Six chairs are placed around a normal-sized desk. Patients who report to casualty are divided into surgical, medicine and orthopaedic emergencies. Desk duty means reviewing an average of 50 cases in an hour to direct patients where they need to go — minor OT, major OT or admission.

Police bring in two patients who have been in a brawl — one has a cut below the eye, the other above. Dr M decides to handle the cut below the eyebrow himself, and assigns an intern to the second case. “How dare you put a junior doctor on my case? Is his vision more precious?” the other patient screams. Dr M tries to explain that a cut above the eye is far easier to stitch.

The lights in the minor OT are not working, and patient beds are placed along walls with regular house bulbs aligned to illuminate the room.

At 5 pm, Dr M shortlists a 26-year-old road accident victim with blunt trauma to his abdomen as the next surgical case. The family is reasonably well to do and agrees to get some pre-surgery essential tests done outside the hospital. These would take hours at the emergency ward. But when told that even a CT abdomen or a CECT abdomen — a radiological test to see the exact spot of the injury — was not available, the family erupts, hurling abuses at the junior doctors.

It is left to Dr M again to explain that only head CT is done in emergency. Meanwhile, the patient is slipping. Doctors decide against wasting any time and wheel him into the OT. They are used to waiving away protocols such as essential tests to save lives now.

It proves to be a case of spleen rupture. It takes two hours to remove the patient’s spleen.

As doctors start closing up the patient, Dr M is sent out to calm down a gynaecology resident who has been waiting for the OT for an emergency caesarean. Every two hours almost, the ward receives a caesarean case. Caesareans always get priority, with the principle brutally simple: it involves two lives instead of one.

So Dr M and an orderly wheel out a general surgery patient — with multiple stab wounds — to first get in the C-sec.

By 8 pm, the ward is overflowing, and patients are now being accommodated in trolleys and stretchers in corridors. Dr M quickly gulps down two more bananas while running in and out of the minor OT. His textbook is always by his side. In the minor OT, doctors use the five minutes or so between cases for a quick read. Dr M’s final year exam is a year away.

At 9 pm, now 12 hours after his duty started, he is preparing for his third major case of the day. A patient has come in bleeding with multiple cuts on his wrist — a suspected suicide attempt. However, a case of ruptured ectopic pregnancy — a pregnancy in the Fallopian tube instead of uterus — arrives just then. The gynaecologists need a general surgeon to assist them, but Dr M’s seniors need him in the suicide attempt case too. So while the gynaecology resident doctor argues with the sister in charge of the OT, Dr M finishes his case in 25 minutes.

Doctors, nurses, anaesthetists are all ready for the ectopic pregnancy now, but they have to wait half an hour for the mobile ECG machine and its technician. Two hours later, at around 1 am, the patient is finally out. But the foetus could not be saved.

Dr M’s next two hours are taken up by a household burns patient. At around 4 am, a six-year-old child who has gulped two beads is brought in. Dr M had been preparing a urology case who had been waiting six hours for his turn in the OT, but again, a child gets priority.

Next, around 5 am, a 13-year-old is wheeled in. She fell from the roof of her house two hours earlier and has already been to three government hospitals. Neurosurgery residents have operated on her concussion but there are multiple wounds in her abdomen and face. With her liver and spleen both ruptured, Dr M and his senior have to take over.

As he emerges from the OT at 7.30 am, Dr M conceals a yawn. He is thinking about his first meal in nearly 24 hours. However, the nurse catches him just as he is cleaning his hands. One of the patients he catheterised in the afternoon has a leak in the urine bag again. A senior calls him to also check on a pancreatitis patient who was brought in during the night.

At 8 am, Dr M is preparing for his next duty shift, finishing the last of his bananas, when he is again summoned. A patient with symptoms of twisting in his testes had arrived with acute pain at 3 am. Doctors needed a colour doppler test to determine if the testes was retrievable, and the patient had been sent to AIIMS. He had now come back with the tests done at a private centre.

