Mohammed Afzal- Should he be hanged???

There is a wide spread debate in the media about whether Mohammed AFZAL- who was given death sentence by SC for conpiring in Parliament attack should be hanged or not...

Intellectuals, Politicians, common man have all voiced their opinions on this...People who advocate clemency for Afzal include Ghulam Nabi Azad, Medha Patkar, Arundati Roy
and others...

The larger question here is whther Death penalty should be abolished or not...European
countries have banned it while others advocate death penalty for rarest of rarest cases
including India, US...This issue needs to be thouroughly reviewd and it takes time...But to
link this issue with Afzal case is condemable and hardly the way to go...

The argument put forth by many is that diplomacy between India and Pakistan will suffer if
Afzal is hanged...

If Afzal is given clelemncy it will have negative impact on the morale of the army who
pledge their lives for the security of the common man...Terrorists who commit heinous crime
in the name of AZADI will get a boost if he is pardoned...They will be under the impresion
that they could go scott free inspite of commiting such barbaric acts...

Some intellectuals have questioned the judgement of the Supreme court itself...Afzal case
has been heard 3 times and all have awarded death sentence...In an era where Corruption is
rooted in all areas, Supreme court has largely remained free of this stigma...Questioning
the credibility of the judgement amounts to showing scant respect to the highest judicial body in India...

Our president in the larger interests of our nation should not give clemency. Law ministry should initiate a nationwide debate on whther death penalty should be abolished or not and should not link this with AFZAL case...

Mohammed Yunus-2006 Nobel Peace prize winner

In an era where Globalisation has increased the disparity among rich and poor, we have Prof.Mohammed Yunus who devoted his life for the upliftment of poor through a unique scheme called Microcredit for poor...His idea has been replicated with good degree of success across the globe...Our very own Self help groups are based on his idea...Here's the profile of the man himself.....

Professor Dr. Muhammad Yunus (born June 28, 1940), is a Bangladeshi banker and economist. He is the developer and founder of the concept of microcredit, the extension of small loans to entrepreneurs too poor to qualify for traditional bank loans. Yunus is also the founder of Grameen Bank. In 2006, Yunus and the bank were jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, for their efforts to create economic and social development from below. Yunus himself has received several other international honors, including the World Food Prize. He is the author of Banker to the Poor.

In 1976, Yunus founded the Grameen Bank (Grameen means "of rural area", "of village") to make loans to poor Bangladeshis. Since then the Grameen Bank has issued more than US$ 5.1 billion to 5.3 million borrowers. To ensure repayment, the bank uses a system of "solidarity groups". These small informal groups apply together for loans and its members act as co-guarantors of repayment and support one another's efforts at economic self-advancement. As it has grown, the Grameen Bank has also developed other systems of alternate credit that serve the poor. In addition to microcredit, it offers housing loans as well as financing for fisheries and irrigation projects, venture capital, textiles, and other activities, along with other banking services such as savings.

Mohammed Yunus, the man truly deserves Nobel Peace Prize 2006...

World of Nukes(Nuclear bombs)????

North korea joined the list of countries with Nukes last week....It joins Permanent members
of Security council P5, India, Pakistan, Israel...

Interestingly India deplored the Nuke test saying it could trigger tension in South East asia...India tested it in 1998 and made Pakistan to follow suit....Now they are condeming
North korea...What an Irony..

NPT- Nuclear Nonproliferation treaty has been put to silent death....India Pak North korea have not signed this treaty...The treaty itself is highly flawed...It allows P5 to continue
testing Nuclear weapons where as other member countries are not supposed to...This is the
precise reason why we didnt sign it...Iran will definitely go for nukes...

North korea's test will certainly trigger arms race in south East Asia...Russia and China support North Korea...where as US supports Japan...More than 50000 US troops are stationed in Japan...Japan will feel threatened by its neighbours namely China and North Korea who have nukes...They might go for one as well....

Rather than imposing sanctions on North Korea the world leaders mainly P5...US Russia China UK and France need to make introspection...Nuke does no good to anyone...Its just triggering arms race...They should lead the way in disbanding their nukes and other countries will certainly follow them...

