BRICS 2014 meeting

After becoming PM Modi had first international meeting with major countries. He went to the south American country Brazil for the meeting. He had stopover in Germany but could not meet German head due to FIFA world cup. So the meeting started. BRICS started in early 2000 with BRIC countries and then it became BRICS with the introduction of South Africa in 2011. The BRICS counties combined together forms close to 50% of world population and are among the fastest world countries. Even though the growth of Brazil has slowed down along with other countries from the peak few years back, but still these countries are fast growing economies contributing significantly to the world economies.

The agenda of the meeting were collaboration in multiple fields. First among many was the BRICS Bank, a replica of World Bank, for developmental needs in these countries. Important purpose of the BRICS bank is stabilization of currency. China contributes 70% GDP in the BRICS GDP and hence it has the majority share in the BRICS bank. The headquarter will be located in Shanghai. First head of the Bank will be from India. Even though from the surface it seems that India got pretty good outcome from the diplomacy but the biggest threat to BRICS are its member countries itself especially China. China with its contribution of more than 60% will have maximum decision making and hence very little gain will come to India with its minuscule contribution. 

 Another big issue for India in the BRICS summit is issue of terrorism. India with its ‘rhetoric strong’ PM, has very little power in the international diplomacy. Modi with his ‘strong statement’ condemned terrorism and reiterated India stand “zero tolerance to terrorism”. In the meanwhile within 24 hours, ceasefire violation took place taking life of Indian soldier by Pakistan. Also, China incursion took place on the disputed border. So, Modi with his rhetoric has no words as if he lost his guts/balls and become impotent for all purpose after becoming PM.

Learning is important from the above  agenda pursued by India, which is unable to stand against the test of time. First and foremost India need to be strong internally economically and militarily, then only it can show its strength globally. Also, it has been proved for a long time that unless the country become competitive domestically its not a good idea to engage with other countries economically to gain from knowledge and capital import.  

A meeting of fundamentalist: Vaidik-Saeed meeting

Ved Prakash Vaidik meeting with Saeed Hafeez has raised storm in the national affairs. So who are are these highly popular people. Ved Prakash Vaidik belongs to Madhya Pradesh and held many positions in the media space including Press Trust of India, Nav Bharat TImes and also he is founder of “Bhasha”. Vaidik is a close aide of Ramdev, a very corrupt Yoga businessman (Ramdev is caught on camera with BJP leader for money laundering). Ramdev a clear supporter of BJP, and both himself and Vaidik has indirect link to BJP. Saeed Hafeez is leader of Jama’Ud’Dawa, a internationally banned organization. His name appears in multiple anti national activities against India. And he is also one of the suspect in 2008 Mumbai attack.

So what was Vaidik idea of meeting the most defamed person. Vaidik met so many people in Pakistan including its PM. BJP has come to power with its rhetoric against Pakistan and against Muslims. So, what was the agenda of Vaidik meeting Pakistan leaders when he along with his all his supporters are anti Pakistan and Muslim. He met a declared terrorist for a photo? He has no transcript of the interview, even if he met in the capacity of journalist.   

The more important question is: Are both Vaidik and Saeed involved in anti India activities.  Why Indian agencies not interrogating Vaidik for his alleged link with Saeed. Why the so called strong PM and its party BJP has become so weak in 2 months that they have to defend Vaidik. Also, what Indian government, after becoming so strong with new Government, is doing against Saeed to bring him to books for his involvement in 2008 attack. Is BJP playing with diplomacy with the terrorist too and sending them gift with their representatives.  

More questions on this issues are: Why Ramdev is defending Vaidik, are both the people hand in glove in anti India activities. Vaidik claims that he spoke in support of PM Modi. If he went in the capacity of journalist, in what capacity he represented his views for Indian PM, 

It is a clear case of wrong doing by the saffrons by playing with anti national elements. The government should come up with the action plan to arrest all anti national people specially Saeed Hafeez and not send envoys for chatting.

