The mind is all-powerful, either for evil or good; bomb planting on plane, wheel-chair-borne old woman cheated by nurse, woman killed,ear chopped off

By O.J.George

What are we being fed almost every day with news pieces of perverted minds?

A crude bomb was planted on a Kingfisher flight in Thiruvananthapuram on March 21 and the culprit appears to be soft handled on his plea that he was trying to teach a lesson to his colleagues or someone else. He had to get a crude bomb first and then plant it on the plane whose precincts should otherwise be sanitised. The mind is perverted.

An old, wheel-chair-borne helpless woman in Kottayam was duped by her home nurse worth about Rs 75 lakh over a period of more than a year. The nurse and her paramour were having a gala time spending the money of the old woman.

In Palakkad, a woman was killed, her mother hacked (still lying unconscious) and the booty taken away. The thieves did not have time to take out ear ornaments in the normal way. They chopped off the ear and fled.

Earlier, a morning walker at Varkala was simply knifed to death, another was wounded. The act, it seems, was meant to secure social equity.

The minds are very powerful for the acts concocted by them. No computer chip would size up with the enormity of the possibilities arising from minds, evil or good.

World’s Last Chance people say if we remove one ‘o’ from good, it becomes God. They also something about Satan permeating everywhere, even Vatican, for not punishing the priest who abused 200 deaf chlldren in the US years ago.

Whatever it is, would we not see some demonising in one form or the other everywhere?

Communal sensibility could have been shattered; thank God, situation is under control

By O.J.George

What happened at Newman College, Thodupuzha, during an examination for internal assessment for the Malayalam paper of second semester BCom students is prima facie appalling.

Students were asked to punctuate a passage, apparently a conversation between the Prophet and God Almighty. The passage was no doubt sacrilegious and defaming.

The comment of Education Minister M.A.Baby that no man of common sense would do this is genuine. It was Prof T.J.Joseph who was responsible for compiling this question paper.

The management has suspended this man from service. The question is what this professor was professing in his life.

It seems the government is trying to pin him down to see whether there was a deliberate attempt to unsettle communal harmony in the state.
Reports say the professor is absconding. No one should tinker with society’s peace and tranquillity.

Mayawati in garland conundrum

By O.J.George

UP Chief Minister Mayawati is again in a controversy for accepting a garland furtively made of Rs 1,000 notes at the rally which was organized to celebrate 25 years of the BSP founded by her mentor, the late Kanshiram.

In fact, Mayawati need not be unduly perturbed about the party leader receiving money during such occasions. For, that has been the modus operandi of celebrations of the BSP.

But now she has found herself in a bind only because the Income Tax Department has come calling on her to explain the source of the huge input of currencies.

Now Mayawati has convened a meeting of her ministers, MPs and MLAs to sort out the issue. Naturally, they would be asked to own up in part funding for the garland. No doubt, they might have worked overtime at fund mobilisation.

An initial estimate was that the garland would come to Rs five crore.But Congress leader Digvijay Singh has come up with a calculation arriving at the figure of Rs 22.50 crore. The garland was 10 metres long, each ring had 45 1000-notes, and each cm had five such rings. Well, the calculation is perfect, as per the version of Digvijay Singh.

This is only with regard to the garland, but there were other forms of opulence about which the party has never been ashamed.

Meanwhile, Mayawati has asked for launch of a high-level probe into the release of honey bees at her function when the garland was adorned on her. For some time, a swarm of honey bees hovered around her head, irritating her! Many are the devious ways of politics.

Lo, foreign universities are coming!

By O.J.George

India may become an international hub of foreign universities and other institutions of excellence soon. For, the Union Cabinet has approved a bill called Foreign Educational Bill.

The procedure for bringing in the bill has been in the offing for some time, from UPA I governmental bandwagon. But the Leftists were dead against allowing foreign varsities come in and do business in the education sector.

Times are changing as we have already opened up vistas of knowledge to our people through many tools.

Popularisation of internet, spilling of an avalanche of information at the press of a button and conveyance of all sorts of ideology, thinking and peals of wisdom have broadened the horizons of Indian people as well on an intellectual plane.

