True Indian History: Does It Help Or Hurt Us?

It is said that winners write history. This clearly implies that history is the winners’ version of the truth. Our PM recently mentioned 1200 years of slavery. These 1200 years were followed by six decade long rule by Congress and their agenda supporting minions. Anyone not living in a cave knows about Congress’ votebank politics. This means is that in the last 1260 years truth has been one of the big casualties.

For the first time Indian Conservatives have power (Atalji was bound by coalition dharma so his power was hostage to the likes of Nitish Kumar and Chandrababu Naidu). Modi sarkar wants to right some of these wrongs and include oft ignored truths and blatant Congress serving lies. This has left the yesteryears victors i.e. the leftists in a tizzy. Everyone with access to any kind of a media outlet is spewing venom. The latest is an article written by Mihir Sharma (“Eminently Funny Historians” – google it to read the article if you want to). A legend in his own mind, Sharma is clearly having a hard time accepting defeat of Congress and destruction of Indian left. He rants against the appointment of Y Sudarshan Rao as the head of the Indian Council of Historical Research. Sharma thinks that Indian History will be rewritten, undoing all the work of the Indian left. All Sharma offers in the way of argument are sarcasm and vitriol. He also rants against pro BJP bloggers and social media (we should thank him for indirectly giving us some credit for the BJP’s landslide victory). Sharma has no options other than biting the bullet and hope that Congress finds some way of winning in 2019. Good Luck with that Sharmaji!

Vivek Gumaste whose articles are always a pleasure has expressed his opinion on the matter. Here is an excerpt from that article (Gumaste refers to Rajeev Srinivasan):

“The West Bengal government in 1989 issued guidelines that said: ‘Muslim rule should never attract any criticism. Destruction of temples by Muslim rulers and invaders should not be mentioned.’ Dated 28 April, 1989, it [the circular] is issued by the West Bengal Secondary Board. It is in Bengali, and carries the number “Syl/89/1”.
Written in Bengali and designated as true (Shuddo) and false (Ashuddo), some of these deliberate distortions are listed below.
Ashuddo: “Sultan Mahmud used force for widespread murder, loot, destruction and conversion.”
Shuddo: “There was widespread loot and destruction by Mahmud”, i.e. no reference to murder or forcible conversion.
Ashuddo: “The non-believers had to embrace Islam or death”.
Shuddo: All matters on this page to be deleted.
Ashuddo: “He looted valuables worth 2 crore dirham from the Somnath temple and used the Shivling as a step leading to the masjid in Ghazni.”
Shuddo: Delete “and used the Shivling as a step leading to the masjid in Ghazni.”

Clearly these half truths are perpetuated in the name of communal harmony but the truth is a lot more insidious with far reaching and damaging effects. True Hindu Muslim unity and peace cannot be obtained by hiding the truths. Today Germans and Israelis have achieved peace but only after Germany have accepted their culpability in the Holocaust. This brings us to the issue I really want to address. How important is history to us? Do we need to or just deserve to know the unvarnished truth?

It is said that those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it. I suppose 1200 years of slavery is proof of that. If we had learned our lesson from the India’s occupation by the Mughals then we may have dealt with the British in a different way. History teaches us what NOT to do. It also tells us what we should be proud of. Patriotism may be the last refuge for many a scoundrel but for the man on the street it is also a panacea for all kinds of society ills. Patriotism teaches us about collective responsibility which can solve many a problem we are facing. Leftists who are afraid of patriotism degrading into jingoism leading us away from free thought are either lying to themselves out of ignorance or to the others for self serving reasons. Citizens of western democracies especially the US are very patriotic people at micro level (strong collective sense of responsibility for their neighborhood and community) and at macro level (the entire nation). And yet those societies are far from regressive and closed in nature.

India as a whole could benefit from learning the unvarnished truth about our nation. If the truth exposes skeletons in the Muslim closet (atrocities against Hindus) or the Hindu closets (sati, dowry, female feticide, atrocities on lower castes) then so be it. It is high time that all the Indians looked into the mirror and accept their culpability and responsibility. Otherwise we are doomed to live a lie and repeat the mistakes of our forefathers.

I had great hopes from Modi sarkar. The stress of the government should be on the truth and nothing but the truth. They really should stay away from embellishing or demonizing any one. They should tell the truth and let the people be the judge. I can understand not naming the countries involved in Netaji’s disappearance. Although those countries, if confident and mature like Germany then should come clean. What I do not understand the extreme reticence in coming clean on the 1962 debacle with China. Current leaders and future generations need to know what mistakes were made by Nehru or anyone else. Arun Jaitley is in no position to make a judgment on the matter. He is not even an elected person. HE DOES NOT REPRESENT ANYONE! I want to know PM Modi’s word on the subject.

