Sanjay-o-vaach Open Hearts Dead Brains

SanjayOvachayaa: Open Hearts, Dead Minds

Open Hearts, Dead Minds

Copyright © Sanjay Matkar, 2001-02

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SanjayOvachayaa: Open Hearts, Dead Minds Introduction: I decided to write this book to say out aloud a lot of things that concern every one of us, and while we say these in private we are always afraid to even mention them in public. These are important political and social issues affecting our society today. Many events mentioned herein are specific events and may not have any ‘cutting edge’ relevance, especially by the time this is published. But, in considering the issue of timeliness it is prudent to consider that analysts and commentators must offer their observations within the timeframe of these events as well as after the fact. In reality, events are simply vehicles, which allow us the opportunity to illustrate our beliefs and to define them. I believe in specific ideas and I believe that each idea has a consequence of action. I believe in the individual person, in less government so as to allow each individual maximum freedom to create and to achieve; I believe that societies that are founded on restraining the bureaucracy rather than the individual are more successful; that every individual is smart enough to solve his own problems and does not need to depend on the government for resolution of all his problems; that my belief in individuality and limited government does not preclude me from advocating the requisite amount of government authority to ensure a strong law and order in our society; that our ability to enjoy peace vis-à-vis other nations is directly related to our military strength and power; that the best we can hope for in this imperfect society will be most likely achieved by maximizing individual economic and political freedom. I firmly believe that social utopia cannot be achieved through government grants and aids; that compassion is defined not by the number of people who require government assistance, but by the number of people who do not require it; that society owes its people equality of opportunity but cannot guarantee equality of outcome; that strong, wholesome family values are still the core of a healthy, productive, prosperous and peaceful society; that these values cannot be instilled by government decrees, but can be eliminated from society by well intentioned but destructive government programs; that human life is sacred and that the Divine Creator has placed humans in a dominant position over other creatures in nature; that healthy environmental awareness should not be confused with mindless environmentalism based on wrong information and hysteria. I further believe that religious rivalry and hate cannot be removed by government edict; that there is only one Divine Power called God (whether referred to as Allah, Bhagwan or Jesus Christ) and that our country was established on this firm belief; that our morality emanates from the Divine Creator whose laws are not subject to amendment or modification; that certain fundamental differences exist between men and women; that the freedom of rights granted by our Constitution should not be abused to preclude the recitation of our National Anthem in schools, educational institutions or public gatherings; that India was, is and can be the greatest nation on earth; not because we have the best government, but in-spite of it; and that most of us still believe in the words and spirit of our Constitution.

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SanjayOvachayaa: Open Hearts, Dead Minds Writing this book has been one of the most difficult works I have ever undertaken. I had never written a book before. I was unaware of the magnitude of thought that is required to write a book. Thinking is a demanding and tiring. It is an exercise for the mind and for that reason alone, it has been an invaluable experience. Having said all this; I realize that some, if not many who read this book, will feel offended when reading certain parts of this compilation. Throughout my life I have managed the incredible feat of arousing hatred and anger amongst many a bureaucrat and minister. A few more will not matter. For those others who may be more ambient, I advise you just one thing. Don’t let serious thoughts overcome the need to laugh, for laughter is by far the most precious commodity.

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SanjayOvachayaa: Open Hearts, Dead Minds People: Think for Yourself. I have always been concerned that too many of our people are simple, too willing to accept all the propaganda that is showered upon them daily by the politicians and the government’s propaganda machine. That is why I provoke people into thinking for themselves, and not blindly accepting all that they are spoon-fed by the media. And this brings us to an issue close to our hearts, or rather to our wallets. Taxation! It is time to get serious and tough about the tax policies in our country. Look at the size of our deficit. It grows every year. We could cut spending and we need to do that, but there is clearly a need for more revenue. We cannot and should not reduce defense spending and we cannot cut all of the middle class entitlements. We cannot cut expenses on any major fronts. And, we cannot continue to try and rob the rich. Tax evasion has been a major activity in our lives specifically because the government has been punitive against the rich in India. Because of this entrepreneurs are not motivated to invest into modernization of technology or Research and Development and instead try to either invest into tax-free environments or into farmland schemes. And who are the people who are hurt the most by this? The white collared middle class suffers the most. Instead of trying to bring down the achievers in our country, who make a lot of money; instead of trying to punish these people for working hard and succeeding; what we should do is teach others how to succeed. We have to keep trying to motivate others to put in their hard work rather than be pacified by indictments of the rich and promises that they will be made to pay more than their fair share because they are rich. Of course, the government’s answer to increase revenue is simple; just raise taxes on the middle class. One of the reasons that India has a constant recession is because the middle class does not have any more money to give to the government. The middle class has been taxed at a confiscators rate for 55 years and is now broke. Taxes go up every year. And they go up the most on the middle class because that is where the bulk of the money is, that cannot be hidden from the government. Consider the taxes we pay on cooking gas, petrol, food, clothing, and entertainment. When you add it all up, is it any wonder that we are perennially broke? The average middle class family cannot afford to give their children good schooling or health because, instead of using their money to support their children; they are supporting a giant, bloated cow in New Delhi called the Government of India. The middle class coupled with the rich should make this country work well. Should, but never does. What is slowing this country down? I will say out loud what it is. The Poor. And the Farmers. I can almost hear the howls of protest from many people, but the reality is that the poor, the farmers and the so-called backward classes of our country have been having a free ride since independence. It has become noble to remain poor or backward. Look at how we treat those who shun money and wealth. We celebrate them, make romantic figures of them. We make movies about them and teach people that it is wonderful to be destitute. The poor of our country, combined with the farmers are the largest herd of calves feeding off the mother cow in New Delhi. They feed off the

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SanjayOvachayaa: Open Hearts, Dead Minds largesse of our government and give nothing in return. Nothing! They get all the benefits and they are the ones always pandered to by the politicians. The government has been encouraging poverty by subsidizing the increasing number of poor. And politicians love giving money away to the poor because it makes the poor dependent on the politicians and helps to ensure re-elections. And do the poor pay anything back to the nation? No. Do they pay any taxes? No; because they are poor and cannot afford to pay taxes. They do nothing, but take from the nation. On one hand there is the middle class who are infusing everything into the nation’s economy. These are the people who work hard every day, throughout their life; always obeying the rules and contributing their fair share and more. These are the givers. And who are the takers? The poor, of course! Look at the farmers. Free of any tax burden many have become millionaires and politicians. From the 50s to the new century, look at most of our politicians. More than 90% will state their profession as farming. Each will have palatial houses (defined for tax avoiding purposes as ‘farm-houses’); each will have at least one expensive car in their driveways. Each will become rich every year on the farming subsidies that the government will dole out to them. In the earlier years, the tax-free status for farmers was supposed to be an incentive for them to grow more crops. Yet 55 years later we import almost half our requirement of Wheat, Barley and Sugar. Why? Because the farmers do not have to perform for their subsidies. Only in India is failure rewarded, and rewarded handsomely. It is time to get serious about raising taxes on these people. It is time they started paying their fair share of the revenue, instead of being treated like a bunch of helpless invalids who can survive only if the government provides for them. It is time to stop treating the poor as objects of sympathy and force them to work in overcoming their poverty status. There is no reason we should have the level of poverty in this country that we have. Tax them; the poor, the farmers, the so-called socially backward classes. Let us balance the budget on the backs of these special interest groups that feed off the government subsidies and grants, and show them what life is like for the rest of us. And what if they cannot pay? Let us start a system of sweat equity in taxes. Tax avoiding citizen-laborers whom will have to contribute certain hours per week in the form of sweat equity in place of the taxes they owe to the country. These labor parties can be used to sweep our cities clean, to maintain existing roads and to build new ones, to help build cheap housing for the masses, to lay water and sewage lines, to farm the thousands of acres of farm land that is being neglected by their owners; every area that their sweat equity will help in building and developing. This idea does not emanate from any socialist or communist principles, but from practical thought. This will get the poor off the streets, keep them gainfully employed and away from criminal activities. Our society and our nation just cannot afford to pamper the poor and the farmers anymore. And it is time we all said this loudly and clearly. Frankly, we need to force people to contribute to the economy, not just sit around blaming everyone and everything. We need to have a system to get the poor out of their situation, rather than glorifying and perpetuating it. Encourage them to be

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SanjayOvachayaa: Open Hearts, Dead Minds economically equal members of our society, rather than a collection of sycophants siding up to the bloated cow in New Delhi and looking for the biggest feeding nipple they can find. How? By self-reliance! We have got to install that into the poor, rather than the dependency mentality fostered by the politicians. Let us force the poor to rid of the mentality that being poor is advantageous. It is not. Look at Sonia Gandhi. How does she try to get credibility to herself? By being a friend of the poor, of course. Travelling in a million-rupee car-cade, surrounded by bodyguards who cost the taxpayer thousands every day, this government subsidized Maharani will sit around in some village once in a while to show her solidarity with the poor. And we are supposed to think, Oh Gosh, She Cares! She sits with the poor and feels compassion for them. She goes around saying she is sorry for the plight of the poor and that just for a few hours will join their lifestyle. But, this does not help the poor. It may make Sonia Gandhi feel good and assuage her guilt because she has shown that she “cares”; but it does nothing, nothing for the poor. She only encourages the feeling that it is better to reduce themselves to the lowest denominator, rather than encouraging the poor to emulate those who are successful and productive. Finally, there is the hidden wealth in the land, the unaccounted for, untaxed “black wealth” that runs almost 50% of our economy. If that money could be brought into main stream economy, the nation will again be rich in monetary terms. The current tax system is not only archaic, but also punitive. This has spawned a huge, corrupt bureaucracy who stifles free enterprise and has the overall effect of making people cheat on the taxes; but has also given the government a weapon which it uses to silence dissent against itself, and its corruption. The people of this land are habituated to saving as much of their income as possible. They save in the form of land, gold, jewelry or cash, often stashed at home. All these are assets; assets that can enhance the treasury many more times, if they can be bought into the open. Then, there are the draw-backs that need to be eliminated; subsidies that cost the national exchequer huge amounts with no positive results, high import duties which inhibit rapid growth of the technology sector as well as restrict the consumer boom, and the quota system of permits and licenses which fuel the corruption of the bureaucracy. We can achieve a lot and make progress while the changes take place, but first we have to get rid of our image of being a poverty stricken land. We have to stop going around the world with a begging bowl in our hands. For, the people of our land do not have to beg from anybody. Our land has material wealth, intellectual wealth and the monetary resources. All that we have to do is use this to our national advantage. We are always led to believe by the people in power that one class of the nation is stealing from the other, the rich are getting richer while the poor will always remain poor. This is just not true. I do not believe that our country or our economy is a zero sum entity; in other words, if I have more, that means someone else will have less. I believe that our economy is like a fruit-bearing tree. Just because I have more fruits or someone else has more, does not exclude everybody else from savoring the fruits of that tree. Unfortunately, successive governments have treated our economy as a zero sum entity,

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SanjayOvachayaa: Open Hearts, Dead Minds that there is only so much and it has to be shared by more equally. Except of Rajiv Gandhi, none of them could comprehend expanding wealth or creating wealth; they have always viewed it as limited and finite and want to redistribute it. There is great prosperity in our country that is available to everybody; if you can learn how to avail yourself of it, how to believe in yourself, to be self sufficient and to force the government to help us avail of it without interference. Sympathy never brought prosperity or happiness to anybody. These public displays of sympathy are not for the poor, but to make those expressing it feel good and look good in society. We have to be self reliant in every strata of our society. The poor are weaning off the government cow. The middle class who gets nothing in return is feeding the cow. The country in itself is losing its self-reliance by being dependent on foreign countries for aid, food, weapons, oil and even cultural development. People have to be discerning and attentive and must think for themselves. For the good of the country, the good of the society; but most importantly, the good of yourself.

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SanjayOvachayaa: Open Hearts, Dead Minds We, the Indians: Southwest of the Hind-a-khush! According to the western archeologists and historians, the original inhabitants of our land were good natured, peaceful, dark-skinned people known as the Dravidians. To them were attributed great skills as builders and architects; as can be witnessed by the designs of the ancient city of Mohenjo-Daro. The Dravidians, however were supposed to have no known skills of written text or proper script. Around 1500 BC, it is said, the land was invaded by tribes from the Urals; who were known as the Aryans, white skinned nomadic people to whom are attributed the Sanskrit language, the Vedic religion, as well as spiritual writings like the Vedas, Upanishads, Mahabharat, Ramayan, etc. This theory put forth by mostly the European scholars; showed on one hand that the Indian sub-continental civilization was not as ancient as the western civilizations of Mesopotamia, Sumeria, or Babylon; and on the other hand, put forth the idea that all good things developed in this land of ours; be it architecture, literature, or the scripts had actually been influenced by the West. Further, it is the Aryans to who is attributed the caste system whereby the priests and the Kings ruled over the merchants and the laborers by virtue of birthright. Thus was born the theory of two civilizations; the high caste Aryans who predominantly occupied the north and the Dravidians who occupied the south; always pitted against each other and fighting a battle which has endured till today and is still being used by the politicians. However, to counter this theory is the new scholastic thought based on new discoveries; prominent among them being the discovery of the Saraswati river basin and the deciphering of the Indus seals. For a long time the Saraswati river was considered a myth, until the American satellite Landsat was able to photograph and map the bed of this river. Nearly ten miles wide, its source was in the Himalayan mountains, and it flowed through what are today Haryana, Punjab and Rajasthan before terminating in the area now known as Broach. The American anthropologist Mark Kenoyar was able to prove in 1991 that the majority of the Harappan/ Dravidian civilization were not situated on the ancient Indus River as historically attributed, but on the Saraswati. Professor Paul-Henri Francfort; in the Eastern Anthropologist 1992 writes that the Saraswati most probably disappeared around 2200 BC because of immense drought in that region. This forced most inhabitants to move away and settle on the banks of the Indus and the Sutlej rivers. Recently, the Indus seals discovered on the sites of Mohenjo-daro and Harappa have been studied by Dr. N.S.Rajaram and Dr. Natwar Jha who using the ancient Vedic glossary of the Nighantu have deciphered about 1800 seals. Their conclusions are that the seals, which belong to the latter part of the Vedic age, prove that the Harappan civilization had close connections with the Vedantic works like the Sutras and the Upanishads. Thus, the theory of Aryan invasion is itself being questioned and it could very well be that it was the civilization of the Indian sub-continent that went westwards. From those days of glory and achievement, the people of this region are now associated mostly with poverty and corruption. All around the world people see movies like “City of Joy” or read about the work of Mother Teresa and assume the whole region is just one big ghetto, full of poverty. India is not really a poor country, but a very rich country inhabited by a grossly large number of poor people. Just look at the recent history

