Substandard showmanship is more dangerous than Covid. I have missed many stories that I should have read. Life is a cut-paste affair only. You can always air ideas; it is healthy, so long as it is neither dogmatic, nor exclusive, nor aggressive, and so long as you never quarrel.
Pipili election proves that nepotism can never cease from society untill people come forward and bring change in themselves. It’s different that encouragement of youth in politics is definitely a positive signal but the dynastic mindset of our politicians and the political parties would completely ruin the nation down to the drains.
Congress will not revive unless national leadership is changed. Odisha Congress should have a young leader like Saptagiri Ulaka.Sachin Pilot is the best from the young brigade to lead at National Level.If son of Shahrukh Khan and his friends are convicts of Narcotics Law, the same principle is applicable to Adani Group too for seizure of Narcotic Drugs at the airport managed by them.
As expected, the ruling party won.Pipili result showed that Divine Theory of Kinship is still in force. Good that a young leader has emerged in the process. Navin Pattnayak should induct Rudra in his cabinet to respect youth power.
Time has come now that we should
understand the difference between language,literature and script. Else, many literatures will remain unrecognised. Unfortunately, the country is now full with politicians who do literature as a hobby or fashion to divide people on the basis of language.
Fake Hindutva propagators are enjoying their time. My friend Devendra Pandeyji has been denied entry to Ayodhya and has come to Jaipur to attack the so-called patriots at Vadodara/Ahmedabad.
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IN India what we are witnessing is the fight among some political parties based on certain periods of history and certain historical figures. While in Odisha the fight between BJP and BJD is over Paika Vidroha and its legacy, in Karnataka the fight is between BJP and Congress over the legacy of Tipu Sultan.
Of late BJP is taking a stand that Tipu Sultan was a tyrant and converted many Hindus to Islam and destroyed many temples even as some years back some of their documents portrayed him as a great fighter who laid down his life in war against Britishers .
But now it is alleged that they are Ignoring the historical facts that he was a great fighter and died a heroic death in a battle against British rulers in 1799. They are ignoring the fact that he was the first warrior in the history of warfare who used a rocket against Britishers who were completely confused by such a weapon. That used rocket is still preserved in a British museum. When President of India Shri Kovind said all those aspects of Tipu’s life in his recent speech delivered in Karnataka Legislative Assembly the BJP was red faced. Some of the BJP leaders said that the President of India read out the speech drafted by the Congress Government of Karnataka.
It is said by portraying Tipu as a Muslim leader and outlining his legacy as anti Hindu attempts are being made to get votes of Hindus in Karnataka. In the case of Paika Vidroha the BJP Government headed by Prime Minister Modi has declared that the bicentenary of Paika Vidroha would be celebrated. TheBJD Government in Odisha demanded that Paika Vidroha of 1817 be declared as the first war of independence. It is absolutely an absurd claim because so many such uprisings had taken place in Ganjam much before Paika Vidroha.
It is said that the strategy is to get the votes of Khandayats in Puri and Khorda. BJD has the objective of outsmarting BJP in claiming that it is the first war of independence. When I said that Buxi Jagabandhu surrendered before Britishers and pleaded for mercy and pension and so he was a false hero, I faced hostility from some people. How can Buxi be considered a hero and how can Paika Vidroha be the first war of independence when it was just confined to Odisha and many such uprisings had taken place before 1817 in many other parts of Odisha and India ?
Such fights based on history makes me feel sad. Tipu Sultan was indeed a great hero. He wanted to throw Britishers out of India by joining hands with Napoleon of France. He introduced many measures which are now considered as central to governance.
He, like any other ruler of the 18th century, attacked many kingdoms irrespective of the religion of their rulers and adopted policies to annex them to his Kingdom. While some say that he destroyed many temples during the war it is a matter of record that he also gave many grants to many other temples of his kingdom. The best thing is that he died a glorious death while fighting against Britishers.
Let us not use history for communal and political purposes. Let us learn lessons of history to improve the present day conditions. Romila Thapar said that there is the future of the past. Let us not spoil the future of the past by petty mindedness. ( Courtesy: Dr Satyanarayan Sahu )
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Amorphous spiritualism sans morality has spoiled our national character.It has also damaged our image outside India, notwithstanding our boastful claim that ours is a Deva Bhumi.We have a plethora of various brands of spiritualism in this country. The abstruge abracadabra and highly enjoyable rituals have turned spiritual practices and events here into carnivals. True practice of morality demands a lot of restraint in day to day life.
Long back, a friend of mine, a govt.officer, quoted from Sri Aurobindo the above mentioned passage and justified corruption,saying that one need not be obsessed with corruption if one follows spiritual practices correctly. I am nonplussed, how come, one can lead a spiritul life without giving importance to morality. Morality in private as well as public life was the cornerstone of Gandhiji’s spiritualism.
As regards to Sri Aurobinda’s behaviour towards Gandhiji during the latter’s visit to Pondichery,– to avoid any disrespectful comment—I shall only say that such gesture was simply unfortunate. Sri Aurobindo not only refused to meet Gandhi and not only instructed Sri Maa to meet Gandhi but also directed the inmates of his Ashram not to attend the public meeting which Gandhi was to address. It reminds me about Gandhi’s first public meeting in Cuttack. Some people claiming to be Sanaatanis showed black flag to Gandhiji and raised the slogan,”Gandhi murdaabaad”.Volunteers tried to drive them out.But Gandhi insisted that they must be brought to the dais honourably and he will address only after the leader of the Sanaatanis deliver his address. That was Gandhi.
