O P I N I O N S

EDITORIALS

Dam of discord
Settle Mullaperiyar issue through talks
WHOEVER had predicted that the wars this century would be over water was not wide of the mark. The war of words between Kerala and Tamil Nadu truly bears him out. The tension is over the Mullaperiyar Dam, which is over a century old. Under an agreement the Maharaja of Travancore had signed with the Madras state, then under British rule, Tamil Nadu was entitled to the water from the dam.

Dance of death
Sectarian crisis worsening in Iraq
AS if the worse has not yet happened in Iraq, people there have started baying for one another’s blood in the name of sect. The most horrible sectarian violence in post-Saddam Iraq was reported last Thursday when 202 persons were killed in car bomb blasts in a Shia-majority area in Baghdad. In retaliation, Shias immediately attacked Baghdad’s most prominent Sunni shrine, Abu Hanifa Mosque.

• Thought for the day

ARTICLE

Caste-based reservation
Quality of education to suffer
by P.V. Indiresan
The Human Resource Development Ministry at the Centre has sent 5000 circulars to universities and colleges giving “guidelines for implementation”. Although euphemistically described as guidelines, these circulars are instructions asking all colleges to institute caste-based reservation in faculty selections and promotions, right up to the level of professors.

MIDDLE

Luck’s capers
by Saroop Krishen
DAME Luck apparently follows its own brand of logic and works in a way which is nothing if not quite unpredictable. She catches you unawares without anything like notice or warning and lands you in the midst of dire trouble.

OPED

Creating disease-free, prosperous society
by A.P.J. Abdul Kalam
I am indeed delighted to participate in the award ceremony of the “Indira Gandhi Prize for Peace, Disarmament and Development award for 2005”. I congratulate His Excellency, Mr Hamid Karzai, for receiving the “Indira Gandhi Prize for Peace, Disarmament and Development” award for 2005.

GM rice wins US approval
by Christopher Lee
THE Department of Agriculture declared safe for human consumption on Friday an experimental variety of genetically engineered rice found to have contaminated the U.S. rice supply this summer.

Chatterati
A wedding in style
by Devi Cherian
Delhi-ites have just witnessed the elegant wedding of Mala and Jugnu Singh's son Jaisal. Mala has been the boss of the India Magazine of Business India Television and now runs the Seminar magazine with her husband.

• UP poll scene

• Heritage in danger

 

REFLECTIONS

EDITORIALS

Dam of discord
Settle Mullaperiyar issue through talks

WHOEVER had predicted that the wars this century would be over water was not wide of the mark. The war of words between Kerala and Tamil Nadu truly bears him out. The tension is over the Mullaperiyar Dam, which is over a century old. Under an agreement the Maharaja of Travancore had signed with the Madras state, then under British rule, Tamil Nadu was entitled to the water from the dam. Kerala does not want to renege on the promise. What is at stake is the quantity of water the dam can store. Kerala says the water level should not cross 136 ft, whereas Tamil Nadu demands that it can go far beyond that level. There is a Supreme Court order, which says it can go up to 142 ft.

The dispute is not just about six feet of water. Kerala says the dam, which was built with primitive technology and using such material as lime and egg white, will not be able to withstand an additional storage of 6 ft. The dam had also developed some cracks in the past. If Tamil Nadu’s demand is conceded and the dam bursts, it will endanger the lives of 35 lakh people in five districts of the state. Such fears cannot simply be dismissed as unfounded or as figments of imagination. Allowance also has to be made for the fact that the Central Water Commission and the Dam Safety Authority had concluded that the height should be fixed at 136 ft. It’s true the apex court had once ruled in favour of Tamil Nadu but when Kerala appealed against it, the court suggested that the two states settle the issue through talks.

Instead, an attempt was recently made to impose an economic blockade on Kerala. There is no dispute that farmers in Tamil Nadu need water for irrigation but while meeting such a demand the lives of millions of people cannot be put to risk. There have been suggestions that a new concrete dam should be built in place of the present masonry structure. These are decisions that should be taken through dispassionate talks taking into account the genuine needs of Tamil Nadu, the strength of the dam and the risks it entails for the people of Kerala. The Centre should take the initiative to call a meeting of the chief ministers of the two states to sort out the matter. For the present, the political leaders in the two states should refrain from all kinds of verbal fusillade.

