Build capacities in Urban Planning – Interesting times ahead?

As the car hit the roads of Chicago and its beautiful skyline mesmerized me, the old question which has occupied my mind every time I have travelled a city in Europe, US or any other developed country, came back to haunt me. I started wondering when in India, will we build such beautiful cities?. Not just Chicago each and every big or small city in US or elsewhere gives you a sense of discipline and planning.

Back home when I discussed that with few friends, some blamed it on corruption and others said we just can’t afford that kind of cities at this point of time. In fact for years I have also thought that such cities were a luxury that India cannot afford and even if we could have done it we are having a system far too corrupt to let that happen. However this time was different , even these thoughts didn’t gave me any comfort and I decided to dig deep into how these cities were originally planned and built in US , Europe or any developed country in Asia.

History of Urban Planning

“The lower town’s streets formed a well-planned and carefully maintained grid; their widths, starting from the narrowest, were 1.8m, 3.6m, 5.4m and 7.2m, in a perfect geometric progression of 1:2:3:4. … The only structures permitted on the streets were small brick platforms jutting out near house entrances, where people evidently sat together in the evening to chat and exchange the day’s news;”

“Covered drains took the waste water out of the houses “to a collective sewer; this in turn was connected to a network of drains made of carefully aligned baked bricks, with cesspits or soak jars provided at regular intervals to collect sullage.”

These excerpts are on the urban planning as being done in Harappa. Yes almost 5000-7000 years back almost million square kilometers of land that formed the Indus Saraswati Civilization saw the development of the most advanced urban planning in the ancient world, a social order that was more egalitarian than has ever existed anywhere since. A shame that after 5000 years instead of improving on what we improvised in those ages we have reduced our cities to piles of garbage and utter chaos.

Around the World – The Chicago Plan Not too far back, most of the cities across US suffered the same issues which we are facing now in India. Constant expansion and growth without planning had left cities in total chaos. Popularly known as the “Burnham Plan”,  in a rather ambitious move, a group of prominent businessmen sat around and hired an architect “Daniel H. Burnham” to turnaround Chicago. Burnham in turn recommended an integrated series of projects including new and widened streets, parks, new railroad and harbor facilities, and civic buildings. His recommendation had 6 major points mainly

Improvement of the lakefront - The plan recommended expanding the parks along the Lake Michigan shoreline with landfill. Of the city’s 47 km of lakefront, all but six kms are today public parkland. Today Chicago Lakefront Trail is a foreshoreway for walking and cycling, running 29 km along the coast of Lake Michigan

New outer parks - The plan included proposals and also called for the expansion of the city’s park and boulevard system. Go anywhere across the world and you have plenty of parks where a common man can go with his family for distressing stroll.

Systematic arrangement of streets - New wider arterials were prescribed to relieve traffic congestion and beautify the fast-growing city, including a network of new diagonal streets. Any planned city in the world will likely to go for a grid pattern or radial pattern roads running throughout the city, such a design makes the navigation easy, makes addresses far more intuitive, it may also help to plan the routes of public transport based on which routes are more busier than others, help to plan the location of important government buildings secretariats, courts, cultural centers, libraries and transport hubs to be built in future. Each avenue has its arterial road that connects the specific avenue to the main street. Moreover, the interior roads are planned in a way that each of them meets at a common point usually a Central Park.

Just open google map and pick any Indian city apart from a few like Delhi and Chandigarh which have some sense of planning applied you will be just stunned at the maps of some of our most prestigious cities. Even a city like Bangalore looks like to have been built on a pile of heap without any sense of direction or planning, the lesser said the better it is. That is how we end up with the most bizarre house addresses in the world.

Civic and cultural centers - Burnham also gave proposals on reserving space for civic and cultural centers. It’s a beauty when we go around any downtown in US we find libraries, museums and some important govt building, at the center of the city. This is a pattern across most of the planned cities around the world. Compare this to our cities where we never pay enough thoughts on building world class public library and museum in each and every city of the country.

Improvement of railway terminals & a regional highway system – The plan also looked at for competing railroads and highways to pool usage of tracks for greater efficiency in freight handling.

Though some of things did changed with changing times more or less a plan laid out around 100 years back helped shape today’s Chicago. There were architectural concepts applied even on the placement of one building in context to another. Architecture is not just about how we build a single building, it is also about thinking holistically about the usage of space, air and sunlight, movement of people around the buildings. And it is all these concepts applied together that even having a similar population in any of the metros across the world the movement of goods and people does not make us give a feeling of chaos , in fact the movements are planned in such a way that it looks scenic.

Build capacities in Urban Planning

So where does all that leave us? It is true that we don’t have funds even today to build grand Museums and libraries in every city but definitely do the systematic layouts of roads and buildings cost anything extra? We do have roads in India, only if we had applied ourselves even a little bit finding out that a grid/radial layout of the roads across the city will help in many a future problem is not such a rocket science and further expansion in future on that well thought plan would have been much easier.

The Nehruvian era had huge focus on building IIT’s and IIM’s which have proven their worth beyond doubt but there was no focus on building proper cities and towns in India. A country with 1.2 billion people does not even have a dozen of world class urban planning institutes where problems faced by our cities can be identified and planners can work to find a solution for them. The problem is not just the corruption the problem is that after independence we have treated urban planning as a luxury that we cannot afford. While urban planning has many other dimensions and we do work on solving a lot of problems there is no holistic view on which our cities are planned and I therefore think that we need to start with building capacities in urban planning on an urgent level so that our cities can be planned properly, when for the first time when I discussed the concept of urban planning with some of the best minds in my group none had a clue what exactly does that mean and this lack of awareness is at the core of the problem.

However there is also a pleasant surprise, PM Modi who has worked in Gujarat does have a vision on the reasons we are lagging behind in this. He has talked about building capacities in urban planning and his vision of 100 world class cities does promise a lot of hope. What more is needed is that the basic concepts of urban planning need to be started being applied in all future villages, towns and urban centers and not just 100 new cities being built. We are moving in interesting time and let’s hope that we can stop treating urban planning as a luxury and start building well laid neat and clean cities. Indians deserve something better.

The following two tabs change content below.

Bullet Trains/High-speed Rail: An Investment in future?

As Narendra Modi spoke of bullet trains, he ignited the imagination of a billion plus country and brought the subject of high speed trains to the centre of discussions. High speed railways (HSR) is a type of rail transport that operates significantly faster (200-300kmh) than the traditional rail traffic. The first such system began its operations in Japan in 1964 and was widely known as the bullet train. In India, the subject was first brought into discussion in late 80′s. However budget constraints and feasibility had put the idea in cold storage. High speed trains are indeed a costly affair with the cost to lay each km coming to more than 100 crores. At such a cost even to start building a nominal network of 400-500 KMs between some of the proposed corridors will cost a bomb. And it is not just India where it has been perceived to be costly; across the globe even in a resourceful country like the US there are debates about its sustainability.

However in recent years there has been a lot of research that has gone into the feasibility and sustainability aspect of HSRs. In one such report “high speed rail and sustainability” by UIC(the International Union of Railways)  done to find out the feasibility and sustainability of these rails in California, USA, many interesting findings in favour of high speed rails have emerged. Some of them are as relevant to India as it is for the United States.

Land use

One of the biggest cost factors in building such a project is cost of the land, however rail networks have come out to be the most cost effective in terms of land use using 3 times less land than traditional highways for carrying same amount of traffic as the number of lanes required are far less in a HSR. An average 2 track rail-line uses only 3.2 hectares of land per km with a typical width of 25 meters compared to an average six lane road using 9 Hectares per km of land with a width of 75 meters. Also in order to maximize the HSR land usage and make it even more feasible in terms of cost such a line could be built in parallel to a highway.

