Jan-lokpal or Jokepal?

This article has also been published as editorial in AZIndia.

Most NRIs settled abroad have a very simplistic or let me dare to say “neutral” view towards the Indian politics.  It is because most of us carry don’t-care-any-more attitude since it no longer affects us directly or at least it seems to be so for the moment.  It is also because most of us just hate politics and the politicians. Let us agree on it.

For ages, the politicians have managed to rule and loot the country because there has been hardly any challenge thrown to them by the system making it easier for them to continue to be irresponsible and unaccountable. There have been so many scams over the past decade or so that they have just become a part of an ordinary indian’s life. They just seem to come and go as the seasons of summer and winters do. To name a few:  2G scam, CWG scam, Adarsh Scam etc.  See the ever growing list of scams here.

However for the first time in post-independence era, people have started challenging them.  The social activists, Anna Hajare and Arvind Kejriwal, have led a strong wave of anti-corruption movement in the country for the past one year and it has gained enough momentum to challenge the govt.   Some might question the honesty and integrity of the people who are involved in it like Hajare and Kejriwal, but let us not forget the issue that they are fighting for – enacting a strong anti-corruption law in the country to weed out corruption from every damn thing – A janlokpal bill. Isn’t something like that need of the hour for our motherland? Let us accept that finally we are fighting for something above caste, religion and regional politics. If we agreed on the “mudda or issue”, then let us do something about it.

At times when we do want to do something for the country, the question of “HOW” pulls us down. What can I do? We believe that, we all can be a great force in this movement.  But How?

Here is a simply way to contribute. As we have seen so far, the government is very afraid of people’s awareness. They would have never even thought about any anti-corruption law had Anna Group not put enough pressure on them. Govt. has introduced a very weak lokpal bill , rightly termed as JOKEPAL in the parliament to diffuse the movement. A lot remains to be done and the remaining work will not be done until the government sees a real pressure coming from the society and that too from the educated and aware echelons of the society. The government has tried all its best to diffuse this movement in many ways already. This is where all of us can play a significant and direct role by making people aware about this whole movement.  When you talk to someone on this Janlok pal issue, the very first reaction is neutral and don’t-care type. We can make our friends and family aware about this whole movement and this chain will continue and ultimately become a strong force.

Now WHY? Simply because we should care for it. Let us not have an escapist attitude towards this. Let us face it. We landed up here because we had no equivalent/better opportunities in our own country at that time and that was so because the rulers didn’t work to create those opportunities for us. They rather created scams after scams. And also because we didn’t do anything to make them accountable then. One more chance for us?

Let us believe in awareness. Let us do our part towards a corruption free India. Let us do a bit of it on 65^th Independence Day of India and be counted. Can we?

Happy 65^th Independence Day

JAI HIND

AZ India Team

Jharkhand: Ranchi rocks: India Today - Latest Breaking News from India, World, Business, Cricket, Sports, Bollywood.

Jharkhand: Ranchi rocks: India Today - Latest Breaking News from India, World, Business, Cricket, Sports, Bollywood.

BJP Expels Jaswant Singh for......?

...expressing his personal opinion, point of view, personal ideology? If this is the state of thinking of a party that claims to be a national party, imagine what kind of leadership it would entail into the country if voted back to power? Probably only those who would support "Hindutva", the hard core ideology of BJP would be a welcome citizen? Rest would be put into jail?

No. I am being too harsh and BJP would do nothing like that if in power. These acts are mere gimmicks to keep the "Hindutva" image intact no matter what. As it is evident to even a road side romeo that BJP's only mantra to powerdom is Hindutva and related stuff. But when would the party leadership ever understand that times are changing and with growing awarenss about everything around, the "ideology" must change to encompass a greater mass?

Just think that they expelled a vetran party leader for no reason. Just because he praised Jinna for his deeds. How narrow minded? Even in a family people have different opinions on different things. Will such events eventually lead to BJP's disintegration? Time to think.

Shahrukh Khan Detained?

I incidentally came across the storyline of Shahrukh's much talked about upcoming movie "My name is Khan". For some reason, I find a big correlation between this movie and the "unfortunate" incident that happened with him at Newark Airport a few days back. Please follow the wikipedia link to read the known plot of the movie.

The timing and the nature of the incident tells a different story to me altogether. Even though it is very hard to believe, but knowing that the movies like "Newyork" and "Khuda Ke Liye" already had the same storyline, probably another movie with the same plot + many usual dance sequences needed some extra bit to rock the box office for a usual ROI. Above all, is this not a simple fact that Shahrukh + Karan Jauhar's movies are the most marketed in bollywood?