Dance of death
Sectarian crisis worsening in Iraq

AS if the worse has not yet happened in Iraq, people there have started baying for one another’s blood in the name of sect. The most horrible sectarian violence in post-Saddam Iraq was reported last Thursday when 202 persons were killed in car bomb blasts in a Shia-majority area in Baghdad. In retaliation, Shias immediately attacked Baghdad’s most prominent Sunni shrine, Abu Hanifa Mosque. Not satisfied with this, Shia militiamen doused six Sunni Friday worshippers with kerosene and set them afire the next day. At another place, 22 people were killed when an explosive-laden car exploded in a commercial area. These incidents illustrate the deepening sectarian crisis in Iraq, forcing the US-led multinational occupation forces to look for an exit strategy, to quickly leave Iraq to the Iraqis.

While the debate in the US has become more intense for a phased troop withdrawal from Iraq after the Democrats’ victory in the mid-term Congressional elections, Britain has hinted at such a plan having been finalised already. British Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett has announced that the UK may start calling back its troops in spring. The announcement clearly points to the fact that the country’s Iraq policy is undergoing a change. London began to think seriously about a change after army chief Sir Richard Dannatt informed his government that the unending British presence in the Basra and other areas was only fuelling insurgency in Iraq.

There is a school of thought which believes that now that Iraq has a democratically elected government with a constitution of its own, the allied powers must leave the Iraqis to their fate. Insurgents will then lose one major factor to sustain their destructive activity. But with the sectarian problem taking a turn for the worse, this can happen only when there is a well-armed peacekeeping force under the UN umbrella. Such a mechanism needs to be finalised with greater involvement of Iraq’s neighbours to effectively deal with the sectarian monster. Perhaps, a drive has already been launched on these lines with the initiative coming from Washington. This shows the realisation that the widening Shia-Sunni gulf in Iraq must be bridged soon as it can destabilise the entire West Asian region.

Cricket-centric
Surely, MPs have more pressing things to do

A CRICKET-CRAZY fan can be forgiven to rave and rant and drown himself in sorrow for the Durban defeat of the men in blue. But at least the members of Parliament should not be showing similar tendencies. They discussed the matter tooth and nail as if India has succumbed against an unequal enemy in an actual war. The impression the debate gave was that cricket was the most important matter before the august House. Surely, there are more vital issues begging for the honourable MPs’ attention. The list can be mile-long, but just for the starters, how about the plight of women, children and the poor? Rarely has similar care been bestowed on their plight. Perhaps someone totally forgot that it was only a game.

And even if they say they were moved by the mauling the country’s team received, let they be reminded that there are other games as well in the country besides cricket. They must reserve some tears for the similar decline in hockey and the 140th place at which India finds itself in football. A more evenly balanced discussion on them would be perfectly in order. But cricket, which is run by a cash-flush BCCI on mercenary lines, is hardly the subject matter which should consume so many parliamentary hours.

That does not mean that the bad tidings in cricket should not ruffle any feathers. They certainly should. But we must not lose perspective so much so that the defeat starts looking like a national calamity. Each one had his own recipe ranging from sacking Greg Chappell to bringing back Saurav Ganguly. And how will we react if we post an equally facile victory? By declaring three-day parliamentary holiday perhaps!

Thought for the day

The original writer is not he who refrains from imitating others, but he who can be imitated by none.

— Francois-Rene Chateaubriand

ARTICLE

Caste-based reservation
Quality of education to suffer
by P.V. Indiresan

The Human Resource Development Ministry at the Centre has sent 5000 circulars to universities and colleges giving “guidelines for implementation”. Although euphemistically described as guidelines, these circulars are instructions asking all colleges to institute caste-based reservation in faculty selections and promotions, right up to the level of professors.

In a parallel move, the Prime Minister has voiced concern on the absence of Muslims in high-level jobs and has expressed a desire to get more Muslims into all kinds of services, which will naturally include professorial positions.

Before we consider the implications of these moves, we should have a look at the statistics that form their basis. “Missing persons” has become a popular and evocative expression to describe the shortfall in the representation of various groups like women, backward castes and minorities at higher levels of economic activity. The statistics are right; it is a fact that all these groups are under-represented.

