खेती.....यज्ञ या व्यापर?

जिस प्रकार पूर्व काल में ऋषि-मुनि अपनी भौतिक सुख सुविधाएं त्याग कर शहर से दूर और प्रकृति के निकट रह कर अपनी प्रिय वस्तुओ का हवन करते थे ताकि दूसरी प्रजा सुखी रहे, वर्षा अच्छी हो परिणाम स्वरुप फसल अच्छी हो, राज्य संपन्न हो, प्राकृतिक आपदाएं टले। कई यग्यो में कर्ता के प्राणों की भी आहुति देने की बात पढ़ने को मिलती है। क्या हम किसान आत्महत्या का महिमामंडन करने के लिए उसे इस ही तरह की आहुति मान सकते है? तब तो हमे किसान को भी ऋषि मानना पड़ेगा पौराणिक काल में ऋषियों का जो आदर था वो भी किसानों को देना पड़ेगा। कई उदाहरण है शास्त्रो में जो बताते है कि समय-समय पर राजा नंगे पांव ऋषियो के दर्शन करने जाते थे जिसका एक प्रयोजन यह भी होता था कि उन् की सारी जरूरतो का ध्यान रखा जाये और अगर कोई कमी है तो बिना मांगे उपलब्ध करवाई जाए ताकि समाज के अन्नदाता को किसी के सामने हाथ ना फ़ैलाने पड़े। पर अब परिस्थिति परिणत है। परंतु अब परस्पर हाथ फ़ैलाने का रिश्ता है   शासक और कृषक के बीच, पांच साल में एक बार शासक इनके सामने और बाकि  पांच साल किसान, शासक के सामने।

पर अगर खेती व्यापार है तो दृष्टिकोण बदल जायेगा। फिर तो किसान को एक असफल व्यापारी माना जायेगा जो की खुद तो पूरे देश को खिलाता है पर खुद कुपोषित है, जो खुद तो देश की अर्थ व्यवस्था मूल है पर खुद की आर्थिक स्थिति दयनीय है, जिसके घर अच्छी पैदावार का लाभ पूरा देश उठाता है  सिवाए खुद के। कमी कंहा है, गलती में कौन है सरकार या किसान। अगर किसानों के हितों की रक्षा सरकार का उत्तरदायित्व है तो ये याद दिलाने के लिए आजादी के 70 सालो बाद किसानों को उग्र आंदोलन करने के जरूरत क्यों पड रही है क्या पिछले 7 दशकों से हम एक विफल राज्य में रह रहे है जिसमें सरकारे अपनी 60 फिसदी आबादी को दो वक़्त की रोटी और मूलभूत सुविधाऐ भी मुहैया नहीं करवा पाई।

यदि इस मुक्त बाजार प्रणाली में किसानों को अपने हित खुद सुरक्षित रखना है तो क्यों सरकार जब फल, सब्जी या खाद्यान महंगे होने लगते है तो कुछ वर्ग विशेष के तुष्टिकरण के लिए निर्यात कर दाम कम रखने में लग जाती है।  क्या सरकारी हस्तक्षेप सिर्फ शहरी गरीब और मध्यमवर्ग को लाभ पहुँचाने के लिए है।

साल दर साल किसानों की जोत छोटी और कर्ज बड़ा होता जा रहा है। छोटी जोत में ज्यादा पैदावार देने वाली फसले जैसे की प्याज, टमाटर,आलू एकदम से प्रचलित होते जा रही है और परिणाम स्वरुप इनके भाव कम से भी कम। बुद्धिजीवियों द्वारा इस कुचक्र से निकलने का एक मात्र उपाय सुझाया गया है कि जमीनी तौर पर मूल्य संवर्धन इकाईया लगायी जाये जिससे किसान खुद अपने उत्पाद को प्रसंस्करण कर उचित लाभ कमा सके और साथ ही साथ मौसमी बेरोजगारी से भी निजाद पा सके।

अब सरकार को ये निश्चित करना है कि खेती को व्यापार मान कर किसानों को अपना मुनाफा कमाने में स्वसामर्थ करना है या यज्ञ मान किसानों को अपने प्राणो की आहुति देने के लिए छोड़ देना है?

Will Kulbhushan be Next Sarabjit?

Kulbhushan Jadav an indian citizen who took premature retirement from navy and doing his business in Iran, was abducted and taken to Pakistan and their tried by military court which awarded him the death sentence. Indian Government reacted with rightful indignation and warn Pakistan for dire consequences.

