Part 6: Friendly Conclusion ( final)

Sometimes it takes a small talk with a friend to trigger an event that gave me the courage to write in a blog. So thanks to my Friend. So here is the previour part 5: Lessons from US.
To those who want read from the beginning, here is Part1

It does not make difference who gets the credit as long India and Indians are benefited, of course it is politicacally imperative for sonia Gandhi to give importance to her family. Though I cannot avoid, I have to mention Media is biased and we give proper credit to people who deserve.

There are lot of problems facing India and we need a good leaders to solve them.
1) India's total debt is at 770 bn ( whole of India is 1000 Billion USD loan) somebody is going to pay this bill
2) Becoz of poor power supply and transportation, most of the business is in middle of a city . making properties very costly, Inflating the land prices and out of reach even middle class families. If you compare this with US, US has very low land inflation till 2003 for most regions outside, SFO, LA, NY and Miami City. becoz of good suburban roads.
For every million rupees spent, roads raised 335 people above the poverty line, and R&D 323. Every million rupees spent on education reduced poverty by 109 people, and on irrigation by 67 people. The lowest returns came from subsidies that are the most popular with politicians - subsidies on credit (42 people), power (27 people) and fertilisers (24 people).

3) Development of transportation can develop suburbans and reduce land prices
4) 60-70% of Indians can only be employed in low skill factory jobs. We need massive industrialisation and large factories
5) we need Capital account convertibility, India will be easily able to export its inflation becoz of its size and depth. http://business-standard.com/common/storypage_c.php?leftnm=10&autono=315201

6) Government needs to stick itself to Security, foriegn policy ,law and order, without interfering much in economics.
7) Whenever Inflation increases, it means somebody is missing their food, shelter, so RBI should stick to manage Interest rates and not worry about acccumlating foriegn currency or managing sovereign wealth
8)Whenever fiscal deficit decreases, it leads long time system stability ( no major skew by govt expenditure)
9) Technology is always welcome
10).

Notes:
- Government is always powerful. never mind what freedom you think you have.
- The total Global (world wealth at current technology) GDP is around 50Bn USD and USA is 12Bn USD. There is 300 Million People in US. that is 40,000 USD per US citizen. India has 1.1 Bn, to reach US standard of living of 40k USD, Indian economy has to grow from Current 1 Trillion to 40.4 trillion for current living population. India was 300 Billion in 1991, it took us 16 yrs to treble to 1trillion. At current growth rate it will take us atleast 45 yrs to reach 40 trillion, and in these 45 yrs, India population will be 2bn atleast. so it will take us 100 yrs to reach current US standard of life. ( note: We do not know where US will be in 100 yrs.)

So, India and Indians needs lot of luck just to survive.

Further reading

1)A tale to gladden the heart of economic liberals
2)Battling the babu raj

Part 5:- As it is in US

Previous Part 4: PC & BJP

in 1992 US economy was $4trillion and when Bill clinton become president, he tightened govt expenditure and reduced its debts to zero, by the end of 2000 US economy was $10 trillions.
It is like your income growing from $100k to 250k in 8 yrs. Not only yours but all of the people, you know. But once the current govt came in 2000 and started spending and deficit increased economy grow from 10 to 13 tns in 8 yrs. Note US can export its inflation becoz of trade is in dollars. Like it can print more dollars and let foreign countries accumlate them. India can do same thing becoz of its size.

The current news ( feb-2008) is US inflation is 7%, it is related to Iraqi surge of 30k troops, who needs additional clothes, food, shelter, equipments and so ..on from the mainland, Note in 2003 ,when the war started , US was in recession and the economy grew out of that stimulated has war created. but in 2006 economy is strong but the politically correct surge, created high inflation. If not for surge, US might have had a soft landing becoz of housing problem.

