Indo-US Nuclear 123 Agreement

After much procrastination, I decided to read complete details of all laws governing the India –US Nuclear Energy Cooperation. I was confused on what my personal stand is. For which I decided to do my independent study.

Please find copy of the Agreement For Co-operation between the Government of India and United States of America concerning Peaceful Uses of Nuclear energy.

After going through this document, as a common citizen with my present knowledge, understanding and maturity following are some of my views and questions. (This might change over period of time with more information)

We as a country have to consensus on 3 objectives before we get into this agreement

1. Strategic Alliance-The clear objective that has to be discussed with nation at large is, Is India a threat to US as much as what US Can be threat to India? If US is considered as threat, by consensus, than we must not choose to go ahead with deal for sharing information to such depths.If consensus considers relationship as Ally, then information sharing is good.
   
2. Energy Vision- India has a major energy crisis on cards due to the ever growing Industrialization, exponential demand and regular power cuts in Rural India. Hence, a clear energy gap. As of present, Nuclear Energy is one of the best options to meet this demand or address crisis in the fastest and largest way. As large scale Energy is created in fastest time. But what are the threats we are presently having in India. We have over hundreds of Terrorist Organizations already against India, from Kashmir, Assam, Nagaland, Manipur, to Naxalites. With establishing of several nuclear reactors across India, do we invest more in their security to avert possible long term damage to our fragile environment. Why have developed economies in Europe, moving away from Nuclear Energy to alternative energy such Wind, Tidal etc. Is there some negative experience they have about Nuclear Energy? Since its just one planet we will be using Nuclear Energy, and then dumping nuclear waste on this same sensitive planet or country. Isn't this man-made technology creating more damage compared to existing methods of non polluted power generation? If the present Nuclear Energy vision of present governments backfires in future causing irreparable damage to society and environment, then will these 2 governments be held responsible and subject to prosecution. Does Nuclear Energy Vision contradict global movements on Climate Change?
   
3. Competitive Scenario- Is the domestic Indian Nuclear companies ready for competition with US or will they be compelled to collaborate rather than compete. What is the FDI Policy for this sector from commissioning of Nuclear Plants to importers / exporters of machinery, technology and raw materials
   

   
   

The Agreement has its positives and negatives for both countries. Positives for India refers to assistance of technology, management expertise in enrichment, research tie-ups, lifecycle support, IAEA as referee, easier exchange of experts, transparency, greater trust between 2 countries making stronger alliance and policies enabling faster execution of projects to meet the energy demand .

Coming to the Grey areas in the Articles of the Agreement:

Article 3-

• Will the information under this article between 2 countries be accessible to private Nuclear Companies?
  
• The article refers to control of information by both countries which it considers as Restricted Data. What kind of data will be considered as Restricted Data? Can this Restricted Data be very relative in both countries?
  
• Article refers to sharing of Research Information- But what about possible IP discovered in India or US, isn't that information to be kept confidential?
  

Article 4-Nuclear Trade-

• Nuclear Trade as such is more viable and profitable to American Companies than Indian. The clause of addressing applications of nuclear companies within 2 month period ensures faster access to Indian energy market. Will the same period of 2 months be given to other nations such as France and Russia?
  

Article 5-Transfer-

• Are we ready for exchange of low enrichment uranium & technology for energy needs in return to easier access to market and critical security information?
  
• If disruption of fuel occurs due to unavoidable circumstances, then both countries will jointly convene a group of friendly supplies from Russia, France and UK. Why jointly and no independence for India to establish supply channels from these nations.
  

Article 7-Storage & Retransfer- Sharing of list of facilities-

• If Information pertaining to Nuclear Program, locations and research activities are not available to Indian Citizens under Right to Information Act 2005, then how justifiable is it, to make it available to certain departments of another country, whose citizens are not under the jurisdiction or control Indian Administration?
  
• Which offices private and public in both countries will hold this information?
  
• Agreement does not refer to trial or compensation relief for any leakage of confidential information.
  
• With US having strategic alliance with Pakistan, is there possible sharing of sensitive information to our historically violent brother.
  
• Will US be compelled by Pakistan to offer complimentary arms support and technology, creating another arms race in Indian Sub-Continent?
  

Article 10-Access to IAEA on all Inventories-

• US have only one visible balancing power that is Russia. Where as India has Pakistan and China. Will such information made to IAEA be considered sensitive to India though it might refer to Peaceful Uses of Nuclear Energy?
  