The problem with statistics is that they can mislead. For example, compared to their population, Muslims are under-represented in the judiciary. On the other hand, if we were to measure the share of Muslim judges from among the number of Muslims in the legal profession, this shocking disparity will vanish. Measured in that manner, the fact of missing Muslims will be seen less as a question of prejudice and more the result of non-availability of enough lawyers in the Muslim community. The same result will emerge when we consider the representation of the backward castes and women too.

For instance, it is a universal fact that girls outperform boys at the school level. However, at the university level, a sudden reversal takes place: boys outnumber girls in the more challenging and lucrative professional courses like engineering. Even then, the statistics are misleading. It is a fact that the IITs have few girls in their B. Tech. classes. On the other hand, few girls attempt the IIT entrance examination. Once again, when the actual number of contestants is taken into account and not the total population, the apparent disparity vanishes.

In this situation, we have two choices: One, treat the final share as sacred whatever be the number of eligible contestants; two, ensure that from among the eligible contestants every group has a balanced share. For our policy makers and for the media too, the excitement is about the absolute shortfall, not the relative shortfall.

Currently, reservation is the sole remedy accepted by both the political class and an influential body of intellectuals. For the political class, ends justify the means: reservation offers them the means to capture the support of opinion makers among backward communities.

For the activists, means justify the ends. For that reason, they claim to occupy the high moral ground. For them, reservation is the moral imperative. They do not mind the fact that reservation has not helped a large majority of the dispossessed. They do not care for the fact it has cost them much goodwill. They are not concerned either about the hardship suffered by the genuinely poor but deserving upper caste youth. For activists, the process of reservation remains sacred even though the results are flawed.

Emboldened by this situation, for the first time in India’s history, the HRD Ministry has imposed reservation at all levels in faculty positions. That will stuff colleges with less than able teachers. In doing so, the ministry overlooks the fact more than anybody else, under-privileged students need able teachers. This policy of reserving teaching positions on the basis of caste, and at the expense of ability, is like giving junk food to malnourished children and depriving them of healthy diet.

Already, in elementary schools, teachers are selected on the basis of reservation. One of the most influential personages in the country told me that many of these teachers do not teach at all. Instead, they pay a pittance to a proxy to take their place. He was amused rather than alarmed about it. Nor was he concerned about the harm done to innocent children. He tamely accepted his inability to enforce discipline: He dare not impose discipline because all those teachers are political animals, not professional academics.

Thanks to their explosive growth, most engineering colleges employ substandard teachers. The results are showing: employers are complaining that most engineering graduates are unemployable. The HRD Ministry’s directive will make the situation worse.

Thus, the decision of the ministry to impose caste-based reservations introduces double jeopardy. One, it denies students a minimum acceptable quality of education. Two, it makes the government too impotent to enforce discipline. Unfortunately, the HRD Ministry has pre-empted the issue in such a manner that no one in the government will dare oppose it. Thus, the future of quality education is bleak.

If backward castes are under-represented in universities, the blame rests not with colleges and universities but with high dropout rates in schools. In turn, dropout rates are high only because most government schools are too politicised to function effectively. As poor children can afford government schools only, the poor are the sole sufferers of indiscipline among government school teachers.

The phenomenal growth of telecommunications has shown that too much control, and not too little of it, leads to poor governance. In the light of that proven experience, competition among schools and colleges is the best solution for ensuring quality education for all.

Student vouchers have been proposed as a means for introducing competition among educational institutions. In that system, the government does not offer grants to schools directly. It does so indirectly by giving students vouchers which they can use to pay for education in a school or college of their choice.

Once the voucher system comes into force, educational institutions will earn their income only by attracting students. Teachers will earn their salaries only when they perform well enough to attract students. Thus, vouchers ensure competition, and competition will ensure quality. In turn, quality education will make reservation unnecessary.

Though the voucher system will improve the teaching quality, politicians hesitate to accept it. They are not sure what will fetch more votes — pampering a few thousand teachers from backward groups or ensuring quality education for millions of students from the same groups. Currently, the former option is fashionable. We have to wait patiently for one of them to realise that the latter is a more reliable option.

MIDDLE

Luck’s capers
by Saroop Krishen

DAME Luck apparently follows its own brand of logic and works in a way which is nothing if not quite unpredictable. She catches you unawares without anything like notice or warning and lands you in the midst of dire trouble.