Also if we look around the world most of the airports are slowly reaching a saturation stage where expanding them further for interstate travel or intercity travel between nearby cities may become an extremely costly affair. HSRs come handy in such a scenario where they can handle the interstate and intercity travel freeing the airport for more important international travel and very long distance travel. Such HSR networks can be integrated with the city metro/other transport systems owing to the fact that they can be taken deep inside a city compared to airports which are usually at the outskirts of a city. A HSR can therefore be a very cost effective solution over the long term and should be looked at in that light.

Environment

Global warming due to greenhouse gases is a reality of the current day. Of the total carbon dioxide emissions across the world, transport systems form a major chunk of 23 percent. Out of this motor travel and air travel forms 80 percent of the total CO2 emissions. Railways just form 2 percent of these emissions (isn’t that fantastic?).The carbon footprint per passenger is lowest in rail traffic. It is just 17 grams of carbon dioxide per KM (European HSR) compared to 153gm/km for air travel or 115gm/km for road travel. Another very important factor is that HSRs could be made to run totally on renewable sources of energy like solar or wind power. Around 46 percent of Spain and 22 percent of France HSRs run with renewable sources. Sweden has taken steps to put their entire rail network on renewable sources in coming years. Why can’t we do the same in India reducing our dependence on imported fossil fuels?

A HSR network across major cities in India can reduce the congestion on roads leading to reduced travel time, this alone can save billions of dollars in carbon footprint and such savings should be taken into consideration when we estimate the cost of building any form of transport system. While The Delhi Metro Rail Corporation is not an HSR it is the nearest example of how a good choice of transport transforms the life of a city. It has been certified by the United Nations as the first metro rail and rail-based system in the world to get “carbon credits for reducing greenhouse gas emissions” and helping in reducing pollution levels in the city by 630,000 tonnes every year.

According to a report by the Central Road Research Institute (CRRI), as many as 1.2 lakh vehicles are off the road every day because of the Metro. Roughly Rs 523 crore is saved annually in fuel costs whereas the cost in terms of time of passengers saved per year works out to a whopping Rs 2,978 crore, according to the study. Just imagine all these benefits replicated across top 20 cities in India and in future extended to all cities with a population of a 1-2 million, the benefits will be huge crossing more than 60000 crores per year (as per any conservative estimate) increasing the productivity of the country and adding at least half to 1 percent to overall GDP figures. And these benefits are just the other benefits that we get out of these systems; the actual benefits will be huge.

High Tech industry

With the available pool of millions of engineers India can look to become a powerhouse in building such networks across the globe with the best quality at the most competitive price. Building such a high tech industry will have enormous benefits for a country like India laying the foundation for many high tech industries. And the jobs created are not just direct high tech jobs but as per the UIC report every 10 direct jobs created in building HSR results in 14 indirect jobs compared to just 5 numbers of indirect jobs when building highways.

Is it feasible?

Yes indeed it is feasible, and the answer lies in going for a phase wise development of such transport system across India. Such a system can help India build new cities and new industries across the path of such a track. Across the world it is a known fact that cities around such a high speed network have become engines of growth and prosperity. Also there is a growing realization across the urban planners in the world that rapid urbanization is actually a good thing which leaves a large track of land to retain its biodiversity as the majority of the population stays up in big cities. And such big cities make the investment in such a transport system extremely feasible.

If the 2014 elections throw up a new government with a strong developmental agenda this will be one of the most debated subjects. While we discuss, our neighbour China has shown the way by building a world class HSR network to the tune of more than 10000 Kms with a daily ridership of more than 1.33 million. And the decision has transformed the way people used to travel and do business in China. Hope we also start investing in building capacities which may serve us well for the coming decades and change the way we travel and do business in India. Hope the next occupant of 7 Race Course Road is listening.

The article was also published at Centreright 

United Subcontinent? A myth or an agenda for foreign policy …

This post was first published on CRI

“I don’t think we are just Muslim people , in this same part of land at we were Buddhists , in this same part we were Hindus and in same part we have been Muslims, I associate myself to this land ” says Fouzia Saeed a noted human right activist in a television debate in Pakistan. But why this sudden debate emphasizing on the identity of the people of Pakistan. Well Pakistan is probably going through its lowest moment in the recent history. Fundamentalism, terrorism, religious intolerance is killing Pakistan every passing day. When Bangladesh made a pitch for Aazadi and separated from Pakistan in 1971 the two nation theory was put to rest. People with same religion could not stay as one country just for the sake of religion. As an independent country Bangladesh is today doing better on many fronts than Pakistan and in fact better than India also on few fronts. Whether the two nation theory was flawed or not can be a point of debate and discussion but it has to be noticed that it has failed so miserably when put in practice in Pakistan. However the problems of Pakistan ran deeper than just their belief in two nation theory, it was not just their desire for a separate nation for people following a different religion somewhere the establishment in Pakistan had a deeper hatred for anything and everything which was unfamiliar. So the hatred that started from Hindus, extended to baluchs and then continued to their brothers in Bengal. The result of this belief is a total disconnect of present day Pakistan to their original roots which was Hindu and Indian for a major part of the civilization.

Somewhere Pakistan could not learn to appreciate the fact that they were indeed at the center of the one of the greatest civilization the world has ever seen. They saw that as a Hindu or probably an Indian civilization. While they admired the legends of Gajni or Sikandar seeing them as a fellow Muslim (though Sikandar was not a Muslim) they didn’t realize that these guys had done no welfare to the people living in those parts of the country where they are worshiped today. They in fact looted and plundered those parts of land and that generations must have suffered that pain during those times. It is nothing but a firm belief in this disconnect is the reason I could think of that slowly and steadily the history taught was re-written in Pakistan. What else could explain that the facts were distorted and misrepresented to the extent that today the young generation is so confused about its identity and its roots in Pakistan? The situation has been very well described by a scholar in Pakistan in one of the jokes that’s going around “a child asked his father as what existed before Mohd Bin Kasim came here ? Was it all oceans as he could not imagine anything beyond that and nothing is taught today about the rich past that Pakistan had at some time? So they learn about Akbar but forget about Ashoka, they learn about Sikandar but forget about Indus valley civilization. And it is this disconnect from its identity that has to be resolved if Pakistan has to any time return to the path of growth and progress. The question however is, Is it even possible in anyone’s wild dreams today that Pakistan will be able to resolve these contradictions and look to move ahead?

The End of Road?

While it is true that Pakistan today suffers from one of the worst times in recent era few voices have grown louder criticizing the path of religious fundamentalism and aversion to anything unfamiliar that Pakistan has taken. There is a growing realization in the media and intellectuals in Pakistan that their liberal neighbor India (which they call as Liberal dehshatgardJ) is contributing to the world more than they could do and that it is time that Pakistan own its past and learn to accept the reality as it existed and still be comfortable with their own identity of today. A very strong voice in this regard is of “Hasan Nissar” who has raised his voice against the hijack of the history by the mullahs who have not allowed Pakistan to walk on the path of progress. Many other voices are slowly joining his voice and are raising questions right from the decision to form Pakistan as a separate country, their obsession with Kashmir when they could not hold even Bangladesh and now the unrest in Baluchistan ,the attempt of hardliners to identify themselves with the Arabs when Arabs themselves does not treat Pakistanis equally, role of Pakistan in international terrorism and all that odd uncomfortable questions even on Iqbal and Jinnah many of whom we cannot even discuss in India because then you get branded as a communal force. The media and liberals in Pakistan are today questioning the mullahs and fundamentalists in a way that is unimaginable for anyone to imagine about Pakistan media.