 

Amit Shah phenomenon

Recently, I have been trying to write my views on various topics but the Indian social and political system is fast changing and there are many issues coming up each day. But alas! my personal view is that Indian people are by culture not opened to meaningful discussion with rational reasoning and the atmosphere in the society that was created with very hard efforts of our forefathers during the independence struggle and post independent India is fast depleting. Hardly anyone, who created with so much noise before the election, are coming up with the same rational making for criticism to the new government. And of-course the BJP government is doing their best to silent the critics in every possible way.

So coming to the point of issue presented in the headline, the rise of Amit Shah. He is one among six siblings coming from a small town in Gujrat. He has been active in the state for last 2 decades and one of the major force behind Modi in Gujrat state affairs and recently concluded Lok Sabha election. He started his political career with RSS (RSS is pseudo political organization working with BJP) membership. With his shrewd tactics he tookover a local cooperative bank. Later on he became treasurer of BJP local unit and then state unit member. He also became chief of cricket association of Gujrat (a money minting system like other cricket associations). He was introduced to politics by Modi and his rise in the politics completely coincided with the rise of Modi. Due credit must be given to his shrewdness for his rise in politics, as politics without shrewdness is very difficult. But a due understanding to the kind of politics followed by Amit Shah must be criticized and even punished. He used all illegal means to make system work in his favor. He has multiple cases of money extortion, fake encounter, snooping and riot instigation. I agree that cases itself is no proof of crime, but for that blame should be given completely to Indian Judiciary. He was arrested by CBI while he was home minister of a state, and that happened first time in the independent India. The judges were transferred, witnesses went hostile and bail was granted for murderer, SC ordering CBI to conduct the inquiry under its supervision, he was barred from the UP state by Election commission. But I must congratulate the Indian public that he is now president of leading political party in India, Indian people deserves it. A murder convict leading the BJP, which has also seen mass rioter like Advani.

In my firm believe, it is not the lowest point in the Indian political history, India has seen emergency too. But I think the lowest point of post Independent India is the rise of Advani as hero in Ayodhya movement and of-course the mass leaders of goons Bal Thakre receivng the state honor. The new low is also the making of Modi, completely incompetent, if not culprit, in handling the 2002 riots. Also, his incompetency is visible in the  human development index of Gujarat. 

During this whole event of dumping the dreams of modern secular democratic India, the due respect should be given to Judiciary doing nothing in case of communal hatred cases against all political leaders. Further regards should be given to Election Commission, doing nothing for all hate speeches and using communal cards during election, EC is only a warning alarm with no action oriented job. And most importantly regards should be given to Congress party to let the system corrupt so much that there is hardly any difference between so called pseudo secular and communal party.

Last but not the least, the huge appreciation to the India public, following the logic of hypocrisy embedded in the religion of Hindu (as I believe there is no role of non-Hindu in the Lok Sabha results).

Pune University renaming

University of Pune (UOP) is one of premier institutions of India. It was established by the government act in 1948. The campus of the UOP is spread over 411 acres which was allocated by the Chief Minister, then. The campus is located in a historic location where Battle of Khadki during third Anglo-Maratha war took place. The main building was constructed in 1864 and it was called Governor’s House earlier. Initially the University had Jurisdiction over 12 districts in Maharashtra but later after establishment of Shivaji University, the jurisdiction was limited to  5 districts.

Presently the University has 41 graduate departments, 433 affiliated colleges, 233 research oriented organizations and over 5 lacs enrolled students in its various courses. The University has produced notable alumni with multiple Chief minister of Maharashtra and also one Prime minster of India. Also, many scholars have passed out from this University.

