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Thursday,
October 31, 2002, Chandigarh, India  
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Credit goes to RBI Onus on the executive Brazil votes for change |
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New chapter in J&K, old story in UP
From cricket to corporate world
Remembering Sant Waryam Singh
From the ritual to the spiritual
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Credit goes to RBI The half-yearly monetary and credit policy announced by the RBI on Tuesday can be viewed from three angles
- the individual’s, industry’s and agriculture’s. Jargon apart, what is there for the common citizens? How does it affect them? The immediate losers are the retired people who depend largely on interest income to survive. The interest rates on bank deposits are expected to fall, which will also weigh on the performance of the pension fund managers. The State Bank of India and the Bank of Baroda immediately responded to the RBI’s rate cut by slashing the deposit rates by 50 and 25 basics points respectively. The immediate gainers will be those planning to take home or car loans or loans for consumer durables as interest rates will plunge further. Retail loans have been a thrust area for both private and government banks for quite some time now since the recovery rate is very high and risk is negligible. The boom in the auto sector and housing will, therefore, continue. The monetary policy has also spread cheer in industry, though it expected a higher bank rate cut than the 25 basis points announced by Dr Bimal Jalan, the RBI Governor, known for his conservative approach. Few had expected him to cut the bank rate, CRR and the repo rate simultaneously. The CRR cut by 0.25 per cent will put some Rs 3,000 crore more at the disposal of the banks to meet the demand for liquidity. There is already sufficient credit available for industry, but there are not many takers partly because of the economic slowdown worldwide and partly due to the
comparatively high interest rates in the country. The banks themselves are more cautious now in extending loans to industry, given the huge NPAs piled up over the years. That the stock market has welcomed the RBI initiatives is evident from the 1.8 per cent rise in the BSE sensex on Tuesday after six days of its downward journey. Significantly, in its mid-term review of the economy the central bank has marked down the GDP growth rate for the year from 6-6.5 per cent to 5.75-5.5 per cent largely because of the unexpected drought. This once again emphasises the fragile nature of agriculture which continues to depend heavily on the monsoon. The banks have not shown the desired enthusiasm for lending a helping hand to the agriculture sector. Though there is some improvement in extending bank credit to farmers, particularly after the introduction of kisan cards, most of the farmers continue to be at the mercy of private money-lenders, who charge exorbitant interest rates. The cumbersome bank procedures scare away illiterate small farmers, who find the exploitative arhtiya more helpful and easily accessible. Unless the banks drive the private money-lenders out of business by adopting a sympathetic approach, cutting their costs and lowering lending rates, and simplifying procedures, agriculture and the agriculturist cannot progress. A poor agriculture can negate the industrial positives also. All the policy initiatives and the present strengths like the low inflation, sufficient liquidity, reasonably good exports and healthy foreign exchange reserves cannot lead to an enduring economic recovery until agriculture is made competitive, modernised and its productivity improved. |
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Onus on the executive On the face of it, the Supreme Court’s concern over reports of starvation deaths in Orissa and Rajasthan, mainly because of the failure of the respective state governments, and the need to fix accountability for lapses on the Chief Secretaries/administrators cannot be faulted. Its ruling on Tuesday directing the states and Union Territories to take steps to prevent deaths due to starvation or malnutrition should be viewed in this light. The apex court warned that the Chief Secretaries would be held responsible for starvation deaths. But the issue in question is whether court intervention would help prevent starvation deaths. Clearly, the issue will get embroiled in prolonged litigation. The police and civil officials, with the backing of the political leadership, will suppress the fact of starvation as the cause of death. Experience suggests that the state governments will stoop to any level to refute reports in this regard. Remember Orissa Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik’s amazing claim last year, in the wake of starvation deaths in Rayagada district, that toxic mango kernels were the “natural food” of the tribals! Now he has come out with the “snake bite” theory. Food poisoning is yet another common reason cited by most governments. The problem is that how the Supreme Court will enforce its directive when the police and civil officials, including the Deputy Commissioner