Lies and half truths of the past are like shackles, keeping us from achieving the true freedom of thought. We cannot make informed decisions about the future if we brush the past under the proverbial carpet. I hope that Narendra Modi government would be different from the governments of the past. He needs to trust his voters and should let them decide what to do with history.
The Gumaste article with references to Rajeev Srinivasan's original article can be found at:
http://www.rediff.com/news/column/the-bjp-is-not-rewriting-history/20140722.htm

PM Modi, President Obama and the potential new swing in India-US relationship

by Vibhuti Jha, President, Human Potential Project

The election of Mr. Narendra Modi and his party, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), to lead India ,for the next five years , has been a watershed moment in the Indian political scene in as many years. After a long time, one single party has been voted in with majority to overcome the malaise and sufferings of “coalition politics” the country had to endure for the past ten years of the Congress party led UPA. The people of India are anxious to see India reach its full potential to become a true leader in the world economy leading to higher employment, bring good jobs and better livelihood for all. The majority given to BJP leaves it with no excuse if it were to fail in that promise made to the people of India. In a complex and complicated country like India, patience is running short and the electorate will be, as it must, very unforgiving, as the leaders of the UPA government experienced in the recently concluded national elections.

With the United States as the leading economy, struggling with massive debts and in need of new markets, India and the US are keenly poised to take advantage of the opportunity that exists today for both the countries. To let that opportunity go by will prove to be the undoing of the promises made to the people of both countries.

President Obama called former PM Manmohan Singh a "wise" and "decent" man. I am sure he will be very wisely selecting the most appropriate words to define and describe Mr. Modi when the two meet in Washington, DC, Come September, pun intended! India and the US have enjoyed a bitter sweet romantic relationship with lots of promises and also suffered a relationship mired with exuberance and disappointments. Both the countries share an equal amount of frustration , unhappiness, hope and possibility and are now poised to transcend the relationship to a deservingly high levels.

Despite massive possibilities, the potential has never reached levels that was expected. Therefore it may perhaps be useful to examine the potential and possibilities, and also what is missing, to take this association and relationship to a trusting and sustainable levels. Both leaders owe this to their people, who elected them in the first place and who they are supposed to protect and defend at all times as their primary responsibility. It is equally important to note that despite differences at the Government and official levels, at the people to people levels both countries have enormous respect for each other. Both India and the US are champions of diversity and are home to virtually all faiths and religions of the world. Both are authentic melting pots!

I was once asked in a PBS TV program conversation as to what India could teach the US. I said there is hardly anything for India to teach but there is a lot to share and learn from each other. India and the US are world’s two premier democracies , in size, tradition and demography with truly diverse populations and both are a genuine melting pot and champion of diversity. Both the countries have an enormous opportunity to build on these elements and must try to fill in the gaps in disagreements with all sincerity! Mere word play and offering praise for each other’s history , traditions and possibilities will no longer be sufficient to mollify the feelings. People of India will be keenly watching and observing the outcomes of this summit with reference to specific actions put in place.

In fairness to both leaders, they have already risen above the moment of crisis and have shown exemplary attitude, maturity and fortitude to seize the moment. Mr. Modi did not allow the personal insult, of denial of visa, to visit US and Mr. Obama overcame this moment to invite him for a full discussion with Mr. Modi at the White House after the UN meet in New York, instead of meeting him on the “sidelines” of the UN General Assembly. For both, the national self-interest is the guiding principle to get to know each other to further an actionable relationship. While the mandarins of Indian Foreign Service and various economic ministries, on the one hand, and the US State Department and business interests, on the other, will be working overtime to fashion a good PR spectacle, both the leaders will be well advised to get to know each other better than just serving verbal platitudes.

In the light of the above, let us here look at only a few aspects of the opportunity that merits a serious consideration.

One, both countries need each other for revival of the two economies. India needs US technology, manufacturing processes and defense cooperation to bolster its economy and security concerns. The US needs the Indian market and its potential to create a sustainable economic future for itself. While Mr. Modi won the elections on the promise of “Growth and Governance” as his clarion call to the people of India, Mr. Obama is working overtime to remove income inequality and improve social justice to his people. Both the leaders are tweaking the capitalist process in their own way. India is heading towards encouraging a true free enterprise economy for better growth, higher incomes, new employment opportunities for the youth of India and unfettered opportunity, the US is attempting to provide its people more social justice. There is so much to learn and share with each other and get over the avoidable mistakes in the process.

