O immortal son’s of our Motherland…

 

Respected Chief Guest of the Vijayadashami function Manniya Gyani Keerat Singhji Butiyal, Vidarbha Prant Saha-sanghachalak Manniya Shriramji Joshi, Nagpur Mahanagar Sanghchalak Dr. Dilipji Gupta, assembled dear Sisters and brothers and dear Swayamsevak bandhugana,

 

            Gyani Keerat Singhji in his short, sweet and meaningful speech has averred that Bharatiya ethos and culture are in ancient most in this world. He has also said that Sheri Guru Granth Sahebji represents the unity of our people because in his compendium of seven out of ten revered Gurus as also composition of 26 bhaktas devotees. He also exhorted us to inculcate the spirit of the famous slogan ‘Vahe Guru ki Phatah’ and spread the message of National unity to each and every household of our land with patience and supreme confidence. As a matter of fact the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh has been devoted to this very mission for the last 83 years. Its aim is crystal clear “Let our victorious consolidated strength enable us to take our Nation to its highest pinnacle of glory by protecting ‘dharma’ i.e. righteousness.” And there is no doubt that strength with dharma as the substratum will ultimately be victorious. The Revered tenth Guru Gobind Singh organized Khalsa with the aim of protecting our dharma from the onslaughts of the demonic forces. He had said –

 

Sakala jagatmo khalasa panth gaje

Jage dharma hinduk turak dhundh baje

 

i.e. let the ‘Khalsa panth’ (Gods Army) spread its glory the world-over, protect the Hindu Dharma and clear the mist created by the invading Islamic armies.

 

            The tradition of the Ten Gurus right from the Guru Nanak Dev to Guru Gobind Singhji store for uniting the society by exhorting is to raise above the considerations of the caste, creed and language. Guru Nanak Devji started the tradition of ‘Sangat’ and ‘Pangat’. Sangh is following the same tradition. Coming daily to Shakha is ‘Sangat’ and dining together without any discrimination is ‘Pangat’ which the Sangh observes in different camps, training classes and conferences. Dedicated to protection of Dharma for the past 83 years, Sangh today is standing as a pillar of strength.

 

            Gyaniji pointed towards the divide and rule policy of the Britishers. After the first war of Independence in 1857, they tried to sow the seeds of dissention and divided the society into different denominations of Sikh, Jain, Budhha, Lingayat, Aboriginals, Depressed classes etc. They also tried to restrict the meaning of Sikh to only the Khalsa. On the contrary there are Sahajdharies, Sevaks, Singhs and Khalsa are all part and parcel of the Sikh panth. Guru Gobind Singhji himself averred that my Sikhs belong to three categories, Sahajdhari, Sevaks and those bearing the Sword. Sikh itself means Shishya is disciple and we are all disciples of Gurus dedicated for the protection of Dharma.

 

            Guruji drew our attention to the problem of terrorism. In reality so many serious socio-political-economic problems are staring us on our face  

 

 
 
 
        Today our country is standing at the cross-roads unable to decide as to which path it should tread. On one hand there is the hangover of the western developmental path which we had been treading for last 61 years. Today when the West itself is very much concerned about its negative fallout, how can our country get anything different? Everybody is witnessing that the poor have become poorer and the rich richer. On one side there is rejoicing that some of our rich persons have aquired the place among the top ten in the world, on the other the stark reality staring us at our faces is that more than one and a half lakh people have, according to government’s own confession, committed suicides and the wave has not ebbed yet. It is also becoming more and more evident that the so called most affluent country of the world United States of America is on the verge of insolvency. The million dollar question is how this has come to pass?

 

            Soon after the collapse of communism, global capitalism was pushed by the West under the leadership of the USA which emerged as the financial super-power with its Dollar as the reserve currency of the world. More than two thirds of the global forex reserves of 5.7 trillion Dollars (equal to 256.5 lakh crores of rupees) are today invested in Dollar securities. An International Monitory Fund (IMF) was floated and all nations were asked to deposit their share of gold in the fund. The second world-war had just ended and many of the European countries because of their empty coffers could not deposit their share. Then America took the responsibility of giving gold when demanded in exchange for Dollars. On 14^thAug 1971 Britain sent a cheque for 121 million dollars and demanded from the USA to offer gold from the Federal Reserve. However on the 15^th of Aug.1971, America backed out of its commitment to offer gold when demanded and dissociated itself from the US Dollar Gold Standard. This deceit sent shock waves to all those who had invested in Dollars, they included many princely states and also corrupt political leaders from Bharat and other countries. They were then pressurized by US to keep the value of the Dollar intact in their own interest. At that point of time Japan had a trade surplus against USA. Therefore, the value of the Japanese currency ‘Yen’ was sought to be curbed. This came to light after the Lockheed Scandal was exposed and Japanese Premier Kakuei Tanaka and his ministers had to resign.

