Election 09
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India Speaks

Track the beat are some of the burning issues which currently occupy the national mindscape.
Corruption, crime, casteism are gnawing the soul of our nation.
Come forward to put your thoughts across and lets arrive at a consensus for a vibrant India.
  • Enough is enough
    Overmuch politicalisation of issues is not healthy.Education even at the university level should be controlled by non-political people and very much academic minded scholars. Nowadays even university teachers are flattering illiterate and half educated politicians. Policy makers should be intelligent and sincere. But in a country of millions of illiterate people showy actors and politicians decide everything and enjoy power. No progress is possible unless politics is freed from criminals and medicore opportunists.      (16th Apr 2009)
    -Dr.Ratan Bhattacharjee
    National mindscape. Corruption, crime, casteism are gnawing the soul of our nation. First of the main thing is that after election all the parties who won are forgetting the Speeches what they told in election campaign, there is many drawback in Indian election All rules and manifestos will be in file only and the same blaming each other process will start again, to stop these malpractice in any department people should com farward and the corruption running in offices must be stop and all offices must be interlinked throught state , e-governace should be implemented in every office to stop political approach ( Political members fogging govt offices and corruption stands forward , Roads are fully damage in India all work of roads are finished in files only Govt officials or central Govt must vigil evey road in India to maintain good roads , people needs corruptionless govt , Price of Rice must be decreased not only for BPL but for Middle class family at present the price of rice is Rs32 to 38 and it is very high for middle class family, Kerosine must be given in retail value in all states with reasonable rate at present in TN outlet price is Rs 40 to 50 and in ration Rs 10 big difference is there, Vegitable price must be low down in every state, Fuel price of extra , and normal petrol must be same price because no difference mileage in extra mile petrol, terrorism free states must be deployed and evey state police must be vigil round the clock. Parking in market must be important issue, Traffic cheking in roads must be round the clock in every area and every state.  (6th Apr 2009)
    -Anand Krishnan ( Journalist )
    captain Gopinath of the Air Deccan fame has taken a plunge as an independent for the LOk Sabha elections. Forums like merinews should come forward to support him and help create an example for the entire country to follow. TIME TO CHANGE . TIME TO DO THINGS WHICH NEVER HAPPENED till date  (27th Mar 2009)
    -Sreekant
    you may b right .... but the thing is ..... we d people are the one who selects these politicians.... aren't we...?? Then if u are blaiming d politicians ...... then who is d ultimate responsible 4 d same...... Sorry to say but i feel tht by blaming d politicians is not the solution ..... EACH INDIVIDUAL MUST UNDERSTAND HIS DUTY AND ACT ACCORDINGLY TO JUSTIFY HIS STAND... else it seems like we are playing a game callled "passsing d parcel"..... where in every one keeps on passing the parcel to others head....  (25th Mar 2009)
    -Maulin $hah
    Thanks to Indian Politicians for the situation. They have divided each human on the name of country or state or region or colour or religion or caste or male or female or any other division they find to provoke and instigate people for their vested interest. If you have an eye to see this, you are the most blessed person on the earth. Also make aware others of this politics so that they learn how not to play in the hands of politicians. My master used to say “ Remember, whichever the thing divide you from other is a politics, and whichever the thing unite you with other is the religion. Hindu, Muslim, Christen, Baudh, Shikh, Jain and many more are not the name of religion. They are the name of business enterprise (Like Reliance Industries Ltd. or Tata Consultancy or L & T) on the name of religion. LOVE is the only religion and Love is the only GOD”. My best wishes are always with you.  (25th Mar 2009)
    -Sharad Shah
    AN AMERICAN VISITED INDIA AND WENT BACK TO AMERICA WHERE HE MET HIS INDIAN FRIEND WHO ASKED HIM HOW DID U FIND MY COUNTRY THE AMERICAN SAID IT IS A GREAT COUNTRY WITH SOLID ANCIENT HISTORY AND IMMENSELY RICH WITH NATURAL RESOURCES. THE INDIAN FRIEND THEN ASKED …. HOW DID U FIND INDIANS ……...?? INDIANS?? WHO INDIANS?? I DIDNT FIND OR MEET A SINGLE INDIAN THERE IN INDIA ……. WHAT NONSENSE?? WHO ELSE CAN U MEET IN INDIA THEN……?? THE AMERICAN SAID …….. IN KASHMIR I MET A KASHMIRI– IN PUNJAB A PANJABI—– IN BIHAR,MAHARASTRA, RAJ ASTHAN, BENGAL,TAMILNADU BIHARI,MARATHI, MARWADI, BENGALI,TAMILIAN, MALAYALI……… THEN I MET A MUSLIM, A HINDU A CHRISTIAN, A JAIN, A BUDDHIST AND MANY MANY MORE BUT NOT A SINGLE INDIAN DID I MEET ………………………………………………………….. THINK HOW SERIOUS THIS JOKE IS…………….. THE DAY WOULD NOT BE FAR OFF WHEN INDEED WE WOULD BEC OM E A COLLECTION OF NATION STATES AS S OM E REGIONAL ANTI-NATIONAL POLITICIANS WANT ... FIGHT BACK - ALWAYS SAY I AM INDIAN JAI HIND  (25th Mar 2009)
    -Proud2bIndiana
    Advani is suitable PM for india. So vote for him.  (25th Mar 2009)
    -Deepak
  • Advani's grip on upcoming elections