Probably, the indian audiences needed a touch of reality to pack the multiplexes when this movie would be released in Feb 2010. What an effective way of marketting the movie because of the money involved in it? Surely impressive.

Or what a way of brainwashing people. If proved, which probably will never be, would it be termed communal as well?

An Interesting Article by Sam Pitroda : Must read

If you are an Indian and do not know about Sam Pitroda then SAD thing, Click here to read about him.

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(One Indian =3D 10 Japanese, 10 Indians =3D One Japanese)

Lack of teamwork and co-operation is one of the most serious problems affecting progress in all areas of India and wherever Indians work worldwide.The key problem in India is always implementation, not lack of policies. We have great policies and ideas about how to do things, but severely lacking teamwork.

When the Japanese came to work in India to develop the Maruti Suzuki car, a joke went around that one Indian was equal to 10 Japanese: Indians were very smart, capable and dedicated individuals. But 10 Indians were equal to 1 Japanese: Indians lacked team spirit and co-operation. What makes matters even worse is our crab mentality) if someone is trying to climb higher and achieve more, the others just drag him down. The signal that the others send out is, " I wouldn't do it; I wouldn't let you do it; and if by change you start succeeding, we will all gang up and make sure that you don't get to do it."The question is: Where does this attitude come from, and how do we recognize and handle it?

Hierarchical System

Part of the problem is our cultural background. We've had feudal and a hierarchical social system in which whoever is senior supposedly knows best. This was fine in earlier times when knowledge and wisdom were passed on orally; but in modern society, there is no way that one person can know everything. Today, you may find that a young computer-trained person has more answers for an accounting problem than a senior accountant has. Until we understand how best to leverage this diversity of experience, we will not be able to create and fully utilize the right kind of teams.

Sam Patrido : In my younger days in the US, I attended an executive seminar for Rockwell International, where about 25 senior company executives had congregated for a week for strategic discussion. In the evenings, we would break out into five different groups of five people each. In those group workshops, someone would delegate tasks, saying: "You make coffee; you take notes; you are the chairman; and you clean the board". The next day, there would be different duties for each group member.
No one ever said, but I made coffee twice or I cleaned the board entire day. I thought to myself, if this were happening in India, people would be saying, "But I'm the senior secretary, why should I make the coffee and you be the chairman?" Hierarchy comes naturally to our minds.

What Derails a Team?
Group work requires a thorough understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of individuals irrespective of their hierarchy. Because of our background, we often don't learn how to exercise and accept leadership to lead and to follow simultaneously.
Some gravitate toward exercising leadership, and others gravitate toward accepting the lead of others. But in true teamwork, everyone needs to do both. Being a good team player implies respect for others, tolerance of different points of view and willingness to give.The ability to resolve conflicts without either egotism or sycophancy is a very important aspect of being a team player: You have to agree to disagree. I find that people in India somehow tend to focus on achieving total agreement, which is almost always impossible. So before work begins people want everyone to agree on everything instead they should say OK. This is what we agree on, so let's start working on this. What we don't agree on, we will resolve as we go along. For things to move forward, it's important to work on the agreed-upon aspects and not get bogged down in the areas of disagreement.

Yet another snake that kills teamwork is people's political agendas. You've got to be open, clear and honest to be a good team player. Most people though, have a hidden agenda they say something but mean the exact opposite. I call it split-leve consciousness.To say and mean the same thing is a very critical part of a good work ethic.
Criticizing the individual or the idea?

When Sam was working in C-DOT (400 employee size company), If someone had not been doing well, Sam used to tell the person directly to his face in a general meeting. The employees said that was insulting and they should be pulled aside individually to be told of the inefficiency. But in today's world, you cannot afford to do that every time. Besides, Sam figured that criticizing someone in a meeting was for the benefit of all present, and everyone could learn from that individual's mistakes. It was then that Sam learned how Indians do not differentiate between criticizing an idea and criticizing an individual.

So in a group, if you tell someone that his idea is no good, he automatically takes it personally and assumes that you are criticizing him. No one can have a good idea everyday on every issue. If you disagree with my idea, that does not mean that you have found fault with me as a person. Thus, it is perfectly acceptable for anyone to criticize the boss - but this concept is not a part of the Indian System. So from time to time, it is important for an organization's Chief Executive to get a report on the psychological health of the firm.How do people in the team feel? Are they stable? Confident? Secure? Comfortable?

These are the key elements of a team's success. For a boss to be comfortable accepting criticism from subordinates, he must feel good about himself.Self-esteem is a key prerequisite to such a system being successful.