and District Magistrate, force the Chief District Medical Officer (CDMO) to toe the official line, howsoever false and concocted it may be. As this has been happening quite too often, it is doubtful whether fixing accountability on the Chief Secretaries alone will resolve the problem. Undoubtedly, the onus of preventing starvation deaths lies on the state governments themselves. They will have to take appropriate steps to galvanise the administrative machinery at various levels so as to ensure that the benefits of the anti-poverty and nutrition programmes reach the beneficiaries at the grassroots level. The failure of the Public Distribution System (PDS) in Rajasthan (where 18 starvation deaths have been reported from Baran district recently) is a classic example of administrative ineptitude and sloth. An inquiry into the implementation of the PDS in this state reveals that foodgrains under the PDS were distributed to some beneficiaries after the starvation deaths! This fact came to light after the dates of disbursement of foodgrains mentioned in the ration cards issued to them were checked. The state governments have failed to explain why people are starving even though their godowns are overflowing with foodgrains. Nothing is more shameful and disgraceful than this. While states will have to rework their strategies in this regard, it is time the judiciary too defined the limits of judicial activism. The judiciary is entering the areas where its decisions and rulings cannot be enforced. As judicial officers, our judges must be aware of the due processes of law. Of course, it is also believed that if the executive itself performed its legitimate functions and enforced legislative measures like the Famine Code in letter and spirit, there would be no need for the judiciary to transgress itself into the domain of the executive. |
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Brazil votes for change To those interested in sports Brazil means football. To those who believe in a bit of fun and frolic it means the graceful samba dance. But Brazil is much more than football and samba. It is a resource-rich Latin American country gone to seed because of bad governance. It is, therefore, hardly surprising that it is also one of the poorest. So when the Brazilians got a chance to vote last week, they turned up in large numbers to give a big thumbs up to democracy. They showed the door to ruling party presidential candidate Jose Sera. Instead, they placed their trust in former shoeshine boy Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. That is the name under which the former union boss will take the oath of office. But to the man on the street he will remain Lula, the gutsy shoeshine who defied the repression and terror of the military junta during the most difficult phase in the history of Brazil. He will head the first leftist government. However, the task before him is daunting. The economy of the resource-rich country is on the brink of collapse. Soaring unemployment and staggering social inequalities are sure to test the skills of the leader who has literally seen life from the bootlace level. In many respects Brazil is like Bihar\Jharkhand — rich in resources that have not been adequately exploited for combating poverty and crime. Like most Latin American countries, Brazil too has its share of organised crime demanding as much attention as the tottering economy. Mr Silva was elected with a record 52 million votes, over 60 per cent of the total turnout. The President-elect of the largest Latin American country has until January to do his home work before assuming office. The challenges before him are daunting. Of course, not even his close associates expect him to pull nearly 50 million Brazilians from the brink of abject poverty within the limits of a four-year-term. But if he is able to provide a comprehensive roadmap for reviving the economy, he would be fulfilling the trust the people have placed in their Lula. He has to save the world's ninth largest economy from recession, create jobs, provide impetus to housing, medical care and education. The global community is understandably sceptical about his ability to deliver. How can a school dropout perform the miracle of reviving the economy of a country that is as big as the USA? However, he has sent a strong message to financial institutions from Sao Paulo to Wall Street that he will honour Brazil's foreign and domestic debt commitments that stand at a whopping $60 million. It remains to be seen how he performs the delicate task of reducing poverty and hunger at home along with keeping the volume of foreign debt under control. |
