IPL verses water verses sugarcane verses politicians

Good morning India. 

Mera Maharashtra Mahan!!!!

The Financial Express editorial, “IPL vs Sugarcane” (April 8) illustrates the utter stupidity of the position on holding or not holding IPL matches in drought hit Maharashtra. In reality fewer cricket matches and moving the IPL will only provide water for 400 people for half a year in Maharashtra. Will it “solve” the water shortage problem? I have no love lost to IPL a bloody den of thieves in any case. Yet I would like to look at the problem with a bit of logic and common sense.

If policymakers were serious about alleviating water shortages for the poor, they would first have to blame themselves for the stupidity, if not depravity, of the policies pursued by successive Congress Governments for decades, obviously the governments were run by partners in that crime. In particular, look at the water-guzzling sugarcane crop. In 2014-15, the estimated sugar output from Maharashtra was 10 billion kgs. Each kg of sugar uses 2,000 litres of water. In other words, the total water used for sugarcane cropping in the state was 20 trillion litres. You do the math.

In fact because of the political clout of corrupt politicians, who mostly own the sugar mills, (Nearly 60 percent pf sugar factories are owned by Ministers and politicians, this was about 10 years ago) the area under sugarcane cultivation is I think, more than six times the percentage limit laid down by the Government. Sugar crops guzzle water like the T72 Tanks of the Indian Army do diesel, more than 2 liters to 1 kilometer or whatever. The sugarcane required to produce 1 Kilogram of sugar, guzzles 2000 liters of water. Maharashtra produces 10 billion kilograms of sugar annually. So vast areas have become drought hit due to non availability of ground water. No one talks of this scene, where the fence eats the Farm.

About Krishna Valley Corporation through which again these rogue politicians made tons of money is not mentioned at all. If this entity had carried out the entrusted job of making check dams and others, droughts would have been a thing of the past. A staggering Rs 35,000 crore was siphoned off and wasted on dud irrigation projects in the past decade. The Maharashtra government has spent Rs 70,000 crore on such projects across the state during this period.The Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Ajit Pawar was the irrigation minister of Maharashtra during 1999-2009. On 25 April 2008, Deputy Secretary TN Munde issued a circular stating that the Irrigation Department was making exorbitant payments for the various raw materials and components, instead of following the scheduled rates fixed by the department. On 14 May 2008, Pawar's office issued a letter asking Munde to repeal the circular, and cautioned him against issuing any circular without the minister's sanction.

Tonight on Times Now Arnab was trying to act like holier than thou and not allowing sane voices to speak.He did not not have the bloody balls to question the successive governments which ruled Maharashtra since Independence and their Massive Political sugar lobbies, and siphoning off money on dud irrigation projects.

He did not wave around every 2 minutes, data sheets of sugar mills ownership papers as is his want. All of what he was doing was trying to whip up a public emotional outcry sans all valid and logical argument. Mr Arnab if you have the bloody guts question these politicians on your show and ask them their contribution towards alleviating drought like conditions in Maharashtra every few years.

The Reserve Bank of India dissolved the board of the powerful Maharashtra State Cooperative Bank, which had NCP chief Sharad Pawar's son Ajit as one of its directors, based on a NABARD report on the bank's finances which shows how factories controlled by politicians including cabinet ministers from the Congress and NCP took loans worth hundreds of crores and never paid back.

The list includes names like former Chief Minister Ashok Chavan, Agriculture Minister Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil and Higher Education Minister Rajesh Tope are among Maharashtra's sugar barons whose families are linked to the fall of the Asia's largest cooperative bank.

Among the loan defaulters is a spinning mill controlled by Congress MLC Amrish Patel, which owes the bank Rs. 182 crore; a sugar factory controlled by the family of Agriculture Minister Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil which has not repaid a loan of Rs. 175 crore; a sugar factory controlled by the family of former CM Ashok Chavan which still owes Rs. 31 crore; Forest Minister Patangrao Kadam's factory which has not paid back nearly Rs. 100 crore and a factory controlled by Water Resources Minister Ramraje Naik Nimbalkar which has defaulted on a loan of Rs. 16 crore. Here are the names of the Politician sugar mill owners who produce sugar using 200 litres of water per kg. Maharashtra produces 10 billion kgs of sugar every year at an expense of 20 trillion liters of water. What are you talking about Arnab? Trains of 5 lac litres of water? a few tankers here and there?

