Modi should rectify his methods
I liked the way Modi spoke with clarity about Ram Mandir nirman. He should review his Cabinet and remove persons like Uma Bharti, Kalraj Mishra, Giriraj Singh and replace them with experts in various fields. This is important to gain public confidence.
He must develop small towns and medium and small-scale industries. Certain items of mass consumption must be made there and their purchase by governmental agencies must be ensured. Don’t concentrate on Amethi and Varanasi only, go south too. No pension should be allotted to more than two times MPs. Bring out a law that no one qualifies for MP or IAS till he or she undergoes two years of well-structured national service. Modi needs to improve his countenance and stop blaming others. If he rectifies his method of working, as above, he can win 2019.
Why would you criticise Lutyens’ Delhi when you yourself ran to Madame Tussauds? You have also worn designer clothes and accessories.
“Yeh rona dhona band kariye aur LB Shashtriji ki tarah kaam kariye!”
(Stop lamenting and start working with the efficiency of former PM Laal Bahadur Shastri!)
Mahendra Singh
Mrinal Sen’s death marks an end of Bengali Cinema!
Indian cineworld has lost a legendary persona in the death of Mrinal Sen who died at the ripe old age of 95 years. A distinguished and creative film maker by all yardsticks, Mrinal Sen was West Bengal’s ‘heart’ as he was the ‘Don’ of regional cinema apart from being a noble soul. He won many accolades in his career but winning the Dadasaheb Phalke Award was his greatest achievement.
The void left by his death would be difficult to fill and he would be remembered as long as films are made in our country. The towering personality was an institution in himself as far as film making is concerned. RIP Mrinal Sen. May His Soul Rest In Peace!
SN Kabra
Pray for a happy year!
We know we have challenges in the year ahead. But our faith bids us hope. All our faith, however different they may be on some point, concurs in pointing to the overarching reality of compassion and love as the central principle of our teachings.
And all our faith speaks also of hope for the future that is grounded in thanksgivings for the past. So as we cherish the New Year, we sincerely hope and pray for a year that is filled with peace, harmony and good will among all people and for an end to violence and war and to the fear that provokes them.
I hope that this year brings success, joy, and happiness to every one of us.
Jubel D’Cruz
BJP should act fast
Two decisions taken by the BJP-led government over the past four–and-a-half years has been transformative: the GST act and IBC. The initial hiccups in the implementation of GST could disappear in 2019, with streamlining producers. It seems the government will probably fix a single tax rate for all goods and services to win the national elections. Now it has begun to remit farmer’s loans, decrease the fuel’s price, as well as investigate crimes in UP, etc. I think BJP should fulfill all promises within one or two months rapidly, because its boat is capsising in stormy circumstances.
Najmul Qasmi
Make calendar year as financial year
Expert committee chaired by the known economist LK Jha which was set up by Union Government to suggest new financial year, had suggested the systematic calendar year of January-December to replace current system of April-March financial year due to multiple advantageous, and also to be in tune with most other countries of the world. But as usual, recommendations of LK Jha’s committee set up at high cost were dumped by the then political rulers without being implemented. It is time that both the financial and the working year for the complete country may be unified as the systematic calendar year to replace present financial year of April-March which is the continuation of a British legacy even after seven long decades of the country having achieved independence.
Madhu Agrawal
Central government accepting Allahabad renaming
It refers to the Central government giving nod to UP government’s decision to rename Allahabad as Prayagraj. But system should be for auto-change of names institutions including like high courts, university, railway stations and others after name change is affected. Names of Bombay High Court and Madras High Court still remain the same despite renaming of respective cities as Mumbai and Chennai decades back.
There has been gradual change in names or spellings of cities with the process still incomplete despite more than seven decades of independence. The distorted spellings of ‘Jullender’ and ‘Simla’ by the British rulers as Jalandhar and Shimla has been rectified. But spellings of cities like Delhi and Bareilly as per actual pronunciation are yet to be modified. Delhi is distorted version of ‘Dehli’ meaning entrance in Hindi. Many other countries like Bangladesh and China have already respelled names of their capitals as per actual pronunciation. Likewise, renaming of other cities and states should be in one go to remove confusion. Even Pakistan acknowledges Lahore being named after Luv, son of Lord Ram because of Luv having established Lahore. Lucknow can be renamed as Lakshmanpur if the city had been established by Lakshman, younger brother of Lord Rama. There are too many Rampurs and Bilaspurs in India which require renaming to avoid confusion. New names can be after heroic characters of Ramayan and Mahabharat.
Only old-timers know that since the western part of pre-independent undivided Bengal came to India, the state was named as West Bengal, and East Bengal turned into East Pakistan, now Bangladesh. Prefix ‘West’ should be removed from the name of the state in the new name.
Union Government should also adopt single name ‘Bharat’ for the country abolishing British given name as India, in tune with unanimous resolution once passed by UP state-assembly. It is senseless to have two names for a country. Sri Lanka and Myanmar have already done away with such British legacy when these countries are no more known as Ceylon and Burma.
Subhash Chandra Agrawal
(The views expressed by the author in the article are his/her own.)
