Banaras – The Pluralism capital of India

Banaras is older than history, older than tradition, older even than legends, and looks twice as old as them put together!! – Mark Twain

The holiest and the oldest city 
in India stands as an epitome of cultural heritage for centuries now.

Varanasi erstwhile Banaras – happens to be my native city and has been the apple of every tourist’s eye who desires to visit India. The city wakes with chants of Ganga Aarti at Dashashvamedh ghat and Azaan at Gyanvyapi Mosque, while the rest of our nation is still in slumber. This cultural and religious confluence of Banaras deepens with the presence of Sarnath, where Lord Gautam Buddha delivered his first sermon after attaining enlightenment at Bodh Gaya and the city is equally close to heart of Jains as 3 Jain Tirthankars were born in this Holy city. Banaras has been an archetype of pluralism across the globe.

Known for its various centres of religious and cultural importance like Kashi Vishwanath Mandir and Ghats at Ganges river basin, Banaras holds a distinguished place in the world for people of all the religions.

Banaras has also been a knowledge hub since centuries with various Kings and their princes attaining primary wisdom on the banks of Ganges, Banaras also hails Banaras Hindu University established by Pandit Madan Mohan Malviya in 1916 A.D which is also the largest residential university (even bigger than any of the IIMs and IITs) in India. 


Apart from boasting the religious and educational excellence Banaras is also home to 4 Bharat Ratna recipients (highest civilian award in India), most by any city across the country.

No wonder during Indian General Elections of 2014, BJP’s then Prime Ministerial candidate and India’s current Prime Minister Shri. Narendra Modi chose Banaras as his constituency.

Banaras today is at the centre of Indian politics, but the fact is that safeguarding its religious sanctity along with the pluralism and sociocultural inclusiveness should be a matter of high priority to all the Indians. Inspite of living almost 1500 kilometers away from the city it is just not possible for me to get over the bond that connects me to this cultural hub of India. With over 50 lakh tourists visiting the city annually, Banaras today has become the face of Indian cultural diversity.

The thought of Banaras and its importance to our nation frequently lingers in my mind and I recently read about a few intellectuals who have identified the need to preserve the Banaras' Culture and come up with a solution through a summit called the Banaras Convention. This summit seems intriguing and the agenda put forth by the organizers is engaging and I wish them the very best in their noble initiative.

Words aren’t enough to describe how divine my Banaras is, it is for us as individuals to visit the city once and experience the euphoria and for the administration and civilians to maintain the pluralism and inclusiveness of Banaras for eternity.

#UnionBudget2014

The Union Budget 2014 was presented by the current Finance Minister of India Shri. Arun Jaitley. The budget as expected was high voltage affair as any other event is in era of Modi Sarkar. All the eyes were on the Finance Minister's brief case, as to know the road map of Ache Din and this what the finance minister had to offer.

10 things that will work in interest of Aam Admi and his Ache Din!!

1) Say Cheese - A moment of cheer

-> Income tax slab raised from 2 lac p.a. to 2.5 lakhs per annum

i.e. if you are earning ₹ 20,833.33 a month  then you are not liable to pay any  income tax.

2) The entrepreneurial boost

-> Corpus of ₹ 10,000 Crore through venture capital funding and soft loans for young and budding entrepreneur.

3) Smart bann raha hai India

-> Allocation of ₹ 7,060 Crores for developing 100 smart cities in India.

4) Coz ExPORTs and ImPORTs are incomplete without PORTs

-> Building of 16 new ports across the coastline of India.

5) Cigarette smoking and Gutkha Chewing is now also injurious to wealth

 -> Hike in Excise Duty Of Cigarettes By 11% - 72% and Gutkha form 60% to 70%.

6) Giving wings to Insurance    

-> Increase of FDI in Insurance from 26% to 49%, inturn helping the 70 Billion USD insurance industry to penetrate deeper in our country.

    

7) Turning Delhi into Dubai and Banglore into Bejing

-> ₹ 50000 Crore worth urban infra projects.

8) Padhega India, tabhi toh badhega India

-> ₹ 28635 Crore to be funded for Sarva Shikasha Abhiyaan.

   

9) Fair-e-tail

-> E-commerce sales in retail allowed without any additional approval.

10) Har ghar kuch kehta hai
-> ₹ 4000 crores for National Housing Bank with a view to provide cheaper credit for affordable housing to Urban Poor and Low Income Group.

4 things that do not work for Aam Admi!!

1)  FM, why you no Meherbaan on our Kisaan ??
-> Not much help in agriculture sector with only ₹ 5000 Crore for irrigation and infrastructure and ₹ 500 Crore for Price stabilization


2)  No Power to generate Power


-> Failure in taking decisive measures in strengthening the power sector in India, except some relief in Coal import duty.

3)  Healthcare Mis-Management
-> No strong reforms for supplementing better health care facilities in Bharat; 4 AIIMS with a budget of only ₹ 500 Crores.

4)  Women Security – Not a priority !!       


-> Allocation of ₹ 150 Crore fund for security of over 20 Crore of women in large cities. i.e. ₹ 7.5 / woman, really!!??



I would personally rate this #UnionBudget2014 as 6.5 on 10, however it is left for the government to execute the plans in the right spirit and best of interest of the pupil of India.

Ache Din Kab Ayenge??

It has been around 50 days since the newly formed government has been in action. With promises of better governance, rein in prices, employment and entrepreneurship opportunities, reduced corruption, bringing back of black money, so on and so forth, the BJP led government stormed to power. Many believed that it was the charisma of Shri. Narendra Modi which helped the BJP realize its long awaited dream. However the outcome at the end of one month is not as pleasing as the citizens of the largest democracy in the world, who empowered a single party with a clear mandate to govern the nation, anticipated to be.

With increase in passenger fares and freight rates in Indian railways and recent hike in the petrol and diesel prices, things are gradually appearing to be going from bad to worse.

                        

Rome was not built overnight and similarly India can’t change within the blink of an eye, as some say “The mess of ten years cannot be cleaned in a month”. However NaMo’s extremely advanced strategic management and marketing team failed to mention the bitter pill that would complement the dessert of Ache Din that BJP offered during their election campaign. This has surely left the masses aghast.

Although the government has had a little to cheer about INS Vikramaditya and commercial success of PSLV C 23, it is obvious that such milestone projects did not take place in a span of 30 days and were the brain child of ISRO during the times of former NDA and UPA governments and not that of the current government.

I might appear cynical about the approach of our present government, but all I’m worried about is people’s changing perception of the slogan ‘Ache din aane wale hain’.

                              

The existing council of ministers are so engrossed in discussions of Article 370 and Uniform Civil Code, they seem to have forgotten that as per their own manifesto released during elections, curtailment of corruption, employment generation and containment of inflation remains their top most priority.

With meteorological department predictions of below average rainfall which eventually may lead to inflation, it will be interesting to see the policies and reforms of the existing government to revive the Indian economy at the earliest.

Even though a span of 30 days is too little to judge any government, too much delay in showing signs of development could metaphorically reflect an old saying "Curiosity Killed the Cat" with assembly elections in the states of Maharashtra and Haryana delivering unfavourable results for the BJP. 

All eyes are now set on our visionary prime minister to make things right and keep the ball rolling in the arena of progress and development. My best wishes are with him and all my fellow Indians. May India scale up the pinnacles of success in years to come.

In my next blog we shall discuss the 'Hits and Misses' of the recent Finance Budget of Modi Sarkar.

Here is the link for the next blog that discusses Hits & Misses of Union Budget 2014:

http://aniketnsingh.blogspot.in/2014/07/budget2014.html