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SanjayOvachayaa: Open Hearts, Dead Minds of this region. Until the 18th century, despite repeated invasions from across the Hind-akhush mountains, the Indian sub-continent was known as one of the richest countries in the world. Till 1947/48 the Nizam of Hyderabad was the richest man on earth, far ahead of the Royalty of England. The land of milk and honey, as the region was then known, gave the world the Hope diamond and the Kohinoor; two of the largest known diamonds ever cut. The Taj Mahal is the only man-made wonder of the world that has no practical purpose; except to highlight the artistic abilities of the artisans of the country and to showcase the then affluence of the land and people. However, the British rule exploited the bounty of this land. Because of British industrial policy, unemployment and poverty grew, new business did not start up and the industrial sector of this area became secondary to the British industrial interests. Most of the great famines of the region occurred during British rule. According to British records famines killed one million inhabitants during 1800-1825, four million between 1825-1850, almost 15 million between 1850-1900; a total of approximately 25 million in one hundred years. After independence from British rule, however, and regardless of the growing economic poverty; there has never been a famine in the region of India, since the country grew self-sufficient in providing at least basic food to the masses. The British rule left us the legacy of the “Brown sahibs”; the result of the education system designed by Maculae, the architect of British schooling in the Indian sub-continent. Because of this, we have an education system that promotes with single minded-ness western ideas of culture, history, science and medicine. While the western nations still include in their school curriculum classical works such as the Iliad and the Odyssey, or the Greek tragedies; we have all but thrown into the trash-bin the classics of our own land; the Vedas, the Puranas, the Bhagvat Gita, Mahabharat and Ramayan; which according to many scholars, are some of the greatest literary works ever written. Our national education systems have to use the foundations of the past and make full use of all available knowledge of the present to build a great future. Every generation of this land has been so confused about their own identities as a nation, that we lack selfconfidence, not only when dealing with the western countries; but also with Asian countries like China. India’s first prime minister, Nehru was so enamoured with his own vision of a socialist democracy; that he had declared India and China to be natural socialist brothers of each other, the Hindi-Chinee bhai-bhai syndrome, to the extent that the nation did not have a clear defense policy towards China. The only policy that every Indian government seems to have is to appease China in every way in exchange for non-interference of the Chinese in Kashmir. Not only has this backfired onto India, with China providing nuclear weapons technology to Pakistan along with the missile technology for delivering nuclear warheads; but according to Indian intelligence sources, China has also transferred a substantial amount of its nuclear arsenal to the area of Lhasa in Tibet, with much of it pointed towards India and Pakistan. Both these countries have to acknowledge a bitter reality. With one billion people and growing China needs more space, and has hegemonic aspirations. China occupied Tibet, repossessed Hong Kong, wants to occupy Taiwan and would like to add Arunachal Pradesh, Sikkim and Nepal to its territories.

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SanjayOvachayaa: Open Hearts, Dead Minds Our land has tremendous potential. We have everything, ready to be manifested again, ready to mold our region into a great nation that it used to be; stretching from the Hind-akhush Mountains to the southern tip of the continent. And what was this great Nation? Beyond the image of poverty, of backwardness, beyond even the philosophy of our land there is Knowledge. Spiritual, occult, esoteric, and medicinal; still thriving in our land. This knowledge once roamed the world’s civilizations of Egypt, Mesopotamia, Greece, but has now vanished. Today, our personal lives are ruled by religion, with their dogmas and rituals, their do’s and don’ts, and the idea of heaven and hell. And in all this we have lost sight of the Truth, the great sense that is the meaning of our evolution, the life cycles, who we are and what we represent. All knowledge does not necessarily reside in the mystical realm. It can be very practical. Ayurveda, the oldest medical science still in practice specified the medicinal properties of neem and haldi almost 3000 years ago. Something that the western researchers are validating now! Another is ‘Pranayam’ the science of breathing. It is very practical, real knowledge, whose effects have been studied for thousands of years in our land. We are totally cut off from our own cultural and scientific heritage and even look down upon it because we cannot get the western approval that for some reason we so desperately seek. Unless we start being proud of our own culture and about ourselves, we cannot progress towards being a Self Confident and respected nation. In order to achieve this success, our policies have to undergo a radical change. Permit raj must be replaced by free enterprise. Economic liberalization has to be total and immediate, and not in small tentative steps. High standards of efficiency have to replace sloth; the “chalta-hai” (casual) attitude has to be thrown into the gutters. Corruption has to be rooted out by use of punitive laws including capital punishment. Separatist troubles have to be quelled by force if necessary, but rather with better economic opportunities for the local people. The Government needs to be de-centralized down to district level. The Panchayat (village government) system of governance has to be revived and the local governments allowed functioning, as a necessity of the people rather than the grand design of the bureaucrats in Delhi. And finally, we need to have accountability. From the Ministers, bureaucrats and above all from the people! Freedom of information must be made mandatory by Law, where the bureaucracy cannot hide the looting of the treasury under the guise of national security and the title of “Top Secret”. Secret budgets given to every department have to be terminated and each and every penny accounted for. The government may appoint the bureaucrats, but their performance should be open to public review. Those bureaucrats and government officials who do not meet the goals and aspirations of the People should have their services terminated. The current system whereby the performance of bureaucrats is reviewed by their superiors, called the annual confidential report (ACR) has to be terminated and replaced by an annual performance report that is open to public inspections and audit. The system of ACR has been the breeding ground of corruption and has been misused by officials to get revenge on subordinates who were honest and ethical. It has also been misused to hide the lack of performance of other officers who were good at keeping their bosses in good humor. Bureaucrats yell and scream when they hear such things; not because they think it is wrong, but mostly because such a system will expose their corruption and nefarious activities. Let us remind them constantly that they are

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SanjayOvachayaa: Open Hearts, Dead Minds public service officials and are thus answerable to the people of the land they administer. As for the People; let us make it mandatory that every citizen regardless of his caste, creed, religion or station in life; has to vote in person in every election and referendum. Let this be made a compulsory duty, a violation of which is punishable by Law, so that the people are made responsible for the government that they have elected to serve them.

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SanjayOvachayaa: Open Hearts, Dead Minds Success is not determined by who wins the Elections: For most people, success does not occur overnight. Rather, it builds slowly and there are many times along the way where some actually face defeat and lose ground. For most successful people, achievement is the result of intense, dedicated hard work and there is often little if any surprise or amazement associated with it. It becomes a matter of fact. Life goes on within that context. In fact, success breeds new opportunities for success, which must be concentrated upon. Ambition and drive keep the successful person focussed on what is ahead, not on what has happened in the past. My big break in life and business came in 1992, which was the first time in my life; I was allowed to be myself. So simple, yet so crucial and I have learned much from this realization. I was no different a person in ’92 than on all these other occasions I had never succeeded. I was a little older and mature, but my personality, sense of humor and philosophy were the same. The difference was that for the first time in my life I was not trying to succeed based on what others told me. One will never be ones best if you do what others tell you; particularly if you utilize talent, as opposed to learning skills. I am convinced that people have absolutely no idea how good they can be, at whatever they want to do; the key word being ‘want’ as against advised or instructed. They don’t know because they are trapped in situations where they are afraid to be themselves. I never imagined that I would prosper in large part because I was conservative in my views. I always thought that my political opinion was irrelevant to my success. But, it was my wrong perception. Lots of people were warming up to me and were talking to me because of my political point of view. A long time ago I stopped being mired in misery and hand wringing; and began having fun in life, being irreverent and also very serious about things I felt passionately about. Once in a while an issue will come up that I feel strongly about and I usually get very involved. Sonia Gandhi’s induction into the forefront of politics is one of those. Here is a group of people in the Congress party who have arrogantly abused privileges no one else in India has ever done. In an effort to gain power, these political miscreants have made it their mission to entrench a foreigner on the highest political seat India. Let us be clear on this issue. Sonia Gandhi was a foreigner, is a foreigner, and will remain a foreigner to our country. Attempts by these congress party persons to foist her upon our country and upon our people are nothing less than treason towards our country. In any other country these people would have been promptly tried in court and executed if found guilty. Yet, we are so lacking in national pride and honors, that we not only tolerate this assault on our country but we also pay homage to this foreigner as if she is the sole salvation of India. This, my friends, shows us how weak and morally corrupt we have become as a nation and as a society.

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SanjayOvachayaa: Open Hearts, Dead Minds The State of our Republic: The Indian middle class is just tired and listless. They have to take the brunt of everything that is wrong with our country. They are taxed more every year and then are lectured by the politicians about how they still are needed to help other people who are around us. Overtaxed, overburdened; the middle class has always been conservative in spending and are always blamed for the problems of the nation. Look at our parliamentarians. Every year they devise more ways to squeeze taxes from us. And, then they have the audacity to ask us for votes so that they can continue to rob us. People I know of personally have a hard time making ends meet. Members of Parliament exempt themselves from the laws they impose upon us, pass their pay raises without thought or debate, and overdraw on the treasury for their bullet proof cars and their bodyguards, and the endless foreign trips. Then, they dare to tell us that it is our fault for wanting to keep more of the money that we work so hard for and not surrender it in taxes. Working people are striving hard to survive against all odds, and all the government can do is view them as a revenue target. While robbing the middle class at every point, the government has the nerve to blame them too, and made to feel responsible for the problems that we face. We are at the point where the tax producers have been outnumbered by the tax eaters of society. Those who chose to accept the responsibilities of life have had enough of being told that they should give more to support those who won’t accept their responsibilities. We are supposed to feel sorry for all these groups. For the down trodden. And for the farmers. And for those who suffer because development will take away their lands. What about feeling sorry for us? Those who are living a hard life and paying taxes? Nobody feels sorry for the middle class. They are asked to give and give till they have no more. And when they say ‘no more’, the government persecutes them with more laws and more taxes. Then we have the spaced out fundamentalists; both Hindu and Moslem who try to focus attention on ancient ruins of civilization rather than health and education of their community in particular and the nation in general. The people are told that there is civil strife because of unequal distribution of food and wealth amongst various religious segments of society. The government spreads insecurity among the people to ensure its own security. At school, we are teaching children about Ayodhya instead of Aristotle. Our children are getting lower grades in general and are getting less educated than before. I can go on and on about the insanity that is loose in our country, much of it tolerated just so a bunch of aggrieved fanatics who don’t fit into the main stream of society can feel better about themselves. These people control many of our institutions, some of our universities and affect major policy decisions of the government. They all have easy jobs and never lose them, or get fired from them. Each finance minister stands in parliament and asks the people to sacrifice for the betterment of the nation. What do these politicians think the hardworking people of our country have been doing for all these years, because of the government’s policies and

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SanjayOvachayaa: Open Hearts, Dead Minds ideas? People who work and pay taxes have been sacrificing and that too for a lot of other people who are lazy and irresponsible. And each finance minister wants to increase the scope of sacrifice by raising taxes. Can these people show one example of any society in human history that has been taxed into prosperity? It is just improbable. The people who have been living off the hard work of others, have to be made to start accepting responsibility for their deeds and actions and stop bleeding the taxpayers of our country; taxpayers who accept their responsibility every day and work hard to fulfill it and keep our country alive.

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SanjayOvachayaa: Open Hearts, Dead Minds

Obeying the Law: It’s a requirement, not a privilege. When you think of it, the amount of crime we tolerate in our society is astounding. It is unbelievable how we manage to turn a blind eye to the manner in which the legal system and the power of the law are misused. Criminals with connections or money power walk away from autocracies, while innocents are put behind bars on fictitious charges. Every day, every new crime; we see an increasing less concern for the victims of the crime and their families or even other potential victims. We have become desensitized to violent crime. Even more horrifying is that we have stopped caring. We now seem to simply accept that certain people are never going to answer for their crimes or be punished for their guilty actions and that there is nothing we can do about it. We have learned to tolerate it and live with it; rather than fight this injustice in our society and stop the guilty from going unpunished. In many cases these criminals are no longer seen as people who commit crimes and are responsible for their behavior; but as victims of society who are driven to behave in ways that are defined as criminal. This trend has been glamorized a lot in the latest releases of the so-called political-action garbage produced in Bollywood movies. Rather than punish criminals appropriately and effectively, we are now trying to rationalize and excuse lawless behavior. Sometimes, we even beg them to obey the law. Look at all the places where communal riots erupt. Ministers and bureaucrats go around ‘requesting’ the rioting mobs not to burn, pillage and loot. Instead of enforcing the law, we as a society are reduced to begging the anti-socials to obey it. This stems from our “cultural” teachings, where we are supposed to look for goodness in everyone, to treat everyone with compassion. Our religious teachings do teach us forgiveness and tolerance but that should not be taken literally to excuse criminal acts against society and from the penalties of the criminal system towards such acts. That is nothing but a prescription for total anarchy and that is exactly what is happening in our nation. By excusing these acts of crime we make ordinary law abiding citizens feel more terrified and unsure of their place in society. This trend shows a frightening decay in our social values, the cheapening of human life to the point where there is no more concern or respect for the sanctity of life. We have an increasing number of people in our society who want to go through life without facing the consequences of their actions, who want to do everything for their own pleasure and satisfaction, regardless of how it affects everybody else. A scion of an arms trader family, in a drunken stupor runs over six people in his car and his family buys out all the witnesses. After spending a year under “court supervision”, he is allowed to go abroad for his studies. The law is circumvented with the aid of money and legal jugglery. Another young man of a political family gets drunk at a private party and in a fit of rage shoots dead a young, glamorous model. Why? Because she refused to serve him liquor. After the usual front-page news; witnesses lose their memory of the fateful night, the

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SanjayOvachayaa: Open Hearts, Dead Minds law is proven to be impotent and the perpetrator walks free, perhaps to kill again at his whim and fancy. The simple fact is that we have become so desensitized to crime that we have lost our focus. The law does not exist to prevent people from enjoying life or for oppressing them; but to establish limits on behavior. Laws are the tools we use to build an orderly society. An orderly society cannot be achieved or maintained if we allow people to do whatever they want to do, with no regard for anything but their own satisfaction. There is no excuse for hedonism and anti-social behavior. We have to make certain that the law is respected and more importantly, feared by all people, including those whom we trust with the power to administer.