 

            Today it has become quite evident that the American financial system is collapsing. There are two types of banks in all the countries – One, the Commercial Banks and two, Investment Banks. The Commercial Banks are controlled by the Central Bank of respective countries, but the Investment Banks collect the money from all sources available and invest them in share-markets, housing societies and insurance companies etc. Big investment bank Lehman Brothers has declared insolvency. The largest insurance company of the world in US too has been nationalized. The US President has warned the American people of serious crisis ahead. The US Congress is being asked to divert tax-payers money of over 800 billion dollars (34 lakh crore rupees). Initially there was resistance but subsequently it was won over.

 

            More than two thirds of the total forex reserves of 5.7 trillion dollars (Rs. 256.5 lakh crores) are invested in American securities. This represents the part of the borrowings from the rest of the world. The total U.S. borrowings from rest of the world held in Dollars, stands at 12.5 trillion U.S.D. equivalents to 566.5 lakh crores.  Over and above that America is borrowing from rest of the world at the rate of 2 billion dollars (Rs. 10,000 crores) everyday. In fact an American magazine mockingly wrote that American Government is borrowing from the rest of the world to pay salary for its President also.

 

            In America there is an institution named US Federal Reserve System which advices the Federal Government on economic matters. Alan Greenspan headed this institution for about two decades. He theorizes that the prosperity of the people to save is a sign of underdevelopment. The developing countries save for a rainy day or retirement. Alan Greenspan says that in the developed countries through their fast financial networks, a significant fraction of the consumers is enabled to spend beyond their current incomes. Here Mr. Greenspan’s thinking comes very close to the philosophy of Charvak, our ancient philosopher who says –

 

Yavat jeevet sukham jeevet, rnam kritva ghritam pibet.

Bhasmibhootasya dehasya, punaragamanam kutah.

 

Meaning – “So long as you live, live a life of unrestricted enjoyment, even if you have to incur debt because once the body is cremated there is no question of rebirth.”

 

            Because of this philosophy of living beyond means American families have ceased to be cultural, social and economic support systems. The American families have degenerated with more than 50% of the marriages ending in divorces. Single parent families emerged, mostly with divorced mothers heading the families; with the result that enormous amount of government support for the families is needed by way of social security. To meet this economic burden the US Government has to borrow from the rest of the world and families in the US borrow from the banks through credit cards. The total number of credit cards in circulation in US is 120 crores whereas the total population of the US including old and children is only 30 crore.

 

            Our soft hearted Prime Minister went to USA to discuss the Nuclear Deal with President George Bush. But witnessing the dire strait into which the U.S. economy had fallen, he was moved so much that along with the Reserve Bank Governor Shri D. Subbarao he immediately worked out and announced a package for injection of Rs. 56,000 crores (approximately 12.5 billion Dollars) under the Liquidity Adjustment Facility (LAF). On the other hand to keep the prices under control, the RBI will issue the Market Stabilization Scheme (MSS) Bonds of the same value as the amount injected under the LAF Thus the proceeds from the sale of the bonds will deposit the same amount of Rs 56,000 in the till of the RBI. The RBI must invest this amount somewhere, and since the Prime Minister is disposed to help the American economy in its hour of crisis, the RBI following the current practice will invest this amount in US Treasury Bills.

 

            On the face of it our funds are said to have been invested, but what actually transpired is that the money creation by the RBI which was transferred to the Bharatiya banks by way of long term loan, ends up with the issue of a short term loan of like amount to the United States. Thus Bharat will end up foregoing even the interest charge on this sum of US 12.5 billion Dollars which it is providing to support the American economy in its hour of crisis.