An example is of three young convicts who managed a tricky escape from jail and patted themselves on their back for their clever achievement. A get-away car was waiting for them and they rushed into it. After travelling for some 100 miles the vehicle broke down. Then they waved down a car — and had the surprise of their life: it was an unmarked police van! They were arrested immediately and were back to square one — in fact to something rather worse as now they had another offence to their name i.e. a second jailbreak.

Another case was of a pickpocket who found his haul included what was something like a piece of gold at that time — a ticket for a world cup match. He could not contain his joy and hurried to the stadium in high spirits. His euphoria, however, did not last too long. He discovered to his horror that the man in the seat next to his was the husband of the woman whose ticket he had happened to pinch! To think, he said to himself, that out of the thousands of tickets which were floating about at that time, he had to go and pick the one that would bring him trouble.

There was of course no escape for him now. The aggrieved party called the police and he was promptly put under arrest.

Then there is the most incredible case of a “dead” fish biting a finger of a Shanghai man! He bought a 700 gm fish which the vendor had killed about an hour earlier. He had thereafter cut its stomach open and removed the internal organs. When the purchaser was washing the fish at home it suddenly opened its mouth and bit one of his fingers hard. A friend had to cut open the fish’s mouth to release the man’s bleeding finger. Scientists might have an explanation for this weird phenomenon but certainly no layman.

Tailpiece: A woman approached the social security authorities with the plea for being given a special additional allowance because of her large family. Her husband, she explained, had died eight years earlier and she had now no other means of support.

Asked about the particulars of her family, she said, she had a boy 6 years old and 2 girls, 4 years and 2 years of age. The official questioning her was puzzled. “But I thought you said your husband died 8 years ago”? “Oh, yes”, she answered, “I did; I never said, though, that I too had died, did I”?

OPED

Creating disease-free, prosperous society
by A.P.J. Abdul Kalam

I am indeed delighted to participate in the award ceremony of the “Indira Gandhi Prize for Peace, Disarmament and Development award for 2005”. I congratulate His Excellency, Mr Hamid Karzai, for receiving the “Indira Gandhi Prize for Peace, Disarmament and Development” award for 2005.

His Excellency, Mr Hamid Karzai, is in the process of building modern Afghanistan and he has a unique mission of political development and economic development of Afghanistan.

India and Afghanistan have the unique distinction of sharing history and culture. I recall Mr President, your specialisation in political science at Himachal University in Shimla. The spirit of courage of His Excellency Mr Hamid Karzai, in providing the leadership at this critical time for re-building Afghanistan by bringing people together for a prosperous Afghanistan is important for many nations.

When I met His Excellency President Mr Hamid Karzai, he said now Afghanistan is on the march towards democracy and economic development, particularly the rural villages where 80 per cent of people live.

Definitely India and Afghanistan can further cooperate in empowering the villages in education and healthcare and creating more employment potential. In this direction of higher level of training and skill imparting training, India will definitely share the experiences with Afghanistan.

Mr President, I am sure you would have put forward your vision for Afghanistan’s economic prosperity, security, peace and happiness of the people during the Regional Economic Cooperation meeting. India is with you in your missions.

With the evolution of human being, many advances in science and technology have been made for progressively improving the quality of life. At the same time, from the origin until now, society has always been at war within and between groups and has generated two world wars. Recently, two more wars had also been triggered.

Presently, terrorism and low intensity warfare are affecting many parts of the world and insecurity prevails.

Today, with a global population of six billion, only three billion have access to limited or perhaps satisfactory supply of drinking water. It is estimated that 33 per cent of the world’s population has no access to sanitation and 17 per cent has no access to safe water.

But by 2025 the world population is going to rise to eight billion but only one billion will have sufficient water. Two billion, which is 25 per cent, will have no access to safe water. Five billion that is 62 per cent will have no access to sanitation. We should collectively find a solution for this problem.

The use of fossil fuels has caused enormous problems for the environment of planet earth resulting in abnormal changes in climatic conditions. This has resulted in researchers to look for clean energy sources such as hydel power plants, nuclear power plants, energy from renewable sources such as solar, wind and tidal. Also, in the transportation sector there is a need to progressively introduce the use of bio-diesel and ethanol.

In the health care sector, major diseases like HIV/AIDS, cancer, tuberculosis, malaria, other water borne diseases and coronary artery diseases have increased considerably. Man is fighting a war on all fronts - terrorism on one side, diseases and environmental degradation on the other and above all poverty in life. On the other hand man has created technologies which can bridge nations and minds - if mind-willing!