As regards to Gandhiji’s reaction to Cripps mission, Congress discussed the mission’s recommendations for one month and decided to reject it.This question needs long debate.
Here I shall only say this much : those who have shoes on their feet alone know where (and how) the shoe pinches. Interestingly enough after independence Dr Karan Singh preferred to serve under a person who played a very role in partition as well as in rejection of Cripps Mission.Besides, I don’t know whether Dr Singh had forgiven his father who had threatened Nehru that unless his demands were fulfilled, he would prefer amalgamation of Kashmir in Pakistan. The most unpatriotic threat !
All said and done Gandhi remains Gandhi, the ‘millennium man.’ Most of us know about the opinion poll conducted by the famous ‘Time’ magazine of the USA in 1999 A.D. The question asked to some of the best brains of the world as to “who is the greatest personality of the 20th century.” Einstein was the first choice of the majority and Gandhi was the runners up. But how did Einstein evaluate Gandhi?It is said he had only two portraits hanging in his bedroom, one of Newton and the other one was that of Gandhiji.
And ,we all know the famous tribute Einstein offered to Gandhiji, “Generations to come will scarcely believe that such a one as this ever in flesh and blood walked upon this earth.” This poignant wonderment comes from a personality who himself is considered a world wonder, two portions of whose brain have been preserved in two labs for research! Quoting this statement of Einstein, many world famous personalities who were interviewed by Time magazine claimed like late Steve Jobs(The owner of Apple Inc)that since Einstein had such words for Gandhi, Gandhi should be considered to be the greatest personality of the 20th century.
No spiritualist,no philosopher, no statesman nor any writer or artist of any part of the world was considered by the best thinkers of the world in the 90’s as ‘Personality of the Century’.
Of course, I am aware that however great one may be, his testimonial should not be produced to prove another person’s greatness.But certainly one should be interested to find out why a person alleged to possess ‘demonic personality’ was singled out by the best brains of the world as the beacon light of 20th century? One possible answer can be, Those best brains had demonic hearts. Can we include Chitta Bhai also in that demonic gang?
Sorry, I am not interested in locking horns with anybody in this group continuing this debate.I read all the postings in this group regularly. But don’t feel like reacting. But this posting and few other uncalled for postings vilifying Gandhiji became ‘last straw’. Debating here is a very time consuming exercise.
Hence I won’t respond if any friend reacts to my posting.But of course,if any friend wants further discussion we can have face to face discussion or on phone .( Courtesy: Sailaj Rabi)
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We are a democracy! We elected our leaders who swear in the name of the Constitution that they will uphold the Constitution. Then they can use any ugly statement, threaten to take the law into their own hands and then go out to show that they actually can do it.
There is a PM who is allowing his own pious statements and his swearing in the name of God carries no meaning. It was a process he had to go through to acquire the seat of power. After that, a president of his own making and a huge majority of slave followers in the Parliament (it is not a British parliament where members of the ruling party can rise in revolt and change the leader on issues) he can easily ignore or gloss over such criminal behaviour of his disciples. It starts with a prajna thakur and runs through a minister of Home at the centre!
It is just unbelievable the way the protestors were deliberately mowed down. It was no less than the Taliban’s firing on the protestors. And yet the ruling dispensation is keen on maintaining silence, bent on provoking and thereby making at least some protestors violent. That would prove what they have been saying against the protestors. How long will this cheap politicking be used to suppress the genuine anger of the people when you go on hitting the farmers on the stomach all the time?
Look at the way they are playing with the Supreme Court, the last barrier to destruction of democracy. The media is majorly firmly in the pocket, making a “suicide of a cinema hero” shown as a national level conspiracy while other pressing issues were there. When it comes to knowing whether they have been tapping the phone of the leader of opposition and the justices of the supreme Court, they cite ‘national security’ essentially saying ” you don’t need to know” to the supreme court! And then, in the garb of a farmers association files in the supreme Court seeking relief for the farmers!
“Cheapest of the cheap” can be a good expression comparable to “rarest of the rare” to describe these actions. HOnce in power, these characters seem to be saying, “We are having you as slaves for five years. You better accept that. Or else…….”
The dashes can be filled up anyway by anybody who follows them. We need to be aware of the game plan. The Indian National Congress has thankfully started to appreciate its role as the national level opposition to BJP in India. Can ‘what is happening now’ be condoned because of ‘what happened decades earlier’?
For the sake of India, shouldn’t there be a rethink by all the non-BJP political and social leaders?
( Courtesy: Prof Pratap K Rath)
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It is obvious that when an award is announced ,we critically analyse.Some awards are based on your reputation,some you get because of affiliations and some you manage.
Most important is ,how you sustain over a century and beyond .Many of us have forgotten the names of Nobel Laureates for literature and have remembered authors like Leo Tolstoy,Ezra Pound,Chinua Achebe and Sarat Chandra……they are much above the award.
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Durga Puja was a 5 day Festival for us.My uncle used to do Chandipath on Mahashtami night .We used to call Durga Puja as Pujaghara,I don’t know why.I used to go to our village Birakesharipur to bring our Hakara.That was the occasion when the whole family and friends used to meet.
My father in law,though not a Brahmin,used to follow all the rituals of Durga Puja for five
days,Shasthi to Dashami.Some people used to do it for nine days,I have found in UP…….I miss everything now….
