Tempering with Freedom of Expression

                                     Tempering with Freedom of Expression

I am sure by now, people  all over India and also abroad,  must have come to know  about a young man named Aseem Trivedi who has recently been arrested by the Mumbai police on the charge of SEDITION.

Aseem  is  a young man of 24 and an activist  of  “India Against Corruption”  a voluntary organisation  which is fighting peacefully  under the able leadership of Anna Hazare to get Ombudsman bill introduced in the country. The bill , is pending with the Government since last over 40 years and no political party in the country seems to be interested in bring it. The result is obvious – a rampant corruption at every level in the country.

Coming back to Aseem, as a cartoonist, he had  drawn a cartoon in which he had shown Indian Parliament building as a toilet and the three lions head as those of jackals. This was primarily the frustration of the cartoonist against the  corrupt  Ministers, Members of Parliament and  other politicians who had been systematically looting the country’s wealth since its independence 65 years ago.

There is no doubt that the cartoon drawn was in bad taste but it can not  construed sedition. Because the intension of the cartoonist was not to insult the Parliament or the  national emblem, but his disgust towards those occupying the Parliament & degrading it by their acts.

 There have been and even today,  instances where national flags &emblem have been carelessly handled by many of the Govt. functionaries. On many occasions national flags have been hoisted up side down- with green colour on top instead of the saffron.  But those senior functionaries were never punished. Because   there was no intention as such to disrespect the flag .

A case of disrespect to the national flag was   recently reported by a leading news paper. The case is of 9^th September 2012 at a place known as Kashipur in Uttarakhand on the eve of  Pt. Govind Ballabh Pant Jayanti . The Chief Minister of the Uttarakhand was the chief guest. The function was over but no one bothered to take the flag down. It remained hoisted till late evening.

In another incident, a torn national flag was noticed furling at the Collectorate  building at Rudrapur  (Uttarakhand) on 14 Sept. 12 by a journalist. The flag was torn and discoloured as it was there, day & night since long.  Again, no Govt. functionary ever bothered to see that as per norms laid down, the flag was supposed to be hoisted in the morning & removed respectfully before the last light every day. Should the  people responsible for these lapses, be charged with SEDITION ?

Some time back, on one of the TV channel, we saw  some Ministers and MPs being interviewed .They were  asked if they knew the country’s National  Anthem ? It was surprising to see many of the so called leaders, not able to recite the National Anthem. Should not such leaders be taken to task & asked to learn the Anthem?

Why Aseem is being put behind the bar, when the Indian national flag has been burnt openly

in Sri Nagar & other parts of the country by the separatists  time and again. The reason is obvious.  Aseem is actively involved with the India Against corruption Movement which the present Government is not able to tolerate .

Delhi-100years

HindustanTimes

Dated 22 January 2012

 The above advertisement  which appeared in the HT  today, is about a special program on Delhi completing 100 years as Capital, to be shown on LOK SABHA Television on 26th of January on the eve of India's Republic Day. Interestingly the ad carries a picture of a person on its right top corner.This can not be of Manmohan Singh, our present Prime Minister. Or King George-Vth who had visited India 100 years ago and announced shifting of the capital from Calcutta (Now Kolkota) to New Delhi. Obviously this depicts picture of some Mughal King .
Was there no Delhi before Mughals invaded India ? Or this is just another cheap, subtle  election gimmick of the Congress led Govt. to vow the Muslim community  during the coming state elections ?
Any guess? 

election promises...

Election in Indian states:

Five states in India are heading for an election and one finds almost all the political parties promising nothing less than a moon to the public. Some are promising laptop to students,.Cycle to school going girls. Some claiming to bring fountain of development all over the concerned state etc. etc.
The icing on the cake is the Congress, the oldest political party in the country. Their one leader, who is holding the post of Law Minister, has gone on to announce 9% reservation for the Muslims in the country in jobs etc.
One expect a law minister to know the  country's constitution better. From where he will get that 9% quota?
So please stop showing red apple.
The fact of the matter is that the congress has lost all its credibility when it manipulated to ensure that no law against corruption in the country was introduced. The Jan Lokpal  (Ombudsman) Bill was intentionally shelved to ensure that people who have amassed  black money & looted country's wealth, should not be caught and punished.
 Talking about the quota for Muslims, can the Congress explain what they did for their betterment in the last 60 years? Besides, what have the leaders of the community done so far to ensure Muslim boys and girls get better education and job like others instead of forcing them to attend Madrasas? So please stop this gimmick and 7 don't fool the community any more. Gandhi ji was right when he had suggested disbandment of Congress party immediately  after independence of India.   

