Well, my blog spot was going the beemblog way ( read nowhere, with no postings whatsoever ;-) ). Desperate as I was to break this abysmal trend, I could not find the motivation to blog nor the article I had recently read that, I wanted to critique.
Well, as my sister always says "Pulliyar Kapathuvar" ! and true to her words Pulliyar comes to my rescue. How ? Well, here's how, I found this article about Ganesha and Ganesh Chaturthi. The article talks about the origin of Ganesha in the Vedic culture, the various forms of Ganesha , Ganesha's role in other East Asian cultures and the origin of Ganesh Chaturthi as a national festival.
The Supreme court passed a verdict (I don't remember when) stating that Sonia Gandhi is eligible to contest for the highest office in the country even though she is a 'naturalized citizen' and that there is no discrimination as per the constitution between 'naturalized citizens' or otherwise.
Well here is an interesting interpretation of the constitution. The following letter appeared in the Letters to the editor section of The Hindu. Please read and second guess the SC! .
Sir,
Those who support Mr Sonia Gandhi¹s candidature for the Prime Minister's office point out that there is no specific provision in the Constitution which bars a foreigner who has acquired Indian citizenship from holding the post . But Article 102(1)(d) of the Constitution, dealing with the disqualification of persons from becoming members of Parliament, is germane to this question. This Article reads as follows:
"102. Disqualification for membership:(1) A person shall be disqualified from being chosen as, and for being, a member of either House of Parliament (d) if he is not a citizen of India, or has voluntarily acquired the citizenship of another country, or is under any acknowledgement of allegiance to a foreign state."
Article 9 of the Consttution states:
"No person shall be a citizen of India... or be deemed to be a citizen of India... if he has voluntarily acquired the citizenship of any foreign state.
This is what is popularly interpreted to mean that India doesnot allow dual citizenship. For losing his citizenship, an Indian has to commit the overt act of acquiring the citizenship of a foreign country. Our Constitution doesnot provide for a voluntary renunciation of citizenship by an Indian for the reason say, he is disgusted with its politicians or with the performance of its cricket team in the World Cup. On the contrary, Article 10 stipulates, "Every person who is or deemed to be a citizen of India under any of the foregoing the provisions of this part shall, subject to the provisions of any law that may be made by Parliament, continue to be such a citizen."
The Constitution of Italy, on the contrary, allows dual citizenship, implying that an Italian citizen can simultaneously be a citizen of another foreign state also. Coversely, the fact that an Italian has voluntarily acquired the citizenship of another foreign state does not mean he/she has ceased to be a citizen of Italy.
Therefore, the fact that Mrs. Sonia Gandhi has voluntarily acquired Indian citizenship doesnot, ipso facto imply that she has ceased to be an Italian citizen, unless there is a specific provision in the Italian law for voluntary renunciation of Italian citizenship and she has legally exercised that option.
To prove that Mrs. Sonia Gandhi is a full-fledged Indian citizen now, Mr Pranab Mukherjee declared in an interview the other day that she doesnot posess an Italian passport now but has been travelling on an Indian passport since 1984. However, possession of passport is not a necessary condition for citizenship. A mjority of Indians do not possess a passport, and this fact does not detract from their Indian citizenship.
The moot question, therefore, is not whether Mrs.Sonia Gandhi has acquired the citizenship of India, but whether she has ceased to be a citizen of Italy under the Constitution of that country. If the answer to the second question is in the negative, she will come under the prohibition in Article 102 (1)(d) of our Constitution from being a member of Parliament and consequentially, from becoming the Prime Minister.
K.S.Ramakrishnan
Out of the blue came what has been described by the popular media as an "attack" on Sonia Gandhi by Jayalalithaa CM of Tamil Nadu. Jayalalithaa expressed her opposition to the candidature of Sonia to post of Prime Minister of India on the grounds that she (Sonia) was a 'foreigner' ( for the record, she is a citizen and as per the constitution, as of today eligible to contest for the highest office in the country ) at a press conference in New Delhi. Now this issue was raised by the BJP during the last general election as well. Ofcourse the BJP cannot raise such an issue without being labelled as anti-Christian etc. But this time around the Congress has suddenly been caught unawares.
Ms J.J had quite an interesting choice of words to describe the Congress (I) party. "(It is a) crying shame and a pointer to the moral bankruptcy of the Congress which was in the forefront of the struggle to end foreign rule to do an about-turn."
