Letter to Every Indian

Why is the media here so negative? Why are we in India so embarrassed to recognize our own strengths, our achievements? We are such a great nation. We have so many amazing success stories but we refuse to acknowledge them. Why? We are the first in milk production. We are number one in Remote sensing satellites. We are the second largest producer of wheat. We are the second largest producer of rice.

Look at Dr. Sudarshan; he has transferred the tribal village into a self-sustaining, self-driving unit. There are millions of such achievements but our media is only obsessed in the bad news and failures and disasters.

http://sociovigil.in/tribal-hero-dr-h-sudarshan

http://www.vgkk.org/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanumappa_Sudarshan

I was in Tel Aviv once and I was rIsraeli newspaper. It was the day after a lot of attacks and bombardments and deaths had taken place. The Hamas had struck. But the front page of the newspaper had the picture of a Jewish gentleman who in five years had transformed his desert into an orchid and a granary. It was this inspiring picture that everyone woke up to. The gory details of killings, bombardments, deaths, were inside in the newspaper, buried among other news.

In India we only read about death, sickness, terrorism, crime. Why are we so NEGATIVE? Another question: Why are we, as a nation so obsessed with foreign things? We want foreign T.Vs, we want foreign shirts. We want foreign technology. Why this obsession with everything imported. Do we not realize that self-respect comes with self-reliance? I was in Hyderabad giving this lecture, when a 14 year old girl asked me for my autograph. I asked her what her goal in life is... She replied: I want to live in a developed India. For her, you and I will have to build this developed India. You must proclaim.

India is not an under-developed nation; it is a highly developed nation...YOU say that our government is inefficient. YOU say that our laws are too old. YOU say that the municipality does not pick up the garbage. YOU say that the phones don't work, the railways are a joke. The airline is the worst in the world, mails never reach their destination. YOU say that our country has been fed to the dogs and is the absolute pits. YOU say, say and say... What do YOU do about it?

Take a person on his way to Singapore. Give him a name - 'YOURS'. Give him a face - 'YOURS'. YOU walk out of the airport and you are at your International best. In Singapore you don't throw cigarette butts on the roads or eat in the stores. YOU are as proud of their Underground links as they are... You pay $5 (approx. Rs.. 60) to drive through Orchard Road (equivalent of Mahim Causeway or Pedder Road) between 5 PM and 8 PM. YOU come back to the parking lot to punch your parking ticket if you have over stayed in a restaurant or a shopping mall irrespective of your status identity… In Singapore you don't say anything, DO YOU? YOU wouldn't dare to eat in public during Ramadan, in Dubai.. YOU would not dare to go out without your head covered in Jeddah. YOU would not dare to buy an employee of the telephone exchange in London at 10 pounds (Rs...650) a month to, 'see to it that my STD and ISD calls are billed to someone else. ‘YOU would not dare to speed beyond 55 mph (88 km/h) in Washington and then tell the traffic cop, 'Jaanta hai main kaun hoon (Do you know who I am?). I am so and so's son. Take your two bucks and get lost.' YOU wouldn't chuck an empty coconut shell anywhere other than the garbage pail on the beaches in Australia and New Zealand...Why don't YOU spit Paan on the streets of Tokyo ? Why don't YOU use examination jockeys or buy fake certificates in Boston??? We are still talking of the same YOU.

YOU who can respect and conform to a foreign system in other countries but cannot in your own. You who will throw papers and cigarettes on the road the moment you touch Indian ground. If you can be an involved and appreciative citizen in an alien country, why cannot you be the same here in India?

In America every dog owner has to clean up after his pet has done the job. Same in Japan...Will the Indian citizens do that here?' He's right. We go to the polls to choose a government and after that forfeit all responsibility. We sit back wanting to be pampered and expect the government to do everything for us whilst our contribution is totally negative. We expect the government to clean up but we are not going to stop chucking garbage all over the place nor are we going to stop to pick an up a stray piece of paper and throw it in the bin. We expect the railways to provide clean bathrooms but we are not going to learn the proper use of bathrooms. We want Indian Airlines and Air India to provide the best of food and toiletries but we are not going to stop pilfering at the least opportunity.

This applies even to the staff that is known not to pass on the service to the public. When it comes to burning social issues like those related to women, dowry, and girl child! And others, we make loud drawing room protestations and continue to do the reverse at home. Our excuse? 'It's the whole system which has to change, how will it matter if I alone forego my sons' rights to a dowry.' So who's going to change the system? What does a system consist of? Very conveniently for us it consists of our neighbors’, other households, other cities, other communities and the government, but definitely not me and YOU.

