Chhatrarth (Feb2014)

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Democracy.. Leadership.. Governance..

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The first and only monthly print magazine formulated for the youth and by the youth.

Transcript of Chhatrarth (Feb2014)

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Democracy.. Leadership.. Governance..

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04 What is Bharatiya Chhatra Sansad?

05 Voters Savdhan! “Beware of Social Media”

08 Is Consumerism Consuming India?

12 Money and Politics

16 Channelising Youth Power

17 Role of Corporate Governance

21 Glimpses - 4th Bharatiya Chhatra Sansad

26 Philosophy of Consumerism

30 Voice of Youth

34 Developmental Administration

36 Voice of Youth in BCS 2014

38 Tech Savvy India

41 Photo feature

42 Letters to The Editor

43 In the next issue

44 Last Issue - My take

Vol. I, Issue : 5February 2014

Editor Rahul Vishwanath Karad

Chief Coordinator, BCSFProf. (Gp. Capt.) D. P. Apte

Consulting Editor Dheeraj Singh

Resident EditorMakarand Malwe

OperationsVasudeva Dongare

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● Printer, Publisher & Editor : Rahul Vishwanath Karad ● Printed & Published by Rahul Vishwanath Karad on behalf of Bharatiya Chhatra Sansad Foundation. ● Printed at : United Multicolor Printers Pvt. Ltd., 264/4, Shniwar Peth, River View Apartments, Pune 411030 and Published at Bharatiya Chhatra Sansad Foundation, S. No. 124, Paud Road, Kothrud, Pune 411038.

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Rahul V. KaradFounder Convenor-BCSInitiator & Dean,MITSOG

Dear Readers,

in the last 62 years India has progressed tremendously, but the development has been tangent. There is a dearth of young leaders withintegrity, discipline, energy, enthusiasm, morality, and diligence, especially in the fi eld of governance of the nation. The apathy of today’s youth towards politics is justifi ed to some extent. But ratherthan being passive observers, they can contribute in many ways. Looking at the on-coming LS elections to be held this year, the youth will have to play a major role in determining a good governing team at the Centre. Besides election, much can be done in areas like educating people, raising awareness about social issues such as unemployment, underemployment, socio-economic inequalities and poverty social unity, justice and peace, as well as long-term development in the global context. Inequality and discrimination is still so deep-rooted that lot of eff orts need to be made to eradicate these anomalies which is possible only by inducting youth with morals into the nation’s governance process. The recently held 4thBharatiya Chhatra Sansad conveys this message strongly. It provides lessons on the functioning of a democracy and encourages the students to serve the society by entering public life i.e. by taking active part in politics of country and perform leadership roles.

This issue of Chhatrarth, which is dedicated to the students and youth of the world, contains many debateable and interesting views besides extracts of speeches given by prominent stalwarts of the nation, namely Dr. Abhay Firodia, Chairman, Force Motors; Mr. Sudheendra Kulkarni, Ex-Sec. PMO, Govt. of India; eminent journalist Mr. Swaminathan Gurumurthy, and Shri. J.P. Vaswani, spiritual guru & head, Sadhu Vaswani Mission, during the BCS process.

As Swami Vivekananda has said: “Take up one idea. Make that one idea your life; dream of it; think of it; live on that idea. Let the brain, the body, muscles, nerves, every part of your body be full of that idea and just leave every other idea alone. This is the way to success”. Chhatrarth wishes you readers to emulate the philosophy of Swamiji and seek higher growth in your day-today life. -Editor

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What is Bharatiya Chhatra sansad?

Bharatiya Chhatra Sansad (Indian Student Parliament) was initiated

by Prof. Rahul V. Karad, Chief Initiator and Dean of MIT-SOG in 2011.Students from 25000 colleges of more than 400 universities in the Country participate in this grand event.

Mission :Bharatiya Chhatra Sansad’s (Indian

Student Parliament) mission is to mobilize the Student Union Leaders of India to come together on a single platform with a view to entering public life and bringing about a positive change in the leadership of the country. This will be done by regularly convening parliament of student leaders at the national and state levels in collaboration with the state legislative assemblies and by divulging the leaders to eminent personalities of repute, who will guide them in this Endeavour.

Objectives :•  To  create  a  common  platform  for 

the young student leaders.•  To  facilitate  interaction  with eminent leaders from different sectors.•  To  sensitize  the  participants  to think on regional, national & global issues.•  To  focus on  the areas which need immediate attention followed by action.•  To  create  solidarity  and  a  sense of togetherness among the participants for future cooperation.•  To foster brotherhood and mutual understanding.•  To inculcate democratic outlook.•  To  initiate  a  process  to  attain equality & social harmony.

Impact :The overwhelming and

spontaneous response to the 1st, 2nd, 3rd Bharatiya Chhatra Sansad has been very encouraging. The 4th BCS strived further to enhance its achievements so far. The 4th BCS was organized on 10th, 11th, 12th Jan 2014 at MAEER's MIT campus, Pune

comprising of eight sessions apart from the inaugural & valedictory sessions. In the span of these three days participants got an opportunity to interact with prominent personalities from politics, spirituality, environment, media, social activism, entertainment & sports world and speak their mind on the dais.

Former President A P J Abdul Kalam, spiritual guru Sri Sri Ravishankar, UIDAI chief Nandan Nilekani and actor Aamir Khan are among the host of prominent personalities who addressed the first 'Parliament of Student Council Leaders' held in Pune.

2nd Bharatiya Chhatra Sansad (2nd Indian Student Parliament) which was held on January 10, 11 & 12, 2012 provided a platform for the young student leaders to engage in dialogues and deliberations to develop a national perspective on numerous contemporary issues of importance.

Bharatiya Chhatra Sansad envisages that motivated , committed and dynamic political youth leaders will emerge to provide a positive leadership to the country and practise ethics in politics

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Third Bharatiya Chhatra Sansad (BCS) was held in association with the Union Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports, Government of India, Ministry of Higher & Technical Education and Ministry of Sports & Youth Welfare, government of Maharashtra, under the aegis of Bharatiya Chhatra Sansad Foundation. Rajesh Tope, Maharashtra Higher & Technical Education minister, and Padmakar Valvi, State Youth Affairs & Sports minister and Mr. R.K. Laxman were the keynote speakers.

Bharatiya Chhatra Sansad provides political coaching to nearly 10,000 students in the age group of 18-25. It provides lessons on the functioning of a democracy and encourages the students to serve the society by entering public life i.e. by taking active part in politics of country and perform leadership roles.

It is aimed at enhancing the roles and relevance of youth in democratic institutions like political parties, social organizations, colleges, universities and Public institutions. India is the largest democratic country in the world. It is a non-political platform.

Role of Youth :Young people should be

considered both as a key factor for helping the society to overcome

the crisis like unemployment, underemployment, socio-economic inequalities and poverty. It will help to gain political stability and social unity, justice and peace, as well as long-term development in the global context. The youth should take active participation in politics as this is important for the reformation of society. The inequality and discrimination is still so deep-rooted that lot of efforts needs to be taken by the youth of the country to eradicate these anomalies and it is only possible through their active participation in the politics.

Our country desperately needs young leaders who have energy, enthusiasm, morality, and diligence. India has progressed a lot in the last 62 years but the development has been completely different. In these past years young people were not given opportunities to prove themselves as they are not having enough experience to participate actively in the governance of the country. It has become the monopoly of old leaders to be in majority in most of the political parties of the country. Experienced people should realize that proper development can take place only when they involve younger generation to take active part in all the governance activities. It is the moral duty of the experienced leaders to induct young blood into

the main stream politics and guide the youngsters to be future leaders of the country.

Youngsters can contribute in many ways than just contesting elections. Much can be done in areas like educating people, raising awareness about various social issues and many other areas.

As Kiran Bedi said - Only those youth with adequate training about governance and related issues should enter politics and cleanse the system from the roots.

MIT School of Government (MIT-SOG), under the guidance of Prof. Rahul Vishwanath Karad, is the first and of its kind institute in India & Asia to initiate a one-year full time residential academic program titled "Masters Program in Government or MPG" for a career in Politics.

The students in this programme are taught to undergo rigorous training on various aspects of Politics & Government. MPG programme is a combination of theory, case studies and wide practical exposure, which is imparted through Interactive sessions with eminent leaders from various sectors, local field visits, study tours and internships with political leaders & offices of the political parties.

- Vandana Dhumal

Guests of honour lightening the lamp of 4th Bharatiya Chhatra Sansad

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voters savdhan! “BeWare of soCial media”

Campaigning plays a very important and crucial role

during the elections. It showcases the party profi le, their goals in near future and what the public expects from them. Social media is a new trend in India. It is a concept of using electronic platform to interact with the people across the globe, anywhere, anytime. Social media comprise of certain websites such as Social Bookmarking, Social News, Video Sharing, Wikis, and Blogs etc.