What I would like to discuss with you is the possibility of creating a near disease free, economically prosperous and peaceful society. In my opinion, this could be achieved through “Evolution of Enlightened Citizens” that has three dimension approach for evolving a happy, prosperous and peaceful society in our planet.

How do we create such an enlightened society? Hence, the evolution of enlightened society is possible by adopting three vital components, which are (a) Education with value system (b) Religion transforming into spirituality and (c) Economic development for societal transformation? More details on the global vision can be seen in my website www.presidentofindia.nic.in.

Let me now focus only on the economic development for societal transformation which transforms the developing nation into a developed nation. A world body has to give leadership in evolution of enlightened citizenship to the society.

In our country, we have a population of over one billion people of which 220 million have to be lifted up. Similar situation exists in many nations. They need education, they need habitat, they need health care, and creation of employment potential.

To meet their needs, in India we have the third vision of transforming India into a developed nation by the year 2020.

We have identified five areas where India has a core competence for integrated action: (1) agriculture and food processing (2) education and Healthcare (3) information and communication technology (4) self reliance in critical technologies and (5) infrastructure development such as power, transportation, and communication and including providing urban amenities in rural areas (PURA) which envisages sustained rural development through provision of physical connectivity, electronic connectivity, knowledge connectivity leading to economic connectivity of the rural villages. For India, we have planned 7000 PURAs clusters. This plan of action and experience, we can share with Afghanistan.

Excerpts from the address at the Indira Gandhi Prize for Peace, Disarmament and Development given in Delhi on Nov 19

GM rice wins US approval
by Christopher Lee

THE Department of Agriculture declared safe for human consumption on Friday an experimental variety of genetically engineered rice found to have contaminated the U.S. rice supply this summer.

The move by the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service to deregulate the special long-grain rice, LL601, was seen as a legal boon to its creator, Bayer CropScience of Research Triangle Park, N.C. The company applied for approval shortly after the widespread contamination was disclosed in August and now faces a class-action lawsuit filed by hundreds of farmers in Arkansas and Missouri.

The experimental rice, designed to resist Bayer's Liberty weed killer, escaped from Bayer's test plots after the company dropped the project in 2001. The resulting contamination, once it became public, prompted countries around the world to block rice imports from the United States, sending rice futures plummeting and farmers into fits.

In approving the rice, the USDA allowed Bayer to take a regulatory shortcut and skip many of the usual safety tests by declaring that the new variety is similar to ones already approved, in this case two varieties of biotech rice that Bayer never commercialized because farmers did not want them in their fields. The department gave its preliminary approval Sept. 8.

"The protein in the company's herbicide-tolerant rice varieties ... is well known to regulators, who have affirmed the rice poses no human health or environmental concern,'' said Greg Coffey, a Bayer spokesman.

Coffey said the company has no plans to sell the newly approved variety.

Joseph Mendelson, legal director of the nonprofit Center for Food Safety, said the quick approval shows that the USDA is more concerned about the fortunes of the biotechnology industry than about consumers' health.

"USDA is telling agricultural biotechnology companies that it doesn't matter if you're negligent, if you break the rules, if you contaminate the food supply with untested genetically engineered crops, we'll bail you out,'' Mendelson said in a statement.

"In effect, USDA is sanctioning an 'approval-by-contamination' policy that can only increase the likelihood of untested genetically engineered crops entering the food supply in the future,'' he said.

Most critics agree that the new rice is safe to eat. The bacterial gene that is in LL601 is also in several approved varieties of engineered corn, canola and cotton. Experts say the key gene in the new rice is sure to move via pollen into red rice, a weedy relative of white rice and the No. 1 plant pest for rice farmers in the South.

By September rice prices had slumped about 10 percent, and experts predicted that market losses would reach $150 million.

Adam Levitt, an attorney for about 300 farmers in litigation against Bayer, said Friday's approval does nothing to change that outlook. Officials in Europe, where genetically altered rice is derisively dubbed "Frankenfood,'' made clear as recently as last week that European countries will not accept any U.S. rice, he said.

"Unless the U.S. export countries change their view and begin to regain a sense of confidence in U.S. rice, the U.S. rice farmers are still hurt and this whole ruling is illusory in its effect,'' Levitt said. "It's not a victory at all, because at the end of the day people are not purchasing U.S. rice and the exports markets are absolutely closed still.''