Similarly Sarabjit Singh who was also an Indian national, convicted of terrorism and spying by a Pakistani court. Was tried to bring back home by the UPA government but failed, despite a high decibel campaign for his release.

While in prison at Kot Lakhpat Jail, Lahore on this very day in April 2013, he was attacked by fellow inmates and died six days later on 2nd may, at the Jinnah Hospital, Lahore. We also could never bring back our 53 POW of Bangladesh Liberation war of 1971. So India has very bad track record of bringing back it's people from foreign soil.

Where Pakistan has declared Kulbhusan their enemy number one on international platforms and awarded the capital punishment to boast this as a strategic achievement will it be possible for India to get it done through diplomatic devices with the pseudo democratic and insidious state of Pakistan, certainly doubtful. But our government's stand of going out of its way to save kulbhushan is being correlated with strong personality of our present P.M. and the government with full majority. So now whole event is a litmus test of Mr. Modi's strong personality and diplomacy will it work now? After spending so much energy and resources on his foreign tours to get a strong hold on world politics, will it bring some fruit now? It is remains to be seen that how this suspense of "out of the way" will end.

On the death anniversary of Sarabjit we need to interospect the progress of India under Modi government relative to India of 2013 and before, did we gain some more relative political capacity, globally? Did we realize our potential as a strong country with not to be mess around to our neighbors like China and Pakistan? Or we just participating in fray of becoming a self proclaimed superpower or vishwaguru in our words? 

State Of Agriculture

There is lots of brouhaha of Farm loan waiver for marginal and small farmers in Uttar Pardesh. This decision could open a Pandora's box as it can fuel similar demands from many other states but it is government's call to take a prudent decision over this issue. Though there is a consensus among politicians, economists and thinkers of society that until we address these issues of farmers properly there will be no substantial growth in the country. All developed economies were agrarian before they were industrialized, only their period vary. Once democratic system developed, the first thing developed economies of today did was to complete agrarian reforms in time-bound way.  As Land remains the means of livelihood for large section of society in an agrarian economy the successful completion of agrarian reforms benefited the maximum number of people thereby improving their economic condition.

So it is very clear now that development of agriculture and farmers is the foremost prerequisite for development of country but are we sussing out their issue completely and correctly. Because data of land records says that 140 million hectare of land is used as agriculture land and this area is distributed among 138 million farmers. In 2011 there was 93 millions were marginal farmers (holdings of less than one hectare). Since smaller land holdings are either fragmented of large holdings which have been passed on within the family or have been informally leased by a large holder, farmers who cultivate these holdings often do not have a formal lease agreement. Sans of any land records tenant is not eligible for formal credit or other government benefits such as input subsidy or crop insurance schemes and if majority of most needy people are excluded from government's welfare schemes and policies then how it would be "sab ka saath, sab a vikas".

Access to agricultural credit is linked to the holding of land titles. Consequently these tenant farmers who account for more than 28% unable to access institutionalized credits for purchasing inputs,seeds, weeding, harvesting and transporting. As a results these farmers primarily borrow from informal source of credit such as money lenders, shopkeepers, relatives and friends on much higher interest rate. As per the report of the Committee on Medium-term Path on Financial Inclusion,RBI more 60% credit of marginal and small farmers comes from informal source of credit. To overcome this NITI Aayog has  proposed a model land leasing law to provide for the litigation of land leasing. This would ensure that land owners have the security of ownership rights, and land tenets are secure in their tenancy.  Legalization of land tenancy would also ensure that farmers get access to formal credit, insurance and input such as fertilizers but this Model Land Leasing law has been adopted only by Madhya Pradesh Government so far. As agriculture is a state subject it is all up to state governments to implement  this original Model law or to bring it with some modifications or to not pay attention to this issue at all but one thing is very evident that agriculture in this country has to go through some serious changes. Because it will never be viable for any marginal farmer with small land holding to follow conventional farming practices and sustain in farming business. So it s remains to be seen that how India will cope up with this deteriorating issue. Can this country ever move towards Cooperative farming like USSR (erstwhile) or will opt for Corporate farming like America and Canada? While in India land is considered a symbol of social prestige, status and identity unlike other the countries which succeeded in their land reforms programmes where it is seen as just an economic asset for income-earning.

Indianization/Rationalization of Financial Year

In a row of Modi government's radical reform process a most expected reform to come next is change of financial year from 1st of April to 1st of January. Modi government has taken many bold moves like scrapping of Planning Commission and demonetization and merger of Rail Budget with Common Budget so there is a huge probability that Modi Government will  come up with this kind of revolutionary change when this idea has backing of many elite assemblies of economist, administrator and social thinkers.