What does all that mean for India?

For a long time poets and writers have imagined the two countries working together to fight the common problems that both the nations face. However my attempt to see them working together is not from rooted in some phantasy I am trying to look at this issue very pragmatically. India for a long time has failed to evolve a proper foreign policy for any of its neighbor and the terrorism from Pakistan has not in any way helped in this situation further. A question arises therefore what should India do at a time when Pakistan in not on the tables to talk and is bogged down by its internal conflicts.

Strengthen the moderate voices

The answer lies in the developments that are taking place in Pakistan. While there is definitely terrorism originating from Pakistan slowly there is also a realization that it is harming Pakistan more than anyone else. And it is this voice in Pakistan that India should work to strengthen so that any kind of peace process can be taken further in future. But then there is a chance that openly strengthening those voices will take away the credibility of those voices. It is here the actual challenge lies and while it is difficult it is not impossible. The West and US has always strengthened voices across the globe that suit there side of story and we may learn a few lessons from them. These voices should also be given a chance to be heard in India also, the general perception of people of both nations across borders need to be changed for the govt’s to make a decision. The moderates there have lessons for minorities here in India also.

People to people contact

Another important point on any foreign policy is that it should not be made without the people of that country becoming a stakeholder in the whole process. Well this point has been discussed a lot but no one really understands how to increase people to people contact without increasing the threat of a Pakistani spy/terrorist on Indian soil. And it is here we need a strong govt in India which can make our boundaries less porous and terrorism not an issue which can be debated from the prism of vote bank politics. A strong and a no non sense govt in India can help achieve an India which can stay isolated from the turmoil of Pakistan and can then achieve more people to people contact by offering opportunities in areas such as education, tourism and technology. It is here where Bangladesh & Sri Lanka can be used to set as an example. An equally good people to people contact program with other subcontinent nations will slowly tell the Pakistanis the benefits of a good relationship with India.

Terrorist attacks

But what happens if after all this we get a Mumbai like attack originating from Pakistani soil. The answer is to reply them back in their own language. Any attempt with Pakistan will soon or later come to this situation. And here we should be very clear strong limited military action around terrorist camps will be the need of the hour and going through it once or twice will set the conditions clearly in everyone’s mind. If Pakistan blames non-state actors for these situation then India should also stop blaming Pakistan and instead set the platform for carrying out action against the non-state actors blaming them fully for the act.

Lessons for India

The meltdown in Pakistan also has few lessons for every Indian. It tell us as what happens when we walk the path of fundamentalism and develop an intolerance to anything contrary to our views. While a proud feeling for one’s religion, culture and country is fine it should not get confused with hatred for others religion and culture. Defeating a contradictory view by argument is the best way to prove your side of the argument, any other way is an unhealthy path which should be avoided in all situations.

The second lesson is for minorities in India. Following the level of debates in Pakistan it made me wonder if Muslim scholars ever had any such kind of debates in India. It is so laudable that an independent media is asking so many uncomfortable questions in Pakistan to the hardliners which are unimaginable in India. Indian minorities have become a class preserved in time which no one is talking a step to move them to a path of progress. It is extremely sad that while at the time of independence we had Muslim leaders like Maulana Azad who were much ahead of their time but today we have a vacuum in Muslim leadership. And that vacuum has been taken up by bigots such as Owasis. While the moderates in Pakistan are asking to identify themselves as humans here all attempts are being made to push people to extremist positions.

It is therefore the duty of all parties and all educated Muslim class that they start the dialog within the community and the govt of the day must give all platforms to give momentum to such a dialog. While Uniform civil codes raises hackles it is extremely important that if not Uniform civil code then there should be at least an attempt within the Muslim personal laws to make reforms which are in sync with the current times. When a segment of population does not reforms itself, it creates an environment sooner or later where any new reforms will be protested in other parts and religions of the country also. We are seeing at an attempt to do this when so called mainstream political parties play with terminologies on the issue of KHAP panchayats. There is no reason to stay in dark ages just because few thousand men in Taliban decided to keep themselves forever in darkness.

United subcontinent

A strong India dealing with a long term vision is the need of the hour. At this moment things are not ripe to take the talks forward but then this is the perfect moment to build a platform on which a relationship of future can be laid. A united subcontinent is not really that big a myth, a free movement of goods and labour in this part of the world can create a market bigger than China or the US. And the solution to Kashmir lies not in making the boundary irrelevant across the Kashmir valley, Kashmir will more or less remain the same, the solution lies in making irrelevant boundary across the subcontinent. A lot more than billion prayers and a lot more than a trillion dollar market is waiting. Hope someone is listening.

The Midnight Raid - A Salute to the residents of Khirki

A week after Somnath Bharti conducted the midnight raid at Khirki dust does not seem to get settled on the issue surrounding the event. The kind of debates going around in the media have almost confused the whole issue and the residents of Khirki are sometimes being blamed for racism and sometimes they are being blamed for vigilante.

It is said that the residents of Khirki were facing the problem of drugs and prostitution in their neighborhood for a very long time. Numerous complaints being given to local police administration had no affect at all on the situation. For the sake of argument let’s assume that residents there were indeed troubled and their attempt to raise the issue with police resulted in no action and only when nothing seemed to work they went to Somnath Bharti for a redressal of the issue.

If indeed this is true then I give a salute to the residents of Khirki that despite of living in such a dangerous neighborhood where the chances of their kids getting into drugs and prostitution is so high the residents there didn’t took the law in their own hands, I salute to the wisdom of the residents who despite suffering these situations day in and day out instead of accusing Indian republic they went to the law minister of the new govt so that the issue can be resolved in the most lawful of the way.

However while my respect for residents of Khirki has gone up I wonder that why the kind of wisdom that was shown up by the residents of Khirki was not shown by the law minister himself. It may sound however amusing but then the event looks surrounded in conspiracy and a lot of questions have to be answered by the gangs of anarchist who are looking to ruin this country. Some of the questions that need to be asked to the law minister is what all legal options did he explored before he decided to conduct a raid himself. Why the law minster did not try to file a FIR in his presence against the alleged mishappenings in the area. It would be interesting to know if this issue was ever discussed in any of the cabinet meetings, was the issue of drugs and alleged complicity of Delhi police in the same was brought to any kind of discussion. CM also needs to answer that if indeed Delhi police was involved in the whole racket then why didn’t he ordered a court of inquiry. If there was some sort of commission going to the home minister of the country as the CM has suggested then why didn’t he took some legal action on the same. I am no constitutional expert by then the CM of Delhi must be at least having some sort of power to order such an enquiry. Delhi police may not come under Delhi govt very soon and even if it comes there will be occasions where not all what the CM wants will be implemented. Has the CM shown gross lack of experience of governance and more than that a lack of taste of governance?

I am pretty stunned with the kind of posturing that AAP has tried to do on this issue, till date there is no discussion on what options did Delhi govt explored before the minister decided to conduct the raid himself. It is astonishing that if indeed there was a drug and prostitution racket going around the area the minister brought grave danger to the lives of the volunteers of AAP party by conducting the raid himself. While the action of law minister were still defendable in the pretext of the need of the hour as debated by AAP loyalists, the actions of Delhi chief minister Mr. Kejriwal has left everyone’s head hang in shame. While the residents of the area showed great wisdom in not taking law in their own hand the law minister, chief minister and the complete PR agency of AAP went in an overdrive to provoke people to take law in their own hands. It is nothing but a shame that an elected chief minister of this country asks the law abiding citizens of this country to boycott the republic day parade. Who and I repeat who gave the right to Arvind Kejriwal to provoke the people of this country to boycott republic day. No other nation can have a CM of a state asking for a boycott of republic and still get a place to sleep on the streets of capital of the country. If it was any other country he would have been behind the gallows forever. A CM who vouch to help the aam aadmi actually went on to get around 3000 police men guarding him for 2 days with hundreds of trains cancelled each day and numerous metro stations closed for the common man to use.

