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Ramana Rajgopaul's avatar

Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson decide to go on a camping trip. After dinner and a bottle of wine, they lay down for the night, and go to sleep.

Some hours later, Holmes awoke and nudged his faithful friend.

"Watson, look up at the sky and tell me what you see."

Watson replied, "I see millions of stars."

"What does that tell you?"

Watson pondered for a minute.

"Astronomically, it tells me that there are millions of galaxies and potentially billions of planets."

"Astrologically, I observe that Saturn is in Leo."

"Horologically, I deduce that the time is approximately a quarter past three."

"Theologically, I can see that God is all powerful and that we are small and insignificant."

"Meteorologically, I suspect that we will have a beautiful day tomorrow."

"What does it tell you, Holmes?"

Holmes was silent for a minute, then spoke: "Watson, you idiot. Someone has stolen our tent!"

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Rahul Gorwadkar's avatar

Wow Sir, Excellent Reply, in SHORT LIBRANDU & Communist of INDIA had lost their CONGRESS Tents, And they are yet not able to understand what exactly happened with them. They are able to See STAR-Moon-Sky - A Frustration delivered finally by a Paid Liberal.

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Nilesh Mehta's avatar

You say you are 'A voice with no face'. Just replace your profile photo with a Shabana Azmi look-alike and you will know. You are just playing games, and old men are falling for you. Just do this experiment. Change your photo to an old unattractive woman's.

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Rahul Gorwadkar's avatar

Wow, Exact hit at Bulls eye

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Nilesh Mehta's avatar

In your view liberals are fools, communists are fools, Sanghis are fools, and Capitalists are fools. That leaves just two wise persons; you and Shekhar Gupta. It's God's greatest gift to mankind that we don't see ourselves as others do.

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Rahul Gorwadkar's avatar

They have lost their Congress party, & i dont see Congress party will rise again next 10 years.

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PBM Jr.'s avatar

Chill man, let the Gandhi family go into political retirement and Modi will be toast in no time. At this stage in India's history, it's Gandhis (personally) who are doing the greatest damage to India by not retiring.

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Nilesh Mehta's avatar

Do you really think this man has any intelligence?

https://twitter.com/rose_k01/status/1469963712379326465

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PBM Jr.'s avatar

And Ms. Ranade sees hope in him. Sweetie (Ms. Ranade), politics is not high-frequency trading.

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TMM's avatar

'I hope Congress is serious about the new paradigm and will further etch out the details as we go along.' This is a 'MUST READ' for RG and SR stay the good fight, don't leave.

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Rahul Gorwadkar's avatar

Dear Maddam, Your So called minority, is in Majority in several Villages & Citys of INDIA. In those areas, the state of livelihood is horrible for others. The day Muslims become majority, HINDU an all remaining people is needed to flee run away from their own land. INDIA is Secular only up to the day, HINDUs are in MEJORITY. So, for the safety, healthy existence of my Mother land, INDIA is needed to declare as HINDU rastra,

It is a HINDU rastra. As the partition is done on basis of religion only.

And the hypocrisy of partition is, Muslims are given as MUSLIM rastra & HINDUs are given a Secular Contry. Didnt we HINDU are fools, who dont understand the logic behind this??

The Logic is For three Devil on the Earth that is ISLAM + Christian + Mavowadi Communist party. These Three devils/ monsters are fearing only ONE IDOLOGY, which will unite Earth for its well being & safety under one UMBRELLA is Sanatan HINDU Ideology, and you see across the earth people are embracing Sanatan Dharma with genuine love, affection & Pease of mind in Sanatan HINDU IDLOGY.

So, Maddam, please stop this narration, very soon your propaganda DUKAN will be closed by people across EARTH by Embracing Sanatan HINDU dharma, and not only INDIA, one day EARTH is going to become Sanatan HINDU EARTH Very soon. One the Earth ONLY Sanatan HINDUs are Secular & no any IDEOLOGY is secular in its DNA.

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TMM's avatar

'And the hypocrisy of partition is, Muslims are given as MUSLIM rastra & HINDUs are given a Secular Contry' The rant of a semi literate bhakth

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Rahul Gorwadkar's avatar

Dear Brother it is right time to do GHARWAPSI, Or one day We will loose our beautiful Mother Land to the Hands of Taliban & ISIS.

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Shubha's avatar

Good to have you back.

Your choice of topics and essays (essayer being French for attempting) are always thought provoking.