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SanjayOvachayaa: Open Hearts, Dead Minds

Capital punishment: Look at all the cases of murder, rape, arson, and mass rioting. Take a closer look at how many law-abiding citizens are killed by criminals who enjoy the best protection that money can buy or political patronage can ensure. Look at those who grin diabolically into news cameras and admit to mass killings in the name of religion. How many of these people are prosecuted successfully in the court of law and are sentenced to death at the gallows? In the past 25 years, none; not one political criminal has swung from the hangman’s noose for mass killings and inciting communal rioting. Our court system hands down the death penalty only in the “rarest of rare cases”. Perhaps the burning of innocent people including children in the name of religion and malicious destruction of lives and property is not considered by our honorable judges as “rarest of rare cases”. Even in individual criminal cases involving murder for dowry, child rape and extortion; the criminal justice system seems to be unable to enforce the death penalty. I attribute this to the socialist philosophy that has been induced into our society for the last 55 years. Remember this about the socialists. They survive and thrive on the fundamental belief that the average Indian is an idiot; stupid, ignorant, uninformed, unintelligent, incapable of knowing what is good for him, what is good for society, what is right and what is wrong. They believe that their mission is to save people from themselves, not to help them become the best they can. Capital punishment is wrong, they say. We have no right to take human life, they quote. We must be a compassionate society; if you want a criminal to die for his crime, then you are no better than he is; they tell you. And while the socialists tell you all about the milk of human kindness, the killings continue. So do the rioting, the rape and the pillage. We need conservative judges in our high courts and our Supreme Court, not liberals with socialist views. Men and women, who will interpret the law in its correct perspective and not hesitate to hand down capital punishment. We need to reinstate the jury system; whereby the accused is judged by his peers in society and this jury will ensure that the capital punishment, if required for the crime committed, is handed out without fear or favor. Law enforcement: Ordinary people in our villages and cities, regardless of their religion, live in fear. They put iron bars around their houses and double locks on their doors. They fear to venture out after dark. Fear is the prevailing emotion in all of us today. Instead of getting to the roots of the problems, our successive governments have come out with socialistic gimmicks that are supposed to prevent crime. We have the National Security Guard (NSG) the glorified if impotent commandos in black dungarees to fight terrorism. We have the Rapid Action Force (RAF) in their blue camouflage uniforms to combat communal violence. What absolute rubbish! The only time that the NSG was called into

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SanjayOvachayaa: Open Hearts, Dead Minds action during the hijacking of the IA plane to Khandahar, they failed to take any action. Lots of excuses, but no action! The Rapid Action Force is another farce. It always reaches riot torn areas after the rioting is over, after the communal violence ebbs, and the patrols the debris and the rubble, handing out food packets to the terrorized victims of the riots; while the actual criminals are going about giving TV interviews to foreign media about rebuilding old ruins in the name of religion. Its boils the blood in anger, this brutalisation of society, in the name of socialism and religion. We already have an extensive police force in every town and district of India. Capable people who know all about the region that they patrol and where they enforce the law. If the socialists just let these people do their job, which is law enforcement, and if we have enough strong willed judges to ensure that the criminal justice system does its job, we won’t require these fancy dressed central police forces called black cats and gray hounds to ensure peace in the society. Whenever police officers pass out of our police academies, what is told to them? They are very rarely told that it is a grim situation that they will have to face. They are not told that they are to enforce law without fear or favor. They are not told that they have to go out and fight crime on a daily basis to keep our streets safe. No, this is not what is told to them. Then what is told to our officers and ranks of the police forces? Do not be brutal to the accused. Do not embarrass the department or the ministry. Never, ever; put the minister in an embarrassing situation. Do not use force to enforce the law, do not challenge local leaders, and do not force issues that require the government to do something about it. Do not take any action without the government’s approval. These are nothing but misplaced priorities. The socialists in power have always put the police on the defensive. They are being told what not to do, rather than what they are trained to be done and what needs to be done. The concern is more about not doing something wrong, rather than doing what is right; not about doing the job that they are paid to do, which is essentially to maintain law and order for the benefit of all of us, but about political expediency. The end result is that these police officers decide that the best thing to do is to play it safe; when in doubt, do nothing. Perhaps this explains in part the delayed response of the police during riots. Of course, there are exceptions to this; notably so officers like Julio Rebiero, KPS Gill, Kiran Bedi, Vijay Raman, to name a few; who ensured that the law was supreme and that social order was maintained with an iron fist, if required. They never pandered to the politicians and that it-self proves that all we require to stand out is self discipline and a sense of what is correct. This cautious attitude is not exclusive to the police department alone. Examine every sector, whether military, public enterprise, private sector; everywhere you will discover a defensive mentality on part of the management. The primary concern is not how to tackle problems, but rather how to ignore them with the hope that the problems will just go away. We saddle police officers with this mentality and shackle them with unnecessary restraint. These police officers are people whom we expect to go out every day and deal with some of the most dangerous criminals in our country. We bind them with these stupid restrains and then blame them when they are unable to do the job they

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SanjayOvachayaa: Open Hearts, Dead Minds are supposed to do. The inefficiency of the court system compounds the dangers to which they are exposed. The police go and arrest the criminals and a few hours later that criminal is back on the streets, courtesy either the money power or the political power. So, why should the police even care about doing their jobs? When mobs of criminals destroy our neighborhoods in a fit of communal rage, we are asked to ‘understand’ and ‘sympathize’; and to have compassion in our hearts to these “mis-guided” bigots. Well; what about the rage of the police, who see their efforts thwarted daily by a system which returns an endless parade of criminals back to the streets to commit more crimes? What about the rage of the cops who have to track the drug Mafia and the criminal underworld who earn millions violating the law; while they, the cops earn a comparative pittance trying to enforce it? How about a little understanding and sympathy for the cops and what they are facing every day? At present there is less than one chance out of hundred that a criminal who commits a serious crime will face justice or be punished with a jail sentence. Law abiding people are fed up with this. We would like our lives to be secure, our neighborhoods safe. And we want the law enforced strongly on all criminals. Not, because we want to see bodies hanging from the gallows, or because we thirst for blood like the rampaging mobs. But, because we want to live in peace. People want to protect their rights to life, liberty and personal security. And these require peace, justice and strong lawenforcement in the community.

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SanjayOvachayaa: Open Hearts, Dead Minds The Battles We Fought, the War We Lost. Every war can be traced back to its roots deep in the annals of history. Wars do not start out of the blue; rather they are the result of a sequence of slow moving incidents that inevitably lead to the battle. The Indo-Chinese conflict of 1962 is no exception: its roots can be traced back to the Chinese annexation of Tibet wherein the first seeds of war were sown. China invited the Tibetans early in the 1950s to "accede peacefully" and backed up this emphatic plea by stationing an army near the city of Chamdo in East Tibet. The Dalai Lama was forced to sign, under duress, the " 17-Point Agreement of May 23, 1951", surrendering to the Chinese. Imposed on the Tibetan government, the "Agreement", the PRC claims, shows that Tibetans not only agreed to, but also actually invited Chinese Communist troops to "liberate" Tibet. This action and the systematic devastation of the Tibetan people and culture took both Tibet and India by surprise. The huge public outcry in India protesting the Chinese invasion mainly dealt with the political and cultural facets of the issue. Prior to Indian independence, the British had earmarked Tibet as a neutral buffer zone in view of British India's defense environment vis-à-vis the similar imperialistic leanings of China and Russia. Barring a few people with acute perception, most Indian politicians, along with the common man, failed to anticipate the strategic ramifications of the Chinese aggression and the loss of this buffer. Pundit Nehru, the Prime Minister of the newly independent India, following his foreign policy of trying to establish its mutual, nonaligned relations on the international scene, held the view that India could ill afford a confrontation over Tibet at this point in India's history, and especially so during the ongoing Korean War. On November 18, 1950, Jawaharlal Nehru wrote to the Home Minister, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, saying, "We cannot save Tibet, as we should have liked to do, and our very attempt to save it might well bring greater trouble to it. It would be unfair to Tibet for us to bring this trouble upon her without having the capacity to help her effectively. It may be possible, however, that we might be able to help Tibet to retain a large measure of her autonomy." Nehru's two closest advisors at the time were Krishna Menon and India's then Ambassador to China during the Communist Revolution, K. M. Panikkar. They were largely responsible for Nehru's decision to recognize Chinese sovereignty over Tibet. Panikkar also had strong Communist leanings, and when called upon by Nehru, went so far as to state that there was a "lack of confirmation" of the presence of Chinese troops in Tibet and argued that to protest the Chinese invasion of Tibet would be an "interference to India’s efforts on behalf of China in the UN." It would seem that Panikkar was more interested in protecting Chinese interests in the UN than India’s own interests on the Tibetan border. Amazingly Nehru concurred with his Ambassador. He wrote, "our primary consideration is maintenance of world peace. Recent developments in Korea have not strengthened China’s position, which will be further weakened by any aggressive action [by India] in Tibet.” Nehru was unclear about how his

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SanjayOvachayaa: Open Hearts, Dead Minds "primary consideration" of maintaining world peace would be served by the Chinese invasion of an independent-recognized Tibet. Sardar Patel, however, wanted a strong line to be adopted against the Chinese aggression. He wrote to Nehru that "even though we regard ourselves as friends of China, the Chinese do not regard us as friends." India moreover had international support to this matter, with world opinion strongly against Chinese aggression in Tibet. The world, in fact, was looking to India to take the lead. The highly influential English publication The Economist echoed the Western viewpoint when it wrote: "Having maintained complete independence of China since 1912, Tibet has a strong claim to be regarded as an independent state. But it is for India to take a lead in this matter. If India decides to support independence of Tibet as a buffer state between itself and China, Britain and U.S.A. will do well to extend formal diplomatic recognition to it." It was a testament to Patel's vision that his prophecies of increasingly aggressive China, evident from his letters to Nehru at the time, were to be unfortunately proven correct in a decade's time. It would be instructive to examine the Chinese claims on Tibet in brief at this juncture, since the dispute over the "McMahon Line" that demarcated the border between India and China owes its origins to these claims. The ostensible reason given by China when the PLA entered Tibet was to "liberate three million Tibetans from imperialist aggression, to complete the unification of the whole of China, and to safeguard the frontier regions of the country". However, it is generally surmised that the reason behind China's invasion was to gain control of the highly strategic crossroads of Tibet that lead to the heart of Western, Central, South and South East Asia. The first boundary alignment here was recorded in 1865 when W. H. Johnson of the Survey of India trekked across the Aksai Chin and drew a map including this in Jammu and Kashmir. Johnson was soon appointed Kashmir's commissioner in Ladakh. The British Foreign Office had the opinion that the border should be pushed further to the Kuen Lun range to absorb Aksai Chin and to put a British controlled buffer in between to forestall the presumed Russian advance, as the British had done with Afghanistan, though this was never implemented. In 1892 the Chinese put a boundary marker at the Karakoram Pass and told the British that Chinese territory began there and that the boundary ran along the Karakoram range. The reasons given for this was that Askai Chin is an "integral" and "sacred" part of Tibet, which the Chinese claim. In 1998, Chinese ambassador to India, Zhou Gang, quoted verbatim the Chinese government statement given to the British on this matter when he stated that "there exists no issue of China's evacuation from Aksai Chin because Aksai Chin has been China's territory since ancient times and ever since under the effective administration jurisdiction of China." This claim has no credible historical or legal backing. The British had noted, even in those days, that the boundary marker could not be considered to have any legal value in international law because the boundary was not demarcated jointly.

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SanjayOvachayaa: Open Hearts, Dead Minds In 1904, a British military expedition was sent to China to prevent China from falling under the influence of "foreign" powers. An Anglo-Tibetan treaty was signed with China that granted Britain trading rights and marked the origin of direct British influence in and over Tibet. An Anglo-Chinese treaty of 1906 followed up the previous treaty. In 1913, Tibet declared independence, and a conference was held in 1914 in Simla (India) regarding Tibetan independence. The Simla Conference was agreed to be a tripartite one, in which the Tibetans were equal partners in the talks with the Chinese and British. Legalities of the Tibetan independence notwithstanding, this cast much doubt on the nature of Chinese position that states that Tibet was merely a Chinese province. Tibet demanded recognition of their de facto sovereignty - a proposal intolerable to the Chinese, as China did not wish to give up their claim to Tibet, though they did not actually control it. In the end, the only legally binding outcome of the 1914 conference was that Britain and Tibet, represented by Sir Henry McMahon and Lonchen Shatra respectively, reached an agreement of a border settlement binding between themselves, bringing McMahon Line into being. To this meeting, the Chinese delegate was not invited, as the McMahon line was the agreement on the official demarcation of the border between Tibet and British India; this highlights the fact that all the parties; China included, recognized that Tibet had full authority to negotiate its boundary with India. Hence, in reality the McMahon line legally had nothing to do with China. To this date, the Chinese claim to the Indian areas is based upon the non-recognition of the McMahon Line, regardless of the recognition of Tibetan autonomy and Tibet's acceptance of the McMahon Line. Had these historical facts been put proactively forward by the Indian government in during the Chinese invasion of Tibet in 1950, the Indian locus standi would have been strengthened. Instead Nehru preferred a policy of appeasement and surrender to China and accepted this mammoth change in status quo. Regardless of vehement public outcry and hurt, the Indian government went so far as opposing the discussion of Tibet's appeal to the UN General Assembly of 23rd Nov 1950. Thus, the policy established, was to cultivate Chinese friendship by buying it off. As events were to prove later, this was a most disastrous road to take. Nehru had failed to take into account that China had always tried to expand its territories at the expense of its neighbors, and a time would come when Indian territories would have to be defended against the Chinese. On 29 April 1954, India and China signed the Indo-Chinese Agreement of 1954, otherwise known as the Panchsheel, or the "Five Principles" agreement; under which India gave up all extra-territorial rights and privileges it enjoyed in Tibet, which it inherited from the British colonial legacy, and formally recognized Tibet to be a region of China. The namesake five points agreed were: Mutual respect for each other's territorial integrity and sovereignty; Mutual non-aggression; Mutual non-interference in each other's internal affairs; Equal and mutual benefit working relationship and Peaceful co-existence. China's success in promoting these principles at the 1955 Bandung Conference helped China emerge from diplomatic isolation. Unfortunately, by the end of the 1950s, China's foreign policy stance had become more militant, and the Chinese would renege on this

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SanjayOvachayaa: Open Hearts, Dead Minds treaty within three months of its signing. The Indian reaction was somewhat euphoric and exaggerated, and many an MP lauded Nehru's "pacification" of the Chinese dragon. The Indian military in general was reserved in its acclamations, and wished resistance of such a treaty, but was overruled by Krishna Menon who insisted that Pakistan was the only real enemy. Little attention was paid to the lurking dangers. India and Pakistan had gone to war over Kashmir's accession to India in 1948. Pakistan saw the advantage over India's non-alignment by taking a strong anti-Soviet line, winning the hearts of the West, and the US and the UK in particular. At this time, the Soviet Union had not yet come out very forcefully on India's side. China looked upon the Kashmir question differently. They had indicated that they did not wish to take sides. They also had their claims on territory on the Ladakh district of Jammu and Kashmir. It was wishful thinking on the part of India's leaders to imagine that China would remain indifferent or neutral on this matter. Appeals of caution by the Indian army were ignored. During this time, the military was neglected in areas such as the modernization and upgrading of forces. The Kulwant Singh report of 1952 severely castigated the Indian government for neglect and recommended the raising of several divisions of troops and purchase of new equipment. Apart from raising the Indo-Tibetan Border Force, the other recommendations were shelved, as China was considered a friend by the government. The Army was specifically told to concentrate on India's traditional adversary, Pakistan, rather than China, as war with China was viewed as "extremely unlikely." 1955 to 1960 marked the period of increasing tension and clashes on the border between India and China. Yet India failed to evolve and formulate a comprehensive foreign policy vis-à-vis China, and tended to treat them as isolated incidents. The Chinese, wishing to consolidate their gains in Tibet and the surrounding areas, implemented a plan for developing the infrastructure in those regions. A ring road was constructed which led from China to Tibet and from there via the Karakorum Range to Sinkiang and Mongolia and then back to China. The Indian Ladakh district of Askai Chin region of Jammu and the Kashmir state obstructed the construction of this road, and would have forced the Chinese to build through the harsh Takla Makan desert - not the most favorable terrain. Faced with this, the Chinese Government had the choice of building a shortcut through Indian territories inaccessible to India, or build the road in a wasteland of the Takla Makan. The PRC decided on the former. Taking advantage of the historical quirk that they had not actually signed the agreement reached at the Simla Conference, China published maps showing that Aksai Chin belonged to them, and refused the de-facto McMahon line in the East of India, that demarcated the border and control of the land. When the public came to know about the Chinese roads, Nehru was faced with increasingly vocal criticism in the Indian Parliament, and he once angrily asked his critics whether they wanted him to go to war on this issue. Before these border incidents, Nehru recommended that the Indian and Chinese governments sift through historical evidence and recommend where the border should be. Chou En-Lai's suggestion, made on November 7, 1959, was the complete demilitarization of the entire border to a depth of 20 km, using the McMahon line in the East and the "line of actual control" in the West. This would effectively have jeopardized