With the changing politics in India, the ways to reaching out to a younger and aspirational Indians too are changing. Political parties have taken a giant leap from the era when they

used to campaign by mainly using posters, cardboard cutouts, fl iers and house-to-house visits. Today they are campaigning by embracing the recent technological development called social media. In Urban India political parties are becoming tech savvy, realizing that this is the only way to reach out to the articulate young. Among the major parties the BJP has strong and biggest presence in social media followed by Congress Party. There are many eminent politicians using tweeter like Kapil Sibal, Shashi Tharoor, Digvijay Singh , Sushma Swaraj, Rajnath Singh and not to forget Narendra Modi & Rahul Gandhi. They are using this social

medium to live in contact with the citizens.

Today every political party has recognized this new and powerful medium to interact with the masses, make them participate and enable a 2 –way communication. Social media are becoming a primary outlets and expressive written medium via web pages, blogs and more.

Political communication are driven by third parties usually citizens, Firms and foundations or Non Profi t seeking fi rms to encourage greater involvement of young people in India. But with elections approaching, the grey end of India’s

Social media is the new mantra that is being used by the political parties to reach out to the younger and vibrant youth of India

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politics is deploying their dubious tools of trade and playing dirty game.

It was found by Cobra post Investigation (A Research Agency) that there are many IT firms that are engaged in the racket of manipulating reputation of politicians on popular social media sites by:

Creating fake followers and online fan base in lakhs. It was found during the study that Mr. Ashok Gehlot, Chief Minister of Rajasthan had fake Facebook followers who were based in Instanbul.

Providing demographic data on voters divided on linguistics and communal lines for effective booth management to win elections.

These firms hire journalists or even detectives to throw muck on Netaji’s opponent. These firms use different IP addresses offshore servers , proxy codes or wireless connections, disable tracking device of computer system and destroy the same when the job is over.

These firms charge between few lakhs to couple of crores to provide such reputation management services. They accept only cash

payments to avoid paper trail of connection between them and their clients (political parties).

These firms hack into the computers of other individuals to post defamatory contents using their IPs. Use internet based messaging to circumvent TRAI guidelines on mass SMSes .

Wrongly, social media is being used to play dangerous game in an already vitiated communal environment. Use of social media is done today for fanning hatred and communal sentiments. Example; Recent riots in Muzaffarnagar in UP or exodus of Northeastern people from cities across India last year.

All this matter because Social Media is going to play a huge role in upcoming elections.

Such trickery and dirt game on Social Media will affect the 243 million users of social medium. Through such usage of Social Media the sentiment and faith of AAM admi is been abused by these politicians. Therefore I appeal to the voters to be more careful while selecting and voting the leader for India’s bright future and do justice to the nation’s integrity.

- Mrs. Meenal K Pendse

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is Consumerism Consuming india?

We are talking about consumerism, What is it, What

does it do, Where it arises from and India; is it badly affected, is it deteriorated, as a result of this aspect-that is consumerism. Let me begin by invoking Gandhi. One of Gandhi’s devoted followers, a very respectful man, came to the Fergusson College as a visitor in the 1940s where my uncle was studying as student. My uncle narrated to me that a young energetic man asked him; what plans do you have to improve the standard of living of Indians, once India becomes independent. The answer that Gandhian gave had one very specific view. He said `my friend why do you want to increase the standard of living? Increase the standard of satisfaction. Consuming something,

enhancing your expenditure, expanding your own presence is not necessarily satisfaction. Are you interested in consumption? Are you interested in merely acquiring things or are you interested in being a better and happier human being?Now this is one view, we have to remember that this view was expressed by a man who was born in the 19th century in the steam age before the automobile, the telephone, the television and many other gizmos and gadgets, fast foods, concrete buildings, highways. He belonged to a much matured society, a much matured line of thought .But that was the old world. The world changes, modern world has evolved, we live in this world. We don’t live in the world of 19th century. We are in the 20th century,

the I Pad, the mobile phone, the scooter, the motorcycle, the airplane; all are realities of modern world. When you use a shampoo or you eat some readymade food or you use a better quality of soap, you have to do so in order to be at a level of performance, efficiency in society which is expected.

You can go and say, I want to lie on the banks of Ganga wear nothing but a langoti and look at the Ganga and feel happy about it or if you are more modern you may say well, I will go to a beach in Goa and will lie there and I don’t want to do anything else. Then you are not consuming. Believe me happy, Can you sustain yourself, have you the way with all to completely shun consuming anything? If not, then you have to understand what

If you say consumption is consumerism then somehow you are making a connection between over –consumption that you see and the depravity, poverty and misery

One side of the coin is over consumption due to number of supermarkets and malls

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is the level of consumption that you are obliged to have without which you can’t be competitive, modern, creative and be in synchronization with the world around you.

So consumerism should not be condemned out of sight. There is an example, Water if it enters the boat, the boat sinks, but if there is no water you can’t operate the boat. For the boat to float and go from one place to another you need water but you should not allow the water to get into the boat because if that happens the boat would sink.. Situation with consumption is similar; you need consumption and you need sufficient consumption in order to be successful; efficient and effective but if you become just a consumer then you are liable to sink like the boat full of water. Consumerism has to be looked at in very balanced manner. You can’t condemn that outright and you can’t embrace it in a hedonistic manner. You say I just want to have a fling

with life; you have to do both things. Consumption does put a load on earth, when we have millions of automobiles and when we have so much of electricity being produced, so many boilers being run, we do pollute the atmosphere. When we take minerals out we do pollute the environment. So we have to be clear that there are costs to be paid for making the society modern, but can you say that I will not live in the modern society that is an intention which is extra ordinarily difficult to meet.

In today’s world, a fridge, a watch, a laptop, and an I Pad, all of these are essentials and therefore having many such things in my opinionate consumerism, it is consumption and it is valid consumption in current times.

To look at the way our country has changed, I would like you to take back you in history, India, 4-5 thousand years ago was Dravidian, a highly evolved society which

what we now call as Indus valley civilization, peaceful society, no arms no armaments have been found in Indus valley side. The society which was orderly organized lived by agriculture lived by a set of values. However, The Aryan invasion, transformed the society into an aggressive conquering society. India changed, morals changed, values changed then came the Muslim invasion and the Mughals. Again India changed, complete transformation as different from the Aryan society. Then came the colonialists. They came and they brought modern education along with them, they brought the company, they brought the bank, the insurance company which transformed Indian society. Do you know the name of the bank of Mughals or the insurance company of Peshwas that didn’t exist?

If India modernized in the last two hundred years, it was mainly because the joint stock companies

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were introduced which could create wealth, the insurance companies got introduced because the beared risks and enterprise was possible, the development was possible, employment was possible. So there was a hug transition to a new set of values and a new kind of society. Gandhi transformed India in the early part of last century. Gandhi’s period is roughly from 1920-1950; 30 years, but in that two and a half decade Gandhi changed India with a new set of values. Gandhi was not alone in this endeavour. Swami Vivekananda, Tilak, and Tagore-these people created new set of values, they were not western but they were modern. Each one of them had a set of ideals which were extremely modern but they didn’t jettison the intrinsic values created in this country over centuries and eons. Today in 2014 we are standing in post Hazzare age, the impact that Gandhi had on India was to create

that urge for freedom as a mass movement. Was Tilak a smaller man? No. He was a great scholar. A very burning nationalist, courageous man but he was not a mass leader. He was an intellectual of the highest order. Gandhi was a mass leader; he was an intellectual no doubt. He taught the message that freedom has to be won by every generation. It is not something, handed down to you. You want freedom, stand for it. In the post Hazzare era, they are again awakened; this generation has to examine again, what do we want of this country? How do we want our country to be governed?. Are we a corrupt country? Are we a mislead country? Are we a badly governed country? Are all our laws wrong must we wreck everything; can we not modify; can we not improve; these are some of the important issues to be debated upon.

It is said that the person who is not a socialist before the age of 25 has no heart and a person who remains a

socialist after 25 has no head. I have to say that there is much more to life .I will give you a small example. Most people who get married don’t think about responsibilities in life afterwards. So today when we stand on the cusp of history, when we are looking at a new age in India, I want to challenge the young people. Want the young people to respect the fact that we don’t only want change; we want to change for the better.

So consumerism is not necessarily bad. You can’t live without consumption and is it consuming India?. If you say consumption is consumerism then somehow you are making a connection between over consumption that you see and the depravity, poverty and misery that you see has been connected with consumerism, this is a mistake in my opinion. I believe that we have to put aside political issues.

Our politicians in the last over half a century have misled us on two fronts.

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One, they sold us wrong medicine. They told us that socialism delivers. I am sorry it does not. Every socialist country in the world which failed has changed. China, Russia and whole of Eastern Europe has changed. There is only Cuba hanging there with North Korea, those who feel that this kind of aggressive socialism will deliver, please immigrate to Cuba or North Korea.If you want India to be prosperous then you have to have a more balanced approach. You have to look for growth. You can’t get rid of consumerism. You can’t avoid modernity. A trick in recognizing it is we want to be modern but not western. Quoting Japan which is smaller than the state of Maharashtra, they are not millitarilistic but believe me if they choose to be so, within 5 years it can become a global military power. That is their competence. In my opinion India should not lose sight of the need to grow. Seven thousand young energetic fresh faces, want to say that is India every day. The problem is that we can’t produce one thousand jobs merely by distributive justice. I am not against distributive justice at all but it is like distributing something which is national, which is not there. You need growth first and if you are going to have growth, you have to have policies which support growth not policies which simply support

distribution.