Mental Vs. Physical Workers

Another serious problem facing India is the dichotomy and difference in respectability between physical and mental workers, which seriously affects team performance. Mr. Sam had a driver named Ram, who he thought was one of the best drivers in the world. He used to open the door for him whenever he entered or exited the car. Right in the first few days Sam told him "Ram bhai, you are not going to open the door for me. You can do that if I lose my hands". Ram almost started crying. He said, "Sir, what are you saying? This is my job!" Sam told him that I didn't want to treat him like a mere driver. He had to become a team player. Sam told him that whenever he was not driving, he should come into office and help out with office work - make copies, file papers, send faxes, answer phone call or simply read - rather than sit in the car and wait for me to show up.

Diversifying tasks increases workers' self-esteem and motivation and makes them team players. Now, even If Sam calls him for work in the middle of the night, he is ready - because Sam respects him for what he does.Team Interactions unfortunately, when good teams do get created, they almost invariably fall apart. In our system today it is very difficult to build teams because nobody wants to be seen playing second fiddle. It is very hard in India to find good losers. Well, you win some and you lose some. If you lose some, you should move on! You don't need to spend all your time and energy of different cultural backgrounds, religions, ethnicities and caste groups - a fertile ground of diversity in the workplace. We should actually be experts in working with diversity. But it can only happen when we get rid of personal, caste and community interests. There could be a 40-year-old CEO with a 55-year-old VP. It has nothing to do with age; capability and expertise are what counts. But you don't yet see these attitudes taking hold in India. Managers in the US corporate environment who work with Indians - and in fact, with Asians in general - need to recognize that these individuals have a tendency to feel that they are not getting recognition or are not being respected.

It must be realized that these individuals have lower self-esteem to begin with and therefore have to be pampered and encouraged a little more because they need it. This makes them feel better and work better. No Substitute for Teamwork. Teamwork is key to corporate and national governance, and to get anything done.The fundamental Issues are respect for others, openness, honesty, communication, willingness to disagree, resolution of conflict, and recognition that the larger goal of the team as a whole rumps Individual or personal agendas. Don't be afraid of pressure.

I'll revive economy in 100 days: Manmohan Singh

Manmohan Singh claims that he can revive the Indian economy which is at a downside now even though one of the strongest perceived leader of Congress, one of the most educated, Mr P Chidamberam has been claiming of Indian economy remaining stronger even during the global recession.

However this claim of our revered PM is conditional that he should be voted back to power.

My three questions:

1. He atleast agrees that the by and large unorganised indian economy is under recession. Is he still not in power? And if he needed only 100 days, why did he not do something at least visible to revive it?
2. Only when you will be in power, you would do this magical act and won't probably do something if not. Why? Is this not your duty to revive the economy no matter power or no power, being the known economist you are?
3. And the timing? Can you explain this? Please enlighten all of us.
   

Shameless Congress Party wants India to go back to 60s

If you have followed the acts and strategies of UPA lead Indian government over the last 2-3 years, it will not be a tough question to list at least 2-3 major decisions taken during their tenure. In fact it would be hard to find the 4^th and 5^th one. All the listed accomplishment would sorely belong to one and only one major category: RESERVATIONS.

1. Reservations of OBCs in the higher education
2. Reservations of Teachers in IITs
3. Reservations in Private sector

Congress has ruled India for the major part since independence and last time you heard about a milestone decision regarding reservations was in 1990, the Mondal Commission, again during the tenure of Congress Party. Once Congress was evicted from the ruling scene, the intermediate period of about 8 years, saw no move regarding this. This period saw the new and energetic face of India ready to make a point in the world. India achieved a significant growth in terms of various economic parameters; however the reasons of the growth would be debatable as to whether it was because of the new governance or because of the lack of congress government or just the market forces? The answer would be a no brainer to the educated lot. Congress returns back to power in 2004 once again and one of the most educated and highly qualified man with a resume of 20+ pages was appointed the Prime minister. Rest of the portfolios saw similar people assuming similar roles as in 60s, 70s and 90s and the result was an obvious one. Remaining out of powers for a significant period, Congress this time was determined to make no mistake and play the game by the old rules. The old rules that positioned them to rule independent India like British ruled the India before independence. Caste based politics being the major one; something that seemed forgotten for a while was headlines in no time, and this time with a bang. Reservations in higher educations and notably IITs and IIMs. Candidates would be admitted in the higher education based on their castes and not necessarily based on what they would do in the entrance examination. The explanation would be old enough to support the ones who belong to lower strata of the society. There are so many questions that you can ask about this strategy of helping poor and the deserved ones and one of them I would like to ask would be: Even after 60 years of independence do we really need all this? Where is the data that proves that the backward caste means backward people? (Creamy layer?)

