My View on Indian Political System

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Its a long pending request from my Best Friend Manish to write a post about my thoughts on Politics in India but I was ducking it as I have not  written much about Politics on my Blog yet. Me and Manish had lots of differences on this issue and in past had many altercations too but everytime we have agreed to disagree.

In my view Politics is not a profession but a service towards your nation. Anyone who is active in politics should work for the benefit of people and must not expect anything for him/herself from it. Over the period of times we have seen some very committed Politicians but as time have passed such Politicians have become a rarity.

Although we have thousands of Political parities in nation but in mainstream Politics only two Political Parties have the Capability to rule the nation - Congress and BJP, I write " rule " as this is what is actually happening to us. 

This is the second term of Congress led UPA govt. which we obviously had chosen. We have a silent PM who is representing us to the whole world, as the leader of this country we expect majority of decisions to be taken by him but it doesn't seems so. If you'll look at the leaders of some developed countries like US,UK,France,Germany or any other for the record most of them have not yet crossed 60 in their age and here we have an 80 year old. Our New Foreign Affair minister was elected at a time when he was facing some grave corruption charges. Minister of Communication has been very critical of our right to speech. One exception was our last Petroleum Minister who by many was considered cleanest of the politicians but then he was demoted to a lower ministry as he was critical of working of a big Petroleum giant of our Country. What I am trying to highlight is first we have been ruled by not so able politicians and if someone is there who is honest and committed to his work their wings are curtailed if they try to stop any wrong doing.

I personally like Politicians who criticizes less about other parties and concentrate on their work more. When elections comes rather stating what they will do most of the Politicians will point out what the other party/leader has not done, for example in the last UP state elections Rahul Gandhi was very critical of other parties, as he came on the stage from its start to end the summary of the speech would be negativity about other parties and I was not surprised by the result after the elections.

As most of us are fed up of the current govt. we look for an alternative and only one that comes to our mind is BJP. It has some clean leaders[I think so] like Arun Jaitley,Sushma Swaraj in its lot and may lead us in better way. Present president of the Party looks like will get second consecutive term as president which was not in their constitution but have heard they will amend it for him. More than a politician he looks like a corporate Businessmen to me. There have been some serious charges on him but party is supporting him, those who are coming out against him from the party are being suspended by the party.What they are not aware of is that it will not do any good to them in coming general elections. Last time in general elections BJP won few hundred seats but to make govt. they will need to get double of that count[not sure how they will achieve it]. 

Present world is a global world, you need to work together. As we don't have everything with ourselves to serve us we import many things from outside same ways we export to other countries what they don't have. More people/Companies of our Country work in outside world at this time compared to past. BJP has out and out criticized govt. for their decision on FDI in retail which in past they had supported. I am afraid if you'll not allow the world to come here they'll not allow us to go there. Now if BJP comes to power in next elections it would be interesting to know their take on FDI.

We are the biggest nation in the Subcontinent and is surrounded by many small poor nations who looks on us but we have thoroughly neglected them. Its a say if you want to live peacefully you must have good relations with your neighbors. We have been looking east,towards Africa but not towards our neighbors. Nepal,Bangladesh,Pakistan,Sri Lanka, Myanmar,Bhutan are our nearest neighbors. Except Bhutan we are not friendly with anyone. China who is our biggest rival is looking into this and will do anything to destabilize us. This is what foreign policy of our govt. is to which I think it needs to look into it soon.

Besides Congress and BJP their is possibility of third front which could comprise parities like SP,TMC,BSP and left but history has shown it could be disastrous for the country if third front comes to power. But if Congress or BJP could not form govt. third front will have a chance which will bring instability to the nation. I Just pray no such kinda condition arises in future.

In between all this dull moments there is a small ray of hope. A small committed group of people who are not politicians but common people like us have stepped in the field of Politics to bring a change. Aam Aadmi Party(AAP) has just came in the foray of Politics which boast of bringing a change. I personally is excited about it. But I know it will not be easy for them, when Congress and BJP were formed they also had honest politicians but then we know what happened to both parties. I would not be surprised if they fall out and end up nowhere, but still we need to give them a Chance. Also to us we should not expect them to win next general elections right away, what AAP should do is to first make their presence felt in the grass roots of this system. Start working from the root level and then make their way upwards in political system. They have shown us a parallel Political system and I wish in long term they'll become successful in bringing such a system, but the journey would be very difficult for them.

           Be the Change that you wish to see in the World  
                                                            - Mahatma Gandhi

Lastly I would like to end with the above thought of Mahatma Gandhi, the society we have is the very reflection  of us. No Country is better than the citizens resides in it. We can curse our political system but till the time we do not become disciplined,honest and change ourselves and start following rules we should not expect any change.