The University has been named recently Savitribai Phule University and the cabinet has decided to bring an ordinance to implement the same. As the election is due in next few month passing through the complete legislature could take more time. This is a long unfulfilled demand by section of people to provide a place to India’s first female teacher who taught in multiple schools for girls. Savitriji belonged to lower caste and  was not given proper place in the History of India. Even after feminist rising in India only recently very few people, especially among the upper caste, are willing to acknowledge the contribution of Savitribai Phule. She took the revolutionary step of becoming the first female teacher and worked towards the education of girls. Girls are historically discriminated and especially in the Hindu society girls are considered a burden to the parents. Girls are never allowed to study and as per Hindu scriptures girls are not provided proper respect as an independent person. Under such circumstances Savitribai Phule took the bold step to educate herself and further work towards the upliftment of girls n India.

Maharashtra has been in the fore front of the Dalit and anti-Brahmin revolution during last two centuries producing great leaders like Jyotirao Phule and BR Ambedkar. The state also produced another leader Savitribai Phule which is now acknowledged by people. Maharastra has been the most forward looking modern state and this step to rename the University of Pune to Savitribai Phule is another great decision to acknowledge not just the great daughter of Maharashtra but the Great Daughter of India.

RTE Act

The recent decision of Supreme Court for constitutional validity of Right to Education (RTE) once again has brought the RTE act in the news. RTE act was passed in 2010 by UPA bur even after 2 years there is no update on its implementation. Only thing that comes in the newspaper, that too once in a while, is that RTE has been a complete failure and there does not seems to be any useful thing coming out of RTE.

It seems like RTE will have similar results as that of prohibition of child labor law where you can find every day that it remains to be implemented in every part of India and violation of law remains the practice. The question regarding the RTE providing every child a right to primary education. The problem with this law are many. First of all it makes it mandatory for every school (except few) to give 25% EWS quota, and then we must question what is this EWS quota. EWS is nothing but who so ever can get a salary certificate of less than some specified income level. We have already seen getting income certificate is not a very difficult specially for people working in unorganized sector and business owners. That is the reason why a lot of beneficiaries of income based schemes are used by business people who does not declare any income and keep enjoying luxurious life. So, what is the meaning of EWS quota. More importantly, the law removes SC/ST quota of upto 23.5% which was specifically fixed for them in govt funded school. Now it proposes 25% quota for all children including SC/ST/OBC/EWS. Does it means that 1.5% will be allocated for OBC/EWS? No, it does not give any specific percentage for SC/ST. Secondly, in a country where more than 30% of population lies below BPL by any estimate and some realistic estimate also put it above 40% and beyond that, then how can 30% or 40% can be accommodated in 25% seats. More importantly, in a social system where lineage and caste association matters more than any income criteria, how will someone ensure that SC/ST gets the fair chance to get a seat in 25% quota. Hardly any private school provide any concrete details of the admission process objectively, how can the system assure that there won’t be any caste discrimination in the admission process.

Thirdly, what are measures taken by the government o improve quality of education where they have full control i.e. government funded school. From the time that people were will to join a government school willfully due to better qualified teachers, now the time has come that no sensible person earning some decent amount of money is willing to keep their children in any government school. The government school has gone from bad to worse without anyone caring about those schools and the honorable minister is talking about lofty laws without any hope for its implementation. Also, what is the update of the existing laws relating to the deadly caste discrimination in all the schooling and higher education system. Why has there been no prosecution after so many cases coming out and so many suicides.

RTE has been a failure since its announcement and even if it is implemented why has this law been designed to make the SC/ST people lose their chance to EWS people showing false certificates. Can government show all the income certificates of all the beneficiary who has availed income based subsidies. Government must act reasonably well and resist from making loss making laws for educationally and socially backward people.