Next : Part 6 Friendly Conclusion

Part 4: P Chidambaram and BJP

Read Part 3 here

in 1997 PC did what is called a dream budget, what he did is simple but profound

1) he reduced government expenditures
2) he reduced Government revenue

by cutting taxes across the board and led a tight government for next 2 yrs

Luckily for India, BJP govt for next 6 yrs did the same thing, no populist measures.Yashwant Sinha under Chandrasekhar govt was the original architect of fiscal discpline. During the same period from 1997-2002, the GDP growth was only 4% , it is becoz Indian government was always mover/spender in economy but here government is cutting itself down. Poverty also fell faster becoz inflation was also very low around 3-6% during these last 12 yrs. it proves that low inflation in western countries like 1-2% is also the reason for their very low steady poverty. (Assuming Population growth is also below 2-3%. During 1950-1962, India experienced similar growth)

In 2003, Poverty rate touched like 25% way down from 50-60% seen in 80's. Jaswant Singh Introduced two important laws one for tough laws for capturing non-performing loans of banks and two to refinance the state governments old debts, low inflation rate led to low interest rates, indeed some of the state government borrowed "hundred" crores in 1970's at 30-40% interest rate and it was still paying for in 2001. Govt in 2001 introduced $5bn USD bond and cut interest payments and freed additional funds of state governments by 60-80%.

This led to more funds for state governments, so govts borrowed even less and that means banks had more money from both loan recovery and less govt borrowing. Banks also did VRS , which improved their productivity. this led to robust growth rate of 8% from 2003, this is driven by people taking loans from banks to finance homes, cellphones, cars ...etc. thereby creating more employment and low inflation.

NEXT As it is in US government

Part3 :101 Basic current economies

Part2: Why I disagreed with my friends

Before I can go to next 3 articles, I need to mention Basic economies on which India, and USA and most of the world is operating and what they mean. They are 4 important pillars in a free market economy

1st one is of course government, do you know what is your biggest monthly expenditure? It is financing the government thru income tax and all other taxes you buy when you eat, shop, see movies. Government is the richest and is the Emperor of the village. US govt is the Monarch of all these emperors

2nd most important is Inflation. there are lot of concepts of Inflation, but when you hear the word inflation ,it always means two things

- Government is spending more than others ( this is the true meaning of inflation)
- price are not stables, that means people who live on the borders, have to provide more for food or shelter , that means people are going to become poor.
Indeed it can proven mathematical at stable price and stable price increase ( say 1%) , poverty rate falls faster.

Tools to control inflation are a) interest rates, govt squeezes peoples spending b) capitail convertability or floating the currency, you export your inflation like US is doing to gulf countries/Indian Outsourcing firms/China

3rd most important is called fiscal deficit in India or balanced budget in USA/most other countries
- When Government borrows, as it is soveriegn , it gets the most money and it skews the whole systems
and when government spends , it skews the systems , for eg if government decides to buy a mobile phone, it buys them in millions (and not one or two like in a family ) that means a million "similar" lcd display, million "similar" keys, million "similar" sim cards and are all going to be required over night, that is going to create a major shortage and short term price hike or inflation in that particular product lines. compare it to million or even 1000 of people/organizations, it will all be different. Some go for style , some for features, some for price, increasing depth of the market.


4th most effective tool in current economic situation to remove poverty as been technology, indeed technology has played the greatest leveling factor in poverty allevation across centuring. Technology has been often replaced by words like education and militrary power,

But Government is always poor follower of technology, Being a behemoth , it is never nimble to advance/exploit technology. Technology is best exploited by risk takers, individuals, private enterprise. As you can see, In Regimes of less freedom, generally dictators pay the price for poor technology.
like USSR failed to convert their technology and had high poverty
while Saudi arabia,Iran has no new technology and has high poverty , unemployment inspite of record exports
while the reverse is true in korea, singapore, australia
Even china is no front runner in exploiting new technology nowadays.

NEXT :part 4 PC and BJP

Part2 : Why I disagreed with My Friend

Part 1: Angst With a close friend

Manmohan singh is through professional. being economist in Government , most of his reforms was in government Economics.

During 1991-96 period ,
- opening of India to FDI and FII and more importantly NRI accounts Foreign Currency relaxed( individual can have 7 yrs foreign currency account w/o tax)
and current account convertibility ( an individual who stayed abroad for 6 mnths can convert his foriegn currency to any other foriegn currency or use it to buy any foreign property)
- Export & Import control relaxed and customs duty relaxed
- complete removal of license raj, industrial laws
- Monopolies Restrications (MRTPC) was changed to allow to companies to consolidate ( in the case of HLL, India become of the export hub employing many many more people in multiple shifts)
- Major slashes in Income tax, corporate tax, excise and customs duties.