 

 

 

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India - that we are not !

Tweet Again today i am free and don't have much work so i feel to write, to say whats in my mind. Meanwhile the winter season has just picked up and my passion of sleeping has just gone better. I have chosen the topic on which I would write today.


From the last few years we are constantly hearing that China and India would be the next Super Powers of tomorrow and yes it could be true but as the present situation is looking to me we Indians have lot of ground to cover to even come close to what China it is today.


I think I am a true patriotic person towards my Country but sometime i feel we are not that great as we are projected by us and other Countries. After the emphatic performance in Commonwealth Games we are faring badly in Asian Games. The Country which came second amongst 62 CWG nations is 12th amongst some 40 odd Asian countries.We got most of our gold Medals in Shooting,Wrestling and Boxing in CWGS but in Asian games you have tough competition and Shooters who won Gold medals in CWGs are not even coming in top ten postions in Asiad. Out of some 200 Gold Medals thats been given away uptill now India has fetched only 2 of them thats about a percent only, i am afraid its a shame. The Country which has second largest population in world is lagging behind small countries like Hong Kong and  Kazakhstan.Personally I would prefer a Bronze Medal in Gymnastic, Rowing, Swimming or in Wushu then a Gold in Shooting or Wrestling.


We Indians are very proud of being the Second largest English Speaking country in the world and consider speaking English as one of ours Status Symbol but we should not forgot that most of the Developed Countries emphasize their Mother Tongue, you would never see a Chinese,Korean,French or US premier speaking in any other language but their Mother Tongue. I here by wants to say that its not bad to speak English but its bad when you give much more importance it over your Mother Tongue.


Coming to Politicians we have worst of them here in India. When someone comes to Politics their aim should be to benefit common man  but the case is otherwise here and i don't have to give you example here you know all of them. Can you name me one Politician in our country who has been given any harsh punishment for his wrong deeds ? Even i can't ! Why can't their be a retirement age in Politics ? We do not want to be ruled by people who are 75,80 or more years old. People like Sharad Pawar, Lal Krishna Advani still wants to be Prime Minister of this Country when they should be spending their time on Bed. You would see the Cabinet Positions are all filled by family members only of a Politicians. They do not want to work for people they just want to rule us and make money.


One thing i never understood is that why don't India have a very tall building ? Well most of the other Countries amongst we compete have them. US,China,Canada,Brazil,Australia,Japan all have high rise buildings forgot 100 storey we even don't have a 50 storey building. Can you name a monument that we had made after Independence and that has fascinated you ? there are not much of them.


Coming to Unemployment we have lacs of Unemployed people here in India who are well educated but still no Job for them. Where does all the jobs goes ?  they goes to non deserving candidates who have their near and dear ones already working in those organizations. Before we used to think that bribery and false Candidates getting jobs happens in Govt. department only but ask anyone working in Private sector he will tell you better.


Indeed Indian Armed forces are amongst the best in world but in Arms department we have to rely on foreign soil only. Why can't we make weapons on our own and we could also export them ? We have most of the defense materials exported from Countries like Russia,France,Israel and US. We are proud of our Missile program but all the techniques are Russian. We have are Light Combat Aircraft [LCA] Tejas which we are building it from ages but still we could not Induct it in our Air Force. We thought it would be indigenously made from its design,engine and material but now we are fitting Foreign made Engines into it, so will it be our Success after its made ?


For most of the things we blame our Govt. yes they should be blamed but, we common people should also have some duties towards nation. You would see most of our home very neat and clean but when we move outside our home we would spill all the waste material on road or in open only. We have dustbins at the Chaat Shop but we would deliberately put the waste paper plate in open instead of Dustbins.


We India is the Biggest and prosperous country in our Sub Continent area but to prosper you should have better relations with your Neighbours too and sadly we don't have great relations with them. Forgot Pakistan whom we consider as our arc rival we even don't have good relations with countries like Bangladesh,Nepal,Sri Lanka,Myanmar its just Bhutan with which we have harmony. Being the Big Brother amongst them India should hear their voice too and should try to settle disputes with them Otherwise China is there to help and to serve them.


There are lot of things that i still could narrate here which do not indicate much good for us but, firstly we should not live in the dream that we are the best. Yes we have some best Entrepreneurship skills amongst us but,if we could manufacture our own things and would rely on them rather on foreign goods then we could make some progress.


I wrote this piece because i was hurt of all the wrong things that are happening in our own Country and i think each of us is responsible for this and its only us who can change this. Tweet

Formula 1 its Coming To India !!!

