History of the Akhand Bharat idea, and in the imagination of the RSS https://indianexpress.com/article/explained/explained-culture/history-of-the-akhand-bharat-idea-and-in-the-imagination-of-the-rss-8643236/  Deeptiman Tiwary , Shyamlal Yadav  June 3, 2023 Asked what he meant by his tweet, Joshi told The Indian Express on Thursday: “The concept of Akhand Bharat comes from ancient Indian culture. The new Parliament building depicts various facets of Indian culture, representing every region and all its facets.”

Tweet by Pralad Joshi  https://twitter.com/JoshiPralhad/status/1662685877209006081

Asked what he meant by his tweet, Joshi told The Indian Express on Thursday: “The concept of Akhand Bharat comes from ancient Indian culture. The new Parliament building depicts various facets of Indian culture, representing every region and all its facets.”

The artwork occupies one of the 16 niches in the Constitutional Foyer of the new Parliament building. Murals in the other niches are dedicated to Indian sages, ancient texts, and the Ramayana; one of them is dedicated to Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel and Jawaharlal Nehru.

The official description of the mural says: “Between 265 and 238 BC, Ashoka spread the message of Buddhism and got it inscribed at many places”.

The Sangh Parivar has long imagined an Indian nation that existed from the time of the Ramayana, covering the landmass stretching from today’s Afghanistan to Myanmar and Tibet to Sri Lanka. A map titled “Punyabhoomi Bharat” published by the RSS-run Suruchi Prakashan, labels Afghanistan as “Upganathan”, Kabul as “Kubha Nagar”, Peshawar as “Purushpur”, Multan as “Moolsthan”, Tibet as “Trivishtap,” Sri Lanka as “Singhaldweep”, and Myanmar as “Brahmadesh”.

In 2015, RSS leader Ram Madhav, when asked about a map that showed Pakistan and Bangladesh as part of India, told Al Jazeera: “The RSS still believes that one day these parts, which have for historical reasons separated only 60 years ago, will again, through popular goodwill, come together and Akhand Bharat will be created.”

In Good Faith: Why India’s society and politics need both the strength and gentleness of Hanuman https://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/columns/why-india-society-politics-need-strength-gentleness-of-hanuman-8639004/
What a conversation outside a temple reveals about the layered connections between faith, identity and political polarisation

This is not a call to look for some golden truth in the middle of two polar extremes. This notion of a “middle” would mean we are still locked in the one-dimensional trap. Nor does it mean that we ignore the importance of electoral politics — even though elections tend to be a binary contest. The challenge lies in cultivating mental spaces which are somewhat free of preconceptions. Then we may have an opportunity to understand what is driving the need to feel strong and even foster spaces where non-aggressive forms of strength and capability can thrive. Only then can compassion and acceptance of the otherness of “others” become a strength rather than being feared as a weakness.

Like the rest of life, mythic images keep changing and being imbued with different meanings. Thus, a contest over which depiction of Hanuman is more “correct” may become just a distraction. What we need is a reaffirmation of the loving and fraternal aspects of devotion. Meeting that young man at the temple showed me these values may be closer to the surface than seems apparent and finding them depends on the tone in which a conversation is initiated.

Vanishing non-AC coaches | Railways organised loot gets bigger https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EBMhVmPNIjo May 30, 2023
Railway has been systematically reducing sleeper coaches for some time. Now they have officially announced that except for local slow trains there will be only AC coaches. In a country where the opinion makers and opinion builders demand more super fast trains with more facilities the plight of common man goes un noticed. They refuse to believe that there are millions whose life gets affected by a hike of 10 or 20 rupees for essential services.

https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/blogs/toi-editorials/pumped-down/

P Chidambaram https://twitter.com/PChidambaram_IN/status/1663386078051713024?cxt=HHwWgIDSqea0xJUuAAAA The editorial noted that Petrol prices were deregulated over the UPA and NDA governments between 2010 and 2014. However, the 'decontrol' reform has stopped since September 2014

Crude prices were below USD 60 between 2014 and 2021, peaked when Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, but has since fallen to USD 75. Yet the Government has not passed on the benefit of lower crude prices to the people consuming petrol and diesel

It is obvious that the government is 'profiteering' through higher taxes and cesses at the cost of the people. One of the reasons why inflation is high is because of artificially-kept high prices of petrol and diesel

Jawhar Sircar @jawharsircar
Somalia’s rejected old parliament is New India’s inspiration!!
Modi’s pet architect from Gujarat — who always gets Modi’s mega contracts through “competitive bidding” 🤣 (in Ahmedabad, Varanasi, Delhi’s Parliament+Central Vista) charged us ₹230 crores to copy Somalia’s design!!
Image

Soter @soter8

https://thewire.in/rights/by-removing-question-from-nfhs-survey-govt-shows-its-real-attitude-to-those-with-disabilities 

The questionnaire finalised for the survey does not include anything related to disability. Even the half-hearted attempt to capture disability-related data in the previous survey has been abandoned this time. And the excuse, by all counts, is inexplicable. 

