Mumbai Blasts Verdict - Hanging Of Yakub Memon

                   
                       Lengthy debates were organized by media to discuss Yakub Memon hanging attended by politicians and social activists with different ideologies creating a circus environment. Questioning the verdict of Apex court seems to be fashionable nowadays, defendants of Yakub in complicity with media created an environment favorable to Yakub in blatant contempt of Apex court ruling. All legal remedies to stop the execution were employed but in vain and eventually Yakub Abdul Razak Memon was sent to gallows. It is ironical how a  co-conspirator of 1993 Mumbai blasts that claimed 257 lives and devastated scores of families was defended on humanitarian grounds by certain activists.

                      Politicians as habitual played there part in unnecessarily meddling and extending there arguments that suited there ideology. Intriguing is the case of group of celebrities suggesting mercy for Yakub Memon. Though it seemed silly now, but lot of hysteria was created with continuous media discussion and seemed at one stage Yakub almost succeeded, but then almost is a word that carry no rewards. Mass hysteria only created confusing and acrimonious environment among society. Religious connotations to Yakub hanging was out in open and ruling of supreme court was openly challenged.

                     There's an old legal aphorism that goes, "If you have the facts on your side, pound the facts. If you have the law on your side, pound the law. If you have neither on your side, pound the table." It is noteworthy not a single person can vouch for Yakub's innocence and Supreme court in its wisdom considered his crimes grievous enough to fall under the category of rarest of rare thus granted death sentence, yet mischief mongers tried to twist the proceedings as farce and devoid of merit. Truth is after exhausting all legal channels including rejection of mercy petitions before President he was hanged. Innuendoes about religion is unfortunate and avoidable, the vicious campaign to smudge authorities is not only derogatory but dangerous. A precarious precedent has been set where a convicted terrorist is openly defended on religious ground.

                     The 1993 Mumbai blasts shouldn't be attributed to action-reaction of Mumbai riots or other unfortunate incidents of past otherwise someone will always find defense in Godhra train burning for Gujarat riots or P.M assassination on 1984 anti Sikh riots. An act of terrorism can't be overlooked and perpetrators can't enjoy extra judiciary benefits on religious bases or citing historical debacles. The rights of terrorists can't supersede that of innocent victims and law should take its own course and deal firmly without getting influenced by social ,religious or human activism. It is however noteworthy and unfortunate to know when convicted criminals in other cases like killers of Rajiv Gandhi and Beant Singh were showed clemency on questionable pretexts. State and system reluctance to execute such criminals is not only questionable but sows the seeds of injustice and sense of alienation among bereaved community.We must introspect and acknowledge the flaws in the system otherwise we will falter repeatedly and will be impervious to improvement.

                    India being a multicultural,multy-religious society that peacefully coexisted for centuries will have some differences over ideologies, the strength of the society will be tested and vulnerability of fault lines will be exploited by adversaries. The strength of society lies in oneness and not tether apart on religious bases. By questioning the verdict of Apex court we are trivializing the deaths of 257 people who were not only innocents but belong to all religious groups.Thus in this politically and religiously charged environment it is necessary to practice equanimity and divisive forces needs to be tamed and ignored.Peoples faith in judiciary and law enforcement has been restored by punishing the guilty. Although majority of Indians favor death penalty yet if capital punishment has to be abolished then a general consensus needs to be created. In the end i believe it is necessary to have fear of law (death penalty) among perpetrators of heinous crimes but justice should be commuted quickly and  shouldn't linger on for decades.

Nepalese March Towards Democracy

               
                 A noble and virtuous process of drafting constitution is underway in Nepal for the second time after collapse of first Constituent Assembly in 2012. The treacherous path towards full fledged democracy is sewed with insurmountable problems broadly categorized in three segments i.e secularism, electoral process and definition of federalism. The fate of second CA (as was with first CA) hinges on resolution of these contentious issues.

                 Nepal's long march from monarchy to democracy is long. Since the pre-historic period, Nepal has always been known as a Hindu state with 80.6% of its population is Hindu according to 2001 census ,10.3 Buddhists and rest from other religions. The religious identity of Nepal as a Hindu state is being contested by emerging trends for secularism under democratic disposition in the post-1990 period. Vociferous campaigning for secular Nepal is emerging trend among religious minorities,activists  and political parties .The post-1990 politics led to the emergence of communists who are ideologically secular, Nepali Congress – the oldest and influential centrist party shifted its stand from neutral position to secular state. The most peculiar trend is the involvement of certain missionary christian organizations to encourage(provoke) religious activism to declare Nepal not only secular state but decriminalizing conversion to christianity.