When it comes to us actually making a positive contribution to the system we lock ourselves along with our families into a safe cocoon and look into the distance at countries far away and wait for a Mr. Clean to come along & work miracles for us with a majestic sweep of his hand or we leave the country and run away. Like lazy cowards hounded by our fears we run to America to bask in their glory and praise their system. When New York becomes insecure we run to England. When England experiences unemployment, we take the next flight out to the Gulf. When the Gulf is war struck, we demand to be rescued and brought home by the Indian government. Everybody is out to abuse and rape the country.

Nobody thinks of feeding the system. Our conscience is mortgaged to money. Dear Indians, The article is highly thought inductive, calls for a great deal of introspection and pricks one's conscience too….. I am echoing J. F. Kennedy's words to his fellow Americans to relate to Indians…..'ASK WHAT WE CAN DO FOR INDIA AND DO WHAT HAS TO BE DONE TO MAKE INDIA WHAT AMERICA AND OTHER WESTERN COUNTRIES ARE TODAY’ Let’s do what India needs from us.

Forward this letter to each Indian for a change instead of sending.

Thank you

Unknown Indian

Narendra Modi to contest Lok Sabha elections from one seat in Gujarat: BJP

BJP Prime Ministerial candidate Narendra Modi, and senior leader LK Advani during party's Central Election Committee (CEC) meeting in New Delhi on Thursday. (PTI Photo)

The BJP on Thursday announced that Chief Minister Narendra Modi will contest elections from one seat in the state, without ruling out the possibility that he may fight on a second seat from Uttar Pradesh.

“I can definitely say that Modiji will fight elections from one seat in Gujarat,” state BJP general secretary Vijay Rupani told reporters in Ahmedabad.

“There has been a clamour to invite Narendra Modi to fight elections from four main cities of the state — Ahmedabad, Rajkot, Vadodara and Surat. Our party workers wish that he should contest from Gujarat,” Rupani said.

“Our (state BJP) parliamentary board had met over the last four days in which it was finalised that Modi would contest from one seat in Gujarat,” he said, adding that the decision on which seat he will contest is yet to be taken.

When asked if Modi will also contest from Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh, the BJP leader said, “I do not know anything about that seat, but it will be decided by our central parliamentary board.”

There has been lot of confusion on from which seat Modi will enter the poll fray.

The BJP prime ministerial candidate is in Delhi to attend the central parliamentary board and central election committee meeting.

However, state party leaders said that candidates for Gujarat seats will not be discussed in those meetings on Thursday.

In reply to a question on whether party veteran L.K Advani will be contesting from Gandhinagar, from where he holds the seat for five terms, Rupani said, “The central parliamentary board will decide about it.”

“We have not finalised panel of names for the Lok Sabha seats in the first round of meeting of parliamentary board. We will sit again after Holi festival to do that,” he said.

BJP Gujarat unit’s parliamentary board had met on Sunday, Tuesday and Wednesday at the residence of Modi, in hispresence.

“Our (state) parliamentary board is likely to meet again to finalise the names of panels of candidates for the 26 Lok Sabha seats,” state BJP spokesperson Harsad Patel said.

U.S. pharma companies benefit from large Indian generic market

Innovator firms have explored strategies to increase revenues

The tirade by the U.S. against India with regard to its ‘unfriendly’ business environment, particularly the Indian pharmaceutical sector, is largely misplaced according to the Indian Pharmaceutical Alliance (IPA).

The U.S. International Trade Commission (USITC) last month started public hearings in Washington DC as part of its investigation ‘Trade, investment and industrial policies in India: effects on the U.S. economy.’ Representatives from software and pharmaceutical industry associations among others from India appeared before it.

Speaking to this correspondent, Dilip Shah, Secretary-General, IPA, who earlier appeared before the USITC hearings, said, “the USITC report is expected by November but the U.S. Trade Representative (TR) decision is expected by April 30 and a downgrade to ‘Foreign Country Watch List’ is possible. This could mean that the Generalised Scheme of Preferences (GSP) duty benefit to India could be withdrawn.

It will have a 4-5 per cent impact on India’s total exports of $50 billion to the U.S.”

The sanctions, if they do come, could spark off a trade war with retaliatory sanctions from India also hurting large U.S. companies, Mr. Shah said, adding that India had been TRIPS (Trade related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights) compliant since 2005.

He said that although the market for new patented drugs at U.S. prices was clearly negligible, innovator pharmaceutical companies had explored promising strategies to increase revenues with differential pricing.

“U.S. innovator companies are also profiting from the large generic market in India and increasing their sales and imports of finished goods,” he said.

“The World Trade Organization (WTO) has not determined that India’s patent laws are violative of the TRIPS agreement. No member country of the WTO, including the U.S. has even disputed it before the WTO. It must therefore be presumed that India’s patent law is TRIPS-compliant,” Mr. Shah said adding, “The main institution for the global governance of health is the World Health Organization, which has strongly endorsed India’s patent law and its compliance with the TRIPS agreement.”