By the time doctors finish on him, it is 10 am and Dr M is late for his next shift. It is OT day, his favourite, and he skips the meal he had been longing for. Instead, Dr M heads to the emergency duty room’s washroom to freshen up. It has not been cleaned as usual. With eight hours of OT without a break ahead of him, Dr M ignores the last patient who needs suturing — telling the nurse to wait for the next shift — and hurries out. He drives to a nearby coffee shop and, while his coffee is coming, uses the washroom there.

In 10 minutes, he is back in the car. By the time he is back at hospital, he is an hour late for his shift.

The next seven hours are spent in the OT. Till 5 pm, he assists a consultant on six cases. At 5.15 pm, Dr M sneaks out to the hostel canteen. He has been told his unit head wants to do a round of the wards before he calls it a day, and he has just about time to gulp down four bhaturas with lassi — his first meal in 34 hours. He usually has dinner between emergency cases, but last night was too busy.

Through the 15 minutes of his meal, he leafs through his Sabiston to read up on torsion (twisting) of the testes. By 5.40 pm, Dr M is back with his consultant.

At 8 pm, Dr M is finally off duty. For 12 hours, till his shift in the OPD the next day.

Back to Sabiston, he smiles..."

Breaking India with Foreign Dollars

India is big... India has huge growth potentials... India has all factors in its favour that can make it a prosperous economy... But there are some huge obstacles too... The population explosion is probably the biggest deterrent.. There is widespread corruption and illiteracy... Gender bias and religious prejudices are not uncommon.. Some states are lagging far behind others.. But then any growing nation will have these challenges in front of it... India can still make it to the top in spite of all these obstacles...

And we are growing at quite a steady pace but we could have grown with faster pace, had we been free of the pests that infest the length of our country... There are Jihadists who are obsessed with blowing people and even themselves.. There are spineless pseudo-seculars... There is the biased media that lacks the willpower to present news-as-it-is... But there is one section of people who are inflicting maximum damage on the very soul of India....

I am talking about the NGOs – Non Government Organizations....

4470 NGOs in India have been delicensed this month... Licenses for 8875 NGOs were cancelled in April for violation of rules governing foreign funds... The Government of India has many more NGOs on its watch list... Let us get into the numbers and technicalities later on.... Let us first see what NGOs in India do...???

On the surface most NGOs do all kinds of "Jagat-Kalyaan" job... From empowering women to educating girl child, from conserving water to harvesting rain water, from saving forests from land mafia to protesting against big corporations, NGOs stand for the rights of the weaks.... Beneath the surface however work for most NGOs converts into technically converts into anti-India work... Greenpeace, Amnesty, ActionAid etc. are heavily funded NGOs that serve foreign interests... Their donors remain secret and their methods remain one big black box. And they are not the only ones... In the words of R Vaidyanathan, professor of finance at the Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore “Many NGOs that do receive foreign funding are not covered under the Right to Information Act... Hence, finding information about their finances becomes difficult... Additionally, some groups don’t even have websites, which only makes it more cumbersome to find out details about their finances...."

Now let us come to the numbers... Here is the breakup for the amount of foreign contribution received by NGOs in India.. :

Year 2008-09 :

Number of NGOs: 23172

Amount Received: 10997.35 Crores

Year 2009-10 :

Number of NGOs: 22275

Amount Received: 10431.12 Crores

Year 2010-11 :

Number of NGOs: 22735

Amount Received: 10334.12 Crores..

Now look at the biggest donors:

United States: Rs 3105.73 crores.

Germany Rs 1046.3 crores.

United Kingdom: Rs 1038.68 crores.

And now let us check the biggest benefactors out:

Gospel for Asia Inc, USA: Rs 232.71 crores.

Fundacion Vicente Ferrer, Spain: Rs 228.60 crores.

World Vision Global Centre, USA: Rs 197.62 crores.