We should create wealth and prosperity to embrace, understand and tame, control consumerism but you can’t do without it. In these worlds if you want to be a sadhu it is not an option. India is polarizing fast. In the last one year the average Indian’s thinking has changed dramatically. We are on the cusp of another change and if we stand for the same in the next two years our country will change dramatically. That it will change dramatically is indisputable, whether it will change for the better is if we follow policies which ensure that we consume, we create, we distribute in a sensible manner based on the market economy. Market economy is not lending our country to Tata or Birla. These are wrong concepts. Market economy means consumer, you who are buying a mobile, a motorcycle or a t-shirt or a coca-cola, whatever it is. You decide what you want. That is Market Economy.

So I want to submit that we can’t do without consumption, that we have to cater for that consumption, have to create the growth and when we create that growth we have to ensure that our enduring values of society are protected, that we don’t just westernize for the heck of it, but we must modernize and we must be moderate.

Gandhi’s message was economic and social. According to economic message we should be self sufficient, self reliant and creative. Khadi was not a fad. It was to make you self relied. The other message is be conciliatory. Don’t get into accusation phase and split the society. Nehru tried that and failed. We have to have a conciliatory society. We have to differentiate between what Congress, BJP, and AAP stands for. Anarchy is easy to be achieved but I am not for it. It is easy to destroy but difficult to build.The task for youth is to build. A sensible youth will never destroy.Dont think of consumerism as consuming India; think how consumerism can enrich the lives of people living in India. How can we better distribute it?.Don’t act before you think. It will be American system of management. So I want every youth to think what consumerism is. Is it consuming our society or is it something which is necessary and if it is necessary how we are going to control it, how we are going to create more. How we’re going to distribute better. I am sure you will do your best and take the country you love forward.

- Dr. Abhay Firodia.Chairman, Force Motors

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money and PolitiCs is demoCraCy for sale?

I consider the Indian Student Parliament as a truly commendably

initiative. The name Parliament associated with this annual session is signifi cant and I want to dwell a little on the signifi cance of calling this Parliament. India has adopted the Parliamentary form of Democracy. India’s parliament, as we all know, is situated in Delhi.

Then why has that Parliament come here to Pune on the aegis of BCS? It not a rhetorical question, it goes to the heart of what democracy is all about. The essential characteristic of Parliament is that it’s a consultative body; it’s a deliberative body, a body that deliberates on the issues of national and societal importance. Of course, Parliament in Delhi is a unique one, it is established by the Constitution of India and therefore it’s not just a consultative body but also a legislative body. It has the part to enact laws. But it would be wrong for us to think that there could be only one Parliament in India. There can be only one Lok Sabha but there can be several associations of people such as Farmer’s Parliament, Student’s Parliament, Business parliament, Spiritual leader’s parliament. For example, Swami Vivekananda participated in world’s fi rst parliament of World Religion, it was also called as Parliament, and so parliament is a place where there is a meaningful dialogue.

Now this has become all the more necessary because the real parliament, the constitutionally established parliament, unfortunately has become dysfunctional. We can only hear about walk outs and back outs in

Indian Parliaments but we cannot fi nd appropriate discussions taking place. The Indian Student Parliament is setting a very good example for everyone. Become more disciplined, become more involved, discuss across ideological diff erences, diff erence of politics, social diff erences, because each of you as if envisaged by this parliament is expected to become tomorrow’s leader.

You should set a new example, a diff erent example, a better example. The youth is not an attribute of age, young in idealism, young in commitment, young in adventurism, young in terms of ambition, young in terms of innovation, the determination to do new things in spite of all odds, but young also as our philosophy, our culture, our spiritual traditions teach us young also in your willingness to learn from

elders. There

should be no arrogance among young people that the elders have messed up things so we don’t need their advise, we alone can set things right. Don’t think so, because those who are elders were also at one time young people like you. They were also patriotic, they were also dreamers like you and they were also idealistic. They struggled, they succeeded in some things and they failed in others. So learn from their mistakes, but respect them and try to go beyond them.

Learn from the past, that never remain prisoners of past. And I would like to urge you, especially refl ect upon this question: Why is our democracy in a bad shape? You should also know that in spite of all the shortcomings our democracy, our parliamentary form of democracy has fared better than

Corruption and the infl uence of money power on politics is something that is playing havoc with the entire political system

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others.

Just look at our neighborhood. Few days ago, elections were held in Bangladesh Parliament. What a farcical elections it was! Even before the elections were held, the ruling party got a majority. Out of 300 seats 154 were elected unopposed. Bangladesh is in turmoil. You all are also aware of what is happening in Pakistan. For the first time in 67 years an elected government completed 5 years. Every time a question arose if Musharaf would hold the power once again or if Kayani Sahab would capture power. Somehow or the other the government completed 5 years, which means that even Pakistan is in doldrums as far as democracy is concerned. Nepal is not able to even draft and adopt a Constitution. The problems in Sri Lanka are well known. Above us, northwards, in China there is no democracy, there is no Parliament itself. The Parliament that belongs to a communist party, one party rule. So if you look at this we certainly have achieved something and we should be proud of what we have achieved.

We should protect what we have achieved and resolve to go forward.

Nevertheless, we cannot turn a blind eye to the shortcomings of our Parliamentary democracy. And the biggest shortcomings, the biggest blot on the democracy is how the power of money is increasingly dominating democracy, dissipating democracy, damaging democracy and as a result more and more people are becoming cynical and getting frustrated. The emergence to the Aam Aadmi Party, is a sign of frustration and also a sign of their determination to try something new. Why is this so?

Rahulji has told me that you should not only talk about problems but also focus on solutions. I have a few ideas but before I come to that I would tell you, I was for a long time an activist for BJP, I am not with BJP any more. I am not with any party any more. But with some experience of politics, I would tell you it’s my advice to you please don’t get carried away by any wave. Be objective, be critical. When you look at all the political parties, don’t just blindly accept what the leaders are saying because corruption, the influence of money power on politics is something that is playing the entire political system.

When the short film was projected

on me there was one point missing, in the year 2008 I had taken some efforts to expose the influence of money on politics. I was in BJP at that time and few of the political leaders and MPs had decided to expose the most shameful episode in politics. In July 2008 UPA won government and it reduced to minority, that the Left parties had withdrawn their support in UPA government.

The issue was, the indo-US nuclear deal, I still have very high regards for Dr. Manmohan Singh. I regard him as one of the better Prime Ministers that we had and I said so openly a few days ago and a lot of my previous party colleagues were not happy with me at all. Nevertheless I think that under Dr. Manmohan Singhji’s Prime Ministership, the way in which elected Members of Parliament belonging to the opposite parties were purchased just to ensure that the government would survive the trust owed to the Lok Sabha was a very shameful episode. 10 Crores, 20 crores, 25 crores were paid to each Member of Parliament to cross over and support the government. We tried to expose it. The scandal came to known as ‘The Cash for Vote Scandal’. For my role in it, I was imprisoned for two months in Tihar

Shri Sudheendra Kulkarni ,Former Secretary, PMO talking about ‘ Money and Politics ‘

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Jail. I don’t have any regrets for I really thought that I had done the right thing.

Going to jail for doing the right thing actually enlightened me and educated me more on the realities of Indian politics and also on the realities of our criminal justice system, what happens in Indian jails, what happens to common people, common prisoners who spend years and years and years in jail without even a trial beginning, I have seen all this first hand. But I don’t blame only Congress party for this. Around the same time that the cash for votes happened, a different type of Cash for Vote was enacted by BJP. You must be knowing about ‘Operation Kamal’ in Karnataka, there was one government which emerged as the largest party in assembly but did not get the majority votes.

There was a danger of Government

collapsing and therefore the then Chief Minister and others had planned something called ‘Operation Kamal’. What did it mean? It meant that MLAs belonging to opposition party were paid huge sums of money, made to resign and then contest the mid-term elections on the ticket of BJP and get elected and thereby get converted their minority into majority. This was also ‘Cash for Vote’ of a different type. And saying this, just to tell you that, the corruption in the Indian political system is not the monopoly of any one party. Some are more corrupt, some are less corrupt.

I was talking to a former student of MIT School of Government, a young student for whom I have great admiration. After having studied in this school he has gone back to his village in Maharashtra and is serving the people with utmost dedication

and of course he believes he should serve the people even in the field of politics. He wants to contest elections and he deserves to contest elections and even get elected. He was telling me that I wanted to contest election as a candidate of a particular party and the party asked him to pay some of 5 crore rupees for the ticket. This is also Cash for Vote of a different kind. Today in many political parties, not all political parties, it has become a norm for the candidate to pay money to the party leadership in crores of rupees just to become a candidate.

If this is how the elections are conducted, what can become of our democracy? I know of cases where candidates pay 10 thousand rupees, 15 thousand rupees per voter. They are spending crores and crores of rupees in elections. Is this how elections are to be fought? Is

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parliament for sale? Is the Vidhaan Sabha for sale? Is the Panchayat for sale? If Parliament becomes a market place, what will happen to India’s democracy? We used to compare ourselves with neighboring countries such as Bangladesh, Pakistan, China and feel proud. But if this trend continues it will be a great threat. We need to recognize this threat. We must remove the blot of money power on Indian Politics.