Article 11-Environmental Protection

• There is No mention of compensation to society in case of any damage to environment or citizens. Our learning from Bhopal Gas Tragedy has to be understood by Policy makers. Where senior management of Union Carbide / Dow Chemicals are still liable for punishment, will senior management of companies and governments be held responsible for any possible further such cases.
  
• If there is 2 month period for addressing grievances of companies doing business, why no time period fixed for compensation or punishment?
  

Article 14- Termination & Cessation of Agreement

• Agreement applies for a period of 40 years, with one year advance notice for termination and possible withdrawal of technology, raw materials and end products.
  
• If India develops its Research Strength in next 20-40 years, is it in strategic benefit to choose to share research information. Similarly is it benefit to US to do the same?
  

Some other questions un-answered are:

• What percentage of energy demand in next 25 years is going to be met with Nuclear Energy? What is number of Nuclear Reactors planned by Indian Government to be established in next 25 years. A control over number of reactors is needed to maintain the balance of dependency on nuclear energy due to its high environment problems. Free market attitude will create over production pushing our natural resources to its limits.
  
• Present Policy doesn't cover measures to tackle Kickbacks. As India has been very suspetible and many times compromised on several areas such as licenses, health and safety etc. Policy must ensure transparency in dealings and faster trial processes with both countries such as extradition treaty, freezing bank accounts of suspects, etc.
  
• Since the pool of Nuclear Scientists in India is limited, same pool of scientists might be playing dual role or later be involved in nuclear defense related work. Information regarding such profiles is usually considered confidential for security purposes. Present Agreement enables disclosure of such profiles in form of meetings, exchange visits etc. to private and public offices. Where there is possibility of leakage of information again.
  
• Agreement fails to address details of Nuclear Waste Management and Rehabilitation measures. If there join commissions to establish implementation of this agreement a necessary body has to be developed whose officers will be held accountable for nuclear waste disposal, management and rehabilitation.
  

On December 18, 2006, President Bush signed into law The Henry J. Hyde U.S.-India Peaceful Atomic Energy Cooperation Act of 2006. There is a strong inter-relationship between this Hyde Act and 123 Agreement. For which I will start my independent study on this as well. We have to study whether Hyde Act has greater powers over the 123 Agreement.

My personal view is that the policy needs more discussion and consensus. Also we need an independent study has to be done as to why the Republicans are so aggressively pushing India to sign the deal. Is it pressure of American Nuclear Industry for faster access to Indian Markets?

A good analogy I see is that of best practices from Retail Giant Wal-Mart. To get better supplies, Wal-Mart procures its resources from multi-vendors across the globe. With its sheer volume demand it commands and dictates price and disclaimers in agreement to suit its cost structure when it comes to procurement.

India is the largest market of Energy after China. This demand allows India to be a position of authority to build its Alliance with various countries to get the best package (raw materials+ technology+ expertise+ research+ management skills+ funds….). India must exercise this opportunity to get the best deal from best at the best price.

I think its time for India to learn about its Nuclear Alliance from Wal-Mart.

Jai Hind,

Navendu Shirali

More questions on this Agreement to read are by:

Brahma Chellaney, Professor of Strategic Studies at the Centre for Policy Research, New Delhi, is the author, among others, of “Nuclear Proliferation: The U.S.-India Conflict."

Future of Tourism in Goa

Yesterday over lunch, in discussion with my mentor and good friend Naveen Malhotra, talked about creating Schools for Tourist Guides. He talked for few minutes about its feasibility and value proposition. And to think of it, its one of the most amazing institutions that can be created in Goa.

Here are some existing institutes across the world

Training and Diplomas in Montreal and Quebec City

Institute recognised for Training in Montreal

Tourist Guide Training in Puerto Rico

Scottish Educational system for Tourist Guides by Rosalind Newlands

The US Educational system for Tourist Guides by Vicky Schwartz

New Orleans, Louisiana - Educational system for Tourist Guides by Bobbie Gattuso

Greek Educational system for Tourist Guides by Efi Kalamboukidou

Icelandic Educational System for Tourist Guides by Stefan Helgi Valsson

http://wftga.org/page.asp?id=110

So how can this function:

Most students will working during the day and classes can be given during the night or weekends. Hostel facility along with student fees can be covered a Student Loan fund that the government needs to create. A basic allowance also can be thought of. These students can choose to specialize in different forms of knowledge areas such as History, Architecture, etc. and post graduation degree at India level. Next is to create job opportunities for these students.