AAP has often being termed as a disruptive force in the area of politics but for a lot of people it is no longer a hope , instead not showing their faith in the Indian constitution I will not shy away from calling them a threat to the unity and integrity of this country. The people of this country should have no sympathies with anyone who show the injustice carried out on them as a reason to stand against the nation. AAP has often said that they do not do politics on any issue but this issue shows the darker side of AAP politics, they have used this whole event to just catch the headlines. The welfare of the people of Khirki does not seemed to have been in their mind. By conducting a wrongful raid in the most atrocious way the actual problem faced by people of Khirki has been lost forever. The mishandling of the issue looks intentional by the AAP govt. Was it in their agenda to somehow snowball this issue into a larger controversy and indeed boycott the republic day parade. If indeed citizens would have turned out for the drama by the CM the battle for loksabha would have got a huge boost. Kejriwal has agreed that he is an anarchist and he is indeed a man in hurry, looks like he tried to make huge gains on the cost of the national. In all this the residents of Khirki  has been left high and dry ,instead of Delhi police , the congress govt in the center and the current AAP govt doing the talk ,the residents of Khirki  are being media tried for racism and other biases. While temporarily they may rejoice the attention that this whole raid has provided to their problems in the long term it has set a bad precedent, and many innocent lives in future will be taking up law in their own hands thinking to be on side of justice, alas they would end up in trials and lost future forever.

The coming of Age for Indian Defense Industry

This article first got published on Center Right India " The coming of Age forIndian Defense Industry"

2013 will mark a watershed year in the history of Indian defense industry. First the indigenously built nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarines Arihant was launched in August for sea trial, later its reactor went critical, India own indigenous built aircraft carrier Vikrant named after the now decommissioned 1971 war hero aircraft carrier also got launched this year. Agni V propelled India into the big boys club.

The cherry on cake and probably which has the highest significance for Indian defense industry will now happen on 20th December when defense minister A.K Antony will hand over to the IAF boss, Air Chief Marshal NAK Browne, the home grown fighter aircraft Tejas. Antony will hand over “Release to Service Document (RSD)”, which specifies the capabilities that the aircraft has and which it has already demonstrated during flight testing. It will also mark the award of Initial Operational-2 clearance to Tejas.

Tejas will replace the Mig 21 supersonic aircraft. While Tejas is not a fighter aircraft comparable to the Sukhoi or other top fighter aircraft in the world it has huge significance for India and Indian defense industry. It is India’s first attempt to build a multirole fighter aircraft after the Marut program in early sixties. The decision to build the aircraft was taken in 1987 though the final go ahead was given at a later point of time. It was an ambitious take for a country which did not had the capability at that point to build even a car engine. And therefore on the way to build Tejas India had to set up a range of industries and research institutes which can contribute to the program. The time program started even the private industry in India was not that strong to have helped the program and later when things did start to pick up India did the nuclear explosions which resulted in further delay to the program.

The Light combat aircraft as it was known earlier was rechristened as Tejas by none other than India’s former PM A.B Vajpayee. With all the delays the program faced kudos to successive governments in the center which did not let their support for this program die and now we have therefore an aircraft which boasts of some of the most advanced technologies across any fighter aircraft in the world. Some of the technologies worth mentioning in Tejas are compound delta wing design, fly by wire, open architecture for computer avionics, digital cockpit and use of carbon composite materials in building the structure of the aircraft.

Of the critical technologies the ADA(Aeronautical Development Agency)  at the beginning of the LCA program as needing to be mastered for India to be able to design and build a "completely indigenous" fighter, two have been entirely successful: the development and manufacture of advanced carbon-fiber composite (CFC) structures and skins and a modern "cockpit. The biggest failure of the program was however the failure to build the indigenous engine Kaveri for the aircraft. It is however now one of the lessons of the program that a program of such high technical difficulty should have been taken in a step by step fashion identifying which technologies we were capable to build at the start of the program.

Tejas has however given to India a base from where there will be no going back, work on Tejas Mark-2 has already started and a prototype of the same will be ready next year. Now that we have built the required industrial base for such a program coming up with upgraded versions of the aircraft will not take such a huge time as it did earlier and as the Air Force will start flying these machines the feedback on which areas to improve will start going back to the next phase of the program some of which must already be happening now. The biggest impact will however be on the commercial aspects of the program, with India moving away from Nehruvian era of reluctance to export arms. After the recent display of India’s built arms being shown in Seoul defense exports India can look at a huge market which it can attract. From huge defense equipment’s import bill India in coming decade can look to reduce dependence on foreign arms and can look to emerge as a country which can export world class arms.

However to achieve this govt will have to show a lot of change in its current attitude where the defense industry is a total public sector baby. Time has come when a greater participation of India’s own private industry to participate in the development and manufacturing of these technologies. Not just will it save huge amount of foreign reserves it has huge employment generation capability adding to the GDP numbers. Setting up of defense SEZ’s, bringing more focus on “Make” rather than “Buy” should be the mantra of the govt not just in words but in action. Probably the forces also have to come to terms with this providing the necessary support for such programs. I think Indian Navy is showing a huge shift in priorities to build indigenous and now Air Force and Army may also soon join the club. In this regard there is another program which needs mention and that’s the indigenous built MBT (main battle tank) the Arjun.

Arjun MBT

I think there were many things similar in Arjun and Tejas; both got delayed by huge amount of time. But now both of them have the potential to change India’s defense scene. While Tejas do not still compete with the best aircrafts in the world though systematically it can prove to be upgraded to a world class in the coming decade Arjun did proved its worth against none other than T-90’s of Russia.

In a battle of survival Arjun Mark 1 which had no other way left to gain support for its program were put against the T-90’s, both were given a set of tasks and Arjun did performed very well compared to T-90. (It was likes Tejas performing very well against the F-16’s) .The army has however still not shown its confidence in the tank due to its heavy weight putting forth operational obstacles in carrying out operations with Arjun. It was however strange that the Arjun were considered as too heavy and too wide. A comparison of the best tanks in the world like Abrams of US will show that they fall in the same weight category as Arjun with almost the same width. A little search on Abrams will tell you that they are carried across the world for fighting by Boeing C-17 Globe master the same aircraft which India acquired this year. The Abrams were used in various wars in Afghanistan where the terrain of the land must have been same as at least on some place in India. The army has however thought otherwise and since they are the one who know the best of that subject we do not get into the details of this argument. The DRDO has therefore gone down to design laboratories and soon sometime in next year we may hear the arrival of Arjun MBT Mark 2. The Arjun Mark II will have a total of 93 upgrades, including 13 major improvements. Arjun tank hull and turret has been modified to achieve the target weight of about 55 tons from 59-64 tons. According to recent reports, the newly modified 55-tonne Arjun mk2 tanks have pulled impressive performances in the final trials that commenced from early August 2013. Owing to the experience while designing and building the first version work on Arjun Mk-II was completed in 2 years. We hope that same stays true for Tejas with Mk II and then the AMCA – (advanced medium combat aircraft) can be rolled out in quick time with the lessons from past and a strong industrial base on with us. Another similarity between the Arjun and Tejas is the lack of indigenous engine, focus should now go get indigenous engine for both these fighters. An active participation by the private industry is the need of the hour for bringing out Indian defense industry to contribute to the defense and the economy of the country. Time is ripe for Indian defense industry to take its giant leap.