New chapter in J&K, old story in UP Interestingly, there are two diametrically opposite views on the manner in which the Congress and the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) of Kashmir have overcome their differences and are now in the process of forming the sensitive state’s first non-National Conference government. The protracted and public squabble between the two, essentially over the post of Chief Minister, most people feel understandably, was as unnecessary as it was unseemly. It is no good saying all’s well that ends well because the tussle for personal power has taken away some, at least, of the shine from the outcome of Jammu and Kashmir’s free and fair elections. What took the two sides 17 days of loudly advertised haggling to agree on, the argument runs, could have been clinched in less than 72 hours. All that was needed was for the Congress and the PDP to agree on the rotational principle and for the Congress to generously concede the leadership of the new government for the first half of the six-year tenure to the PDP Chief, Mufti Mohammed Saeed. Grace and a display of unity of purpose would have added lustre to the gains of the poll and given the new dispensation a good start. But some others take the contrary view equally emphatically. The fortnight-long kathakali show, they argue, was both necessary and useful because the need of the hour was to bring down the PDP “a peg or two” by puncturing its overblown claims and trimming some of its quixotic notions about what new J&K government must do. It is difficult to dismiss this reasoning out of hand. For, both Mufti Saheb and, even more, his voluble daughter, Ms Mehbooba Mufti, had started blowing up the PDP’s performance out of all proportion and riding a high horse. The father and daughter duo was perhaps right in saying that the Kashmir valley was the hub of Kashmir and the principal target of Pakistan’s designs. For this reason they could even ask for some extra consideration because their party had won all its 16 seats in the valley. But to stretch this point to the absurd length of claiming that the “people’s mandate” was primarily in favour of the PDP and its programme was untenable, to say the least. The plain truth is that the PDP’s share of the vote is only 7 per cent or just about a third of the vote won by the Congress. Moreover, the Congress has a larger share of seats than the PDP and has representation in all the three regions of the state even though the bulk of the seats won by it are in Jammu. It is in this context that, having secured Chief Ministership for the first three years, the Mufti has mellowed. He has adopted a realistic approach towards the coalition’s common minimum programme. For instance, he has compromised on his earlier resolve to disband the Special Operations Group of the Kashmir police that had earned some notoriety in recent years. This outfit will retained, retrained and “assimilated” in other security and law enforcement agencies. On the policies of a “healing touch” for the Kashmiri people and a dialogue with not only the newly elected members of J&K Assembly but also with others like the Hurriyat that hadn’t taken part in the elections, differences between the PDP and the Congress were marginal. These have been resolved. The story is the same about POTA. The Congress, the largest all-India party even today, had opposed this law when the Vajpayee government had finally pushed it through at a joint sitting of the two Houses of Parliament after its rejection by the Rajya Sabha. A decision not to use this law in Kashmir, the state that has been a victim of corss-border terrorism for more than 12 years, would not mean any legal handicap for the state government under the new dispensation. It would have all the laws it needs, including the Special Powers Act that is currently applicable only to Kashmir and the insurgency-ridden states in the North-East. However, satisfactory all this may be, it would be dangerous to be smug or complacent. The great opportunity that the Kashmir elections have opened up also means a stupendous challenge to not only the Mufti ministry in J&K but also to the Union Government that is not a bright and shining example of either cohesion or efficacy. As a political party the BJP has no role in the state because it has been routed in its stronghold of Jammu. But as the core of the ruling coalition in New Delhi it, and above all, its leader, the Prime Minister, Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee, bear awesome responsibility. It is their duty that they and the new government in Kashmir act in concert to safeguard the nation’s supreme interests in the most sensitive state that is also the most troubled because of both external and internal factors. It is precisely this that makes the lack of any initiative on Kashmir on the part of the Prime Minister — who has just shown some bounce at the Delhi rally to celebrate the completion of three years of his government — depressing. Ideally, he and Mrs Sonia Gandhi, both as Congress President and Leader of the Opposition in Parliament, should have had full consultations about how the country as a whole can resolve at least the internal dimension of the Kashmir problem. Atalji should also have arranged intelligence briefings to her. Alas, nothing of the kind has happened. However, as the old saying goes, it is better to begin later rather than never. Meanwhile, the unfailing irony of Indian politics and polity marches on. Just as a new chapter is opening in Kashmir’s saga, in UP, the country’s largest and politically key state, a coalition ministry forged less than six months ago is apparently crumbling. The drama currently on in Lucknow is bizarre but it is a part of the pernicious