Such guides can be great value to Five Star Hotels, Travel Operators such as Sita etc. The institute can tie-up with Language Institutions such as Alliance Francisse and Max Muller for French, German, Spanish etc. Where students can be offered to be multilingual . By which they can be deployed in foreign countries for creating tourism awareness and be the single point of contact for tourists visiting from that respective city.

So how do we increase myriad footprint of high value of tourists? One of them is to start Town twinning / Sister Cities which is a concept whereby towns or cities in geographically and politically distinct areas are paired, with the goal of fostering human contact and cultural link. Goa must identify cities and towns across the globe where there are such fitments and focus on the top 20 countries with high HNI. These tourist guides should be placed in Cultural Offices there to spread the message of Goa along with arts forms and handicrafts of Goa. The cultural centers opened there is a place where locals can look at Indian Movies, Indian culture, taste Indian and Goan food, along with travel desk offering travel arrangements. The same facility must be reciprocated in Goa to these countries to establish their cultural centers. Jai

Jai hind

Navendu

Primetime given to Om Shanti Om versus Death of Legend

To: feedback@ndtv.com, editor@ibnlive.com

Dear Editors,

I was watching both your channels simultaneously on my DTH on Feb 8 at
prime time 9pm.
I was shocked to see, that the leading 2 news channels choose to
prioritize an exclusive story on the premiere of Om Shanti Om in
Berlin. Both your channels showcased 7 second photo clippings
commerating demise of Baba Amte.

Is that all you could do? If your are unbiased news agent why
sensationalize premiere of an entertainment movie?

My room mates asked me who is Baba Amte? Your urban target audience,
remains ignorant.
I felt ashamed that least any news channel could do, was to inspire
the youth of today by showcasing stories of an heroic social activist,
like Baba Amte, who transformed the lives of lakhs of Indians,
suffering from Leprosy and disability.

I realize that such stories might not get your "assumed" TRP, but with
this assumption, we might land up with a generation of citizens
discussing about movies and cricket.

Jai Hind
Navendu Shirali

Baba Amte, 93, Dies

Baba Amte, a follower of Gandhi whose dedication to helping the lepers of India brought him the Templeton Prize and many other international awards, died on Feb. 9 at his shelter for leprosy patients in the western Indian state of Maharashtra. He was 93. The cause was age-related ailments, said his eldest son, Dr. Vikas Amte.

Mr. Amte, who was trained as a lawyer, turned from an early life of hunting, playing sports, driving fancy cars and writing film reviews to working with the poor of his country, but his direction was irrevocably determined by an encounter with a destitute leper. After that, he gave up his father's huge estate and dedicated himself to the service of lepers. To the end of his life, he worked, marched and protested for better treatment for them and the rest of India's least powerful.

Murlidhar Devidas Amte — later known by the honorific "baba" — was born on Dec. 24, 1914, in Hingaighat in Maharashtra, the eldest son of an affluent Brahmin landlord. His life was privileged, but even in his youth, Mr. Amte rebelled against injustice and discrimination on the basis of birth, caste and creed. Despite his parents' disapproval, he often ate with servants and played with lower-caste children.

After earning a bachelor's degree, Mr. Amte went to law school at the request of his father, who gave him a sports car with panther-skin seat covers. He graduated in 1936.Mr. Amte was inspired by the ideas of Marx and Mao, John Ruskin and the anarchist Pyotr Kropotkin. Drawn to the Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore because of his poetry and music, Mr. Amte visited Mr. Tagore at his ashram in Calcutta.

But he was definitively influenced by Gandhi's ideals of simplicity and truth and his fight against injustice. He spent time at Gandhi's ashram in Sevagram, took part in his movement to get the British to leave India in 1942 and organized lawyers to defend the movement's jailed leaders. He was also arrested and imprisoned. Seeing grim poverty in and around his father's large estate, he gave up his lucrative law practice in his early 30s and began working with untouchable sweepers and night soil carriers. He let his hair and fingernails grow and took a vow of celibacy.

That vow ended one day when he saw Indu Ghuleshastri quietly slip away from her sister's wedding festivities to help an elderly maid wash clothes. "I told her parents that I was the suitable groom for her," he said. The two married in 1946. Besides his son Vikas and his wife, he is survived by another son, Prakash, and a daughter, Sheetal.