               The ulterior objective of declaring Nepal secular can be understood when British Ambassador to Nepal Andy Sparkes wrote an open letter to C A members suggesting "to ensure right to change religion is protected".The irresponsible advice which is directly interference and meddling in internal affairs of Nepal is a blatant violation of diplomatic norms. Encouraging Nepal to adopt secularism isn't confined to isolated incident of UK Ambassador but concerted efforts from different groups is underway.What's intriguing is the difference between preaching and practicing,  Britain is a declared Christian ‘Church of England’, not a Secular state .

              During the unfortunate Nepal earthquake the death and destruction gave orgasmic triumphs for such missionary bigots. There bigotry knows no boundaries as evidently clear in tweets below.

                The hate filled tweets by evangelists even put ordinary christian community to shame. Distress people are in need of food, shelter and medicine while they're out there preaching the Gospel and distributing Bibles and Children's Bible storybooks. The unfortunate truth is the changing demography of Nepal mocking and portrayal of other faiths (Hindu,Buddhists etc.) as regressive and pagan by evangelists . Below are the incredible images of commendable voluntary sikh organizations who participated wholeheartedly in relief work during Nepal earthquake

                  Nepalese people are known for there valor and integrity and ferociously guard there sovereignty. The drafting of Constitution is best left to the able hands of elected representatives of Constituent Assembly members and citizens without external influence and preachings.

Iran Nuclear Deal - A Threat To World Peace

              Albert Einstein — 'I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones.' 

                  If The Treaty of Versailles sowed seeds of second world war the nuclear deal between Iran and west will be remembered for fourth. For long America and her friends are pursuing a dangerous and erratic foreign policy with questionable motives. Not long ago, Iran was deemed "Satan", harbinger of evil axis, genesis of all the trouble in middle east and in big U turn Americans are in haste to mend and rebuild ties now with Iran much to the chagrin of its trusted allies Israel & Sunni power house Saudi Arab. Foreign policy of Obama is an enigma riddled with inconsistencies if ever there is one. Obama in his first term snubbed India to appease and cozy up with China but after getting a cold shoulder response by Chinese he changed tract midway.

                 The terms of 159 page nuclear deal hailed by some commentators as path breaking, a diplomatic triumph is in my opinion is nothing short of debacle. In the end Iran will get $150 Billion and 10 years moratorium on enrichment of nuclear material one Atom bomb if Iran wants to pursue and have one. The Munich pact of 1938 hailed by British PM Neville Chamberlain as securing "peace for our time" only served Nazi cause by reinforcing there belief of highhanded tactics paying rich dividends. Iran nuclear deal has the danger of being judged the same by future historians. By kicking the can down the road,West has only delayed a decision in hope that the problem or issue will go away or somebody else will make the decision later, unfortunately its going to hound as Iran nuclear deal only reinforces belief of aspiring nuclear powers to get away with there demands sooner or later.

                There are many countries with ambitions of peaceful nuclear energy use supported by world powers but what makes Iran nuclear ambition dangerous is its clandestine nature,support to terrorist organizations like Hezbollah in Lebanon and threat of Iran to wipe out Israel from world map. These deadly connotations can't be brushed aside, in this particular case the ink hasn't dried yet and prominent voices of trampling America is reverberating from Iran. These ludicrous voices can't be ignored when world is sitting on tenterhooks and one shrill voice or action has the potential to kick start chain of events that will suck in not only entire middle east but inadvertently and reluctantly whole world.

                The paradigm shift in American foreign policy towards Iran isn't easy to decipher as yet but emergence of deadly organizations like ISIS(Daesh) ,unstoppable flow of sunni volunteers from across the globe and inability of America to weed out and confront such elements might have prompted America to forge deal with Iran. American and Iranian interest coincided in Iraq and Syria where both of them were reluctant partners fighting against ISIS onslaught. The unsuccessful attempt by vested interests(American & Saudi) to topple government of Bashar al-Assad was not the single instance when Iranian and American interests collided, but Hezbollah and Israeli war of 2006 at Lebanon and frequent skirmishes between the two warring parties often put Americans and Iranians at loggerheads.

              

               The resilience of Iranian economy against sanctions and support of Russia and China in UNSC has blunted American attempts to throttle Iran and bring it to negotiating table. Moreover sanctions and embargo didn't succeed with minuscule economies of North Korea,Cuba and deter them from capitulating or going nuclear so expecting Iran to succumb to sanctions was always foolhardy as Iranian economy is the 17th largest in the world.Though 60%or Iranian economy is dependent on sale of gas & oil and plummeting crude prices, sanctions dented it severely but it wasn't crumbling. Interestingly it was America that supported and started nuclear Iranian nuclear program in 1950s. 