Collective Responsibility

The came to know about the concept of collective responsibility while doing my MBA from a reputed institute. The idea of group work is ingrained in every sphere of professional life. While working in any company the responsibility to complete the project within the stipulated time lies with the group and especially the group head. While doing my MBA, the grades were given based on the group performance for any assignments. The idea of collective responsibility is used in wide variety of cases.
While coming across a newspaper article, the idea of group responsibility came regarding the never ending scams in out Indian governance system. During the recent time, 2G scam, Adarsha society scam, Karnataka land scam and most recent Devas-ISRO scam has grabbed the attention of media. In almost every instance, we have once scapegoat to blame for the entire scam, and hence one minister resigns while remaining government continue their work. But as per the Indian constitution, the cabinet is a single authority headed by the chief of state. There has never been a collective response to the events while shakes the entire nation and their faith in their own representative in the government. Corruption is now a common phenomenon in the Indian democratic system but the response to the corruption is inadequate to solve the problem. There are rare instances where the true story has come out and the responsible person is punished in the Indian system  In the recent 2G scam, almost all of the entire media and nation has put the name of Mr. Raja as the responsible person for the corruption and it seems on the face, that he is proven guilty without the judiciary has completed its process. The actual decision of telecom policy was passed through the cabinet, and even if they resisted during that time, the collective responsibility of the cabinet can not be compromised. With due respect to our prime minister Mr. Manmohan Singh, who heads the cabinet and responsible to the Indian citizens, the responsibility of any corruption in the government and any wrong decision of the cabinet goes to the entire cabinet and especially the head of the cabinet.
Although, the resignation of the entire cabinet on these issues are desirable but it will make our government unstable and it may not be good for the country. But its tough time that the cabinet is able to get away from their responsibility as a collective body by blaming a single minister.

Feminists are themselves responsible?

I have heard females complaining about various aspects of the society. I totally agree with them that males have manipulated the law of society for their own gain. Also, large part of the problem can be attributed to the historical reasons and evolution of society where power played and important role than any human endeavor. Although, I totally understand their concerns and fully empathize with them but I think the responsibility of the current situation lies with them also. The concerns raised by them are complex and interlinked, so every issue can not be isolated from other.

Dowry system in India – This is major issue that our government is struggling to eradicate for a long time since 1950 and even before that social activists were opposed to this. Even today females are married with dowry, and I am not talking just about the uneducated mass without any empowerment. Majority of educated females still go through rigorous process of scrutiny before the marriage by her in-laws and then marries as per family wishes by paying dowry along with humiliation to her family members during every stage of marriage process. There are many reasons for that. First even people involved in love relationship want to get married under traditional system with the wished of family members. So, they must make their parents to agree with the relationship. That is why even the adult and most educated people get into this traditional trap. Even if the country’s constitution   treats every person after adulthood as fully responsible for his/her life decision, it is not so in reality because of people own willingness to surrender their power of wisdom for making family member agree to their decision to make a love relationship converted to marriage. The biggest problem of converting love relationship to marriage is caste system. Even after knowing the rigorous and violent system throughout the country, people persists getting family support for love relationship to be converted to marriage. It is highly improbable that anyone agrees with intercaste marriage, even in the upper most caste and upper most class family in the most urban region of the country. So, it is pure foolishness to demand family agreement to the decision made my young female. The maximum extent that family goes to support the love-cum-marriage relationship under different caste, if not a violent reaction, is the indifference attitude, without any support along with continuous warning what could go wrong in the relationship in future. So, even at the age of 25-30 female demand family support for their relationship and surrender their independence. Another interlinked problem in the current approach taken by females is the demand of family support in the future. Females are traditionally forced to do many things against their will in  her in-laws family, so she wants family support in case of any trouble. This is completely insane if she had to do her own decision then why she should look for any family support to sort out the issues. Only conclusion that can be drawn from this observation is females themselves are not confident of their decision and don’t want to take ownership of their decision with full responsibility.

If we look further into this issue, female demands that the male partner, under the love relationship should be carrying out all the task of making both family agree with the decision. This is again a traditional view, the marriage relationship is a shared responsibility, then why should only one member take the full responsibility when both members are looking for their independence in their decision making especially in professional domain. Why female still want to rely on the male member for their life? In a shared relationship both person are responsible for the success or failure of the relationship.