Mr. Amte and Indu, renamed Sadhna after their marriage, set up a labor ashram near Warora. In 1947, they were joined by a poor Brahmin family who knew something about agriculture, a shoemaker, an umbrella repairer and a few untouchable families. Mr. Amte even worked for about a year as a scavenger, carrying away baskets of human waste.

One rainy night on his way home, he saw a leper named Tulshiram lying naked by the road. Horrified by the sight of his fingerless and maggot-ridden body and fearing infection, Mr. Amte at first ran home, but he returned when his conscience got the better of him, fed the man with his own hands and gave him shelter for the short remainder of his life.

After that, Mr. Amte read voraciously about leprosy and worked at the Warora leprosy clinic. He took a course on leprosy at the Calcutta School of Tropical Medicine in 1949 and even let his body be used for an unsuccessful experiment in growing leprosy germs.

In 1951, he established his own commune for lepers, called Anandvan, on rocky land in Maharashtra State that was covered with scrubby vegetation and infested with scorpions and snakes. The nearest well was more than a mile away. With help from his wife, their young sons, six leprosy patients and a lame cow and a dog, he turned the barren place into a thick forest.

Later, 50 young volunteers from dozens of countries would work for three-month stints at Anandvan, which became the nerve center of Mr. Amte's relentless crusade. His goal was to help leprosy patients become self-confident and capable of cooperative and creative leadership. By the 1950s, with a newly discovered sulfone drug for leprosy available, he began treating patients in more than 60 villages around Warora.

Despite having a back ailment later in his life, Mr. Amte took part in long protest marches for causes including environmentalism, religious tolerance, peace and justice. He was a supporter of India's indigenous tribes and opposed the construction of a "super dam" project on one of India's largest rivers; it eventually destroyed many villages.

To the end of his life, he emulated Gandhi in wearing homespun and living a simple life while working for village industry and the empowerment of ordinary people. In addition to the Templeton Prize, which he won in 1990, his awards included the 1988 United Nations Human Rights Prize.

HARESH PANDYA

SOURCE : New York Times

Open letter to Gandhiji on his 60th death anniversary by RSS Karyakarta

By Ravindra RP
On the Mahatma's 60th death anniversary, a former member of the right-wing RSS writes about his early indoctrination against Mahatma Gandhi and his eventual realisation of Gandhi's relevance in modern-day India

Dear Bapu,

It's strange that I should be writing a letter to you. Since childhood, I have had nothing but anger and hatred for you. Had I written a letter then, I would have simply abused you (of course, I would have been smart enough not to sign it). I don't know how over a period of time these feelings were transformed. In fact, I am writing this letter precisely to understand how.

I remember I must have been in the sixth or seventh standard. I was a regular swayamsewak of the Rashtriya Swayamdewak Sangh (RSS). My aim in life was to be its full-time worker. At that impressionable age, a hatred for Gandhi and for Muslims was imprinted on my mind. Nowadays, I wonder whether most Maharashtrian Brahmins carry within them a gene for Gandhi- Muslim hatred. More likely it is a virus, not a gene; how else can one explain its rapid proliferation in the likes of Narendra Modi and Vinay Katiyar?

In the shakha, we boys learnt many things while playing games. One was to run around a widening circle in one breath, chanting "Hinduncha Hindustan" -- Hindustan for the Hindus -- (automatically we used to hum "Pakistan for the Katelas"). Cool evenings and moonlight picnics were invariably linked with the "Bauddhiks" when we listened to horrific tales of Partition, of atrocities committed on Hindus, of the rebellion of the Moplas (yet another bloody tale of Hindu massacre). Our blood literally boiled, letting out fumes of hatred. That was the time I was introduced to the thoughts of Veer Savarkar and I started asking, "How can freedom be won without a war?"

In the 1960s, Bapu, your official heirs were the devious Congressmen and the Sarvodaya workers trapped in rituals like spinning. I was thoroughly convinced (of course without any study) that our freedom was won mainly through the sacrifices of armed revolutionaries, while Gandhi and the Congress ran away with all the credit. The biographies of Savarkar, Bhagat Singh and Netaji Bose were so thrilling. (I genuinely believed that all of them were de facto danda -carrying Swayamsevaks, or at least very close relatives of the RSS Parivar!) As against this, your biography was very insipid. (It was only after Attenborough's Gandhi that I realised the beauty and bravery in non-violence, but that was much later.) I read Shatruchya Shibirat (Inside theEenemy Camp), Savarkar's autobiographical account of his trip to England, and concurred with Savarkar that in order to be brave and strong like the English, we too should start eating meat. That was the time when at home we were forbidden even to utter "E for Egg".)