When there is big money involved, there are big intentions involved too... A lot of NGOs in India are involved in paying off people for staging protests against corporations and projects.... The Koodankulam nuclear plant agitation or the agitation in Odisha against POSCO can be taken up as good case studies... Other NGOs are involved in killing the brand image of India... One example would be their desperate attempt to make India look like the “Rape Capital”. Another would be the “Minority is not safe” in Modi’s India attempt. Propagation of western style feminism can be taken as the third example. Some NGOs are conventional conversion christian schools. A percentage of the funds received is doled out as freebies for achieving mass-scale conversions. Most of the protesters protesting against government projects turn out to be hapless tribals. Upon closer examination they turn out to be tribals converted into Christians. Coincidences you see! The agenda of most of the big NGOs in India is set by foreign countries that want to ensure that India is not self-reliant. The smaller NGOs however do meaner jobs and provide an efficient way for converting black money into white. Some even allow individuals to cheat on their income taxes.

Now let us come to the technicality of it:
According to the Foreign Funding Contribution (Regulation) Act, it is mandatory for NGOs to be registered under this law to receive funds from abroad... They also need to declare their donor names. Any NGO that doesn’t fit the bill and/or refuses to comply should be closed down...

That’s exactly what Modi and Co. are doing and they deserve a pat on their backs for this... Yes, we need to empower the weaks... Yes, we need to conserve our natural resources... But we don’t need American dollars for that... A clear vision, an efficient government and a constructive participation of the citizens is all we need...

Jai Hind..

- Dip Joshi...

(Sources: Reddif India and TFI)

Why Should Modi Visit Israel..??

India has a large number of Israel supporters. Their “You hit me, I hit you back with double the force” attitude has been appreciated by a large number of Indians....

Israel has been a good friend of India since 1992. India and Israel share 23 years of diplomatic ties. India and Israel work closely in sectors of Agriculture, mining, energy and of course defense. Israel has been India’s ally in combating terrorism. While no country has supported India in its pursuit against Pakistan, Israel has been doing it for long and very visibly and vocally so. Israel provided India with images of Pakistani locations using its UAVs during the Kargil War in 1999. India may have won the war without it but it would have taken longer and would have caused a great many causalities on the Indian side. Israel supported India’s “Operation Parakram”, a limited military strike against Pakistan in 2002, by supplying hardware through special planes.... Not to forget, not many countries refuse to sell weapons to Pakistan just because they are at war with India. Israel is the ONLY one...

But what has Israel gotten in return from India...???
Hypocrisy. Oh and #PrayForGaza of course....

Yes, that's what we have been doing. We have silently been a part of the international society for condemnation of Israel. We have denied Israel of what it rightfully deserves. We have been advocates of Gaza’s rights but we have failed to acknowledge that Israel is combating against a Fanatic outfit that is on slaughtering every Israeli they can get a hold of....

But, Thanks to the first right wing prime minister from the Congress, Shri PV Narsimha Rao. It was largely because of his efforts that the relations between India and Israel normalized in in January 1992. But even he couldn’t become the first Indian Prime Minister of India to visit Israel. The fear of backlash at home was quite evident. Now the world looks up at Narendra Modi who could very well be the first prime minister of India to visit Israel. Although the MoEA clarified that it was a “proposed” visit and the details are not finalized yet....

But the critics have started to oppose the tour already...
Let's look at some comments...

Congressman Anand Sharma said “India has had a consistent and firm position on the rights of Palestinians for a state of their own since the days of Mahatma Gandhi and Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru.." He called the idea of visiting Israel "worrisome”....

The Communist Party of India-Marxist pointed out that “the current Israeli government of Benjamin Netanyahu was dominated by rightwing and Jewish extremist parties and that Modi’s Israel visit amounts to deserting Palestine.”...

And many of the other National leaders as well as Media were afraid of an Arab backlash. I am not too sure what they even mean..?? That probably means that we’ll no longer be in the good books of Arabs who give us oil and employ so many Indians. Wow! That's some logic...!!! I am not too sure if India’s largely pro-Arab stance in the Middle East has borne any sweet fruits till now? They never supported India in resolving the issues in Kashmir. They have never put any kinds of pressure on Pakistan as far as matters of terrorism are concerned. In fact they have stood by Pakistan’s side. Fine they give us oil but hey! We pay for it. Don’t we?