Now I come to some positive things we can do to reduce corruption in politics. We cannot completely eliminate but what can we do? I believe we must first of all admit that political parties need money. Where will the money come from? If Indian democracy needs political parties, we are multi-party democracy, and then it is the responsibility of people to fund the political parties and also to fund the elections. So one big change that we should bring about is let there be a certain tax. We are ready to pay surcharge on diesel and petrol for national highway development project, surcharge on tax for Sarva Shiksha Abhiyaan, why should people not pay tax to keep the democracy working? Otherwise these political parties will depend on builders, contractors, big industrialists and sometimes also on the money coming from abroad which is cancerous.

So my first solution is that let us earn funding of political parties and funding of elections by the people of India. There is a benefit in this, if people fund political parties they can demand accountability. Some months back there was demand to bring political parties under the purview of RTI. All the political parties said no, we don’t want to come under RTI. But imagine when every citizen pays a little for the legitimate activities of the political parties and also for their election needs then every citizen has also the right to demand how the money is spent. So we need accountability from political parties.

As someone who has worked very closely in the political system, I can

tell you, as far as funds collection is concerned and expenditure is concerned there is absolutely no transparency. In any political party the treasurer never shows the balance sheet even to the members of the party. How much money came in, from where did it come and where has it gone is unknown to everyone. We must have transparency in the financial functioning of the political party. My second suggestion is that we should as is envisaged by our constitution – executive is different, legislative being of democracy is different.

Unfortunately, today only people who are elected as MPs and MLAs become Ministers. Why should it be so? The government, the Cabinet, the Council of Ministers is part of the executive. Why should only MPs and MLAs become Ministers? In many countries of the World the Ministers are not elected representatives. They are chosen on the account of their expertise, their competence, their policy making. India today is facing very complex challenges. Is the power ministry consulting any knowledgeable person or some appropriate person to solve the problem of Natural gas, oil, power? For the environment shouldn’t an environmentalist be a Minister?

For science and technology a person related to the field of Science and technology should be the minister.

So my second suggestion is that we should de-link the executive and legislative rules of democracy and must have at least 25% of the Ministers coming from outside Parliament and outside Vidhan Sabha. This will reduce the importance of money in Indian Politics.

My another third suggestion is that our democracy to be truly a representative, we should have a proportionate representation. In many constituencies, 40, 50, 60 % people vote. If there are 5-6 candidates, the person who is selected will have the support of

20-30% of the voters. Is he the true representative? He is not. What about those parties which have only 5-10 % of the total vote but never get elected? They can’t get a single candidate elected.

In the spirit of democracy, representativeness of democracy I think the time has come at least to have some members of the Parliament and State legislatures who come from this new peculation of proportionate representation. This means that the parties have to spend less on getting their people elected in the parliament. This means the domination of money power to that extent will come down. Next, we simply have to decentralize. Mahatma Gandhi’s call all along the course of the freedom struggle was what we should have in free India, a Political system, a government system based on decentralization of power. There is too much centralization of power in New Delhi and in the state capitals.

Decentralization is absolutely must because the closer the people are in the building power they are the people the more vigilance people can have on the functioning if those representatives. We can have many technical solutions but unless we reach an ethical revival or moral revival in the Indian Politics people will always find ways to subvert every new solution that we could follow. Swaraj is not only political freedom; Swaraj is self control and not ruling others. We need people in politics who are capable of Self Control. Mahatma Gandhi says “Self is individual self, the society self, the nation self, the entire humanity self - but there is a larger self”. S stands for God. We should follow God. When we think of God and do our work we will not commit any mistakes. We won’t get into corruption. So if we want a democracy to survive there should be a revival in every human.

- Mr. Sudheendra KulkarniFormer Secretary, PMO,

Govt. India

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Channelising youth PoWer

The 2011 Census of India can be a very good observation to

study the drift of Indian population. 66% of the total population is of Youth between the age of 18 and 35. Currently, it is largest in the world, while developed countries are facing this acute problem of old age people’s population. India’s young population is being sought out by the corporate sector all over the globe; our youth is getting attracted towards all corners of the world to achieve their boundary less growth. There is great demand for our young Indian talent in the world for Information Technology in the past decade. Even US President Obama also has to take the cognizance of Indian Talent and alerted American youth to think of how to save their job from the influx of Indian talent.

Though this is a very positive sign for India to become a Super Power in year 2020, it is also creating a lot of issues which are very new for India. The biggest challenge for the Indian government is how to channelize this talent and youth power to achieve higher Gross Domestic Product. Current education system is not sufficient to hold the global challenge that our youth is facing in today’s global market. There is lot of scarcity of skilled manpower in many fields and at the same time there are no jobs for a very large number of young population. This can be easily felt when there is a Placement fair in cities like Pune or Mumbai, where the queue of prospective candidates can be seen more than 2 to 3 kilometres. This picture clearly shows there is lack of understanding in our today’s youth in knowing the new avenues of opportunity and to avoid over saturation in any specific field. There can be many reasons for this e.g they never plan for their future, follow

the crowd, choose career / course by influence of others, get tempted by current trends, influenced by the media, live in fantasy world and lack of motivation. But ‘frustration’ is a common problem our youth is facing when they complete their education system and try to enter the open job market.

Overcrowding of youth in one field is observed, where our young engineers are expected to start their career at a salary of Rs. 5000/-. Is it not demotivating when they are starting their career with such a paltry amount? Our government needs to protect our youth by making a provision of minimum wages as per their cadre to maintain the dignity of our young population.

The concept of boundary less country, boundary less jobs (interdisciplinary) and world as a global village is observed in terms of job market. The frequent international travel of today’s youth is showing the change, which India accepted to tap the global opportunity. But the problem while adopting this global culture is that our Indian youth is easily adaptable to the bad habits of western world, as seen from many observations. The tremendous sale of cigarettes in front of any company / college, hike in sale of liquor, the increasing

culture of pubs, high addiction of social networking sites, the live-in relationships, are some of the new issues / problems our youth had ventured into recently, which shows that the youth is missing the power to discover themselves. Our youth is blindly following the western countries and missing our great Indian values and culture. India has to pay a lot in coming future to do the damage control which is happening because of such misleaded youth population.

India is becoming the land of opportunities because of the youth population. There is a urgent need to promote, ethical and value base education system building in all educational programmes to make our youth better equip to face the globalization challenge. Today’s youth is vibrant, want to take part in system change, want to do work against corruption, want to take part in social work and change their negative attitude in many sense India can surely become a super power in 2020, but it is not possible without focusing on the issues of youth.

Prof. Dinesh S. Bhutada

There is an urgent need for ethical and valuebase education system building in all educational programmes to make our youth better equipped to face the globalization challenge

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role of CorPorate governanCe

Governance refers to "all processes of governing,

whether undertaken by a government, market, or network, whether over a family, tribe, formal or informal organization, or territory, and whether through laws, norms, power, or language." It relates to processes and decisions that seek to define actions, grant power, and verify performance. In general terms, governance occurs in three broad ways-

Through networks involving public-private partnerships (PPP) or with the collaboration of community organizations;

Through the use of market mechanisms whereby market principles of competition serve to allocate resources while operating under government regulation;

Through top-down methods that primarily involve governments and the state bureaucracy.

Corporate governance refers to the set of systems, principles and processes by which a company is governed. They provide the guidelines as to how the company can be directed or controlled such that it can fulfill its goals and objectives in a manner that adds to the value of the company and is also beneficial for all stakeholders in the long-term. Stakeholders in this case would include everyone ranging from the board of directors, management, shareholders to customers, employees and society.

Corporate governance is based on principles such as conducting the business with all integrity and fairness, being transparent with regard to all transactions, making all the necessary disclosures and decisions, complying with all the

laws of the land, accountability and responsibility towards the stakeholders and commitment to conducting business in an ethical manner. Another point which is highlighted in the SEBI report on corporate governance is the need for those in control to be able to distinguish between what are personal and corporate funds while managing a company.

Why a discussion point?

Corporate governance has most recently been debated after the corporate fraud by Satyam founder and Chairman Ramalinga Raju. In fact, trouble started brewing at Satyam around December 16 when Satyam announced its decision to buy stakes in Maytas Properties and Infrastructure for $1.3 billion. The deal was soon called off owing to major discontentment on the part of shareholders and plummeting share-price. However, in what has been seen as one of the largest corporate

frauds in India, Raju confessed that the profits in the Satyam books had been inflated and that the cash reserve with the company was minimal. Ironically, Satyam had received the Golden Peacock Global Award for Excellence in Corporate Governance in September 2008 but was stripped of it soon after Raju's confession.

The listed companies in India were required by SEBI to comply with a corporate governance code with effect from January 2000. The code was reviewed in 2003 by a new committee, headed by Mr. N R Narayana Murthy, who defined a good corporate governance system as one which attaches "a high degree of priority to the interests of shareholders who have placed their trust in the company to use the funds wisely and effectively".