Bibliography

The Lost River: On the trail of Saraswati. By  Michel Danino

TilakLokamanya-The Arctic Home In TheVedas

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arkaim



Allchin, Bridget, and Raymond Allchin
1982 The Rise of Civilization in India and Pakistan, Cambridge University Press.
Asthana, Shashi
1976 History and Archaeology of India's Contacts with other Countries, B.R. Publishing Company, Delhi.
1982 "Harappan Trade in Metals and Minerals: A Regional Approach." In Harappan Civilization, American Institute of Indian Studies, Gregory L. Possehl, editor.
1985 Pre-Harappan Cultures of India and the Borderlands, Books and Books, New Delhi.
Bisht, R.S., and Shashi Asthana
1979 "Banawali and Some Other Recently Excavated Harappan Sites in India." In South Asian Archaeology 1977, Naples.
Blackman, M. James, Sophie Mery, and Rita Wright
1989 "Production and Exchange of Ceramics on the Oman Peninsula from the Perspective of Hilli." In Journal of Field Archaeology, volume 16, number 1, Spring, Boston University.
Chakrabarti, Dilip K.
1979 "Size of the Harappan Settlements." In Essays in Indian Protohistory, D.P. Agrawal and Dilip K. Chakrabarti, editors, B.R. Publishing Corporation, Delhi.
Cleuziou, Serge
1981 "Oman Peninsula in the Early Second Millenium B.C." In South Asian Archaeology 1979, Herbert Hartel, editor, Berlin.
Cleuziou, Serge, and Maurizio Tosi
1989 "The South-Eastern Frontier of the Ancient Near East." In South Asian Archaeology 1985, Scandinavian Institute of Asian Studies.
Cleuziou, Serge, and Burkhard Vogt
1979 "Tomb A at Hili North (United Arab Emirates) and Its Material Connections to Southeast Iran and the Greater Indus Valley." In South Asian Archaeology 1977, Naples.
Dales, George F.
1976 "Shifting Trade Patterns Between the Iranian Plateau and the Indus Valley in the Third Millenium B.C." Paper presented at the Colloquium on "Le Plateau Iranian et l'Asie Centrale des Origines a la Conquete Islamique," Paris, March.
1979 "Of Dice and Men." In Ancient Cities of the Indus, Carolina Academic Press, Gregory L. Possehl, editor.
de Cardi, Beatrice
1989 "Harappan Finds from Tomb 6 at Shimal, Ras Al-Khaimah, United Arab Emirates." In South Asian Archaeology 1985, Scandinavian Institute of Asian Studies.
Durante, Silvio
1979 "Marine Shells from Balakot, Shahr-i Sokhta and Tepe Yahya: Their Significance for Trade Technology in Ancient Indo-Iran." In South Asian Archaeology 1977, Naples.
During Caspers, Elisabeth C.L.
1970 "Trucial Oman in the Third Millenium B.C." In Origini, Rome.
1971a "Some Motifs as Evidence for Maritime Contact Between Sumer and the Indus Valley." In Persica, Annuaire de la Societe Neerlando-Iranienne, No. V.
1971b "New Archaeological Evidence for Maritime Trade in the Persian Gulf During the Late Protoliterate Period." In East and West, volume 21, Nos. 1-2, IsMEO, Rome.
1972 "Harappan Trade in the Arabian Gulf in the Third Millenium B.C." (A paper read at the sixth Seminar for Arabian Studies, London, 1972) In Mesopotamia - Rivista Di Archeologia, Epigrafia E Storia Orientale Antica, Torino.
1976 "Cultural Concepts in the Arabian Gulf and the Indian Ocean. Tramsmissions in the Third Millenium and their Significance." In Seminar For Arabian Studies, volume 6, London.
1984 "Sumerian Trading Communities Residing in Harappan Society." In Frontiers of the Indus Civilization, Wheeler Commemoration Volume, B.B. Lal and S.P. Gupta, editors, Indian Archaeological Society.
1985 "A Possible Harappan Contact with the Aegean World." In South Asian Archaeology 1983, Naples.
Fentress, Marcia A.
1976 Resource Access, Exchange Systems, and Regional Interaction in the Indus Valley. unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, University of Pennsylvania, University Microfilms International, Ann Arbor, Michigan.
1978 "Regional Interaction in Indus Valley Urbanization: The Key Factors of Resource Access and Exchange." In American Studies in the Anthropology of India, Sylvia Vatuk, editor.
1982 "From Jhelum to Yamuna: City and Settlement in the Second and Third Millenium B.C." In Harappan Civilization, American Institute of Indian Studies, Gregory L. Possehl, editor.
Francfort, H.P.
1984 "The Harappan Town of Shortughai." In Frontiers of the Indus Civilization, Wheeler Commemoration Volume, B.B. Lal and S.P. Gupta, editors, Indian Archaeological Society.
Heskel, Denis L.
1984 "Iran-Indus Valley Connections: A Revaluation." In Frontiers of the Indus Civilization, Wheeler Commemoration Volume, B.B. Lal and S.P. Gupta, editors, Indian Archaeological Society.
Hojlund, Flemming
1989 "Some New Evidence of Harappan Influence in the Arabian Gulf." In South Asian Archaeology 1985, Scandinavian Institute of Asian Studies.
Jansen, Michael
1981 "Settlement Patterns in the Harappa Culture." In South Asian Archaeology 1979, Herbert Hartel, editor, Berlin.
Joshi, J.P., Madhu Bala, and Jassu Ram
1984 "The Indus Civilization: A Reconsideration on the Basis of Distribution Maps." In Frontiers of the Indus Civilization, Wheeler Commemoration Volume, B.B. Lal and S.P. Gupta, editors, Indian Archaeological Society.
Kenoyer, J.M.
1987 "The Indus Civilization: Unfathomed Depths of South Asian Culture." In Wisconsin Academy Review, March.
Kohl, Phil L.
1978 "The Balance of Trade in South Western Trade in the Mid 3rd Millenium BC." In Current Anthropology, volume 19.
1979 "The 'World Economy' of West Asia in the Third Millenium BC." In South Asian Archaeology 1977, Naples.
1987a "The Use and Abuse of World Systems Theory: The Case of the Pristine West Asian State." In Advances in Archaeological Method and Theory, volume 11, M.B. Schiffer, editor.
1987b "The Ancient Economy, Transferable Technologies, and the Bronze Age World-System: A View from the Northeastern Frontier of the Ancient Near East." In Centre and Periphery in the Ancient World, M. Rowlands, M. Larsen, and K. Kristiansen, editors, Cambridge.
Lahiri, Nayanjot
1990 "Harappa as a centre of trade and trade routes: A case study of the resource-use, resource-access and lines of communication in the Indus Civilization." In The Indian Economic and Social History Review, 27, 4.
1992 The Archaeology of Indian Trade Routes, Cambridge University Press, Delhi.
Lal, B.B., and S.P. Gupta
1984 editors, Frontiers of the Indus Civilization, Wheeler Commemoration Volume, Indian Archaeological Society.
Lamberg-Karlovsky, C.C.
1979 "Trade Mechanisms in Indus-Mesopotamian Interrelations." In Ancient Cities of the Indus, Carolina Academic Press, Gregory L. Possehl, editor.
1982 "Sumer, Elam and the Indus: Three Urban Processes Equal One Structure?" In Harappan Civilization, American Institute of Indian Studies, Gregory L. Possehl, editor.
1986 "Third Millenium Structure and Process: From the Euphrates to the Indus and the Oxus to the Indian Ocean." In Oriens Antiqvvs, volume 25, Rome.
1989 "Mesopotamia, Central Asia, and the Indus Valley: So the Kings Were Killed." In Archaeological Thought in America, C.C. Lamberg-Karlovsky, editor, Cambridge.
Lyonnet, Bertille
1977 "Decouverte De Sites L'Age Du Bronze Dans Le Nord-Est De L'Afghanistan: Leurs Rapports Avec La Civilization De L'Indus." In Annali dell'Istituto Orientale de Napoli, volume 37.
1981 "Etablissements Chalcolithiques Dans Le Nord-Est De L'Afghanistan: Leurs Rapports Avec Les Civilizations Du Bassin De L'Indus." In Paleorient, volume 7/2.
Mughal, Mohammad Rafique
1970 "The Early Harappan Period in the Greater Indus Valley and Northern Baluchistan," unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, University Microfilms International, Ann Arbor, Michigan.
Parpola, Simo, and Asko Parpola
1975 "On the relationship of the Sumerian toponym Meluhha and Sanskrit Mleccha." In Studia Orientalia 46.
Parpola, Simo, Asko Parpola, and Robert H. Brunswig, Jr.
1977 "The Meluhha Village - Evidence of Acculturation of Harappan Traders in Late Third Millenium Mesopotamia?" In Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient, Volume 20, Part II.
Possehl, Gregory L.
1979 editor, Ancient Cities of the Indus, Carolina Academic Press.
1980 Indus Civilization in Saurashtra, B.R. Publishing Corporation, Delhi.
1982 editor, Harappan Civilization A Contemporary Perspective, Oxford and IBH Publishing Co., New Delhi.
Rao, S.R.
1982 "New Light on the Post-Urban (Late Harappan) Phase of the Indus Civilization in India." In Harappan Civilization A Contemporary Perspective, Gregory Possehl, editor, Oxford and IBH Publishing Co., New Delhi, p.353-359.
Ratnagar, Shereen.
1981 Encounter: The Westerly Trade of the Harappan Civilization, Delhi, Oxford University Press.
Shaffer, Jim G.
1982a "Harappan Culture: A Reconsideration" In Harappan Civilization, American Institute of Indian Studies, Gregory L. Possehl, editor.
1982b "The Indus Valley Tradition." Paper presented at the First International Conference on Pakistan Archaeology, University of Peshawar, Pakistan.
Stacul, Giorgio
1979 "A Harappan Post-Urban Outpost in the Swat Valley." In South Asian Archaeology 1977, Naples.
Tosi, M.
1979 "The Proto-Urban Cultures of Eastern Iran and the Indus Civilization. Notes and Suggestions for a Spatio-Temporal Frame to Study the Early Relations between India and Iran." In South Asian Archaeology 1977, Naples.
Wright, Rita P.
1985 "Technology and Style in Ancient Ceramics." In Ceramics and Civilization, Ancient Technology to Modern Science, The American Ceramic Society.
1989a "New Perspectives on Third Millenium Painted Grey Wares." In South Asian Archaeology 1985, Scandinavian Institute of Asian Studies.
1989b "New Tracks on Ancient Frontiers: Ceramic Technology on the Indo-Iranian Borderlands." In Archaeological Thought in America, C.C. Lamberg-Karlovsky, editor, Cambridge.
1989c "The Indus Valley and Mesopotamian Civilizations: A Comparative View of Ceramic Technology." In Old Problems and New Perspectives in the Archaeology of South Asia, Jonathan Mark Kenoyer, editor, Wisconsin Archaeological Reports, vol. 2.
1991 "Technological Styles: Transforming a Natural Material into a Cultural Contact." In Learning From Things: Working Papers on Material Culture, W.D. Kingery and S. Lubar, editors, Smithsonian Institution Press.
Forth "The Boundaries of Technology and Stylistic Change." In Ceramics and Civilization, volume two, W. David Kingery, editor, The American Ceramic Society, Columbus, Ohio.