It’s time that Modi takes a friendlier step towards Israel. India and Israel united will be a force to reckon with. Modi must visit Israel and Israel must get from India what it truly and rightfully deserves. Israel and India need to become open friends rather than closet allies. Backlashes will happen at home, antigovernment slogans will trend on Twitter but that shouldn’t discourage the Indian Prime Minister who has come a long way jumping on the heads of critics....

Jai Hind....

Dear Deepika, Is it just #MyChoice ..??

Dear Deepika Padukone,

First of all, thank you so much for the effort. Despite your tight schedule due to your upcoming film (quite a funny coincidence), you had the time to stand up for a social cause...

Feminism is something world is going gaga about and naturally it gets attention from everyone as it is one of the major issues in the society. In attempt to address, Vogue India released a video with You on “Empower Women” message that has buzzed social media....

Here is response to #MyChoice video by Deepika Narayan Bhardwaj, where she talks about “His Choices” in the wake of “Her Choices.” Some of the choices listed by her are important, some extreme. But when it has all boiled down to absolute “individualistic decisions” and War Of Choices, humanity would suffer inevitably.

• If you have choice to wear whatever you want, he has a choice to wear whatever he wants too. Do not call him outdated if he doesn’t give in to your fashion sense. It’s HIS choice.

• You have a choice to be size zero or size fifty he has a choice too. Don’t call him baldy if he has a receding hairline. Don’t call him fat ugly old useless man and refuse to take him to dinners because you feel embarrassed. Don’t push him to join Gym/VLCC just because you want him to reduce. It’s HIS Choice.

• You have a choice to marry or not to marry. He has a choice to marry the one he wants to and say No if he doesn’t want to. He can marry a wealthy chic because he thinks it would make his life better just the way women marry rich men. He can marry a fair beautiful slim girl just like women want tall good looking guys. He can dump whosoever he wants. It’s HIS Choice.

• You have a choice to work or not to work. No one should dictate that. Well, he has a choice to earn or not to earn too. He has a choice to go for a job or sit at home too. Do not call him a loser if he doesn’t earn much. It’s HIS Choice.

• If you have a choice to have sex before marriage, or outside marriage, or not have sex at all, he has a choice to all that too. Do not file a rape case on him if you had sex before marriage and later he did not marry you. Do not file a dowry and domestic violence and physical and mental cruelty case on him if he has sex outside marriage. Do not call him impotent and cry he ruined your life if he does not have sex at all. Do not get him arrested if he is a Gay and loves men. After all it’s HIS Choice.

• If it’s your choice to love temporarily or lust forever, it is his choice too. It is his choice to love you temporarily and move on when he finds someone better, someone hotter than you. If you can dump whoever you want, he can too. It’s his choice. Don’t call him pervert, desperate. He can have lust.

• You are my choice. I am not your privilege. Ahhh well …you are also his choice. He is also not your privilege that he would behave exactly the way you want him to. The way he wants to be is his choice. Stop changing him because he is not your privilege. And if he refuses to change according to you It’s His Choice.

• If it’s your choice to come home at 4am or 6pm; it’s his choice too to come whenever he wants. Don’t be upset and presume he is screwing women around while he might be slogging in office just to make sure you can afford a holiday this year at a foreign location. If you can have work, he can have work too and he can choose not to come home because it’s HIS Choice.

Ms Deepika Padukone if it is your choice to open the bra strap in a video that’s supposed to reach millions of young girls you need to make a better choice to what you want to tell them. Doctors are already worried of rising numbers of teen pregnancy. You cannot preach choice without taking responsibility of those choices. We are human beings and our choices cannot be summed up in a 2 minute video and every choice has an action or reaction to it!