Prof . Babasaheb Jadhav

Corporate governance system is one which attaches "a high degree of priority to the interests of shareholders who have placed their trust in the company to use the funds wisely and effectively"

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4th Bharati ya Chhatra Sansad(Indian Student Parliament)

Mr. Abhishek Anand(Student of T.Y.B.Com., MACS College, MIT, Pune)

S/o. RAM KISHORE JHA, R. K. Advisory,Dhanbad, JharkhandCell No. 07276515586

Best complements from

4th Bharatiya Chhatra Sansad(Indian Student Parliament)

With best complements from

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4th Bharatiya Chhatra sansad held at mit Pune on 10th, 11th & 12th January 2014

glimPses

Performance by the dance group lead by Smt. Swati Daithankar ‘Tejonidhi’- A drama based on the life of Swami Vivekanand

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Bharatiya Chhatra Sansad – A unique gathering of the young and aspirant leaders across the country held at MIT , Pune ,India

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Bharatiya Chhatra Sansad – A unique gathering of the young and aspirant leaders across the country held at MIT , Pune ,India

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Ekta Sutra tied up by all the young leaders … depicting bond of unity and bond for strengthening the democracy

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PhilosoPhy of Consumerism

There are two ways in which you can express your thoughts

on the issue `Is consumerism consuming India`. Thoughts which will be popular and welcome and which will probably make people clap, others you express your mind whether people are receptive or not I generally don’t belong to the first category I had always taken a position which is according to me closer to what I believe to be the truth and so I will be taking that position before you.

Consumerism is not bad provided there is some restrain, there is some kind of moderation. But who is to draw the line? You know consumerism is based on a philosophy. A philosophy nobody is in a position to articulate and gauge whether that philosophy suites a country like India which is family based. If consumerism is going to hit the duties and responsibilities how to draw that line is precisely what I

am going to tell you.

The Philosophy of consumerism draws its energies from what is known as methodological individualism. Sociology students will perhaps find it easier to understand what I am saying but the modern economic theories are also rooted in the methodological individualism & that asserts a man’s right over families over society over neighborhood and an individual stands alone in asserting his rights and this is an evolution over the last one century and Max Webber and later Carl Popper were the persons that shaped this idea. This did not remain in theory this very much manifested in practice and it so manifested in practice that the output is here for us to see.

Max Webber was the person who read sociology into economics and economics as a social science became part of Webbers thinking that ultimately individualism so manifest

that an individual’s role will have to be assessed and there is nothing as a society. Carl Pope declared it later that there is no such thing as society which Margret Thatcher endorsed. In the west the sense of society has been greatly undermined. And from the 1960s and 70s the sense of family was badly undermined. The family as a unit is shaken in the west and I am going to talk about perhaps the most sighted country in the world, the USA which is a powerful country, which is an eg of efficient economic admin, a militarily powerful country educationally powerful country and so this is some kind of an e.g. which has immerged in the last 30 years before all countries and an English educated country like India is always looking to a country like America to draw a sense of how to shape its future.

Today you know 41% babies born in America are born to unmarried women (outside wedlock) 21%

The philosophy of consumerism draws its energies from what is known as methodological individualism

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of them are born to school going children. Directly relatable to the high level of individualism which was insisted over families & this is a creation of not just sociology this is a creation of commerce, creation of companies, creation of social attitudes, media, intellectuals & govt. policies and this has led to 51% of the families being led by single parents mostly mothers who have been discarded by husbands and most people decide to remain unmarried. The US president Mr. Obama has created a national marriage project last year because 60% of people in Americans do not want to be married. People do not want to get married how to persuade them to get married. You know this is the kind of social disharmony; disruption which an attitude which plays the individual above family above elders above everybody and individually supreme this has completely demoralized the social structures.

It is very important to know what the philosophy of consumerism is. Consumerism is built on individualism, individualism is always based on a certain degree of greed and when the greed is recognized and celebrated as the cause for economic success this is what M Keans on of the most brilliant minds in economics which is what turned the depression period into a period of prosperity within a period of 10 years by forking the govt. funds to promote consumption and consumption as the drive of growth became later integral part of modern economics and became known as anthropological modernity. This is the base of western sociology, politics, economics and in this all the concept of efficient economic theories, economically rational man all these things sprouted out of this theory and to mention one of the most prominent western anthropological theories by a prominent American anthropologist

Marshall Sahlins as he wrote in his paper “anthropology of modernity, or, some triumphs of culture over despondency theory” A late classic of the genre was Walter Rostow’s Stages of Economic Growth (1957), with its unilinear sequence of five developmental stages from ‘traditional societies’ to ‘the age of high mass consumption.’ (Rostow must have been among the first to perceive that the culmination of human social evolution was shopping.)” This is important shopping is not just an economic act it is the end of modernity it is the end of fulfillment of human desires and it promotes not only greed it promotes competitive ego, it promotes inferiority complex which a man wants to overcome by competing with people who have the same brand of goods, he must have new brand of goods and this way we turn waste into wealth and wealth into waste.

“Explicitly argued as an alternative

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to Marxist stages of progress, Rostow’s theories appeared as a mirror image, with the added advantage of turning left into right twice over. Common to many theories of development was a cheerful sense of cultural tragedy: the necessary disintegration of traditional societies that functioned, in Rostow’s scheme, as a precondition for ‘economic take-off’” what this meant was disintegration of traditional society including family is a must for economic takeoff. Don’t think it remained in theory level in 1957 it was, it was put into practice, policies were affected, and commercial organizations prepared their advertisement plans marketing plans.

In 1980 many economists from NBER warned America that it was moving towards an irreversible process of self-destruction. Foreign domination was necessary to accomplish this salutary destruction because domestic forces will not be able to change as fast towards these goals to destroy relationships to turn all relations into contracts between husband and wife, between brother and sister, between neighbors there is no relationship other than mere contract law. You are all citizen of a particular country other than that there is no other relationship this is western anthropological modernity. Unless we understand it we will not be able to understand what

kind of economic model is being advocated, marketed and imposed on the world. Today the government does only a little bit of pushing, it is commercial interests, market research, economists, sociologists, market researchers, marketing organizations, philosophers, media they market it and market it so effectively that we are made to believe these ideas are coming from neutral sources and are forced into consuming and believing these ideas.

“Foreign domination was needed to accomplish this salutary destruction, since otherwise the customary relations of traditional production would set a ceiling on economic growth. By its own providential history, Europe had been able to develop itself, but according to Rostow, other people would have to be shocked out of their backwardness by an intrusive alien force. No revolutionary himself, Rostow could agree with Marx that in order to make an omelette, one must first crack the eggs.”

MEASURES FOR ECONOMIC GROWTH:

This is not just Rostow; I am going to read out to from the UN paper UN department of social and economic affairs MEASURES FOR ECONOMIC Development of underdeveloped societies 1951. “There is a sense in which rapid progress is impossible without painful adjustments.

Ancient philosophies have to be scrapped, old institutions have to be disintegrated” in short disintegration of family is must for economic growth. Two notable studies emphasize these claims. In 1950 the average family size in America as 3.5 today it is 2.5 this reduction meant additional housing for 35 million contributing to 10 trillion $ to the GDP. Similar studies in European Union support the claim that for economic growth families have to be destroyed. Making individuals depend on the state is the basic principal of the western anthropological modernity which most Asian countries have not yet accepted and which is why 75% of the worlds savings is in Asia. While 75% of global savings is borrowed by America.

US foreign debt rose 160 times from $1 billion in 1970 to $16 trillion in 2011. While domestic debt rose by 40 times GDP rose only by 16 times. This is clear from the fact that 11 cr. American families have over 120 cr. Debit/credit cards which amounts to $130 lakh Cr. debt from credit cards, $10 trillion debt on home. Family savings in America accounted from 80% of national savings in 1960 and has now crashed down to -20% in third quarter of 2006. This is purely because of individualistic consumerism being promoted. This is down to the American social model where family is becoming

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nationalized as government takes up parenting and looking after elders and government is becoming privatized. 72% of American economic growth is sustained by consumerism. Replicating that in countries like India is impossible as it is needless consumerism.

It’s not a matter of whether consumerism is good or bad it is about whether there is a new need based consuming in which case it is not consumerism at all it is life based on needs. Dr. Jagdish Bhagawati had published a paper based on request from Dr. Manmohan Singh on suggestions to revive Indian economy during economic downturn. His 72 page paper addressed the Indian families in 3 pages. His suggestions included reducing the 19% Indian family savings to half and increasing the encouraging the spending of Indian public (women in particular whom he termed as stingy). New policies were introduced, marketing was

done, songs and advertisements were made. Indian women sang the songs but dint buy the products.

Indian family savings grew from 19% in 1992 to 29% in 2009 that took the national savings to over 37% and a growth rate of 10% based on capital output ratio. During the period of 1991 to 2011 foreign investment in India accounts to only 1.2% while the remaining 98.8% of funds were raised in India itself. Goldman sacs global economic paper no. 187 Oct 2010 projected $1.7 trillion Infrastructure Investment that India will make in the next one and a half decades would be funded without any foreign investment because Indian families would save sufficient. Annual attrition to Indian family savings is estimated at $800 billion which is equal to all the bank advances today.