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SanjayOvachayaa: Open Hearts, Dead Minds India's defensive positions in the East, while legitimizing China’s land grab in the West. Essentially, China wanted a solution based on military and strategic positions, while India wanted only a strict adherence to boundaries that had been agreed upon. Tensions increased further at India's welcoming of the Dalai Lama, who; in March 1959, with 20,000 followers crossed into India, where he was received with great pomp and warmth. Mao felt he had lost face at this, and felt that China "needed a victory in some sphere." On August 7, 1959, about 200 Chinese troops intruded into the Indian border at Khenzemane in the Kameng frontier division at east of Thagla Ridge. When challenged by the Indian patrol and asked to withdraw, they pushed the Indian party consisting of 10 men to the bridge at Drokung Samba. China considered the sector as within Chinese territory, and stated that the international border ran through the Drokung Samba bridge. On 25th August 1959, around 300 Chinese troops crossed into the Longju region of the Subashin Frontier division and opened fire at the Indian post there. The post was completely surrounded and was captured, but the Indian garrison was later released. In both cases the Chinese heavily outnumbered the Indians. The Indian posts were isolated and solely dependent on air supply. They were typically manned by 12-15 men and with no chances of reinforcements, since there were no access roads leading to it. This was a good reminder of things to come, unfortunately all that transpired were a few protest notes from the Ministry of External Affairs. By late 1959, Chinese excursions into Indian Territory were getting more frequent, and as a result the Army was finally given control of the Indian border in NEFA. The 4th Indian Division was ordered into Assam, from their station in Punjab. It was given the task of defending the entire McMahon line from the Bhutan tri-junction to the Burma border. Unfortunately, it was task that it was ill prepared and ill-equipped to handle. India's plans of peaceful settlement were shattered by these acts of aggression. India again seized on an opportunity to settle the issue when Chou En-lai visited Delhi in April 1960. Nehru was advised by the Indian remnants of the joint-expert group that India had a "cast-iron case" that the border should be legally demarcated at Kuen-Lun range further east and not the Karakoram range further west, as the Chinese wanted. They informed Nehru that the Kuen-Lun was also far better from the defense angle, and that India and China should nullify the British McDonnell proposal of 1899, which had suggested the border along a line from Daulat Beg Oldi near the Karakoram Pass in the north, to Lanak La Pass in the south, in mutual settlement. Nehru was anxious to reach such a settlement, but his advisors, primarily Krishna Menon convinced him against it. A compromise along this line would perhaps have been possible in 1960, and might still have been a way out from the impending crisis. Chou En-Lai, however, wanted to reopen the whole 2,000 mile-long border. Each side tried to extend its actual line of control, and the border question became a matter of prestige and test of strength for each. On 2 November 1961, a meeting was held at Pundit Jawaharlal Nehru's house that was attended by, among others, Krishna Menon (Defense Minister), Lt. General Thapar (Chief

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SanjayOvachayaa: Open Hearts, Dead Minds of Army Staff), Lt. General Kaul (Quarter Master General), Brigadier Palit and O. Pulla Reddy (Defense secretary) to discuss the "China issue", and to come up with a pragmatic plan with an appropriate response. It was decided that since China was still a "friendly nation", the response could not be too drastic, but must show Indian resolve. The outcome of the meeting would prove to be one of the turning points in the Indo-Chinese conflict and amongst the most controversial pre-war decisions; that in the Ladakh sector, the Indian Army would patrol as far forward as possible from the present Indian position towards the international border. Posts would be established on the border of Indian territories in an attempt to prevent further Chinese excursions and the same would also apply to areas in Uttar Pradesh on the Indo-China border where posts would be established as far as possible in Indian territories. The Ministry of External Affairs and the Intelligence Bureau had assumed that this Indian activity would not elicit a major reaction from the Chinese. As it unfortunately turned out, this assessment proved to be incorrect. In addition to this fundamental misconception, the Indian Army was not geared up for the above task to establish posts in a forward area that it could not support logistically or tactically. General Thapar had pointed out that the Chinese could never be matched in numbers and resources in the region since they had a well developed network for re-supply and reinforcement whereas India had a relatively underdeveloped infrastructure. His objections were met with assurances from Nehru and Menon that they did not expect any major escalation. The new orders were transmitted to the Eastern and Western commands on 5 December 1961. The whole exercise was given the code named "Operation Onkar". In October 1958, Lt. General S.P.P. Thorat, General Officer Commanding, Eastern Command had laid out a detailed paper regarding the defense of NEFA. He had realized that mere patrolling or establishing posts could never defend the McMahon line. Instead, he proposed a front line of forward posts on the border that was supported by two layers of military strongholds. The forward posts were to act merely as early warning beacons and symbols of territorial possession, and that were not to be regarded as defended positions. The second line consisted of more strongly defended posts designed to slow down the advancing Chinese and to increase their logistical layout. The last line would actually stop the Chinese and from their counterattacks would be launched with the help of reinforcements from the plains. Thus, it is clear that sound tactical thinking existed in the Indian Army; but the political leadership under Nehru wanted short-term solutions and in a display of bravado largely ignored the sound military advice. When the Indian Army was ordered into NEFA in closing stages of 1959, it was faced with deployment in a region without adequate roads and infrastructure, and in itself one of the highest battlefields in the world. Almost all the posts in the forward and even some in the rear were supported by airlifts. Nearly everything had to be air dropped, right down to the daily rations, but due to the severe terrain, it was later estimated that only thirty percent of supplies dropped were recovered for use. Another logistic goof-up was the rations provided to the troops, which had a calorie value suited more for warfare on the plains, rather then the high-calorie diet that is required for

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SanjayOvachayaa: Open Hearts, Dead Minds mountain warfare. Lentils, which are the staple food of the Indian soldier, could not be cooked at high altitudes. Pressure cookers though requested constantly were unavailable due to "administrative delays". Oil cookers, essential for keeping warm and cooking, were also in short supply. Since the troops were widely dispersed without connecting roads, medical facilities were poor. Even the helicopters used for airlifts, recently purchased from Russia, were inadequate for high-altitude operations, and there was a marked shortage of spare parts. Winter clothing, and sometimes even basic clothing, was unavailable. New recruits rarely had the full list of items that were supposed to be issued to them. The army had no means of carrying heavy loads in the mountains and hence its mobility and firepower was severely reduced. Its main means of transport were mules and human porters. The state of weapons and the training of the soldiers were inadequate for the terrain they were expected to fight on and the foe they faced. Almost all the equipment and weapons were of 1950s vintage. The 4th Indian Division, which was deployed, was not trained nor acclimatized for high altitude warfare. Most of its heavy equipment had to be left behind in the plains because of the lack of transportation. Thus they had precious little firepower to call upon if needed. The already grave situation was made worse by a personal feud between the then Finance Minister Morarji Desai and the Defense Minister Krishna Menon. This had resulted in an obstructive finance ministry that did not allow the release of essential foreign exchange to buy what little equipment that had been sanctioned. As a consequence, the Army's equipment became obsolete. Desai claimed that supplies were deliberately withheld from Indian troops in the affected areas. There was considerable unhappiness about this in the Army, both at this and against Menon in general. Because of the playing off of different sections of the military as a result of political maneuvering and infighting, along with the supply crisis, morale was very low. The strategists at the time were of a general consensus that, to counter the Chinese threat, India should increase the number of troops, enhance the infrastructure supporting and supplying the troops, and station sufficient mobile armored troops at strategic points on the plain to check any potential Chinese advance, whilst keeping an eye on Pakistan. However, these opinions were ignored, and the principal problem seemed to be lack of interest on the part of the then Indian Government to enact these suggestions. The combination of insufficient supplies, lack of combat preparedness, numerical and technological inferiority to the Chinese and the heavy-handed decisions taken by a government with little care for ground realities of the impending conflict; condemned the Indian Army to fail against the Chinese. The training and professionalism of the Indian soldier could not make up for the tremendous odds stacked against them. On 8 September 1962, Brigadier Dalvi, Commander of the 7th Brigade received a message, that around 8 am, about 600 Chinese soldiers had crossed Thagla Ridge and had surrounded the Dhola post. The post commander had requested immediate reinforcements. The Chinese had chosen the spot and the timing well; Thagla Ridge, which overlooked the key Chinese garrison at Leh, was an exceedingly remote area with terrain that was not conducive for troop movement. In addition, it was a Saturday and it would take a long time for the information to reach Delhi along the chain of command. India's chain of command was further drawn out and complicated by Nehru's attendance of the Commonwealth Prime Ministers' Conference in London. Nehru immediately flew back to India and was asked

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SanjayOvachayaa: Open Hearts, Dead Minds about his reaction. His cautious reply was, "Our instructions are to free our territory. I cannot fix a date; that is entirely for the Army to decide." It was magnified and reported by some members of the press into, "We shall throw the Chinese out." This misquoting is one of the biggest misconceptions that many hold about the '62 war. Meanwhile, at conference held by the G-o-C, 4th Division, General Niranjan Prasad it was decided that the Dhola post commander would be ordered to stay put, without withdrawing. The Assam Rifles wing at Lumla, which was two days march away, would be ordered to establish contact with Dhola, and detachments of 9 Punjab at Shakti and Lumpu would move to Dhola while the ones at Towang would move to Lumpu. Brigadier Dalvi was aware that Towang, along with Tsangdhar and Hathungla, were vital positions that had to be defended at all costs. Any diversion of 9 Punjab to Dhola would leave Towang defenseless. There were no plans to cater for a major clash at Towang if one should occur. Also, the route from Towang to Thagla was fit only for man pack columns, making troop movement difficult. However, 9 Punjab was ordered to depart for Lumpu. Thus began Operation Leghorn with the limited aim of persuading the Chinese to leave Indian territories. The haphazard manner in which 9 Punjab was dispatched exposed the fact that Army HQ had no strategic plan in place to deal with a major Chinese response to the Forward Posts policy. This happened because Nehru had specifically ordered the military not to construct responses to such a scenario. On 12th September, a meeting was held to reiterate New Delhi's decision to "expel" the Chinese from Indian territories. Unfortunately, this was far removed from the ground situation. Army HQ ignored sound military advice from the field commanders, due to political pressure from the Nehru administration. This would contribute to the tragic events leading to the defeat of 26th October, purely because of the political expediency of sacrificing Indian security for long-winded, and, in retrospect, empty, Chinese claims of good faith. 9 Punjab managed to reach Dhola on the morning of 15th September and found Chinese troops on both sides of the Namka Chu river. The Chinese had control of the whole of the Thagla Ridge area, and when challenged, demanded that the Indians withdraw as the PRC decided to demarcate it as "sacred Chinese land." On 17th September, the Chief of Army Staff ordered 9 Punjab to "capture" Thagla Ridge. Brigadier Dalvi, the only senior commander in the area, refused to execute the order given the ground situation and asked for it to be countermanded. Meanwhile, in New Delhi the public was being assured that "the Army has been told to drive away the Chinese from our territory in NEFA", a task the Indian Army was in no position to do. Dalvi realized that the Dhola had become militarily indefensible, as well as Hathungla and Karpola, given the current troop strengths, and advised HQ to abandon the posts. However, in Delhi, Dhola had become a prestige issue with Nehru’s political leadership and the army was ordered to retain the post. On the on the opening day of the war, October 20, 1962; 513 soldiers, 282 NCOs and officers died. Interestingly, on this fateful day the Prime Minister, the Defense Minister and the Finance Minister were all abroad, and had not deemed that the NEFA situation warranted an

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SanjayOvachayaa: Open Hearts, Dead Minds early return. In their absence, the officiating Defense Minister, Mr. Raghunath, decided that the Chinese were to be evicted from the North bank of Namka Chu, that the Thagla Ridge was to be contained and Tsangle was to be patrolled. These were the exact same objectives and orders that were issued earlier to Brigadier Dalvi and later countermanded. The envisaged operation would require supplies and equipment in amounts far beyond what airdrops and porters could deliver prior to the onset of winter. Moreover, this was assuming that the Chinese strength would remain constant at one battalion. When General Umrao Singh saw this draft, he was not satisfied, stating that it was too optimistic, and forwarded it to General Sen with his adverse comments. Sen overruled Umrao and ordered Dalvi to go ahead with the plan. However, this brought the UmraoSen conflict to criticality. Sen met the defense minister and asked for permission to remove General Umrao as G-O-C XXXIII Corps. Krishna Menon agreed and on 3rd October it was decided that Lt. General B. M. Kaul (on leave at that time) would replace Umrao Singh. Kaul arrived in Tezpur on 4 October to take over the NEFA operations. He moved to Lumpu on the 5th, and, on learning that 2 battalions of 7 Brigade were still there, ordered 1/9 Gorkha and 2 Rajput to move onto Tsangdhar. Both battalions were under strength and did not have the requisite supplies or portage. The troops moved out in cotton uniforms with fifty rounds and light weapons leaving other equipment behind for heights of 14,500 and 16,000 feet. Deaths resulted due to lack of acclimatization. In spite of operational difficulties, Kaul still planned on the 10 October date laid down by General Sen to complete Operation Leghorn. Kaul planned to place a battalion on Thagla Ridge itself across the Namka Chu river. The task was to be undertaken by 2 Rajput. When it was pointed out that they had absolutely no artillery cover and summer clothing for 16000 feet, Kaul replied that "determined infantry do not need artillery" and that 6,000 sets of clothing would be arriving "soon" via airdrop. Meanwhile at Tsangdhar, the place scheduled for airdrop, the bulk of the airdrops were getting lost due to supplies landing in inaccessible places. There were only 3 days rations available to 1/9 Gorkhas and 2 Rajput with both battalions spending the nights in summer clothing and one blanket per man. At 5 am of October 10th, about 800 Chinese troops supported by heavy mortars attacked 9 Punjab. With 6 dead and 11 wounded the Patrol commander, Major Chaudhury asked Brigadier Dalvi’s permission to withdraw. Dalvi requested Kaul to hold further implementation of Leghorn in abeyance in view of the gravity of the situation. Inexplicably, Kaul replied that he had no authority to pull back from Thagla and decided to go to Delhi to talk with Nehru. The battle at Tseng Jong was now raging furiously. Major Chaudhary was wounded and made an appeal for mortar and machine gun fire to extricate his force. Brigadier Dalvi, who was watching the battle, made the decision not to open up with mortars and machine guns. Firstly, Tseng Jong was beyond his range of weapons. Secondly, it would have ignited the entire 12-mile front in an all-out battle. The Rajputs and Gorkhas who had been advancing to Tseng Jong as ordered earlier would have been mowed down by the Chinese machine guns across the Namka Chu. Moreover, Dalvi could not have sustained a firefight for long.

