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The Yatra man Haryana package |
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A judge has no caste
Israeli poll and Palestinians
Missing Crown Prince
A year of the bus service in Kashmir World Health Day Delhi Durbar
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The Yatra man HISTORY repeats itself, first as tragedy, second as farce! How true this adage is, is brought out by the farce that is BJP leader Lal Krishna Advani’s rath yatra. The first time he mounted the rath in 1990, it wrought havoc in the country leaving tensions in its trail in the areas it passed through. Of course, he eventually succeeded in his mission, which was to bring down the centuries-old Babri Masjid at Ayodhya, though in the process it sharpened the societal divide and caused a dent in the secular image of India. He considered the victory in the subsequent election as a vindication of his yatra politics little realising that there were a whole lot of other factors responsible for the Congress’ rout. He is so enamoured of rath yatra that he thinks of it every time he reaches a dead-end in his political career. It does not matter to him that all his subsequent yatras were a failure for him and damaging for the country. For a change, Mr Advani has roped in BJP chief Rajnath Singh also to go on a synchronised yatra, christened “suraksha yatra”. What provoked him to think of another yatra was the bomb blast in a temple at Varanasi. He found in the death and destruction caused by the mad caps of religious fundamentalism a window of opportunity for his divisive politics. But the people of India, particularly of Varanasi, did not see the attack through the prism of hate and, instead, joined hands to fight the forces of violence. It should have been a warning that there are no takers for his Hidutva- based brand of politics. His theory that the Varanasi attack was caused by what he calls “appeasement of the minorities” is disproved by the fact that many of those arrested for the Varanasi attack owed allegiance to a Bangladeshi extremist outfit—HUJI. The arrest of many of those who plotted the Varanasi attack shows the police is hot on their trail. Terrorism is an evil that has to be fought with all the might of the state. Ways and means have to be found to get even with the terrorists of all hues. Democratic societies, be they in London or Madrid or Srinagar, are thinking of ways in which terrorism can be defeated. Nowhere else has any political leader, who nurses ambition of becoming prime minister, thought of going on a rath yatra to hog the limelight in the name of ensuring the nation’s security. That unique distinction goes to Mr Advani, whose yatra advertises, if anything, the bankruptcy of his own ideas. He simply wants to survive in politics by sowing discord than encouraging harmony. |
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Haryana package When the Prime Minister visits any state, the general expectation is that he will announce a slew of financial grants. That is what Prime Ministers have been doing in the past. But on his first official visit to Haryana, Dr Manmohan Singh did not give any such goodies. Instead, he spoke mostly in terms of projects which can be taken up in the future. The Chief Minister, Mr Bhupinder Singh Hooda, had sought a central mega project in any industrially backward areas of the State, since Haryana had not got any such opportunity ever since Rajiv Gandhi gave an IOC refinery to Panipat. But the Prime Minister said “as and when we move to the next phase of development of nuclear power, we will consider setting up an atomic power plant at Kumharia in Hisar district”. He also agreed to consider the demand for setting up a medical college in the name of astronaut Kalpana Chawla in her home town Karnal, with assistance from her parent organisation, NASA. The concrete assurances that he did give included one regarding assisting Panchkula to have infrastructure comparable to Chandigarh and another regarding making available additional power to Haryana from power sources in other states. In any case, the Rs 325-crore stretch of highway, whose foundation stone he laid at Panipat, is concrete enough. This 10-km patch was a classic example of how bottlenecks can slow down even National Highway No.1 between Ambala and Delhi. The time one saves during the 200-km journey is always frittered away while passing through the congested Panipat city. The elevated highway will at least ensure that this mismatch is removed. The Prime Minister rightly laid stress on removing infrastructure shortcomings. These plague not only Haryana but almost all states. It should be the endeavour of the Centre and the state governments to remove them quickly. Haryana happens to be one of more prosperous states. It also has the advantage of being right next to the national capital. These plus points have not paid adequate dividends because of lack of basic facilities. Perhaps the deficiencies can be removed, with a helping hand from the Centre. |
