2 Years of Modi Sarkar: Broken Promises; Sectarian Agenda

[email protected] (Ram Puniyani)
June 2, 2016

The performance of the Modi Government during last two years has to be seen in the light of the promises made in the electoral campaign and on the barometer of values of Indian Constitution of pluralism and diversity. Acche din had become a buzzword, black money being retrieved and being deposited in everybody's bank account was looked forward to and anticipation of creation of jobs got registered in people's mind. None of this came through. Prices of essential commodities started shooting the sky, of all the things even dal (pulses) started becoming a luxury item. Fifteen lakhs is nowhere in the account and job creation is stagnant. As such the much flouted foreign policy remained on the confused platter with nothing to show except the Prime Minister's much hyped global rendezvous on regular basis. With Pakistan the policy of blow hot blow cold is in operation and the friendliest neighbor Nepal is drifting away from the earlier status of a close ally.

narendra-modi

The much touted Maximum Governance-Minimal Government has been reduced to all powers being centralized in the hands of a single person and authoritarian streaks are visible as the cabinet system, where PM is first among equals, is being overturned towards a PM controlling everything. The major damage is in the arena of the communal amity, autonomy of academic institutions and communal harmony.

This is the first time that BJP has got a simple majority in the Lok Sabha and with this the Hindutva agenda is being unfolded in a drastic way. Right from the word go; the affiliates of Hindutva politics became active and Mohsin Shiekh, a techie from Pune was killed by the activists of Hindu Rashtra Sena. The cabal of this politics stepped up spreading hate against those not agreeing with the agenda of ruling dispensation. Even before coming to power the current minister in the centre, Giriraj Singh had stated that those not voting for Modi should go to Pakistan. Another worthy in the ministry; Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti uttered the word Harmjade (illegitimate) for those not voting for her party. All and sundry from this dispensation reached the limits of spreading hate against religious minorities; all this when the all powerful PM kept overseeing the march ofHate other' politics. It was said that as a Prime Minister how can he comment on every incident? It seems his silence was a deliberate one and part of thedivision of labor' assigned by their parent organization, the RSS. Those making these hateful statements were not fringe elements as called by some; they are part of core agenda.

HIndutva politics thrives on identity issues. This time around the Holy Cow-beef eating took the center stage and the hysteria created around this issue led to the murder of Mohhamad Akhlaq in Dadri and many other acts of violence including murders. This came in the back drop of the murders of Dabholkar, Pansare and Kalburgi. This Dadri incident became a sort of barometer of growing intolerance in the country, prompting many eminent writers, scientists and film makers to return their well earned honors. Rather than taking note of the growing intolerance in the society they were criticized heavily as being motivated politically or doing so for money.

The attempt of this Government to intrude in to the educational institutions became apparent soon enough. It was visible with appointments of those who are ideologically aligned with ruling organization irrespective of their competence. Gajendra Chauhan was appointed as the Chairman of FTII. The student's protests against this decision were ignored. In Hyderabad Central University, Ambedkar Students Association was targeted. The local BJP MP, Bandaru Dattatrey complained to MHRD minister that anti-National and casteist activities are going on in HCU. MHRD Ministry pressurized University and Rohith Vemula and his friends were expelled from the hostel and their scholarship was stopped. This is what led to the suicide of Rohith Vemula.

There was a nationwide outrage against policies of Government towards the academic institutions. Meanwhile JNU was targeted and Kanhiaya Kumar and his friends who had not shouted anti-India slogans were charged under sedition. Those who shouted slogans were not arrested. This also ignored the fact that mere shouting of slogans is not a crime. The doctored CD was used to implicate the JNU scholars. They were charged under sedition act. This triggered the debate on nationalism leading to prominent scholars participating inteach-ins' on nationalism in JNU.

RSS patriarch Mohan Bhagawat raked up another emotive issue by saying that youth must be told to sayBharat Mata ki jai'. In response to that; Asadudding Owaisi of MIM said he will not say so even if a knife is put on his throat. In further building up the issue and RSS fellow traveler Baba Ramdev stated that had Constitution not be there, by now lakhs would have been beheaded. The ground level message of this is fraught with dangers.