Major achievements was
- GDP growth picked up 6%
- Foreign currecny reserve crossed $30Bns
- exports/imports increased
- IT sector started growing
- Disinvestment in public sector to make up for loss in above taxes

Major failures
- High inflation around 15%
- poverty rate was still around 50%
- no reforms in non-economic arena like industries,land laws, agricultural,transportation, labor laws, judicial laws, election reforms

As a footnote, ManMohan singh after his term as a Governor of RBI, took charge of finance adviser for BARC and DRDO before he become the finance minister, it is that experience that helped garb the INDO-US nuclear deal. and he knows that he is doing a historic accord.


Part3:-Next 101 Basic current economies

Part1: Angst with a close friend

Recently on a dinner outage with a close friend, he mentioned that it is Rajiv Gandhi government which introduced economic refroms in India (I thought he really sounded like Sonia Gandhi ). it was a such a shock for me as he is from India and he lived in India as a teenager under Rajiv's rule and he has in college during Manmohan-Narasimha Rao stewardship. Unfortunately he is not only guy who said such things about India govts before 1991 , I heard things like that when Indira Gandhi nationalised banks, it helped poor people. ( joke is less than 35% of todays Indians have banks accounts and even in those nationalised banks, private sector IT employees had difficulties openings bank accounts 10 yrs back. Indira Gandhi nationalised banks and Insurance becoz it allowed govt borrow money at their low interest rates). My friends and others comment made think that I atleast attempt to correct this wrong so I decided to write about 6 part article on economics

Before 1991 reforms , following is the economic conditions in India
- Foreign Currency control ( all persons have to surrender foreign currency on landing in India) and that also means no FDI and FII investments
- there is passport and visa restrications/advanced permissions requirements for foreign travel
- Export control ( nothing can be exported without Govt permission)
- Import control ( nothing can be Imported without Govt permission)
- Production control ( govt thru excise duty controls how much product is produced like there is always a shortage of RIN, surf or kwality/Arun ice creams before 1990, like for eg. no more than 100 bars of RIN can be produced per day per factory)
- Monopolies Restrications (MRTPC) for example HLL owned RIN,SURF, lakme, fair and lovely they are different companies, leading to low hourly wages, poor distribution of managerial skills and so on
- Most of the jobs were in Govt and public sector
- tought labor laws mean very few recruitments and also layoffs
- License raj, govt permission required to start any business
- Small scale industries reservations, many products were reserved for small scale industries.
- Banks hardly lend to public, people bought houses on their savings or thru employee thrift funds
- Money lenders profited
- restrications of export mean among others gold, foriegn currency were smuggled illegally and it led to the development of Mafia in Bombay thru the Gulf-singapore route
-Ration shops thru Food corp of India bougth most of the rice and wheat meant that 80% of India which "still" has no ration shops faced food shortage and increased poverty. (Govt created poverty and food shortages thru ration shops)

- Inflation was 15% during Rajiv Gandhi period ( slighlty better than 20% during post-1962 period)
- GDP Growth was 8% ( but average for 1950-1991 is still 3%)
- Income tax was very high around 55%
- Poverty rate was close to 60%
- Foriegn Debt went from 15Bn USD to 75 bn USD ( that eventually led to 1990/1 foriegn current crisis on account of US invasion of Iraq)

and so on it is such a pain to even write about all these. None of these changed till Manmohan singh was appointed as Finance Minister

What Rajiv Gandhi really did are and succeeded
- New Education policy - which led to private colleges and good quality Navodaya schools
- Telecom policy - Govt relaxed export of electronic goods , which allowed BSNL and MTNL to export routers, switches and fiber cables, which led to a dawn of digital telephone in India
- Computerization of Government, his government favored computerization of government ( note there is no support for private sector)
- Panchayati Raj introduction
- Consumer act law
- His government prepared papers of election reforms, judicial reforms, education reforms, Labor reforms, liberalsation reforms, privatisation reforms, globalization reforms.( BUT he IMPLEMENTED NONE in spite of having 400 MPS in Lok sabha)

Where Rajiv Gandhi really failed
- He and his govt slept thru collapse of communism ( compare to Nehru or even Indira)
- Bofors - his failure is not in bofors corruption, but after exporting bofors guns, he cancelled all business deal with bofors, resulting in those guns having no bombs, those guns one of the best in mountain terrains like kashmir lived empty for over 13 yrs before kargil forced the govt to buy the bombs from Israel for emergency and then from Bofors
- HDW submarine, HDW is a West Germany company which was building submarines in bombay with transfer of technology to India, but becoz of bofors and another round of corruption accustions, Govt cancelled the contract. HDW packed up. The end result even after 23 yrs, India has no capability to build submarine even today.
- Having huge majority in parliament , he did not go ahead with 33% women reservation nor he allowed pachayats to raise their own tax.