Chamberlain Commission (1913),Sir Dinshaw Wacha Commission (1921) under British Government, 1st Administrative Reform Commission (1966), LK Jha Commitee (1984), C.Rangarajan  (2011, Planning Commission) all have favored the idea of changing India Financial Year.

In west countries 25 march is celebrated as Lady Day, on this day angle Gabriel informed Virgin Mary that she would be the mother of Jesus Christ. This date is also close to equinox  so it marked as the division of the fiscal year therefore in west 1st of April was celebrated as new year for psychological and cultural reasons. From 1867 British Raj made first of April new financial year to align India's budgeting system with their budgeting system in England. Indian constitution's article 112 says president will lay annual financial statment before Parliament every financial year but there is no clause which define financial year rather article 370 (1) says to refer general clause act 1897 for interpretation of financial year. Means that can require a constitutional amendment. Where not having majority in Rajya Sabha could be a hurdle in that process.

Recently Modi government had set up a high level commitee headed by Shankar Acharya (former Chief Economic Advisor) to examine feasibility of shifting financial year to January 1st. The committee has submitted its final report to Finance Minister. It has given various merits and demerits of change of financial year and its effect on the different agricultural crop period and its impact on business, taxation system and procedure, statics and data collection. Change of financial year will help to align tax collection and Budget Estimate with actual receipt and expenditure. It will also help to account for impact of monsoon and other socio economic aspects of India for better planning and resource allocation especially for transforming ruler India.

In present budget making process we use last year's monsoon data which is nearly 8 month old so it doesn't give correct projection of next year's tax collection and expenditures. Generally all Multi National Companies maintain their annual reports from 1st January but in India they have to maintain another records from 1st April also in alignment with government financial year so this change would be considered as one more step towards ease of doing business in India. Bibek Debroy member of NITI Aayog has aslo favored following the calender year as financial year. It remains to be seen that with how much conviction Modi Government go on implementation of this idea but one thing is very clear that Modi ji has done every thing to look different than previous Government which was infamous for not taking decision. So if you think that your business will be affected by this change (if it takes place) get yourself ready for next Modi move.

SUCCESS OF STORIES

Once I heard Muriel Rukeyser's (an American poet) quote "The universe made of stories not atomes". That time I was too busy to understand the logic of these magical words but when I understood how could i resist myself of sharing it?

Every mind, every new second, making a new story, making a new world or universe in their mind. These stories sometime influence your mood, your action, performance, and ultimately your life. Only stories of those who dominated the scene of THE world or of THEIR world are remembered and we know them as LEADERS. This breed carries some fascinating characteristics like.....
1. A leader is one who takes the initiative, never wait for someone's support.
2. He/she never afraid of taking responsibility, never backstep himself, by looking probability of failure or defeat.
3. Intuitive knowledge of when to strike and till when to wait for right opportunity, makes good leader.
4. He should has a ear to the ground so he/she can hear voice of footsteps of what coming next. Ultimately leader can sense the danger and should be able to avert it.
5. A good instinctive leader never traped by advise of experts or surveys in other words he/she doesn't completely bank upon those advises.
6. A leader always keep a eye on internal working of his/her institution and try to maintain coherence among all.
7. He/she always find solutions to keep people happy.
8. Always take up challenges never avoid challenges.

Above all, according to me, A LEADER is one, who can see a unforeseen dream, believe on it and make it happen. He should also have charm to make people belive on the idea what they are striving for. In other words he should win confidence of people around him.

Remember this world will give you everything, if you are just good in your work but arrogance of doing it with excellence just because you are involved in it will make you GREAT.
So try to be great, try to live a great life because any thing less than this will be an injustice to the species you belong to. The most EVOLVED one, the most COMFORTABLE one.

THE TOLERANT CIVILIZATION OF INDIA

INDIA, the country of great civilization, great culture and diversity which it earned by assimilating new religion, faith and ideas open heartedly. Weather it came from within the society like JAINISM, BUDDHISM or SIKHISM or from any other part of the world like CHRISTIANITY, ISLAM, ZOROASTRIAN, JUDAISM and many more. Because the core belief of this land says that the supreme power, the god gifted us these religions and cultures for our spiritual nourishment, our well being and moral prosperity not for what is happening these days, mankind is servering religion by trying to spreading it till last corner of the earth. This practice seems like " rider being ridden by horse". I think that is why we do not have any supremely authoritative text. On this land God did not declared any final truth, i think god had some hope from this land of seekers that they will find it by their own. Actually this desire of seeking of the truth gives us a meaningful spiritual life but in case you are handed truth in the very first chapter of your life then it is very evident that you waste rest of your life in convincing or sometime compelling others to believe on your subjective truth but this land never did this injustice to its progeny. That's why we have more than 100 interpretation of our Ramayana, Mahabharat and Gita. Because we respect everybody's truth. After all respecting and adorning the truth, the God lies in every heart is more important than any scripture or holy text.