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A judge has no caste THE manner in which Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh is said to have been trying to delay the appointment of two judges to the State High Court, duly recommended by the Collegium headed by Chief Justice V.K. Gupta, comes under the realm of impropriety. What is particularly disturbing is the shadow of caste on the controversy triggered by the Chief Minister’s reservations about two names recommended by the Chief Justice. Reports suggest that the Chief Minister is not in favour of the two names for appointment as they belong to a particular caste. This is unfortunate, if it is so. Considerations of caste cannot be allowed to influence appointments to judicial posts. The Chief Minister’s clarification alluding to the reservations expressed by “the members of the Bar” over the two names as they “did not reflect the caste composition of the state” does little to repair the damage done by the emphasis that is being placed on caste while making judicial appointments. Undoubtedly, merit and not caste is the sole criterion for appointment of judges. This has been emphasised umpteen times by the Law Commission and other expert committees. The Constitution does not bar anyone with suitable qualifications from occupying the high office of the judge. A judge is expected to be a person of exceptionally high legal calibre, capable of delivering justice in a free and fair manner without succumbing to pressure of any kind. Independence of the judiciary is one of the cornerstones of a democratic political system. It implies three essential conditions. One, the judiciary must be insulated against encroachments by the departments of the government. Two, its judgements and decrees must be free from executive and legislative interference. And three, the judges must be free to do justice without having to bow to any pressure. The Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister needs to allay the doubts in public mind that he is not trying to influence judicial appointments for political convenience. |
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Friendship is constant in all other things/Save in the office and affairs of love.
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Israeli poll and Palestinians
SINCE this country is preoccupied with an array of domestic problems — the ongoing assembly elections in five states, the underplayed Maoist (naxalite) menace, the overplayed office-of-profit issue, and the uncertain future of the Indo-US nuclear deal — it has taken little notice of the elections in Israel. What has happened, however, is of such great importance to West Asia, and thus to the world, that it calls for rational discussion and wise policy. Kadima is the party hurriedly formed by the former Israeli Prime Minister, Mr Ariel Sharon, shortly before going into a coma. In the 120-member Israeli Knesset, it is now the leading party though it has captured no more than 28 seats. Mr Sharon’s successor, Mr Ehud Olmert, has, therefore, his task cut out for him. He has to cobble a coalition that would command a clear majority and pursue a coherent and constructive policy. Luckily for this former mayor of Jerusalem, circumstances are on his side. Labour, the second largest party, with a new leader, Mr Amir Peretz, a former trade union boss, is on the same wavelength as Kadima. It is indeed expected to be a linchpin of the ruling coalition and a moderating influence on it. The highly respected and veteran Labour leader, Mr Shimon Peres, has already joined Kadima. Even so, the Olmert-Peretz duo would need the support of a number of small parties into which the Israeli political spectrum is splintered. Altogether, it is no exaggeration to say that for the first time Israel is getting a government that is committed to leaving the West Bank, as Mr. Sharon had vacated the Gaza Strip. The Likud party, headed by Mr. Benjamin Netanyahu, that could have opposed this policy has been defeated humiliatingly and pushed down to the fifth position. Yet, there is a major catch in Israel’s apparently firm determination to exit from the West Bank by 2010. It is that Israel wants to leave “unilaterally” and on its own terms. This is clearly unfair