Finally and most importantly, why is feminism generally related to being anti-men? Yes, many sufferings of women are influenced by men. But that never justifies blaming all men every time for every misfortune. For every such incident that has happened, there are many men who have spoken against it and have tried to do their part to make the world a better place.  By simply branding all men as the root cause for every issue, or portraying them like they are the enemies, aren’t you insulting all such men who are genuinely working towards women empowerment? Don’t you think that not mentioning the positive role of a man in a woman’s life is the biggest blunder in the video? Being modern does not mean being selfish and definitely not to the extent of opposing the other gender altogether. Modernity need not have to do anything with appearance either. It is being able to address the problems with a new perception.

Miss Deepika, Size, Sexual preferences, Clothes might be feminism to you. Real women in villages or even cities face
issues with basic education, girl child abortions, dowry and what not. Women needs empowerment for basic rights not
with sexual choices. Feminism isn’t about preferring women over men, It is about equality......!!!!

Je Suis Hypocrite...

On February 26th, 2015, writer Avijit Roy was hacked to death by assailants possibly linked to the Jamat E Islami on the streets of Dhaka. The attack on Roy and his wife—who is injured and in hospital—was not very different from that on cartoonists at Charlie Hebdo, the weekly magazine, in Paris in January. What was different was the outrage. While huge support from all corners of the globe poured in for Charlie Hebdo on social and mainstream media, Roy’s murder has neither been covered well in the mainstream media at least in India nor is there is a similar outrage on social media.

I am leaving aside mainstream media because they are generally known for selective outrage and coverage. This is especially true of the Indian mainstream media. What has disappointed me more is the relatively muted reaction to Roy’s murder on social media, especially in India.

Alright, not many of us, including me, were aware of Roy’s work before his death. But how many of us in India were aware of Charlie Hebdo before the Paris attacks? And yet there were many Je Suis Charlies. Does Roy’s murder—he was killed for a reason not very different from that for Charlie Hebdo cartoonist—not deserve similar reaction?  Why no Je Suis Avijit trending on social media as yet?

I do not expect much outrage from the west although Roy was an American citizen and was visiting his native Bangladesh when he was attacked. The west is known for double standards when it comes terror attacks. Notice how they always speak of September 11th, Madrid bombings, London underground bombings but never about 26/11 attacks in Mumbai. Was it not a terror attack? In fact, Mumbai suffered three major terror attacks between 1993 and 2008.

No, I am not worried about the muted reaction from western individuals on social media, who were outraged by Charlie Hebdo. It is obvious. For them life of a western citizen is more valuable than the life of a citizen from India or Bangladesh. In Roy’s case it is even more shocking because, as I noted earlier, Roy was an American citizen.

But more than the west’s reaction, my concern is the relatively muted reaction in India. Many Je Suis Charlies sprung up after the Paris attack. I don’t see a similar reaction to Roy’s murder. This tells me that either the Je Suis Charlies were just following a popular twitter trend, or to them events in Paris matter more than the events closer home.

Don’t get me wrong. The reaction to the Paris attacks was warranted. But do the events in Paris in any way pose a direct threat to India? No they don’t. But events in Bangladesh do. There are a lot of misconceptions about Bangladesh in India, one being that like Pakistan, it is a Muslim state. It is not. It is a secular state. Islam is by far the largest religion in the country but even the United Nations sees the country as “mainly moderate Muslim democratic country.”

Bangladesh is also part of the Next Eleven or N-11, a term coined by former Goldman Sachs economist Jim O’ Neill. [O’Neill, who also came up with famous BRICs group of countries] He said in a research paper that Bangladesh along with the 10 other countries in the report could become the world’s largest economies in this century.

Of course, Bangladesh, like any developing country, has its fair share of problems. The country is marred by extreme poverty and corruption. But there is also a growing threat of Islamist extremism. This is why Indians should be worried about the attack on Roy. While there have been protests over Roy’s death, highlighting the fact that Bangladesh remains a largely tolerant country, Islamic extremism is a growing menace. Rising extremism in a moderate Muslim country in the neighborhood is more worrying than an attack in Paris. It should have got more coverage on the media. It commanded a stronger reaction.