MY next article will be " Part 2:- Why I disagreed with My Friend" It will be in general in What Manmohan singh did and did not achieve during 1991-96

Touching Video

Love , Respect and Why I dislike socialism and Communism

If Love is a river which it should be , everflowing , than respect is the banks. where the bank breaks, river disappears. Respect is always earned and has never been given free. Respect is always earned, when a human or humans show their skills and IMPROVES on it. Improvement or progress is the keyword. That is exceed the expectations by setting expectations.Nobody expects anything from a lazy person. Not much from a poor person. Poor deserves sympathy or compassion but not friendship.
Former soviet union is a great example many russians`are extremely skilled in maths and science but when they are paid same as poor peasants , innovation died. poverty rose and USSR collapse.Similarly in a family, if skilled and hard working persons are not respectd in a family, that family/society falls into poverty. Indeed many rich families in the 2nd generations fall into poverty with poor skills, as they spend more money and time on luxury and lavish parties. Downside of this higher respect for earning member are mother-in-law vs Daughter-in-law fight. When both of them have low skills, low confidence creeps in with gossip, jealousness and lazy,sloppy house work, they definitely pick up more fight. if among them, when one of them is hardworking, earning and creative. things eventually turn out to be different. Hardwork is a attitude, those who are dedicated to what they do, will do anywork and achieve higher skills. they tend to have higher self-confidence and will always turn out to be lucky.

Socialism and communism even though favors work, they discourage initiative, individualism.Love and respect are very individualistic, it is very difficult love everybody, even more difficult to respect people, you may appreciate people but hardly you can respect them

Even though Roger federer lost in 2008 Aus. openSemifinals, his skill, style and power is more due to his hardwork and the dedication. History is full of lessons but Many Many people refuse to believe and accept that hardwork alone (even w/o money) will make one eventually a skilled, happy, rich person and well respected.

Fragrance of love

Go not to temple to put flowers upon the feet of God,
First fill your own house with the fragrance of love.

Go not to temple to light earthen vessel before the
altar of God,
First remove the darkness of sin from your heart.

Go not to the temple to bow down your head in prayer,
First learn to bow in humility before your fellowmen.

Go not to temple to pray on bended knee,
First bend down to lift someone who is down trodden.

Go not to temple to ask for forgiveness for your sins,

First forgive from your heart those who have sinned
against you.

Rabindranath Tagore

Wisdom

Ever heard the story of the giant ship engine that failed? The ship's owners tried one expert after another, but none of them could figure but how to fix the engine.

Then they brought in an old man who had been fixing ships since he was a youngster.

He carried a large bag of tools with him, and when he arrived, he immediately went to work. He inspected the engine very carefully, top to bottom.

Two of the ship's owners were there, watching this man, hoping he would know what to do. After looking things over, the old man reached into his bag and pulled out a small hammer. He gently tapped something. Instantly, the engine lurched into life.

He carefully put his hammer away. The engine was fixed! A week later, the owners received a bill from the old man for ten thousand dollars.

"What?!" the owners exclaimed. "He hardly did anything!"

So they wrote the old man a note saying, "Please send us an itemized bill."

The man sent a bill that read:

Tapping with a hammer..... $ 2.00
Knowing where to ......... $ 9998.00

Effort is important, but knowing where to make an effort in your life makes all the difference.

One more of my Favorite

Copied from Sulekha - Dimwit

These are great thoughts, I want to keep it for chewing...

Skewed Economics

*Value: As defined and included in the GDP of a nation.

If economics drives a nation’s policies, and the goal is to increase the GDP year over year, then guess where value is going to come from?

A tree that stands and nurtures the environment, has no economic value. As soon as an axe cuts it down, it is assigned value.

The grass, the flowers, the plants and all those organic things that make a park for leisure have no economic value. The concrete pavement and the tarred road have value. The buildings, and even parking garages that take over these parks have tremendous value.

Mass produced agricultural produce, transported over great distance, sometimes frozen and then unfrozen for sale, with serious loss of nutrition – has value. Freshly picked produce from a kitchen garden, replete with nutrition – has no value.

Fresh groundwater laboriously filled by the villagers at the well, and then carted home in earthen pots has no economic value. Chlorinated water delivered at your home tap has value.

