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Friday,
November 15, 2002, Chandigarh, India  
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EC directive in national interest Of drought and debt Bush, Osama and Saddam |
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HARI JAISINGH
Let’s be realistic about China
Anger may cause heart attack, paralysis: experts
Foul language gains acceptance
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EC directive in national interest THE
Election Commission’s decision to apply the brakes on the proposed VHP yatra is in the larger national interest. The EC’s right to prevent anything from coming in the way of a free and fair conduct of next month’s Assembly elections in Gujarat is unquestionable. Whatever decisions it takes must be respected. The constitutional authority is one of the most visible and effective symbols of Indian democracy. It has an unblemished record of conducting elections. The most recent case that can be cited in favour of its impartial functioning is that of the Jammu and Kashmir poll. The EC earned world-wide praise for the discharge of its constitutional duties. It has a challenging assignment in Gujarat too. Only recently the state had a harrowing experience with the outbreak of communal violence of worst proportions. The result was a strong feeling of insecurity in a large section of society and the displacement of thousands of persons. That is why the EC refused to hold elections as quickly as demanded by the ruling BJP. Now that the battle of the ballot is finally going to take place on December 12, the EC is duty-bound to act in such a manner as is necessary for the conduct of peaceful, free and fair polls. In any case, the EC has acted on the basis of the state administration’s own report by ordering the Gujarat Government to take “preventive and punitive” measures to forestall the controversial VHP yatra or “any such yatra and procession, etc”, as “may incite communal tensions and passions and disrupt the law and order situation”. The commission has quoted the administration’s report extensively which says that “there is every likelihood of communal tensions and passions getting exacerbated by the proposed yatra” from Godhra to Akshardham in Gandhinagar. The BJP has not crowned itself with glory by reacting the way it has done. It is unfair and unfortunate on its part to describe the EC’s action as “inappropriate”. This is not how a responsible political force should respond to a complex situation as it exists in Gujarat today. The BJP has an added responsibility. It is the ruling party both at the Centre and in the state. Instead of joining issue with a constitutional authority, it should be seen doing everything possible for strengthening the hands of the Election Commission. In fact, it should have tried to convince the VHP to shun its defiant attitude and respect the commission’s order based on the ground reality. After all, the country needs peace and a pro-economic growth atmosphere more than anything else. This objective cannot be achieved through yatras. However, the matter is not as simple as it appears. According to media reports, the controversial yatra was planned by Chief Minister Narendra Modi’s friends in the VHP to mobilise electoral support for the BJP. The ruling party’s position has become precarious with the passage of time. Even Mr Modi is finding it difficult to identify a totally safe seat. Hence the idea to re-arouse communal passions. This is not healthy politics by any standards. This does not behove a party which has produced leaders enjoying country-wide admiration. Politics, no doubt, is the art of the possible. But resort to tactics that may arouse communal passions threatening the fragile peace in Gujarat cannot be endorsed by sane
and secular persons in the country. |
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Of drought and debt THE
Prime Minister’s announcement on Wednesday postponing the recovery of bank loans and interest thereon from the drought-affected farmers will spread little cheer in this region. How much actual relief the Prime Minister’s goodwill gesture will provide remains to be assessed. However, it is another case of “too little, too late”. The Prime Minister’s announcement makes little sense since the Reserve Bank of India and NABARD had already issued instructions in July to reschedule farm loans in the drought-hit areas. Most of the poor farmers, specially in the far-flung areas, take loans from arhtiyas and village money-lenders. They will not benefit from any of the drought relief measures announced so far. Farmers taking loans from cooperative banks also do not gain anything as these banks come under the state governments. Besides, the postponement of the recovery of loans to next year will create other problems. The farmers will have to repay in 2003 the loans and interest for this year as well as next year. A tall order, given their precarious financial position! The Centre is yet to decide on the recommendation of the Agricultural Costs and Prices Commission to waive the interest on all loans in the drought-hit areas due for payment in the kharif season. If this suggestion is accepted, it would cost some Rs 2,000 crore to the exchequer. But the Finance Ministry is dithering. The Union Agriculture Minister, Mr Ajit Singh, rightly expressed the bitterness in the farming community when he said last week: “A Rs 13,500 crore bailout package has been given to the UTI, but the drought relief proposals are languishing in the Finance Ministry.” The drought mishandling this year shows the country is yet to work out a fool-proof mechanism to deal with natural calamities and a rehabilitation system for the victims that becomes operational automatically without procedural hiccups. To get compensation from the Centre’s Calamities Relief Fund, one of the conditions states that a state has to first declare the particular area as drought-hit, which means the yield there must be less than 50 per cent of the average for that district. It must waive interest on loans and forgo revenue due from that area. A food-for-work programme must be initiated there. The state must pay its share to the Calamities Relief Fund before asking for Central help. Punjab obviously will not get any relief because these conditions have not been met. Drought-hit farmers spent large amounts on running tubewells to save their crops. They definitely deserve to be compensated by changing the inadequate relief entitlement criteria. Unfortunately, instead of pleading the farmers’ case, the state political leadership is busy pursuing its other priorities. |