“Disability is decided on medical certification. Our surveyors are not doctors and they cannot be checking medical certificates. People could not even understand the questions properly,” a principal investigator of the NFHS told the Times of India. The NFHS technical advisory committee asked for the question to be dropped instead of ‘giving inaccurate data’. 

by Muralidharan

29/05/2023

The scepter is a symbol of feudalism. In democracy, the state is run by the will of the people. All decisions taken in Parliament express the will of the people. In such a way, what will be in line with the spirit of democracy to keep sengol in the hands of the president? The President's job in the Parliament is to keep the proceedings organized. Apart from that, there was no right in his hands. Keeping the 'scepter' near his seat is totally contrary to the spirit of democracy and anti-constitutional. It is the first recognized national symbol in India. Would the presence of the alleged scepter in the Parliament House not be disrespectful to the national emblem!
In the Tamil monarchy, whenever a new king took charge of the state, the royal priest would hand over the scepter to him. But it is the days when the monarchy was under the control of the Brahmins. There were shameless arrangements like 'Manusmriti' in the name of law. Is it not an affront to democracy to install the 'sceptre' in the Parliament House, which is the symbol of the will and consciousness of the Indian people? Is there any more power to the 'Raj' than the will of the people in a healthy democracy? This is also important because the Indian Constitution, which was made after the alleged Sengol meeting, also has no provision to adopt any symbol as a 'scepter'.
Listen to the full discussion on this topic live today at 6 pm on Bahujan Samvad YouTube channel.
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Why Has the Adani-Hindenburg Issue Become a Matter of National Concern? Arun Kumar https://thewire.in/business/why-has-the-adani-hindenburg-issue-become-a-matter-of-national-concern The corporate members of the expert committee could have exposed much more of the wrongdoings but they have chosen to be formalistic. So, an opportunity to expose and clean up corporate manipulations has been missed.

Though his companies are public, the Indian public shareholding in his companies has been small. So, the Indian public has hardly benefitted from the rapidly growing pie. Even Indian mutual funds’ investment in his companies is small. The debt compared to equity was quite large and has been flagged by financial experts. A high ratio of debt to equity increases the riskiness of the shares. If profits earned are taken as a yardstick of performance, they were low compared to the price of the shares. This is referred to as the price-earning ratio (P/E).

Three important questions arise: first, how did Adani get hold of so many businesses so quickly? Second, how did the valuation of the shares of the Adani Group rise so rapidly? Third, why did the undue rise in the share prices not raise suspicions among the regulatory agencies – SEBI, the Enforcement Directorate, income tax department, etc.? Did political connections coupled with a lack of action, or investigation by the regulators help Adani acquire assets, possibly at low prices?

 https://www.deccanherald.com/opinion/modi-s-global-brand-building-after-governance-shortfall-1222039.html

Modi’s global brand building after governance shortfall Will his efforts at building a larger-than-life image at home and abroad win Narendra Modi support of Nagpur? PinterestLinkedinGmailFacebook Messenger Bharat Bhushan Bharat Bhushan, ...

The latest NDTV-CSDS Survey of nine years of Modi’s rule at the Centre adds substance to this idea. There are various ways of reading the survey, but on Modi’s governance record, it presents a dismal picture. Twenty-seven per cent of those surveyed attributed Modi’s popularity to his oratory, and only 11 per cent to his policies. The 21 per cent who are ‘fully unsatisfied’ with his work outnumber the 17 per cent who are ‘fully satisfied’. On his handling of corruption, the 45 per cent who found it unsatisfactory are greater than the 41 per cent who think otherwise.

His government’s use of the CBI and the Enforcement Directorate has 31 per cent responding that it was a ‘tool for political vendetta’ against the 37 per cent saying it was ‘lawful’. On the economy, 42 per cent think their condition has not improved in the last nine years, and 22 per cent think it has worsened.