 

            Further if the Government of Bharat purchases additional American Bonds and Bills, then the rupees 56,000 crores, which were introduced into our economy, will go to America. This will give the American economy right to call upon goods and services available for domestic consumption. This will have four-fold effect on our economy. Firstly, production is already stagnating, secondly inflation is rising, and thirdly there is disincentive to increase goods and services because of inflation and rising interest rates. Had the condition been only one of pure inflation, there would have been some incentive for growth in production. But the twin condition of stagnation in production and inflation will unleash ‘stagflation’, which will shrink markets, unleash economic hardships and cause economic ruin. Some traders may benefit with these massive sums bought and sold and commissions and arbitrage profits accruing in the very short term, but everybody stands to loose as the economy plummets into a downward spiral.

 

            This is not the first time that our Prime Minister has shown his magnanimity. In 1991, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) disintegrated and the value of rouble fell fifteen thousand times of its original value and the value of the loan that the USSR had given to Bharat plummeted to as low as 23 crore which Russia was ready to write off. But our Prime Minister, who at that time was the Union Minister of Finance, was so moved that he on his own offered to revalue it according to the 1978 protocol. On the 26^th Feb.1993, the then Minister of State for Finance Dr. Abrar Ahamad in answer to a query by an M.P. (Shrikant Jena) replied that the loan standing against Bharat on 1^st April 1992 was, according to the new agreement, fixed at 31.75 rupees per Rouble. At that point of time the market value of Rouble was only 20 paise.

 

            Hence full credence must be given to the charge leveled by Shri Arjun Singh, who was then out of congress that the Narasingh Rao government was embroiled in scams and misappropriation to the tune of 80,000 crore rupees.

 

            The Indo-Nuclear Deal got the approval of both the houses of America only when the U.S. Secretary of the State Condoleezza Rice wrote a letter to Senate majority leader Harry Reid saying that the Indian Government intends to uphold the continuation of the Nuclear testing moratorium in 2005 and reiterated it to the broader international community as recently as Sept.5, 2008. In case India goes for nuclear test it would result in “most serious consequences” including immediate cut off of nuclear-fuel, its technology and the supply of atomic reactors. In spite of all this, if the Prime Minister thinks that Bharat has got a waiver for atomic test then it means that he considers the people of Bharat as fools. The logical conclusion is that Bharat has mortgaged its right to conduct nuclear tests and bound itself with Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT).

 

            Our Prime Minister has sent a Letter of Intent to America that Bharat will buy 10 atomic-reactors, each costing 6 to 10 billion Dollars (Rs. 3050 to 4700 crores) thus sending 60 to 100 billion Dollars into its kitty. No normal procedure of inviting tenders was followed and what about the cost of electricity per unit from the reactors? Whether it will be cheaper than what we are being charged today? The Reliance Company is installing a mega-power-plant in Madhya Pradesh which will supply electricity at the rate of Rs. 1.19 per unit. Whether the nuclear electricity is cheaper than this? The reply given in the Rajya Sabha was it will cost Rs. 2.70 to 2.80 per unit i.e. more than two and half times that of Reliance. But immediately it was countered by Dr. Kastoorirangan, the renowned atomic scientist. He said that the rate quoted is the subsidized rate; the actual rate will be Rs. 9 per unit. This rate however does not include the cost of storage of nuclear-waste. America is still in the process of constructing a store house for nuclear spent fuel even after 25 years at a mountain called Yucca. If we take into account that also, will not the rate per unit of nuclear energy be exorbitant?

 

            In its place why cannot the solar-power houses, manufactured by Natural Energy Power Corporation (NEPT), Chennai, by integrating solar-energy with the cell-technology be considered which neither requires erecting poles nor extending transmission lines? Even the light from the moon, street lamps etc. can activate the cells and so they can produce electrical energy even during night time or when the sky is over-cast with clouds. The whole cost can be recovered in two to three years.

 

            Apart from the nuclear reactors, a proposal to call tenders for the purchase of 126 fighter planes is also in the offing. According to an expert this will entail an expenditure of 40 to 50 thousand crores, which will replenish the American kitty.

 

            Apart from this, three more letters of Intent have been drafted and awaiting signature from both the countries. They are –

 

(1) Logistic Support Agreement: – Under this agreement both the countries will be entitled to use the airport, seaport and other facilities. Who will be the real beneficiary? We are not going to invade Mexico and other countries. But if the U.S. thinks of invading Iran