KIND ATTN DELHI VOTERS !!!

FOOL ME ONCE, SHAME ON YOU. 

FOOL ME TWICE, SHAME ON ME.

don't let the shame be on you .........

say NO to the coughing muffler man
vote for KIRAN BEDI, the iron lady

Mighty Weapon - Garhwal Post completes 8 years as a daily.

Pen is a mighty weapon. That ten pens are ten times mightier was demonstrated earlier this year when an “Open invitation to the CM” extended by editor Satish Sharma (GP dated 18/02/2014) for undertaking a trip by road from Doon to Delhi to witness the pathetic condition of the national highway himself got a massive impromptu reaction from readers increasing its effect manifold, forcing the state government to take rapid necessary action. Repairs were immediately carried out and the road, except for a 20 km stretch, was in quite a decent condition by May.

Reader’s responses or letters to the editor, thus, are not merely individual expressions of opinion or a dialogue on an issue; but also a potent tool to fight the numerous ills that afflict us as a society and force our lethargic officialdom out of its slumber. A little increase in their frequency will greatly benefit readers and the “complete people’s newspaper” alike.

The balanced, mature and positive journalism practiced by Garhwal Post through its news, forum and editorial columns in the aftermath of Kedarnath deluge last year was yet another feather in its cap. Congratulations Satish and team. Keep up the good work.

(Published in Garhwal Post on 2nd July 2014)

How long does it take for HNB Garhwal University to declare results?

Just how much time does a university need to declare end of semester examination results? Three to four weeks after the last paper is what University of Delhi takes, with most reputed ones not taking much longer. For HNB Garhwal University (HNBGU), however, even four months are not adequate for the purpose.

A few weeks ago, several students pursuing undergraduate professional courses from Dehra Dun based private institutes affiliated to HNBGU, who had qualified entrance tests for admission to postgraduate courses in universities outside Uttarakhand and had to register for counselling thereof, had to make a couple of trips to university’s office in Srinagar to obtain their fifth semester mark sheets as results of their examinations held in January had not been declared till the end of May!

The students got their mark sheets, of course, but after making the unnecessary extra effort, besides suffering needless anxiety and losing valuable time and money in the process. They were lucky that their results had been uploaded on the university computer and hence were not asked to shell out an extra thousand rupees as fees for “provisional” mark sheet.  What would have happened if their answer booklets had not been evaluated is anybody’s guess.

Some running around from “pillar to post” had to be done and red tape faced within the university’s office in Srinagar for the purpose. That none of the dealing persons asked that their “palms be greased” was the saving grace.

These students are now left wondering whether HNBGU will be able to declare the results of their sixth semester examinations held in the middle of June and issue the final mark sheets before the cut-off dates prescribed by the universities they are joining.

HNBGU has been notorious for delays and irregularities right from the time it came into existence in 1973 and the situation seems to be much the same even though it was upgraded to a central university in 2009, barring the financial gains that its employees have made on account of change of their pay scales from state to central government.

The situation is worse for students of affiliated self-financing private institutes offering professional courses like B.B.A., B.C.A., B. Sc. (IT), M.B.A., M.C.A., M. Sc. (IT), etc. Semester end examinations that are supposed to be conducted in December and May are invariably delayed by at least a month.

The university then takes its own sweet time and students usually receive their mark sheets and admit cards together just before the commencement of the next semester exams. Moreover, for some reason best known to HNBGU authorities, results of these professional courses are not uploaded and made available on the university website, even as the ones for other courses are.

The position is even more appalling in the case of B.Ed.  Three years ago, HNBGU declared a “zero year” for this programme to bring it back on track as sessions were running more than a year behind schedule. In spite of this, and the fact that entrance tests for the course are usually conducted on time, the session begins not before October and examinations are held in August or September the following year, while the results are declared still later. The scenario for other professional courses run by the university is pretty much the same.

It is interesting to note that Government of India had recognised that there was no uniformity in the academic schedule followed by the various varsities and colleges which often acted as a hurdle for students taking a transfer from one university to another often leading to missed opportunities and appointed an expert committee in 2006 to look into the feasibility of establishing a uniform academic calendar.

The report of this committee was accepted and the Union HRD Ministry had in June 2007 asked all UGC recognised universities - whether central, state or a deemed; as well as their affiliated colleges - to follow a uniform academic calendar with immediate effect.

As per this directive classes for first year students must commence in the first week of August, while for all others by the third week of July in every university or college. Examinations are to be held on time and results for all courses to be declared by not later than the last week of June.