and almost certainly counter-productive. For, there is no way an arrangement unacceptable to the duly elected Palestine Authority (PA) can be imposed on it. A mutually acceptable solution has, therefore, to be negotiated bilaterally within the framework of the Oslo Peace Accords of 1993 and the subsequent “road map” prepared by the Contact Group, consisting of the US, Russia, the European Union and the UN. Any Israeli belief that because of its overwhelming military superiority it can thrust a unilateral solution down the throats of the Palestinians would be nothing short of a dangerous delusion. Israeli intransigence is bound to trigger another intifada compared with which the previous ones would look like a schoolboys’ picnic. That is where the international community, including India, comes in. Relentless bloodletting in the past has not solved the problem nor would another avoidable bout of it. The outside world, especially the four-member Contact Group, is duty-bound to hold the scales even and persuade both sides amicably to come to settlement that is fair and just to both. This, of course, is easier said than done. But then the stakes are too high to let the world wring its hands in helplessness. Israel’s argument in favour of unilateral action — sadly endorsed by its mentor, the US, where the clout of the Israeli lobby is formidable — is that Palestine lacks the leadership that could negotiate a mutually acceptable settlement. According to Tel Aviv, the President of the PA, Mr Mahmoud Abbas, is willing to reach such an agreement but is unable to do so, while the newly elected Hamas government is surely able to arrive at such a deal but is unwilling even to try. In any case, Israel refuses even to talk to the Hamas government and its Prime Minister, Mr Ismail Haniyeh. The US has adopted the same policy. Moreover, various countries backing Israel have withheld funds from the PA on the ground that the newly elected Hamas government has not yet publicly forsworn terrorism and violence. To be sure, this is a legitimate Israeli demand to which Hamas has to respond positively if things have to move in the right direction, however slowly. But the other side of the same coin is that those who want to spread democracy in the “Greater Middle East” are strangely refusing to countenance a government that, according to the unanimous verdict of independent observers, won the election that was free and fair. Nothing can be more contradictory and self-defeating than to want democracy to prevail but to refuse to accept its outcome. The consequences of the annulment of the 1992 Algerian elections in which the Muslim extremists had won were catastrophic. Must the same grievous mistake be repeated today? Regrettably, Asia’s three major powers — India, China and Japan — play hardly any role worth the name in relation to the strife-torn and oil-rich West Asia. For its part, the Contact Group has been tilting towards Israel, though on the question of dealing with the Hamas government, Russia has disagreed with the three partners. Even more disappointingly, the Arab support to the Palestinian cause is long on rhetoric and short on reality. India’s problem is that policy and debate here are often distorted by domestic politics, especially the competitive wooing of the votes of the Muslim minority, as was distressingly obvious at the time of the Iran vote at Vienna. Alternatively, nostalgia for the Cold War era that ended long ago and the obsolescent nonaligned movement clouds the thinking. India is not and cannot be a member of the Contact Group. Nor is that necessary. What this country has to do is act in concert with Japan and China (and others who might like to join) to throw its weight behind urging all concerned to expedite the formation of a sovereign and viable Palestine state. In return for the Palestinian renunciation of violence and terror, Israel must fulfil its commitment, implicit in the Oslo Accords that it would exchange land occupied since 1967 for permanent peace. Even during the unsuccessful negotiations at Camp David in October 2000 between the then Israeli Prime Minister, Ehud Barak, and Yasser Arafat, Israel was ready to give up 97 per cent of the West Bank. How on earth can Israel justify its unilateral decision to dismantle only half of its settlements in West Bank, withdrawing 70,000 settlers, but to maintain an equal number of Israeli inhabitants in various settlements within
Palestine?
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Missing Crown Prince
It was early spring when we docked in the northwest African port of Casablanca to pick up rock phosphate. Our ship was flying Indian flag.