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SanjayOvachayaa: Open Hearts, Dead Minds Virtually defenseless, and committed against fully supported, fully entrenched, and a fully outnumbering enemy, the Indians fought most valiantly, inflicting heavy casualties on the attackers. But, the over-whelming odds forced the Indians to fall back into Indian territories, suffering heavy casualties in that process. Surprisingly, the Chinese allowed the casualties to reach Indian lines. Some time later, the Chinese were found burying the Indian dead with full military honors, a testament to their professionalism. And due to political ineptness, a defenseless India found itself at the losing side of an increasingly hostile conflict. Kaul reached Delhi on 11th October and met the Prime Minister to apprise him of the latest developments at Thagla. Meanwhile at Thagla, 7 Brigade was reinforced by 4 Grenadiers, who had arrived from Delhi and were in summer clothing with three days rations and fifty rounds of ammunition per rifle, bringing the total to 2,500 men. By 16th October 450 Border Roads Pioneers assisting in carrying loads and collecting airdrops further reinforced them. Interestingly, 7 Brigade, who normally could defend a linear defense of 300 yards, was now tasked by Army HQ to defend 12000 yards without artillery cover to break up enemy attacks. Efforts were made to build up 7 Brigade in this regard by increasing the tempo of airdrops between 15th and 19th October. Between 17th and 19th October the Chinese were seen steadily building up using their 7-ton road at Marmang. On 18th October, the Chinese marking parties were seen moving to forming-up places for a night advance and a dawn attack. Frantic messages were sent by 7 Brigade to Army HQ in this regard, but no decision was taken. Predictably, on the morning of 20th October, the Chinese attacked with an artillery bombardment of 76 mm and 120-mm mortars at the Indian positions of Bridge III and Bridge IV. Massive infantry assaults followed in divisional strength. The Rajput and Gorkha positions in Dhola area were attacked with two brigades. One brigade advanced on Tsangdhar. Other columns were sent to Hathungla to prevent Indian forces from retreating via Bridges I and II while others threatened the divisional HQ at Ziminthaung. The Rajputs and Gorkhas were completely encircled and cut off from each other. They held on for over three hours despite lack of artillery support and reinforcements. Many platoons were to fight till the last man against overwhelming odds. By 9 am, the Chinese had wiped out the two regiments of the Rajputs and the Gorkhas. 2 Rajput alone had 282 killed, 81 wounded and captured and 90 lightly-wounded and captured out of their total strength of 513. Brigadier Dalvi, finding that 7 Brigade was being run over by the Chinese, tried to lead a small retreating party of Indian troops back to Indian lines but was taken prisoner at Dhola. As expected, the Indian posts at Tsangle were eliminated giving the Chinese control over the western end of NEFA. At the eastern edge of NEFA, fighting commenced near the Indian strongpoint of Walong. Also on 20 October, the Chinese attacked the forward posts in Ladakh. The Galwan post fell within a few weeks as did other Chinese targets. When news of the events of 20th October reached New Delhi, the reaction was of shock, surprise and a sense of betrayal. Pandit Nehru felt that China had betrayed India and had forced an unwanted war on India instead of peaceful co-existence as espoused in Panchasheel. After the Namkachu debacle, Indian Army HQ tried to find reinforcements for dispatch to the NEFA front. It was clear that the threat from Pakistan precluded large-scale transfers of divisions from the western border.

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SanjayOvachayaa: Open Hearts, Dead Minds Hence, battalions were pulled out from all over the rest of India to raise new divisions in NEFA. Army HQ developed a strategic plan for NEFA. It focused on the two great ridges in NEFA one some distance behind the other. Se La, the key feature on the first ridge was the vital ground backed up by another large garrison at Bomdilla on the second ridge, about 60 miles away. These two strong points would be built up to the requisite strength by stocking it up for a siege lasting 15-20 days. This box or fortress defense strategy appealed to Lt. General Harbaksh Singh who was Kaul's replacement, due to the latter falling ill at that time. It must be noted that the Thorat-Sen plan detailed earlier called for concentrating at Bomdilla. Militarily, concentrating at Bomdilla would have made sense; however, this idea was rejected as it would require handing over more territory to the Chinese. The government, in a political face-saving gesture, overlooked a fundamental rule of war, that the exchange of territory is acceptable to form a more strategic position where victory can be achieved from potential defeat. On 28th October, Kaul reassumed command of IV Corps from Harbaksh Singh. Immediately on assuming command Kaul visited Se La and Bomdilla. The Harbaksh Singh- Palit plan of building up Se La and Bomdilla was progressing well. Five battalions manned Se La, under 62 Brigade. Sixty miles down the road, Bomdilla was held by 48 Brigade with 3 battalions. The total strength in the area was around 12,000 men. Inbetween the two was Dirang Dzong, the administrative center. However, Kaul made some fundamental changes to the Harbaksh-Palit plan that would prove to be the final undoing of the Indian Army in NEFA. Kaul allowed the newly appointed GOC 4 Division Maj. General A. S. Pathania to set up his HQ at Dirang Dzong rather than at Se La or Bomdilla. This resulted in only one brigade to defend Se La rather than the two envisaged in the Harbaksh-Palit plan. Se La, Bomdilla and Dirang Dzong could now no longer hold out independently due to lack of support by road. A great deal depended on keeping the 60-mile stretch between Se La and Bomdilla open. On 16th November, the Chinese launched probing attacks on the northwest and northeast approaches at Se La. 62 Brigade at Se La put up a stiff resistance, however Pathania ordered them to fall back to Dirang Dzong. Hoshiar Singh, the commander of Se La wanted to hold out at Se La, however under orders a battalion was pulled back from a key prepared position on the Se La perimeter. It was told to occupy a point just behind and below the Se La pass to protect the retreat route. The sight of troops falling back demoralized the Se La defenders. Also, the Chinese who by then had encircled Se La moved into the vacated prepared positions and opened fire. As dawn broke, 62 Brigade was in full retreat from Se La. Then, General Kaul made the second critical mistake. Instead of specifying instructions to Pathania on the course of action (since Lt. General Kaul was directing the theater operations), he left this important decision at Pathania's discretion. Pathania opted for 65 Brigade at Dirang Dzong to head for the Assam plains and not Bomdilla. Although the Chinese had opened light arms fire on Dirang Dzong HQ, only small enemy parties had reached its vicinity. Pathania had 3000 men of 65 Brigade under his command and could have put up a fight if he wanted. Yet he ordered a withdrawal from Dirang Dzong.

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SanjayOvachayaa: Open Hearts, Dead Minds Bomdilla now remained the last Indian stronghold in NEFA. 48 Brigade under the command of Brigadier Gurbaksh Singh held it. It would have proved to be a major obstacle for the Chinese, had it not been for Lt. General Kaul who ordered several companies from Bomdilla to be moved out for road clearing operations. On 18th November when the Chinese attacked, Bomdilla had only 6 companies in place of the intended 12. On the morning of 18th Nov., 48 Brigade was repulsing a Chinese attack in their prepared positions when Kaul phoned Gurbaksh Singh and asked for a column to be sent towards Direng Dzong. Gurbaksh Singh protested since that would mean pulling out troop from his defenses and opening Bomdilla to the Chinese. Interestingly, at that time Pathania had already abandoned Direng Dzong and a relief column from Bomdilla would have served little purpose. Yet Kaul was insistent. Accordingly, at 11:15 am. two infantry companies, two of 48 Brigade's four tanks, two mountain guns were rounded up for Direng Dzong. No sooner had the column left Bomdilla, the Chinese hidden in the nearby wooded slopes promptly ambushed it. The Indian troops tried returning to their original positions, but the Chinese already held these. After several hours of fighting, the Chinese managed to capture Indian bunkers in both forward and rear areas of the perimeter and pressurized one flank. Seeing that no reinforcements were forthcoming from the plains, Gurbaksh Singh at 4 p.m. decided to order a withdrawal from Bomdilla. He intended to regroup and fight at Rupa, 8 miles to the south. However, 48 Brigade's withdrawal was slow. Meanwhile, the requested reinforcements arrived at Bomdilla at 6:30 p.m. They were never told to the contrary even though Gurbaksh Singh had abandoned Bomdilla. Gurbaksh Singh again thought of defending Bomdilla, but by then the Chinese had cut his lines of communications. On November 19, 1962, Bomdilla fell at 3 am. The planned defense at Rupa never materialized and the remnants of 48 Brigade finally dissolved at Chaku, a position further south of Rupa on 20th November. All resistance by 4 Division had ended. The Chinese had extended their line of communication and supplies much too far. Being unable to maintain it, they made a virtue of necessity and declared a unilateral cease-fire on October 24, 1962. While not withdrawing their claims, they withdrew occupation to the pre-war boundaries north of the McMahon Line in the eastern sector, but kept a Switzerland-sized area 38,000 Sq. Km of seized territory up to their Line of Actual Control (LAC) in Ladakh district. Further, Pakistan gifted China with a 2,600 Sq. Km of Jammu and Kashmir territory in 1963. The People's Republic of China also does not recognize the merger, initiated by Sikkimese popular vote, of Sikkim state and India. The 1962 Debacle, as it is remembered in India, was the inexorable ramification of a century-old British border dispute, thrust upon a newly independent India. The Chinese claims to Aksai Chin and large areas of Arunachal are a mix of an expression of neo-colonial sentiment and the desire to acquire a dominant status in Asia by keeping rival India in a weaker bargaining position. When China sought recognition of its claim on Tibet after its occupation, the Chinese leadership avidly cultivated India, and won the heart of a utopian-minded naïve Prime Minister Nehru. "Hindi-Chini Bhai-Bhai" (India and China are brothers) became the slogan of the day - and the Chinese cannot be faulted in their execution of this deception. While the shells fell and the bullets flew around the

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SanjayOvachayaa: Open Hearts, Dead Minds soldiers in the snow-capped hell of the Himalayan battlefield, Indian leaders in Delhi were romancing the fluffy pull of empathy with a fraternal Asian nation that, too, had suffered exploitation by the Western colonial powers. The '62 war highlighted several critical failures in India's abilities to conduct war. First, and perhaps most significantly, the conflict highlighted political naïveté and ignorance toward the strategies of warfare and international relations. During the entire conflict, Indian diplomatic actions remained flaccid, and fluctuated between being confrontational to being manhandled. For example, Intelligence reports told Nehru that the Chinese were building a road through Aksai Chin, yet the Government, apart from a few angry condemnations, chose to ignore the strategic significance of it for almost a decade, instead repeating to itself the slogan of Hindi-Chini BhaiBhai. Even upon discovery of this transgression, India's protests were weak. Later, in the middle of 1962, Indian leaders suddenly woke up to the presence of Chinese soldiers on the Thagla Ridge, and to the exasperation of much of the army; Nehru, advised by Krishna Menon and a coterie of sycophantic generals, ordered a reckless operation on the attacking Chinese. In the adoption of a forward policy, against the clamoring of sound tacticians, India deployed on ground chosen for its political significance, rather than tactical defensibility. The leadership's untenable demands on the Army were the root cause of the '62 debacle. The war also highlighted the fact that the army was acutely under-equipped, out-dated, and ill trained to deal with sustained conflict in the Himalayas. The acclimatization of troops was of critical import in this mountain war. The psychological and political effects of the '62 war were far-reaching. Because of the war, India's image, especially among the "Third World", the nations remaining non-aligned during the Cold War, suffered. But internally, the shock galvanized the people into one united nation. Krishna Menon resigned and Nehru's dream of Indo-Chinese friendship was shattered, but India did not relinquish its independent policy of Non-Alignment, though a shadow was shed on India's position as the leader of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM). The Indian Army's defeat by the Chinese in the border war of 1962 was a national humiliation. The main lesson India learned was that right does not make might in the world of geopolitics. That India must strengthen its defenses and stand on its own feet to be of consequence in the world. India's policy of weapon building via indigenous sources and self-sufficiency was reinforced but never implemented in practice. National sovereignty, it was affirmed at that time, could not come at the expense of becoming a client state of any superpower or by joining any military alliance with or under them. Yet today in the new century, India is still dependent on the foreign powers for its equipment and has initiated military alliances with the Unites States of America, and our former masters of the United Kingdom. In the early '80s, following a new paradigm shift in the Indian military, it was decided that the Army was to actively patrol the Line of Actual Control. Friction began to ensue over the Chinese occupation of the Sumdorong Chu area, north of Tawang. Additionally, in India; a bill was passed creating the state of Arunachal Pradesh, a territory that China claims in its entirety.

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SanjayOvachayaa: Open Hearts, Dead Minds The Indian military re-occupied Hathung La ridge, across Namka Chu, twenty-five years after vacating it. The then Army chief, General K. Sundarji airlifted an entire brigade to nearby Ximithang, alarming the panicked Chinese. The Indian government collectively flinched against the tough talk from Beijing, but stood firm at the insistence of the army. In 1993 and 1996, the two sides signed the Indo-Chinese bilateral Peace and Tranquillity Accords, an agreement on maintaining peace and tranquillity along the LAC, but the pace of progress has been inconsequential.