SOCIETIES FUNCTION :

According to culture & Indian society functions on a certain

value system that involves taking care of family. Sixty crore people are taken care of by family. Can we hand over this responsibility to the government? No we can’t as it will be utter disaster. Consumerism blast a family out of existence. We have to understand what consumerism truly is. Need based consumption yes, glorified consumption will destroy the society which we can’t afford. It is my appeal to this educated gathering of young bright students don’t carbon copy the western individualism which has grown out of the western sociological foundation and models which cannot be transplanted sold and marketed in this country.

- Shri. Swaminathan GurumurthyEminent Journalist

Co-Convener,Swadeshi Jagaran Manch

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voiCe of youth

We are meant together on a sacred day, the day as you

all know is the birth anniversary of The Great Swami Vivekananda. He was a Prophet of young India. He was a man of Fire. He placed before young India the ideal of loving service. He asked Indian youths to dedicate themselves to the service of teaming millions of Indians, to give relief to famine stricken areas, to nurse the sick and the dying, to serve the orphans beholding in all one shiver. They asked him what is your politics?And he said my Politics is service of the poor. This politics is open for every one of you, everyone of you can join this politics and build a new India, an India of the strong, an India of the free.

Swami Vivekananda believed that

India’s spirituality alone could save our sinking civilization but not until We of India bow witness in teeth’s of daily living to the great ideals of our great ancestors. I refer to you as fellow youths because I regard myself as youth. Youth is not a matter of age or years, Youth is a state of mind. If your mind continues to be open and receptive to new ideas, If your prepared to work in new experiments in the laboratory of your life. You continue to be young. A person can be young, a person can be young at 90, and another can be old at 19. 65 years ago, The Winds of the Spirit swept over the nations and The Call came forth Let India be Free and India became free. The great task that lies before us is that of building a new Indian Nation and India of the truly

strong, an India of truly free for not yet is India truly free and strong that narrows the spirit of provincialism, of parochialism, of casteism has cut India’s unity into bits. India still walks the way of imitation. All imitation is emasculation, all imitation is weakness.

India lacks the strength to press on a dynamic march of her own genius, her internal destiny and not yet is India a land of the truly free. For in India, millions of our countrymen, they live below the poverty line. They can’t get two full meals a day. Millions of our countrymen do not have a roof under which to hide their heads in the cold of wintery night millions sleep on the roadside, millions of our children do not get primary education; millions of our

Current education has failed because it is education in words. We need new type of education that may teach that life is larger ,that the end of knowledge is not gains in kind but in service and sacrifice

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countrymen do not get the bare necessities of life. India’s not yet become a nation of the truly free and a nation of the truly strong. Who will build this nation? Who if not you who are students today, who are youths today but you must first build yourselves.

Look at the conditions around yourselves. As I survey the situation around me I find that in India today chaotic forces are on the increase. In India today forces of darkness think to choke the voices of light. In India today freedom sleeps while men mingle in selfish strive. In India today, knowledge and power both are running to West. They are becoming instruments of social chaos and destruction. In India today, the moral base of public life has been shattered. Intellectual honesty is a thing of past, discipline is absent and our entire administration is honeycombed with corruption. As I feel the great task lies ahead of us.

The great task is that of building a new Indian nation, an India of the truly strong an India of truly free. Last year, I was in America and there they held a press conference and at the Press Conference, they asked me they said to me you have visited America a number of times, what would be your advice to average American? Tell us in a few words and I told them I will give you an answer in four words.

To the average American I would say: Slow down your Pace. Then they asked me, they said what is the greatest need of your own country, India, today? And with my head hanging low, I said to them according to my mind the greatest need of India today is men and women of character, men and women with pure heart and clean hands. Men and women whom the lust of office will not lead astray and the games of office will not tempt, but who will not scramble office and power and use all their power in spirit of humanity and the service of India’s teaming millions. This is the greatest need of India today.

What is the condition of India today? The condition of India today when I think of it, it makes me so sad. All around me what do I find, I find as I said chaotic forces are growing, It is for you to come out and serve the people of India. Let your politics be the politics of service. This is what is needed in India. What may I tell you, I listen to your answers but may I Tell you my hope, I’m sorry to say this; my hope is not in politics but is in education. Education should be inspired. Men and women of light and men and women of illuminatory vision.

Current education has failed because it is education in words. Brain power has been developed,

science is marching on, technological progress has been made but the problems that are before India today, they will not be solved by the devil of brain alone, illuminated hearts are needed. We need a new type of education which should be directed and inspired by the men and women of light of illumination. Education that may teach the students that life is larger, that the end of knowledge is not gains in gold, silver and bronze, not jobs and careers but service and sacrifice. My friends in this connection may I pass onto you a few practical suggestions?

Practical suggestion 1: Forget all differences of caste, colour, creed and believe that you are above all an

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Indian. I am an Indian. In India you can get all types of people, you can get Punjabi’s, you can get Madrasi’s, you can get Bihari’s, you can get Bengali’s, you can get all sorts of people but you can’t get an Indian. Every one of you should forget everything and say I’m an Indian.

Practical suggestion 2: Be simple and strong. Simplicity is the secret of strength. Be simple, be strong and spend your strength in service of surrounding world.

Practical suggestion 3: Speak the truth. Mahatma Gandhi said People say that God is truth, but I say that truth is God. Gurudev Sadhu Vaswani said truth though shall lead me to scaffold, truth thou she take me through fire. There was a woman who was travelling by bus or matter of small significance, She became angry, She lost her temper when she was getting down, the driver said to her Madam look behind you she immediately turned behind and she snapped what am I leaving behind? And the driver said to her you are leaving a very bad impression. Never be angry. Howsoever strong, be the provocation. You must never be angry. You must be a person of self

control.

Practical suggestion 4: If you would be a builder of new India, Never you must give the same respect to women as you give to men you must give the same respect to a wealthy man you must give the same respect to Bill gates, as you would give your servant.

Practical suggestion 5: If you are a builder, you must believe in reconstruction of village life. India lives in village. You live in cities but you must rebuild the villages.

Practical suggestion 6: You must learn to share good things of life with those in need, you must promise yourself that you will atleast do 1 good turn everyday. Do something which may give happiness to a man, to a woman, to a child, to a bird, to an animal, for they belong to the one family of creation. They are your younger brothers and sisters. If I had a million tons, I will still appeal young friends who are going to be tomorrow’s leaders and who are going to be tomorrow’s to seek not power, but seek service. I will close with a small poem which I wrote sometime ago:

Hindus, Muslims, Christians all Buddhists and Bahai’s, we share each other’s friendship and the love that never dies. One is the faith we live by, one is the song we sing with little deeds of service, and we worship

him as our king. We feed those who are hungry, we work for no reward, we help the poor and needy, for love of him, Our Lord, we are friends of the friendless, servers of those in pain; we are brothers of the wise less that cow, that dog, that hen. We trust in God, His mercy, and then ourselves believe all that we today hope for, we shall one day achieve. Hand in hand we march on still a better end to build and of love and service, with peace and plentiful. Forget all the things that may have been told you but do not forget this one thing. Seek not power, seek service. Swami Vivekananda himself said my politics is politics of service. This is the ideal that is left forth and follow his footsteps. And we should all come out, and we should make mans of service. We should build a new India.

Naveen Hindustaan, Naveen Bhart Banao. Aur sare sansaar par jadoo lagao, jadoo lagao.

Question and Answers:Sanket Oswal, Jaipur, Rajasthan:

Shouldn’t it be mandatory for a politician to hold a degree or diploma before joining politics?

The difficulty with politics is, politics makes parties and parties make conflicts. As a result, the shakti of the nation is lost. India is in such a state that all parties should join and lift India up but they begin to starve,

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they begin to quarrel with the result that all shakti is lost.

Sandeep Ghadge, Alibaug, Maharshtra:

What is the role of Spirituality in nation building and how is the youth to be educated about it?

We don’t need spiritual teaching, we have plenty of spiritual teaching. What we need now is spiritual living. You must show it in life. This is the great tragedy of India; we talk and talk and talk. Let us talk of it less and practice more.

Swapnil ,Satara, Maharashtra:

Is Indian youth today following blind faith, instead of spirituality, What can be done to stop this?

There should be no blind faith, for which you should be trained properly therefore we need a type of education which will give triple training: the training of the hand, the training of mind, the training of the heart, then there will be no blind faith at all. We should train our minds that training of the mind and training of emotions is not there.

This is the difficulty. To give you an example, a person brings to me a bribe he tells, you do my work, I will give you a lakh of rupees. My brain tells me that it is wrong, to accept a bribe. I may even go to jail. But the emotion of greed has and I accept the bribe under the table. Education does nothing to train the emotion. It is all words words words. It is of no use. We must have a new type of education. If u want a new India you must have a new type of education. An education which will train the emotion and emotions are the master and the brain is only servant.

Pooja , Jamnagar , Gujarat:

Why our education system lacks the subject of our culture like India is well known for mythology then why don’t we have a subject for mythology, that teaches us pure and clean values?

The difficulty that we have, that Indian education is from the Britishers. We keep on following the same type of education, Britishers had their type of education because they want clerks but we don’t want only clerks, now we want inspirers.

