Bangalore's response to terror attacks: "It happens sometimes: Karnataka CM"

I am shocked and ashamed that the Chief minister of Karnataka has trivialised the attack on a reputed seat of learning and scientific innovation with such a response - It happens sometimes: Karnataka CM. See Indian express news coverage for details on IISc attack and death of an IIT professor Mr. M.C Puri.

Is the loss of a learned professor and serious injury to people at the forefront of scientific innovation in India so insignificant ?

Are the people of Bangalore so immune to such callousness of the CM that they choose to ignore his statements that reflect his opinion about this event ???

Would he dare to give such a response if one of the priests of minority community gets killed in an attack ? No...coz he is so bothered about being communally secular and his vote bank that serious security threats to the country's scientific community is something that happens sometimes !!!

Would Ms. Sonia Maino Gandhi step-up and condemn this attack and ensure criminals are brought to justice in the same fashion as was done for Graham Staines !!!

To the PEOPLE OF BANGALORE....TAKE SOME TIME OUT AND SHOW PROTEST TO CM'S SUCH SHODDY STATEMENTS. ELSE IT WILL NOT BE FAR OFF WHEN HOMES AND ORGANISATIONS IN BANGALORE START GETTING ATTACKED BY ISLAMIC FUNDAMENTALIST TERRORISTS.

Come onto the streets in observance of a silent moment for late Mr. Puri and to pray for a faster recovery of the seriously injured people.

May Lord Ganesha bless the injured people with a fast recovery and good health soon. Lets pray and act to ensure that the evil attackers get punished soon.

In shock and dismay at the mental state of people and the Government functionaries who are pulling India down into a terrorised state like Lebanon.

A Salute to the Young talented Manjunath

Yet another incidence of a youth murdered in cold blood for living his dream to root out corruption from the Indian society. It is so sad that a young, talented and committed citizen who believed in working towards building a morally sound country was put to death. News coverage here.

Update as on 26th Nov 2005 : Public outpour with a DEMEND FOR TIMELY JUSTICE. Let us pray and hope that the government and the public work towards making it "The last such Sacrifice".

My condolences goes out to not only his family members, but also to the people of Lakhimpur where he worked; For they've lost a true hero who was sincere and honest at work inspite of having to deal with criminal and corrupt people.

To me, Manjunath was a true servant of the nation who selflessly gave his best to India and also served the local people of Lakhimpur by attempting to stop corruption in his area of responsibility.
Do we realise what we've lost with his death ? We've lost a brave and honest person and perhaps many more who would've followed his foot steps, had he lived long enough to induce sincerity and honesty in service amongst other young people. We've also lost a great opportunity to root out corrupt people who're today flourishing in this racket of adulteration of fuel.

Will the nation pay its homage to this fallen warrier who sacrificed his life for the welfare of India ? Will the government and IOC officials wake up and set an example atleast this time, by ensuring justice is served on time SWIFTLY and a BOLD message is sent to the society at large that criminal minded people will not be spared.

It is my humble request to all those who read this blog to spread the word and show protest in their own ways so that the slow moving Giant "Our justice system" acts in a similar expedited fashion as it acted when Graham Staines, an Australian was killed in Orrisa. If the governement can step up its judiciary system to convict the suspects and serve justice to a White non-Indian, then why can't they do the same in this case where the spirit of youth and virtue was shot to death.
Ms. Gladys staines was awarded padma shri award for having gone through the agony of losing her family members, does Manjunath and his family also not deserve a similar honour ? Was his sacrifice in anyway lesser or does the loss of his life not count ?

I pray to Lord Ganesha that his family's pain be eased and I wish that their emotional trauma is assuaged by means of SWIFT JUSTICE being served. We do not want to lose another Manjunath somewhere else in this country and perhaps we cannot afford to lose such rare and courageous Gems of our society.

Long time blogger Gaurav Sabnis and an alumini of IIM as was Manju also plays a tribute to the true hero who lost his life to the evil that plagues our nation today "Corruption and Criminal violence". Read about Manju and about the work that he so ardently pursued at IOC.

Congress Party Scam(s), yet another one unearthed !!

VOLCKER REPORT, yet another scam involving Congress, yet another denial by a morally corrupt party : http://www.hindu.com/2005/11/07/stories/2005110715370100.htm

Since my childhood, I was taught in school that Congress party was mostly responsible for the hard earned freedom of India. I was also taught about the significant contribution of Gandhiji, Nehru and Indira Gandhi. Naturally, I grew up thinking that Congress is the saviour of this nation and the Nehru- Gandhi family has sacrificed everything for this nation.