pattern established since the late sixties. The coalition between Ms Mayawati’s Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and the BJP – bitter enemies abusing each other all through the election campaign— was the most opportunistic and, therefore, fragile from the word go. Twice earlier this partnership had collapsed amidst unrestrained recrimination. But neither side was shy to try a third time. The BJP’s total surrender to the imperious lady, leading the Dalits, hasn’t helped. Once again the coalition is on the brink. At the time of writing the odd combination still commands a slender majority in the legislature. But for how long? There are too many angry men within the BJP who are only anxious to upset the apple cart because they have been denied coveted seats in the Council of Ministers. Two factors have made their revolt particularly lethal. The first is the pathetic inability of the BJP’s top leadership to enforce any kind of discipline among their ranks despite their boast over the previous four decades that theirs was a “party with a difference”. Under pressure from the dissidents, the Prime Minister left his own constituency of Lucknow, complaining that he had a “sore throat.” Later, when things worsened, Atalji offered to meet the dissidents in Delhi. This time around they refused. Nine Independent members, some of them Mafia dons, have already withdrawn their support to the Mayawati ministry. Secondly, the situation in which every MLA considers himself or herself a rightful claimant to a ministerial chair is the creation of the BJP itself. In 1997 when the country was celebrating the golden jubilee of Independence, the then BJP leader in Lucknow, Mr Kalyan Singh, had split every Opposition party— the Samajwadi Party, the BSP and the Congress. He had done so by the simple expedient of offering every defector a ministerial berth, thus increasing the strength of the ministry to a formidable hundred. The present size of Ms Mayawati’s ministerial brood is just over 70. Those lusting for office are demanding, therefore, why she cannot appoint a whole lot of more ministers. The crowning irony is that Mr Kalyan Singh is now a bitter enemy of the party he once led and has joined hands with Mr Mulayam Singh Yadav. The latter, a former Chief Minister on two separate occasions and leader of the Samajwadi Party, has vowed to destroy the present government and form one headed by him. Mr Yadav’s meeting with Mrs Sonia Gandhi has sent shock-waves across the BJP-BSP camp although she has yet not made up her mind. She wants to weigh carefully all the pros and cons of bringing down a Dalit Chief Minister. The cliffhanger, therefore, persists. |
From cricket to corporate world The 62-year-old Dr Muthiah has an illustrious lineage. His grandfather, Dr Raja Sir Annamalai Chettiar, was a prominent banker and founder of the well-known Annamalai University. His father, Dr M A Chidambaram, was an industrialist and a sports afficianado. Little wonder, then, that the Chepauk cricket ground in Chennai is called the M. A. Chidambaram stadium in recognition of his enormous contribution to the sport. Dr Muthiah was slated to take over as President of FICCI two years ago, but stepped down owing to the pressing nature of being the BCCI top boss. An engineering graduate from the University of Madras, he did an advanced management course at the University of Detroit. He heads Southern Petrochemicals Industries Corporation Limited (SPIC), Chennai, the flagship company of the SPIC group — one of the largest business conglomerates in the country. The Muthiah regime in the BCCI was very eventful, to say the least. The corruption scandal in cricket exploded during his tenure and to his credit, Dr Muthiah was primarily instrumental in enforcing a strict code of discipline in the Indian dressing room. A member of the Prime Minister’s Advisory Council on Trade and Industry, he takes over as President of FICCI when industry is not in the pink of health. As chief spokesperson of the business community, Dr Muthiah’s objective would be to argue in favour of policies that protect the interests of his brethren while at the same time ensuring that Indian industry competes on equal terms at the global stage. A rare entrepreneur A trained medico, Dr Hardeep Singh today is a successful entrepreneur running a branded eye wear business — ColorSoft with an elaborate countrywide distribution network. Son of a diplomat, he emigrated with his family to India in 1971 immediately after Idi Amin’s tyrannic rule in the East African nation. He went to the British School in New Delhi and pursued a course in medicine at M S Ramaiah Medical College in Bangalore. After a brief stint at Safdarjung Hospital in New Delhi, Hardeep moved to Toronto for further studies in medicine at the University of Toronto. He returned to Delhi in 1992 and started his career at Holy Family Hospital. It was during this period that he stumbled upon an opportunity to do something entirely different. Through a friend of his, Dr Hardeep Singh was called upon to advise the Obayashi Corporation of Japan which was then implementing the massive project of building a four-lane bridge across the Yamuna in Delhi. As