If you think about everything honestly, you might become ready to accept the reservations of OBCs in the higher education with the institutions trying to increase number of seats so that the number of general category students admitted in a particular course is least impacted. However no explanation can convince you on the reservations of Teachers in IITs. This is one of the most shocking decisions taken ever in the history of Indian education. If the teachers are deserving ones, it is a possibility that they can still raise the standard of an below average or academically poor student, but how can the same thing happen when the teacher himself is of that type?

At a time when the government should try to make every effort to bolster the education system in the country in order to reap the benefit of development that has started to trickle down the society, they are busy playing with the root of the system itself. A sensible government should be ensuring that the new rules, infrastructure etc is making the society ready to jump on the developmental success, but on the contrary this government led by one of the most educated (claimed) man of India seems to be busy in reserving its own position for the years to come. It is a well proven fact that caste politics would secure you votes and hence possibly your next tenure. Congress knows only this way of doing politics. It knows who are its target customers and how to woe them. They have been doing this for the past 5 years and they have not bothered to do anything else. If anyone disagrees with me, please list a few good decisions they have made and that is not related to their own selfishness but to the country.

The saddest part is, once a reservation policy is passed, no other government would dare to take it back because of the obvious results. Worst is, no matter how much we cry for all this, Congress is going to remain unaffected since, the ones who are going to cry are educated enough to take part in voting system. The so called developed society of India always ridicules the voting process. Congress is making all these decisions to impact and woe the section of the society that would always vote. Isn’t this the best political strategy?

It is a shameful act on the part of honorable Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to be an active part of this government. The history down the line will associate all such major decisions with his name and when his 20 page CV will be mentioned the next time, it will only be mentioned sarcastically. Many youngsters, who might be taking some inspirations from such a deeply educated man, would be hit hard on their faith. If at all, Manmohan Singh lives up to the expectations of his own resume, he should have resigned much before and should not be waiting for a positive agreement on the ongoing nuclear deal.

How GPS Works?

Global Positioning System satellites transmit signals to equipment on the ground. GPS receivers passively receive satellite signals; they do not transmit. GPS receivers require an unobstructed view of the sky, so they are used only outdoors and they often do not perform well within forested areas or near tall buildings. GPS operations depend on a very accurate time reference, which is provided by atomic clocks at the U.S. Naval Observatory. Each GPS satellite has atomic clocks on board.

Each GPS satellite transmits data that indicates its location and the current time. All GPS satellites synchronize operations so that these repeating signals are transmitted at the same instant. The signals, moving at the speed of light, arrive at a GPS receiver at slightly different times because some satellites are farther away than others. The distance to the GPS satellites can be determined by estimating the amount of time it takes for their signals to reach the receiver. When the receiver estimates the distance to at least four GPS satellites, it can calculate its position in three dimensions. There are at least 24 operational GPS satellites at all times. The satellites, operated by the U.S. Air Force, orbit with a period of 12 hours. Ground stations are used to precisely track each satellite's orbit.

Determining Position

A GPS receiver "knows" the location of the satellites, because that information is included in satellite transmissions. By estimating how far away a satellite is, the receiver also "knows" it is located somewhere on the surface of an imaginary sphere centered at the satellite. It then determines the sizes of several spheres, one for each satellite. The receiver is located where these spheres intersect.

GPS Accuracy

The accuracy of a position determined with GPS depends on the type of receiver. Most hand-held GPS units have about 10-20 meter accuracy. Other types of receivers use a method called Differential GPS (DGPS) to obtain much higher accuracy. DGPS requires an additional receiver fixed at a known location nearby. Observations made by the stationary receiver are used to correct positions recorded by the roving units, producing an accuracy greater than 1 meter.

Source: http://www.nasm.si.edu/gps/work.html

गाँधी को क्यों मारा?

One of the liveliest discussions you would witness

This thread of discussion took place all of a sudden among a group of friends and is being posted to remember it for time to come.

Disclaimer: - The discussion took place in a friendly manner and has nothing to do with the sentiments of any particular group or community. We all friends are aware and educated enough to understand the sentiments of people and we do not intend to hurt anyone in any form.