Efforts at putting an iron curtain over the information explosion is not feasible. One cannot close the door to the infusion of invaluable information.

Even before that some of the best educational institutions in the capitalist countries had good centres of excellence teaching Leftist ideas, Marxism etc in addition to their other pet subjects. The Leftists need not worry about obliteration of teaching covering their spheres in these foreign institutions.

There would be no harm in foreign varsities of the likes of Oxford, Cambridge, Harward, Stanford, London School of Economics and the like opening shop here and imparting training to those who seek it in India itself.

No one can block huge developments in the education sphere. Let all good institutions from across the oceans come here for mutual benefit.

Not agitation by women, but the goodwill of men contributing to women’s reservation

By O.J.George

There were reports in patches by some women’s associations that the agitations launched by them from time to time have culminated in the conferment of one-third quota for women in the Lok Sabha and Assemblies.

No doubt, the women have been making a clarion call all these years. And it was just and fair that they have been campaigning for a just cause.

But don’t forget that all menfolk think like Mulayam Singh Yadav, Lalu Prasad Yadav and Sharad Yadav.

There are millions of men who do not fall under anti-women planks who have contributed to creating a mindset that would allow greater participation for women in public life.

In fact, some men were finding easy justification for denying more women’s representation pointing out undesirable tendencies that prevailed among the fairer sex which should only be ignored. There would always be some blemishes, but those shortfalls should not be generalised.

In the years to come, the women would behave in a better and far more desirable way than many of the menfolk.

If the women do not perform the way they are expected to, they would naturally be in bad light. And they cannot afford to do that.

Heavens are not going to fall if more women come up to don positions of political power.

The arguments for deferring the women’s reservation bill for inclusion of a quota within a quota for minorities and the like is only a ruse to scuttle the piece of legislation that is going to transform the very functioning of the polity.

In the years to come men will have to concede fifty per cent of reservation for women. Let there be no perfunctory handling of the issue.

The Yadavs could not prevent passing of Women’s Reservation Bill, however hard they tried to scuttle it

By O.J.George

It goes to the credit of the fledgling democracy of India that the main Opposition party and the main ruling party joined together to pass the historic women’s Reservation Bill in the Rajya Sabha on Tuesday with two-thirds majority of the members present and voting as required for a Constitutional amendment.

Now it has to be passed by the Lok Sabha as well as more than half of the state legislatures for the law to become a reality.
There are a few capable women in various spheres of life in India, but now they would get one-third reservation as per law. No one can prevent them from contesting in seats allotted to them.

The chauvinistic menfolk were, it seems, against the rotational reservation to women , seatwise. The stalwarts who were guarding particular constituencies as their lifetime fiefdom will have to look to other places when their own constituencies get reserved for women. Maybe they will ask their spouses to contest from such seats.
Times are changing and the writing on the wall has to be respected. Women who are better finance managers at home can take over many functions in a responsible manner. Those who condemn them, taking stray cases of aberration, would be in for a surprise when women take up their legislative functions effectively.

Passing of this piece of legislation has not been easy, for there have been attempts during the last 14 years and all the time it got scuttled. Now there has been a concerted attempt and the players deserve kudos for seeing the bill through. If it can be passesd in the Rajya Sabha, it could very well be followed through in the Lok Sabha as well.

The male chauvinists are not prepared to give up; Women’s reservation bill passing an uphill task

By O.J.George

By now it is clear about one thing. No one can say it with precision whether the women’s reservation bill would be passed. A series of adjournments, uproar whenever the Houses reconvened, the unjustifiable act of desecrating the Rajya Sabha chairman and such sequences permeated in the seats of Indian democracy that is Parliament.

Monday’s proceedings would show democracy of the type we proclaim has not evolved to the desirable extent.

Physical obstruction of proceedings in a democratic set-up undermines the very credibility of the House. Snatching papers from the chair, damaging his microphone and the like occurred in the elders’ house.

Women deserve at least 50 per cent reservation, but the attempt to give them one-third representation has been hanging in limbo for the last one and a half decades. Various governments which attempted to provide reservation to women had become unsuccessful.

With the sort of conduct that prevailed in both Houses on Monday, one cannot hope to see the bill passed on Tuesday as well.