Now comes the property right. Ask any female to which house they belong after marriage, they still perceive as belonging to in-law family after marriage even if they get settled as nuclear family in distant city. This is totally ridiculous because after marriage they have separate family identity. Even earning female members claims that her family is in-laws home although almost everyone wants to help their parental home financially. Females never talk of taking any money from the parental home even though they have equal property rights as their brothers but they are willing to claim the property right in the in-laws property, may be through her husband. So, when it comes to dowry they claims that it is asked by pressure but when they are requested to claim their inherited property they totally reject the request. So, why should any parents give any claim to her daughter-in-law when their son is getting nothing as son-in-law, if he don’t take dowry. This is largely because of the traditional belief that daughter-in-law belongs to the husband’s family and son-in-law has no rights on the wife’s ancestral property. The easiest solution to the whole mess could be to get the property rights for husband and wife from their respective families. Like every family there is cost of living, so it does not make sense that male’s family take all the burden of female’s living without asking anything. It could be their generosity if they don’t ask anything. So, here again females are making mistake of claiming all the rights from the in-laws family and not claiming her birth right from her parental family .

Ideally in an evolved society, any adult should not demand anything from the parents as their parent have already invested everything for the growth of their children till adulthood. But when private property right is given and inherited by next generation, it has to be equally distributed among males and females.

So, it can be concluded that females are also partly responsible for their current situation by acting irrationally, They demand family support even after adulthood for marriage, puts males to take leadership of family for making the whole arrangement, ask family support to resolve family issue after marriage based on their own decision, claiming belongingness to their in-laws, demanding financial support from husband’s family and at the same time not taking legal property right from parents. The whole issue is mixed up by double standard followed by the females. I understand that the society is still evolving but when the most educated and empowered class behaves hypocritically, it becomes very difficult to sort out the problem and backward people to catch up with the evolution.  I am in no supporting the heavy handed attitude by the society on females and I am totally against taking any violent action against under any situation, with the belief that an adult person should be able to live in the society without any support what so ever.

India – A state of Contradiction

Today I read the news report that India ranked at 122 out of 138 nation in the Human Development Index (HDI) index. This is after enormous improvement in last few decades. More than that Indian GDP and income growth was among the top 10 nations globally. The worst part of the news item was more than 40 million people in 5 states are living worse conditions than most poor African countries. and what is linked and very apparent is the if risk taking and achieving the maximum potential for every individual.

India and USA both are state of contradiction. Indian state with contradiction of high inequality where religion and state is legally separated, while in USA where religion appears to decide who will be next president. But the fact is opportunity rules over the contradiction in USA while contradiction rules over opportunity in india.

ncome inequality. More than 70 % of the population earn about less than Rs 20 per day. Today I read another article why america is called the nation of opportunity and how is India different from that . The articled argued that what is seen on the face value with nice cars and living in USA is the equal opportunity with constant state and legal system intervention to provide the necessary support infrastructure of health and education to every individual, appreciation o

What is the real concern that hurts me most is the way two nations deals with the contradictions. USA continue to provide more opportunity while India continue to promote contradiction with increasing level of inequality.

I had an interaction with a Chinese friend saying china and USA has not as great relation like India-USA. My view was because of historic reasons and Chinese state has controlled only because of the vast population and limited resource to reduce the chaos which India is unable to do. USA has promoted liberalization due to more opportunity and high resources. My thought was if USA become a nation of  1 billion, can they do with this level of liberlization? i guess with very high certainty that they won’t be able to do it while maintaining the prosperity level. India is trying to move toward liberalization but at the cost of creating more chaos and increasing the contradiction which is already a big concern for indian nation.

Can few people with almost 30 billion worth make India a better place, certainly not and how ethically they do their business is certainly under question for long time. How can they sleep with people dying all around with hunger from his own state which they most possibly be very proud of. They might be creating lot of jobs with their 1 billion home but they could have certainly create more empowered nation had they invested in health and education. Few Dhirubhai ambani collage is certainly not model for investment in social welfare as it has nothing for normal population with little earning, its another money making place for Ambani.

They might be investing in few scholarship but again does he gives any weightage to person’s background, first of all the scholarship can be counted on fingers and it is not in the field of social welfare studies but in business studies. More than that they have not spent a peny on  student with low family income. This is classic case of promoting contradiction.