All in all, two years down the line Modi, the RSS prachrak, is on the job of pushing the country towards Hindu nation and undermining Indian nationalism. Indian nationalism has liberal space and place for diversity built into it. As such communal politics resorts to emotive issues and that's visible in propping issues like beef, nationalism and Bharat Mata ki jai. While three more years are to go for this government the divisive agenda and policies which are detrimental to the welfare of average people is on the display. India needs to march on the path of inclusive growth and amity among the people that seems to be missing at the moment.

Comments

UMMAR
 - 
Saturday, 4 Jun 2016

@ RASHEED MP

NOTHING GOING TO HAPPEN ANY MIRACEL,

IT WIL BE ZERO ONLY TOUR WIL CONTINUE ...

Rasheed M.P
 - 
Saturday, 4 Jun 2016

Modi doing good work. It may takes times to patch up work of previous upa govt. Corruption reduced and economy getting strong. 2 more year all promise will be addressed.

UMMAR
 - 
Thursday, 2 Jun 2016

HONESTLY THEY GAVE SOME PROMISE BUT NOTHING HAPPEN IN 2 YEAR

ONLY MAN KI BAATH, VISIT TO MANY COUNTRY TALKING WITH BIG DEALS BUT NO IMPLEMENTED UNTIL NOW .

AB KI BAAR MODHI SARKAR EASY TO ADVERTISE BT HARD TO PROVE AND SHOW SOME WORK.

MONEY VALUE DOWN
PETROL PRICE HIGH
VEGTABLES HIGH

EVEN DAL BECOME HARD TO BUY TO POOR PEOPLE ..

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February 3,2020

A motley group of as many as 150 birders ‘walked the chirp’ in search of their feathered friends in and around the countryside of Manipal. The occasion was the 10th Edition of Manipal Bird Day organised by Manipal Birders Group on Sunday, February 2nd, 2020.

The day began ‘Bird Walk’ from Hotel Sheela Sagar (Opposite MIT campus) at 6:30 a.m. The birders divided themselves in smaller groups of 10-12 members and followed 13 different trails which took them through different terrains like hills, plains, paddy fields and wetlands. The idea was to sight as many birds as possible and record their presence in the region.

When the walk ended at about 10:00 a.m., the different groups have recorded a total of 125 species of birds, which was a bit lesser than the sighting of the yester years. “The 10th edition this year has seen a very good growth of interest among people. At the same time a decline has been seen in the bird species sighted compared to previous years,” said one of the organisers. Some of the rare birds sighted were Indian Pitta, Oriental Turtle Dove, Fork-Tailed Drongo Cuckoo, Orange Breasted Green Pigeon, Eurasian Marsh Harrier and Malabar Pied Hornbill.

The bird walk was followed with an interaction session at KMC Food Court and MAHE Vice Chancellor Dr. H. Vinod Bhat presided over the function. He felicitated six people who actively participated recently in a rescue mission of abandoned birds in Manipal.

A program then continued with a talk on ‘Ethical Photography’ by Dhruvam Desai, final year student of MIT, Manipal. This was followed by ‘Backyard Birding’ with Shubha Bhat from IISc Bangalore. She spoke on different ways to feed the birds with water using different materials for bird baths. “I have recorded 120 species of birds from bird baths in my garden,” she said. She encouraged the participants to have bird baths in their gardens or flats which will help quench the thirst of these little winged wonders during summer.

The participants involved themselves actively in the interaction sessions. The event was accompanied with an art exhibition titled ‘Feathered Jewels’ by Aditya Bhat. He presented around 18 paintings all from his memory of birding encounters.

Participation in Manipal Bird Day was open to all and entry was free.

MANIPAL BIRD DAY

Manipal Bird Day is an annual event dedicated to celebrating birds in Manipal. This day long event brings together a large number of birders from Manipal, Udupi, Mangalore, Mysore, Bangalore, Davangere and other places. Around 150-200 people gather and are split into different teams. They visit the assigned regions and count as many birds as possible. This non competitive event focuses on spreading awareness regarding the diverse avifauna around us. Turn out for this event has been increasing from 3 people to 200 in last 10 years. This is the 10th edition of Manipal Bird Day.

MANIPAL BIRDERS CLUB

Manipal Birders Club started as a Facebook group after the release of the first edition of “A Birders Handbook to Manipal” to share information about the latest sightings. It is now a formal group of over 500 like-minded members that meets at least once a week to go on bird walks. It is now a large birders community and a medium to organize events, bird walks and discussions about birds and sightings.

