The BJP has successfully leveraged Ram Mandir to effect a fundamental restructuring of Hinduism, which has no ecclesiastical order, absolutist establishment, governing organisation, or binding holy book. All of this could change. https://thewire.in/religion/reading-into-bjp-rsss-structural-assault-on-hinduism-and-the-advent-of-hindu-vatican 

Firstly, the BJP is leveraging the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra to effect a fundamental restructuring of Hinduism. Currently, Hinduism has no ecclesiastical order, absolutist establishment, governing organisation, or binding holy book. It has many sampradayas (traditions), which consist of monastic orders of the Vaishnava or Shaiva traditions, which have their own akharas, ashrams and mutts. Then there are countless temples and temple trusts, the most prominent being the chaar dhams (four ancient pilgrimage sites) and the 12 jyotirlingas (revered shrines dedicated to Bhagwan Shiva).

The BJP, which infiltrated and misused many of these to further their politico-ideological goals, is now projecting the Ayodhya Temple as India’s Rashtriya (national) Temple. In this imagining, akharas, ashrams, and mutts will be reduced to franchises of BJP’s Hindu-Vatican. 

by Pushparaj Deshpande

23/01/2024

Congress boycott right. Ayodhya event not about Ram, but coronates Hindutva as state religion KAPIL KOMIREDDI 16 January, 2024 https://theprint.in/opinion/congress-boycott-right-ayodhya-event-not-about-ram-but-coronates-hindutva-as-state-religion/1925091/     to accept that the spectacle about to be staged in Ayodhya can be extricated from politics is to sanctify the falsification of our living memory. The inauguration of the temple  to Ram in Ayodhya is not a religious event to which politicians have been invited out of courtesy; it is the culmination of the most consequential political agitation to remake India into a Hindu state to which politicians of all persuasions are being summoned to perform a legitimating role.

 Where’s the V-shaped recovery? https://www.financialexpress.com/opinion/wheres-the-v-shaped-recovery/3368633/ Santosh Mehrotra January 19, 2024
Data on real wages, jobs, savings, consumption, etc, point at a K-shaped rebound 

the share of India’s Biggest 5 firms in total assets of the non-financial sectors rose from 10% in 1991 to nearly 18% in 2021, whereas the share of the next Big 5 business groups fell from 18% in 1992 to less than 9% in 2021. This growth has been the biggest in the last decade. “In other words, Big 5 grew not just at the expense of the smallest firms, but also of the next largest firms,” Acharya said.

The Biggest 5 industrial groups referred to in the paper are Mukesh Ambani-helmed Reliance Group, Tata Group, Aditya Birla Group, Adani Group, and Bharti Telecom. He said the growth of such conglomerates raises several concerns, like the risk of crony capitalism, related-party transactions within their byzantine corporate organisation charts and overleveraging due to an implicit too-big-to-fail perception among others. This is what drives government spokesmen to claim the importance of ‘national champions’.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IThzagMI_Y0&t=10s

Lest We Forget the Teesta Disaster 2023

Report and Recommendations: Praful Rao, SaveTheHills and Darjeeling Himalaya Initiative

The Teesta Valley Glacial Lake Outburst Flood (GLOF) of 04Oct2023 was certainly the biggest disaster to have affected the Darjeeling- Sikkim Himalaya after the mega -disaster of Oct1968. It was coincident that both the disasters occurred on the same date only half a century apart.

But while this disaster was totally under-reported in the national media, we in SaveTheHills and the Darjeeling Himalaya Initiative have made an attempt to correct this by featuring many posts in our blog and also making a formal report to the NDMA as well as the SSDMAs of Sikkim and W Bengal states on the impact of the GLOF as well as suggesting some short term measures which would see us thru the monsoons of 2024.

Top Modi Official Blows Whistle On Government Finances https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HWzqra3KQbs the reporters' collective  Jan 18, 2024
Niti Aayog CEO BVR Subrahmanyam reveals Modi held backdoor negotiations with the Finance Commission to cut tax funds allocated to states, and says gov't finances are so shady, they could be hit by a 'Hindenburg'.
Read the entire report   https://assets-global.website-files.com/600865f0dc1db856edc28cd0/65a929d8239db578e685ee94_CSEP%20Transcript.pdf.  Or watch https://www.youtube.com/live/B3unBGDHoPE?feature=share

As PM, India’s Modi secretly tried to massively cut state funds  https://www.aljazeera.com/economy/2024/1/18/as-pm-indias-modi-secretly-tried-to-massively-cut-state-funds The Finance Commission’s firm stance forced the Modi government to hastily redo its maiden full budget in 48 hours and slash funding across welfare programmes since its assumption of retaining a greater portion of the central taxes did not pan out. At the same time, Modi falsely claimed in Parliament that he welcomed the Finance Commission’s recommendations on the tax portions to be allocated to the states.

Comments: @in-human1698 In the audio recording, BVR Subramanian never says Modi wanted to reduce the state's share. He says there was a discussion about whether to accept at 42%, or keep at 32% or some number in between. The fact that the Union Government accepted the Finance Commission's recommendation of raising the share from 32% to 42% even though the Finance Ministry was against it (acc to BVR) only shows that Modi played a role in raising the state's share from 32% to 42%. Don't forget, the fact remains that the Modi Government raised the state's share from 32% to 42%. And obviously, to cover that loss, Central Govt has to cut down its budget from other schemes. JAIL these Reporter Spreading Misinformation.