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Ranjan Sapra's avatar

Cest formidable

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Vinod's avatar

The Indian republic is robust and thriving

🔴 Nirmala Sitharaman writes: During the last seven decades, the Constitution has provided integrity and stability, but it is our people who have kept the republic alive

A republic is made robust and kept alive by its people. In its current form, the Indian republic marks 73 years of maintaining a dynamic balance. This is often strained by the pushes and pulls of forces reflecting the plurality and diversity that India is known for. It is to the credit of our people that today we have a pyramidal three-layered elected representative system that governs us. With its warts and all, this system today has over 3 million elected representatives (a million of them women), over 4,000 elected to the state legislatures and over 500 in the Parliament. The Preamble envisaged the republic to be governed by the people through their freely-elected representatives. This scale of directly elected representation, perhaps, can be seen nowhere else in the world. It can be accused of being argumentative, noisy, a bit too much at times, but it continues to be full of life.

Before 1950, January 26 was celebrated as Independence Day, following the resolution for complete independence (Purna Swaraj) adopted at the Lahore Congress in 1929. Once independence from the imperial ruler was obtained and the Constitution was adopted, the day was marked as our Republic Day.

In Pilgrimage to Freedom, K M Munshi writes, “The Constitution is not merely a legal document, nor is it a political document either. True, it was drafted by lawyers with the help of the political leaders who had won the battle of freedom. Theirs was a historical role: That of building a framework within which our national unity and democratic way of life might flourish. Essentially, our Constitution has a moral background — to secure justice for every section of our society; as also a spiritual basis — to preserve and protect all religions in the exercise of their functions… The leaders of my generation have left in the Constitution a legacy of freedom, of the Rule of Law, freedom of speech and religion and above all integrity and stability which the country has never enjoyed for over 500 years.”

There is no doubt that during the last seven decades, our Constitution has provided the integrity and stability that are critical for our republic. The challenges continue in securing justice for every section of our society. The Backward Classes, the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes and the poor across all categories clamour for better opportunities and affordable justice. Denial of constitutional rights over all these decades of our republic to SCs, STs and women in one region of India was corrected when Article 370 was abrogated.

What Munshi calls the spiritual basis of our Constitution in having to preserve and protect all religions is also seen under stress. Perversion in practising the principle of secularism (introduced subsequently during the Emergency) through minority appeasement for electoral considerations had left women belonging to the minority community being denied their legitimate rights. The resistance to the Act making triple talaq null and void showed how the right given to women in many Islamic countries was being denied to Muslim women in India mainly for electoral considerations. Minority appeasement plays out again when the religious rights of some are upheld by denying similar rights of others. The issue of religious rights, in its intensity, may vary from state to state, but when the usual suspects paint it as a nationwide uprising, they are not being objective or fair. When the right to practise one’s religion is denied or threatened, the silence of the thinking public or the media weakens that constitutionally embedded protection. The strength of the republic is undermined by hypocritical values and the selective silence of the watchdogs.

There is no doubt that communication technologies strengthen modern republics. Technology has brought down costs of information sharing among people and of awareness building. It is a powerful tool, now well democratised. An unforeseen fall-out of this democratisation is the generation and sharing of unverified news or even false news. Through the power of technology and its capacity to broadcast at mass scale, an otherwise useful tool, social media, has become a challenge and sometimes a threat to one or several of the rights enshrined in our Constitution. Curtailing them to protect the rights of citizens is seen as trampling upon the right to free speech. Without any action, the damage caused to social harmony by such rampant false news can result in people losing faith in the Constitution itself.

Subhash C Kashyap observes, “Our Constitution is a living, dynamic process, always evolving, constantly in the making through amendments, judicial interpretations, and its actual working.” Our Constitution is the most amended of all constitutions in the world. Rightly, successive governments have ensured that the Constitution keeps abreast of the times and the aspirations of our people. If there are more than 100 amendments made to the Constitution, there are more than 1,500 laws that have been repealed because they have outlived their times. These deadwood laws, by remaining on paper, occasionally became a weapon in the hands of rent-seekers. Their removal, as a part of administrative reform, has kept the role of the executive transparent and accountable. It is imperative that every change to the Constitution is done mindful of the objective that the original intent of the framers of the Constitution is not lost.

That the Constitution is always evolving is best exemplified by the 101st amendment which rolled out the Goods and Services Tax. This amendment brought in a unified indirect tax regime by subsuming most of the indirect taxes of the Centre and the states. The GST Council was set up. It has the power to decide on issues related to GST and importantly the rates applicable to each item covered under it. Yet to complete five full years, the GST Council has stood the test of challenging times even in its initial years. It augurs well for cooperative federalism.

Our Constitution has served us well in these seven decades. Several republics in the post-imperial era have rejected their earlier constitutions and tested new ones. Babasaheb Ambedkar felt, “The working of a Constitution does not depend wholly upon the nature of the Constitution. The Constitution can provide only the organs of State such as the Legislature, the Executive and the Judiciary. The factors on which the working of those organs of the State depend are the people and the political parties they will set up as their instruments to carry out their wishes and their politics.” So, it is the people who can keep the republic robust and alive.

