29 Tuesday Apr 2014
Posted in General
Shri M.V.Devan, renowned artist, writer, sculptor and orator, passed away at Aluva, Kerala on 29th April 2014. He was 86.
He has given guidance and advise for more than one generation in the field of art and sculpture.
My respectful homage to M.V.Devan !
28 Monday Apr 2014
Posted in General
The 28 countries affiliated European Union has temporarily banned import of Indian Mangoes,eggplant, taro plant, bitter gourd,snake gourd etc. stated that these are contaminated by pests. According to the Euro Union, these pests will contaminate and adversely affect their vegetable crops.
Whether it is because of the pests or a trick by the Euro Union to reduce the imports. The Government India have to clear the issue. Govt. of India has to take immediate action in the matter to find out the real reason and restore the import.
In this connection, it is to be remembered that when the export of Indian clothes to US was increasing, the latter forced a ban on import stating that the Indian Clothes will catch fire and is a risk.
27 Sunday Apr 2014
Posted in General
Comrades P.P.Anandan and M.Achuthan became martyrs in the struggle for freedom of Mahe (Mayyazhi) from the French on 27th April 1954.
Mayyazhi, a small area between the present Kannur and Kozhikode district was given to the French by the local Raja centuries back. The French constructed a fort there. During the several wars between British and France, Mahe was taken over by the British. But after agreements the same was given back to France. Since 1816, Mahe continued to be in the hands of the French.
When India got Independence on 15th August 1947 from the British after a long and sustained freedom struggle, Mahe still remained in the hands of French. Despite several demands by the Govt. of India, the French did not vacate. It is at this juncture that the people of the French colonies in the country, Pondicherry, Mahe, Karikkal, Yanaon, Chandernagor and Trincomalee started agitations demanding vacation of the territories by the French.
The French Government reacted and used force to crush the struggle. It was during this struggle that Coms. Anandan and Achuthan were killed and became martyrs.Before the mass upsurge, the French could not continue their rule. They had no other way but to leave.
The entire French colonies in India including Mahe got freedom in 1954 itself. Chandernagore got freedom two years earlier in 1952.
Today is the 60th death anniversary of the above martyrs. Our revolutionary homage to these martyrs who fought and laid their lives at the altar of freedom!
27 Sunday Apr 2014
Posted in General
Justice Rajendra Mal Lodha (64) has sworn in as the 41st Chief Justice of India today, 27th April 2014. He will have a short tenure of 5 months and will retire on 27th September 2014.
The Supreme Court in the recent period has been taking an active role against corruption as also putting its feet on hasty and irregular decisions of the government which are politically motivated.
We hope the new Chief Justice will also continue the same path.
My Best Wishes and Congratulations to the new Chief justice!
23 Wednesday Apr 2014
Posted in General
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Today, 23rd April, is being celebrated as the World Book Day, as per the call of the UNESCO. The decision was taken by the United Nations body in 1995, in homage to many stalwarts in the field of literature. The first and foremost is that April 23 is both the birth and death anniversary of the great poet William Shakespeare. Along with it is the birth / death anniversary of
Miguel de Cervantes, Inca Garcilaso de la Vega and Josep Pla, Maurice Druon, Manuel Mejía Vallejo and Halldór Laxness.
Book reading is an important part of the growth of any individual. Almost all the great leaders of the world were/are great book leaders also. By the books read by a person, he can be understood. There are crores and crores of books written and published, but only few remain evergreen and are read through centuries. Those books have influenced the lives of many.
I remember now about one library I have visited while I was at Hyderabad. It is the Com. P.Sundarayya Memorial Library at the CPI(M) Party Office. The library is small compared to many other libraries. But the speciality is something else. Out of the total books, I was told that about 50,000 books are from the personal collection of Com. P.Sundarayya himself and another about 35,000 from the collection of Com. Basavapunnaiah, another senior leader of CPI(M). Both were PB Members of the CPI(M) and the former was also the General Secretary of the CPI(M). In most of these books you can see some notes made by these leaders. I was surprised at the large number of books read by these stalwarts.
The late Com.P.Govinda Pillai, senior leader of CPI(M) in Kerala was a writer, who was a wide range reader. Whenever on tour, or in fact at any time, you can find two or three big books with him carried in a bag, which is to be read, whenever opportunity comes.
You cannot compare Com. EMS Namboodiripad with anybody else. As another leader said, Com.EMS was a human computer. His reading was vast and covered almost everything in the realms of books and remembered them and utilised them for the benefit of the people and the party.
There are many more and will be many more. Libraries are opened and maintained for the benefit of book reading for all. Many poor students, who could not purchase costly books have been the beneficiaries of the libraries. The left movement in Kerala has been one of the reasons for the large number of libraries in Kerala.
Reading is learning and is power. In the new technology era, the importance of printed books may go down a little. Still the books will continue to influence the people for a very long time.
Lakhs of priceless and very important books on history, literature etc. have been taken away from India during the British rule and are kept at London Library. It is time that the Government of India demanded that these books be returned to India.