And you, what a contrast! Repenting that you ever tried "imitating an English gentleman". So feeble and weepy! Your language was too simple. When I read your lesson in our English textbook, I found you opposed to science, obsessed with spinning and prohibition. To me, Gandhism meant spinning wheels, loincloths, sheep's milk -- no wonder their caricatures tickled the funny bone of ALL Maharashtrians (that's what we thought at the time -- WE means ALL). My stubbornness grew with age. Most of 'us' had no property, farms or mansions. But we were brought up on tales of how we had lost everything in the 1948 anti-Brahmin riots. This feeling of being wronged, targeted, was passed on to our generation. However, the elder generation around us held you in high esteem; nobody criticised you openly. But hiding the banned books of Nathuram and Gopal Godse, passing them on to others and discussing them in hushed tones was common -- it was thrilling and deeply satisfying, almost like performing a religious ritual.

Later I spent a year in Pune and six years in Nagpur for my college education. That was the time I was really growing -- physically as well as intellectually. I was a voracious reader. In the inspiring '70s, change was in the very air I breathed. I was reading not only RSS literature, but also about Che Guevara and Fidel Castro. My dalit friends drew me to the fountainhead of dalit literature. Thus, paradoxically, in the very strongholds of the RSS, I not only outgrew it, but also became its staunch opponent. Later, I travelled a long road – the Jayaprakash Narayan (JP) movement, Chhatra Yuva Sangharsh Vahini (JP's youth organisation), feminism, the people's science movement…And I graduated to becoming a "progressive".

But this process hardly altered my opinion of you. There were flashes of disturbing exception -- there was JP, candidly describing his voyage from Marxism, socialism and finally reaching your path. He asked, "But where is the 'incentive to goodness' in any ideology? What inspires a person to transcend selfish motives and do anything good for others, for society?" Acharya Dada Dharmadhikari, the leading commentator on 'Total revolution', asked a pertinent question -- "It's natural and just for members of any oppressed group -- dalits, women, toilers -- to struggle for their liberation by rebelling against the system that oppresses them; it is absolutely essential too, but is it sufficient to bring about a fundamental change in society? Who will struggle for the liberation of the entire humankind? In a complex society wherein each one is a part of the oppressive structure, how can we develop 'revolutionary consciousness', transcending mere class/caste consciousness?"

These questions did disturb me, but only temporarily. I was young, haunted by the spirit of 'progressivism', afraid of being branded a 'Savodayi'. Bapu, for us you were an 'outcaste'. For some, you were actually their 'Enemy Number One'. (For progressive people like us, the numbering and sequencing of our enemy list has always been a problem; basically weak in maths, you see.) These numbers kept changing -- sometimes it was you, at times the Congress, quite often the dissidents (from Socialists to Maoists, their number was ever growing.) It is funny, but we never felt the need to consider the RSS our Enemy Number One and really fight it.

We were talking of our relationship. Let us be clear. Your use of the term 'Harijan', your efforts at eradicating 'untouchability', your appeal to high-caste Hindus to take over 'dirty jobs' like scavenging in a spirit of atonement -- for several dalits, all this stinks of high-caste egotism. Congress's opposition to Dr B R Ambedkar and its manipulation of dalits in parliamentary politics are also being blamed on you.

As usual, you are the favourite whipping boy for all the evils in this country. You are the Father of the Nation, a nation that, in fact, does not exist. Hence, no one is offended when you are attacked, because you have no children. For the Marxists, you have always been a stooge of the national capitalists. They won't forgive you because you stood between them and the revolution they intended to bring about. Many feminists don't even mention you -- you were a man, an Indian, a traditionalist, who advocated Brahmacharya (abstinence/celibacy) rather than contraception. Your ideal of RamRajya is obviously unacceptable to the heirs of Shambuka, Sita, Marx and Lenin. Nothing wrong with that, except that this opposition blurred the fact that your Ram was diametrically opposite to the 'Jai Shree Ram' of the Sangh Parivar and would never do injustice to anyone. You were an old hat, Bapuji, while all of us were 'modern'; that was the only thing we agreed upon. We were votaries of modernism. We were convinced that all the problems of our times could be solved through planned development, the spread of modern education, progressive legislation and constitutional provisions like reservations and adoption of secularism by all.