Not far from our berth was also docked a Russian submarine support ship, tied up about 300 metres ahead. The heavy mother ship provided comfortable accommodation not only for her own crew but also for a number of submarines crew. She had facilities to charge submarine batteries and to carry out minor repairs to submarines’ machinery and equipment. Above all she had a well-equipped mini hospital to cater for needs of several submarine crews. On our day of arrival itself one of our crew members complained of severe abdomen pain requiring immediate medical attention. During those days Casablanca was an old town with sparse medical facilities. Half the town seemed to be selling wares of daily needs on roadside while other half could be seen buying the same. Ships agent advised us that we should seek emergency medical assistance from Russian mother ship. The captain asked me to join him to meet Russian captain due to my earlier familiarity with Soviet specialists and Russian language. The Russian captain was cooperative and offered free X-ray and spot treatment for our ailing seaman. As chance would have it his Excellency Crown Prince of Morocco got minor injuries while sporting between Rabat and Casablanca. He too landed in the same mother ship for emergency treatment. The attending Russian lady doctor attended both casualties quite effectively. The Crown Prince was required to stay in the ship’s mini hospital for one day. Myself and my captain extended an invitation to the captain of mother ship and her chief engineer for dinner on board our Indian merchant ship. Menu was South Indian food and spicy prawn curry which the hosts relished immensely. Russian officers from the mother ship returned to their ship by midnight. The Crown Prince was guarded by two Arabic speaking armed guards while the Prince spoke English and Arabic fluently. He appeared to be very communicative and social but we were advised to follow protocol strictly keeping in view his royal status. Everything was normal when we got up at 6 next morning. Loading of cargo commenced at 8 am. About 8.50 there were indications of hectic flutter on board mother ship. Soon the Russian captain along with Arab guards came enquiring on board whether we could help them in tracing the Crown Prince who was missing since morning. The guards explained that the Prince had left ship for jogging on jetty but had failed to return. Our captain calculated fast and advanced towards our stewards’ cabin. He slowly pushed the door. To our utter surprise the Crown Prince and ship’s steward were having breakfast of “rawa dosa” with “sambhar” and chutney. All of us were deeply embarrassed. The Prince returned. The Russian captain advised us never to talk about
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A year of the bus service in Kashmir The historic bus service that was launched on April 7 2005 by Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh and then Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed in Srinagar has now completed one year of its operation. The Regional Passport Office has so far received 6500 applications for entry permits to cross over to the other side of the Line of Control (LoC). However, according to the officials, only 391 people from Jammu and Kashmir crossed over to Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (PoK) up to February this year, while 440 people from PoK visited the state. The regular, fortnightly, bus service was disrupted due to the devastating earthquake on October 8 last year, which caused heavy damage to the 17-km-long stretch of the Jhelum Valley Road between Uri and Kamaan bridge. The Aman Setu or peace bridge divided by the LoC, was itself damaged. The last bus before the earthquake plied on October 6, following which the service remained closed for quite some time, awaiting restoration of the road The route opened on December 15 with 26 passengers including six from this side and 20 from the PoK side crossing the Aman Setu or Peace Bridge. No passengers crossed over from February 16 onwards till March 30 this year, when 52 passengers crossed over. They included 28 from this side with 24 returnees and four fresh passengers, while 24 others crossed over to this side from PoK including nine returnees and 15 fresh passengers. With this, the total number of passengers crossing over via the Aman Setu has gone up to 883, including 464 who crossed over to this side and 419 from Jammu and Kashmir, who visited PoK. The PDP claims a sense of satisfaction over the bus service, dubbing it the “virtual foundation for the reunion” of Jammu and Kashmir, at least in emotional terms, if not politically. The PDP takes some credit for the service and it feels it has opened the window for the settlement of the Kashmir dispute, which is the agenda of the party. The PDP leadership also accords due credit to the political wisdom of the former Prime Minister Mr Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Pakistan President General Parvez Musharraf and current Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh. “They did not remain prisoners of any prejudice and that is why the present atmosphere seems to be totally changed and there is a consensus on peace”, said a senior PDP leader. The Congress leader and Chief Minister Mr Ghulam Nabi Azad, who made his maiden visit to the Kamaan bridge on the LoC on February 20, however, expressed his dismay over the response to the bus service. He held that the aim of opening of the historic route to Kashmir should be to open it for trade purposes, for which modalities were being worked out. Referring to the figures of passengers, Mr Azad said that the bus service was more of a symbol, as the number of people visiting across the LoC was very small However, the former Chief Minister and PDP leader Mufti Mohammad Sayeed believes it is the biggest ever CBM between the two countries. “It is a movement forward”, he commented, adding that it should not continue to be restricted to the divided families, but also be open to others as well. He also seeks to increase the frequency of the bus service with easier means of entry permit to visit the PoK, and beginning of trade along the route. These ideas have been