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Bush, Osama and Saddam NOTHING
is more frustrating for a trigger-happy gunman than not being able to shoot the object of his anger and hate. US President George W. Bush must be the unhappiest man in the global village of which he is the self-appointed headman. In spite of having made the Security Council vote unanimously in favour of the tough resolution against Iraq, he cannot go for the draw. Not yet. The two targets of his personal ire — Osama bin Laden, who triggered the US-led war against terrorism, and Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, who among other international crimes once tried to kill Bush junior’s dad — are proving to be as elusive as needles in a haystack. President Bush would love to go after “that man Saddam” but his sworn foe is as cunning as a fox. Days after the Security Council backed President Bush’s tough resolution he allowed global tension to rise a few notches by making the Iraqi parliament reject the US resolution. But before the most powerful man on the globe could put his finger on the trigger came the announcement of the unconditional acceptance of the UN resolution. It directed Iraq to come clean and provide to weapons inspectors the complete list of the facilities making weapons of mass destruction as also of the chemical and biological weapons already in its arsenal. The world heaved a sigh of relief, but the White House went into a deep sulk. The promise to comply has brought President Saddam Hussein at least a month to keep America away from invading his country and turning him into “history” — a dream that runs in the Bush blood. So, what is Mr Bush going to do in the meantime? Nothing much, although his trigger-finger is itching for action. He wants to go for Saddam Hussein but cannot because of the compulsion of appearing to respect the authority of the United Nations. The Security Council resolution allows the Iraqi President 30 days to show to the global community that he has had an overnight change of heart after the US-sponsored resolution received unanimous backing. President Bush wants to go after Osama, but cannot, because the crafty international terrorist has proved to be more intelligent than the best-brains the US has put together for the purpose of intelligence-gathering on him and his dreaded terrorist network. Osama’s 9/11 daring attacks on America’s symbols of economic and military might started the current campaign against global terrorism. But the Arab billionaire-turned-self-proclaimed enemy of the most powerful nation has virtually turned himself into a one-man super power. American might helped place Afghanistan in the lap of President Bush, but Osama keeps irritating and reminding him about Al-Qaida’s “unfinished jehad” against the USA. The Al-Jazeera TV network released a fresh taped message from the underground leader of the most feared and well-organised terrorist outfit about his intention to attack America again. And yet President Bush cannot go for the draw, unless he wants to shoot in the dark as his troops did during the invasion of Afghanistan. Had they been able to spot and destroy their targets neither Osama nor Mullah Omar would be giving a sleepless time to the trigger-happy incumbent of the White House. |
Congress prepares for coalition politics
IS the Congress on the re-bound? Are we going to have Mrs Sonia Gandhi as the Prime Minister? What are the prospects of Dr Manmohan Singh emerging as a consensus candidate in case of the possibility of a broadbased Congress-led coalition in the next general election due two years hence? These are no longer academic questions. The Congress President has already given a bit of her mind. One, she is not opposed to the idea of a coalition arrangement. Two, she is not averse to the race for 7 Race Course Road. This was the sum total of her Press conference after the two-day Congress Chief Ministers' conclave at Mount Abu. This also indicates that having gained enough confidence in recent months, she has personalised her thinking and calculations in her favour, and not to the advantage of the most eminently suited person in the economist-turned-politician. There is a possibility of the people sending the Congress back to power. This will, at best, be a negative vote in view of the growing resentment among the people against the BJP-led coalition at the Centre. Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee surely continues to enjoy the people's affection. He is still the tallest of all leaders in the country. This was very much visible at the recent New Delhi show to mark the third anniversary of the formation of the National Democratic Alliance government. It is, however, a fact that there are serious differences among the NDA players as well as within the Sangh Parivar. The NDA establishment has indeed been giving the impression of being in a state of drift. It may have a number of achievements to boast about. But the popular perception is that the government lacks cohesive thinking and in the matter of taking action even in areas of national importance. Take the case of Deputy Prime Minister L.K. Advani. He has projected a Sardar Patel image for himself and has often adopted pro-active public postures. But the moot point is: can the country's sensitive problems be solved by tough public postures alone? The answer is a simple "no". Even on economic issues the less said the better. The BJP is a divided house on the vital issues of economy, disinvestment included. The leadership has apparently failed to set the right tone for governance and policy matters. Mrs Sonia Gandhi's confident postures at Mount Abu owe a lot to the rather below-expectation performance of the NDA government. With this has grown Mrs Sonia Gandhi's political ambition, and hence her declaration that she was satisfied with the party's progress under her four years of leadership. As stated earlier, she even said that "we are not opposed to a coalition at the national level and we don't have a closed