    L.K.Advani , like Kalyan Singh and Narendra Modi is engaged in the policies of 'dividing and destroying 'the secular fabric of the country. They denounce pseudo secularism of the Congress and the Left. But in a country which has a strong caste and religion-based politics , leaders like L.K.Advani can at any moment hypnotise a section of half-illiterate and religious minded people fantatical. In Pakistan , the fundamentalism is sponsored by the political leaders and today we see the harmful impact. The grip that L.K.Advani has on the mind of the Hindus is similar to the grip of the Talibans on the Muslim mind. The whole world today condemns the Talibans. Leaders like L.K. Advani have tried to demolish the secular structure of the country by their attempts to demolish the Babri Masjit or by organising in the Modi fashion riots among the Hindus and Muslims. Some people can be made fools for all time in the name of religion. All people can be made fool for some time. But all people cannot be made fool for all time. So the grip that L.K.Advani has got , is not time-tested. People will forget him as a statesman. They will remember him as a fanatic and fundamentalist, a refined version of the Karsevak and the RSS fanatic.      (14th May 2009)
    -Dr.Ratan Bhattacharjee
    Advani is a spent up force. All his gimmicks of rathyatra and Ram Mandir building have lost their impact on the electorates. Advani spoke like a disbalanced person during his visit to Pakistan. Like Mamata Banerjee eyes the chair of the Chief Minister West Bengal, he eyes for a long time the chair of Prime Minister. India has a secular heritage and Advani , if he really want to be the Prime Minister should not speak like what Sonia Gandhi calls him " the slave of RSS'. What does not Muslims give to India? The Tajmahal, music , Shahi food habits, colour? Who are the Mughals. The great mughals have not left India nor they have taken anything from India like Nadir Shah or Mohammed Bin Kasem . They had been invaders, people like Taimur lang. But not the great emperor Akbar, Babar, or Shah Jahan. The muslims gave India geographical identity and unity from the South to the North. The British gave us political identity, democratic system. Does Advani know all these great things about India? Let him study all these before he ensures himself of the grip over the upcoming elections. By perverting history and distorting facts, or by creating mass hysteria as Mamata has created in Singur and Nandigram about the Left tortures, Advani cannot get votes required for becoming the Prime Minister.  (18th Apr 2009)
    -Dr.Ratan Bhattahcharjee
  • Politics and Bureaucracy
    Politicians come and go. The bureaucrats remain.Quite naturally, the politicians do not disturb the politicians. But during election time such tendencies of influencing bureaucrats become prominent. Recurrence of political interference and incidents of forcing the district administration or Local panchayat bodies are more common and frequent. The dishonest and demoralised bureaucrats are there to take advantage of such political interference. They act partially and take good returns for such partial manouevres. This is bad for democratic process and affects the overall health of the administration system. A good and principled bureaucrat can save the country from debasement. Politicians should not be allowed to misuse them for grinding their own axe. Bureaucrats should not allow them to be sold for thirty pieces of silver.      (22nd Apr 2009)
    -Dr.Ratan Bhattacharjee
    Ultimate in Power: Entrenched Bureaucracy in India City of Chandigarh has last few months witnessed an unseemly war of wits between the Administrator of Chandigarh and one of his Advisor Shri Pradip Mehra. Chandigarh is covered by local supplements of three English dailies. It is a matter of great interest that in the ongoing tussle between two government functionaries most of the newspapers have been taking pro-Mehra line while one has been showing certain amount of balance. see here, Shri Pradip Meehra, a 1975 Batch IAS officer on paper holds an advisory post but as is the norm with Indian State this advisor has enormous executive powers. He is a career bureaucrat, who took over as Advisor on 01 October 2007. He has earlier served as head of Chandigarh Housing Board (August 1993 to November 1995) and as Advisor (November 1995 to April 1997). Considering his past postings it is fair to assume that he is well conversant with the inner working of the Chandigarh Administration as also has a well developed network of contacts in the city. His long stint in one of the sought-after locations also show that he has full backing of his colleagues in this tussle, as is evident from the following actions/inactions of MHA Administrator, who is a retired General, is well known for his financial probity and personal ethics. But he also suffers from a massive ego as also inability to connect with the common people see here. Aiming to leave a mark on the city-scape, the Genral decided to push for mega projects like Film-city, the Medi-city, the Amusement-cum-Theme Park and the new phase of the Information Technology (IT) Park which will act as magnets for the growth of city. Medi-city Project. One such project was for establishing a Medi-city over 45 acres of land. A committee was formed, which suggested a model of sharing licence fee plus percentage shares plus social commitment from developers. This means that besides the licence fee, the administration would charge 5 per cent of income from students' fee in the medical and dental colleges to be set up in the Medicity and 5 per cent of the profits generated by the super-specialty hospitals. As for the "social commitment", the Medicity licensee will train 300 nurses and provide 100 terminally ill patients