FDI (Direct Foreign Investment) - another invitation to East India Company?

FDI  -good or bad for India ?

The Indian Parliament is presently facing a unique crisis. The reason is introduction of FDI (Foreign Direct Investment) in retail sector which Govt. is adamant to enforce while opposition & other political parties are opposing tooth & nail. Both sides have their points of view to justify their arguments. Government says this will allow multi-national companies like Wall-Mart etc. to operate in India which will bring in foreign investment & in turn result in development of infra-structure. Besides this will help Indian farmers since these companies would directly purchase produce from them at better price thus cutting down the middle man etc.

I am not an economist. I can barely plan my personal economics efficiently.  But I do believe the basic fact of life where bigger fish eat away the smaller fish, rich dominate the poor, stronger bully the weaker and so on. This also reminds me of an incident which confirm my view.

The place was Namibia (earlier known as South West Africa), and the year was 1991. The country was newly librated from South Africa and was keen to stand on its feet in every respect. I was posted in the Indian Embassy, Windhoek at the specific request of SWAPO for some project. This is what I witnessed about big fish eating smaller fish.

Prior to achieving independence, the cotton produced in Namibian farmers, was purchased by SA (South Africa) mills. But now Namibia wanted to have its own ginning mill. An Indian industrialist promptly reached Windhoek. Negotiations were held with the local Govt and it was decided that all the cotton produced it Namibia will in future, be sold to this Ginning mill only and no more to SA.

The mill got commissioned soon and the trouble also started along with it. The bigger fish could not tolerate smaller fish getting in to its territory. So the SA mills which earlier used to purchase raw cotton at the rate of Rand 10/- per bail, raised their purchase price to Rand 15/- and subsequently to Rand 20/-. Obviously the farmers were too happy to get such a jump in price which they had never thought of and thus continued selling their cotton to SA only. The local Ginning mill set up by the Indian could not effort to purchase raw cotton at such a high price & compete with the giant SA mills. After 3 years of unsuccessful competition, the mill closed down & poor Indian industrialist quit & returned to India.

After 3-4 years, finding no more competition, the SA mills returned to their original rate of purchase of the raw cotton, leaving no choice with the farmers but to sell their product at what so ever rate SA mills fixed.

Any lesson learnt ? Yes. The multi national companies if allowed to come in India in retail sector, will be here to earn profit and not for welfare of India and its farmers. We should manage our own affairs ourselves. Only thing needed is a clean Govt, strong desire to do & less foreign oriented economists at the helm of the affairs. 

Taxila Contd....

This is another picture of Taxila showing remains of the old construction & the general area.

Taxila Continued.....

The remains of a stone wall at the Taxila University site. The stones have been laid in such a way that it ensures soundness and durability of the wall as well as its appearance.

                                                   Photograph below is of a small Musium at Taxila

TAXILA DURING MAURYAN EMPIRE IN BC

Taxila

Some time back I had mentioned about Taxila in one of my blogs briefly.  It is a small town  located in Pakistan and   falls between  Rawalpindi & Peshawar on Grand trunk Road. Although not of much significance in the present day, Taxila was one of the most important places in the ancient time  during the  Mauryan  empire from 324 BC to 187 BC . It is said that in  those days, Nalanda in the east and Taxila in the West were the two  world famous universities in India.

The  remains of  some of the monuments at Taxila reflects even today, the excellence of quality of work in  stone cutting  which was available during that period. According to various  leading historians, a wide range of metals was also well known and special characteristics as regards the mining and manufacture of these metals  have been recorded. The knowledge extended both to utilitarian metals such as iron, copper and lead and to precious  metals such as gold and silver. The remains of copper bolt antimony rods and nail-parers from Hastinapur and other copper and bronze objects including coins have been found from the Mauryan strata at Bhir Mound in Taxila and other places.

While I was posted at Islamabad, I had the opportunity to visit  Taxila on number of occasions. It was , however, disheartening  to notice that  not much care was given by the local Government to preserve these  old monuments. Even the local official guide hardly possessed any knowledge about the  Mauryan (Hindu) kings viz. Chandragupa, Maurya, his son Bindusara or  his grand son Ashoka the Great  and others.