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As any other Indian i have grown up watching Cricket and for long time its been my Favourite sport too , but its not a priority for me any more , yes India is world No. 1 team in tests and in top 3 in ODIs but they have failed to win at Important occasions , it doesn't hurt much now when India loses as it used to hurt  some years back we have got used to it now i suppose.

This has led me to venture other Sports in world Circuit and one of the Sport which is on top of that list is Formula 1 and yesterday i got the news that its coming to India in October 2011 which has made me overjoyed . Its good that we are making our name in Sports that are watched by most of the people in the world which will only add in development of our country.

I guess my farthest memory of Formula 1 goes back when Mika Hakinen retired in 2001 that was the year when i first watched it. The things that makes me crazy about Formula 1 is the noise of its Engine Kkeeeeeeee Kkeeeeeeeeeeeeeee and its shear pace. Cars overtaking each other , so many crashes, which type of tyre to use, engines blowing up thats so amazing .Firstly i was little confused about its rules,the Qualifying,Pit lanes, the point system but gradually i developed my knowledge on them. 

Then there was Michael Schumacher who was on a spree to win back to back F1 Championships , how can you stay away from a game if it have such an Ambassador related with it. The Red colour of his Ferrari enthralls you immediately.

On the Qualifying day thats Saturday i used to be glued on my TV watching who gets which place to start from, Qualifying is same fun as the Race day, the fate of the race hugely depends on how you perform in Qualifying, now a days Qualifying's rules have changed a lot they have split Qualifying session in three Quarters before it was a single round where everybody gets chance to grab pole position, now the best 16 cars from 24 goes to second round and top 10 cars in second round goes to last round from which top ten Qualifying spots are lined up.

 On the race day the strategies used to follow up who takes the advantage at the start, how much fuel is carried by the car,at what time car comes in pit lanes, the time car spends in pit lanes for refueling and tyre changes these are many minute details which differentiates the best teams from others . The fact that Driver driving a car speeding more than 300KMPH and experiencing G forces at various turns makes it a really competitive game , the one who is physically and mentally stronger can only survive. And at last if you have any close finish like the car at Second spot overtakes the first spot car at the Chequered  flag your day was made.

Narain

Karun Chandhok

I knew Narain Karthikeyan was in talks with various Formula 1 teams , he tested with minnows like Minardi and Jaguar and then in year 2005 he became the first Indian driver to race in Formula 1 that was a huge news for Indian Formula 1 fans, Indians were never considered with sports like these and here we have an Indian who was driving a Jordan F1 car , in first few races he outplayed his teammate Tiago Monteiro of Portugal , Karthikeyan is known for his aggressiveness  and he displayed that in his driving but his stint with Formula 1 didn't last longer and next year he could not find a place for himself in racing contingent but he took the role of testing driver with Williams, later he droved for Team India in A1 GP, now as we know he is driving in NASCAR and is the first Indian to do so . This year Karun Chandok became second Indian  to grab a place in Formula 1 team, but with minnows Hispania Racing team, most of the time he used to finish at the end  of pack but that was because of his underdeveloped car and now in the middle of racing season he is dropped from his team i guess for financial reasons as you have to pay a handsome amount of money to teams for racing. Looks like this post again is becoming a very long one i will not take your much time believe me.

In the meantime Vijay Mallya bought his own team in formula 1 called Force India F1 and there you have an Indian F1 team owner what more you could ask more from King of Good Times. As the Car was based on Old Jordan platform no one was hoping wonders from it, but with gradual improvements in Car with some good Engineers and able driver lineup with Experienced Giancarlo Fisichella  and young Adrian Sutil it came out with some surprising results and is now with points in most of the races.

And now India is on the map of Formula 1, It will be the 18th race in 20 race season which is slated on 30th October 2011. The place will be Greater Noida Sports City adjacent to National Capital, New Delhi. For a city to hold a Formula 1 race it should have  world Class Infrastructure which comprises of a 7 star hotel and an Airport in vicinity is a must. Yes the date is finalized but still a a clearance from FIA is needed which will inspect every aspect and will give its clearance after its happy with the complete work. All we can do is hope that everything will be fine and it does not end up in a mess like our CWGs are now in.

Proposed Circuit for Indian Formula 1 Race

The Circuit which is built by Jaypee Group is 5.16km long with 16 corners having some steep turns and bends and there would also be some places which will give Cars opportunities to overtake making the race more exciting. The total estimated cost of Complex is around 1600 Crores which will be built in 360 acres of land. The Circuit is designed by German architect Herman Tilke they say he has designed all the F1 circuits since Sepang in Malaysia in 1999. One of the features of Formula 1 race is that around 1lac people watch it in the stadium itself making it the most watched Sport also it is followed by millions of people across the world on TeleVision. Hopefully it will be a huge success and will surely adds in the development of our country. I have my fingers crossed and hoping for a place in stands when the 5 red lights go off on the Race Day.