              This nuclear deal between 5 UNSC council members and Germany (P5+1) with Iran at best will only slow down its march towards Atomic Bomb. The provision of inspection isn't full proof as Iran has conceded to the demand of ope-ended inspections.In the end this deal which seems to be a ploy of west to turn foe to friend will help Iran emerge as a formidable power with robust economy and nuclear weapons.The troublesome part of deal is if Iran decides to abandon deal with threat of sanctions gone only option of all out war will remain.

               It would be naive to assume Iran didn't have covert nuclear installations and according to reports from IAEA Iran needs approximately a year to make one atomic bomb,but with covert operational installations this time can be vastly reduced. This deal will induce other Gulf countries to embark on vehemently seeking nuclear quest. The sectarian fault lines and conflicts among Shia block(Iran ,Syria,Iraq, Yemen) and Sunni block(Saudi Arab,Egypt etc) is brewing rapidly and in this explosive environment of distrust and mutual conflict it would only be a matter of time when whole middle east will be consigned to flames sucking other countries as well.

               

Vyapam Scam

                   Job scams across India has captured peoples attention at regular intervals but nothing has catapulted itself to Vyapam scam of MadhyPradesh . The one before Vyapam hogging the limelight was the notorious Junior Basic Training (JBT) teachers recruitment scam, where 3206 teachers were illegally recruited in Haryana in 2000. The investigation in JBT led to the arrest of former CM (Om Prakash Chautala) and host of high ranking officials. The gravity of Vyapam that jolted national conscience was after deaths of 41  people so far, allegedly associated with scam. This scam where about 2,000 people are arrested so far, prominent being the BJP ex-Education minister Laxmikant Sharma while scores of others are still on run is finally handed over to CBI .
                  Before discussing the anatomy of Vyapam scam,its necessary to find out the real causes for such job scams to occur at regular intervals. There are many reasons for unending loop of job scams in India but basic and foremost being the large workforce with almost identical skills competing for fewer jobs(demand supply mismatch) .The job safety of government job makes it alluring for people to follow unfair practices, there had been instances of under privileged families bribing touts and middleman by taking loans or mortgaging there property. It's not just government jobs for which people pay through there noses,even getting a descent  private sector job is becoming an uphill task nowadays. About 12 million people join the workforce every year in India vying for stagnant jobs .With fewer jobs and incompetent corrupt institution,getting a lucrative job entice people to harp on to immoral,unscrupulous means. The biggest fallout of such scams is the replacement of meritorious candidates by dubious candidates.
                   Truth is jobs are perilously low and inadvertently a web of government officials, racket leaders, middlemen, candidates and their parents in collusion are responsible for such scams occurring at frequent intervals. Education plays a vital role in the development of any country,the quality of education whether at primary or higher education is significantly poor thus compounding the problem. Deplorable condition of education sector demands reforms in education system , bookish knowledge along with vocational training in consultation with private sector should be imparted to increase chances of employability. In India, only 7 per cent students are getting vocational education which is the crux of problem. It's very important to have education with the economic arrangements for reaping maximum benefits.
                   Our obsolete education system creates unemployable workforce without skills.The trend of government and private sector decreasing investment in education sector needs reversal. Universities should be encouraged to not only to impart vocational training along with bookish knowledge but seek collaboration with Foreign Universities to embrace newer skills. To start with, not much research work is carried out in our universities, we are emphasizing more on consuming knowledge rather developing innovation skills to succeed. Colleges and universities should motivate students to excel through innovative skills. The sorry state of universities becomes startling clear when not even one single university included to the ranks of the top 100 universities in the Times Higher Education World Reputation Rankings. Investment in research and development is meager 0.9% since 2005 in India despite governments assurances of increased allocation.
                  As long as country has stagnant growth, majority of our population below 35 years of age and increasing number joining the workforce strain on jobs will continue. India can't afford to be a laggard, transition from knowledge to innovative skills based economy is need of hour. We have to be agile and adaptable to the needs of changing world requirements to be at forefront with requisite skills to reap maximum benefits. Lastly transformation isn't possible without out of box thinking, innovation, entrepreneurship should be motivated through public,private investments
                This scourge of Vyapam scam though is related to only MP in reality isn't actually confined to only one state, it is present in different states with variable names.The perpetrators of Vyapam scam should be prosecuted and better vigilance and transparency is required for stopping any more scams to occur .Job scams were and will continue unabated as long as effective stern measures aren't initiated with sole purpose of transforming education system.More funding towards research and innovation should be provided with minimum bureaucratic interference. The contour of robust economy is the growth and in changing scenario innovation, skill development is the buzz word for providing jobs thus eradicating poverty and inequality.There are many stake holders in it but government and private players have prominent role to play in transformation.