The media during those days was Doordarshan and Newspapers and for obvious reasons the Governement could wield a lot of influence on what was selectively shown and what was not. My father who was a kid at the time of India's freedom was a witness to first hand information about the contribution made by other individuals; He used to tell me about other significant contributers to the freedom and growth of India.

Slowly I started finding about freedom fighters and nation builders like LAL BAHADUR SHASTRI. For various unforunate reasons Lal Bahadur Shastri died under mysterious circumstances and the government of India perhaps never really investigated his sudden death.

Then came the INTERNET.................a free source of information and facts. It brought to me immense information about other personalities in the freedom struggle and how we should not forget their contribution to the freedom struggle of India. A lot of the freedom fighters gave away their youth and families for this cause WITHOUT EXPECTING any power position in the government. Their families today are lost in the huge maze of commoners.

Since then I've been questioning the motives of Congress party that has been governing India for the past 50 years and still we're yet to make any significant progress on social front where CASTE/RELIGION BASED Politics rules the roost. ( Refer the recent discovery of a Caste Based list of Congress Candidates unearthed by the Media).

It is interesting that Congress party can be the MOST HYPOCRITICAL PARTY.....examine the statement of Mr. Jogi advicing other parties on "National Pride". He mentions that we should not trust the results of an enquiry conducted by a foreigner. One can only laugh out loud at the hypocritical stand of Congress party which Trusts a foreigner (Honorary Ms. Sonia Maino Gandhi) to run the Congress and remote control government functioning. Isn't it funny and deja-vu where Congress is trying hard and "perennially denying" any involvement in all the scams that have been unearthed till date.
A lot of us do not know that Ms. Sonia Maino Gandhi took citizenship of India with a lot of reluctance in year 1983 without renouncing her Italian antecedents for long. It took her 15 years of married life to decide and opt for Indian citizenship in the light that her husband was now a big political figure in India.

Media statements made by Mr. Jogi as below
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Mr. Jogi said he was most concerned about the allegations made against the Congress. He said it was preposterous for anyone to suggest that the Congress purchased and sold oil, and took commission. "We challenge Mr. Volcker to produce even an iota of evidence.''
Also, he questioned the BJP's claim to `swadeshi' and wondered how a party which talks of "national pride'' could depend on a "so-called foreign enquiry conducted by a foreigner."
"If the BJP has any national pride, they should not take the support of an enquiry trashed by most self-respecting nations," Mr. Jogi said.
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I share this feeling and my experience with everyone here so that the literate and educated class of young Indians (LIKE ME) who were fed with Congress sycophancy drips right from the childhood, start their search for the truth about our Freedom struggle. It is also a time where we should realise that the youth of India has a Big responsibility to "vote for the right set of people" who would usher India into the new era with aplomb, not with a series of corruption scams.

I conclude with a quote " History is written by the people in power ". What we read as kids and what we continue to read may not be the absolute truth and the wise would search for the streak of truth and material facts from the anals of historical events.

Future of a prosperous India: Agriculture

India had been a self sufficient nation for centuries where the village was a self sustaining entity with its own cultural identity. God blessed us with fertile lands and intellecutally capable people who utilized the blessings and catapulted as a Global power to recon with till the 17th century.

Then came the colonial rule of India, a dark part of our history. The rule of British on India was unfortunate in a lot of ways and if we are to introspect, lack of scientific innovation, absence of quest for knowledge, lack of solidarity amongst Indians and absence of a strong conviction to defend our homeland are some of the root causes of why we were ruled by so few of another race for more than two centuries.

The colonial era was marked with a focus to transport wealth and capability into the European nations and destroying the fine balance and self sufficiency of Indian economy. While India is a strong nation that has historically been able to survive the ravages of invasions, the systematic destruction of grass root village economy brought the Indian village economy to bankruptcy. The independent India not only inherited the bankrupt state of Indian villages, it also inherited a cultural corruption that forced us to believe in inferiority of our race, religion and scientific achievements.