One recent news. The Oxford Dictionary is not going to be printed after the present one in printing is published. This new Dictionary is in 40 Volumes. The Publishers state that it will not be possible in future to print the same since it may go to many more volumes. Instead it will be e-dictionary.It is just like the disappearance of the Telephone Directory in the country.
23 Wednesday Apr 2014
Posted in General
The DGCA has issued new directions stating that the mobiles need not be put off during flight, but can be put on Flight Mode and non-transmitting activities can be done. It is the same with laptops also.
In the flight mode, the passengers can work, play video games, listen to music, watch pre-loaded movies, type emails, SMS etc.But the E-mails, SMS can be sent only after the plane lands at the airport.
Many countries had allowed these facilities earlier. Now the DGCA has cleared it for the passengers in India also.This will benefit many travellers who want to do some urgent work while sitting in the flight.
21 Monday Apr 2014
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The Mughals ruled India for more than three centuries. It started with the Panipat War in 1526 with Babar defeating Ibrahim Lodi and the end of Lodi Dynasty. The war started and ended on 21st April 1526. The Mughal dynasty continued till 1857, for at least namesake, when the British crushed the First war of Independence. The Mughals, in fact, had lost their power much before.
The conquerors win not through the sheer numbers of army, but through tactics and war strategy. In the 1526 Panipat War, the Lodis had 30,000 to 40,000 soldiers with about 1,000 war elephants. But Babar had only about 10,000 – 15,000 soldiers, but had the cannons and a clear strategy. Naturally, Ibrahim Lodi was defeated and killed in the war.
In many other wars also, you can see the victory of the better strategy and use of better arms.
Indians were lacking in both. Further there were people to join with the enemy and help them. That is why we were ruled by foreigners for centuries.
Now we are free. Instead of foreign military, MNCs are coming and trying to control the finance of the country. Let us not get in to the trap. Let us fight this capitalism and crony capitalism and remain free both politically and economically and progress.
20 Sunday Apr 2014
Posted in General
Today, a report was seen in the Indian Express about the incident where the ICICI Bank has imposed penalty on an account holder for not maintaining the minimum balance in the bank account. Such action on the part of the private banks is completely unjustified.
Neither the Public Sector Banks nor the Post Office impose such a penalty. If the minimum balance is not there, the bank can deny the services, but they can not impose penalties. This is fully wrong and has to be discontinued.
Private companies, whether banks, airports, airlines, all are resorting to anti-customer measures to maximise their profits. The penalty being imposed by the banks have been mentioned above. The private airports are charging the traveller for maintaining the airport, while Airport Authority of India (AAI) does not charge. While Air india does not charge for printing of tickets at the airport, the private airlines charge Rs. 50-100. Such incidents happen in almost all the private companies. The government is closing its eyes to such illegal practices.
Strict instructions are necessary to stop such unhealthy and exploiting arrangements by the private companies.
16 Wednesday Apr 2014
Posted in General, Neo-liberal policy
Yesterday (15th April), I had travelled to Jaipur by the Ajmer Shatabdi train which starts at 06.00 hours from New Delhi and reaches Jaipur at about 1030 hours. I was looking outside through the glass window, as I was sitting on a window seat. Within minutes of leaving the station, I was compelled to turn my eyes from looking outside.
It was a sad sight that I saw. A large number of old people, young men, children were sitting on the open spaces on both sides of the railway tracks and attending to the call of nature, with a bottle of water in their hands. The area where they were sitting was completely dirty with wastes and gutter water. At some distance, women and girls were standing, waiting for the train to pass away. The sadness and misery on their faces were heart-rendering.
This scene is not in New Delhi/Delhi alone. All over India, such tragic scenes can be seen. Even after more than six decades of Independence, the condition of the poor has not improved. I do not have the statistics, but approximately 60% of the people in the country have no toilets. Crores of people do not have a house to live in. They do not have even Rs.20 for per day as earning to maintain their family.
At the same time the number of billionaires in India is increasing in leaps and bounds. They have palace-like residences, planes for their private use, fleet of foreign luxury cars and what not. They party in the seven star hotels, spends thousands of crores of rupees for celebrations, while crores of people having nothing to eat.
The General elections are going on. This is the time to give a suitable reply to the ruling classes and their political parties that the common people of this country will not tolerate this insult, injustice and discrimination. Let the ruling classes be taught a tough lesson.
16 Wednesday Apr 2014
Posted in General, Neo-liberal policy
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On 16th April 2014, Indian Railway completes 161 years of glorious service to the nation. It was on 16th April 1853 that the First train run from Victoria terminus (Bombay) to Thane.
India Railway is the largest railway in the world. It has got 115,000 km of track and 7,500 Railway Stations as in january 2014. It is continuously expanding. More than 3 crores people are travelling through rail every day on an average. About 13 lakh workers are employed in the Railways, the maximum by any industry.
Government as per the new LPG policy is trying to privatise the most profitable areas/ sections of the Railway. But the people want it to fully continue as a government service.
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