Court Cannot Resolve the Ayodhya Tangle

All Courts, right from the lower court to the Apex Court, have been dithering in pronouncing any judgement on Ayodhya and, in a way that is the correct approach also. In this context, it’s relevant to recall the obiter dicta of the former Chief Justice of India JS Khehar, who had suggested during one of the hearings of the Ayodhya case that all parties to the dispute must make sincere efforts to settle the issue amicably out of court.
Therefore, those who were expecting that the Supreme Court would start day-to-day hearing of the Ayodhya matter were extremely disappointed when the Chief Ranjan Gogoi led bench did not take even a minute to adjourn the case till January 2019. He also did not tell about the composition of the bench whether it would be headed by him or any new bench would be constituted to hear the case. The previous Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra had fixed the date of the 29th October 2018 for the day-to-day hearing. So all hopes of the early decision in the case from the Supreme Court are now dashed and shattered.
In one of the previous hearings, the senior advocate of the Sunni Waqf Board Kapil Sibbal wanted the hearings to be adjourned till July 2019 when the general elections of the Parliament would be over. Therefore, it must have warmed the cockles of the advocates like him and Rajiv Dhawan, who got the temporary relief without making any submission before the Court. There are no two opinions that a tiny minority has been holding the overwhelming majority to ransom and not allowing the Ram temple to be built. Sadly, the government has also been capitulated and is not in a position to take any stand.
How strange it is that we cannot have a temple even in Ayodhya where millions and millions of Hindus across the world have the unshakable faith that it was the place of Lord Rama's birth. Moreover, the remains of the temple have also been found from the site during excavation, which further substantiates the claim of Hindus. 
There may be thousands of temples of Lord Rama in India and abroad but all those temples can never be equated with the importance of Lord Rama’s temple at Ayodhya. Kashi, Mathura and Ayodhya have been the most sacred places for Hindus. There are abundant proofs that Mosques were constructed exactly on those sites where the temples of Lord Shiva, Lord Rama and Lord Krishna existed in Kashi, Ayodhya and Mathura. Obviously, the mosques were built by desecrating, defiling and destroying the temples and thereby hurting the sentiments of Hindus. 
This is the time for the Muslims to atone and give up their claims on Ayodhya, Mathura and Kashi to win the hearts of Hindus and to build bridges of unity and confidence between the two communities. An analogy will suffice: There may be lakhs of Churches all over the world but can all Churches be compared to the Church of the Vatican? Similarly, there must be many lakhs of Masjids throughout the world but can those Mosques be treated equivalently to the Masjids of Mecca and Medina? The reply is emphatic no. If all Mosques cannot be compared with Mosques of Mecca and Medina and all Churches cannot be compared with the Church of Vatican then the temple of Lord Rama at Ayodhya has certainly and distinctly very high status for Hindus. 
After all, 99.99 per cent Muslims of India have their common ancestry with Hindus. Can they not renounce their intransigence and pave the way for the construction of a grand temple at Ayodhya? This gesture of theirs will go a long way in fostering the most cordial and harmonious relationship between the Hindus and the Muslims, which can never be found in the court verdict. However, if the issue is not settled amicably the government has the last but not the preferable choice to adopt the Ordinance route to ensure that the temple is built without causing any further acrimony between the two communities.

Inimitable Business Style of Desi Entrepreneurs

While going up from Haridwar to the heights of Badrinath and coming down from there to Haridwar, journalists Hemant Tiwari, Siddharth Kalhans and I spent nearly 30 hours travelling in the same car. Obviously, we talked and discussed a range of issues and topics. We all marvel at the entrepreneurial skill of two persons- Baba Ramdev and Mahashaya Dharampal, who has passed a few days back at the ripe old age of 100 years. Mahasha ji. as he was called, was just a literate person with no academic degree. He was plying Tanga in old Delhi after migrating from Pakistan. He started grinding spices at his house to supplement his income. In due course of time, he became the shahenshah of masalas. His MDH brand spices are now sold all over the world and enjoy the status of uncrowned king.  I have met him twice with a leading lawyer HL Kumar, who recommended him to engage me for some legal cases.

There has been a striking similarity in both personalities. Both have been ardent Arya Samajis. Their personal life has been irreducibly simple. Both never possessed academic degrees. They never engaged models and other professionals for advertising their products. As a business journalist Kalhans says that both of them must be complimented for keeping the predatory multi-national companies at bay. These multinational companies do not bat even an eyelid to destroy Desi companies. They burn thousands of crores in defaming and destroying the business empires and goodwill of Desi companies. Their only morality is to establish the hegemony of their produces at any cost.

Therefore, if Baba Ramdev and Mahasha ji have been able to beat the multinational companies by giving quality products at highly completive prices, there is something remarkable in them. It hardly needs to be mentioned that it is Baba Ramdev, who made Yoga egalitarian, which was confined only to some elitists. Yoga was considered to be esoteric but thanks to Baba Ramdev, Sri Sri Ravishankar ji Maharaj and Narendra Modi, it has become a household pastime for the good of all.

Thousands of young boys and girls have got gainful employment as Yoga teachers across the world. Similarly, many lakhs are engaged in floriculture, horticulture, animal husbandry, dairy farming and producing and selling of Patanjali products. Do you think if there has been any compromise with the quality of their products, multinational companies had spared from brutally slaughtering them in the broad daylight?

Most importantly, the Indian capital remains in India as they have successfully prevented its flight to other countries. They have not only faced the tough challenges of the multinational companies but have beaten them with their sticks.

Can India Progress if Uttarakhand Lags Behind?