Now that this issue has been brought to the forefront yet again here's what I think. Given that the constitution clearly states that any citizen ( naturalized or otherwise) can contest for the highest office we have to adhere to what the constitution says. Given the above I am opposed to Sonia on the grounds that she is INCOMPETENT. Besides being the 'bahu' of Indira Gandhi and wife Rajiv Gandhi what else is Sonia Maino Gandhi's claim to fame. If that qualification is sufficient then why not Maneka for PM ! ( actually me thinks she is better qualified, atleast she has an issue 'protection of animal rights' !). This is the longest period of time that Congress (I) has been out of power and they are willing to do anything to get back to power. Jaya Amma is right, this definitely is an indicator to the "moral bankruptcy" of the Congress (I). Anyway back to the incompetence of Antonia Maino Gandhi ( yeah it is Sonia we are still talking about). Thats the name that appears on her citizenship application and there has been no official notification changing her name to "Sonia" and I do not see any reason to address in a name that she does not want to be addressed by. Besides being the leader of the Opposition since 1999 she has little or no experience in politics. Not to mention that her performance in the parliament has been downright pathetic. (I am not merely stating, there are several references to it , if you are in need of proof please use the comment section to request it and I will gladly furnish it). She does not have the charisma to lead the Congress (I) to victory in an election merely on her abilities/ qualities. She won her last election in a Congress (I) stronghold in Karnataka. She backed out of contesting in Amethi the constituency of her late husband and mother-in-law.
Agreed that she is citizen but what I find interesting is that she applied for her citizenship after living 15 years in India. She got married to Rajiv Gandhi in the year 1968. She did not think of becoming an Indian citizen then, but chose to remain an Italian in India. She obtained permits under the Foreigner's Act every five years to live in India. This certificate is a facility for foreigners who come here for temporary stay. She obtained certificates as a foreigner to stay in India in 1968 valid till 1973; in 1973 again, valid till 1978; once again in 1978, valid till 1983. What's more interesting is the trigger for her to apply for citizenship came in 1984 when Rajiv Gandhi was to contest the elections. This too after a Public interest litigation (PIL) was filed questioning the propriety of a foreigner staying in the house of the PM of India! Please note army personnel are not allowed to marry foreigners when in service, but then the Nehru family are above the law.
Personally I think Indian democracy is still in its infancy and is not mature enough to handle the issues such as the above, heck even in the US a naturalized citizen is barred from contesting for the highest office. An amendment to the constitution needs to be brought about in the parliament restraining naturalized citizens from being able to contest for the highest office. Maybe the amendment can be temporary in nature and it should be brought up for review periodically but it definitely is a necessity.
Now will Ms.Jayalalithaa please back up her words with action and bring about the legislation barring naturalized citizens from holding the highest office in the country .
Then it would be truly the case of Amma Namam Vazhgha, Puratchi Thalaivi Namam Vazhgha !!
"Where the mind matters, India matters." Now thats not rhetoric I am indulging in. This is a line from a recent article on the Indian pharmaceutical industry that appeared in Asia times. Infact I would highly encourage you to take a moment to read it.
My last post was on Amul and how it is poised to emerge as the market leader in the ice-cream market in India overtaking the transnational giant HLL. It was argued that liberalisation was going to sound the death knell for Indian industry on the whole. Infact quite the opposite is happening, liberalisation is turning out to be a boon as opposed to a bane. The IT services industry was the first to turn the world's eyes on India. Now it is the pharmaceutical industry. Not only are they focussing on manufacturing cheaper pills aided by the low cost of labour and an abundant pool of talented scientists, they are also spending significant amounts on research and development. The fact that R&D is given priority indicates that they are focussed on the long term and are not merely in for a quick buck.
Here are a few interesting excerpts from the article.
"Dr Reddy's Laboratories Limited (NYSE-Listed RDY) last year became the first Asia-Pacific pharmaceutical company to list on NYSE".
"The Indian drug company earlier (Cipla ) that year had stunned the world by offering to supply three ingredients of the AIDS cocktail at US$600 per patient per year to African governments and at $350 to Medicins Sans Frontiers, a non governmental organization. Pit this against the $10,000 to $12,000 per patient per year doses sold by the international drug majors such as Merck, Bristol Myers and Boehringer-Ingelheim GMBH."
"Lupin Laboratories, a Mumbai firm, claimed to have the only factory in Asia that is certified sterile (for injectable drugs) by America's Food and Drug Administration (FDA). A year later, more than 25 of the country's drug plants are US FDA-inspected and approved. The country's chemists are innovative and haven't lost their edge in imitating either."
It is becoming obvious that free market economy and democracy are doing India a world of good. The latter is what our northern neighbour lacks and maybe thats why India and not China is the next super power in the making !