A comphresenhive treaty for a nuke free worls is the need of the hour and not sacntions...

"That's what joining The 99 Club is all about"

This is an internet forward..A beautiful sarcastic narration about the way we lead our life...

Once upon a time, there lived a King who, despite his luxurious lifestyle, was neither happy nor content.

One day, the King came upon a servant who was singing happily while he worked. This fascinated the King; why was he, the Supreme Ruler of the Land, unhappy and gloomy, while

A lowly servant had so much joy. The King asked the servant, "Why are you so happy?"

The man replied, "Your Majesty, I am nothing but a servant, but my family and I don't need too much - just a roof over our heads and warm food to fill our tummies."

The king was not satisfied with that reply. Later in the day, he sought the advice of his most trusted advisor. After hearing the King's woes and the servant's story, the advisor said, "Your Majesty, I believe that the servant has not been made part of The 99 Club."

"The 99 Club? And what exactly is that?" the King inquired.

The advisor replied, "Your Majesty, to truly know what The 99 Club is, place 99 Gold coins in a bag and leave it at this servant's doorstep."

When the servant saw the bag, he took it into his house. When he opened the bag, he let out a great shout of joy... So many gold coins!

He began to count them. After several counts, he was at last convinced that there were 99 coins. He wondered, "What could've happened to that last gold coin? Surely, no one would leave 99 coins!"

He looked everywhere he could, but that final coin was elusive. Finally, exhausted, he decided that he was going to have to work harder than ever to earn that gold coin and complete his collection.

From that day, the servant's life was changed. He was overworked, horribly grumpy, and castigated his family for not helping him make that 100th gold coin. He stopped singing while he worked.

Witnessing this drastic transformation, the King was puzzled. When he sought his advisor's help, the advisor said, "Your Majesty, the servant has now officially joined The 99 Club."

He continued, "The 99 Club is a name given to those people who have enough to be happy but are never contented, because they're always yearning and striving for that extra 1 telling to themselves: "Let me get that one final thing and then I will be happy for life."

We can be happy, even with very little in our lives, but the minute we're given something bigger and better, we want even more! We lose our sleep, our happiness, we hurt the people around us; all these as a price for our growing needs and desires. That's what joining The 99 Club is all about."

State of Indian Cricket Team

Shastri has opined that Dravid needs to assert himself and has to come out of the shadow of Chappel....

I dont entirely agree with him..Lets give some more time to Dravid...We cant judge him just after a couple of failures...Public memory is very short....One great victory can change the fortune of indian team on its head and peole will forgive the failures..

There is an accusation that Frequent changing of the batting order has led to the downfall of our team in recent matches...I hope that they settle their top order in a few months time...Atleast by south african tour this november we should have a settled line up and each player should know the role assigned to him...If we keep on trying out various combinations for too long it will prove to be disastrous...I would prefer Sachin opening with Sehwag, followed by Dravid, Yuvraj, Kaif or Mongia, Dhoni followed by Pathan, Agarkar, Harbhajan, Munaf patel, Sreeshanth or Kumble.

Ganguly's comeback??? How he performs in the domestic circuit will be key to this.....With Dinesh mongia playing a good knock at Malaysia, ganguly's chances have certainly taken a beating...

Kumble definitely should be part of world cup....With pitches favoring spinners in West Indies he has a major role to play..

ALL THE BEST TO TEAM INDIA FOR THE UPCOMING CHAMPIONS TROPHY...

GLOBALISATION ?? WTO ?? Impact on INDIA

We have pretty much reached a stage where globalisation has become part and parcel of our life...It now boils down to the question of its impact on developing countries like India and under developed african nations.....

WTO which replaced GATT is struggling to find a breakthrough in realising its goal..US, European union on one side and developing countries led by India, Brazil on the other with their own agendas are fighting it out to garner maximum benefits of globalisation..

US and Europe accuse developing countries of not opening their markets especially in the sector of agriculture whereas developing countries point fingers at major powers of huge subsidies they dole out to their farmers their by shielding them from the negative effects of Globalisation...