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The Sale of India, on an annual basis: I write this article with a focus on the arms purchases by the Indian powers that be, ever since independence. A tradition that was started by the first defense minister Krishna Menon, who was the center of controversy in the Jeep purchase scandal, which involved purchase of used Jeeps from the USA at prices of brand new ones; to the present where George Fernandez authorized the purchase of coffins at an outrageous price, again from the USA. In between, we had Bofors, the HWD submarines, the purchase of Westland helicopters (every one of which either crashed or is now grounded as unsafe to fly) and numerous others too extensive to mention. Fact of the matter is that all this equipment which is either obsolete for battle purposes, or of faulty design; is purchased not for the defense of the homeland, but for the personal wealth building of ministers’, bureaucrats’, and senior officers of the armed forces. Don’t believe it? Just inquire as to where every former high ranking bureaucrat’s and officer’s children are! USA, UK, Europe, Canada, Australia. These now retired officials and even those still serving have settled their children in foreign countries and established them. Those former officials who are now living abroad as foreign residents and who are still full of vigor and energy, are advisors to foreign arms manufacturing companies. The God of good fortune never stops smiling on these people. And now we have the latest scam. One billion dollars worth of equipment from the USA. What does this equipment consist of? Firstly, engines for our light combat aircraft. 20 years in the development stage and we don’t have an engine designed yet. How many millions were spent on the design of the LCA to date? Just like the ongoing experiments with the MBT (main battle tank). 25 years into development and officially at the cost of 600 million rupees; all that the DRDO (defense research and development organization) has to show for it is a 200 ton pile of junk? Where did all the development money really go? German engines were imported for these tanks in the 1970s. Where are those engines? How was this mass looting of the treasury accounted for and did the CAG really audit the accounts properly? But, let us look at this billion dollar deal with the Americans. What other equipment is being purchased? One is the weapons locating system at a cost of US Dollars 120 million. (Or Indian rupees 576 million); P3 Orion maritime Surveillance aircraft (the navy and the coast guard already has a fleet of French and Russian aircraft which do the same job and cost much less and are easier to maintain), the C-130 Hercules aircraft (which cost about 3 times more than its counterpart the Russian Anatov, called in India as the Gajaraj and in service with the IAF and the Navy), Black Hawk helicopters (minus the avionics, armor and fire power) but without any concessions in pricing. Apart from the basic fact that maintaining a mixed fleet of aircraft and battle equipment is costly during peacetime and suicidal during a war, not to mention the constant drain of foreign exchange reserves at a high volume, what exactly is the Government of India

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SanjayOvachayaa: Open Hearts, Dead Minds trying to achieve? The standard response is defense against Pakistan. In reality, Indian defense forces are stronger than those of Pakistan by the sheer weight of numbers. India does not require all this modern war equipment to fight, or to defend our selves from Pakistan. So, who are we afraid off then? China? Chinese not only outnumber the Indian forces 5:1 in terms of personnel and equipment, China also has a highly developed local arms manufacturing industry that is not dependent on other countries for equipment or spares. In fact, China is perhaps the only country that can match USA in an all out war and would roll over the present Indian armed forces within a few days, if not within a few hours. Under these circumstances, who exactly are we going to use this sophisticated war equipment against? Middle Eastern countries? NATO? United Kingdom? USA? Perhaps Australia? The reality that there is no such enemy! First of all, no country, even in their wildest moments wants to invade a devils workshop of poverty, misery, sloth and a land divided by religion, caste and languages. The whole defense purchase is just a scam for some key people in the government to make money, lots of money. And, do you really want to know how much a handful of bureaucrats, ministers and defense officials will be making? Just compare the GSA pricing (the price list that the US manufacturers charge the US Government for equipment) and the prices offered to India. The difference in pricing is an astounding 30%, half of which will be pocketed by various persons in the chain of defense equipment procurement. 15% of One billion dollars is One hundred and Fifty Million dollars. (Or approximately Indian rupees 750 million). About 30 people in the Government of India and a dozen agents who represent the US suppliers will share this loot. If you divide this amount of 750 million Rupees amongst about 40 people, each person will get about Rupees 19 million. Ask yourself this question. Is this justified in any way, and especially towards the defense of our nation? And, this happens not once, but year after year. Defense equipment, or commodities like Urea, DAP, Sugar, Sulfur, anything that requires bureaucratic licensing, you can be assured that some people in the government are making an obscene amount of money on these purchases. Take a look at the policy that governs bullet-proof jackets. Contrary to what people think, bullet-proof jackets are neither top secret technology, nor are they made of rare metals. All bullet-proof jackets (or body armor, as it is known by those who manufacture it) are made of specialized plastic sheets and plastic fiber. Yet, some bureaucrat in his infinite wisdom has classified this product under the Arms Act. The Arms act restricts the possession of weapons which can be used to harm or kill others, and have to be licensed and registered with the local police. By no stretch of imagination can a jacket made of plastic materials be used to kill anybody. You can smack a mouse with a bullet-proof vest and not even hurt it, much less kill it. Then why the controls on this product? If you can get a response from the MHA, and believe me its very difficult to get the MHA to respond to any query, they will tell you that this restriction is to prevent the terrorists from getting their hands on these bulletproof vests. That is not only stupid, because no terrorist buys his equipment from Indian authorities, but it also shows how much disdain the bureaucrats have for the people of India. The restriction on the possession of bullet proof vests by the Indian people is for two reasons. First, it proves to the society that the person who wears one is someone important and it

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SanjayOvachayaa: Open Hearts, Dead Minds gratifies that person’s ego. Second, by restricting the import of bulletproof vests, the bureaucrats who sign the orders of either importing them or allowing licensed users to have them, now have a source of income apart from their salary. In my opinion, and this is an opinion shared by many of my generation; if these corrupt and inept officials are replaced by those who would allow us, the people of India; to develop all the requirements of our armed forces, we would by now have developed weapons systems far superior to any that the West can offer. It is time, my friends, that we put a stop to this rape of our treasury. 55 years of independence and we do not even have a basic rifle that works in the battlefield. So, what is the solution? Force our parliamentarians to pass a law that allows the people of India to design weapons systems within country, and prohibit the imports of weaponry from abroad. Let us put an end to this artificial dependence on other countries for our defense requirements, where only a few benefit while the nation loses. Necessity is the mother of inventions, and India has the largest talent pool in the whole world. Let’s use it and make our country both prosperous and powerful.

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The United States in Afghanistan; and How it Affects India As the war in Afghanistan completes almost one year, the US and British forces having helped the Northern Alliance capture almost 95% of the Afghan nation; the commentary of the US politicians in the United States is now giving rise to growing concerns about western domination of the Asian subcontinent. Senators in the United States and Parliamentarians in the United Kingdom are talking openly and aggressively about how the next government of Afghanistan should behave, now that such a government has been appointed by the Bonn summit, and ratified by the local factions. The attitude reflects the fact that Allies are there to stay and not only stay, but also effectively control the region, through a proxy government. Ever since the times of Alexander the Great, Anglo-Saxons have been fascinated by the land that lies beyond the Hind-a-khush. Foreigners to this Indian sub-continent that includes Afghanistan, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and India and in some parts the Himalayan regions of Nepal, Bhutan and Tibet have always been fascinated by the fables of the riches of this land and its vast pool of knowledge. The British proved this in the 18 th and 19th centuries when the plundered the sub-continent of its precious metals, gemstones and its natural wealth. The Western concept of world domination has not changed, it has just changed forms for the past 55 years; and in the modern times, political and economic tools are used to dominate, rather than weapons of War. While USA and UK are two different sovereign nations politically, they are bonded more closely than Siamese twins on the economic front. Prior to the outrage of September 11, both countries faced stagnant and faltering economies, budget deficits, rising unemployment and a widening political divide amongst its own people. The war in Afghanistan has been a blessing to both, Bush and Blair, more so for Bush. He has been able to unite his country under a single banner of War; push through the Senate for funding of both; the upgrading of military equipment and his Missile shield program, as well as consolidate his position with the American airline industry with a 10 billion dollar help package. Could he have achieved all this without a War in Afghanistan? Most certainly not! The conquest of Afghanistan will also ensure long-term benefits to the Allies. It gives them a military base on the right flank of Russia, thereby surrounding Russia and most of the former soviet-union countries from three sides. The same bases will act as a left flank against China, today the number one potential enemy of the allies. It gives them a regional stronghold in Asia, something that the Americans had always wanted and the British had always hoped to regain after 1947. And most importantly, it gives them a huge marketplace for their consumer goods. Anyone who believes that Afghanistan will not be flooded with American labeled merchandise is just being foolish. A consumer

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SanjayOvachayaa: Open Hearts, Dead Minds base of over Twenty million in Afghanistan and perhaps another 30 to 50 million in the combined market of Iran, Uzbekistan and Pakistan is always worth fighting a war for. Where does this leave India? First of all, India will have lost (in fact, already has lost) its status as a regional super-power. In order to consolidate its foothold in Afghanistan, there is no doubt that the US will keep on aiding Pakistan with arms and funding, thereby tilting the balance of power in favor with Pakistan. Allied naval forces will dominate the Arabian Sea, thereby restricting the Indian navy to a role of a localized brown water force that will be controlled by various joint military treaties that the US is already trying to put into force with India. Allied trade in consumer goods will take away a huge chunk of the market that India has enjoyed to date; partially out of the old and now redundant friendship treaty with the former USSR, as well as the small trade that India had going with Afghanistan because of cultural ties. When one looks at the historical precedence; isn’t this exactly how the British entered India in the late 17th century? The world, in this 21st century does not require the European powers to establish extensive military outposts to control a distant colony. The advent of trade through electronics, the global nature of money and fund transfers, and the complete linking of economies on a global network now help the technologically advanced nations in retaining their hold on the weaker nations., without the use of military force. And finally, the important issue that that brought forth this whole exercise in global warfare. Oil! Black Gold! Critics will argue that Afghanistan has no oil reserves worth talking about. One does not know this for a fact. The reality is that there has been no exploration for anything in that region for a quarter of a century. However, there are huge reserves of oil in Iran, and that is just across the border from the Allied military bases that are being consolidated in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Uzbekistan and Tajikistan also have huge oil reserves that are being tapped. The US will dictate trade policy to these nations under the shadow of the 7th fleet and the allied military bases in Afghanistan. In the long run, the scenario will be grim, because the Islamic countries are not going to let the Allies get away with this without a fight. And with their religious fatalism, one can expect a vicious and bloody war with the complete probability of a chemical, biological and nuclear warfare. Any nation when faced with such a grim scenario will try to carve out a greater role for itself, not only to preserve its identity as a nation, but also to protect its defense and trade interests in the region. India unfortunately has but a single foreign policy called Appeasement. That has lost the nation its individuality, its national character as well as its ethos. And this policy of appeasement may well result in India being fragmented. The Indian military intelligence has been reporting the fact that as the Taliban and Al-Queida militants lose ground, they are slowly but surely moving towards the area of POK (Pakistan Occupied Kashmir) and the Kashmir Valley. This may mean that Kashmir will be the next battlefield. What are India’s options under this scenario? Advani’s policy of hot pursuit (in other words Indian supremacy) has been put into cold storage, because the United States opposes it.

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SanjayOvachayaa: Open Hearts, Dead Minds Negotiations with Pakistan, to bring about a peaceful solution to the Kashmir problem, are at a standstill till the Allies finish their war in Afghanistan. Effectively, India will stand by as a lackey till the US, UK and NATO decides on when the Kashmir issue should be addressed. Will India be able to hold on to Kashmir if the allies decide on a referendum as the fate of that region? The Allied policy that Kashmir should have a referendum on its future is well known. Even the Chinese support this idea. This may result in Kashmir emerging as an Independent nation. And who will be the first to guide this new emerging nation? The allies, of course! There will be allied investment into that area and in return, the allies will get military bases and a vast population for their consumer goods. There can be arguments against this article, that the above scenario is not feasible. (An attack on the World Trade Center towers was not feasible before September 11th either.) But, all that one has to do is look at history. From the 1940s, wherever the United States has entered by way of armed conflict, it has never withdrawn from that area. The post World War II saw the US entrenched in all of Western Europe and in the Asian countries of Philippines and Japan. In the 50s they entered Korea, and established their bases in what is now South Korea. The 60s to the 80s saw the advent of the cold war, a war without an overt declaration of hostilities, yet a conflict that saw the demise of the USSR and the post war economic invasion of the former soviet countries by the US and its allies. The 90s saw the US establish its military bases in the Gulf, which they have consolidated over the past nine years. Now, it’s the turn of the Indian sub-continent. Finally, what will be the fate of Kashmir? How will India react, if the Allies; either through diplomacy or through subterfuge bring about the separation of the State of Kashmir from the Union of India? The United States is already proposing Joint-patrolling of Line of Control with Pakistani forces. That will mean the presence of a third country’s armed force on the Kashmir border. Will the Indian politicians be willing to wage war against the United States and its allies to protect the integrity of the Nation? And what will be the outcome of such a war? Since winning a conventional war against USA is next to impossible given the current relative strength and military reach of India, will India then induct nuclear weapons into the war? Or will India just abide by the decision of the superior economic and military powers and allow the secession of Kashmir from the Nation?

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In Defense of the early 90s: There has never been a time in history, where people have not tried to improve their lives. But, the late 80s and the early 90s was the first time that this behavior was characterized as greed. However, these were not the years of greed. People tried to better themselves and for once there were fewer, not more, obstacles in their way. These prosperous years were attacked by the socialists because they vindicate conservative economic policies, repudiate liberal economic policies and thereby threaten the power base of the Left; which is dependent on the perpetuation of the myth that harsh tax policies focussed towards the rich and the middle class will bring prosperity to the majority of the Indians. Because they cannot make their case against supply and demand economics with empirical evidence, the socialists have reduced themselves to characterizing these years as the decade of greed. Even though evidence proves that all classes from the poor to the rich benefited from the policies of the Rajiv Gandhi government, the socialists are unwilling too accept that. For the Left to condemn these across the board improvements is tantamount to stating that they are opposed to the prosperity of the masses. The socialists are satisfied only when the wealthy suffer and that can only happen by increased tax rates, which will inevitably punish the middle class as well. We are constantly told by the socialists that during the Rajiv era people spent obscenely; the rich got richer and the poor got poorer. That is just not true. The reality is that Rajiv let the genie of self-reliance out of the bottle and deregulated the business restriction. The treasury was revived. None of the subsequent governments were able to change this and now take credit for the liberalization of our economy. Manufacturing has grown since then. New industries have come up, which meant more jobs for more people. More investment has been made into India since 1992 till date, than over the 40 years preceding that period. Six years of Rajiv era created more skilled jobs at a rapid pace and brought our nation well into the main stream of global economics. Compare his administration to the later administrations of VP Singh, Chandra Sekhar, Deve Gowda, RK Gujral, et al. These people gave a whole new meaning to the phrase ‘misery index’. Law and order deteriorated. VP Singh’s administration was the first in our history of the independent nation to negotiate with terrorists and release dangerous criminals back into society to free the then Home Minister, Mufti Mohammed Sayeed’s daughter. There was inflation, stagnation in the money markets, and real family income decreased. Socialists love misery. It makes them feel necessary as an existing body. And believe me, everybody was miserable. Contrast this with the period from 1985 to 1992, the years of full-blown Rajivonomics, during which even the poor saw their income rising substantially. Rajivonomics did work, and it gave new hope to all strata of society. Socialists have to face the fact that tax increases for the wealthy, by itself do not result in the redistribution of wealth from the rich to the poor. It is these satanic promised of redistribution and other techniques of class alienation that they used to get elected year after year. They simply

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SanjayOvachayaa: Open Hearts, Dead Minds will not accept the concept that “a rising tide will lift all boats”. Unlike the socialists, who like to achieve fairness by spreading misery, Rajiv tried to help the people become self sufficient by being self-reliant. Do not be ashamed to be rich: I have been accused of being heartless and cruel because I do not believe compassion can be measured by throwing scarce funds of money at every social problem. I make no apologies for having money and for earning it, for I cannot depend on anybody else to support me if I am unable to work. I understand how difficult it is for working people to survive on a daily basis. I myself rose from such situations in life. That is why I am convinced that we must have a strong economy to enable as many people as possible to provide for themselves and their family. It is easy to talk about punishing the wealthy people for their supposed greed. But, when the rich are taxed out of proportion, capital wealth gets taxed in the same proportion. And taxing capital damages more people than just the wealthy. It damages the middle class and the working class, because the wealthy invest their capital to create jobs for the other classes that are not so wealthy. Socialists have the mistaken view that private sector businesses are social institutions that spontaneously take shape to provide benefits and salaries to the working people. That is not so. Upper middle class people who start the business by investing their own risk capital start most private sector businesses. This risk capital must bring these entrepreneurs a reasonable return on their investments or they won’t risk their money. Thus, when the socialists punish the rich with ever increasing taxes, they punish the other classes too. Whether a business person or someone earning a salary, I do not understand why the socialists want successful people to be apologetic just because they earn more money. Or feel guilty about wanting to keep more of it for our family and ourselves. I do not accept this silly idea, put forth by the socialists Left, that there is poverty and suffering in India because we are greedy and not paying enough taxes. Realize this, regardless of what work we do, we contribute more to the economy than the politicians do. Our work help create more jobs. The goods and services we consume help create more employment for people who otherwise won’t have any employment. We are morally superior to all those fascists and socialists who criticize our success and us. We have real jobs that we do with pride, they just beg for a living.