AAP aur Main ..my response to questions raised by my friend and AAP supporter

First of all I am extremely happy that most of my friends who were earlier disinterested in politics and somehow with the doings in the country itself have now jumped into such good conversations around the issue. It’s a welcome sign that things are changing and though we may be on different sides as of now we all aspire for a change and if u and me both aspire for it then change is eminent. It is also refreshing to debate for subjects which the young and old both has been aspiring rather than the fake debates of communal versus secular …now getting to the actual debate.

Chandan if u see my comment on another of AAP supporter’s page u will see I mentioned how delighted I am that the people of Delhi such a mandate in favor of AAP and how such an idealistic kind of politics will go a long way in cleaning the whole system. In fact the first sign of change has already started showing with none of the parties making a claim to form govt in Delhi, Rahul Gandhi accepting that somewhere something is not working and he needs to bring changes in congress on line of AAP,isn’t that a great thing ?However my acceptance of their doing good has been ignored in your comments and other AAP supporters as well.

While change in one party is good I was happy and I debated that how BJP was well poised to take on the challenge of AAP being more federal in structure instead of being run by a dynastic family. A party where decisions are taken by a group of people rather than a single person. A party where the PRESSURE FROM CADRE yes read it again very well pressure by cadre which holds no post anywhere in this country forced the president of the party to declare Modi as the Prime Ministerial candidate. Unfortunately your definition of common man has become too centered on AAP and somehow you are not looking at anyone out of AAP as a common man.

COMPETITVE POLITICS

The other high point of my arguments was that of COMPETITVE POLITICS. While I appreciated the changes that AAP is forcing on the political scene I tried to extend the argument further than the events are harbinger of change in other parties also. And if that happen it will be great for Indian democracy. Will it or Not? I cannot predict whether AAP will come in power at the national scene but I can bet a thousand times that if competitive politics bring a change in the way each party works that will be beneficial to generations to come. Unfortunately you are looking extremely uncomfortable with the idea that there can be any other party which can also change and can pose a challenge. I strongly disagree with you on this front. Whether a party remains or is forgotten what is important that change must happen for the good. Today BJP is well poised for challenging AAP tomorrow congress may also be able to do that. With all my love for my party BJP I have an eye to look at the good of other parties (even in congress  ...yes even they have some strengths J ) and also to look at the folly of my own party and I wish my friends who have acquired a taste in politics to not get impatient with any criticism and agree that there are good reasons that these party have been voted for so long in power. Unfortunately as of now you are not looking.

SAB KE SAB CHOR HAIN

I have one thing where I strongly differ from the founder of AAP and one of the foundation on which AAP is based. That is his idea of sab ke sab chor hain. All of the political parties were formed for a reason based firmly on ideology rather than greed. Let me walk through some examples While we all know that Congress was the only party which existed at the time of independence and everyone rallied behind its leaders to attain the common good of all. While it has lost its sight on change today and have surrendered itself the decisions of a single family some of the heroes we worship today were from congress. Therefore we shout in favor of Patel (he lived for 2-3 years after independence) as much as any of our own leader in BJP. Mahatma remains to me the tallest of all humans I have read or seen, Shastri  (around a year of tenure) remains my favorite PM along with Vajpayee. And yes Nehru had a personality which everyone envied and desired, his understanding of the subjects had the depth and understanding which few had in his time and it is not just me it’s in my party leaders and even other party leaders to acknowledge the good work and the stature of leaders from other party, it was none other than Vajpayee who called Indira as Durga after the win against Bangladesh in 1971.And it was none other than Nehru who introduced Vajpayee as the future PM of India. AAP needs to go a long way to pick this culture, sab ke sab chor hain might be a way of venting out my anger temporarily but definitely it’s not going to take us anywhere.