Solar powered homes reduce consumption of sold electricity, therefore lower GDP. Nuclear plants built to generate electricity add value. Dams and reservoirs that destroy natural landscape add value.

Oil generation has value. Environment destruction in the extraction process is not debited.

Oil traded and used has value. Environment pollution caused by its use is not debited.

A homemaker working at home has no economic value. If she crosses the street and works at another home, there is value.

Mother’s milk has no economic value. Baby formula has value.

Sperm donation, that requires masturbation, is paid for and therefore adds to the GDP. Egg donation, that requires body-invading procedure – it’s illegal to be paid for.

Safe driving has no economic value. A car crash acquires value.

A healthy child has no economic value. A sick one who needs medical care acquires value.

A home cooked meal has no economic value. Packaged and processed food, and restaurant or fast food has value.

A hand made card, a home made gift, a poem written in love, a basket of fresh fruit from your own fruit trees or wildflowers picked from a field have no economic value. Teddy bears stuffed with god-knows what, cheesy greetings written by strangers and printed on a card, sugar laden chocolatey treats, and flowers cut and packaged in plastic acquire value. Guess which one is promoted?

Peace has no value. War generates value - arms production, destruction, and regeneration. Especially war that is waged far away from one’s own country (thereby causing no stoppage of work domestically that could result in loss of value) adds great value to the GDP.

I wonder what it means when a country says that their GDP has increased. I seriously don't know whether to congratulate them or not anymore.

My Friday Story

Life~anonymous~As we grow up, we learn that even the one person that wasn't supposed to ever let you down probably will.
You will have your heart broken probably more than once and it's harder every time.
You'll break hearts too, so remember how it felt when yours was broken.

You'll fight with your best friend.
You'll blame a new love for things an old one did.
You'll cry because time is passing too fast,
and you'll eventually lose someone you love.

So take too many pictures, laugh too much,
and love like you've never been hurt
because every sixty seconds you spend upset is a minute of happiness you'll never get back.
Don't be afraid that your life will end,
be afraid that it will never begin.

State has a duty to stop conversions to maintain public order—Justice K.T. Thomas

Text of the sixth Rev. Dr. Stanley Samartha Memorial Lecture

State has a duty to stop conversions to maintain public order—Justice K.T. Thomas
(Justice K.T. Thomas, retired in 2002 as a Justice in the Supreme Court. He has delivered a lecture on conversions in a programme organised by the Bangalore Initiative for Religious Dialogue (BIRD). The audience comprised essentially of christian clergy and intellectuals. The programme was held in the main cathedral in Bangalore. Justice Thomas’ speech was really a bold and forthright one.)

Whenever mass conversions took place from Hindus to Budhisim, I never heard even a whisper of criticism. But when conversion of even a small group took place from Hindus to Christians or to Islam, the critics raised their voice, sometimes the criticism became strident and even aggressive on the allegation that such conversions were brought about by allurement, if not by fraudulent methods.

Why conversions from Hinduism to Budhism or Jainism or even Sikhism never created any problem in India. Because they are Indian originated religions. But the problem arose only when such conversion is made from Hindu religion to Christianity, Islam or Jewish religion. They are counted as Semitic religions.

Fundamentally Hindu religion did not believe in proselytization. In this connection it will be interesting to read the words of Mahatma Gandhi when he said as early as 19th January 1928 (He was then addressing an assembly of delegates from different religions)...

This was a subject of fume and sensitivity. A few years ago when some of the states proposed to pass legislation banning conversion, then it became a topic of debate in public places and also in the columns of the print media. When Jayalalitha government of Tamil Nadu proposed to bring such a legislation, a lot of protests were aired by Christians. At a later stage, she agreed to retrace the step for reasons not disclosed.

Whenever mass conversions took place from Hindus to Budhisim, I never heard even a whisper of criticism. But when conversion of even a small group took place from Hindus to Christians or to Islam, the critics raised their voice, sometimes the criticism became strident and even aggressive on the allegation that such conversions were brought about by allurement, if not by fraudulent methods.

Why conversions from Hinduism to Budhism or Jainism or even Sikhism never created any problem in India. Because they are Indian originated religions. But the problem arose only when such conversion is made from Hindu religion to Christianity, Islam or Jewish religion. They are counted as semitic religions. They are also called Abrahamic religions as the common primogenitor for all those religions was Abraham (also called Ibrahim in Arabic). We can conveniently leave out Jewish religion as no recorded instance could be pointed out when somebody had converted from Hinduism to Jewish religion. When I refer to conversion, it may be understood as conversion either to Christianity or Islam.