mind" on the matter. Should we say that the Congress President has set her eyes on the Prime Minister's gaddi? Perhaps yes, though a number of Congressmen and the general public would prefer her to be out of the Prime Minister's slot for various reasons. True, Congressmen do not air their reservations publicly, but privately they admit that the party's interests would be better served, especially in a coalition arrangement, if a clean and highly respected economist like Dr Manmohan Singh is groomed for that coveted job. Dr Manmohan Singh is a gentleman with impeccable credentials. He is less of a politician and more of an economist who can put the country's rickety economic house in order. But in today's cut-throat politics, is there any ray of hope for persons of integrity and principles? It is necessary for the voting public to change its mindset if honest persons have to succeed at the hustings. Can we bring about a basic change in the people's attitude and response? I leave this issue to readers. Mrs Sonia Gandhi is surely an Indian citizen right now. It is absurd on the part of a section of people to suggest that an Italian cannot become an Indian nationalist by just marrying an Indian. The rise of Indian nationalism has a convincing story. The Congress party was initially dominated by the western-oriented gentry. Then Mahatma Gandhi took over. He was a true nationalist. But Nehru was a true internationalist. In fact, internationalism (Marxism) was the ideology of the day. But nationalism triumphed in Germany, Italy and Japan. And in World War II that followed nationalism triumphed in the land of internationalism. That is in Russia and other socialist countries. All these had little impact on India. The British legacy continued. And the Indian communists refused to put India first in their scheme of things as the Chinese comrades had done. To them China came first. But a new generation was growing up, truly Indian in orientation, which owed much to men like Swami Vivekananda, Rabindranath Tagore and Mahatma Gandhi. They were nationalists in the true sense of the term. But Jawaharlal Nehru basically remained an internationalist in his orientation. He questioned many of the beliefs of the nationalists like Gandhi. In fact, the Congress was cool to the Gandhian ideology, while basking under the powerful influence of the saint-politician. Gandhi and Sardar Patel should have been the founders of nationalism in this country. But that did not happen, thanks to Godse. The BJP has now accepted the two leaders into its nationalist fold. But the Parivar itself is under some Nehruvian pulls. For example, its ideology of Hindutva. Perhaps, they do not exactly know what it really means. Ironically, many leaders these days are inspired by one ideology — the "comfort of the kursi". Three years in office has exposed the Parivar and the BJP for what they are worth. The people have lost faith in the Parivar as it has not lived up to its reputation. The BJP is in a quandary. In two years the general election is due. It will be really a testing time for the party. If there is one reason why people are disillusioned with the Parivar, it is because of its attitude towards the minorities. Indian minorities are the natives of this country. Those who thought that they belonged to elsewhere have left and gone to Pakistan. But the Parivar is not reconciled to the native minorities. And this is at the heart of the problem. And unless the Parivar accepts the facts of history, there will be no genuine peace and communal harmony in the country. The people do want peace. And progress too. They want the government to concentrate on problems of development. And it seems the Congress is ready to deliver economic development. Though the Indian economic system has broadly been called "socialistic" in thrust, it has failed to share power and pelf equitably. There has been natural heartburning among the various affected groups. They even broke away from the Congress in the hope of carving out a new niche. This is what led to coalition politics in the country. We have tried coalition politics from 1977. It is time to make an assessment if it — rather a review of it. Unfortunately, coalition has become a game of "kursi" — a sharing of "poverty" and not of thrills and fruits of development. Politics has now come to dominate the national scene and economics has receded into the background. This trend cannot be broken unless we are able to bring economics back to the centrestage. Is the Congress ready to adopt this new highway to faster economic growth? Herein lies the importance of Dr Manmohan Singh. It is not yet too late to realise that social progress, individual freedom, cultural and spiritual fulfilment and economic growth are all interdependent. A modern India and a medieval India cannot peacefully coexist for long without serious social tension. We have to work for an India where economic growth does not remain a reality only for the few and a myth for the vast multitude. |
Fresh assignment for Rangarajan FOR
Dr C. Rangarajan, the Chairmanship of the 12th Finance Commission is
