The Pioneer > Why their IT hates our IT

• The Pioneer
  

  • Ashok Malik
  • Speaking at a conference in Delhi this past week, Home Secretary GK Pillai warned of the threat from terrorism to India’s flagship Information Technology companies. “We are world leaders in software,” Mr Pillai said, “but the software industry is high on the threat list.” Actually, there is a history to this targeting of IT companies that goes beyond conventional threats to locations of economic value. The story of Islamist Terror versus Information Technology — their IT versus our IT — begins, really, a year ago.
  • Hate for the Infosys campus is far removed from this. It has nothing to do with religious war or any self-propelled extension of the two-nation theory. It is a secular form of hate, in every sense of that ‘s’ word. An animosity towards India has been hardwired into the Pakistani military-strategic complex. It has become an open-ended cause, a raison d’être, an industry. It has long outgrown Jammu & Kashmir. It will not go away in our lifetimes.

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The Pioneer > Panic stricken surrender

• The Pioneer
  

  tags: no_tag

  • Sunanda K Datta-Ray
  • Agreeing to create Telangana was a panic decision by a Minister who is not accustomed to handling political crises, but a 29th State should not in itself cause panic. The prospect of more States causes alarm only because Jawaharlal Nehru’s concern about ‘Balkanisation’ has left a deep-seated fear of parts of India breaking away.
  • Journalists and writers with greater patriotism than historical understanding have been screaming ever since about Britain’s departing kick being to try and Balkanise India. But if we do talk of the Balkanisation of India — as Nehru did of various constitutional proposals for federation — then we are bracketing the Indian Union with the Ottoman and Austrian empires, not to mention the Soviet Union.
  • What India lacks is a philosophy of its structure and a long-term vision of its administrative and political geography. Internal boundaries have been redrawn many times to be sure, but never willingly. No new State has been the result of Central recognition of the right of a particular region or people to an administrative entity. Even the States Reorganisation Commission’s recognition of linguistic States did not mean automatic cartographic reforms. That was the opportunity for taking a realistic and imaginative look at India’s demographic diversity and creating a new and willing union in consultation with the people concerned.
    
    Instead, every effort was made to cling to the boundaries and institutions the colonial regime had left behind. Any departure was treated as treason. Innovations have taken place only under pressure. That merely encourages the proponents of Vidarbha, Gorkhaland, Bundelkhand, Harit Pradesh or Bodoland to believe they, too, can gain their ends through blackmail. If Mr K Chandrasekhara Rao can succeed by refusing to eat, why should Mr Bimal Gurung not try the same tactics?
  • If Bangladesh can turn each sub-division into a district, and tiny Britain devolve autonomy on Scotland and Wales, India should not baulk at a redistribution of authority.
    

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The Pioneer > A challenge for BJP’s GenNext

• The Pioneer

  tags: no_tag

  • Kanchan Gupta
  • Contrary to what is being claimed, the BJP’s main problem is not the RSS but the BJP itself. Last week’s transition will be meaningless unless it is accompanied by a tectonic shift in the way the BJP sees itself. It can either choose to position itself as the only alternative to the Congress by being distinctly, ideationally and ideologically different, or it can persist with fashioning itself as a clone of the Congress, a holdall party with neither beliefs nor commitments but driven by the cynical pursuit of power as an end and not the means to an end. Mr Vajpayee had vision; he was the ‘big picture’ man who couldn’t bother about the details. Mr Advani had ideas; it was his job to fill in the details of Mr Vajpayee’s vision. What the BJP needs to regain its position as an unassailable foe of the Congress is a new generation Vajpayee and a new generation Advani, if not a leader who can combine the qualities of the two stalwarts who still tower above everybody else in the party. Age won’t be a criterion in deciding who qualifies as the new generation Advani or new generation Vajpayee.

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The Pioneer >> Smell of English

• The Pioneer
  

  • Chandrabhan Prasad
  • Political scientist Prof Devesh Kapur has a theory — whenever and wherever the elite/middle classes withdraw using certain services, quality of those services fall. That has happened with primary education nationally. Due to a variety of reasons, but primarily due to the Mid-Day Meal Scheme, the middle class/upper Caste have withdrawn or are withdrawing their kids from Government-run primary schools.
    
    Primarily due to Caste prejudices, the upper Castes have withdrawn their kids from Government schools. In such schools, slates have been replaced by plates, and teaching has virtually ended in them. The social Ghettoisation of school education has begun.
    
  • Since teaching in Government primary school has collapsed, it is time that Dalit parents, mostly the poor who use services of Government schools, too should start withdrawing their kids from Government schools. Dalits, too, should choose the schools upper Caste are using for their kids. The question is: Can poor Dalits afford the ‘expensive’ private schools in villages and small towns?

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Hindu priest stripped and shamed by Malaysian temple authorities for seeking pay-raise

• Hindu priest
  

  tags: no_tag

  • Kuala Lumpur

  • A Hindu priest was attacked, stripped and shamed in a Malaysian temple for asking for a raise in his salary.

    In his police complaint, M. Kanagarajan, 27, alleged that he has been working in the temple in Kelana Jaya for the past two years, and was attacked by the temple council president’s son after he had asked for a raise on December 14.

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Mounting temple gold coffers impel Himachal government to bank it | My Himachal

• Mounting temple gold coffers impel Himachal government to bank it | My Himachal

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  • As gold prices hit the roof, securing and managing over four quintals of the precious metal for some millionaire temple trusts of Himachal being guarded in state treasuries has become a problem for the government. Looking for a safety net, plans are afoot to secure the bullion in gold bonds with Reserve Bank of India and other banks.

    “The proposal is to first refine the gold offerings lying secured with government treasuries and then bank it with RBI or other banks, not only for safety purposes but also to earn interest on it,” says Manisha Nanda, principal secretary language art and culture and is responsible for overseeing running of temples trusts that are controlled by the government.

  • Shimla

  • Chintpurni temple, the richest of them, alone is reported to be having accumulated gold offering of about 130 Kgs. In 2006, the temple had recorded a cash collection of Rs 20.8 crore and 25 Kg of gold.

    Management of several temples were brought under the HP Hindu Public Religious Institutions and Charitable Endowments Act, 1984, whereby a commissioner was made incharge of supervising the temple trust affairs.

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