We want educators. We want people who will draw the best that is in us so that we may build a wonderful India.

As I said India of the truly strong, an India of the truly free. Now all the nations have hopes in India, they find hopes in India. Materialism has not given but India too is in slumber.

Kunal Jagtap ,Pune , Maharashtra:

Is there any relation between religion and science? Because one part of the country is becoming very scientific the urban class whereas the village class it is becoming more and more religious. Is the country being divided into a Bharat and an India?

For you who are students, you should go to the villages and you should pass onto them the knowledge that you have and they will again pass onto you the knowledge that they have. Then India will be united, then India will be one.

- J. P. VaswaniSpiritual Guru &

Head, Sadhu Vaswani Mission

Chhatrarth - February 2014 33

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34 Chhatrarth - February 2014

develoPmental administration - the need of the hour''- Prof. dr. Bharat Bhushan

Human resource development has traditionally been one of

Maharashtra's major strengths.

The importance of evolving sound and responsive administrative systems was realized as far back as 1963 when the Administrative Staff College (ASC) was established in Mumbai. The ASC was relocated at Pune in 1984 and renamed "Maharashtra Institute of Development Administration" (MIDA) to serve as the apex body for promoting and developing modern management practices and was to function as the nodal state level training institute in the fi eld of development administration. Aptly enough, it was rechristened, "Yashwantrao Chavan Academy of Development Administration" (YASHADA) in 1990 and meets the training needs of government

departments and rural and urban non-offi cials and stakeholders.

In an impromptu interview Prof. Dr.Bharat Bhushan, Dean (Aca-demic) & Secretary YASHADA spoke to the students of MIT-Inter-national School of Broadcasting and Journalism, about the impor-tance developmental administration and many more for the proper gov-ernance of a nation. Excerpts:

At Yashwant Rao Chavhan Academy of Devlopment Administration (YASHADA) what is the basic objective behind the training provided to the Administrative offi cers?

YASHADA is an academic staff college of Government of Maharashtra, It trains administrators, elected representative, senior govt. functionaries also trains village level

and city level representatives. We ensure that we bring conversions in training to development administration. It is very diff erent from business administration or public administration. YASHADA conducts 4500 programs in a year interact with more than 2 lakh trainees a year. There are 108 training campuses.

As a citizen do we owe towards our state as well as our nation?

First of all we should be proud to be Indians, apart from negative aspects we should better look for the beauty of India which is most of the time unseen by the observers. As YASHADA tries to train from village level with the effi cient use of technology similarly every citizen should voluntarily try to spread the education with any possible mean. Even if protecting environment you

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Chhatrarth - February 2014 35

serve not only your country you help to maintain balance in the layers of Earth. Plant Grass rather than Tree. Grass are the fastest growing roots which retains water and more efficient than a tree.

How should we maintain balance between coping of Industrialization as well as conserving our environment?

First of all we all should know that development is not against environment, development does not stop wild life conservation. We have 4% of our land mass under protected forest. Protected area consists of wild life sanctuaries and national parks. Most of which areas are at hilly regions and at height of mountains where no one is going to setup any industry. Now we are only left with 0.25% protected area system which is very important to be conserved and only if the proposals for development comes for that particular region the ministry denies for the approval which is very necessary.

What is the solution for garbage decomposition near water reserves?

Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation has very advanced form of water treatment plants which can convert s e w a g e w a t e r i n t o

drinking water barely in an hour they transplant sewage water better than mineral water. We need to learn many more technologies of purification of water. But our major problem is we do not take this as a serious issue, we pass this problem to somebody else. Every single society or locality should be responsible for their treatment of water , the water comes out of our locality should be treated by us only and should be make sure that the water is clean. We are trying to improve from our side that we should advance in our technology as soon as possible. There are many such technologies in foreign countries that we are trying to bring here for better treatment of water in coming years.

How forest can be conserved?

Forest can’t be protected by the guards or the rangers, if we are concerned about the tigers as a nation we should be more concerned about the Tiger habitats, and how

should we do that? We need to ensure that a large mammal does not fall under minimum viable population. Which means exchange of genetical materials should be intact. We need rotation of tiger from one place to another within particular time period, we also need to protect the surroundings around that corridor and keep it safe for the animals by providing additional biodiversity values.

What careers do we have in Wild life Journalism?

As a wild life Journalist first you should be aware of all the subjects related to the wild life and about the wild life diversity. You need to have detailed study about the geography of wild life spread in our country from Western Ghats to Eastern Ghats, until and unless you won’t be able to do justice with the subject. To see your career in wild life you first need to consider wild life along with the normal life in our country.

Do you have to face any restrictions from government while working on any projects?

While I was chairman of Mumbai Pune express way project, the project was looking very dirty although any project when it is done, seems to be that it is destroying the environment but we also take care of every single measures to be taken to save the environment, we are very cautious in saving the environment.

How we can spread awareness to the people to save our wild life?

It is very hard to spread awareness all around the nation to save the environment or the wild life, so do we have any such idea where economics can play a vital role in conserving the wild life, than people may take interest in saving our wild life. Only lectures and advertisements on wild life conservation won’t help us in saving the environment.

- Ayush DeshpandeIndore

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36 Chhatrarth - February 2014

voiCe of youth in Bharatiya Chhatra sansad 2014

“ in Bharatiya Chhatra sansad, We aCtually think We are the PolitiCians, eaCh and every BaCkground here is Portraying the same, this means We are here as unity, We are here as one. one nation!!”

“i ask you from this dais ,not to foCus solely on questions of groWth for some …But uPlifting the Bottom for many… BeCause that’s truly Where india’s future lies!”

“ let Consumerism emPoWer india and not Consume it… its our resPonsiBility to look into the faCt, in this Way!”

Piyush, MaharashtraMaduram Aparjita, Jharkhand

Priyanshu Shukla, Madhya Pradesh Swati Iyer, Tamil Nadu Priyanka Gadhave, MaharashtraRuchi Gidwani, Chhattisgarh

Malav Patel, Gujrat

Ashutosh Kulkarni, MaharashtraMr.Promit Sengupta, Maharastra

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“ former President of united states of ameriCa franklin d roosevelt said that ….’We may not Build the future for our youth But We Can definitely Build our youth for the future’… and that’s What the youth emPoWerment is all aBout. and suCh emPoWerment Can Be aChieved only through innovative eduCation”

“the human CaPital is therefore an imPortant determinant of long time groWth on the Basis of WhiCh young indian nation Can invest in the training of the youth!”

“Being a leader simPly doesn’t mean to lead the nation. it also means leading neW PeoPle in neW Way of thinking!”

Chhatrarth - February 2014 37

Alpana Sharma, Gujarat Shaikh Tariq Aziz maharashtra

Lauren Rishardson, Florida

Rohan Mirpury, Maharashatra Hussain Ali Karimi, Afghanistan Shital Birajdar Andrew Scheartz, Florida

Khyati Shrivastava, Uttar Pradesh Mr.Divyesh Arora, Uttar Pradesh Abhishek Singh, Bihar

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38 Chhatrarth - February 2014

teCh savvy indiagoogle develoPs ContaCt lens gluCose monitor

Brian Otis, Google X project lead, holds a contact lens Google is

testing to explore tear glucose in Mountain View, California.

Google unveiled on Thursday a contact lens that monitors glucose levels in tears, a potential reprieve for millions of diabetics who have to jab their fingers to draw their own blood as many as 10 times a day.The prototype, which Google says will take at least five years to reach consumers, is one of several medical devices being designed by companies to make glucose monitoring for diabetic patients more convenient and less invasive than the traditional finger pricks. The lenses use a minuscule glucose sensor and a wireless transmitter to help those among the world’s 382 million diabetics who need insulin keep a close watch on their blood sugar and adjust their dose.

The contact lenses were developed during the past 18 months in the clandestine Google X lab that also came up with a driverless car, Google’s Web-surfing eyeglasses

and Project Loon, a network of large balloons designed to beam the Internet to unwired places.

The device looked like a typical contact lens when Otis held one on his index finger. On closer examination, sandwiched in the lens are two twinkling glitter-specks loaded with tens of thousands of miniaturized transistors. It’s ringed with a hair-thin antenna.“It doesn’t look like much, but it was a crazy amount of work to get everything so very small,” Otis said at Google’s Silicon Valley headquarters. It took years of soldering hair—thin wires to miniaturize electronics, essentially building tiny chips from scratch, to make what Otis said is the smallest wireless glucose sensor ever made. Other non-needle glucose monitoring systems are also in the works, including a similar contact lens by Netherlands-based NovioSense, a minuscule, flexible spring that is tucked under an eyelid. Israel—based OrSense has already tested a thumb cuff, and there have been early designs for tattoos and saliva sensors.

A wristwatch monitor was approved by the FDA in 2001, but patients said the low level electric currents pulling fluid from their skin was painful, and it was buggy.“There are a lot of people who have big promises,” said Dr. Christopher Wilson, CEO of NovioSense. “It’s just a question of who gets to market with something that really works first.”