conveyed to the Prime Minister during a recent meeting. “This has been a Kashmir focused CBM. It has been a gigantic step reflecting confidence in the people of Jammu and Kashmir”. He feels that the interaction of a number of people on either side during the past year has helped a great deal and those coming from PoK found things quite different on the ground to what had been reflected by various media. The opposition National Conference president, Mr Omar Abdullah, who recently visited Pakistan to attend the Pugwash meet, described the bus service as an excellent idea for bringing people on the two sides together. He, however, lamented that the purpose had failed due to the administrative stringency, low frequency and the proviso restricting travel to the divided families. Referring to the delay in opening of the trade link through Srinagar–Muzaffarabad road, Omar too feels that the bus was only a symbolic link. “We want an actual physical link between the two sides”. The separatist response to the bus service has been different even as the moderate faction of All Party Hurriyat Conference (APHC) led by Mirwaiz Omar Farooq boarded the bus last year. The hardline faction led by Syed Ali Shah Geelani has been opposed to the move saying it did not serve the purpose. Rejecting Pakistan’s invitation to visit that country and PoK last year, Geelani said it was no solution and instead a deviation from the path of addressing the core issue. For the moderate APHC faction led by Mirwaiz Omar Farooq, it was a “major development in terms of moving forward” to find a lasting solution to the Kashmir problem. Senior leader and former APHC chairman, Abdul Ghani Bhat described it as “the first step taken towards a right direction with a purpose and for a cause”. The Mirwaiz, Mr Bhat, Moulvi Abbas Ansari, Bilal Lone and Fazal-ul-Haq Qureshi and JKLF chairman, Mohammad yasin Malik boarded the bus to visit Pakistan and PoK in June last year and had meetings with Pakistan President, other leaders and others in Pakistan and PoK during a two-week-long tour. |
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World Health Day In 1976, India resolved to give “Health for all” by 2000 A.D. at the World Health Organisation (WHO) Conference at Alma Ata. Twenty eight years have since passed. Every year, on the 7th of April, World Health Day, we look back and find we have not achieved enough in our health-for-all journey, and the goal is yet far off. This year the Government of India taken up the State Health Care Mission, dubbed a peoples’ movement to reach the grass root level with health care packages. India spares hardly two to four per cent of its budget for health care and education. A mere 20 to 25 per cent of urban India enjoys 75-80 per cent of national health care facilities. This lop sided distribution of health care resources, hopefully, will be rectified. The Rural Health Care Mission includes a health care package consisting of basic investigative services like X-Ray, Lab, ECG and Dispensary, Dental and Gynecological Services, to be provided within 1 to 3 kilometers of a rural resident. The aim is to extend this package to 6 lakh villages. Implementation of health care schemes is a state responsibility. The City State of Chandigarh, a Union Territory, has a developing rural periphery of 22 villages. The mission has been started here as a pilot project. It is a people’s movement, entrusting the task to Health Care India, an NGO engaged in health care and education in the region for the last more than 2 decades. Five Nodal Health Care Centres have been so located that each centre caters to three or four villages, one to three kilometers from the centre, at Maloya, Sarangpur, Mauli Jagran, Ram Darbar/Karsan and Atawa. Already, existing Community Centres are being renovated to accommodate these health centres. Each health centre will provide free consultation, lab, x-ray, ECG, dental and dispensary services to the dependant rural and slum colonies, below the poverty line. While appropriate, renovated accommodation is being provided by the Administration/Corporation, funds for the bio-medical equipment and running costs for each nodal health care centre to cover all the 22 villages will be generated and managed by the NGO. While the Nodal Health Care Centres are designed to provide daily out-patient consultations, the basic investigation and specialty services, and hospitalization expenses at the designated Government Hospitals, have been catered through an insurance package, as phase-II of the scheme. Success of health insurance schemes to cover hospitalization will depend on the success of free health care facilities for those below the poverty line and on the extent of State participation in insurance activity. Fixation of monthly/annual insurance premium for an individual / house hold to cover hospitalization, collection of premium through already existing insurance agencies such as LIC, mode of payment of hospital charges etc. need careful and detailed assessment. The crux of the problem and the patient’s requirement is that he/she should not have to pay and later claim from the insurance agency. All documentation and recovery from the insurance agency should be directly done by the designated hospital. |
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Delhi Durbar Prime Minister Manmohan Singh seems to have invited trouble for the Congress party in Assam by not exercising his franchise in the first phase of assembly elections in the state. Being a Rajya Sabha MP from Assam, Dr Singh and his wife Gursharan Kaur are listed as voters in the Dispur constituency which recorded a 50 per cent turnout. The Opposition in Assam believes it can gain political mileage from this issue in the run up to the second phase of polling on April 10. There was an element of unhappiness among the electorate of Dispur who felt if only the Prime Minister and his wife had come to vote at the Government Higher Secondary School, he would have got to know the sorry state of affairs of government education. The school does not have a building or a proper exit route. On his part the Prime Minister has specially earmarked funds for developing education infrastructure in Assam.