Those who oppose the bill flaunt the argument that there should be sub-quota for Muslims and Dalits within the one-third provision.

It was the raj of Mulayam Singh Yadav and Lalu Prasad Yadav that prevailed on Monday. Would Tuesday be different?

Congress cannot be trapped on fuel prices hike, Sonia has said the final word

By O.J.George

The combined Opposition has been trying to corner the Congress Party and its UPA II allies on the issue of hike in prices of petrol and diesel.

The Left parties have been one with the stance of the BJP and allies in opposing the fuel prices increase.

It seemed the Opposition has been gaining an upper hand on the issue as the common man is also furious about the hike, which will cause a spurt in prices of essential commodities in a market which was already on a high on the front.

Someone thought Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee was being cornered in the wake of stiff resistance from DMK of M.Karunanidhi and Trinamul Congress of Mamata Banerjee.

But lately, there were overtures from DMK and Trinamul that they were close-knit with the UPA II Government.

To cap the strategic position of the Congress party, its president Sonia Gandhi on Thursday addressed Congress MPs , after a gap of six months, driving the point home that food security and prices were a top priority.

But she was careful enough to defend Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee by saying he has done a deft balancing of the budget.Resources have to be found for implementing social welfare measures.

Sonia Gandhi also drew inspiration to cite the presentation of the Women’s Reservation Bill in Parliament on the world women’s day on Monday. Reservation, when implemented, would be a gift to the women.

BJP leader L.K.Advani has always been keen to castigate Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh, this time he picked on Dr Singh for resuming India-Pak talks at the nudge of the US.

Dr Singh has been quick to notify Advani about the importance of back-channel diplomacy. A lot of behind- the- curtain talks were held between the-then Foreign Minister Jaswant Singh and US Deputy Secretary Strobe Talbott during the BJP-led NDA regime.

Congress think-tank has been active, it seems, and its policy and administrative measures cannot be taken advantage of by rivals for political reasons.

Mind you, Sonia Gandhi has fallen in line to defend her flock.

Sun rays, sea water may be tax source in the future when fossil fuel becomes extinct

By O.J.George

For every government, getting some quick bucks by way of tax on the most consumed item is a priority.

It would dole out figures of mounting non-plan expenditure, escalation in standard of living caused by pay revision, pension and what not for cornering the levy.

No doubt, the non-plan expenditure is on the rise, but nobody takes cognizance of the losses on account of mismanagement in various spheres.

Fuel price hike in the form of enhancement of excise duty or sheer increase in administered prices directly (that is also on the way) affects everyone.

Even the poorest of the poor is hit on account of intrinsic escalation of prices of essential commodities fomented by huge transportation costs.

All the same, fuel is the easiest item on which the tax master wields his stick as it yields thousands of crores of rupees. There may be jugglery in figures as well. No one may know the exact amount realised.

An education cess can be levied, railway safety fund can be realised on every litre of petrol and diesel.

Nitish Kumar, when he was the railway minister, collected cess on fuel and rightly kept a separate fund for railway safety operations.

When Lalu Prasad Yadav became Railway Minister he simply cornered the amount for general expenses wiping out the separate account for safety. He was bandied about as the efficient railway minister on account of the bounty he got from the safety fund.

Now the future of fossil fuel on planet Earth is bleak. It may last for a couple of decades and become extinct.

By then, hydrogen fuel , solar energy etc may be the captains of the energy sector. Finance Ministers may charge tax on every Sun ray.

Sea water ( H2O) may be utilised for extracting hydrogen for fuelling vehicles.

Now we are scouting for some kind of fossil fuel from beneath the so-called ice sheets lying dormant in caves on the Moon. There the Sunrays cannot reach the ice sheets.

Otherwise, milling one tonne of Moon soil (not at all areas) may yield one litre of water, scientists now say.

We are hoping to bring back lithium and other rare elements to Earth to energise us. At the same time, it would be interesting to note that the scientists wait for an opportune moment when there would be no rain or storm to send out a rocket from the atmosphere of Earth. The elements cannot be tamed easily.

Next generation tax could therefore be on Sunrays and sea water, before the-then government imposes import duty on lithium and other rare elements from Moon.