Tata’s has certainly does a lot better in this space but it has a long way to go considering the size of the challenge Indian state is facing. Politician are certainly the people to blame but I am not talking about the people who are coming from the backward castes because its not their fault if they saw money and power and grabbed it with both hands. They never had any experience of what are called ethical values, they fought against all odds and succeeded to get something out of the system. Why should any one blames them if they could not provide them the right values and education in their growing and learning phase.  It was because they were never trained and educated to provide good governance.

The people who are to be blamed are the educated class with good family background sitting in the political chairs. Why are they not utilizing their education and ethical values even when they have never suffered from hunger and humiliation in their growth behaving this way. Their blind greed is driving them crazy and they should be blamed for that.

So, its tough time to realize the contradiction and it must be eliminated from the system to reduce the friction in the Indian society.

Indian Education system: Competition, Merit and Private Tuition

Education system of any country is the most vital element of the social and economic growth. India is very lucky nation to get first Prime Minister Pt. JawaharLal Nehru, who gave special emphasis to education and build the foundation stone of premiere institutes, which later emerged as the driving force of nation’s development. He should be given credit for setting up IITs, IIMs and central universities which are now globally renowned as centres of excellence. Like many other domains of education system of India has its fallibility. There are lots of problem which needs immediate attention in the education system. One of the major problems is private tuition offered by individuals and flourishing coaching centres which is weakening the backbones of education system.

In present time, it is rare to find any student not taking private tuition. It has been found out from a survey that one third of the income of middle class family is spent on the child’s private tuition. Tuition can start from class 12, class 5 or even class 1. Private tuition can help student by giving him some extra time and necessary push for relatively not so brilliant student. Also it helps the students whose parents are uneducated and can’t give any input to their academic work. Some educated parents found private tuition helpful because it gives them necessary relief of not spending their time with their children. Also it is sometime beneficial to some students who find other school teacher better in certain subjects. Another possible reason, which may sound absurd, is that children don’t follow the parental teaching them academic course due to some psychological reason. Above all the stated reasons can be kept aside, and the most important reason that parents and students feel that private tuition and coaching is beneficial for them because it will enable them to compete in the class and securing a seat in entrance examination.

Let us analyze what are the pitfalls of private tuition and why all the above stated reasons are absurd. Most of the problem for which people think private tuition is necessary can be solved by filling the gap in the education system i.e. making school to strengthen their roles in children’s life. First of all, private tuition makes children less attentive in the class. Student feels that they will be studying the same thing in private tuition in a better way, so they lose respect for the school teachers and their teaching. Another pitfall of private tuition is that children spend less time with their family and friends. Also they don’t participate less in extracurricular activities and sports, as they need to spend their evenings attending private tuitions. Another important problem that is caused by private tuition, which impacts his/her career, is by making a bad habit of spoon feeding. Student don’t spend time in self studying and reading books, as they depend entirely on the summary notes provided by private tutor. One very important parameter that gets missed out in the child career, which often causes disaster to their career, is the loss of innovative thinking and following individual interest, as the subject to be studied in private tuition are recommended by parents considering their aspiration for their children and not the child’s aspiration for himself/herself. Coming to the system loop holes in education system, teachers often push class student for their private tuition, as it gives them extra bucks. Some teacher goes to the level of threatening the student to fail. Many give extra credit marks in the examination to private tuition going students. Some teachers go to the extent of giving question out before the examination to the private tuition. Few of teacher gives the examination paper at home in private tuition after the examination for completing their answers. Adding another angle teacher also promises to give complete marks in practical examination to tuition going student and deduct marks to non-tuition going students. All these measures taken by teachers, despite being illegal in some government schools, to lure students for private tuition for earning little money, gives small happiness to private tuition students and their parents but causes a very-very serious damage to the long term student’s career.