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SanjayOvachayaa: Open Hearts, Dead Minds Rajiv Gandhi: The Man and the Inspiration I have always thought of leadership as a natural quality or characteristic that is based on charisma and a unique ability to inspire people to new heights and achievements they otherwise would not attain, which I think explains the phenomenon of the ‘reluctant’ leader. Many people aspire to leadership but fail to achieve it because it is not something they can learn. A person either has leadership qualities or he does not. Rajiv definitely had this quality in abundance. Many political parties claim to have their leaders. Dalit leaders, minority leaders, religious leaders! But these people are not leaders at all. All they do is advocate the dependence and subordination of individuals to the party or the organization at large. There is no leadership, no inspiration or motivation to individual greatness, but a continuation of placing of blame and rationalization of failure. Rajiv Gandhi however, sponsored and promoted leadership by championing and promoting the individual, an ability from which leadership truly descends. He was a leader, precisely because of his ability based on the strength of his personality, to make people feel good about themselves and their country, which motivated them to seek achievement beyond their own expectations of capacity. And so, a new nation emerged. He was instrumental in shaping the future of our nation and is the man to whom we Indians owe a great debt. He enabled the common man to step beyond the years of derision, ridicule and disparagement at the hands of the dominant politicians. He opposed the forces of socialism and communism, tried to rein in the over expansion of government bureaucracy, the prevented the emasculation of our system of law and order. This could be seen very clearly in the way terrorism was wiped out in Punjab and peace ensured in that region, peace which endures even today. He gave strength to the spirit of patriotism and made a systematic effort to strengthen our nation’s economic and military prowess and reach. He introduced the capitalist system based on economic freedom and market economics and encouraged the corner stone of capitalism; private wealth. His vision and leadership took India away from the self-destructive philosophies of socialism and brought conservative political thoughts into the forefront of politics. The advent of Rajivonomics and the revitalization of our armed forces enabled him to bring change to nearly all segments of society. His policies were not bereft of compassion and all classes of society benefited from his political wisdom. Sadly, dis-information about RG and his administration persists. Efforts to destroy his reputation continue to this day. Blame is being put on him for the Bofors scandal (where people very close to him made the money, using his name and position), the Sri Lanka fiasco, the Longowala accord and the unending criticism of his economic policy. In reality, RG’s administration started and sustained the longest economic boom in modern India. His policies invalidated almost everything the socialists stand for, believe in and have been sprouting for decades. Every important aspect of the socialists was shown to be wrong during the Rajiv years. That is the last thing that the socialists want to accept, or for us to understand. Their power is derived from our ignorance and whatever

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SanjayOvachayaa: Open Hearts, Dead Minds degree of dependency they can lock us into. RG rebuilt something the socialists do not want us to have, Self- respect! The Imperial Congress- Sonia is Not Rajiv: The people in the Congress party hierarchy have insulated themselves from the people. I call it congressional arrogance. Because nobody holds them legally responsible for their actions, and because they have been getting away with so much wrongdoing for so long, most of them believe that the Indian people are stupid. The biggest scandal is the list of laws that these people routinely exempt themselves from. Narasimha Rao and Buta Singh were almost convicted in the bribery scandals and the then Cabinet Secretary, instead of classifying these persons as accused and treating them as such was making arrangements to have them serve their punishment (had they been convicted) in a well guarded BSF/ITBP camp. If this is not a mockery of our legal system, I wonder what is. Of course, in the final analysis both were found to be innocent of the crimes they were accused off. And they continue to live happily ever after. On the other hand, a successful businessman like Rajan Pillai (of the Nabisco fame) was put in Tihar on the request of a foreign government’s police force, in this case the Singapore police and was killed in jail even before he was convicted of the crimes he was accused off. This is socialism in action, where those who wield the power are above the law and the successful people are sent to their death. The fact of the matter is that the Congress considers itself above the law. Hypocrites who speak on one hand about the father of the nation; simultaneously betray his ideals of freedom by sponsoring a foreigner to the Prime Minister’s Office.. Sonia is a person of foreign origin, with no distinguishing personal traits, and whose only claim to fame is that she is the widow of a former Prime Minister of India. She is also the focal point of the Bofors scandal. After the death of Rajiv Gandhi, she is the sole beneficiary of the tainted kick-back funds that are the base of the whole sordid saga. Her first cousin Maria is the wife of Ottavio Quatrocchi who is wanted by the Indian authorities in the same Bofors scandal. He is supposed to be the agent for the transfer of funds from the various accounts and is perhaps the only person alive today, who can lead the authorities to the exact bank accounts where the money really is. Where would Sonia Gandhi be today had she not been pampered and mollycoddled by politicians of all hues? If she were in any other country except India, without the trappings of power, she would have been an average, if extremely rich person, subject to the laws of that country and subject to all the problems of being an ordinary citizen. But look how she is treated as a “royalty” of sorts now, the matriarch of a family that has projected itself to be above and beyond the laws of the nation. Jawaharlal Nehru has never been accused of corruption, but he has definitely been responsible for the utter failure of Indian society, with his utopian vision of a “socialist democracy”. He insisted on pursuing this polity even in the face of adverse reactions from the nation and its other leaders of those times. As a result, we are the ones who suffer the consequences today. India Gandhi followed in his footsteps, and her rule marked the decline of India. Whether it was imposing the Emergency, or her decision to storm the Golden Temple, she acted and lived her life more as the dictatorial Queen of the country,

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SanjayOvachayaa: Open Hearts, Dead Minds than as an elected Prime Minister. Let us also not forget how her son Sanjay Gandhi behaved. He was notorious for everything controversial in those days. Turkmen Gate, where he had Muslim youth forcibly sterilized, divided the nation along communal lines more than any other political act in those days. And now we have Sonia Gandhi. Queen-in-waiting; impatient of these “brown natives” who are keeping her from ascending to the throne that belongs to her family. Democracy; be damned! A woman with absolutely no knowledge of the various cultures of India, who can’t even speak English, much less the national language properly, and has no ability to lead a country as diverse as India. Why is Sonia Gandhi nurturing an ambition to be Prime Minister? The reason, I believe lies with the politicians who are in the forefront of Indian politics today. Let us consider the BJP. The only Opposition the BJP is afraid of is the Congress. If they can inherently disable the Congress by giving importance to Sonia, they have an Opposition party that is incapable of being a threat to their power base. It’s better to have a weak and disorganized Congress, led by an incompetent and supported by the likes of Ghulam Nabhi Azad, Ambika Soni and Makhanlal Fotedar, who individually or jointly can’t even command the respect of a stray dog! Today, the oldest party is shattered into small regional parties. The largest chunk is lead by a foreigner. And who is to blame for this sorry state of affairs? Indira-for subjugating inner party democracy and destroying democratic ethos? Or the other leaders of minority parties - whose agenda is party before nation, ideology before reality? The tenets of democracy demand that the good of the people take priority over the good of a party or the good of an individual.

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SanjayOvachayaa: Open Hearts, Dead Minds Fraud, Lies and Deceit: The Socialist Utopians There are many, many people who come in a variety of shapes and sizes and who belong to an equal variety of activist groups. There is a common bond that unites these people and that is the spiritual bond of cultural radicalism. Theirs is the anti-national credo, which abhors political, and government institutions and capitalist economy. Theirs is the “me” generation, which seeks immediate gratification, perhaps because there is no spiritual tomorrow. Their God is in every fiber of nature and is impersonal. He is as much part of the plant and animal kingdom as He is part of the human soul. The God they believe in did not give them dominion over animals and nature, hence their pantheistic devotion to animals and the environment. As their emphasis is on the whole world, they cling to the belief that man could be morally perfect and Utopia on this earth is achievable. They use different labels of identity; political correctness, gender politics, peace studies, religious fanatism. But they are all based on the same misguided premise, that Utopia is possible. They think that a centralized government authority can bring utopia to our society. That is nothing but pure garbage. It is foolish to think that every citizen will eat equally well every day of every year. It is foolish to think that every citizen will be given everything he wants, and to whatever degree they want, every day of the year. It is dangerously stupid to believe that we can eliminate suffering of all kinds. It is an honorable goal to attempt to reduce hunger, to provide pure drinking water, to provide decent accommodation and hopefully diminish suffering. But, it is simply not realistic to expect that every citizen will have a life full of happiness and content without any suffering. “Ram Rajya” is just a figment of imagination of the radical Hindu psyche. It is not going to happen. It is not even possible to guarantee an adequate supply of water, food, housing and medication because the definition of “adequate” always changes over time. Equalizing outcome and ensuring everyone a mediocre minimum is what the socialists always propagate. That is all that they have tried to accomplish. They keep on trying to produce a State of Utopia and they keep failing miserably. That is because Utopia is impossible. Every human being has different abilities, talents, desires and characteristics. There is no way those differences can be equalized, other than through the use of force. I do not mean military or police force, but rather financial laws backed up by judicial force, which redistribute wealth and penalize achievement. These utopians believe that it is unfair that some have so much and others have so little by comparison. But, that only stir ups envy and bitterness among the people and does not create any wealth. The only way to help people to improve their life is to empower them to do it themselves. Self-reliance and achievement develop pride, self-respect and motivation. This in turn develops more self-reliance. At present, we as a nation are not doing enough to help people access the opportunities that exist within our nation. Our governments over the past 55 years, with the possible exception of the Rajiv Gandhi era, have been in the business of punishing achievement and criticizing those who succeed in doing so. Regardless of what the socialists, the communists and the communalists say, opportunity exists in abundance.

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SanjayOvachayaa: Open Hearts, Dead Minds We must instill in ourselves and in our society the same spirit of self-reliance that lifted the western countries out of poverty in a single generation. We have to do this not only to help the poor, but also to save the middle class. The middle class is being taxed to death and if it does not get relief soon it will no longer have the strength to support the government and keep this country afloat. The more the government creates programs of subsidy the poorer this country will become. Trying to eliminate poverty by transferring wealth is an impossible quest. The ideology is so wrapped up in utopian philosophy that it is blind to the fact that these efforts achieve nothing. At the heart of this philosophy is the firm belief that the average man lacks the intelligence to solve his own problems. They have no faith in human ingenuity or a man’s ability to be triumphant over the obstacles of life. That is their justification for a big government. We cannot ignore these efforts anymore, these exercises in good-will because there is a heavy social cost to these frivolous pursuits. The belief that absolute economic equality can be achieved entirely ignores the realities of human nature. Their attempts to equalize income involve coercion. When the government confiscates the wealth of the middle class to spread it amongst the poor, feelings of compassion are not flowing from the middle class. The government cannot overburden the middle and upper classes with taxes without negative consequences. Although the socialists foolishly refuse to admit the obvious, it takes the investment of capital to create jobs and wealth. When nothing but disincentive haunts the enterprising risk taker at every turn, the response will be less investment. This means less wealth for all economic classes.

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Multi-culture and religious sensitivity. Multiculturalism is propagated as a way to make Indians more sensitive to the religious belief of the people of our country. It is time we put an end this myth. What is being taught under the guise of religious sensitivity is not only historical revision; but also a distortion of facts and in some cases the elimination of facts. The RSS and the VHP are trying to teach us that the ideas of our constitution are incorrect and that we must go back to the ways things supposedly were thousands of years ago, so that we can achieve progress. They claim that ancient Indians made all sorts of scientific and other discoveries that were stolen from them by the invaders from Europe, Asia Minor and others. History does state that there was a lot of cultural exchange in the ancient world. India was ruled through the ages by different cultures and dynasties of different religions. However, modern India is not based on either a religious or ethnic basis but on the principles of equality, fraternity, justice and freedom of thought and expression; and it is time that this was accepted as a fact by the religious lunatics. The socialists have been pursuing a false premise that minorities in our country have no roots in this land. That they have nothing to relate to in their past; that they are inferior to the majority community just by comparison of numbers. This has been a tremendous and harmful fraud over 55 years that is now showing its true colors. I think the socialists are perpetuating this fraud when they differentiate the schools that our young children go to; based on religion. This leads to children being taught things that are irrelevant or even counter productive to their future as Indians. Street slang is not as good as correct grammatical English or Hindi. Hing-lish is not an accepted language of communication. One community cannot have a different approach to any subject. This has to be made very clear to all our younger generation regardless of their religious or cultural background. They must be taught that to succeed in life you need skills. Skills such as logical thinking, precise mathematics, correct language, proper appearance, punctuality of time and good manners. These are the tools to success and not the building of an ancient temple on a disputed land. The politics of religious pride is actually the politics of alienation in a different format. So, what is this Indian culture that we should all aspire for? It would be primarily the culture of selfreliance. That is how India was built in the past, people of every background fending for themselves and their families. India can be a great country, and a great country needs as many great individuals as there can be. Every student in every school is an Indian. Not Hindu, Muslim, Sikh, Christian or Jew; but Indian. It is in our nation’s interest and their interest that they grow up as Indians, prosperous and selfreliant citizens of a proud country. Religion and India versus Religion in India: Modern India was established as a secular, democratic republic. It was based on the principles that all people are born free and should be treated as equal under the constitution and the legal framework that it provides for society. The constitution does not recognize people as Hindu, Muslim, Sikh or Christian or from different castes; but as people of India. That does not mean that the Constitution does not recognize the

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SanjayOvachayaa: Open Hearts, Dead Minds people’s right to pursue their own religious beliefs. Indians are the most religious people in the whole world. Most people believe that a divine power rules their life, they attend to their places of worship, and they raise their children in religious households. But, our political elite has used religion to raise hostility towards one other. Religious displays gather the fervor of holy crusades and the fanatics then bay for the blood of people of the other religions. Morality descends from religion and is one of the main sources of Law in most countries around the world. Morality cannot be defined by individual choice, by allowing everyone to do as they please as though there are no consequences to their behavior or actions. That is anarchy, and we are living it, experiencing it in our society every day. The VHP, the Bajrang Dal, The Muslim fundamentalists, the Jihadi’s are all anarchist organizations that are misusing the religious concepts for political gains and more importantly for the personal gains of the so called religious leaders. They are nothing but criminals and terrorists and should be treated as such. We have forgotten that morality is a system of virtuous conduct based on principles of right and wrong. We must be able to teach the difference between right and wrong, without making it as issue of religion. The primary purpose of the Constitution was to ensure the principle of separation of religion from politics, and was indeed meant to prevent the government from establishing itself as a religious entity. This was supposed to allow the people the freedom to belong to any religious of their choice and to worship and pray to their own concept of God. Our founding fathers believed in religion. However, they sought to avoid state tyranny in the name of religion and religious oppression of any kind. The fact is that these interpretations of the constitutional rights of freedom have been twisted around for political goals, and we have forgotten its true roots. Our textbooks in school have no mention about the principles of religion, morality or the role of the Divine Creator in the foundation of our society. We have to have better educational materials to explain this in greater detail to our school children.