SUBHASH DESHMUKH

BJP; won Solapur South

Lokmangal Group; 3 mills; 1.43 lakh tonnes in 2013-’14

AJIT PAWAR

NCP; won Baramati

Shri Ambalika Sugar, Daund Sugar, Jarandeshwar Sugar Mills (combined output 2.28 lakh tonnes) have directors said to be linked to him

RAJENDRA PAWAR

Ajit’s cousin, Sharad Pawar’s nephew

Baramati Agro mills, Indapur and Kannad; 86,891 tonnes

NITIN GADKARI

BJP; union transport minister

3factories; 61,933 tonnes

VINOD TAWDE

BJP; won Borivali

Shreenath Mhaskoba Mill, Daund; 41,155 tonnes

SIDDHARAM MHETRE

Congress; former state minister

Matoshri Laxmi Sugar, Akkalkot; 57,500 tonnes

PRUTHVIRAJ DESHMUKH

BJP; lost to Cong’s Patangrao Kadam in Palus-Kadegaon

Cane Agro Energy, Kadegaon; 55,064 tonnes

BABASAHEB MOHANRAO PATIL

NCP; lost to Independent Vinayakrao Jadhav Patil in Ahmadpur

Siddhi Sugar, Ujana; 53,735 t

RATNAKAR MANIKRAO GUTTE

Rashtriya Samaj Paksha candidate in Gangakhed; lost

Gangakhed Sugar & Energy; 54,950 tonnes

BABANRAO SHINDE

NCP; won Madha

Vitthalrao Shinde Cooperative Factory, Madha

SANJAY SHINDE

Babanrao’s brother

Vitthal Corporation Mill

DILIPRAO DESHMUKH

Vilasrao Deshmukh’s brother

Jagruti Sugar & Allied Industries, Deoni

PATANGRAO KADAM

Congress; won Palus-Kadegaon

Sonhira Cooperative, Kadegaon

MOHANRAO KADAM

Patangrao’s brother

Udgiri Sugar & Power

BABANRAO PACHPUTE

BJP; former NCP minister; lost in Shrigonda

Shri Saikrupa Sugar, Shrigonda

IF YOU SEE SOMEBODY WITHOUT A SMILE TODAY GIVE THEM ONE OF YOURS

Good Morning India.....

"Memories"

When as a second Lieutenant after the India Pakistan War of 1971, our unit had yet to be be pulled back in 1972, from our war zone deployment. After early breakfast as usual in our underground bunker mess at Patti in Punjab, all 4 of us youngsters in the Signal Regiment used to gather around a small transistor (Radio receiver as it was then known). Without fail every day as a prayer. Why? First to listen to the news in the early morning BBC service for we did not believe All India Radio as it dished out a lot of crap. Second to listen to the Voice of America breakfast show host "Pat Gates". She was truly amazing. What made our day was the way she would end the program so lustily "If you see somebody without a smile today give them one of yours", and that truly made our day............

Celebrated Voice of America Breakfast Show host Pat Gates Lynch died after a struggle with cancer on 04 Dec 2011 at her home in Fort Belvoir retirement community. . From the mid-50s until the seventies then later again after a small gap, Pat served as host and interviewer on the VOA Worldwide English Breakfast Show, The daily news-and-interview program was heard by tens of millions of listeners around the world. . She interviewed presidents, prime ministers and many famous figures in the arts and music during those years. Long-time VOA listeners will remember Pat Gates' signature sign-off. She'd thank you for listening, and then remind you, "if you see someone without a smile, give him one of yours." This is Pat Gates signing off.