The relatively muted reaction so far does come as a shock, especially after the outpouring of support for Charlie Hebdo. To all the Je Suis Charlies in India, if your support for Charlie Hebdo was more to do with following a Twitter trend then for your information, the most recent trend on Twitter is #The Dress. To those that have been selective in their outrage, you should consider changing your Twitter handle to Je Suis Hypocrite.....!!!!

How the Government might Recover more than 8 times the Money Lost in CoalGate Scam..???

In India, our attention is always on the negative aspect of things. In 2012 the Media was constantly reporting the infamous Coal-Gate scam where in the then Government had allocated coal blocks in an inefficient manner.  The crux of the matter was, while the Government did have a choice to auction the coal blocks, they chose not to, thereby causing massive loss to the country. The Final CAG report pegged the loss at an astounding Rs 1.86 lakh crores, making it one of the biggest scams in India. Finally through court intervention, the Coal allocations were cancelled.

Now the Government has finally begun the process of re-allocating these Coal blocks, in a transparent manner, and by adopting the auction route. Along with this, the Government has taken numerous measures to ensure the best possible result to this auction process. But sadly, the national media has not covered this with the focus it gave the Coal Scam.

The entire bidding system is a bit complicated but very rewarding to the consumer. The Government has introduced reverse bidding for bidding in regulated power. The Government first determines the cost Coal India incurs in extracting and processing the coal. This is called the ceiling price. Bidders take part in a reverse bid to bid the lowest price. For egs: if the Ceiling Price (Cost to Coal India) is Rs 1000, then the winning bid will be lowest bid below Rs 1000. So if there are 2 bidders, A bids Rs 500 and B bids Rs 400, B wins. The effect of this bid is B claims he can process the coal at Rs 400 only, as compared to Rs 1000 incurred by Coal India. Thus the Government pays the bidder only Rs 400 for processing the coal, which would have cost Rs 1000 to Coal India, and the differential Rs 600 cost saving gets passed on to the consumer.

Another move the Government took was pruning 50% of qualified bidders after opening price bids were received. This creates a fear of premature disqualification and forces the bidders to put forth the best possible price, thus ensuring that bidding is aggressive.

Now in the above Reverse Bidding model, there can theoretically be a case where the bid comes to zero i.e. two or more companies can say they will process coal at zero cost, which means they will pass on the entire benefit to the customer (Rs 1000) from above example. To resolve such ties, the Government devised a Forward Bidding mechanism. In reverse bidding we saw what amount the Government must pay the bidders to process coal. Once that comes to zero, the bidders start paying the Government to allow them to process coal! So now, the bid is for who pays the Government the most. For one of the non regulated sector mines, Anil Ambani’s Reliance Cement had to make a bid of Rs 1,402 per tonne, more than nine times the floor price of Rs 150 to bag a Coal block.

Thus, the auction is expected to earn much more than the Rs 1.86 lakh crore, which was lost thanks to the Coal Gate scam. The auction could fetch poor states such as Jharkhand, Odisha, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and West Bengal Rs 15 lakh crore over a 30-year period, or Rs 50,000 crore a year on an average. Coal secretary Anil Swarup said that the current trend seen in the auction makes him believe the revenue could be more than Rs 15 lakh crore. We feel, even if this is being grossly optimistic and even just 20% of this is eventually recovered, that too will be much more than the money lost in the scam. But sadly, nobody from media seems interested in showing such positive news...!!!!

Courtesy : Extracted and Simplified from OptIndia.com ...

How Much Lower Can You Stoop For TRPs?

‪‎NDTV‬ calls Nirbhaya 'India's Daughter' and then goes on to offer her rapist and murderer a nice little platform to present his twisted views! How much lower can you stoop for TRPs?

Why give that twisted piece of crap legitimacy by telecasting his views?