Even other parties from Mayawati, Lallu , paswan ,Mulayam, NTR, DMK, AIDMK ,Left had reasons to exist. Some gave voice to the marginalized other gave voice to regional aspirations. Some were based on socialist values others were based on economic principles. And yes they all brought a change for this day to come when we can desire for more. And desire is not sin as nation mature the agendas will change yesterday it was about survival for dalits which gave people like lallu and mayawati a chance to run the govt so today it is governance and corruption. Agendas will never remain the same today what is dear to you may not remain an agenda at all in sometime. What became the reason of their rise became the reason of their fall. When survival was important they won and forgot that once people get voice they like to have growth. Tomorrow when they will have growth they may desire something else, elections in west have agendas which may look quite absurd to us today. And tomorrow when the agendas may change only those who are willing to change will survive, when communist failed in Russia so did the ability of left to govern India became dim. ManMohan Singh has presided over some of the greatest changes of our current history he was the finance minister when the economy took a u turn and he is the prime minister when the politics of the country is going through tectonic shift. It is the complete misrule and absence of any sense of governance that has set the mood of such despondency and utter helplessness and it is in that context that AAP is born. Since it is born out of this despair and hopeless scene it is definitely giving a voice to this change better than anyone else. But then others are fast catching up and bet me if in next elections we get a govt which works for governance and growth the foundation on which AAP is standing will lose ground. Good times have the ability to make bad time forgot easily. The cynicism which we are witnessing will fail to find ground and the rules of the game will change again if a party promising of governance come in power and performs well. And if it does not then AAP may further add to its tally. But if change indeed happens for good then AAP will have to change with the changing agendas a failure to do so might be suicidal. As of now AAP has little agenda except anti-corruption and I am not doubting their ability to come up with new agenda with changing times but since they don’t have the agenda I cannot either agree that it exist

Coming to your specific questions

1. Now no Diggi will EVERRR dare to underestimate and challenge a common man.
2. An year back, who would’ve imagined that that an election can be fought with transparent money?
3. An year back, who would’ve imagined that the lordship of two well established parties can be challenged by unknown faces?

All parties were at some point of time started with an emotional issue , shyama prasad mukhjee gave his life to enter Kashmir , when unity was an emotional issue people died for that. When governance have become an issue Kejriwal has taken a stand and I welcome that this is happening. BJP grew from 2 seats to the ruling party and opposition; it challenged the lordship of a single party. Who would have invested in it at that point of time? Collecting funds was as difficult at their time when even the enlightened NRI’s didn’t exist. Mobilization of resources was as difficult when democracy was crushed by indira gandhi and Jayaprakash narayan and other members of all political party came together to give hope. Yes all the ones who you call chor and power hungry. And this is not new news but I needed to tell you since neither do you read newspaper nor were we born to have witnessed the same. And when the rules of the game changed BJP moved to more progressive agendas like governance long before kejriwal came into picture. They have responded for change and that’s where I admire them, they have shown the flexibility and that why they are surviving. And they have not changed in words we have seen the growth in parts of the country where they have governed and people threw them the place where they messed up. They have shown how can a party move from one leader to another after a generational shift and have not depended on one leader for their survival. AAP is as of today totally dependent on kejriwal , democracy is yet to take birth and show its tantrums in AAP , it will raise it head in coming time. But again that does not take away the credit from them what they doing and common man is indeed giving them a long rope but then no rope is ever unending.

4. An year back, who would’ve thought that a party with no high-command can perform? Who would’ve thought that these young minds would come up with such an innovative idea like Call Delhi, campaigning at Railway stations, Human hoardings, Campaigning in Auto, Campaigning on social media etc? Who would have imagined they’ll be able to carve one of the best Volunteer networks in the world in merely 6 months time. If they can bring this much of innovation in their first move in democracy, why can’t they bring innovation to propel India towards growth & get back its lost credibility in recent years? On the other hand, what innovation did you see on BJPs front other than chanting modi modi…??

You are unaware so let me tell you that all other parties also attract the best of talent from different fields.BJP’s presence on social media , their door to door poll strategy, use of technology to identify areas weak and strong, Niti central their own version of online newspaper, YuvaTv their own channel on youtube, live streaming of their rallies on youtube, google + chat with their leaders , facebook presence , twitter responses, mission 272 website and  all this with regular personal to personal programs .Then they have RSS which runs a range of social programs for the marginalized. Again none of this takes away what AAP has achieved which is extraordinary but then just because I don’t know doesn’t mean that it doesn’t exist for others. And have you heard the innovations in gujrat with solar panels on canals and separate set of power grids for industry and domestic use which has resulted in 100 percent power in Gujarat. Have you heard of BRTS where by investing the least money they have provided a service to the common man to travel in the city. Is anyone of this can be counted as innovation or not. If not then I can write the next response just in the name of the innovations that have happened. The same has been replicated in other BJP ruled states also. Right from the achievement of Vajpayee govt to Modi to shivraj Singh Chauhan, and the first IITIAN to be chief minister “Manohar Parekh” innovation is happening as I write this response.

 

5. Which party withdraws his candidate after their self-finding about criminal charges against one of its candidates? who would have imagined that one doesn’t need criminals to win people's heart. Even now, can your party dare to expel all their criminal candidates and promise that in future they will not give tickets to criminals?

I do not want to go in this debate but only yesterday an AAP MLA molested a lady and he got a warning from kejriwal. And then they requested all MP’s and MLA’s from other parties to join them. How do you explain it? When chors from other party join AAP do they become saint? Some kind of baptism program is going for these leaders? Also these things can’t be judged for a party so fresh in nature it will take some years for test of these strengths.

6. Had AAP not won it like this, think about how much mockery these political parties would have made of us, the common man!

I am with you buddy and they have put a slap on everyone who mocked the common man. Now they need to perform and that’s where I want them to show that by doing it not just talking about it.

7. 6 months ago everybody said, Kejriwal is going for an electoral suicide by choosing to go against 3 terms chief minister Sheila Dixit. Just think about it, one needs real courage and self belief to dare something like this. I am sure even Harshvardhan in his wildest dream can never dare this.

Buddy you need to start reading newspaper Sushma swaraj fought against Sonia Gandhi and then made karnataka her home state till the time she learnt kannada.Yes Sonia gandhi I am sure u will find it more crazy than the Sheila dixit .Other parties may have done so when they needed to prove the point I have not read enough about them.

8. I hear lot of people say Kejriwal ditched Anna, if Kejriwal ditched Anna, why can’t we also assume that Anna did no less to him…

I don’t know, a movement can be run by a political party and without a political party. Lokpal still remains a dream in India as well as Delhi even after people telling their choices in very clear words.

9. By the way, what is your favorite parties' stand on the issues that you mentioned along with good governance, corruption etc? What substantial steps BJP has taken in AP to differ Congress on Telangana? What did they do when Yedurappa was looting Belllari? Can they now assure there will not be any moist attack in Chattisgarh?

People wanted telengana so BJP supported that , earlier it supported creation of Bihar and Jharkahnd, it supported creation of MP, chattsigarh and they bifurcated in a way that none of the parties had bad feeling for the parting state. Is that a difference or only shouting loud sab ke sab chor hain is change.Yedurappa was removed from CM post and BJP lost, somehow same people who want change gave his party 20 percent of vote in elections. People vote for different reasons at different time.

 

10. Remember, when you chant BJP BJP, its NOT MODI who is going to be the MP of all 276 seats... there are going to be some criminals, some rapists, some murders, and some extortionist in that? why should we not challenge this system? While I do believe in Modi's ability, there are more NON-MODIs than MODIs in BJP.

