Suggession by a judge for mediation in rape case .

The suggestion by  the judge for  mediation to the rape victim after she had suffered for seven years as a single parent and going through the ordeal of court proceedings in spite of her poverty, is a  matter to be pondered over. If she had wanted mediation she could have used the community members or relatives or the lawyers or the Panchayat  for mediation during the period of her sufferings .Courts are meant for rendering justice to victims by punishing the offenders and not meant to offend the dignity of rape victims through suggesting compromise formula. Only such happenings as this incident, prevents poor women from resorting to legal remedy and make them resort to suffer in silence instead. 

Indian institute of management Bill -2015

All of us ,including the government want global ranking for our premier institutes of higher learning like IIM and IIT. Despite the absence of such ranking, these institutes have  earned global recognition and the alumnae of these institutes  will vouch for it through the eminence they have earned by passing out of such institutes . Why should the HRD Ministry suddenly want to  destroy the peace and excellent administration of the IIMs through Indian Institute management Bill –1915 which attempts openly for  acquiring  sweeping powers over IIMs administration . Why will any government in the right mind and purpose will try to destroy  good institutes ? The directors of IIM are very correct in fearing that, the clause in the Bill which says, “The IIM board must have government approval”is very dangerous since it means disapproval to  many of their schemes and appointments , delays and conflict of interests . Any one can understand , why does  this government propagate deregulation to industrial sector and excessive regulation to the education sector  .

                     We are not ashamed 

 published in Beyond headlines on 22. 6.15

The Indian government and the Indian citizens   have been aping the west in many matters in an attempt to project themselves as a very trendy nation.  It is true that India is an emerging economy and has a pride of place at the global level.  But, we, as a nation have to be ashamed of certain undesirable factors which exist in this country.   They are related to the treatment of women, senior citizens, children and the disabled, the indifference to environmental cleanliness and the high level of corruption prevailing at all the levels of governance.    

Position of women In India

Indian women are denied justice in matters of economic, social and political equality in spite of constitutional guarantees and legal protection.   The very bad treatment of women in this country is  indicated by the result of  Expert polls conducted by Thompson Reuters Foundation  i.e.,” India is the world’s biggest democracy, but is ranked fourth most dangerous country for women  in the world due to a combination of violence, dangerous customs, lack of education and poverty  affecting Indian women.” . It is not an exaggerated finding, because, not a day passes without news report of rape incidents happening in different parts of the country and Delhi proving to be the rape capital of the country. Even four year old girl and old women are subjected to brutal form of sexual .violence .The PM, the President and the leaders of the ruling party and the opposition parties expressed shock and concern over the raping of five year old Delhi girl child . But what is the use of their reaction when rape incidents happen unabated in spite of the recent, "anti-rape law" which has put in place a slew of new provisions and tougher punishments? The recent rape reports prove the point that the   solution to sexual assault on women can not be solved by laws alone. Laws have been ineffective in the face of a patriarchal culture. A combination of several measures have to be attempted urgently, if we are really ashamed of the  poll result of 370 gender specialists around the world that voted  India ,as the worst place for women among  all the G20 countries .

What is the use of death sentence, sacking of the police commissioners or advising girls to be careful in several matters?  These incidents mostly happen within homes. It is the mind set of boys and men that has to undergo drastic changes. The responsibility for correcting this situation lies on the parents, teachers and film makers. It is true that it will take a longer time. Till then the quick solution is to sensitise the lower level police personnel who are slow in filing FIR and speedy justice system. More over, the sexual assault crimes must be declared as non bail able offence. The son preference attitude which is dominant among even rich and educated families results in higher level of feticide resulting in skewed sex ratio i.e., 940/1000 as per 2011 census. The missing women of 60/1000  have disappeared from this world due to feticide, infanticide, higher female child death rate , higher maternal mortality , dowry death,  honour killings and  suicides which is due to rape, acid attack, sexual harassment , dowry harassment, domestic violence etc., In no other country the teachers, religious preachers, policemen and politicians indulge in raping  girl children. The culprits are selected to contest election without any political morality s and win the elections too and then try ever

