Indian Opinion

Mukesh Chandra Devrari Book Review: Title - Vajpayee: The Years that changed India, Author - Shakti Sinha, Publisher - Penguin Random House India Private Limited, Kindle price – 387 Rupees Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee enjoys a mythical status in the history of non-Congress politicians who could reach the zenith of political power in India despite his humble origins. His mesmerizing poetry, powerful speeches, commitment to constitutional morality and devotion to the centre to right ideology was remarkably down to earth. He was a diamond in a coal mine. Due to his humility and demeanour, he was described a s  the right man in the wrong party by liberals in India.     Former private secretary of Prime Minister Vajpayee Shakti Sinha recently published a book titled, ‘Vajpayee: The Years that Changed India’. It is difficult to say what was his purpose of writing the book. If the purpose of the author was to establish his illustrious former boss as larger th...

WHO website marked the spread of coronavirus around the globe Coronavirus has come as a danger not only to the life chances of people but also to the livelihood of the people who work every day and dependent on that money for survival. Apart from the government employees, pensioners, people belonging to the upper-middle class, all others are facing questions of survival. Large private companies are still paying to their employees, but small-scale business cannot afford it. The government should also think about the direct cash transfer to ordinary people who are directly affected by the lockdown. Although the US, China, Germany and a few other countries are likely to develop a vaccine in coming months, it is very unfortunate that India could not develop anything significant to deal with the virus. Once the vaccine hit the market India will end up paying billions of dollars for the vaccine.   It is a tragic reality that if COVID-19 lockdown expanded further, India is ...

Mukesh Devrari    On January 23, 2020 The Economist ran a story titled ‘Narendra Modi stokes division in the world’s biggest democracy’. First, it must be remembered that ‘The Economist’ is a British magazine. It has no role to play in the making of India. There is no reason for Indians to be overjoyed when it praises their country, neither they should feel despair at criticism.  It is basically a white man’s take on world affairs. Secondly, it is also important to note that the whole world watches India with keen interest. Almost 20 per cent of the world’s population live in South Asia. The world has a stake in the economic progress of the region if India will be focusing more on the issues other than the economy, the world community is likely to question the country.  Unfortunately, over the last six years, India is in news for wrong reasons. IMF has forecasted that the growth rate this year likely to remain less than five per cent. Just a decade ear...

Mukesh Devrari This article is not an academic exercise, in fact, it is a result of the elaboration of lived reality between 2014-19. Nothing changed in the last five years in India, nothing at all. Life was as difficult as it was under the tenure of UPA government led by Cambridge educated Manmohan Singh. Jobs were as rare as they are now. The economy was in tatters as it is now. Millions of unemployed graduates are joining the existing fleet of unemployed youth in India.     When Manmohan Singh was a PM, he did not enjoy the stature of PM in the eyes of common masses as he was holding the office as per the wishes of Gandhi family. He was a humble down to earth man Sikh gentleman who had no control either over the Congress party or over his colleagues in the government. Most of the Congress and UPA alliance partners leading the different ministries minted as much as money as they could. Corruption was rampant. Things went to such a state that corporate India, ...

Dust and smoke billows out from a residential house which was blown up during a gunfight between militants and Indian soldiers in Durbagh village of Chadoora, 15 km from Srinagar, the summer capital of Indian Kashmir on March 28, 2017. One militant was killed and an Indian soldier injured during a 10-hour-long gunfight. Three civilians were also killed and at least 15 injured during clashes near the gunfight site. Photo courtesy Agencies SOURCE - NAM NEWS NETWORK Mukesh Devrari First, Young generation of Indians are least bothered about freedom and liberty ensured in this country to each and every citizen. They feel too much of freedom is hampering decision making and implementation of policies. Students, mostly upper caste, who have never seen any hardships in life, have been coaxed to believe that democracy in India is a barrier in our rapid progress and economic development. These emerging militant nationalists are not ready to accept that almost all rich nations o...

HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar  Mukesh Chandra Devrari The recent reshuffle in the cabinet by the union government shows that BJP has no vision and strategy to deal with challenges faced by nation. When BJP government came to the power in 2014, the most shocking appointment came in the form of Smriti Irani as Human Resource Minister. Since then there was unrest in the academic community. It was an amazing fall as a nation to have television actress Irani as HRD Minister after having eminent lawyer like Kapil Sibbal for many years on the same position. Even during the previous NDA regime Murli Manohar Joshi was appointed as HRD minister. Finally Smriti Irani lost her position after poorly handling the Rohit Vemula case and other issues. In her short stint she proved to be arrogant, overconfident and someone who has only contempt for intellectuals. She was rewarded with the berth in union cabinet for strongly supporting Narendra Modi over the years. Her case must ...

Mukesh Devrari BJP has no idea how to deal with Pakistan. BJP leaders must understand that they cannot threaten Pakistan. Aggressive statements emanating from Indian leaders only fuel the hatred against India in Pakistan, which strengthens the hands of radical elements in Pakistani Military and society.  The best foreign policy against Pakistan is to totally ignore them until the situation in Kashmir is normalized to some extent. Indians cannot run away from the fact that Kashmir is a Muslim majority region. People of Kashmir have sympathy with the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. Global bonhomie in all followers of Islam is not unknown to modern societies. For Pakistan Government talks with India means discussion on Kashmir. It is also strange that even almost seventy years after the independence Pakistan is not ready to dilute their claim on entire Kashmir as it is a Muslim majority region. They still describe it as an unfinished agenda of Partition.  Over the last t...

Mukesh Devrari During the tenure of Congress, party country came to stand still. It was described as policy paralysis. There were many reasons. During its tenure, Congress decided to hear the complaints of farmers that their land is being acquired by state governments arbitrarily for the benefit of corporate groups.  In West Bengal CPIM decided to acquire land from farmers for failed Tata small car project. Farmers agitated against government fiercely.  Congress as a true left-leaning political party provided relief to farmers at the cost of long term benefits to the nation. For some, it was very encouraging to see that the mainstream political party in India is willing to take the side with the weaker sections of society.  According to the detractors of the Congress party, this decision led to the complete stagnation in developmental projects. It became impossible for states to acquire land. Many of the Chief Ministers in congress govern state opposed the bill...

Mukesh Devrari Promises of politicians are hollow. There are no exceptions. People believe in false promises amid despair. In the widespread hopeless environment propaganda works better. False promises during election campaigns by BJP went unnoticed. Modi wants all Bangladeshi Muslims to go back to Bangladesh as India is already overcrowded and they are snatching the opportunities and land from local population. His logic is as Bangladeshi Muslims can immigrate or seek asylum in any Muslim country. They must not come to India.   Now the BJP is in power on its own and Modi is a Prime Minister. If you think new dispensation is going to take any steps to make its poll promise of sending illegal Bangladeshis back home, then you are wrong. It is not going to happen but maybe during the next assembly election or general election BJP may raise this bogey of illegal Bangladeshi immigrants again.   Modi also observed in his subtle speeches during the poll campaign that...