Coming to the coaching institutions, this provides employments and now a big industry in itself. It enables students to compete in entrance examinations of professional courses like engineering, medical, law etc. Although, institutes tries to make the entrance examination by changing patter etc such that no student taking private tuition have better chances than non-tuition going students, but private tuition is has grown to such a mass scale that 99% student get admission by taking private tuition only. It is strange and ridiculous that people who talk about reservation to Sc/St as wrong, although Sc/St spend minuscule or sometime none on private tuition compared to others, can’t do self study for examination and later talk about meritocracy. Coaching are exactly similar to private tuition, except for the fact that most of coaching institutes are registered entities and hopefully pay taxes for their earning. God can only save us if a teacher who teach small children ethical classes and build their foundation stone, earn money unethically from private tuition and evades taxes.

Let us discuss the probable solution to the whole problem. First of all school teachers should be prohibited to take private tuition, as already being done unsuccessfully to some government schools like KV, especially to their own class students. If teachers can’t teach student in class they why he is doing the job. Students should be encouraged to seek support from teachers during school time in leisure periods. This is already implemented in colleges like IITs. Serious steps should be taken against teachers who lure students for private tuition. Teacher should give extra support to the weak students during class and also after class. Teacher’s assessment should be done on the basis of class performance. Parents should be strictly advised against tuition. All the students taking entrance examination should be prohibited to attend coaching, as all the subjects are covered in school course curriculum. Although it is quite difficult to implement but an innovative way should be found to give incentive to self studying students. Parents should be encouraged to meet teacher to know the child’s academic progress. Although not liked to education system, strict tax collecting measures should be taken for private tuition money.

Private tuition is a menace to the Indian education system, which has corrupted the whole system. It has damaged the very stem of nation i.e the young students. Immediate steps must be taken to eliminate this serious problem

 

Speaker Election and President’s speech

In the Indian democracy, LS speaker chair is considered as very respected constitutional position. Eminent people have occupied that position and kept the tradition and carried the legacy of the position. As always been practiced, they have maintained impartiality. Our previous speaker Mr. Somnath Chatterjee has set the bar very high. He took very tough decision in unprecedented circumstance in cash for query, cash for vote, indo-nuclear deal and at many other instances where he was personally attacked by MP’s. INC has now nominated Ms. Meira Kumar for the speaker’s post with the consensus across party lines. Ms. Meira Kumar is certainly one of the most respected MP’s in the house. She has won Sasaram constituency in Bihar for five times. She was an IFS officer and she has good track record of following the rules strictly. Few things are questionable in this whole selection process. Congress leadership first asked her to join Ministry of Water Resources without thinking once about her utility as speaker. For such a big party as very able leader at the top they were so much shortsighted that Ms. Kumar had to resign from the ministry within few days of her oath taking ceremony. Although congress intention to give opportunity to dalit and women leader in the speaker post is appreciable but they really lack the will to give prosperity to dalits and women. They are trying to push women reservation bill in the house, but can they deny that while giving LS election ticket they had forgotten all the women’s representation issue. Also until this bill gets passed, no one has any faith left in any political party that the dream of giving women power will become a reality. So just nominating a woman as speaker will not do enough for whole women class. Coming to the dalit’s issue, congress election manifesto made a lot of promises which includes reservation in private sector, free education at all level and many others, the whole president speech, which outlined the government task for 5 years, didn’t said a single word on this. It is highly deplorable that congress which made so many claims for deprived section of society is totally silent when it comes to action. Ms. Kumar election as speaker raises yet another question about their real intent of congress because Ms. Kumar achievement in her complete political career on any issue, including dalit and women issues, is no where up to the mark to call is appreciable. Her biggest credential in her life is that she is the daughter of tall dalit leader Mr Jagjivan Ram. She has contributed very little to the discussion in the house and rarely go out of the way to assert her own views on various issues. Congress, as they have always been, have done a lot of lip service and showcase than any grass root work in the upliftment of dalits and women. If they would have really done some serious work then dalits and women wouldn’t have been counted as marginalized section of society even after 60 years