Dreaming of Enlightened Governance!

ENTER, THE ENLIGHTENED NETA: Sunanda Mehta writes about R.V. Krishnan, who researched on “possible solutions” on how the country needs to be “set on the right track” and compiled them into a book - ‘Manifesto in Search of a Party’.

First, he waited "naively" for two years - "hoping something would happen of his book, someone would sit up and decide to do something about the solutions he had proposed for the country."

When nothing happened- he called 15 of his friends (on September 7, 2007) and had a "heated discussion" on the idea of a political party.

Thus, the Professionals Party of India was born in Pune. Their vision:

"Improve the Quality of Life of every Indian"

Last fortnight, PPI got an official acknowledgement from the Election Commission of India for its registration it as a political party.

Their Social Manifesto says:

Clean up and beautify the environment.Improve living conditions. Create a social environment where people live a happy, prosperous and peaceful life. Strife of any type shall become insignificant. Indians will be proud to be INDIAN.

How do they plan to win elections?

Their proposition:

India has an electorate of 671 million. A little over half of them voted in the last general elections. India is believed to have a “middle class” of about 250 million. But the percentage of those who actually vote or are able to vote, is abysmal. Roughly half of India was born after 1983.
...
You will find that if professional Indians stood and got elected to the Indian Parliament, they will bring new, enlightened governance to quickly improve our quality of life and win back our rightful place in the 21st century world, and the middle class has the requisite numbers to make this happen.
....
And even if that percentage of the middle class votes which is the national average, PPI can win elections.

Ready to vote?

Corruption as a way of life:-(

The famous urban legend: A 'worldwide survey was conducted by the UN'. The only question asked was:

Would you please give your
honest opinion about
solutions to the
food shortage
in the rest of the world?'

The survey was a huge failure,

• In Africa they didn't know what 'food' meant,
• In India they didn't know what 'honest' meant,
• In Europe they didn't know what 'shortage' meant,
• In China they didn't know what 'opinion' meant,
• In the Middle East they didn't know what 'solution' meant,
• In South America they didn't know what 'please' meant,
• And In the USA they didn't know what 'the rest of the world' meant!!

India demonstrated this legend about an hour back!

Three Members of Parliament (from Bhartiya Janata Party) have alledged that about Rupees 3 crore each (India TV says 27 crores) has been offered to them to abstain from Nuclear Deal Voting!

Inside the Lok Sabha, one hour ago, these MPs, reached the Speaker's Table and deposited the 'advance money' of 3 crores under his table. Then they opened up the bags and one by one started showing 1000 rupee bundles, live on TV! It is claimed that a Television channel has recorded the bribe giving ceremony - the recording was submitted to the speaker on a CD.

This has to be ONE OF A KIND event in the history of the world! Certainly, first time in India's Parliament!

US has a 'fantastic' lobby system - their laws permit paying money to political parties to 'influence' policies. Time to introduce that in India?

Back nuke deal: Sri Sri Ravi Shankar to Opposition

Back nuke deal: Sri Sri Ravi Shankar to Opposition - ExpressIndia.Com

Here is some support to Dr. Manmohan Singh from Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, who feels that the nuclear deal is beneficial to India.

He has appealed to all Indian political parties to display ‘magnanimity’ and support the troubled Indo-US nuclear deal. He says:

At a time when the country is faced with severe energy shortage, the government has negotiated a nuclear deal with the US, which can augment sustainable energy sources.

An interesting combination of Spirituality, Military and Big Bucks!

Nayan Chanda writes:

According to the US-India Business Council, the expansion of India’s civilian nuclear-energy program would generate $150 billion in commercial opportunities for American companies over the next 30 years. As illustrated by Lockheed’s proposal to sell its brand-new F-35 fighter to India’s air force, US defense industries also anticipate selling billions of dollars worth of military hardware to their newest strategic partner in Asia.

The Golden Dream

According to the Book of Later Han history, in the year 64 AD, Emperor Ming was said to have dreamed one night of a golden person standing 20 metres tall and with a radiating white aureola flying from the West.

The next day one of his ministers explained to him that he had probably dreamed of the Buddha from India. The emperor then sent a delegation of 18 headed by to seek out Buddhism.

They returned, in 68 AD, with two Indian monks, on the back of a white horse, with the Sutra of Forty-two Chapters.

While these monks started translating the sutras, the emperor ordered the construction of China's First Buddhist temple - The White Horse Temple, about seven miles away from the city of Louyang, Henan Province.

Earlier, in 2005, the governments of India and China had declared their intention to jointly construct an Indian-style Buddhist temple on the western side of the historic White Horse Temple, in Luoyang. Work on that temple will complete by June 2008, said Ambassador Nirupama Rao. It would be styled as Sanchi with a Buddha statue modelled after Sarnath.

A few months back, the Chinese government had invited India to build The First Hindu temple in China. The invitation was extended to the Swaminarayan Trust that runs the Akshardham temples in Noida and in Gandhinagar, to build a similar temple.