Why is HNBGU not following such clear government directives? Who in the university is responsible for implementation of these directives? Who is to be blamed  if its students lose out on better prospects for higher studies in universities outside the state and on job opportunities on account of such delays on the part of the university for no fault of theirs? It is time HNBGU stopped playing with the careers of its students.

UGC and HRD Ministry, on their part, need to continuously monitor the functioning of all the universities across the country to ensure that their guidelines are strictly adhered to as also take strict action against the erring ones. They also need to issue clear instructions to universities to be flexible regarding the cut-off dates in genuine cases so that students are not deprived of their legitimate rights for mistakes committed by the varsity they were unfortunately enrolled with. The task is monumental, but not impossible.

HNBGU final semester candidates, in the meanwhile, are looking skyward for timely declaration of their results.

(Published in Garhwal Post on 27th June 2014)

Govt we deserve

An innocuous post in Hindi that recently appeared on a humor page of a social site, originator unfortunately not known, defines democracy “as a system of governance wherein the lamb chooses its own butcher”.

With our elected representatives increasingly demanding their share of the proverbial “pound of flesh” for almost anything from raising issues in parliament to doing or getting any work done, this definition aptly describes our democracy at present.

The general elections are over at long last and with just a couple of days to go for us to know who our new “chosen ones” are, it is time for exit polls, predictions and discussions; even as all major parties are confident of emerging victorious. Anyhow, we will get the government we deserve.

My estimate for BJP is at least 230 seats, including all the five in Uttarakhand. A definite strong pro BJP wave was evident in Doon on 7^th May and it would not be a surprise should Mala Rajya Laxmi Shah, its candidate from Tehri, poll the highest percentage of votes in the state. The party’s performance will, in fact, be impressive in the Hindi belt.

UP will be the state to watch as it opts for a national party over regional ones after a long time. BJP will bag more than 50 seats, followed by BSP in second position; while SP and Congress will compete for the third place there. Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh too will surprise the party positively; even as it would make further inroads in states where it has token presence.

Post the results and depending upon the extent of rout faced by the Congress, the focus in Uttarakhand will shift to the fate of its state government led by Harish Rawat.

Aam Aadmi Party, which arrived with a bang barely six months ago, will not go beyond the single digit mark, with a strong possibility of drawing a blank. It is also set to make an unceremonious exit and go the way of Uttarakhand Kranti Dal thereafter.

These elections will be remembered for the way our netas tried to fool us by preferring to ignore major problems the country needs to address urgently. They also attempted to cover their own role in corruption and maladministration, focussing on imaginary issues instead. Amid bankruptcy of ideas and the desire to grab power at any cost, the slugfest was reduced to ugly personal attacks and mudslinging, the behaviour of our leaders hitting an all-time low in the process.

Another important takeaway is the fact that despite promising more participation of women in politics - Rahul Gandhi going to the extent of advocating giving half the seats to them, major parties failed to field sufficient number of women candidates. Not only did their number not go up from previous elections, some states had no women contestants. On the other hand, persons with dubious background were liberally fielded by all parties.

Our new parliamentarians will do us a big favour by NOT taking out any victory processions that they normally do on being declared elected, thereby disrupting traffic and causing inconvenience to public. A modest thank you through the press will do. They should instead work sincerely within and outside the parliament for the betterment of their states and constituencies, and not merely raise their hands in support of their parties.

Rather than doing the vanishing trick and appearing five years hence, they must ensure that they spend adequate time in their areas and be easily accessible to people at all times on telephone. They ought to also keep their constituents well informed of their activities in New Delhi through the local media on a regular basis.

Hopefully, our new government will work overtime and serve us honestly rather than playing the butcher.

(Published in Garhwal Post on 14th May 2014)

New World Record !!!

Aam Aadmi Party will find a place in the book of records for
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max no of candidates losing their deposits in one lok sabha election !!!

Making the Difficult Choice

Campaigning in the on-going general elections has been hi-tech even as the kind of language our politicians use makes new lows with each passing day. Big rallies, road shows, interviews, chat shows, advertisements, social media, para gliders and many more are being used to entice the voter. High flying, larger than life netas are playing to the gallery, spewing venom against their adversaries like actors do against the enemy in a patriotic Bollywood war movie, leaving the common man wondering whether our real enemy is across our country’s borders or amongst our own netas.