ANAND:

The topic of the discussion:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nathuram_Godse

"I would tell the Hindus to face death cheerfully if the Muslims are out to kill them. I would be a real sinner if after being stabbed I wished in my last moment that my son should seek revenge. I must die without rancor. You may turn round and ask whether all Hindus and all Sikhs should die. Yes, I would say. Such martyrdom will not be in vain." (Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi, vol.LXXXVII, p.394-5) It is left unexplained what purpose would be served by this senseless and avoidable surrender to murder.

Who would escape after such an outrageous statement?

Baba:

I guess Hindus are an extremely tolerant society, if somebody says so in today’s world, nobody is going to care and he would survive.

Anand:

Well, these statements will never be escaped by Shiv-Sena, VHP and RSS group.
Still, In my opinion, I would say the old man had lost his head towards the end of his life.

Paresh:

Probably you would not like it but there are two things that I must highlight here –

1. Gandhi was correct in his approach – He cannot have double standards, he said the same very thing for British and the same very thing for Muslims. He was consistent and that is what you should be. A great man and I mean great as in Mahapurush is consistent in behavior – right or wrong is not the basis for greatness because just to imagine that some one will always be correct is stupid unless you are talking about Baba… Another example that I would quote here is of another person that has been considered as a Mahapurush in Indian History and that person is Rama. Do you think he led a completely fault less life… over and over in Ramayana Rama makes mistakes the biggest may be to leave Sita when she is pregnant but that was in accordance to the principles that he had set and that there were no anomalies in his behavior
2. I think we live in this great big lie of great Indian bravery, over the ages in history you will find that we (especially the hindus) have been docile and not “brave” There are a few incidents here and there of bravery like Bhagat Singh etc but in all we are weak people. Consider Somnath, the first king of Gujrat region was so terrified that he fled without resistance, the second third ….seventh leader all succumbed without resistance, history shows that the only resistance that was put up was the priests closing the doors of Somnath temple. We were defeated by all invading forces and only once in a 100 200 year span did we have a brave king to show any resistance. We have built palaces and precious gifts for incoming invaders so that they are pleased and we are not man slaughtered. Rajputs in Rajashtan one of the bravest (second only to the Sikh) community in India did follow this approach… and I would not dare go to the west-east where things were even worse. We were at best the land of the kamasutra…..we have temples honoring sex for our and invaders amusement…. Secondly at least for British resistance we were poor and could not match them with any fire power that we might have, we lacked central leadership and there were no operational guidelines therefore we lacked strategy the only thing (except of course the macro economic factors) by which we could have out done the British was via will power our passive resistance was a show of will and of the only strength and courage that we could have shown. Believe me and I dare say believe me when I say that Gandhi was not the corner stone of our independence but his ideology was there was no other way… remember Sub hash Chandra Bose?? Even Nathuram was a big coward how else do you justify some one shooting an old man who has never picked up any arms in his life who would fast unto death even if any body said blood and who was carrying the soul of an impoverished nation? All in all even if we tried and we did too (Remember Sardar Patel’s “Karo aur parda daal do”) we would not have achieved much out of the manslaughter and the damages would be greater on our side.

What I have stated above is without any prejudice or disrespect for our armed forces who through discipline and training are now the best in the world --- some people have considered the Israelis the bravest of brave force but in retrospect they are still serving a mandatory time. India on other hand is voluntarily willing to die for a nation

Anand:

You have written well and I also rated Godse as a coward man only, but one piece of sentence that I have mentioned from the original article is really eye catching and it needs attention from all gentlemen:

"I would tell the Hindus to face death cheerfully if the Muslims are out to kill them. I would be a real sinner if after being stabbed I wished in my last moment that my son should seek revenge. I must die without rancour. You may turn round and ask whether all Hindus and all Sikhs should die. Yes, I would say. Such martyrdom will not be in vain." (Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi, vol.LXXXVII, p.394-5) It is left unexplained what purpose would be served by this senseless and avoidable surrender to murder."

I fail to understand, who gave him the rights to ask HINDUS to surrender for whatever reason? Just because he was the so called father of the nation, he would do anything he thinks is appropriate? Just to please a particular group or in other words just to follow someone's principle, he doesn’t have any rights to ask for bloods from mass. I would say to hell with such principles.

We as Indians have been losers mainly because of following set principles and those who set them in essence. Following them blindly I would say. I don’t see any sense in his pleading to Hindus to silently be killed as a sacrifice. Wow principle. If your principle is well within the limits of you and those you know and only affects them, you are perhaps allowed to follow them at any cost, not when it is going to affect the whole community.

I am not saying Godse was a big man or anything. But all I want to say, believing the information to be correct is, Gandhi's days were truly numbered. He would have been killed anyways and this has been closely shown in the movie Hey Ram too. If not Kamal Hasan, then someone else, rememeber? It was perhaps in the best interest of India and history.