The Fight for Real India: The debate whether India was founded as a religious nation is not academic. Those who would like to undermine the Indian nation and turn it into a religious or egalitarian utopia know that first they have to chip away at the faith of the citizens, at their very spiritual foundations. Man is a spiritual human being. If his faith in God is destroyed or if the fear that his religion is under siege is put forth, the void will be filled with something else. Throughout history, those who have tried to substitute a religious state in place of democratic principles have failed. The untold crimes that are committed in the name of state religion are intolerable. The activities of the VHP are the most recent bloody examples.

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SanjayOvachayaa: Open Hearts, Dead Minds The separation of religion and state in our constitution is not there to prevent Indians from practicing religion, but to protect the citizens from government sponsored religious terror. The desire was to safe guard denominational neutrality by the state, not to try and alter our heritage or remove parts of it from history. We have forgotten that we are religious people whose institutes accept the existence of a Supreme Being. It is time we remembered this and returned all religions to their honored places in the life of our nation.

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The Earth is not made of Glass: My views on the environment have evolved from my belief in the creation. I refuse to believe that people, who are themselves the result of Creation, can destroy the earth. The human mind, or that small percentage of it that we use, is incapable of imagining the size of the universe, its origins or even its exact location in space. Although many people have the incredible arrogance that humans are capable of scientifically unlocking every mystery of the universe, I believe that there are certain things that the mind of a human simply cannot ascertain. The nature activists seem to think that all life forms on the planet, other than human, coexist peacefully. Humans are destructive, they say. This is such a foolish idea, and not only because most animals and insects depend on their very existence on consuming each other, but because humans are the only species capable of development. Consider some facts using common sense. The earth is four billion years old. The alchemy of man and his nature has been on this planet no more than half a million years that we know off. Man has no capacity of creating forces powerful enough to destroy our planet, even if we planned to do so. When there is damage to the environment we must do everything to repair the damage. But, it is not necessary to attack the course of modernization to preserve the environment. Punishing progress to save land or the belief that land is in danger because of progress is foolhardy. The key to cleaning up our environment is unfettered free enterprise, with the system of reward for hard work. The more economic growth we have, the more prosperous people will demand a cleaner environment. The poor have other things to worry about, like one square meal a day. When no one owns private property, there is no incentive to keep it clean and pure; because no one has anything to gain in keeping its value. When you really compare the total environmental situation in India with that of other countries, we are much better. We are the least polluting country in the world, apart from the European countries. The world has not seen anything like India. We have the highest percentage of technical labor, high percentage of higher education, better cultural ties with our community than any other nation. We know about economy and we practice it on a personal level. 80% of Indians live within their means, against 97% Westerners who live on credit. We have the best form of Government, if we follow the constitutional law in both letter and spirit. Our life style is conservative and can lead to long term prosperity, and personal freedom exists more strongly than any other third world nation. Yet there is a section of society that finds fault with everything in India. They criticize the motive behind every single successful venture. Our society has created this class of nonachievers who depend on government to feed them daily throughout their lives. And since they have no goals or ambitions and too much time on their hands, they just complain ad nauseam. These are the people on whom the socialists and the communalists depend upon to survive politically. They all agree that things are wrong and that

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SanjayOvachayaa: Open Hearts, Dead Minds corrections are needed. They also believe that they alone have the power to correct the wrongs, and not others that might be more successful in commercial enterprise. The socialists “care”! They care so much that caring becomes a crutch that makes them feel special and nobler than the rest of us. Whether their caring accomplishes anything is irrelevant; as simply the emotion of caring makes them feel superior. Socialists try to convince the people that free enterprise is evil. I find that very obnoxious. Communism and the philosophy of the Left are a dead concept in the whole world except India. It has been irrefutably repudiated as both an economical and political system. The former soviet empire is now trying to emulate the west, and we still have socialists flogging this dead horse. The point I am trying to make is that we must think for ourselves, independently. Do not automatically think that we are idiots or unqualified to express an opinion merely because we do not have a Ph.D. after our name. A few, very vocal, ideological agenda-armed fanatics are trying to force the Indian people in accepting their view of the world. The more reasonable people are either too afraid to speak up or just not concerned to involve themselves in the controversies. This is not good for the country and therefore not good for the individual. I have always refused to let these people prevent me from asking common sense questions that are skeptical of their motives. You should not let them stop you from questioning them either. The moment you allow yourself to be intimidated into believing that you do not have the right to question or comment on these radical’s assertions, you have surrendered your right as individuals of a free country to them.

“Maatru-bhoomi” (Motherland) and 55 years of Independence. India- Traditionally known as a land of snake-charmers and mystics. A land, whose recorded history goes as far back as 3000 years before the advent of Jesus Christ; when Harappa and Mohenjo-daro existed on the banks of the Indus river. A land where, in the era of 2500 BC, people lived in well-built houses with private showers and toilets that drained into municipal sewer lines. A land that had the knowledge of copper and bronze and high carbon steel weapons. As far back a 5th century BC, Persia and Damascus imported weapons made from Indian know-how. Zinc extraction and smelting was known in Taxila in Circa 44 BC. The Iron Pillar which stands tall and rust free even today in the Quatab Minar complex of Mehrauli in New Delhi is a mute testament of the fact that forge welding was a science known as far back as 350 AD, during the reign of Chandragupta Maurya. Sulba sutra, the earliest documents of geometry were believed to have been composed in the period 800-500 BC. The first formal treatise on astronomy, Vedange Jyotish was dated

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SanjayOvachayaa: Open Hearts, Dead Minds about 1400 BC. Aryabhatta, the astronomer-mathematician had calculated the most accurate value of pi as 3.1416, as far back as 499 AD. Rhinoplasty (plastic surgery) was practiced in India in the 1790s as witnessed by the English doctors Thomas Cruso and James Trindlay. This surgical procedure first finds its mention in Susruta Samahita (350 AD). The Susruta Samhita enumerates eight branches of medical knowledge as surgery; treatment of diseases of the eyes, ears, nose, throat and teeth; therapeutics; psychiatry and psychotherapy; pediatrics; toxicology and treatment of poisoning; treatment for longevity and rejuvenation; and treatment for increasing virility. It mentions 300 different operations employing 42 surgical processes and 121 surgical instruments. These include ophthalmic couching, cutting for stone, removal of arrows and splinters, suturing, examination of dead bodies for anatomy and Caesarian sections. In the field of Science, the first Indian who formulated ideas about the atom as the indivisible particle of matter in a systematic manner was 6th century BC philosopher Kanada. Another philosopher Katyayana, a contemporary of the Buddha, put forward ideas about the atomic constitution of the material world. Kanada's Vaisesika Sutra is the main literary source that deals with a number of physical concepts like space, time and atom. In the Vaisesika system of philosophy, matter is described in its elementary and composite forms, the gunas (qualities) of the fundamental kanas (quanta) and the dravya (primary substance) of the universe. The dravyas-earth (prithvi), water (jalam), air (vayu), substratum (akasa), time (kalam), space (dik), mind (manas), radiation (tejas) and self (atma)-are the raw material for worldbuilding. The first four are divisible and their elementary units are the paramanu or kana (quanta). These four dravyas together with akasa constitute the panchabhuta. When faced with this indisputable proof of the extent and power of Indian knowledge; why is it that modern India is so heavily dependent on western countries for almost everything from fabrics that the people wear to the equipment used for the defense of our land? When Balgangadhar Tilak, the fire brand leader of the independence movement roared in a packed courtroom of the then British controlled India; that “Freedom is my birth-right, and I shall have it”; he was not referring only to the freedom from British political rule. He was expressing his wish for total freedom; political, cultural and financial. Total independence is what Tilak and Agarkar fought for and total freedom is what Bhagat Singh, Sukdeo, Azad and others died for. Maatru-bhoomi was the cause and Maatru-bhoomi was the reason. Somewhere along the line the nation has veered off course. We have adopted a foreign language as our official language. American jeans and polo shirts have replaced traditional Indian dresses. While, one has to accept the practicality of change and the need to conform to world’s main-stream life style; as a nation we have given up on any indigenous manufacturing; be it staple pins or battle-ships. As a nation, India is dependent on Russia, France and our former masters the UK for Defense equipment. The Arabian Sea and the Indian Ocean which were once dominated

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SanjayOvachayaa: Open Hearts, Dead Minds by Kanhojee Angre’s locally made fleet of ships is today patrolled by a “brown water” Indian navy equipped with a 50 year British made aircraft carrier and a few dozen rusty ships from the former Soviet Union. Over the past 55 years the nation has not been able to build a singular handgun; much less a Main Battle Tank that will actually work in a battlefield. The Indian elite; the intelligentsia, the journalists, the bureaucrats, the diplomats hold an image of themselves that is often negative, and have a tendency to run down their own country. The self-perception of us is frequently detrimental to our self confidence. This is particularly true of our bureaucrats who always seem to look at India through a western prism and constantly appear to worry how the foreigners view India. They try to explain every issue like Kashmir or Ayodhya using only a small portion of our history, without trying to put these events in a broader focus, or attempting to revert back to our country’s long and ancient history. There is hardly any self-pride among India’s intellectual elite, because they are usually too busy running down our country, as if India was afflicted by a permanent inferiority complex. Over the past 55 years we have not been able to design transportation, clothing or food preservation equipment. We are unable to build roads or grow crops at maximum capacity. When we do grow a stupendous harvest; we do not have the devices to preserve the food-grain. We depend upon Enron for energy and on Kellogg’s for morning food. We wear clothes made out of Nylon and Spandex, drive a Ford or a Honda and our youngsters ride Suzuki’s or Yamaha’s. We drink Cokes’ and Pepsis’ and crunch on Frito-Lays. Pseudo Texas accented American English is the dialogue of the new Indians; quite forgetting the fact that they would have difficulty finding the same Texas on a world map. While CNN brings into Indian homes the words of the US national anthem, Indians will be mentally taxed to recite our very own Indian national anthem. We bond very naturally to the sports of cricket, karate and discodancing; while conspicuously avoiding any mention of Mal-kambh, Dhanurva-vidya or Lezim (a dance exercise for warriors); all of which require extreme concentration and effort. We prefer Dollars to our very own Rupee and cigarettes to bidis. The greatest adversaries of our country are the descendents of the British culture; the ‘brown sahibs’ of India, the “secular” politicians, journalists and bureaucrats, in fact the whole westernized cream of India. It is they, who upon getting independence, have denied India its true identity and borrowed blindly from the British, without trying to adapt it to the unique Indian mentality and psychology. And what do these clones of the west do for India? Like millions of other clones in the developing world; who wear a tie, read the New York Times and swear by liberal and secular values; they will constantly seek the approval of the western countries for everything that they do; they will reach elevated positions in the country and criticize it; they will preside over high power committees and take wrong decisions, and generally do tremendous harm to India. It is said that a nation needs pride and national honor to advance to greatness. Unless there is a big change in our thinking process and unless we become more conscious of our heritage and of India’s greatness; it is going to be very difficult for India to be a real power in this world.

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SanjayOvachayaa: Open Hearts, Dead Minds Exactly what Independence have we gained from the British? Our constitution is British based and so warped in communalism and regionalism that it had to be amended more than 360 times. The Indian penal code is a bad copy of the British penal code; the legal system is so mired in confusion, that it’s a form of torture rather than a forum for justice. We are not even independent in our thought process or in our ability to govern ourselves. The World Bank and the IMF (international monetary fund) dictate the course of our policies, the WTO governs our trade. Our border dispute is a matter of public bickering at the UNO and Wall Street brokers in New York decide on our credibility rating as a nation. The finance ministry officials tremble as Morgan Stanley or Standard and Poor’s executives’ decide on the future of India. Is this the Free and Independent India that our fore fathers fought and died for? Is this the land which was the home to warriors like Emperor Asoka and Chandragupta Maurya? Is the land that gave the world Gautam Buddha and his philosophy now so intellectually bankrupt that we depend on “Days of our Lives” as a role model? Think about it, and decide. Do you want to live and work in an India? Or would it be much more preferable to live for and work for our “Maatru-bhoomi”, the great Bharat rashtra ? The key is “Modernization” and not Westernization.

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SanjayOvachayaa: Open Hearts, Dead Minds The Last Word: As I bring my first literary effort to a close I would like to complete this with a request to all of you. Be confident, not just in yourself but in your country and your fellow citizens. Remember, it’s much easier to despair over what might seem an irrevocable erosion of our institutions and traditions which made this country great, than it is to see the progress we are making in preserving our institutions and traditions. Compounding our despair is the dominant media culture, especially the foreign media like CNN, Fox, NBC, which do not reflect our values and concerns. The media constantly pounds us with gloom and doom scenarios, which have a negative effect on our psyche. The truth is that when we look at our national policies and national priorities, it is not the people who are out of touch with reality; it is the political parties and their national level leadership. Political parties are simply unable to extricate themselves from the bondage they have placed themselves in, by building their power base on beggar vote constituencies. The across the board sycophancy is now failing as they have exploited the masses to the extreme and have not been able to steer mass quantities of money towards this beggar constituencies for the past few years. The socialists and the likes had sustained themselves for years on government grants and subsidies. These are now reduced to a trickle. Political parties now exist primarily off the donations of the rich, on political kickbacks and whatever contributions they can get from the public at large. Remember, the people in politics or their party groups do not work for a living in the traditional sense. They survive only by inventing crises or by fabricating some threat to the social fabric. That is why they appear to be more active and visible, while becoming more hysterical every day. They cannot provide for themselves so they hope that by making a nuisance of themselves they will get others to feed them. These people have made our country bankrupt, financially and morally. Reputed economists have pointed out that with the money we have spent on poverty reduction programs since the 1950s, we could have purchased the entire assets of every fortune 50 companies in the world and developed virtually every acre of land in our country. Yet, not only we have not eliminated poverty, but also many social problems are far worse than before. You know it and I know it. And more important, they know it too. Indians are no longer willing to burden the millions of rupees that are poured into programs that fail to accomplish any goal. We are weary of supporting a socialistic system that is anti-progressive, indicts tradition, promotes cultural disharmony and serves as a breeding ground for more anti social elements. Policies that are nothing more than threats for more violence and disharmony should we refuse to meet the financial demands of those who are representing thugs, murderers, arsonists and looters. They are making threats about instability of the nation, out of desperation and panic. First, they realize that government largesse in the form of development funds for social assistance is over, because the money is just not there. Second, the cold realization that,

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SanjayOvachayaa: Open Hearts, Dead Minds after 50 years of uninterrupted catering of their demands, their primary ideas and theories on social justice and economic fairness just does not work. They do not know what to do, except to shout and scream in an attempt to frighten and intimidate those who are now more educated and will no longer be controlled by these demons. We are the future. We cannot give up what is right. We have to break this strangle hold that the socialists and the communalists have on our nation and our society. We have to be confident. Our nation has not run out of opportunities. Our children can live in an India that is better, safer, and more prosperous. Life is a never-ending battle and we have to fight the battle that we land into.

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SanjayOvachayaa: Open Hearts, Dead Minds

“Victory” You are the person who used to boast That you would achieve the utmost, Someday. You merely wished to show, To demonstrate how much you know, And prove the success that you can grow… Another year we have just passed through, What new ideas came to you? How many good things did you do? Time; left 12 months in your care, How many of them did you share? With opportunity and dare Again where you so often missed? We do not find you on the list of those who succeed. Explain the fact! No, it was not the chance you lacked! As usual, you just failed to act!

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