I have a question to ask for the heads of NDTV. You call the show ‘India’s Daughter’. Is that what you do with the tormentors of your ‘daughters’? Give them a chance to come on camera and justify their actions?

Did you stop to think, even for a moment, about her parents? How they might feel when they read about this?

God forbid, if Nirbhaya were YOUR daughter, would you have done the same thing? Would you have telecast an ‘exclusive interview’ with her tormentor?

Even by the appalling standards of Indian Media, this is a low low blow.

And yeah, we know that the ‪‎BBC‬ did it first. One expected more sensitivity from an Indian channel, but then, I guess, you can hardly accuse NDTV of being an ‘Indian’ channel !!!!!

"My grandfather was a Muslim. My mother a Christian. I’m an Indian, AND a Hindu!"

Nalini Rathnam has a multi-religious family history. She is a casting director who works closely with big faces in Bollywood.

2 days ago, she wrote this article "My grandfather was a Muslim. My mother a Christian. I’m an Indian, AND a Hindu!"

Full Article :

Mother Teresa was a noble soul. No denying that.

After all, not everyone can remove maggots from a dying man’s body, touch a leper (yes, touch) and care for poor destitute souls. Not easy. She did it with love, a smile…and a PRAYER.

Christianity is an EVANGELISTIC religion. The basic tenet of Christianity is evangelism. Bring those from the “darkness” into the “light” – the light of Jesus.

I hail from the most nationally integrated family I know. My maternal grandfather was John Ali Baksh. (John? Ali Baksh?…Yes) Ali Baksh was a Zamindar in Lahore – in pre-partition India. He was 17 when the missionaries gave him refuge in the church when he was being targeted by his uncles and step brothers for his father’s property. Ali Baksh was considered a real “catch” for the missionaries; he was not poor or downtrodden, he was heir to his father’s vast lands and wealth, above all, a Muslim. My mother was born a Christian, her full name was Margaret Olive Mehrunissa Ali Baksh.

My father hailed from Kolar Gold Fields in Karnataka. His ancestors were weavers. There was a time when a worm got into the cocoons and the crops were lost. Dad’s ancestors were Hindu – but, of course! Dad was poor as a church mouse and studied under the proverbial lamppost to complete his education. He was a bright student and a phenomenal stenographer. The missionaries got to him. He converted and served the mission as an evangelist and the best stenographer the church had ever seen. My father was a Seventh-Day Adventist. Like the Jews, the Adventists consider Saturday the 7th day of the week, hence the Sabbath – following the Gregorian calendar. That is pretty much where the similarity ends. Adventists believe in Jesus being the Savior unlike the Jews.

Dad saw Mom in a church ceremony in Lahore and fell in love with her. They married, had 8 children – the last one being yours truly. We were raised as Seventh Day Adventists.

As a toddler and later when I was well into my teens, my memories are vivid of being taught “you are in the light and all your Hindu friends are in the dark…you must bring them into the light.” I remember how in school, I used to feel sorry for all my Hindu friends (many of them are friends till date) – as they were in the “darkness”. Our banter used to be – me saying, “God and Jesus created the world in 7 days, and my Hindu friends saying, “How silly…..Brahma created the world.” So on and so forth. I remember how much of a “sinner” I felt growing up as I was not able to bring a single friend “into the fold and into the light” I was very confused, angry and guilty. I could not preach.

At age 11, after attending Sabbath school regularly – I took a decision to get baptized in the Seventh Day Adventist church in Spicer College Pune….then Poona. That was a really holy day. Being baptized by my favorite Pastor – Pastor Crump was the most liberating and awe-inspiring experience of my childhood. Our baptisms are carried out in the exact same way as John the Baptist used to, except not in a river, but a huge tank filled with water. We wore long grey robes, stepped into the tank; the Pastor said, “In the name of the father, the Son and the Holy Spirit I baptize you”, then he covered our mouths with a clean white handkerchief, dipped us in the water and pulled us back up after a few seconds. Lo and Behold! We were now free of our past sins and we were pure. As an 11-year-old, I now wonder what “sins”.