Chirag:

In concurrence to what Anand said

Think logically about it, INDIAN Government made a decision that Pakistan do not have right to get 550 Million Rupees from India because they occupied a significant part of Kashmir, but this one man(Gandhi) thought that this is a wrong decision and went on unlimited Fasting . What the heck he thought of himself.

I think it was a very good thing that the guy(Gandhi) died early otherwise I am sure there would have been bigger BLUNDERS in history which we must have been discussing today.

Paresh Babu - if what you are saying the definition of Mahapurush (being consistent) then why GANDHI never did fasting for any of the following causes in support of HINDUS.

1. Mishandling Khilafat movement
2. Mishandling Mopla riots where thousands of Hindu women were raped and double number of men were killed.
3. Mishandling Swami Shraddananda's murder by a muslim fanatic. (He called that muslim killer a patriot).
4. Forcibly removing Netaji from his post as congress president.
5. Ushering in socialist Nehru instead of Patel for the leadership.
6. Calling Chatrapathi Shivaji Maharaj, Maharana Pratap, Guru Gobind Singh as "misguided patriots".
7. Mishandling the Bhagat Singh case.
8. Calling Sardar Udham Singh, who shot that General O'Dwyer, as an insane person.
9. Mishandling 1946 Noakhali riots where tens of thousands of Hindus were looted raped and killed. Gandhi came immediately on spot to save the muslims from retaliation. He even called Suhrawardy who led these riots as Shaheed.
10. Greatest blunders during partition - always rushing and fasting to save muslims from Hindu retaliation but forgetting to save Hindus when they were first attacked.
11. Thousands of Hindu refugees had come to Delhi after being looted of all their property, raped or watching their beloved ones getting raped, injured or watching their beloved ones getting killed. RSS evacuated the mosques in Delhi for these refugees to stay. Gandhi fasted to make these people come out to the streets to let the muslims back in.
12. Granting 55 crores to Pakistan.

Vikram:

Good constructive discussion guys. Keep it coming.

Baba:

Yes, very decent, very decent (Boman Irani style in Khosla ka Ghosla)

Paresh:

Chirag,

I will reply to your email once I get time to go through every thing and analyze the same but I do agree to one thing Gandhi was overly generous to Muslims.

And I have thought over the same again and again, one of the possibilities ---It is not my final evaluation and I still am looking for some viable answers to this---

You know in a family say your family your parents would stop you from doing something wrong but they would not put all the same effort in stopping someone else outside the family. We try corrective actions only on our own and not on the whole world …. But this leads me to wonder if Gandhi always considered Muslims as outsiders and that does not make sense.

Another possibility ….

You can only stop things from happening before they happen maybe Muslim insurgents always had the first strike and the only ones that could be stopped were Hindus

2. Gandhi was not a socialist in fact his Gujrathi origins made him empathetic to Indian origin businessmen. Nehru was a socialist after Gandhi died before that the social cause was not that prominent in Nehru. I cannot comment on why Sardar Patel and more importantly why Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose who even won the Congress elections but had to step down due to Gandhis wishes. It is something that will always be subject to speculation but from all that I have seen between Nehru and Patel Nehru was unfortunately always the TOP DAWG.

3. 55 crores – It’s a shame. In a nations history 55 crores is such a trivial matter. In the long run did we suffer more from that 55 crore bounty or our own shoot the foot attitude……

Andy bhai,

Everything else apart, Gandhi has not forced the Hindus and Sikhs for such an action his comment is --

“I would tell…” that is his suggestion and what he feels and thinks right …. Final choice is left to the people. Do remember that it was only Gandhi’s fast unto death when the senseless violence ended

Tell me this, you agree that Dhoni is a good player but tomorrow if Dhoni is not playing well even then if people will ask how Dhoni is what will you say?

Will you say he is a bad player or will you say he is out of form? Would you just change your stance if the player is playing selfishly, has lost all his form? Or would you say that the player is a good player but he has divulged into wrong doings? This is consistency.

I really feel, if Gandhi would have lived for a few more years India Pak would have been a far more peaceful country than what they are today, Because Gandhi was respected in both the countries and he would have traveled to Pakistan often to ease of the tensions there.

I do believe that his death was imminent because just like the present day in those times also the detractors of Gandhi would have spread a lot of misinformation.

You know it is a classic example – a man who stands for non violence dies in violence. Just like Buddha who has always been associated with peace- he died in major pain

I would suggest that you should first watch Gandhi and then read Gandhi’s writings to analyze him and not go by Godse whose only claim to fame is killing Gandhi.