Sometimes one remembers things which happened years and years ago from the mists of time as if it was just yesterday. I am sure Techie Anand, Pandit Sharma (no more) and Viru Sareen will always remember those days of being subalterns, and the sweet voice of Pat Gates which filled us with total positivity to face the grind of a war torn unit every day..

Dress codes and sandwiches......... National Law School........

NLS prof slut-shaming student in shorts is not surprising: It shows how India's premier law school behaves like a khap panchayats.

http://www.firstpost.com/india/nls-prof-slut-shaming-student-in-shorts-is-not-surprising-it-shows-how-indias-premier-law-school-behaves-like-a-khap-panchayat-2720450.html

On seeing the girl wearing shorts in her class, the professor chose to make this sartorial choice an issue of sexuality saying: "We all know why parents marry their children off - so that they can have sex. Just because the parents marry off their children for this reason, it does not mean that the children have sex in front of their parents." When the student in question objected to this statement the professor is reported to have shot back "You can come to class without a dress also. That is how your character is, I'm going to ignore you".

I have seen this kind of behavior by faculty in some of the colleges I teach. However this so called problem has been got around by having a dress code. However the fact remains that the generation gap is too wide to be bridged. Girls have come to me with dress issues along with related problems as I was also looking after their personal welfare.

The older generation tends to forget that civilization and social conditions cannot remain static, they are constantly evolving. Basically its a question of Social, Cultural and religious bindings experienced by the older generation which cannot view their off springs breaking out of these. Our perception of something determines how we relate to that thing. It is a subjective experience of something hence there is no right or wrong nor can we correct our perception. “Our Perceptions build maps in our heads: What things are or realities. What things should be – Our values. We interpret everything we experience through these mental maps without questioning their accuracy”.

The myriad of experiences one grows through, may they be religious, cultural, social and many others jell into ones nature and behavior patterns and finally contribute to our glasses of perceptions as to how the world is (our world view) and then maybe how it should be. One can understand the above as “Perceptual Restraints”. To further explain “Restraints”. If you go to an Indian village, you will often find a bull tethered with a long rope to a stake dug into the ground. Now as far as the bull is concerned, his reality is only a circle, radius of that circle being the length of the rope he is tied by. Since the bull's experience is limited to that circle, the bull is unaware of the rivers, the oceans and the mountains and the world which exists beyond that circle. This is a classic case of a "Perceptual Restraint". The restraint in this case being the length of the rope.

If in the same village a foreigner, a girl, enters wearing shorts, the villagers might stone her, or hand her over to the police for indecency. The villagers cannot accept this clothing because they are experiencing a cultural restraint, although by no means it will be called indecent in her country.

The older generation tends to forget that man evolved from an ape, evolution is a constant change and asking the present generation to emulate their times aka 50's or 60's vintage behaviors, is like going back from Man to monkey, a kind of reverse evolution.

During my interaction with parents, I ask them to imagine that say in 400-500 years what would be the scene. Earth cannot sustain this booming population. Most probably civilization would have evolved to a central earth government. Their would be no such thing as marriage and families, as earth would be one extended family. The limited resources will be diligently governed and allotted by the state. The state after due genetic testing will most likely send a male and a female to live together for some period to mate and produce off spring and return to their respective places of work. The off spring male or female would go into state care, to be genetically tested for special qualities and propensity towards specific activities, there after the child would be educated and trained accordingly.

In this kind of scenario which we are fast approaching, where would you be with your unhappiness of girls wearing shorts and having living in relationships? It is no longer a question of control verses freedom. Its a question of evolution of coming generations to a certain level which would be required for mankind to sustain itself on this Earth. Here we tend to mix up social, religious and cultural bindings with values, as discussed earlier. In India we are extremely, very extremely if I can use that expression, far away from these realities I have discussed above. In fact if one of our local moral brigades read this may be I will be stoned on the streets of Pune.

It is time to understand where civilization is heading towards. It is also time to understand that every soul or the inner self has a right to undergo certain experiences which will help it to evolve as our creator planned. Why do people want to deprive evolving souls their experiences of being earthly beings?

Its time for a fundamental change in our Thinking, Emotions and Behavior patterns or the older generation is doomed.