@selvarajuthangavelu887 Even this 10% increase to States was nearly set off by reducing the no. of centrally sponsored schemes and reducing the central share in css

@ravips698 How does this change the life of an ordinary citizen? As long as the public money is not being swindled it must be used for betterment of country.atleast am happy about that. What is important is central government releases funds to states in a timely manner and sets up enough checks and balances to ensure no corruption.aljazeera is an infamous news channel which seems to be paid to launch this news at "right time" else why 2014 news is being published in 2024?

@sudhirnegi6008  Some journalists only highlight the negatives. GST is a boon for transparency and business. Ask any accountant his troubles with vat regime if he had inter state operations. Secondly all Govts fudge their budgets to balance it, not this Govt alone. Expenditures are pushed to subsequent years. Loans are taken by Govt subsidiaries not a part of budget thus containing deficit. This should be acknowledged by the anchor. Pinning this on only one Govt is bias. Secondly look at the infrastructure spending by this Govt which will be a boost to the businesses. This is money well spent. Would states have done the same?

The rich get richer while global poverty deepens in “decade of division” https://peoplesdispatch.org/2024/01/16/the-rich-get-richer-while-global-poverty-deepens-in-decade-of-division/  We’re witnessing the beginnings of a decade of division, with billions of people shouldering the economic shockwaves of pandemic, inflation and war, while billionaires’ fortunes boom. This inequality is no accident; the billionaire class is ensuring corporations deliver more wealth to them at the expense of everyone else,” stated Amitabh Behar, Oxfam’s interim Executive Director

The inequality gap between the Global North and the Global South has increased for the first time in 25 years.

Rich countries of the Global North account for 69% of all global wealth and 74% of all billionaire wealth. This concentration of wealth is a legacy of colonialism and empire, the report notes, adding that “since the formal end of colonialism, “neo-colonial relationships with the Global South persist, perpetuating economic imbalances and rigging the economic rules in favor of rich nations.” This extraction of wealth has been facilitated by multinational corporations.

While the ability of governments to sustain public services is obstructed, corporations around the world have pushed for the privatization of critical services including health care and education. As the report states, this is done not only through the sale of public assets, but also through the integration of the private corporate sector into public policies and programs through outsourcing and “public-private partnerships”. Privatization in turn grants corporations greater influence over public resources.

Comment on WA: The issue is not the figures, but the politics, and the process. No wonder the "interests" need to paint "NGOs" as "desh drohi". Check out the recent attacks on Centre for Policy Research..

Earlier, India was the "vishwa guru" of the non-aligned movement, and Group of 77. Now we have "G20" !

Pradip Saha's latest book 'The Learning Trap – How Byju’s Took Indian Edtech for a Ride' is an uncommon investigative treatise into India's education system.

https://thewire.in/books/charting-the-rise-and-fall-of-byjus-and-educational-ecosystem-in-india 

Saha charts the rise of a charismatic teacher to a status where he (and his family, who held controlling roles in the company) were clearly out of their depth, especially in financial matters. By the end, there seems little doubt that there is rampant denial and fraud, alongside the financial heartbreak of so many families and young men and women. The scepticism of these families toward education technology will likely never be allayed. 

Saha quotes many heart-breaking stories of how low-income families (such as even auto rickshaw drivers) were exploited – some were denied refunds, and a lack of understanding of online subscriptions caused many families to bleed money, and end up in debt traps.

by Nikhil Govind

18/01/2024

The Meat of the Matter: How to Fight Casteism and Communalism https://www.theindiaforum.in/society/meat-matter-how-fight-casteism-and-communalism Anjor Bhaskar December 19, 2023
The celebration of non-vegetarianism is often a counter to the idea of supremacy and purity associated with vegetarianism. When in 2017, the union government effectively prohibited the sale of cattle for slaughter, it was met with resistance. Several states refused to implement the rules. ‘Beef festivals’ were organised to protest against the ban and the violence against Dalits and Muslims. The scholar Balamurali Natrajan notes how, these festivals were “framed popularly as an assertion of Dalit ‘cultural rights’ and identity, with beef represented as the cultural food of Dalits”. Unsurprisingly, the festivals have faced severe opposition.

Is species-ism (establishing the superiority of humans over other species) the only way to fight casteism and communalism?  We do know that animals who are raised for meat or dairy are kept in highly inhumane conditions. 

As Yamini Narayanan points out in her recent book Mother Cow, Mother India:Multi-species Politics of Dairying in India “the hyper-politicization of beef in cow protection discourses and practices obscures that the heavily state-subsidized dairy sector, India’s primary bovine industry, itself requires the slaughter of cows, buffaloes, sheep and other animals used for milk production. To acknowledge the role of milk in cow slaughter, however, places the Indian state in a fraught position.”

Restrictions on meat, including on beef, will impact the protein intake of the poor. Bans on sale and consumption are not coupled with measures to supply other sources of protein. This is no surprise, because prohibitions on meat does not come from a sense of animal welfare or animal protection but from a place of superiority and corresponding contempt for the marginalised.

Swami Avimukteshwaranand Saraswati tells Karan Thapar in an interview that he wasn't invited for the consecration, but even if he had been invited, he would not have attended the event. https://thewire.in/video/watch-its-divided-not-united-india-shankaracharya-of-jyotish-peeth-on-ayodhya-ram-temple 

Swami Avimukteshwaranand made clear that he is not anti-Modi but accepted that the building of the Ram temple as well as the propaganda surrounding the Prana Pratishtha have politicised the temple. He said he completely agreed with comments made by the Shankaracharya of Puri and reported by The Hindu on January 14 where the Shankaracharya said: “Politicians have their limits and they have responsibility under the Constitution. There are rules and restrictions in the religious and spiritual domain and these rules should be followed. Interfering in every area by politicians is insanity…overstepping these rules for propagating one’s name is an act of rebellion against God.”

by Karan Thapar

16/01/2024