Method possible to escape punishment. Even   female tourists become victims of rape and this has compelled   few countries to declare India as an unsafe country for women travelers.  In the three months since that attack, the number of foreigners traveling to India has dropped by 25 per cent, according to the study by the New Delhi-based Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry. The number of women tourists has dropped by 35 per cent, the study released said. A poll of 370 gender specialists around the world that voted, India, as the worst place for women among all the G20 countries caused ripples in India. It stung – especially as Saudi Arabia was at the second-worst. But the experts were resolute in their choice. “In India, women and girls continue to be sold as chattels, married off as young as 10, burned alive as a result of dowry-related disputes and young girls exploited and abused as domestic slave”

Yet, we are not ashamed of the unsafe conditions prevailing in India for girls and women in spite of the existence of so many laws.

Position of disabled persons in India

As per Census 2011 results there are 21 million people in India as suffering from one or the other kind of disability. It is equal to 2.1% of the population as per 2011 census data  This meant that while the government officially recognises 20-30 million disabled people, 50-60 million are invisible. The constitution of India ensures equality, freedom. Justice and dignity for all the individuals, including persons with disabilities through the policies of the Government of India. But there is total indifference to need of the disabled persons in this country. For example, the railway stations are not accessible. Ramps are rare and that too limited for entry into the foot over–bridges. Platforms are inaccessible. The gap (height) between the platform and the coach varies from station to station. India is noted for lack of resource allocation for facilities and opportunities for the disabled. The toilet has been made, but sadly it does not follow the international standards. The height and space are not made according to the requirements."

Negative attitudes held by the families of the disabled, and often the disabled themselves, deter disabled persons from taking an active part in the family, community or workforce. Those suffering from mental illness or mental retardation face the worst stigma and are subject to severe social exclusion. In fact, employment of people with disability actually fell from 43% in 1991 to 38% in 2002, despite the country's economic growth. In the public sector, despite a 3% reservation since 2003, only 10% of posts have been identified as “suitable”. The situation is far worse in the private sector. The sector has few incentives for hiring disabled people. In the late 1990s, employment of people with disability among large private firms was only 0.3% of their workforce. Among multinational companies, this was a mere 0.05%. Financial assistance too has hardly reached those in need. The quota policy is also covers just three types of disability – locomotors, hearing and visual. The equipments needed to assist the disabled in their daily tasks are not mass produced and are costly.  The Indian disabled persons are subjected to deprivation in many dimensions of their lives. Yet, we are not ashamed   of the inhuman attitude and indifference towards them.

Dirty cities of India

India cannot claim to be the world’s leading economy when its urban areas pose a major public health hazard. We might have reduced the number of poor people thanks to the benefits of planned economy. But the Indian government has failed to instill in urban and rural Indians, a civic sense and respect for public spaces. Many people are still defecating and urinating in the open, like they did centuries ago – not just in villages, but in urban areas as well. Forbes has rated Delhi as the 24th dirtiest city in the world with the filthy waters of the Yamuna and its unhealthy surrounding being cited as one of the chief factors. The arrangements made to improve the basic facilities like sanitation, drainage or infrastructural facilities by our government are not sufficient to meet the growing expectations of ever-growing population of the developed or developing cities. A Chinese tourist made a comment about Indian environment in one of her travelogues as, “All the places in India where there are human dwellings have three things in common—they are dirty, smelly and messy.”