Mutually acceptable solution is pretty difficult to come by....

The poorest nations of Africa are left in the lurch...With the fight between developed and developing hotting up, under developed nations are bearing almost all the negative aspects of globalisaion..They are finding it difficult to voice their opinion...

The positives definitely outweigh negatives when it comes to a country like India...We have reaped huge benefits in services (IT , Banking) and manufacturing sector because of Globalisation....But when it comes to Agriculture its altogether a different proposition...

Agricultire has shown a negative growth for most part of this decade..Every day 4 to 5 farmers are commiting suicides in various part of India...Lets take Vidarbha region where suicide rates are unimaginable...Cotton is their main crop...and are finding it difficult to sutain in the wake of Globalisation... Very low import duty on cotton has caused huge damage to the local farmers...add to this is the genetically modified(GM) cotton commonly referred as Bt Cotton...American MNCs tying up with local companies are promoting Bt cotton in a grand manner...The results from Andra pradesh shows that GM Bt cotton has been a failure...in some cases the use of pesticides has increased considerably contradicting Bt cotton manufacturers views that pesticide usage will come down drastically if Bt cotton is used..

We need to have some sort of protection mechanism for the farming sector so that our farmers are protected adequately from the ill effects of globalisation....

Globalisation will serve the purpose only when it reaches the poor....

Lage raho munna bhai ...GANDHIGIRI

Gandhigiri Vs Dadagiri...

Movie not to be missed by any Indian....

Hats off to Rajkumar Hirani for creating another master piece....Sanjay Duth, Arshad Warsi, Boman Irani.....everybody at their best....

Gandhi's relevance in todays unilateral world dominated by US has been an issue under discussion for some time now....In the world of nukes, people like Gandhi, his strategies are hardly mentioned leave alone discussing...

This is where credit goes to the director for highlighting Gandhigiri in todays polarised world...Whether its solving simple problem or the root of corruption, its beautifully documented and common man can easily come to terms with Gandhi's idealogy....

Few months back we had Rang de Basanti where youth take up arms and end up being killed in fighting corruption....This sends out a wrong message amongst youth....Naxalites justify their strategy....Violence is not the way to go....

Lage raho highlights the significance of Truth and Non-violence in todays world.....

Definitely it should be India's entry into OSCARS next year.....

Indo US Nuclear deal

Indo-US nuclear deal has been debated a lot in media as well as in Parliament(surprisingly)

I welcome the deal provided we are allowed to reprocess spent Uranium..This ensures that our resarch work can be carried out without any hindrance...

Our power requirements are so huge that we need to promote nuclear power in a big way...Inspite of sanctions after Pokhran we have demonstrated our nuclear capability in Thermo nuclear fusion, reprocessing of spent uranium....We have become part of 8 countries investing in International Thermo nuclear fusion (ITER) research....Once this deal is approved our access to more uranium resources from other countries will go a long way in encouraging nuclear power....

Right now our country is dependent on Thermal power and coal resources will run short by this century...If we can get access to latest nuclear technology and uranium resources, nuclear power can substitute thermal power in the long run...

We need to be careful that we do not compromise on minium nuclear deterrent capability...With terrorist breeding centres as our neighbours we need to maintain this capability...Afterall we cannot choose our neighbours ..right?

Reservations - BOON OR BANE...

Reservation......

Our constituent assembly chaired by Dr. Ambedkar realised that the conditions of the oppressed class need to improved and hence introduced the concept of reservation for a decade upto 1960..

It was a right decision at that stage...For decades long they were subjugated to mindless acts and had lost their identity...

This reservation benefits were reviewed after each decade and it continues to be in force till now...Unfortunately Ambedkar thought that reservation will be done way after a decade i.e 1960...

Whats the status right now....No doubt people have benefitted a great deal from this and inhuman practices like untouchability has come down to a manageble scale...

But the benefits of reservation has not percolated to all the needy...

The creamy layer concept has to be implemented properly for efective utilisation of reservation benefits...Else people who are poweful enough continue to exploit reservation where as the needy ones will be left out...

Economic condition should be the criteria to determine reservation and not any particular caste or creed...