palliative care free of cost every year. The committee also arrived at a figure of Rs. 1358 crores as price of 45 acres of land (more than Rs. 30 Crore per acre). However Shri Mehra quoted a figure of Rs. 2000 crores as price without revealing the method or source of his assessment. He also claimed that the model will not, "nowhere was there a successful example of a hospital set up in the private sector on land given at concessional rates, meant partly for service of the poor". Hence remedy junk social clause and make money. He suggested that “the project should be divided into smaller units, as this, besides saving the "administration the torture of pegging a base price", may result in higher revenues with smaller plots attracting more premium than the huge chunk of 45 acres.” This refrain was picked up by the media see here and other interested groups, that is the rich farm house owners, whose case was supported by Shri Bansal (local Congress MP and MoS). Shri Mehra went on record to say, “the contentious issue of the low land acquisition rates being given by the administration. In this connection, he has also placed on record a letter of local MP Pawan Bansal.” The administrator naturally took objection to it on grounds that the thrust of Bansal's letter is to increase the compensation to "farmhouse owners" on the basis of incorrect inputs. The local Congress fuctionaries at the behest of thier MP and MoS (Finance) have been vocal against the Administrator see here. The information available in public domain suggests that (a) Shri Pradip Mehra in a blatant disregard of provisions of Capital of Punjab (Development and Regulation) Act, 1953. wrongly released 23 properties. A total of 144 petitions were disposed off by Shri Mehra who in exercise of his quasi-judicial powers applied different yardsticks in the matter. Based on a complaint the Administrator sought legal opinion from the UT senior standing counsel, Anupam Gupta, on the quasi judicial orders passed by the Adviser. The legal officer had found clear case of misuse of power on part of Mr Mehra, on the basis of which a vigilance probe was ordered against Mehra. Sadly while reporting this issue the press has been keeping quite on this issue see here. (b) Friction between the Administrator and the Advisor has led to adverse impact on other government functionaries see here . (c) The MHA Bureaucracy has sided with the Advisor see here . In fact the MHA has gone to the extent of ordering special audit of mega projects even while these are under investigation by the CVC see here . (d) There seems to be a strong nexus between the bureaucracy, politicians and the rich. Newspapers have been devoting a lot of column space to the interests of rich `farm-house’ owners as well as to Shri Mehra but have never highlighted the fact that nobody has so far charged Administrator being corrupt or biased against common men, whose interests are being sacrificed as all development proposals have ground to a halt. Even so-called opposition party has been keeping quite. (e) Most importantly nobody including the media has highlighted the convergence of interests between the bureaucracy, local politician and the rich.  (11th Apr 2009)
    -Yogi
  • Varun Gandhi's anti Muslim statements to impact political spree
    There is just too much corruption and discrimination in a country that is supposed to be totally democratic. When is the government going to get it? It's NOT about the power, it's about the people!      (3rd Jul 2009)
    -Prakruti PK
    Varun Gandhi speaks like a fundamental leader of Pakistan. He comes of a noble family committed to secular ideals. Congress could not keep its secular image always. But the Gandhi family was more or less secular at least more secular than BJP. The remarks of Varun is like bhai of Mumbai. He is trying to give tit for tat. Dogs bite us. The fundamentalists speak in such communal diction. Varun should know that by mere gimmicks cannot win he cannot win elections.His father Sanjay was a whimsical man and destroyed his political career by doing 'nasbandi'(forced sterilisation of the muslims. But he cannot do such things today. The global and national scenario has changed. Varun should not follow his dead father's principles. Nor should he follow the principles of his leader Advani who is responsible for the demolition of the Babri Masjid, which is the most ignominoous act of vandalism like the destruction of the Buddha statue by the Talibans in Afganisthan.Varunji , this is India.  (22nd Apr 2009)
    -Dr.Ratan Bhattacharjee
    Varun Gandhi maintains the proverbial wisdom : Like father like son. His father was famous for Nasbandi(forceful sterilisation of the Muslims in India) . He is a modern version of Sanjay Gandhi. Such politicians are pampered by BJP iron man like Advani. But Barun should not forget the government at the Centre is not that of BJP nor is it a time like that of Babri Masjid demolition. A hindu or a muslim cannot be called a terrorist. Terrorists are terrorists. They have no religion as such. Unfortunately in India terrorists in most cases are muslims and linked to muslim fundamentalist.  (18th Apr 2009)
    -Dr. Ratan Bhattacharjee
  • Sanjay Dutt ( Samajwadi party's Lok Sabha candidate from Lucknow ) hit hard by signature campaign
    Sanjay Dutt is now the target of Mayawati as he is displaying fake gandhism (farzi gandhigiri). Sanjay Dutt is the Samajwadi party's candidate from Lucknow.Sanjay Dutt is facing one after another blow.Nobody knows if will at all be able to contest the elections.The court verdict goes against him.      (20th Apr 2009)
    -Dr.Ratan Bhattacharjee