Indians seem to lack civic sense when it comes to cleanliness of our public spaces  It is true that, it is difficult to expect the slum dwellers to maintain cleanliness since they are not provided with toilets and  regular supply of water. What about the well off sections? We often see people traveling in busses and trains and walking on the roads, spitting, urinating and throwing garbage any where and every where. The beaches and parks and other public places look dirty because of the lack of civic sense among the Indians. The conditions of some bus-stands and railway stations are a direct reflection of national attitude towards cleanliness. Some government offices look very dirty. Indian city roads and lanes are filled with un cleared garbage and stagnated water. According to some survey report, half of the households in India do not have access to toilets. Many government schools do not have toilet facilities. The lack of clean   toilets in the tourist spots and national highways is driving the foreign tourists mad. We are not bothered about environmental degradation and pollution caused by some of our activities. Is it because Indians in general have no regard for cleanliness?  No, India is so dirty because people prefer to live in that dirty environment than to clean things. . The government departments and the individuals lack sense of cleanliness. Yet we are not ashamed and talk about Incredible India

Status of children in India  

The children of today are the future of tomorrow and they constitute one third of our population. Hence their needs are to be addressed immediate. But the statistics available on their status in India is very shocking.

One out of 16 children die before they attain the age of 1, and one out of 11 die before they are 5 years old.

35% of the developing world’s low-birth-weight babies are born in India. Out of every 100 children, 19 continue to be out of school.

Of every 100 children who enroll, 70 drop out by the time they reach the secondary level.

Of every 100 children who drop out of school, 66 are girls.

65% of girls in India are married by the age of 18 and become mothers soon after.

India is home to the highest number of child labourers in the world.

India has the world’s largest number of sexually abused children, with a child below 16 raped every 155th minute, a child below 10 every 13th hour, and at least one in every 10 children sexually abused at any point in time

The very survival of the Indian child is a matter of concern. Around 2.5 million children die in India every year, accounting for one in five deaths in the world, with girls being 50% more likely to die

According to a report on the state of India’s newborns, the health challenges faced by a newborn child in India are bigger than those experienced by any other country. One in every three malnourished children in the world lives in India. (40% of child malnutrition in the developing world is in India)Child malnutrition is generally caused by a combination of inadequate or inappropriate food intake, gastrointestinal parasites and other childhood diseases, and improper care during illness.  A new report by the Naandi Foundation concluded that around  46% of all children below the age of three are too small for their age, 47 percent are underweight and at least 16 percent are acutely malnourished, or wasted.

            India does have welfare systems aimed to aid millions of the hungry; school        meals theoretically feed poor children across the country, and the Anganwadi             services provide support to mothers in every district. Yet the services are plagued      by mismanagement and corruption, Al Jazeera reports, that, the school meals     carry worms and insects in them, and the Aganwadi centers are often closed and dysfunctional.

 Many of the street children who have run away from home have done so because they were beaten or sexually abused. Tragically, their homelessness can lead to further abuse through exploitative child labour and prostitution. Not only does abuse rob runaway children of their material security, it also leaves them emotionally scarred. Many of the abused children are traumatised and some refuse to speak for months. The facts and figures about the Indian children should cause some concern to the government. Yet we are not ashamed of the plight of the children

Corruption.

Corruption is a social evil. It spreads like cancer .Corruption in India is a consequence of the nexus between bureaucrats, politicians, corporate and the law offenders. Today, the number of ministers with an honest image can be counted on fingers. It looks as though entry into politics is to earn illegal money .At one time, bribe was paid for getting wrong things done but now, and the citizens are used to bribing for getting right things done at right time. It has become so widespread and deep rooted and the result is for everyone to see i.e., India is ranked at 95th position and 96^th among   183 countries in 2011 and 2012 respectively as per Transparency International's Corruption Perception Index (CPI).

. Most of the government offices are the places where corruption is most evident. Police are supposed to be the symbol of law and order and discipline. Even they are indulged in wide spread corruption. This is more so because, they enjoy unlimited powers and there is no action against them even on complaints. It is very distressing to note that   even the judiciary is not free from corruption. No one is made accountable for the various scams, involving several thousand crores of rupees .The process of law dealing with them is very slow. Hence, the influential law offenders are not really scared of punishment.

.Currently, the nation is rocked   by exposure of scam after scam at the government level.

