Soon, they’ll be making up
In Maharashtra, the breaking of alliances between the Shiv Sena and the BJP and the Congress-NCP is only until election results are announced. Once these parties find they are lacking majority, they will forge ahead with tie-ups. This break-up is only a temporary issue. It’s going to be a close contest for all the parties.
Sunil Pradhan
From Sindhu to Hindu to India
A lot of unnecessary controversy is being raised by many sundry politicians and even by some otherwise responsible persons making statements about Hinduism, Hindus, and Hindustan. Such utterances do nothing but tend to disturb the communal harmony in the country, creating impediments for the government, as a result of which it fails to implement its development policies and programmes.
It would do all these people good to know the following words of our great philosopher Swami Vivekananda in this regard: “The word ‘Hindu’ was the name that the ancient Persians used to apply to the river Sindhu. Whenever in Sanskrit there is an ‘s’, in ancient Persian it changes to ‘h’, so that ‘Sindhu’ became ‘Hindu’; and you are all aware how the Greeks found it hard to pronounce ‘H’ and dropped it altogether, so that we became known as Indians. Now this word ‘Hindu’ as applied to the inhabitants of the other side of the Indus, whatever might have been its meaning in ancient times, has lost all its force in modern times; for all the people that live on this side of the Indus no longer belong to one religion. There are the Hindus proper, the Mohammedans, the Parsees, the Christens, the Buddhists, and Jains. The word ‘Hindu’ in its literal sense ought to include all these; but as signifying the religion, it would not be proper to call all these inhabitants Hindus.”
(Source: “Lectures From Colombo To Almora” published by Advaita Ashram, Calcutta. pg:146)
Bhanudas Sule
Nary a mention of Nehru
When ‘Mangalyaan’ entered Mars’ orbit, it was a moment of great pride for the people of India and the Indian space scientists who achieved this success in the first attempt in contrast to the USA, Russia and European Union. By any yardstick, it was a stellar performance by the ISRO scientists. Prime Minister Modi was present on the occasion and paid handsome compliments to the scientists responsible for the launch. That was only right and proper. How one wishes that the Prime Minister had praised the first Prime Minister of India, Jawahar Lal Nehru for his vision and foresight. Nehru was responsible for laying the foundation of the space research and had encouraged the Indian scientists to explore new vistas of the universe. Such an action would have been in good grace and consistent with the Indian tradition of not forgetting the heroes who laid the foundation of building a strong and vibrant India at a time when India had just emerged from years of slavery. Sadly, Prime Minister Modi didn’t.
R J Khurana
Over to the new CJI
On September 27, the very distinguished R M Lodha retired as the Chief Justice of India after a very brief tenure of a mere five months. Justice Lodha has been an outstanding judge, who all through, demonstrated the highest levels of impeccable integrity and uprightness while never ever blinking to call a spade a spade. In Goa, we have had the privilege of having some of his landmark judgments delivered when he many times presided over the Panaji Bench while being Judge of the Bombay High Court for 13 years from 1994 to 2007. In contrast, H L Dattu, who will be the next Chief Justice of India with a reasonably long tenure of 15 months, has been no stranger to controversy. This appointment comes at a crucial juncture whereby through its very brute majority, the Narendra Modi Government is eyeing to shrewdly ambush the independence and sovereignty of the judiciary. But it is for Justice Dattu to now prove us wrong. Over to Your Lordship Mr. Chief Justice, the 42nd Chief Justice of India.
Aires Rodrigues
Ease of doing business
Modi has launched the ‘Make In India’ campaign. His target audience was primarily Indian businessmen, who have themselves been apprehensive about investing in India. The only places in the world where a businessman is worse off than India are either war-ravaged nations or those currently involved in civil conflicts.
Modi wants to take India higher on the ‘Ease-of-Doing-Business Index.’ When the World Bank Chairman Jim Yong Kim visited India in July, he said that if Gujarat were to be taken as a separate entity, for the sake of evaluation, and then it would be among the top 50 in the rankings. So Modi wants India to break into top 50 in three years. Is this feasible?
If he succeeds in driving in the need to compare comparables and get India ranked among nations which have population equal to, say at least equal to the most populous state of India, or among nations having GDP of at least 20 per cent as much as India’s or among countries having per capita geographical area equal to or less than that of India, our ranking would be different!
Subrahmanian S H
Bogus doctor menace
It is a well-known fact that a few bogus doctors are operating in and around Pune city and in the rural areas too and a surprisecheck alone will reveal their whereabouts so they can be punished (September 25). They prey upon those ailing people who cannot afford proper medical care, little caring for the fact that they are playing with lives. Relatives accompanying such patients would not think of asking to see the doctor’s licence and put their faith in them and the inevitable happens.
Vijay D Patil