50 years and more of freedom, we've had some achievements like that of the green revolution courtesy scientists like M.S. Swaminathan, however, we still have 54% of Indian citizens engaged in agriculture contributing only 29% to the GDP of India. We need more scientific innovation and growth in low cost agricultural technologies that would contribute to the self sustenance and competitive edge of Indian agriculturists. It is important to note that we're talking abour more than half of the country that is engaged in agriculture( 54% ) with a majority of farmers having small land holdings making large scale farming techniques irrelevant to most Indian farmers.

Our honorary president of India, A.P.J Kalam in his speech to the nation envisions that India can become a global power if we were to have 44% of our nation engaged in agriculture with the rest split in manufacturing and services sector respectively. The challenge is not only to wean 10% off the agriculture successfully and absorb them in manufacturing/services sector within the rural sector, but also to ensure that the remaining 44% of Indian agriculturist are able to produce more food grains and other natural products at a scale and competitive edge which can be compared to that of America.
Dr Kalam envisages that the focus should be towards PURA -Providing Urban Amenities in Rural Areas. PURA we hope would facilitate creation of employment in the rural areas itself. The aim is to provide physical, electronic and knowledge connectivities to a cluster of villages thereby leading to their economic connectivity and prosperity.

While PURA aims at building the infrastructure in the conventional way, we as urban citizens should also try to understand more about the potential of agriculture, socio-economic conditions of the villages as a unique entity while making attempts to disseminate awareness about an education system that would work in the best interest of the citizens of rural India.

If life gives you an opportunity to help a farmer, then do not shy away, coz he is the one who brings food to our table.
This article is in honour of the farmers who lost their lives to poverty and to those who continue to struggle year on year to somehow make ends meet and yet they do not give up their culture "Agri-culture"

Re-Discovering the scientific achievements of ancient India

Recently while browsing the the subject of alternate fuel sources for the world, I came across an article on how scientists in USA are discovering that Cow Dung cake could be an alternate for regional fuel requirements within USA. It got me thinking on whether this was a "Discovery" at all ??

Rural India and the people in the countryside across the subcontinent have been using a combination of straw and cow dung as a source of fuel for centuries. I recall that as a kid I used to see cow dung cakes drying on the road sides and unused walls in the villages of Uttar Pradesh (Northern India) . I used to see similar cow dung cakes up for sun baking deep in the southern India too (Karnataka).
Our rich cultural heritage combined with highly developed written language system in ancient India gave us the competitive edge to collect and pass on the collective wisdom and knowledge generation on generation. It is because of this collective wisdom spanning centuries that we find day-to-day application of ancient scientific discoveries and achievements in various parts of India that ironically are called "rural and backward" in current context.

I wonder if the average Indian who is a descendant of the most ancient civilization on earth completely understands the significance of this collective scientific wisdom that our ancestors bestowed to India ?
It is paradoxical and somewhat saddening that while the western scientific fora is exploring the ancient practices of the east to find solutions for the increasing natural resource constraints being faced in the new world; The east is trying to ape the modernisation and advancement of the western world without realising that not all of these modern marvels are in harmony with nature and may not be sustainable in the times ahead.

I cannot help but question the collective pride or the lack of it that we Indians exhibit when faced with modern marvels of the western world. Do we ever wonder how will the west sustain this tremendous pressure on mother nature and its by-products a century from now ? Have we ever put in efforts to explore our rich cultural heritage that has taught us to live in harmony with nature ?

If at all we imbibe the know-how that western civilization has to offer and blend it with our historical achievements - we could in effect ensure that both mankind and the rest of the beings co-exist; thereby maintaining the delicate balance of nature.

My brief experience of life in rural India happened when we visited a friend at a rural town called Gobichettipalayam in Tamil Nadu. The visit was an eye opener for me where I experienced supreme bliss of sleeping in a naturally air conditioned room in the middle of a super hot afternoon. (Courtesy Historic know-how of local people in utlizing giant coconut tree branches) .

In contrast, when one looks at the rampant development of buildings in Urban India that are symbols of prosperity for majority people, it compells me to compare life in rural India which is far more peaceful and fulfilling than staying in posh buildings with no trees in the vicinity, with no birds chirping around.

In conclusion, I would say that the boon of ancient cultures like that of the Native Americans, Mayans and Hindu civilization must be rediscovered and shared with the youth of this generation.

To me the cow dung cakes seen across rural India are symbols of pride that proves application of science in India lives within each one of us through our rich historical and cultural heritage and we should ensure that we share this wisdom with the younger generation who will then carry the responsibility to blend the wisdom of east with new technological advancements of the western world.