The next step would be to involve a higher number of local and young birders who will dictate the change in environment around the town in the coming years. With the co operation of Zoology and natural sciences students and other nature enthusiasts and faculty of different colleges weekly birding sessions have been conducted to involve and encourage more and more people to bird and get connected to the nature and to try to understand the changes happening around us, the media release issued by the group said.

 

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August 8,2020

Mangaluru, Aug 8: As visuals of the Air India Express flight crash at Kozhikode international airport emerge, one cannot help but be reminded of an eerily similar and unfortunate accident that occurred a decade ago. The August 7, 2020 tragedy brought back memories of the 2010 crash.

It was on May 22, 2010 that an Air India Express Boeing 737-800 flight from Dubai to Mangaluru over shot the runway while landing at Bajpe airport and fell into a cliff. Of the 160 passengers and 6 crew members on board, 158 were killed (all crew members and 152 passengers) and only 8 survived.

Even back then, the plane had split into two. The crash has been termed as one of India's worst aviation disasters.

The final conversations between Air traffic control (ATC) and the pilot prior to the landing showed no indication of any distress.

Like the Mangaluru accident, Karipur crash too happened when the flight was attempting to land.

The captain of the aircraft which crashed at Mangaluru, Z Glucia, was an experienced pilot with 10,000 hours of flying experience and had 19 landings at the Mangalore airport. Co-pilot S S Ahluwalia, with 3,000 hours of flying experience had as many as 66 landings at this airport. Both the pilot and co-pilot were among the victims.

An investigation into the accident later found that the cause of the accident was the captain’s failure to discontinue an ‘unstabilised approach’ and his persistence to continue with the landing, despite three calls from the First Officer to ‘go-around’.

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April 13,2020

Mangaluru: The Karnataka-Kerala border closure at Talapady amidst nationwide Covid-19 lockdown has not only prevented the movement of vehicles and people from Kasaragod to Mangaluru but also stopped the supply of life-saving drugs from Karnataka’s medical hub to its bordering district.

Hundreds of people from Kasaragod and Kannur districts who were treated in hospitals of Mangaluru for past several years are still dependent on some of the medicines that are available only in Mangaluru. Such medicines have become inaccessible for Keralites following the border closure. Every day, a number of people from Kerala call their acquaintances in Mangaluru to see if there is a way to get medicine.

In fact, Karnataka government has blocked all 23 roads that connect the state with Kerala. The reason given was, Kasaragod is the hotbed of coronavirus and allowing traffic even in emergency cases might lead to spread of Covid-19 in border districts of Dakshina Kannada, Kodagu and Mysuru. The attitude has resulted in the death of around a dozen people in Kasaragod district in last couple of weeks.

Even after the intervention of the Supreme Court a few days ago, the authorities in Karnataka are facing the allegation of being hostile either by blocking the way ahead or turning a deaf ear to the patients reaching their border. 

At this juncture, three Good Samaritans – P K G Anoop Kumar of Canara Engineering College, Mangaluru, Satheesh Shetty of Kasaragod Patla and P Jayaprakash of Ponnangala – have come to the aid of the Malayalee patients who are dependent on medicines from Mangaluru. 

The three activists who are currently staying (in fact stranded amidst lockdown) in Mangaluru, are delivering life-saving medicines to patients in Kerala through Kerala fire servicemen and policemen posted at the Talapady border. 

Anoop Kumar says that took the initiative after a woman, Maria Augustine from Chemberi (Taliparamba) Nellikkutty, contacted him for a medicine. He managed to buy it from a medical store in the port city and handed it over to a Kerala fire serviceman at Talapady border. 

All three are activists of Communist Party of India (Marxist). After moving to Mangaluru, they set up ‘We Donate Charitable Society’ to donate blood. The activists say that they are ready to dispatch medicines from Mangaluru to any person in Kerala. Those Keralites who are in need of medicines from may contact: 888471344 - Anoop, 9895135881 - Jayaprakash

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abdullah
 - 
Sunday, 21 Jun 2020

Salute to you dears.  May God bless you.  HOpe public and Govt will appreciate your sacrifice and support you.

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