perhaps another recognition of his erudition and expertise in the
field of economics and finance. In his long career, he has assumed
various responsibilities, including the Governorship of Andhra
Pradesh. His tenure in Raj Bhavan in Hyderabad ends later this month
after which he will be at the helm of the Finance Commission. Dr Rangarajan assumed charge as Governor of Andhra Pradesh in November, 1997, prior to which he was the Governor of the Reserve Bank of India. Dr Rangarajan is largely credited with making the monetary policy a flexible instrument of the overall economic policy. It was during his tenure that the big bang financial sector reforms began. Among the financial sector reforms that received impetus during this period include simplification and deregulation of the interest rate structure, reorientation of reserve requirements, strengthening the soundness of banks through the institution of an internationally accepted prudential norms system, upgradation of information technology and imparting a greater element of competition in the financial system. An honours graduate from Chennai and PhD in economics from the University of Pennsylvania, Dr Rangarajan started his career as a faculty member at the prestigious Wharton School of Finance and Commerce, the University of Pennsylvania and New York University. At home he taught at Loyola College, Chennai, the University of Rajasthan, the Indian Statistical Institute, Delhi, and the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad. He was also a Fellow at the International Food Policy Research Institute, Washington. He held the position of Deputy Governor, Reserve Bank of India, for almost a decade between 1982 and 1991 and was instrumental in bringing about a number of changes in the credit and financial system, both in terms of induction of new instruments and institutions. Author of several books, Dr Rangarajan was also a member of the Prime Minister’s Economic Advisory Council between 1985 and 1991. He is not new to the Finance Commission as he was associated earlier with the Tenth Finance Commission. The changes in the exchange rate management culminating in the unified market determined exchange rate mechanism were made on the recommendation of a committee of which he was the Chairman. New chief of NDMC Singapore, with its cleanliness and beauty, may not be exactly what she wants the sprawling New Delhi to look like, but she wants to sweep the city clear of posters and bills and improve the ambience. Polite but firm, Ms Singh’s penchant for “getting things done” saw her effectively carry out her assignment as Commissioner in the Food, Supplies and Consumer Affairs Department, Government of NCT of Delhi, where she worked prior to her latest appointment. She also worked as Chairperson, Delhi Subordinate Services Selection Board; Commissioner, Excise and Transport; and as Managing Director of Delhi Tourism. It is, however, her stint as the District Collector in Arunachal Pradesh that remains her favourite. Issues relating to the welfare of women have also found a place on her agenda. From opening more hostels for working women to building shelters for the homeless, she also wants to focus attention on the health issues of women. Free health camps are a part of her strategy to help women. |
Let’s be realistic about China TO talk today of an economic and military “competition” between India and China is nothing but idle talk. China is so far ahead of India that it will take nothing short of a miracle to catch up with it. That is why one is astonished at the Prime Minister’s talk of a “healthy competition” between India and China. Did he use the word “competition”? I doubt it. On China, we have always been living in a fool’s paradise. Nehru was the one who put us there. I thought the BJP was realistic. It is not. It is even confused about its new “Look-East” policy! The fact is: the present leadership of the BJP is unable to deal with even Pakistan. How, then, can it deal with China? So why do we pretend that we are in competition with China? Let us admit that we are in no position to do so today or in the near future. But let us prepare to take on China in future — that is, if we have a need to. That will be the test. By 2020 AD, China is expected to be number one economic power of the world. It will be ahead of the USA. (I have serious doubts on this.) And India is likely to emerge as the third. That is the difference between the two. Today, wealth is made not through commodity sale, but through sale of service or financial speculation. With dollar as the dominant international currency, the USA is supreme in the financial field. China is nowhere in the picture. Hence it will be difficult for China to overtake America. Today it is the private industries of China which provide it the engine for growth. They already account for one-third of the output. Twenty years ago they counted for nothing. Rural industrialisation is a key factor in China’s growth. China has the advantage of time. It began its economic reform in the early seventies of the last century. In other words, it was ahead of India by two decades. But China’s real advantage lay in the measure of confidence placed on it by the investors. Since 1980 China has received a foreign direct investment of $ 395 billion. The USA and Japan are the biggest investors. But it is only 20 per cent of the total investment. And much of it came from overseas Chinese. Eighty per cent came from domestic savings, which was 36 per cent, a very high figure. As against this, India has received a mere $ 18 billion in a decade. India needs a domestic saving of 32.6 per cent for an 8 per cent growth. But actual saving is only 23 per cent. China has just initiated a free trade area with ASEAN. It is a timely move. This can have far-reaching implications for the entire region. India, as usual, is the “late Latif.” China’s penetration of Asia is at the expense of Asian countries. This