Friday, October 31, 2014

Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel – the Iron Man of India who India forgot


Long before Narendra Modi came to power, he had visions of a statue dedicated to Vallabhbhai Patel, the Iron Man of India on the lines of the Statue of Liberty in the United States and, on coming to power in Delhi, he has set the ball in motion by announcing that 31st October be henceforth be celebrated as National Unity Day dnaindia.com.
Many may not know why he earned the sobriquet of the Iron Man - he was a man of principles as well as a fierce nationalist. His philosophy always was ‘nation first’. His success in integrating around 565 princely states after independence earned for him the sobriquet of ‘Iron Man’. His policy ensured that the princely states had no other option but to merge with India.
This day was, till last year, identified as the day Indira Gandhi was shot dead.
There is no dispute that both the names of Vallabhbhai Patel and Indira Gandhi bring up memories and the Nation owes a lot to them but, dedicating a statue to the Sardar would be a fitting tribute to one of the founding fathers of our country who had direct roles to play in our freedom.
It is strange that no political party has, so far, harbored any idea to honor the Iron Man who had been entrusted by Mahatma Gandhi to organize the historical Dandi march which he successfully did.
Full credit should now go to Narendra Modi to revive our glorious past.
Building such a monument would take decades and would need crores of rupees and, the necessary funds could come from the uncovering of black money stashed away in foreign banks by the rich and famous.

Believe it or not, cyclone Nilofar has decided not to invade India


It is difficult to believe but, it seems even mother Nature has taken a liking for India and has ensured that Cyclone Nilofar, that was expected to strike the Gujarat coast, has decided to stay away from India zeenews.com.
As indicated by the Meteorological Department, the cyclone that was scheduled to hit the coast of Gujarat on November 1, has weakened and turned into a depression – its impact will only be restricted to a moderate rainfall. The cyclone has weakened after moving in the northeast direction and has become a low pressure area.
Places in Saurashtra and Kutch are experiencing moderate rainfall and the wind speed is expected to be around 35-45 kilometers per hour along the north Gujarat coast.
It may be recalled that as a precautionary measure, people from around 40 villages had already been evacuated and nine teams of National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) had been deployed to tackle any untoward incident. This had been done based on the experience of cyclone Hudhud that had struck the coast of Andhra Pradesh and Odisha - crores of rupees worth of property was lost due to this natural calamity.

Happy days are here again – Indian Oil Corp reduces petrol and diesel prices


Till recently, rise in prices used to be attributed to rising prices of petrol and diesel because these had a cascading effect on cost of transportation which, in turn, translated into higher costs.
Narendra Modi, before becoming the Prime minister, had assured that happy days would soon come – acchhe din aaney waley hein, is how his message was passed on down the line. And, the reduction in price of petrol and diesel that we are seeing is proof that the Prime Minister knew what he was talking about.
The reduction in rates of petrol and diesel, which was deregulated for the first time in more than a decade, will be effective from midnight tonight, Indian Oil Corp, the nation’s largest fuel retailer, announced.
Since August, petrol price has been cumulatively cut by a total of Rs 9.36 per litre while diesel rates have been cut for the second time in this month.
On 18th October 2014, the government had freed diesel prices from its control, thereby, oil marketing companies had the freedom to adjust rates in line with cost. On that day, rates were cut by Rs 3.37 per litre – that was the first reduction in price of diesel in over five years, the previous reduction dating back to January 2009.
Effective 1st November,there was another reduction - oil companies cut petrol price by Rs. 2.41 a litre - it was the sixth reduction since August, and diesel price were cut by Rs. 2.25 a litre on the back of falling international oil rates.

CBI tries to find the truth of Bankura cement factory of Sharadha multi-crore rupee scam


With every passing day, more details are being revealed with regard to the multi-crore rupee scams carried by Sudipta Sen and his Sharadha group of companies timesofindia.indiatimes.com. Hints of links with influential people associated with the Trinamool Congress party continue to come to the forefront and the CBI is trying to unearth evidence that would prove without doubt the involvement of such persons.
One of them appears to be the West Bengal state textiles minister Shyamaprasad Mukherjee – the CBI has asked him to submit land record deeds and papers related to the business deal between him and Saradha boss Sudipta Sen regarding Saradha's acquisition of Landmark Cement Company.
This is because the Enforcement Directorate had shared certain documents with CBI and both the agencies feel there are inconsistencies in the deal. It seems the minister had grabbed 7 acres of land that had been lying with the state forest department while setting up his cement factory in Dhabani village in Bankura's Beliatore.
Rumours are that Mukherjee had sold the 15-acre factory, of which 7 acres didn't ever belong to him, to Sudipta in 2009 at an exorbitant cost.
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) wanted textile minister Shyamapada Mukherjee to submit all the documents relating to the sale of the Landmark Cement factory, located at Bankura, to the Saradha Group, within 9 October. He had sold his loss-making cement factory in Bankura to Saradha Group owner Sudipta Sen in 2009, at an exorbitant price of Rs 2.71 crores.

BJP leaders Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi and Rahul Sinha arrested in Birbhum


The Trinamool Congress leaders are feeling the heat as the BJP is breathing down their necks following the discovery of a large number of terror modules scattered across the countryside of West Bengal indianexpress.com.
It seems senior BJP leaders, including national vice-president Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi and state party Chief Rahul Sinha, were arrested when they tried to enter a village in Birbhum where section 144 has been imposed since Friday.
Naqvi had minced no words when he termed the police action as “death of democracy” and said the “West Bengal government has become a government of terrorists and criminals”.
It seems Naqvi and other BJP leaders, including party MPs Kirti Azad and Udit Raj, had also got involved in a brief, but violent spat with police and jawans of RAF at the adjoining Choumandalpur village. They were told that there has been an order from the “top authority” not to allow any political party inside the village.
Incidentally, the BJP leaders wanted to send a three-member central team to the village “without violating the provision of section 144”.
It seems three persons were killed in clashes in the village - they were one BJP and two Trinamool supporters. The police team had gone there after reports surfaced of bombs hidden at a health centre.

Devendra Fadnavis takes over as Chief Minister Maharashtra


44-year-old Devendra Fadnavis has been sworn as the 27th chief minister of Maharashtra as the BJP formed its government for the first time on its own without reliance on any other party timesofindia.indiatimes.com.
The program was held at the Wankhede Stadium and Prime Minister Narendra Modi was present on the occasion. Also in attendance were several of the PMs Cabinet colleagues, apart from chief ministers of BJP-ruled states and those governed by its allies.
There is a lot of curiosity about Devendra Fadnavis - he is the second youngest chief minister of Maharashtra after Sharad Pawar who became Chief Minister when he was 38. When he was just 21, Fadnavis had become the youngest corporator of the Nagpur Municipal Corporation. Subsequently, he became Nagpur's youngest mayor at 27. That way, he was second youngest mayor elected in India.
Fadnavis holds a law degree from Law College, Nagpur, and also a post graduate diploma in Business Management and a diploma in Project Management from the DSE Foundation in Germany.
Unhappy with the treatment meted out to it by the BJP, former ally Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray had decided to boycott but, he changed his mind after a last minute call by party President Amit Shah – this has set off speculations that a possible rapprochement between the two estranged Hindutva parties could be on the cards.
With BJP now both at the center as well as the state, expectations are high that development projects would get a boost because there would be no need to face the arm twisting tactics of allies. This had hampered innumerable development work in Maharashtra.