a non-technical person, he advised Obayashi on vendor selection, liaison with the government and private agencies, and new business development. In 1998, as the bridge was nearing completion, the enterprising Doctor saw an opportunity to turn into a full-fledged entrepreneur. The London-based NRI promoters of ColorSoft Lens India Private Limited (a leading distribution and marketing company of optical products) were scouting for someone who could give focus and direction to the company’s interests in India. At the same time, leading global fashion wear major Benetton was looking for a distributor in India for their range of premium sunglasses and spectacle frames. Hardeep bought a stake in ColorSoft. More was to follow and soon ColorSoft acquired the distribution rights of Cooper Vision, the third largest manufacturer of contact lenses in the world. To his credit, 40 year-old Hardeep Singh was instrumental in institutionalising the organised distribution market of branded optical products in India. Till then the retail market of optical products was largely scattered across the unorganised bylanes of Delhi and Mumbai. |
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Today is the first death anniversary of Sant Waryam
Singh Remembering Santji, a crusader of spiritual, scientific and secular values on the eve of his “first maha samadhi” could be a source of solace for millions who had come in contact with him at home and abroad. Whether it was the floods in Punjab, the aftermath of the earthquake in Gujarat or the fallout of the September 11 tragedy in the USA, he stood with his million of disciples at home and abroad to share their grief by reaching out to them. The Vishav Gurmat Roohani Mission, founded by him, was one of the first to organise funds, material, manpower and handle the short as well as long-term problems of the victims. The floods in Punjab and the earthquake in Gujarat and, thereafter, the tragedy of September 11 in the USA mobilised the widespread network of the Mission to render its services with total respect, regards, dignity and love for the victims. His message was: “Please accept our humble contribution in token of our love and affection at a time of your need — perhaps we shall need the same if any such happening happens to us”. He always upheld self-esteem and dignity of the victims very high and as such religiously avoided the word donation or obligation. He was very scientific in analysing the situations and psyche of victims. That was one of the many things to be learnt from him. During his visit to provide assistance to the flood-affected people in the districts of Patiala and Ropar in 1993, I asked him: “Baba why don’t you solace them by preaching them the message of God?” He replied: “It is not God they need, whom many of them perceive as non-existent, but their need is food, shelter, seeds, pesticides, school books, clothes for their children and other material to be able to restore their normal life. It is only after having provided them all these, you could talk of God.” Gurbani was the spirit behind such efforts made by him and hundreds of members of the Mission as their contribution. Again during the floods in Punjab several individuals and organisations of the non-farming community from amongst the urban centres of Punjab had rushed the material to the flood-affected areas. His message was that they are all your brethren who have come forward to be with you in this hour of calamity. Surely you would do the same, may God forbid, if they face any such crisis. This is how he brought the members of different political, philosophical, religious persuasions together in an hour of crisis and weaved them into the mode of spiritual, scientific and secular values which have historically withstood the test of the time by the Punjabis at home and abroad. In Gujarat the calamity caused by the earthquake deeply disturbed him. He called me to organise the logistics for his team of “sewadars” led by his second in command, Bhai Lakhbir Singh, since everything was topsy-turvy in Gujarat. The administration took some time to identify the space for setting up the camp in the earthquake-affected area. Three weeks of tireless services rendered by more than 125 “sewadars” going from person to person, house to house, providing cash and other assistance needed by them, including tents and blankets, ordered by Santji himself during his several visits to Ambala. The “sewadars” were initially seen by the local residents as a kind of militant group. The local residents, thereafter, became an integral part of the “sewadars” over a period of time. Besides the local administration, the Speaker of the Gujarat Assembly, several members of the forces deployed and publicmen were astonished to find the 24-hours “langar”, an open delivery store and man-power services provided by workers of the Vishav Gurmat Roohani Mission. The administration and the forces deployed there travelled a few kilometres’ distance to share the pleasure of tasty food served with love and enchanting of hymns by the “sewadars” of the Mission. The Gujarat Assembly through its Speaker, administration and the beneficiaries were gracious to express their