Major corruption cases uncovered in 2012 include: the Karnataka Wakf Board Land case, at US$36.4 billion; the 2G Spectrum telecommunications case, involving the alleged misappropriation of US$32.15 billion; the Indian Coal Allocation case, a major issue as India faces energy scarcity, involving US$33.78 billion. With a total value of over US$100 billion, the corruption cases represent 5.5 per cent of India’s gross domestic product for 2011. If it is not controlled in time, it will eat up all the good work done far. Even the safety of our nation is jeoparadised due to corruption in defense deals.

According to the World Bank, India has a poor rating on business climate. "One of the reasons is related to bribery and corruption resulting in lower FDI flow. "It is difficult for foreign companies to operate in India without being touched by the issue of corruption in some shape or form. India slipped to the fourteenth spot from the eighth position in the list of countries that attracted the highest Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) last year. The FDI   Inflows into India declined by about $10 billion to $25 billion, according to the “World Investment Report 2011” released by United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) According to the investment report, India ranked way below its competing neighbor China, which saw FDI inflows to the tune of $106 billion in 2010. India was in the eighth place in 2009.The major reason is corruption, yet we are not ashamed of our global image in this matter

 

Written by Prof. Dr. Rameeza.A.Rasheed.

lalith Modi and the crisis faced by the BJP

How ever the media screams and writes about the wrong doing of the external minister , the BJP is not going to pay any attention to it . Within one year of NDA rule the nation knows that , the BJP is not a party with a difference in spite of rhetoric about promise of clean government , measures against black money ,. When a person like Lalit Modi is able to escape Indian laws, live like a king for such a long time in foreign lands ,does  what ever he wants to do making use of top level BJP connections , even able to achieve many things in  UK and has the audacity to give an interview as if ,he has not committed any crime in Indian soil make us weary about the Indian rule of law, partiality shown by those who are in charge of governance to powerful and rich and the helplessness  of our judicial system in punishing such visible black money holders and great violators of Indian laws . A single person is able to challenge the Indian laws and capacity to catch him and the government is silent . Lalit Modi and Sushma Swaraj    will not be affected in any way by their acts of omission . The nation will soon see many such episodes

solution to the conflict of interest problem in the Madras IIT.

It is really good that IIT students and managements dispute over the curb of  right to express opinion on matters of relevance is solved amicably without giving any  chance for the political parties to fish in troubled water . But, it is a pity that even in institute of higher learning like IIT the castes and religious factors  divide the students, just because, the presence of students of a particular community is  big in number. The voice of the minority should not be crushed either by the management or by the majority community students . An environment of freedom in thinking and expression alone  would enable the young students to liberate from the narrowness of caste or religious politics and broaden their vision towards analysing the socio, economic and political aspects of our nation  in a matured manner and improve their logical reasoning and analytical  skills  .It is high time for the IIT faculty to instill such values in the minds of the students instead of supporting the majority view. If tahy fail in this duty they can be accused of being the tool for making the IIT students pawn in the hands of the caste based political parties  It is advisable for IIT managements to deal with any campus  problem in an impartial manner and prove their autonomy by independent decisions  instead  succumbing to dictates from HRD ministry 

Let ,peace in IIT Madras campus return

Let not the students and the authorities of IIT Madras stand on prestige and delay the restoration of peace in the campus . Political parties support need not embolden the students to resort to rigid attitude during .negotiations . The aggrieved IIT Madras students should never be carried away by political parties support for their struggle against freedom of speech and thought . Political parties are only interested in creating opportunities for prolonging the confusion and the agitation of the students with different motives. IIT is a centre of learning . Peace in the campus should return as early as possible and the students return to their main task . If the authorities call them for a negotiation through talk they should respond to it and handle the procedures in mature way without sacrificing their core demand and help the authorities to solve the problem without standing on prestige and without yielding to the promises of political parties to support them in case the problem continues.'' Let the management respect the student’s rights related to free thinking, learning and expression and let the students respect the guidelines meant for orderly running of an institution .The Students have registered their protest and succeeded in getting wider media coverage and support from various quarters for their genuine grievance . Now, let peace in the campus return , so that, the learning days are not wasted after free discussion over the problem take place and solution arrived at .