Amid the blitzkrieg, actual state and constituency specific issues that ought to have been discussed are forgotten. Congress, which had won all the five parliamentary seats in Uttarakhand in 2009 and is also the party in power in the state, would like us to believe that by laying 3000 foundation stones in 32 days (i.e. 93 per day) Chief Minister Harish Rawat has not only ensured that the development of our state is just round the corner, but has also presented a model of development for the rest of the country to emulate!

There is no mention of the work done by its MPs in parliament, for the state and for their constituencies during their tenures in the 15^th Lok Sabha. Though huge amounts of money were spent when Vijay Bahuguna was Chief Minister in advertising Rs. 7000 crore package obtained by the state following the Kedarnath devastation last year, much is not known about the progress of rehabilitation works underway, except for the construction of the yatra road.

There are no policies for creation of adequate opportunities for local folks in the hills to stop their migration in search of livelihood, or putting in place adequate medical, educational, infrastructural and other facilities there. Canvassing is centred on “get CM free with MP”, “your one vote elects two” and subsidised LPG cylinders, instead.

Candidates fielded by Congress have among their ranks two sitting MPs and one minister in the state cabinet who have track records for voters to analyse and take a call on.

Renuka Rawat (Haridwar) and Saket Bahuguna (Tehri) are its other candidates. Congress’s official website describes Rawat as “an active social and political worker who wishes to remove disparity among different sections of society” and Bahuguna as “a young congress leader who has been instrumental in helping students in their woes against the administration and believes in bringing education to the youth of Uttarakhand to ensure a better future for them”.

That they have the right dynastic credentials, being wife of CM Harish Rawat and son of former CM Vijay Bahuguna respectively, is conveniently not cited. It is also not clear whether the selected candidates have actually done some work in the state in their areas of interest or have mere “wishes and beliefs” intended to be acted upon only if they are elected.

Off the record, seniors in Congress admit that the selection of Rawat and Bahuguna ahead of old loyalists has not gone down well with long time party members and is likely to adversely affect the prospects of the party.

Among the candidates fielded by the Aam Aadmi Party, Kanchan Chaudhary Bhattacharya (Haridwar) and Anoop Nautiyal (Tehri) have impressive profiles and have excelled in their professions. But given the immaturity that Kejriwal and other top guns of their party have been displaying, and the fact that the anti-corruption plank has been abandoned for the sake of votes, their performance will be the outcome of their personal strength alone. Will they pull off a surprise win? Extremely unlikely, though they can potentially upset the result if they manage to get a significant number of votes.

For BJP, it is payback time for the 2009 setback. With three former Chief Ministers amongst its contenders, an upbeat and united cadre, and the fact that the state government has practically no achievements to showcase, BJP is in the driver’s seat and is set to have an impressive outing.

Former Chief Minister, four-time MP and BJP candidate from Pauri Garhwal Bhuwan Chandra Khanduri undisputedly stands tallest among all contestants in fray. An epitome of integrity, authenticity, capability, simplicity and hard work, few can match his accomplishments on the battleground or in the public arena. 

As Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) Road Transport and Highways, Khanduri planned and executed India's most ambitious ever road infrastructure project - the Golden Quadrilateral (GQ) Highway Network connecting the four metros – for the NDA government. A record 23,814 km of national highways were added to the existing NH network during his tenure, which remains till date the largest construction of national highways during any five-year period since independence.

His two tenures as Chief Minister may not have been spectacular, but were scandal free. Under him, Uttarakhand became the first state in the country to enact and pass the Lokayukta Bill. He has discharged numerous other duties for his party in and outside the parliament without any controversy.

Khanduri is a rare politician in present-day India, a perfect role model for all to emulate. We ought to be proud of him.

(Published in Garhwal Post on 2nd May 2014)

Choice is Ours

Come elections and for our netas it is time for desertions, new alliances, name calling, allegations, counter-allegations, back-stabbing, party hopping and making lofty promises they have no intention to honour. 

It is also the time to give a go by to the real issues that the country needs to sort out and whip up frenzies to mislead the common man.

Samajwadi Party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav’s “boys will be boys, can’t hang rapists” comment at an election rally in Moradabad a couple of days ago is proof of the sick mind-set many of our politicians have and the abysmal depths they can stoop down to when it comes to garnering votes.

Not only did he make the highly objectionable remark and express his displeasure and disagreement with the death sentence awarded by court to three of the accused found guilty in the Mumbai’s infamous Shakti mill case, but also promised to amend the country’s anti rape laws to make them more lenient, if his party was voted to power in the on-going general elections.