gratitude to the Mission in their subsequent communication and even visit the Mission headquarters in Ratwara Sahib. A few months after the tragedy of September 11 in New York, which caused a great concern to Santji in view of the misperception of Punjabis with turbans. He immediately commissioned us all the other activists of the Mission abroad to organise meetings with representatives of the Senate, Congress, the media and the local self government to extend them full support by members of the community comprising Hindu, Sikhs and even Muslim for whom he built up a mosque near Ratwara Sahib, closest to the headquarters of the Mission, to lend their support and continue to do so. This helped in proper understanding and perception by the citizens of the USA of members of the Punjabi community being different from those with which they were mistakenly identified. The activists of the Mission donated blood, funds and manpower services to the families of the victims and the administration. Having crossed 80 years of his physical existence, the tirelessly used body had started showing signs of weaknesses, including the growth of cancer, which is accredited as the diseases of saints. Defying the constraining law of the body, he opened a college of information technology, a school from nursery to higher classes with the mission that those who go out of these institutions will be the embodiment of human values preached by Gurbani and other universally accepted religions of the world. He continued to involve himself in his activities whether at the Escorts Heart Centre, during and after the heart surgery efficiently performed by Dr T.S. Klair or during the treatment of his cancer by the dedicated team of doctors under the care of Dr S.K. Sharma at the PGI. It was great fortune to be at his feet all these years I had known him, including accompanying him to his visits to the USA, Canada, England and elsewhere where he successfully carried the message of Guru Nanak Dev, which brought the people together to respect and love each other. His teachings were so forceful and logically advanced that well-known scientists, scholars and members of the intelligentsia came forward to associate themselves with the Mission. Former Prime Minister I.K. Gujral, Dr Manmohan Singh, Mr Parkash Singh Badal and a number of well-known personalities travelled long distances to have interactive sessions with him. My own spiritual teacher, Dr Swami Rama, a scientist turned spiritualist and a builder of institutions at home and abroad, including Himalayan Institute Hospital Trust, a medical city near Dehra Dun airport, was leading amongst the world known spiritual scientists to travel from his institution to Ratwara Sahib. This was a relationship which brought the two great scientists-cum-spiritualists together to impart a message of peace, tranquility and harmony for those who were in search of seeking it from such great beings, though few now in the world. While returning to Rishikesh, I asked Swamiji as how did he find Santji, he said: “He is a living picture of ‘Pyar Sagar’ (Sea of Love), ‘Gian Sagar’ (Sea of Knowledge) and ‘Satchit Anand’ (an incarnation of truth, tranquility and peace)”. Besides holding regular congregations and annual samagams at home and abroad, he communicated the human values through an international monthly “Atam Marg” which was the first such publication read by lakhs of readers at home and abroad. It continues to be published in Punjabi, Hindi and English. A magazine which spreads the teachings of the Gita, Ramayana, Koran and epics of the world which have contributed to strengthening the base of spiritual, scientific and secular values in a civil society. On October 30, during my regular meeting, while he was sitting on a chair, looking relaxed and normal at the PGI, he outlined the task that I should continue to pursue even when he was bodily not there and exactly a few hours later in the afternoon of October 31, he left for his heavenly abode. The Vishav Gurmat Roohani Mission is commemorating the first “barsi” by holding a four-day “samagam” from October 30 to November 2, 2002, which was a regular feature of the Mission at which lakhs of devotees came from home and abroad. In the long journey of struggle, as a crusader Bibi Rajit Kaur, traditionally a wife but spiritually and functionally a companion, stood by him in conceiving and carrying out the programmes of social transformation initially launched in the Terrain areas of Uttar Pradesh (now Uttaranchal), thereafter, spread over to the far-flung areas in Punjab and elsewhere in the country and abroad. She has been equally loved and worshipped by the “sangat” as a “Guru Mata”. The writer is Founder Director, Centre for Research in Rural & Industrial Development, Chandigarh. |