Google is getting into the medical field, and that he’d like to be able to offer his patients a pain-free alternative from either pricking their fingers or living with a thick needle embedded in their stomach for constant monitoring.“Google, they’re innovative, they are up on new technologies, and also we have to be honest here, the driving force is money,” he said. Worldwide, the glucose monitoring devices market is expected to be more than $16 billion by the end of this year, according to analysts at Renub Research. The Google team built the wireless chips in clean rooms, and used advanced engineering to get integrated circuits and a glucose sensor into such a small space. Researchers also had to build in a system to pull energy from incoming radio frequency waves to power the device enough to collect and transmit one glucose reading per second. The embedded electronics in the lens don’t obscure vision because they lie outside the eye’s pupil and iris.

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Chhatrarth - February 2014 39

In the age of hi-tech gadgets - technology and agriculture, once

considered as different realms of experience, are partners in progress. Technology has been used by developed countries and some developing nations to generate more revenue especially in the agriculture sector by allowing local farmers to access markets and information through phone and internet.

India, which ranks second in the farm output worldwide, is looking to improve its agriculture sector by introducing a service called 'mKisan' which aim to provide small holder farmers with high quality, relevant and timely information and advice via mobile.

Mobile Value Added Service (mVAS) provider Handygo Technologies has been awarded a project from the GSMA Mobile for Development Foundation to support the design and launch of an agricultural mVAS to benefit approximately 1 million

small farmers in India over the next two years.

'm Kisan', which is a unique mobile-based extension service, will include comprehensive information and advice on a wide range of relevant topics including crops and livestock. The service also includes agricultural bulletins comprising agro-met advisory, information on market prices, pest and disease alerts and a dedicated farmer helpline. In addition to this, the project also aims to test video-based advisory and

knowledge sharing tools for farmers.

The company has framed a consortium with CABI, International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) and Digital Green for this project. CABI will support on actionable agriculture content and subject matter specialists. ILRI will support livestock content and Digital Green will take care of video content on agriculture and livestock. Handygo will promote 'mKisan' in six major states of the country in their regional languages.

Concerned over the rising attack on fishermen by the Sri Lankan

Navy for crossing the International Maritime Boundary Line (IMBL), the M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation (MSSRF) Centre has developed a mobile application that would alert the fishermen about a few km from the actual point.

This application has been developed to safeguard the fishermen from Nagapattinam to Tuticorin when they proceed in boats for fishing as IMBL is located closer to their coastline as compared to other districts of Tamil Nadu. There about seven lakh fishermen in the State, of which nearly three lakh are in these districts, said S. Velvizhi, MSSRF principal scientist.

The application developed for Android based mobile phones,

forms part of Fisher Friend Mobile Application (FFMA) phase-II programme. Five mobile phones incorporating features such as providing cyclone and disaster alerts, real time data on fish colony and danger zones and helpline numbers, was distributed to five fishermen from Kasimedu.

FFMA-II is jointly developed by MSSRF that provided design and data, Qualcomm (financial support and technical advice) and Tata Consultancy Services (application developer). FFMA-III will be uploaded on Google so as to extend its reach.

aPPs to alert fishermen aBout maritime Border

handygo teCh's serviCe to helP 1 million indian farmers

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40 Chhatrarth - February 2014

Democracy.. Leadership.. Governance..

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Please send snaps captured in your camera on subjects like Environment, Democracy And Social Issues to [email protected]

Mother Nature ! Mother Earth ! Needs to be cared, to care the fl ow of the beauty !!

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42 Chhatrarth - February 2014

Too Many Options

Too many options is never a great option. What portrays this better than the current trinity of leadership poised for action in the coming months? While on one hand the voters are spoiled for choices, with the ‘Aam admi’ joining the race of the dark horses, UPA & NDA, on the other hand the various choices coupled with high pitched promises does no better than confuse the ‘aam’ voter.

Not that I am opining against the very principal of democracy which stands for multi party election, but the prospect parties need to be substantial enough to last in the post election scenario too. Adding to this multiplicity is the propagation of the parties against each other. The world of web being the recent favourite medium. I set no unrealistic expectations from power trading political parties of being morally responsible towards the dilemma of voters. Maximum for the ease of an ordinary voter like me, can they (the tiger, the bird, the newbie) stop criticising others and concentrate more on their own score card? A concerned voter.

Sutrishna Ghosh, Kolkata.

Decision Taking Leadership

Leadership is mainly about two things: eff ective communication and quick decision making. Our new breeds of Leaders are taking this to the next level and what this is doing it is forcing

others to compete on this. Take Modi for example. His plan is to connect with 20 crore people before the election (not heard of before) quick decision making on having the Tata Motors plant in Gujarat. Kejriwal has taken this to the next level even though in a small part of India but a very important state “Delhi”. He has manifestos for each ward (could anyone image the CM connecting to their constituencies like this before?). Decision in 48 hours of forming the government which will impact people positively to name a few. This is forcing all other political parties to focus on more transparency and take decisions fast. I will not elaborate on various examples on these but Leadership has changed forever now and if any political part goes back on these they will be in the sunset.

Overall this is great for India. It is creating a conducive culture which every Indian wanted but was not willing to take the initiative. While skeptics will continue to point out reasons to what extent it is helping or why it is not helping in many situations. You cannot keep skeptics from looking at the glass half empty! We now need to start looking at the glass half full and how it is inching towards getting fuller. My kudos to all who have brought about the change including the public. This is truly a start of a new India which we should all support and break the barrier of political affi nities. This is what the India of tomorrow wants and with the new found energy, will and enthusiasm we have only one way to go and that is forward.

Harshita Singh, Varanasi.

Change Our Political System

As a youth, but more than that, as a citizen of India, I believe the People's Democracy only exists in India in the framework but is empty inside. Democracy in India has failed to provide stability and overall growth for its citizens. Being a citizen of India I think that there is a big loophole in our system and the fact that we are not yet fully aware about our rights and duties, let alone implementing them properly. India is known as the biggest democratic

country but as Indians we misuse our power in each and every step that we take.

Due to the corruption in our government there is a lot of agitation amongst the youngsters which only makes the condition of our country worse. Today’s youth think of the politics as a medium for getting rich and famous and not as a source of bringing change in the society! Polarisation of votes can also be claimed to be a reason in the decreasing interest amongst people towards the whole political scenario.

India has a deeply-rooted social discrimination against women and the frequent rape cases are the example of age old mind-set of the male dominant society. India's democracy not only enables those deeply-rooted bad habits to survive, but even further fosters them. Right from the time the constitution was made up till the governance of 21st century "India needs to objectively estimate its democracy.

According to me, the political leaders should be educated and have clean pasts that they can be a positive role model for our society!

There is a need of big changes in our political system and we also have to educate people towards the politics so that they don’t misuse the freedom.

Only then we will be able to see the face of real democratic country.

Surbhi Shirpurkar, Nagpur.

Too Many Options

letters to the editor

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in the neXt issue

Chhatrarth - February 2014 43

Women emPoWerment

on the oCCasion of World Women’s day

• Women in leadershiP

• Women in governanCe

• Women in teChnology

• Women in PuBliC life

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44 Chhatrarth - February 2014

Democracy.. Leadership.. Governance..

44 Chhatrarth - February 2014

India is the largest democracy in world but it is an unfortunate fact that the people, specially youth are highly unaware about politics. Our governance is such that it allows every adult individual to participate in making and breaking the government. But in spite of that we have been blaming the government since many years for underdevelopment, for various social issues, for lack of growth, for instability in society, for being corrupt and basically for biggest failure of governance. But I believe its not the failure of government that our country lacks advancement in many sectors, it’s the failure of common people as in spite of having liberty to vote we still don’t have a spotless government.

Why is it that our country’s democracy is just for the namesake, why are we still fighting issues which have prevailed in our society since i n d e p e n d e n c e , why is it that our country is listed amongst most corrupt countries in the world, why is our economy still backward, why has the capital of the nation also become the rape capital. We will only get answers to these questions only when we the people of the country will take the initiative to choose the kind of government that

our country deserves.We should take efforts not only to be politically aware but we should also have a sense of analyzing and authority of deciding.

After Independence we have lead our country on the path of progress and reconstructed the damage done by British but our present condition of the country shows that the graph of development and progress is going down and the graph of corruption and social evils is rising at higher rate.

Political instability is one of the major things which is responsible for this and such a instability in a highly populated country like India can

prove to be hazardous. It holds back the government from functioning in the favor of the country’s benefit and this is what we can see is happening. Even if issues are highlighted; it takes ages to implement the solution.

Our system has become so rigid that there is no place for change. People who raise their voices are suppressed, protests have no response, and candle marches seem like just dramatic showcase. Any problem or social issue is never addressed keeping the country’s benefit in mind; it’s only for the benefit of the party’s vote bank. This vote bank politics has ruined our motherland to highest extend

possible and we still sit by and watch all this happen. This is because we take our comforts and luxury so much for granted that we have become blind towards the people who are suffering the most. We are so reluctant about knowing our system that we even fail to make use of the benefits our government provides us.

I feel proud to claim that, we have taken this effort of creating more social and political awareness through Chhatrarth. It also provides a platform for youth and women to make their voices heard. And we believe that this effort will help India in becoming a developed and a peaceful nation from a developing country.

-Surbhi ModiKolhapur

last issue – my take

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