can change only when China’s labour cost goes up to the level of other advanced countries. They say China is not a democracy. This has been no disadvantage to China. In fact, there is a continuing stampede to get into the Chinese market. Why? Because China is highly profitable. It is the place to make money, not India, says US Ambassador to India Blackwill. Exporters prefer China because it has a huge market; importers opt for China because Chinese prices are very low (almost half of the world average) and investors prefer China because labour productivity is high, quality of goods is good and cost is low. Today it is import from China that helps America to avoid higher taxes and keeps American cost of living low. Can India offer any of these advantages? It cannot. Ambassador Blackwill says that Indian businessmen take a defensive posture when confronted with these facts. They say: India is a democracy. As if responsibility is not insisted upon in democracy! In 1982 China introduced performance-based payments for both PSUs and state employees. It was a bold step. This raised productivity steeply. India did not have the courage to introduce it except on an experimental basis. Tourism is a major industry in China. In 1981 China received $ 2.8 billion from tourism. It went up to $ 14.10 billion by 2001. During the same period, India’s receipt went up from $ 1.4 billion to $ 3.04 billion. Who is to blame? I say: the people of India. The Chinese are a disciplined people. Indians are not. In China a tourist is safe. Not in India. India takes pride in its infotech achievements. In 1991 both India and China had the same number of computers: that is one per thousand population. By 2000 China had 15 per 1000 population, while India had only 4.5 per 1000. In 1990 China exported $ 62 billion worth of goods and services. It was three and a half times that of India. Today China’s exports are worth $ 266 billion. It is five and a half times that of India. China’s import from Asian countries has gone up in the meantime by 36 per cent. India is limping way behind. The Chinese have made serious mistakes, mainly by imitating the Soviet experience. This is more true in agriculture. But once the Chinese farmer was freed, he gave a better performance. China’s labour productivity has been one of the best. The worker did serve his country. China’s failure on the industrial front was largely the handwork of the Chinese Communist Party. In India both the ruling party and the working class failed to sustain the public sector. In fact, they destroyed it. Only agriculture did the country proud, but then agriculture in India had always enjoyed a measure of freedom. If the Chinese have created miracles, there is no wonder. They have always thought big. Look at the Great Wall of China! They built it to prevent attacks by nomads. India too was under constant attack. But no king of India ever thought of building a wall. Read the Chinese creation story — how Pan Ku shaped the universe by a machete! And Mao talks of “Cleaving” the mountain with his sword! The Chinese are now engaged in taming the Yangtze and the Brahmaputra, the largest rivers of the world. Do we want to “tame” our rivers? Perhaps we will be laughed at if we say so. The drones of India are already up against the Vajpayee proposal. As I said we should give up the idea of competing against China. Before we do so, we must set our foundation right. But yes let us also support America in its efforts to contain China’s ambitions. I believe that India’s strength lies in its mental abilities — in research and inventions. We must rely on it. We are a nation of individualists. We are best as individuals. Collectivism has never been our way. We have departed from this during our “socialist” phase. If we have not done well so far, it is because we have been organised the wrong way. We applied Western norms. And we have become a victim of a bureaucratic system. Let us free the individual, free him from his social and economic fetters and free his mind. |
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Anger may cause heart attack, paralysis: experts UNCONTROLLED
anger has been identified as a major risk factor for heart attack and paralytic stroke as negative emotions cause narrowing of arteries supplying blood to heart or brain in the long run, experts have said. An eminent cardiologist and Executive Vice-President of Heart Care Foundation of India, Dr K.K. Aggarwal, said: “Angry thoughts and the resultant negative emotions circulate and react with every cell in the body instructing the body to constrict the arteries, increase the pulse rate and raise blood pressure.” Repeated episodes of anger can lead to severe problems like heart attack and paralysis and sometimes even sudden death, he said. Director Health Services R.N. Baishya said that negative emotions like anger act as a slow poison which kills the individual over a period of time. Many exercises to control anger like observing silence for 20 to 30 minutes a day, speaking sweet and soft words and with every bout taking a brisk walk or drinking cold water, doing ‘pranayam’ and chanting of ‘Om’ for five to six minutes when in rage were suggested by them. One should realise that during anger one loses the power of discrimination so it has to be controlled much before it becomes full blown. The initial stage of the malaise is irritability and, therefore, its onset should be controlled at the earliest, they said. Dr Aggarwal also cautioned people against running at a high speed while in a rage as it alarms the whole nervous system and chemicals such as adrenaline are released in large amount in the body. A health mela, organised in Delhi by the Heart Care Foundation of India in association with NDMC, Department of Science and Technology and various other governmental and NGOs, also organised an inter-school quiz competition on science and health in which 25 schools participated.