From the ritual to the spiritual God is the creator. The destroyer. And the protector. He is omnipresent. Omnipotent. Omniscient. He is eternal and infinite. Yet we project Him in stone as a statue. On paper as a painting. We raise huge structures as symbols of His glory. Then we cage and confine Him inside the four walls of a temple. And keep Him under lock and key. God is everywhere. He belongs to everyone. He is universal. Yet we behave as if we own and possess Him. We fight over Him. As if, He is our property and we are the protectors. We kill in His name. But we do not live for Him. People of different faiths designate Him differently. Everyone worships Him according to his own perception. It begins at the dawn of the day. Often, with the sounding of big gongs. A chanting of ‘mantras’. With recitation from the Holy Scriptures. On microphones. At full blast. As if volume would send words to Him. With no fear of disturbing anyone. It continues unabated. Till the end of the day. As if, the length is more important than depth. And all this led by an illogical belief in the happening of the improbable. Once I asked a friend how do you pray? He answered — I go to the temple in the morning. Wash the place. Give the Lord a ceremonial bath. With milk, honey and holy water from the Ganges. Then I put sandal paste on His forehead. I decorate Him with fresh flowers from my garden. Light a lamp. Also incense. Then I pray. By chanting mantras. In His praise. I spend two hours at His feet. Everyday. Throughout the year. Do we go through all this outward observance to ‘live in right relation to God’? Or to awaken our conscience? To stir the soul? To purify the inner self? But where is the communion with the Creator? Is it not all ritual and nothing spiritual? Today we go to temples and other places of worship for the same reasons for which we buy insurance policies. We look for bounties and largesse. In the morning we kneel on our knees. To pray. To seek the Lord’s blessings. His mercy. Then we spend the whole day looking for a prey. Often, we feel repentant on Sunday. For what we did on Saturday and shall do even on Monday. In today’s materialistic world, money is the ‘mantra’. Gold and not God is the goal. Disappointment and discontent are the inevitable result. The man may look like sin. He should be beautiful within. Character. Conduct. Qualities. These are the real riches. A man’s deeds are his diamonds. These decide the destiny. These are the true treasure. Penitence. Perseverance. Persistence. These pave the path to inner peace and spiritual progress. He who does wrong to a man cannot claim to be doing right before God. Service to man is the sole secret of success. Greed for worldly goods only gives grief. Man who looks for material possessions mostly meets misery. Let us not worship Him only for the fulfilment of our wants. Let us ‘build a chapel in our breasts’. A temple in our hearts. God is good and great. His delays are not denials. Patience with faith in the divine power, by itself, makes a pious prayer. If we remember Him all the time, He will never forget us at any time. But the thought must come from “the higher endowments of the mind”. It should be a sincere pouring out of the soul. Full of feeling. It must relate to the intellect. And if we are not dumb, God shall not be deaf. What shall move Him? A moment of sincere prayer from the heart? Or hours of shouting? A pure thought from the innermost recesses of the mind is more than any ‘mantra’. A groan. A moan. A soft cry. Shedding a silent tear. All get the God’s ear. Reverence, not rites and rituals, makes a pious prayer. |
The music of bliss resounds in me. —Sri Guru Granth Sahib *** The world dances to the tune of the devil and you also dance with it. Only he whom the Lord protects does not dance... —Sri Guru Granth Sahib *** Egotists who are engrossed in the world are burnt by the fire of trishna (desire) —Sri Guru Granth Sahib *** The world usurps what is due to others. —Sri Guru Granth Sahib *** Brahma, Indra, the Sun, the moon and the whole world is impure. Only the Infinite Lord is immaculate. The kings of the world, the day and the night the thirty days of the month, the pearl, the diamond, the air, the water, the fire, Shiva, Shankara, Mahesha, Siddhas, the seekers, the pretenders, the yogis, the shaivites wearing matted hair, the bodies and the souls are all soiled. Only those who have realised the Lord are pure. —Sri Guru Granth Sahib *** O mind, you are cleansed from within through the Pure Word and thus you know your true home. —Sri Guru Granth Sahib *** If the mind is impure, everything is impure. —Sri Guru Granth Sahib *** Absolute freedom mocks at justice. Absolute justice denies freedom. —Albert Camus, The Rebel *** A part of fate is the freedom of man Forever wells up the impulse of choosing and acting in his soul. —Ralph W. Emerson, The Conduct of Life |
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From the hot chair of the Indian cricketing establishment to the flagbearer of the country’s domestic industry, it has been a cherished and eventful journey for Dr A. C. Muthiah. He takes over as the President of the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) later this year. Needless to say, his administrative and leadership experience gathered during his tenure as the President of Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) will come in handy while articulating the views of Indian industry. 
A British citizen born in Uganda is now settled in India. That is the saga of Dr Hardeep Singh which, perhaps, epitomises latent Punjabi entrepreneurship.