Proud father The curtain has not come down on the father and son drama in Karnataka. Amid reports that Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy and his father and former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda have patched up, Congressmen insist that it was evident from the beginning that the duo were working in tandem. Deve Gowda, who had suspended Kumaraswamy and 42 legislators, reinducted the recalcitrant son back into the JD (S). Now the humble father says he is a proud father, having seen the good work that his son is doing as the Chief Minister. Delhi Chief Secretary As Delhi chief secretary S Reghunath gets ready to demit office next month, lobbying for the post has already begun. Officials are busy trying to put their best foot forward to please Delhi Chief Minister Shiela Dikshit. However, with Madam Chief Minister occupied in trying to keep her chin up in the face of growing criticism over the Delhi demolitions and the Sonia Vihar project; finding a suitable Chief Secretary is not exactly high on the agenda. While some are not ruling out an extension for Reghunath, others have placed bets on Sanat Kaul, CEO Delhi Tourism. Tytler vs Dikshit Not the one to mince words when it comes to criticising Shiela Dikshit, Jagdish Tytler who is busy earning brownie points by speaking for the traders affected by the demolitions has squarely blamed the Chief Minister and her son Sandeep Dikshit, an MP from East Delhi, for the predicament of the traders. Tytler told mediapersons that just as Roman Emperor Nero chose to play his flute when Rome was burning, Madam Chief Minister chose to celebrate India’s fine showing at the Commonwealth Games and then her own birthday instead of coming up with a solution to the problem which has brought the capital to a standstill. Back seats only Tamil Nadu chief minister J Jayalalithaa has projected herself as being close to the film industry. She banned pirated VCDs and DVDs, offered concessions to the film industry and admitted actors into the AIADMK, before the assembly elections. Several actors were hoping to get the Dravidian party’s ticket. But to their chagrin, Amma’s list of 182 nominees has only one actor and that too a person who recently crossed over to the AIADMK from the BJP. Even a sitting MLA of the AIADMK and an ex-actor did not get a ticket this time. With Jayalalithaa running the AIADMK with an iron fist, the actors in her party who draw crowds have to necessarily take a back seat —Contributed by Prashant Sood, S Satyanarayanan and Smriti Kak Ramachandran
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From the pages of Blunder follows blunder It seems that in connection with the ill-fated C.P. ministerial tangle the Congress Working Committee are determined to perpetrate one blunder after another. We have already noticed their unconstitutional and thoroughly indefensible action in asking Dr Khare not to stand for re-election to the leadership of the Congress Assembly Party in the C.P. and in directing the party itself not to re-elect him but to elect a new leader. As Dr Khare was adamant, it was considered necessary to seek Mahatma Gandhi’s intervention. Mahatma Gandhi may succeed where the Working Committee have failed. We hope with all our heart that he will not, for his success will be a triumph of unreason and of unconstitutionality.
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The good man should not tire of his good deeds. Till their fruit ripens, he may have to suffer bad times. But once the good deeds ripen his life is suffused with happiness. — The Buddha Happiness is above all. Who would not like to make-this happiness eternal? But for that, man will have to give up running after transient goals and seek the eternal one. That is not easy in the face of worldly temptations. —
Bhagavadgita |
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