365 days of Modi government’s performance

< 365 days of Modi government’s performance -Published in Beyond Headlines, An online magazine on May 27th I was really wondering why do the electronic media got into frenzy and running several hours of discussion on Modi’s 365 days of governance and the print media is publishing endless articles on the same subject. The politicians, senior journalists, the ex beauracrates, columnists, academicians, freelance writers and bloggers are into these discussions untiringly in the last one week. My rational mind was telling me, “How is it possible for any government to have concrete achievements in all the sectors within one year of their government after several years of policy paralysis?” My opinion was that, it is too early to pass a judgment on the performance of the new government. But soon I had to change my opinion, because there seems to be a logic in the argument of the analysts that, the government need not show any record of achievements within a year, but, there should be at least some symptoms to show that they are in the right direction so that, what all they promised can be achieved within their term of administration. More over, it is understood that the people are not anxious to compare the performance of the previous and the present government’s but, between the tall promises given by Modi during his hectic election campaigns and the symptoms of fulfillment of those promises which were tall and plenty. Moreover, if there is too much criticism in the assessment of their performance, only the PM Modi and his team are to be blamed. It is because, PM Modi was in the habit of making tall and absurd statements in foreign soils regarding the performance of the previous governments as if India remained an under development nation during their rule and he is going to convert it into a develped nation very quickly by all his reform measures. Can any responsible PM fail to give credit to the previous regimes for what ever achievements in several sectors and made this nation self sufficient in several goods and services and could reach 8.5% rate growth at one stage? Of course no body is denying the fact that, the Prime Minister with brutal majority in the lok Sabha , a week opposition, unquestioned centralised power vested on him by his party and with power of articulation can do wonders unlike the previous UPA government which was paralysed by coalition politics and dual power centers . But it doesn’t mean that the NDA can govern with talk alone without being accompanied by concrete results in the economic and social fronts. Look at the list of gaps between the promises and achievements • Has PM Modi succeeded in removing the hurdles in the way of ease doing business after appealing thunderously to the foreign investors to make it in India? Are they not waiting patiently for some evidence of reforms in the way of ease doing business? • What is the benefit India got by all those grand functions or melas arranged for meeting the insecure NRIs other tan the extensive media coverage which • Is the corporate sector satisfied with speed of required reforms which were promised to them before the election? • Is the farm sector happy with the dangerous provisions of the Land Acquisition Bill and the failure to ensure control over the input prices, poor compensation for natural calamities and inadequate farm income? • Is the youth satisfied with the job creation speed which was promised to get accelerated with tremendous increase in domestic and foreign investment? • Has the trade deficit between China and India and with some other countries narrowed down by his “successful trips” to half a dozen advanced countries? • Are the HRD ministry’s various directions satisfying the academicians who are worried about the hidden agenda to saffronise the education sector? • Are