I had similar sentiments about Gandhi earlier and very reluctantly read his autobiography but when I read his stuff it kind of makes sense

Anand:

I have also read his autobiography and I after reading it I had mixed feelings. I have also seen that movie. Most of the things he did initially impressed me and my opinion would not change at any cost regarding those. But somehow I feel towards the end of his career, he was too generous in his approach towards muslims and that was absolutely unnecessary.

About you saying that we cant believe what GOdse has written off him, well at the same time to be neutral, I wont believe what Gandhi has written in his autobiography 100%.

Now about you claiming that had he lived for say another 10-20 years, India and Pakistan would have peace, I would strongly object. Man, you are talking about a race which has consistently went opposite to peace. All countries dominated by Muslims are more or less lagging behind in basic necessities and humanity is at all time risk. I fail to convince myself that any persona be it Gandhi would have single handedly changed that.

Having said all this, I would agree that he did many things good for india but he will be rightly criticized for his obsession towards Muslims for generations to come. Do you think he would have been successful to the same extent even in today’s world? Do you think his mass appeal would have been the same? I would say NO. He was the leader of followers, a mass that was mostly uneducated (literacy rate 12%). Now that people are aware of things and educated, I dont think his principles holds good and that is exactly the reason you don’t see many followers of him among the youngsters now a days. On a lighter not check out the orkut community for Gandhi baba vis a vis that of Sachin Tendulkar or Shahrukh khan or even Dhoni :-)

About your example of Dhoni, well Dhoni has still to prove a lot of things. He has still not done many things a complete cricketer should do. So I won’t say anything. But had you given the examples of Sachin Tendulkar, you would have got the answer. So many people criticize him for so many reasons, but my opinions have remained unchanged over the years and it will not change even if he retires tomorrow. If Dhoni comes to equivalent state, it would be true in his case too. I won’t change side just because someone has been exposed of his weaknesses for some reason. A genius will always be one and a few ups and downs are always there just to prove that the genius is at the end of the day only a human being.

Paresh:

Andy bhai,

As far as an opinion is concerned – your opinion is your own and I respect it as it is, I do not wish that you alter your opinion as much as I do not wish to change mine.

I do believe that Gandhi would be successful even today, yes he wouldn’t be the one in a plain simple dhoti, he wouldn’t act and work within the same framework, depending on the current schema he would adapt, don’t forget Gandhi had a completely different persona in South Africa and it was only when he came to India that he changed to what we know of him today. I think Gandhi was intelligent enough to understand the dynamics of the situation and adapt… the biggest hit of 2006 was indeed Munna bhai meets mahatma?? Underlying principle was the same don’t you agree?

Having said that I don’t think literacy has changed anything in India .. do you wish to tell me that the chosen leaders of today are better than what Gandhi was. Are you telling me that that Mulayam Singh, Karunanidhi, sonia Gandhi, advani , rahul Gandhi, Scindia etc etc any of them are better than Gandhi and if the literate people have chosen these people they are any better. Infact today’s literate people judge politicians as which one of the two are a lesser evil…. This is not leadership not is it an act of intelligence.

I don’t like Pakistan because it is a hostile state but I cannot say the same against the Muslims of the world – not diplomatic just what I feel. I think we have discussed this issue earlier when at times we had realized through our associations in Infosys that everyone is the same. As I said I don’t have anything about why or if Gandhi favored Muslims in the last part.

Again his living another 10-20 years is speculative and opinion only so we cannot do much about it

But again I would ask you to not to consider us Indians as a brave defiant race our success lies in our intellectual capacity and not the muscle power we would not have been successful even with a very aggressive tone. And I believe all the misinformation that has been spread against the man are his cross to bear and nothing can be done about it. Only if we would have lived in the times of Gandhi can we make a subjective evaluation

Finally I would end with the tribute from Einstein for Gandhi

Generations to come will scarce believe that such
a one as this walked the earth in flesh and blood.

Anand:

Your point about whether the politicians elected today are better just because they have been elected by a mass that is more literate in nature is a really good one. And I am with you in this regard. They are definitely not. I am not critical about Gandhi in every respect. I will put my point with another example.