Shortly after my baptism, on entering my teens I had lots of questions about Christianity which I would pose to my parents’ siblings and the Pastors in Church. This is not the time or place to go into them, suffice to say….I got no answers….save the proverbial “Have faith. Do not question. Just believe”

Over the years, I was drawn more and more towards the tenets of Hindu philosophy. (Can we stop calling it a religion, please?) I must say here that my mother always had the Bible, Bhagavad Gita and the Quran next to her bedside table. She told us about the good things in all religions and her knowledge of Islam as a religion and as a culture was manifold. Except for the fact that she was a Christian, her upbringing was more along Islamic traditions, and her language was Urdu. She could not read Hindi. She was a Montessori teacher and in her spare time taught Urdu to hundreds of students till the day she died.

She believed though that her savior was indeed Jesus.

I married a Hindu and had an Arya Samaj wedding. I consider myself Hindu and have long ago stopped worshipping in a church. I have conversations with Ganesh, Ganpati….and in my heart I am a Hindu. I do not visit temples regularly nor do I want to convert anybody to my way of thinking.

I wish as Hindus, we would stop being apologists.

I thoroughly understand evangelism, and my problems with all missionaries is – WHY DO I HAVE TO CHANGE MY FIRST NAME OR ADD A WESTERN NAME TO MY BIRTH NAME TO PROVE I AM CHRISTIAN? Why can I not retain my Hindu or Muslim name and still “be in the fold” as it were? Why do many brides wear gowns to their weddings instead of the sari? Or like many: wear the sari – but with a veil? Why does religion interfere with CULTURE? Why interfere with the tribal culture in the North East under the garb of religion?

Why is Mother Teresa considered SELFLESS?

Her bigger agenda like all Christian missionaries was to convert and bring people to the fold. That is the whole purpose of being a MISSIONARY for God’s sake…….! Pardon the pun! It’s almost like a vow you take when being ordained a Priest or Pastor.

Jesus told his 12 disciples the following and I quote from the Bible:

"Mark 16: 15; And he said to them, “Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation

Mathew 28: 19-20:

Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age

Romans: 10: 10- 17:

For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. For the Scripture says, “Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame.” For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, bestowing his riches on all who call on him. For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? "

Why is it wrong if Mohan Bhagwat or any other says it like it is? I am not holding a brief for Mohan Bhagwat, so even before you all who are reading this….start to smirk….STOP RIGHT THERE!I am INDIAN first and LAST! No faith, no religion, no belief, no tenet can alter the fact that I am well and truly Indian. I hold a brief for no one….against no religion…..BUT I have the fundamental right to QUESTION.

Hence, I have the right to question critics of Hinduism. or the critics of Hindus, when they argue, “the Christian missionaries are at least looking after the poor and needy. Why do the Hindus not do the same for their own’? I always believed that the basis of Hindu philosophy was the theory of KARMA. Am I wrong?

No, I don’t think so. So that answers that question.

The Bible also says “as you sow so shall you reap”, but with a difference – that whatever you sow you will reap in this one life only. You only die once is the theory.

The Bible rejects the idea of reincarnation; therefore, it does not support the idea of karma.

All those holding a brief for the good lady Mother Teresa, I admired her too. But I am not into Hindu bashing nor do I have my blinders on. I KNOW her agenda was conversion. She was a Christian Missionary – if she did not convert others she would be going against the very tenets of what Jesus said.

I end with her quote at the Scripps Clinic in California below:

Mother Teresa encouraged members of her order to baptise dying patients, without regard to the individual’s religion. In a speech at the Scripps Clinic in California in January 1992, she said: “Something very beautiful… not one has died without receiving the special ticket for St. Peter, as we call it. We call baptism ticket for St. Peter. We ask the person, do you want a blessing by which your sins will be forgiven and you receive God? They have never refused. So 29,000 have died in that one house [in Kalighat] from the time we began in 1952.”

I rest my case.

(Ethel) Nalini Rathnam (@nalinirathnam)