My recent visit to Badrinath, one of the holiest shrines of Hindus, after a gap of eleven years, has been highly reinvigorating, mentally satisfying and spiritually uplifting. This time I was in the company of Hemant Tiwari and Siddharth Kalhans, two talented and gifted journalists of Lucknow, who have a razor-sharp analytical mind and possess wonderful information about politics, history, religion, spiritualism, society and social mores.

It goes without saying that Uttarakhand is amazingly beautiful; replete with high hills, deep vales, dense forests and breath-taking scenic places. It can be made the most attractive and alluring tourist destinations in the world. If necessary facilities and infrastructures are provided, Uttarakhand itself can generate many times more money from domestic and foreign tourists than even Switzerland. It can be the haven of trekkers’ delight. Lakhs of pilgrims visit the four most sacred places of Hindus, known as the ‘Char Dhams’- Gangotri, Yamunotri, Kedarnath and Badrinath. But pilgrims are pilgrims. They are never demanding for facilities. In fact, most of the pilgrims consider that the suffering and arduousness is the concomitant with the pilgrimage.

While Badrinath is one of the original four dhams set up by Adi Shankaracharya. The other three are Jagganathpuri, Dwarika and Rameshwaram.  Badrinath presents a unique example of national integration, where Hindus from all parts of the country, nay the entire world assemble, have a dip in the icy cold waters of Alaknand and the hot water spring at the feet of the temple before the Darshan of the Lord. Kedarnath, on the other hand, is one of the twelve Jyotirlingas, which assumes the highest reverence for the Hindus across the world. 

Another most significant aspect of developing the tourism to an unprecedented level in Uttarakhand is that five holy rivers - Bhagirathi, Mandakini, Alaknanda, Pindar and Dhauli Ganga flow from this Dev Bhoomi and confluence of these rivers are known as Panch Prayags. Prayag means ‘place of sacrifice’, where one river loses its identity after merging with the bigger one. The confluence of the Holy Ganga, Yamuna and invisible Saraswati is at the Prayag Raj, where Kumbha Mela is observed every twelve years.  Similarly, the confluence of the rivers of Uttarakhand is also named as Prayag. At Vishnu Prayag, near Joshimath, river Dhauli Ganga merges with Alaknanda, which originates from Satopath glacier and passes through Badarinath. The second one is Nand Prayag, the meeting point of Alaknanda and Nandakini.  Then comes Karn Prayag, where the Pindar originating the Pindar glacier joins Alaknanda. Fourth in the line is Rudra Prayag, where Mandakini meets Alaknanda and the last is Dev Prayag, which is the confluence of Alaknanda and Bhagirathi.  The Holy River Ganga takes its name from this place. Bhagirathi, as the legend goes, is another name of the Ganga as it was brought on earth by the sage Bhagirath after thousands of years of Tapasya.

Needless to say, that the proper taming of the river giants for generating hydroelectricity can increase the income of the state manifold. The economy of the Garhwal region of Uttarakhand can be significantly enhanced by the River Bed Mining (RBM). One can find the stone boulders ranging from few kilograms to hundreds of quintals in the river beds obstructing the free flow of waters, particularly during the rainy season, causing floods and havoc. The calamity that was caused in 2013 by river Mandakini, due to the fall of the avalanche of the glacier of lakhs of tons is too horrifying to recall. One tremble at the very thought of the disaster that was brought by the river Mandakini, which had taken the toll of thousands within a few days.

Although, such natural calamities cannot be fully prevented yet it could certainly be reduced and mitigated by clearing the path of the mighty rivers through river bed mining. The stone boulders lying on the beds of these rivers can be converted into tons of money by properly utilising them for the production and pebbles to be used all over the country. However, the mindless exploitation of Jal, Jangal and Jamin will destroy the ecology and bring more misery for the people in its wake. It is good to see the construction of all-weather roads going on in full swing. It will, without doubt, transform the state of Uttarakhand into a very vibrant one. Conservation of forests, herbal agriculture and by increasing the areas of orchards and tea plantations etc; can make Uttarakhand as one of the most developed and the wealthy states of India. There is immense scope for the development of aviation, which can provide cheap services to the remote and intractable areas of the state. The problems of far-flung areas, which are deprived of proper health facilities and good educational institutions, must be addressed with all sincerity.

The High Court of Uttarakhand is situated in Nainital, which is very inaccessible for a person from Uttarkashi or Chamoli. In view of the difficulties of the hilly people, it will be highly desirable to have a Bench of it, either in Pauri or Srinagar, which incidentally is in the Pauri district but is well connected by road. The capital Dehradun is quite distant from both regions of Garhwal and Kumayun but because of easy accessibility, it cannot be shifted for now to any other place. Moreover, gigantic expenses have been made for the construction of offices and other necessary buildings.

One often wonders why the rail connections cannot be laid out across the state for the better transportation of the passengers and goods. After all, most of the developed countries have got railheads in the hilly tracts. Indian Railways have also gained enough expertise in laying the rails in Jammu and Kashmir and Konkan regions. The same expertise can be used for connecting the different places of Uttarakhand by making deep and long tunnels in the mountains. The recent example of connecting Beijing with Lhasa by rail can be an eye-opener. China is reported to have the plans to rupture the high Himalayas for connecting Kathmandu with Beijing with rails. If this can be done, then why different places of Uttarakhand should be not connected with rails?

The development of the Uttarakhand is closely linked with the development of the country. Uttarakhand can be made the driver of the development by making proper use of the resources available in the state.

Today, unfortunately, Uttarakhand is more known for its large-scale migration and dependence on the remittances from outside because there is not much scope for employment or self-employment. This trend can be reversed with help of technology. Can the country progress, if Uttarakhand lags? Obviously not.