the state governments happy over the reduction of central funds for the social sectors? • Can they claim that, the corruption at all levels of governance is controlled just because there is no out break of scam at the central government level? • What has happened to the tallest promise of Modi regarding black money? • Is it enough to coin slogan after slogan and create photo opportunities and give wide publicity as if river Ganga can be cleaned and the whole nation is going to become clean and toilets facilities are to be created over night through a magial wand? • Is the PM happy with fact that he has made more a speeches abroad than at home (in the Parliament particularly) in the first five months of his term? ’ Is his Cabinet ministers and the beauracracy satisfied with his centralized or unitary style governance? • Has he got any right to say in a foreign soil that the Indians were so far ,ashamed to call themselves Indians and now only their prestige is restored (after he started ruling India) ? Is it not a most dishonorable statement made about 1. 3 billion Indians? • Do the minorities feel safe and secure under his rule? • Is it alright to centralise all the powers with him without trusting his cabinet colleagues in a democracy? • Is it alright to concentrate only on foreign affairs when urgent domestic problems wait in the queue for urgent solutions? • Is the PM really thinking that the common people are very pleased with the announcements regarding grand statues, tube trains, smart cities clean India and Ganga campaigns and indifference to the growing number of farmers suicide? • Is he not in a position to feel the under current of anger regarding soaring retail prices, corruption at every level of governance and delay in removing obstacles to job growth? • Why the RTI commissioner is not yet appointed and not any announcement made about the much promised Lok pal and three election commissioners posts not filled up? There are thus endless questions that are to be answered by the ruling party. What is the need to spend money, time and energy on celebrating their one year stay in power? Is it possible to fool all the people all the time using the power of articulation alone? When will the aggressive BJP spokespersons appearing in the media 24x7 hours learn that “actions will speak louder than words?” The middle and poor classes , care a damn about macro variables like GDP , Whole Sale Price Index, current rupee value, FDI inflow, quantum of black money likely to be unearthed (God only knows when ) trades and budget deficits, Standard and Poor rating of India , IMF certificate on Indian economic indicators ,Obama’s article on Modi and the NRI’s glorification of Modi , Gar Vapsi programme, Ram Mandir construction, remove of article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir, introduction of common civil code( just to irritate the Muslims ) . FDI in retail trade etc. For the common people , any government which provides them adequate water ,electricity, shelter, affordable food price, education and health facilities , job for their youth, security for women , care for elderly, removal of corruption at lower levels and priority to agricultural and social sector’s hitherto neglected needs is a good government . Such governments they will elect repeatedly. Other wise they will use the powerful weapon of vote to dethrone them with single digit MP seats in the next election No government can expect to remain in power for a along time with grand slogans , self praise and constant rhetoric alone. Is not history the great teacher to our political bosses? To become a popular government, the BJP should set their priories right taking into consideration the basic and urgent needs of the people. Statues, smart cities, tube trains and endless foreign trips by those in charge of governance can wait.