UNI |
Foul language gains acceptance AUSTRALIANS take a pride in the robustness of everyday discourse. In parliament earlier this year Prime Minister John Howard didn’t take umbrage when he was called an “a...-licker” by an opposition MP. His immediate predecessor in the top post, Paul Keating, was famously vulgar, once calling political opponents “scumbags” and “unrepresentative swill.”
Quite a few Australians thought so this month when a Sydney magistrate dismissed an offensive language charge against a man who told a police officer to “f... off.” It was the second time in three years that a court had ruled that using the “f” word to a policeman was not offensive. Magistrate Robert Abood said that this particular four-letter word had gained acceptance. “Not a day goes by when the word is not used,” Abood told the court. “It’s used as a noun, a verb and an adjective.” The ruling, the second of its kind, is likely to lead the police to review the vocabulary items that these days would be offensive in a magistrate’s court. There can’t be many left.
DPA Thirsty camels run down by trains Thirsty wild camels fleeing Australia’s drought-gripped outback are being killed by trains as they lick dew from the tracks of a transnational rail line. “A train a few weeks ago hit eight and killed all of them at once,” said Jan Holberton, a caretaker of the railhouse at Cook, a “ghost town” in the middle of the barren Nullarbor Plain. “They are really dumb because when the train comes they run in a straight line and if the bull runs down the tracks the train runs over them,” Holberton told Reuters on Thursday.
Reuters Girl trapped in washing machine A six-year-old California girl got trapped in a washing machine at a storefront laundromat on Wednesday and was spun around as water began to fill up before being rescued by a passerby. Julian Hernandez needed more than 100 stitches to her face, arms and back after an ordeal that apparently began as a game in a laundromat in Long Beach, 40 km south of Los Angels. The police said she appeared to have climbed into a front-loading washing machine bearing an “out of order” sign when the door closed and it began to spin and fill with water.
Reuters |
Infinite knowledge, power and bliss are latent in every man. The object of sadhana is just to unfold this knowledge and power and to realise this bliss... The sadhanas or spiritual disciplines, however, should be undertaken only with the help of guru or spiritual teacher. Swami Prabhavananda, Spiritual Heritage of India, Chapter 6 Sadhana is made through the self, and not by mind, intellect and senses. Sadhana is not like an everyday act, fixed for a designated time, but it has to be continuous. — Swami Ramsukhdas, The Drops of Nectar, 747, 763 *** There are certain qualities that you must look for in a guru... 1. There is a complete harmony between what he says and what he does. 2. He is taught of the Self by Self. 3. He is a paradigm of the peace of mind. 4. He is beyond the temptation of wealth or honour 5. He sits in one posture for a long time. 6. He stays away from women when alone 7. He is a man of utmost compassion 8. He remains constantly detached from the world. 9. He kills his desire for the body of the Nine Gates and remains absorbed in the abode of the Word. He transcends the sphere of maya and remains established in the Self. If you ever chance to come across such a teacher, immediately response your faith in him and you will experience his grace descending upon you. Then follow the ways he shows you. It will lead you to realisation of the Supreme. — From Mahatma Mangat Ram’s conversations with a devotee. Souvenir, Samata Conference |
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An alumnus of Sacred Heart School, Dalhousie, Ms Parminder Mandip Singh is the first woman to take over as Chairman of the New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC). An IAS officer of the 1972 batch and a student of geography having done her masters in the subject from Panjab University, Ms Singh confesses that she “knows how to get things done without the aid of any magic mantra”. Topping her list of “things to be done” are cleanliness and decongesting the national capital.