While Bayer may have received some legal help--it can no longer be said to be responsible for introducing an illegal variety of gene-altered rice into the U.S. rice supply--the USDA is still investigating how the variety escaped from test plots into farmers' fields, where it was quietly amplified for years until its discovery.

USDA officials said Friday that the decision to deregulate the rice is separate from the question of whether Bayer complied with federal regulations in its handling the gene-altered rice.

"The deregulation doesn't preclude any legal action against the company for violation of APHIS regulations,'' said Rachel Iadicicco, a USDA spokeswoman. "Violators of APHIS regulations can face criminal penalties, civil penalties and remediation costs.''

By arrangement with LA-Times–Washington Post

Chatterati
A wedding in style
by Devi Cherian

Delhi-ites have just witnessed the elegant wedding of Mala and Jugnu Singh's son Jaisal. Mala has been the boss of the India Magazine of Business India Television and now runs the Seminar magazine with her husband.

Jaisal is one of the country's best-known polo players and runs the famous Ranthambore Sanctuary Resort. He has got married to the daughter of the Anand family. A grand wedding that saw Rajasthani turbans, brocade achkans and rich traditional attire.

At the qawwali night Montek and Isha Ahluwalia, Farooq Abdullah, Maharaja of Jodhpur Gaj Singh were present. Sonia Gandhi came for a while whereas Priyanka, Rahul and Robert stayed on to enjoy the evening.

After a long time one witnessed a high tea reception on the lawns of Sujan Singh Park. In true old British style, played the army band. Ambika Soni, Jaipal Reddy, Anand and Anu Mahendra from Bombay mingled with the other rich, famous and powerful.

UP poll scene

The BJP and the Congress are perturbed over the pending UP elections with Mayawati and Mulayam not giving a clear signal. The Samajwadi Party thinks that the BJP has reached an agreement with the BSP whereas BSP supremo Mayawati thinks that the BJP has an understanding with the Samajwadis.

With Rahul Gandhi not indicating his role in the coming elections, the Congress worker is demoralised. Amar Singh has more or less declared that Amitabh Bachchan is so fed up with the Congress witch-hunting that he may campaign all over the state with his son Abhishek and Jaya Bhaduri for the coming elections. The joke amongst the Congress guys is not about the winning or losing, it is more about whether they will come fourth or fifth.

Heritage in danger

Break the law and get punished. This basic principle seems to apply only to the common man who now faces the threat of his home or office getting sealed for flouting building bylaws or land use norms.

The Delhi High Court had last October directed that bungalows be rid of unauthorised structures in four weeks. A survey conducted by the CPWD found that 231 of the 514 bungalows have been altered illegally over the years. The order was passed a year ago but netas and babus still haven't stirred. The VVIPs living in Lutyen's bungalows continue to use illegal structures made in the heritage zone.

The government is trying to legalise some of the changes, claiming that the occupants' needs have grown over the years. Notices were issued to senior leaders like Arjun Singh, Lalu Prasad Yadav, Ram Vilas Paswan and L K Advani. The massive alterations carried out in some of the bungalows have led to this place being listed as endangered heritage areas. Only six of the 73 persons to whom notices were issued have replied, seeking advice on how they should remove the illegal portions.

REFLECTIONS

There is but one God, the Supreme Being, His name is Eternal Truth. He is the Creator of Universe and Immanent Reality. He is devoid of fear and rancour. He is form Eternal, Unborn and Self-existent; He is realised by the grace of the Guru, the holy preceptor.

 — Guru Nanak

Brahman is all, and the Self is Brahman. This self has four states of consciousness.

 — The Mandukya Upanishads

Who supports the universe; who is that One Being on whom Agni, Chandrama, Surya and Vata rest? In His reflected glory we have all the thirty-three devatas as variations of his manifestation.

 — The Vedas

The heroes who fall in quest of victory or in defense of their faith are immortalised by the bards. But who remembers the widows they leave behind, some of them taken in the first flush of youth, some of them with little children to rear.

 — The Mahabharata

Keep your critic close to you; give him shelter in your courtyard; without soap and water he will clean your character.

 — Kabir

God is Primal, Immaculate, Eternal, and Immutable through all ages.

 — Guru Nanak