365 days of Modi government’s performance

365 days of Modi government’s performance (published In Beyond Head Lines, an online magazine on 27th May I was really wondering why do the electronic media got into frenzy and running several hours of discussion on Modi’s 365 days of governance and the print media is publishing endless articles on the same subject. The politicians, senior journalists, the ex beauracrates, columnists, academicians, freelance writers and bloggers are into these discussions untiringly in the last one week. My rational mind was telling me, “How is it possible for any government to have concrete achievements in all the sectors within one year of their government after several years of policy paralysis?” My opinion was that, it is too early to pass a judgment on the performance of the new government. But soon I had to change my opinion, because there seems to be a logic in the argument of the analysts that, the government need not show any record of achievements within a year, but, there should be at least some symptoms to show that they are in the right direction so that, what all they promised can be achieved within their term of administration. More over, it is understood that the people are not anxious to compare the performance of the previous and the present government’s but, between the tall promises given by Modi during his hectic election campaigns and the symptoms of fulfillment of those promises which were tall and plenty. Moreover, if there is too much criticism in the assessment of their performance, only the PM Modi and his team are to be blamed. It is because, PM Modi was in the habit of making tall and absurd statements in foreign soils regarding the performance of the previous governments as if India remained an under development nation during their rule and he is going to convert it into a developed nation very quickly by all his reform measures. Can any responsible PM fail to give credit to the previous regimes for what ever achievements in several sectors and made this nation self sufficient in several goods and services and could reach 8.5% rate growth at one stage? Of course no body is denying the fact that, the Prime Minister with brutal majority in the lok Sabha , a week opposition, unquestioned centralised power vested on him by his party and with power of articulation can do wonders unlike the previous UPA government which was paralysed by coalition politics and dual power centers . But it doesn’t mean that the NDA can govern with talk alone without being accompanied by concrete results in the economic and social fronts. Look at the list of gaps between the promises and achievements • Has PM Modi succeeded in removing the hurdles in the way of ease doing business after appealing thunderously to the foreign investors to make it in India? Are they not waiting patiently for some evidence of reforms in the way of ease doing business? • What is the benefit India got by all those grand functions or melas arranged for meeting the insecure NRIs other tan the extensive media coverage which • Is the corporate sector satisfied with speed of required reforms which were promised to them before the election? • Is the farm sector happy with the dangerous provisions of the Land Acquisition Bill and the failure to ensure control over the input prices, poor compensation for natural calamities and inadequate farm income? • Is the youth satisfied with the job creation speed which was promised to get accelerated with tremendous increase in domestic and foreign investment? • Has the trade deficit between China and India and with some other countries narrowed down by his “successful trips” to half a dozen advanced countries? • Are the HRD ministry’s various directions satisfying the academicians who are worried about the hidden agenda to saffronise the education sector? • Are the state governments happy over the reduction of central funds for the social sectors? • Can they claim that, the corruption at all levels of governance is controlled just because there is no out break of scam at the central government level? • What has happened to the tallest promise of Modi regarding black money? • Is it enough to coin slogan after slogan and create photo opportunities and give wide publicity as if river Ganga can be cleaned and the whole nation is going to become clean and toilets facilities are to be created over night through a magical wand? • Is the PM happy with fact that he has made more a speeches abroad than at home (in the Parliament particularly) in the first five months of his term? ’ Is his Cabinet ministers and the bureaucracy satisfied with his centralized or unitary style governance? • Has he got any right to say in a foreign soil that the Indians were so far ,ashamed to call themselves Indians and now only their prestige is restored (after he started ruling India) ? Is it not a most dishonorable statement made about 1. 3 billion Indians? • Do the minorities feel safe and secure under his rule? • Is it alright to centralise all the powers with him without trusting his cabinet colleagues in a democracy? • Is it alright to concentrate only on foreign affairs when urgent domestic problems wait in the queue for urgent solutions? • Is the PM really thinking that the common people are very pleased with the announcements regarding grand statues, tube trains, smart cities clean India and Ganga campaigns and indifference to the growing number of farmers suicide? • Is he not in a position to feel the under current of anger regarding soaring retail prices, corruption at every level of governance and delay in removing obstacles to job growth? • Why the RTI commissioner is not yet appointed and not any announcement made about the much promised Lok pal and three election commissioners posts not filled up? There are thus endless questions that are to be answered by the ruling party. What is the need to spend money, time and energy on celebrating their one year stay in power? Is it possible to fool all the people all the time using the power of articulation alone? When will the aggressive BJP spokespersons appearing in the media 24x7 hours learn that “actions will speak louder than words?” The middle and poor classes , care a damn about macro variables like GDP , Whole Sale Price Index, current rupee value, FDI inflow, quantum of black money likely to be unearthed (God only knows when ) trades and budget deficits, Standard and Poor rating of India , IMF certificate on Indian economic indicators ,Obama’s article on Modi and the NRI’s glorification of Modi , Gar Vapsi programme, Ram Mandir construction, remove of article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir, introduction of common civil code( just to irritate the Muslims ) . FDI in retail trade etc. For the common people , any government which provides them adequate water ,electricity, shelter, affordable food price, education and health facilities , job for their youth, security for women , care for elderly, removal of corruption at lower levels and priority to agricultural and social sector’s hitherto neglected needs is a good government . Such governments they will elect repeatedly. Other wise they will use the powerful weapon of vote to dethrone them with single digit MP seats in the next election No government can expect to remain in power for a along time with grand slogans , self praise and constant rhetoric alone. Is not history the great teacher to our political bosses? To become a popular government, the BJP should set their priories right taking into consideration the basic and urgent needs of the people. Statues, smart cities, tube trains and endless foreign trips by those in charge of governance can wait.