This column first appeared in the print edition on January 26, 2022 under the title ‘The strength of our republic’. The writer is the Union finance minister.

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Pravin R's avatar

Look Mrs. Sonali Ranade, I think you are wrong about "secularism." If India was truly secular, Hindu schools would not be subjected to the "Right to Education Act" which confiscates 25% seats in Hindu run schools, which mandates obscene infrastructure requirements, and which requires NOC recognition; while Christian and Muslim "minority" schools are exempt. If India was truly secular, Hindu temples would be freed from government control. Congress Party wanted to attack and kill Hindu education by bringing the Right to Education act to kill Hindu schools. Nehru and his progeny should be wiped out from India's soil. True secularism means that RTE (Right to Education) is repealed and Hindu temples are freed from government control. One thing I hate about "pseudo-liberals" like yourself is that you relentlessly attack Hinduism and Hindus.

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Ashish Mishra's avatar

चौबे जी छब्बे बनने निकले, दुबे बनकर आये

You set out to be Mahua Moitra but ended up as Kangana Ranaut.

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Vinod's avatar

Sorry to bother you. Don't know of your caliber and endowment to comment. Please write something on following. Regards. 🙏

The Indian economy had contracted a year before the pandemic, according to a presentation by former chief economic advisor Arvind Subramanian at the Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research. Based on the study ‘Peering Back to Look Forward: Measurement to Prognosis’ by Subramanian and Josh Felman, former IMF head in India, it showed that GDP had contracted during 2019-20, while the official version showed GDP growth merely decelerated to 4%.

https://email.mg1.substack.com/c/eJwlUcuurCAQ_Jphh-GljgsWd3N_wyC0yhkEA6jx7097JgGaVDdUdbU1FZaUb72nUslzjPXeQUe4SoBaIZOjQB6904J3w7uXgjjNemH7ifgyzhlgMz5osh9T8NZUn-JTzVnbDpKsms-2U0LNvJdqlhYcc8LMs5Sd6tkk-y-pOZyHaEHDCflOEUjQa617ecl_L_Ef13VdzXQUH6EUWqqJzmTX2LRhzuTqbQC8gU0xbTfdE4q5EZjhotV8IBc6p0zLMWWzmehNpIXWFbB3DKbSxe3UphDMXsDRCbAaEDi9o1xwLoRijCk-8matWyBeC_aFsdOh5Y1o-rdSxrTszdXcKpBNCGfw03y-FNsW3iA36rafRzTJ-vz8rKYTmFweB_9QNHHEuB3R13uEaKYATtd8AKnfEf25PS4QIePo3Giq5p1iUsl2UJKpr504ANUOHW5BkNYlfBU1tuuj88Y-3_4CMgCrsQ

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Zakir Hussain's avatar

We often are mirror image of the people we dislike, in terms of the traits we dislike them for. This holds good for this woman, Sonal Ranade, too. She dislikes Shekhar Gupta and, like SG, is a know-all herself. She dislikes Modi and, like him, simply delivers her Mann Ki Baat, and refuses to engage. There is not one comment on any of her posts to which she has responded.

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Zakir Hussain's avatar

Mr. Nilesh Mehta, I think you got it wrong; 'A Voice with no face' is the title of this piece, and not a descriptor of Ms. Ranade's blog. But you right, Ms. Ranade does play coquette (she will drop names, then she will share cartoon of a girl with books strewn all around her, she will share the compliments from one old man to induce others to value her, and so on. All this to create interest about her. Even her profile photo is less to inform but more to influence.), and mostly old men fall for her tricks.

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PBM Jr.'s avatar

"Maybe I spoke too soon in a private exchange of messages with PBM on the day his essay was published." Chill, sweetie. This name-dropping is very unbecoming. By quoting Shakespeare, you don't become his equal.

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PBM Jr.'s avatar

In my view Modi is the most pernicious Indian ever (partly because Indians never numbered 1.3 billion before), but you don't fix this problem by replacing him with a dolt (one who hopes to sway the common voter by lecturing on Hinduism and Hindutva) like Rahul Gandhi. That's like trying to defeat Trump with Hillary Clinton. Anyone in the America would have defeated Trump, except Hillary. An average India fears that if Modi goes, RG will come in. Let RG (in fact all Gandhis) opt out, and then the things could change.

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PBM Jr.'s avatar

Congress is definitely answerable for giving India BJP, as much as Obama is answerable for giving America Trump. None of them, however, has the grace to accept it. But then that's how the world goes.

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