For more Info on the Topic go through Karthicks Post on his blog who is my Blogging Friend.

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India And Pakistan - Could we be Friends ?

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Recently India and Pakistan Celebrated their 64th Independence day. Its been 63 years that we both are apart from each other and every year the hatred between both the countries is increasing. We accuses Pakistan for all the wrong doing and same ways they accuse us.

But as an Indian National i had always wanted peace between our Countries, fighting for so many years has not yield  anything for both of us, lots of Soldiers had died from both side, both the countries where many people don't get meals two times a day are spending huge amount of money on Defense Equipments just to fight against each other, is this justified ?

What i see is that Media also plays a crucial role in defining the relations between the countries, they can make or break. As the Common man does not have any straight access to whats going on in between two nations, they rely on Media for that. Today we don't have a responsible Media apart from few dependable ones. Most of the news are cooked up and served to common man, which only helps in adding hatred in our hearts against each other.

What i think is that we common people and the young generation want better relations between us and this is evident from this tweet by @farhanmasood who is a Pakistani Citizen on Pakistan's Independence Day.

 Same ways on a Singing show called " Chhote Ustad " which is being aired on Star Plus Channel have brought Indian and Pakistani Kids on one Platform where one Indian and one Pakistani Kid had been paired into a team. You could see the friendship between kids, you can't tell who is Indian and who is Pakistani amongst them. Some of the Parents of Pakistani Kids were having tears in their eyes when they were praised by legendry Singer Asha Bhonsle even the Judges Sonu Nigam and Rahat Fateh Ali Khan have great comradery going between them.

 Yes the people like Hafiz Saeed there and some of the hardliners here are not willing to come on terms of Peace and they never will, but if me and you are determined towards harmony and friendship between India and Pakistan nobody can stop us to do that. 


It is true that Pakistan has more number of hardliners then ours and many there are Brain Washed on the name of Islam but if this Peace process is started and if each and every one of us will remove hatred against our Neighbouring country from their Heart then a time will come when these so called Hardliners will have no one to look after them.

In one of my earlier post i have stated Pakistan as one of the Countries where i intended to visit in future, i wanted to have a look at the country which was our part some years back, i wanted to know what people there think of us, how different is it from us i suppose we are very similar whether it is our Food,our language,terrain,our Colour, some extent our nature also. If we are so similar then we should not be fighting. If Peace prevails between us then My dream of visiting Pakistan will not be very distant from turning to reality.

Right now Millions of Pakistani People are affected by Floods there and same ways in our Leh many also have lost their lives and their homes because of Cloud Burst. India has shown a good gesture by providing some economic aid to Pakistan for flood victims. Both the countries should help each other in their grievances, If Pakistan acts against the culprits behind Mumbai Attacks it would be a huge step in gaining India's Confidence.

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Rare Pictures - Before Independence !

Tweet Well I have this in mind from many days to post these Pictures but as this is not my Original work i was hesitating in posting them. One day i was searching on the net for some Old Pictures and specially which were clicked before Independence, i searched lot but was not successful and then i landed on a website which were having some nice Old Pictures. But there was no explanation given on the time they were shot and which place they belonged to , so i searched again and after some struggle got little explanation about them and posted on the Original Post so that the readers there could be benefited. As these Pictures are not Copyrighted hence i am posting on my blog also.

Train Inspection , 1885

Ambulances, Chennai,1940

Bank Of Madras , 1935

Car Show, Madras , 1913

Port Blair , 1917(Kalapani Jail or Cellular Jail)

Karachi , 1917

Departmental Store , 1883

Ford Automobiles , 1917

Hoogly( Calcutta ) , 1915

Madras Market(Kothaval Chavadi) , 1939

Lahore , 1864

Madras Library , 1913

Marina Beach , Madras , 1913

Bombay , 1894

VT Station , Bombay , 1894

Mylapore , Madras , 1939

Ooty , 1905

Sorry no Explanation, looks like some Engines !

Karachi Theatre , 1917

No Explanation , What can you say about him ?

No Explanation again, some random Home !

So , now as you had gone through these Pictures , how did u liked them ? If you are known to some better explanations to these pictures feel free to share them here. I don't know how many of these monuments shown here are in existence if you have any knowledge about them of them being still existing please do tell in the comment section.

P.S. - To go through the Original post do visit here

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