It will happen with all parties when they will have millions of members, it’s not an excuse however and it needs to be rectified and this is where COMPETITIVE POLITICS come in play.

11. Last but not the least, don’t get misguided by the results that people really loved your party in other states, its just that they didn't have an HONEST alternative there

I think this is overconfidence. Dost every party face its day of loss and win, AAP will also face it. It is part and parcel of the game. I am sure if AAP really had sensed a point in MP, Rajasthan they would have gone for it. Kejriwal is not that innocent crazy guy. He picked his place with good plan and kudos to him for doing that. Now he needs to show me how is he different by giving a good governance.

I think you need to come out of your house to see how your house actually looks like. I am glad you are doing it soon, I am pretty sure you'll have a different point of view then. Good luck with your TimesOfIndia until then.

This is a good change that a lot of people who never took interest in politics have now started caring for it and therefore your point of view that we can do something has come into picture.A lot of us believed that India ka kuch nahi ho sakta hai .. but I have always believed that “Yes we can” when people rejected Anna movement I saw that as a change coming and even now I see the living democracy working in India. You are just looking at AAP winning or losing but I am trying to see beyond that.

And the house from where you are looking at your house .. us ghar ne kaisyon ke ghar jalaye hain..don’t look at your country from others point of view. We have unique challenges and unique solutions. Democracy does not even work in such a lively manner anywhere on earth. It is in our DNA it just got institutionalized in 1947

If AAP can do this miracle in a matter of few months; they can have your mentioned issues (telangana, kashmir, ambanis, employment etc) added in their agenda, what’s the bigg deal..?? Just to remind you, in my opinion they are not against Ambanis, they are against the unethical practices these bigger companies have been following in India…so what? What’s wrong in being against it..?? If you can question Robert Vadra for his unethical practices, why can’t Ambanis be questioned for something similar? Why can't Ambanis be taught to run business like Google and Facebook without indulging & encouraging a culture of bribe and corruption?

Do it that’s what I am asking for, don’t just tell me stories at prime time.

 

I wonder why and how impatient our so called ‘young generation’ has become. Why do we flip our sides ‘so quickly’ and ‘so often’…?? One day we say Sachin must retire, and the moment he scores even a fifty, we then say there is so much of Cricket left in him, and finally we all cry Sachin Sachin! Why can’t we realize we got to have a long term vision if we want to change the system from its root? W...hile we criticize AAP and Kejriwal in the current scenario, why don’t we think that:

I have not changed sides but you have taken a side I am all for them to prove themselves but then at one place we start to get restless that we need the change now and at the same time we want to fight all elections and want everyone to vote for them even before they have proved their worth in governance. Since you took the example of cricket let me explain that don’t become like commentators who will explain you the game from 15 point of view but will fail the minute they are put on ground. What’s the hurry for them to win complete lok sabha even before they show what they are capable of doing in Delhi?

1. What would happen to their credibility if they take support from Congress, and BJP. Wont the voters who voted for ‘unknown faces’ just because they so hated CONG and BJP feel cheated if AAP does so?

I have explained this before you don’t need to take support from anyone. You can run a minority govt which no one will pull down.Do you understand that first we need to agree on that.

2. Why is that a ‘power thirsty’ party like BJP, where Rajnath Singh & their senior party leaders were asserting just a day before that they ARREE going to form govt in all 4 states, took a UU turn all of a sudden, and started offering AAP to form govt? Are Indian Politicians so kind? Is it not a conspiracy to fool public by putting up a wrong image of their opponents, is it not Politics at its dirtiest?

When you fight a election you by default become a player for power , you had raised the Anna point. You can call him as someone who is trying to bring change by not being in power. Kejriwal choose the other route so he is also playing the power game. Power hungry is a bull shit term when you are fighting elections.(jayaprakash narayan and Gandhi could come to this definition or anna in current scenario). In an electoral game you fight to win election and bring the change. Did kejriwal not mention that they will have complete sweep, is he not asking BJP to form govt though they don’t have the majority.

3. Why, out of nowhere, BJP has now started saying that AAP should form a minority govt and pass the Lokpaal bill and other Agendas? BJP being the largest party, it is conceivable they would allow AAP to pass State Lokpal & other bills when it comes to voting for the Bill? In that case won’t AAP lose its credibility and Ground? Fir na to Party bachegi na Bill pass hoga? What would the common men do then?

BJP never said that (I am not sure) I said that. This is childish if u get a good bill and the opposition opposes it they will be taught a lesson by people. It will not be a loss of credibility but in fact a point to prove that yes they can do. In fact if they are planning to run loksabha elections it will allow them to concentrate on that instead of focusing again on Delhi elections. Somehow you are thinking that whatever I am suggesting is against them that are not true. If they prove themselves in 6 months they might pose a graver danger to other parties. Could anyone oppose food security bill even though they knew that its huge expenditure and not a good idea… no one wants to be identified as opposing a popular bill.

4. Have we forgotten how both Congress and BJP made a Mockery of ‘Democracy’ & ‘Public Sentiments’ in the last winter session when they were “ACTING” to be attempting to pass the Lokpal bill? On what ground CONG & BJP should be trusted again?

These are arguments from past, now AAP is in power. Pass it and resign else fall while trying to pass it.You can pass it without trusting them. Put the ball in their court by bringing the bill.

5. If AAP is not accepting BJPs suspiciously illicit offer, why is BJP portraying it as if AAP is committing a CRIME? What’s the big deal in going for a reelection if we want to live in a peace of mind for next 5 years? It is not going to be the first re-election in Indian Democracy, both cong and BJP have done it in the past.

That’s no crime neither did anyone said like that. Let them do that if that’s the fate it is my personal opinion that they should go for governance route and prove rather than without that experience.

6. Why have we forgotten BJP-JDU did the same thing in Bihar when a hung up assembly was caused by Ramvilas Paswan? They then came with a clear majority in the re-poll and thus were able to do some really good progress in Bihar. Imagine if there wouldn’t have been a re-elections, Paswan-Lalu would have been shitting on their heads all the time not allowing them to do anything. O God! that would have been a nightmare! Is BJP not trying something similar with AAP?

Bihar is an incorrect example in this case. When that happened, Bihar was at its lowest point in current history. Men were kidnapped in broad day light. There was no industry, no growth, no law and order … absolutely nothing. Supreme Court had called it the JUNGLE RAJ. By not giving a government in that state it was still better than the govt people were used to. Delhi by that accounts was a well governed state with metro, roads and a thriving industry. However Sheila Dixit was a 3 times chief minister and the spillover of the central govt misdeeds, her own image after common wealth games and nirbhaya  had its ripple effect in Delhi. It will be a challenge for any party to bring a sense of change in a city which is usually quite well governed being the capital of the country. Leaving that city bhagwan bharose will be hugely unpopular where industry, growth and other things will get impacted. You just can’t leave a city which contributes 3 percent to India’s GDP without governance. People there are impatient believe me.And tht’s why I am of that opinion.

7. Why is BJP giving it a shade that taxpayer’s money will go in vain? It takes 40 crores for reelections in Delhi, and this money is nothing as compared to what BJP have looted in Bellary? If they are so much concern about taxpayers money can they promise they will seize Yedurappa’s property and return a part of it back to Indian Govt? Moreover isn’t this money is worth spending for a 5 years stable honest government?

Don’t know if BJP said that, they said they are ready to sit in opposition or face reelection. Kejriwal suggested that BJP and congress join hand Harsh vardhan didn’t suggested that. Congress extended support to AAP. If re-elections are the route let it be nobody cares?