I remember four different occasions when conversion from Hindu religion was raised as a political or legal question. First, when the Indian Constitution was made. Second was in 1956 when Justice Niyogi Commission report was published containing a recommendation that foreign missionaries shall be banned in India and also to impose statutory restrictions against conversion. The third occasion was in 1967-68 when the Congress governments of Orissa and Madhya Pradesh passed legislations imposing penal provisions against conversion by allurement and fraud. The fourth was in the recent past when some of the BJP state governments and the AIDMK government in Tamil Nadu brought similar legislations.

Many Christians believe that Jesus Christ issued a mandate to convert all people to Christianity. In support of this, the scriptural sentence often quoted is Chapter. 28-19 of the gospel according to Mathew: “Therefore go ye into all the I!; . world and make all people my disciples and baptise them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy spirit”.

The Christians appear to believe that they can afford to ignore or disobey the rest of the teachings and commandments of Jesus Christ relating to social justice, but they should implicitly follow the mandate of conversion because it would result in increase the strength of Christian population.

We must remember that no legislation has imposed any restriction on conversion if it is done by one’s own free will. Conversion was made an offence in the Orissa Act and also in the MP Act, if such conversion is brought out by others through compulsion, allurement, force or fraud. I remember the furor created then by the church. The validity of those Acts was challenged before the High Courts concerned and lastly in the Supreme Court. When it reached the Supreme Court, the case was heard by a Constitution bench (minimum 5 Judges). One of the Judges who heard that case was a Muslim by name Justice M.H. Beg. The decision of the Supreme Court came to be reported as Rev. Stanslavos Vs. State. The five Judge bench examined the validity of different (provisions of the legislations and held that none of the provisions is unconstitutional. Even before the Constitution came into force, conversion by persuasion was objected by many Hindu leaders. Conversion was an irritant in Indian society, as almost all conversions were from Hindus to other religions and not vice-versa.

This is because fundamentally Hindu religion did not believe in proselytization. In this connection it will be interesting to read the words of Mahatma Gandhi when he said as early as 19th January 1928 (He was then addressing an assembly of delegates from different religions). “I came to the conclusion long ago, after prayerful research and discussion with as many people as I could meet, that all religions were true, and also that all had some error in them; and that, whilst I hold my own religion, I should hold others as dear as Hinduism from which it logically follows that we should hold all as dear as our nearest kith and kin, and make no distinction between them. So, we can only pray if we are Hindus, not that a Christian should become a Hindu, or if we are Mussalmans not that a Hindu or a Christian should become a Mussalman, nor should we even secretly pray that anyone should be converted; our inmost prayer should be that a Hindu should be a better Hindu, a Muslim a better Muslim, and a Christian a better Christian. I would not only not try to convert but would not even secretly pray that anyone should embrace my faith” .

This was a very unambiguous stand of Mahatma Gandhi whose adoration and admiration of Lord Jesus Christ was convincingly much higher than majority of Christians themselves.

The right to freedom of conscience is enshrined in Article 25 of the Constitution as a fundamental right. It is a right conferred not only on the citizens of India, but on all persons. The article says “All persons are equally entitled to freedom of ‘: conscience, and the right to freely profess, practise and propagate religion”. We ; must remember that the word “propagate” was added to the Article by the Constituent Assembly after heated deliberations. Some persons opposed it on the ground that no secular Republic should allow it. According to them, propagating one religion involves propagating against another religion which could give rise to bitterness and communal hostility. Hence, a permission to propagate religion may sometimes lead to hysterical outbursts. The trend of the debate in the Constituent Assembly shows that if the word “propagate” was not included as part of the Fundamental Rights, religious freedom as for Christians might remain only a mirage. It is interesting to note that it was Sardar Vallabhai Patel who strongly pleaded for inclusion of the word “propagate”. When the turn of Kulapathi K.M. Munshi came (he was the founder of Bharateeya Vidya Bhavan and also one of the greatest legal luminaries of India) he spoke like this:

”I know it was on this word ‘propagate’ that the Indian Christian community laid the greatest emphasis, not because they wanted to convert people aggressively, but because the word ‘propagate’ was fundamental part of their tenet. Even if the word were not there, I am sure, under the Freedom of Speech which the Constitution guarantees it will be open to any religious community to persuade other people to join their faith. So long as religion is religion, conversion by free exercise of the conscience has to be recognised”

K. Santhanam who was a renowned Constitutional expert of that time spoke like this: I quote:-”A good deal of injustice would be done to the great Christian community in India if we delete the word propagate. After all propagation is merely Freedom of Expression. I would like to point out that the word ‘convert’ is not there. Mass conversion was a part of the activities of the Christian Missionaries in this country and great objection has been taken by the people to that. Those who drafted this Constitution have taken care to see that no unlimited right of conversion had been given. People have freedom of conscience, then well and good, no restrictions can be placed against it. But if any attempt is made by one religious community or another to have mass conversions through undue influence either by money or by pressure or by other means, the State has every right to regulate such activity. Therefore, I submit to you that this article, as it is, is not so much an article ensuring freedom, but toleration - toleration for all, irrespective of the religious practice or profession”.

When the word ‘propagate’ was finally included as part of the religious freedom, the word ‘convert’ was deliberately avoided. What is the extent of the right to propagate? Does it include the right to propagate that your religion is faulty and my religion alone is perfect? Can it be permitted to propagate that, if only you follow my religion, you will enter into Heaven, but if you remain in your religion you might land up in Hell. Here comes the role of religious obscurantist. A religious fundamentalist believes that his religion alone is the right religion and all other religions are erroneous if not fake. As a religious pedantic he may be entitled to believe so but he cannot be allowed to propagate it for two reasons.

First is that, his belief that another religion is wrong is based on his ignorance about that other religion. According to me, he is ignorant of his own religion. If he knew of his own religion well, he would have realised that no religion is perfect in itself. Metropolitan Philippose Chrysostum, one of the most profound thinkers on religious pluralism, whose perorations could keep any audience to spell bound attention, once said that “Multiplicity of religion is a gift of God. It is because of other religions that imperfections of one religion can be replenished”. Akbar the Great decided to form a new religion by collecting different principles from different religions. The name of the new religion was “Din lIahi”. It was a bold experiment made by a great secularist monarch. But unfortunately, that religion died out with the death of the emperor. Is it not a stark truth that no religion in the world is perfect by itself.

Let us take the case of Christian religion. What we have is only a very small portion of the vast area of teachings and preaching made by Jesus Christ. We have only what has been recorded in the four small books called gospels. The last gospel writer St. John had said in categorical terms that if what all Jesus said and did were recorded, the whole world could not hold them in books. Do you require more proof to show that Christian religion, as we know it now, is quite imperfect because, we know only a fraction of what Jesus himself said and did.

Based on such a truncated portion, if somebody propagates that Christianity is a perfect religion then you are going against the very gospel precept.

Second is, if every religious preacher is allowed to speak that the other religion is wrong or fake, one can imagine the explosive situation which would be created by such propaganda. Religion has a tendency to erupt hysterical reactions. I have observed that this tendency is more acute among people following Semitic or Abrahamic religions. In all communal riots recorded in history at least one of the sides has been an Abrahamic religion. So a permission to propagate that your religion is inferior to my religion, if not to the extent of saying that your religion is fake, such propagation is very likely to stimulate fury and frenzy. That would snowball into creation of fertile soil for communal riots.

In this context, we must remember that, the right to religious freedom has been conferred in Article 25 of the Constitution by giving greater importance to public order, morality and health and also to the other provisions of the Constitution.

This can be discerned from the initial words of that Article (subject to public order, morality and health etc. all persons are entitled to freedom of religion). Thus public order, morality and health will override religious freedom. In other words, greater importance is given to public order, morality and health. If religious freedom is exercised in such manner as to endanger public order then it is the duty of the state to stop it.

A Great person

If you want happiness...

M S Swaminathan - Hero

From :- Gitanjali

oh life of my life, I shall ever try to keep my body pure,
knowing that thy living touch is upon all my limbs.

I shall ever try to keep all untruths out from my thoughts,
knowing that thou art that truth which has kindled the light of reason in my mind.

I shall ever try to drive all evils away from my heart and keep my love in flower,
knowing that thou hast thy seat in the inner most shrine of my heart.
And it shall be my endeavour to reveal thee in my actions,
knowing it is thy power gives me strength to act.

Rabindra Nath Tagore

I know Nothing of VEDAS