People often compare don bradman with Sachin Tendulkar and discuss who is great. Whether the average 99+ is better than 55+. On papaer yes it is better. But as you said we have to be in the same era to judge these two personalities. Different times and different situations. Whether Bradman would have been equally competent in today's era where each move of yours is subject to enormous scrutiny is very subjective. We can not assume things. In Bradman's era only England was the team against whom he scored heavily. Consider 8-10 different countries of varying standard plus add to that the rising level of the game and different strategies followed by everyone. The batsman is exposed of his weaknesses more and more. So we cant compare the two. It is the same way if you start comparing Shahrukh khan's performace in Baajigar to Bachchan saab in Deewar. We can’t.

That's the reason I said, Gandhi would have been successful to the same extent or not is highly debatable when your every move is watched so much. Your weaknesses would have been exposed more severely and you would have been made to believe to be made of flesh and blood and not the same mahatma image Gandhi had almost close to GOD. It would have been tougher for him.

His dedication towards his own country is commendable for the same reasons. At a time when 95% of the population knew nothing more than bread, if he stood upto the challenge he must be a great man. But all I am trying to say is, he did made mistakes and major ones. No denying that. His statements that we discussed are prone to lead to communal violence in a country like India even now. Having made those statements, he only asked for those bullets. Some X or Y would have killed him anyways. And since he was favoring too much for Pakistan, I believe it happened for good. Because once two countries were separated we had to accept that in the first place that they would not have their own ways. We can't leave in India and be loyal to Pakistan for any reason. If you had do much loyalty to Muslims, you should have gone to Pakistan.

Munish:

I think, the world is changing and even though Gandhi appears to have taken the back burner in our eyes...but still the world knows he is one of the greatest men in the modern history and the kind of thing which he dared to do is something unthinkable. Aan eye for an eye would only make the world blind' and i do abide by that.

Just that you hit someone back after a wrong doing doesn't close the matter. If tomorrow he is going to get back with more people and do you more damage and this goes on. The only thing to be seen is that non-violence doesn't appeal to the youth as a way to achieve means as it makes them look coward. If you realize the power of non-violence did actually work on those countless occasions, when initially all his defiance was crushed down brutally by the British in SA and India, but afterwards they did actually manage to do the same without having to face the same harsh consequences, he actually did gain his strength by doing what he believed in and it did work. He did get under the skin just with his unique way of defiance. Besides, think about the terms India has with England now and think about the terms India has with Pakistan. Also, his inspiration has made two countries proud of what he did - Nelson Mandela and Martin Luther King. They were able to achieve the unthinkable for their people. I don't claim to say that lives are not lost but the approach did help cut on the people who would have otherwise died. How else would you imagine British left India, did they run out of weapons or something?

I never doubted Gandhi’s intentions, you don't have control over results...nobody has impeccable record if you are a human, but I still would call him a brave man who did so much and so much in a self less manner. I give him A grade. Jai Hind. Jai Bapu.

Baba:

One of the things which I most admire about Gandhi is his leadership skills…In India where it is well nigh impossible to bring a consensus among even five people on any issue…he managed to bring together such a diverse and divided population on same platform and convince them that we could achieve independence through a completely untraditional and unheard of method called ‘non violence’. Even I am critical of many of his decisions and views but again every human being has drawbacks and virtues and what really matters is the overall balance sheet and I think his overall balance sheet looks good.

ASRS : WC07 Super 8 Points

Name	AS WI	SL SA	WI NZ	EN IR	AS BN	WI SL	NZ BN	SA IR	SL EN	SA BN	AS EN	NZ IRE	SA WI	BN ENG	SL NZ	AS IR	SA NZ	BN IR	AS SL	SA EN	SL IR	WI BN	AS NZ	WI EN	Total
Bala	1	4	1	4	2	5	2	2	5	3	4	2	1	4	2	3	2	2	3	2	2	3	3	3	65
Anand	3	5	3	2	2	3	3	2	2	4	3	3	3	4	0	4	2	0	1	2	1	3	5	1	61
Apurva	2	3	2	2	2	5	2	3	5	3	3	4	1	5	0	1	1	1	2	2	2	3	3	1	58
Divya	2	3	5	2	4	4	3	3	2	4	2	2	3	2	0	4	1	1	2	1	1	2	2	2	57
Murali	3	1	0	4	1	2	3	3	2	3	2	2	4	4	2	5	1	1	2	1	5	3	1	1	56
Debasish	2	1	2	3	2	1	3	3	4	3	5	1	2	4	2	2	2	1	1	3	3	2	1	1	54
Gagan	3	4	1	2	1	2	2	1	2	2	1	2	3	1	0	4	1	1	1	1	2	1	3	5	46
Harish	2	1	5	4	4	1	2	4	3	1	3	2	2	2	0	4	0	0	2	1	0	0	0	0	43