Yadav’s statement has expectedly drawn widespread condemnation. He was clearly attempting to lure criminals into his party fold, already drawing flak for incompetent governance and poor law and order situation during its current two year rule in Uttar Pradesh. People must give his party the treatment it deserves when they go to their polling booth.

As BJP’s prospects brighten up and Congress appears set to make an inglorious exit after UPA’s second tenure known more for financial scams than for governance; India’s perpetual woes like corruption, unemployment, unsustainable population, high fiscal deficit, development, lack of infrastructure, poor law and order situation, poverty, illegal Bangladeshi immigrants etc., which everybody talks about all the time but nobody has any answers to; have suddenly been abandoned by all non NDA parties, threat to “secularism” being the new one point agenda and Narendra Modi the singular target.

At election rallies, BSP’s Mayawati has been telling people that there will be widespread riots across the country if Modi comes to power. Rahul Gandhi (Congress) has been accusing Modi of attempting to promote communalism while Nitish Kumar (JDU), Laloo Prasad (RJD), Mamta Banerji (TMC), Farooq Abdullah (NC), Ajit Singh (RLD) and leaders of other UPA parties are calling him anti-Muslim.

Nitish and Mamta were also seen sharing dais with persons wanted by police for criminal offences at their election rallies. Congress candidate from Saharanpur in UP Imran Masood threatened to cut Modi to pieces during his campaign. Even Arvind Kejriwal (AAP), it seems, has abandoned his anti-corruption and clean politics stance and is reportedly in the process of striking a deal with don Mukhtar Ansari to get Muslim votes for himself in Varanasi.

Despite the fact that Supreme Court has given him the clean chit, Modi’s political opponents are telling people that he alone is responsible for the 2002 Gujarat communal riots. This, in fact, appears to be the only point that the so called “secular” parties seem to drive home as they keep repeating it over and over again at their election rallies and meetings in their bid to exhort Muslims to cast their vote en-bloc against the BJP.

No mention, though,  is made of the worst communal riots in our history in 1947 on either side of partition, 1984 anti-Sikh, 1969 Ahmedabad, 1983 Assam, 1964 Rourkela & Jamshedpur, 1980 Moradabad, 1989 Bhagalpur, 1993 Mumbai and countless other riots under Congress rule; Muzaffarnagar 2013 and at least two dozen more elsewhere in UP during the last two years of Samajwadi Party rule; or the brutal killing and rape of Kashmiri Pandits and their subsequent “ethnic cleansing” from their homeland forced by Islamic fundamentalists in 1989 under National Front rule. Incidentally, 1984 riots were also disgracefully justified with “big tree falls” remark by the then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi.

No reference is also made of the fact that post 2012, no communal disturbances have occurred in Gujarat or how the state has developed under Modi’s rule. Moreover, BJP ruled states are relatively more peaceful and better administered than those governed by other parties.

Also omitted is the fact that the six year NDA rule from 1998 to 2004 under Atal Bihari Vajpayee was a rare period of internal peace, economic growth and consolidation, unprecedented infrastructural planning and execution – be it National Highways, Delhi Metro or new airports; during which the country also successfully conducted peaceful nuclear test and won the proxy war in Kargil forced upon us by Pakistan.

It is up to us thus, the common citizens of this country, to ponder before we cast our votes.

We have to understand that the self-appointed guardians of “secularism” show their concern only for Muslims to ensure that they remain their captive vote bank to be cashed at the polling booth, other minorities totally ignored as they cannot be used thus.

We also have to understand that most political parties have no inner party democracy and are run like family owned shops. Brothers, sisters, wives, daughters, sons and relatives are fielded as candidates; kith and kin mint money by way of contracts, bribes and kickbacks if they get to participate in the government; while the cheated voter awaits fulfilment of promises made to him in vain. We have allowed our netas to fool us for far too long.

We must likewise remember that the Constitution of India, which guarantees justice, liberty and equality to all of us irrespective of our caste, creed, sex or religion, is to be strictly adhered to by the person who takes oath as the country’s Prime Minister. He does not act alone but collectively as per the decisions of the Cabinet. Additionally, he is answerable to the Legislature and Judiciary, besides being under constant media scrutiny.

Amid such situation, who do we give our mandate to? To those playing the caste and communal cards, to those in league with criminals, those promising freebies and more quotas, the corrupt, deceivers, self-seekers, medieval, or the ones with a proven track record and who can be trusted for deliverance?

The choice is ours.

(Published in Garhwal Post on 15/04/2014)