We have some oldest Christian of earth in Kerala, the second mosque of the world after Madina erected in Gujrat by permission of a hindu king, this is the only country which never persecute Jews, we have micro minority Zoroastrian living here with dignity. The core philosophy of this civilization is so liberal that it never resist any new idea, philosophy or scientific discovery contrary to that we lived in harmony with these. Unlike west where geniuses like Galileo, Socrates, Archimedes had to die or persecuted, we revered our scientists and innovators calling them Rishi or Maharishi like rishi kanak, rishi Bodhyayan, rishi sewetketu and rishi Charvak who's philosophy is not coherent with any Indian philosophy.

We have witnessed brutal conquest, persecution and confrontation but yet retain our cultural roots. We may have lost battle of sword but we resisted intellectually for more than thousand year but nowadays this great believe system is moribund not because of any external aggregation but because of deficiency of confidence in our own culture. We have our reference point of social values in west, our every greatness of past should be certified by them first then only we recognize it.

In Syria every school going kid learn stories of great Indian traders of 4000 year ago, in Lebanon everybody reads about 4300 year old temple made by Indian traders, with the help of Indian labourers of stone brought form India and having a lotus on its ceiling. Does any Indian child know about Angkor wat in combodia made by khmer king suryavarman 1000 years ago which is the largest temple of earth.
Our education system is legging in telling tell us about our glorious past so it is unable to build pride about who we were and who we are. Then how come this progeny will make a pride Nation

MAHARISHI BHIMRAO AMBEDKAR

Maharishi Bhimrao Ambedkar. Its a wierd way to commemorate Ambedkar as a maharishi. A presone who defied veda's authority all his life after learning that veda's are prejudice for shudra. Who is shudra and who is Brhaman has been debated from long, whether this terms meant to defined by cast or by born of a person. Similarly who is maharishi is also debatable in modern times, who should be called Maharishi , is it a gender agnostic term or only male scholars could be Maharishi ? would only a person comes from a particular caste or clan can have claim over this title ?
Let's try to find out answer in our scriptures and mythology.

Many ancient sages and rishis came from humble backgrounds. Vishwamitra was a warrior by birth but practiced austerities like a Brahmins and became a great rishi. Sage Parashar, the famous law giver, was the son of an outcaste (chandala). Rishi Vashista was born to a prostitute ,while sage Vyasa, the original author of the Mahabharata, was born to a fisherwoman. Rishi Valmiki the original composer of Ramayana came from a tribal family of traditional hunters. Some composers of the Vedic and Upanishadic hymns belonged to either lower castes or mixed castes. Satyakam Jabala was born to a prostitute who could not tell him who was his father.

                             Manu himslef said Brahmin is an incarnation of dharma born to protect dharma as ambedkar saheb did throughout his life. But in present time his name is remembered as a person who bring RESERVATION in Constitution. That is why backward classes revered him as a prophet while been out of reach of reverence of forward classes. Remembering B.r. Ambedkar just as a giver of reservation or a leader of a particular class would be a huge unjustice to the society. When one look at Dr. Ambedkar's life,masseges and achievement he was a lot more than this.

Ambedkar was a prolific student, earned a law degree and various doctorates from Columbia University and the London School of Economics, and gained a reputation as a scholar for his research in law, economics and political science. In his early career he was an economist, professor, and lawyer and later emerged as a law giver, philosopher and a social reformer who rekindled Buddhism in indian society. He was also a strong believer in democracy by his intellect he played a major role in making of Constitution, a Democratic form of government through which he tried to establish a Democratic form of SOCIETY.

                If we honestly juxtapose his contribution with our former reformers and  maharishies like Aryabhaat, charak,valmiki it was not lesser to anybody,so in my opinion he evidently deserves this title and respect of Maharishi in our society.

As purush sukta of RIG VED  says shudra bron out of bhramas feet and feet of god usually most worshipped part of body.
So for us its time to follow vedas commandments and adopt Ambedkar saheb as latest MAHARISHI of hindu society