We would have jolly well spent our lives fighting each other, cursing you, and spinning the yarn of 'intellectual' discussions. But then, like a bolt from the blue, the Soviet Union was splintered, the socialist dream soured, and the Babri Masjid was destroyed, and we suddenly woke from our slumber. I won't say that all of us were brought to our senses at the same time. How can we call ourselves progressive if we become aware of all our historical blunders at the same time? But then we woke up to the fact that we had all become redundant. "The caravan had driven past us and we were left staring at the cloud of dust it raised!" Though some of us rushed to seek a space in the Rath Yatra, others were disenchanted and went in search of eternal truth and inner peace. The remaining are still busy fighting one another, yet thinking seriously about what went wrong. Bapuji, I am ashamed to admit, many of us are slowly inching towards you.

It's not an easy process, we must admit. Where is your votebank, Bapu? Hindu fanatics killed you for being pro-Muslim, but Muslims are hardly aware of what you did (for them, for this nation and for upholding humanism). You considered eradication of untouchability as important as the freedom struggle, but for the dalits, you are the kingpin of the Brahiminical power structure (more dangerous than the RSS). Your agenda of revival of village industries brought productive castes of weavers, potters, oilsmiths (the OBCS in today's jargon) into the mainstream of production processes. You were instrumental in bringing about the change in leadership from the upper castes to the Bahujans during the freedom struggle and paved the way for the democratisation of the Indian polity; but the votaries of Mandal are blissfully unaware of this contribution. The Congress party and the so-called Gandhians buried you in statues and turned you into a pygmy, to suit their size. Today, you have no one to carry forward your heritage with pride. The whole business of being the father of an ungrateful nation has been totally loss-making. What sort of Bania are you?

Well, you aren't that unpopular either. Many of your favourite concepts, freed from ideological clutches and after a suitable makeover, have now become 'class symbols'. Khadi is now seen more on the bodies of models walking down the ramp than on activists. Nature cure has become a rage for the elite crowd queuing up for saunas and weightloss programmes. The rich, while shopping in food malls, always prefer organic food. We will all start drinking sheep's milk once its nourishing value is established by American scientists!

But in all this maddening chaos, you have become much more relevant. The overfilled and bursting megacities, drained-out villages, the growing number of farmer suicides, the lavish malls built on the tombs of textile mills, school children exhausted by the burden of schoolbags, Narmada, Singur, Nandigram, Kalinganagar, Khairlanji; people, media, judiciary, bureaucracy, political leaders and workers -- everyone incapable of rising above their narrow caste/class/other vested interests; our horizons fragmented by narrow domestic walls -- Bapu, we need your all-embracing, integral vision encompassing the wholeness of life. Your skill in discovering the hidden strengths of thousands of activists, strengthening their wings, widening their horizons and weaving them together -- we need them today.

We don't want your glasses, Bapu. We are already like the blind men probing the shape of an elephant. After wearing your glasses, we shall end up with egoistic confirmation of our individual discoveries of parts being the whole. Moreover, in the past six decades, we have travelled so much of a distance in a direction the reverse of your Hind Swaraj that it would add to our confusion. Today's problems need today's solutions. Hence, we ask not for your glasses, but your clear, loving, whole vision. We need your support to break through the fallacies of development vs environment, constructive work vs struggle, synthesis vs analysis, creation vs distribution of wealth; to be unforgiving to our own selves, and accommodating of others; to explore wider mass support (beyond funding agencies). Not just a handful of (former and present-day) activists dreaming of a more humane world, but all of us feeling suffocated in this unipolar world seek you.

Why do all the bright and inspiring victories in the struggle for equity and humanity get transformed into ultimate defeats -- India, China, USSR, Vietnam, South Africa; all those saddened by this realisation seek solace in you. The young American peacenik who threw herself before the invading Israeli tanks in Palestine chanted your name before embracing death. You have survived the bullets of Nathuram Godse and the innumerable deaths inflicted by your followers. You live, not only in books, museums and statues, but in our minds as well. You are getting younger day by day, year by year. Hence, let me say "Long Live Bapuji!"

(Translated by the author, the original article appeared in a slightly different form in the Marathi daily Loksatta on October 2, 2007)