Secondly, the United States must recognize and acknowledge the fact that India and Indians are perhaps the closest friends it can have. This is true despite the American frustration and gripe about India’s flawed and pompous non-alignment policy. Indian concern and reservations about the US policy is directly related to the American penchant for sleeping with its enemies! Both India and the US are direct victims of the shenanigans of its so-called friend and India’s neighbor, Pakistan. People of India and the US have been targeted victims and lost hundreds of lives and both have invested time and wasted resources in Pakistan to no avail or any tangible outcomes. Pakistan is a political curse for India and an economic drain and loss of precious American lives on both the countries. We need to jointly address that concern. If the US wants to improve the bilateral economic ties taking it from current 100 billion US dollars to a goal of 500 Billion US Dollars, the US will have to look at the security concerns of India with more seriousness than it does today. If the US-India business have to reach that great target, the US will have to invest in creating an environment of peace and being responsible to protect and defend its own allies and investments.

India faces an existential threat from the marauding and barbaric hordes of Islamic terrorism and so does the USA. Everyone and his pet knows that Pakistan is the training ground for major terrorist acts where they all return to after committing their murderous acts. The American people are bewildered by the fact that it almost appears as if we Americans fund Pakistan to kill American lives. We the people of America need to know and ask of our leaders why Pakistan has such Anaconda like grip on the US.

Finally, for the Indian Prime Minister Mr. Narendra Modi, this is the golden opportunity to define himself and set the narrative to the western media and news barons! So far, he has had to suffer the indignity of being defined by the self-appointed and self-anointed “India experts” to the extent that one prominent, award winning Indian journalist called him a man with “a dark side of Hindu nationalism”, as if a “white or fair side of Hindu nationalism” would have been acceptable as a lesser evil! The narrative of India and Indians has to be restated as the world’s IT hub, educated man power, eager and anxious to grow , accepting diversity as way of life , willing to adapt and accommodate all faiths and religions. He must tell the world, who doubt India’s credibility as a secular nation, that India had, in the last ten years, a Sikh as the Prime Minister, a muslim and a woman occupied the office of the President of the country and the then ruling party (now the largest opposition party) had/has the Roman catholic Italian woman as its leader. No country in the world can claim or boast of acceptance of such diversity and the opportunities everyone enjoys in India. The world needs to know and learn from the Indian way of life, despite all its inadequacies as we know about. India is ready for the enhanced role in global affairs, be it economic and politics or both and she must claim it. This meeting between the US President, Barrack Obama, and the Indian Prime Minister, Mr. Narendra Modi, has epochal significance for both the countries and the time to embrace change has arrived. They cannot allow or blame an angry duck across the street from taking the big step forward.

The article was published in: http://www.nalandainternational.org/index.php/85-article-catergories/all-articles/730-pm-modi-president-obama-and-the-potential-new-swing-in-india-us-relationship

Modi Sarkar Needs To Show Results

Voters all around the world have a notoriously short attention span. How else can you explain UPA-II? The current government was elected with great hopes by the voters after promises of all kinds were made by the Modi campaign. Now that the campaigning is over and it is down to business, the fickle minded voters are going to demand results. With Congress leaving India in the fields (can’t really say toilet now can I?) there cannot be any honeymoon period for Modi.

By all indications, the man is a workaholic and a taskmaster to boot. Anyone who can make desi babus to work is aces in my book. Every move that he has made, every decision that he has taken has received kudos from non politicians. The politicians especially the Congress variety who are still in denial about the drubbing, continue to show entitlement. Despite of clear cut rules, they are demanding the opposition leadership. Unable to shed off the 800 pound monkey AKA Gandhi Family of their backs, the Congress are offering invalid criticism sounding more petulant than responsible. Their criticism of the Rail budget is pathetic (A man who is in no position to talk of vision and future, Rahul says the budget lacks vision. WOW!). Meanwhile similar sharpening of knives are being seen elsewhere as well. If you understand politics then you know that all this is expected.

Important state elections are on the horizon. Modi govt. knows that and are asking for 12 to 18 months for results. It is not too long to ask to clean up a decade of criminal neglect, incompetence and corruption. Indian voter should be patience and give this govt. a real chance to solve these problems. However, we all know that the voter is a fickle person. Prices are still high, electricity still scarce, temperature still high and a poor monsoon is expected. Except the hardcore BJP supporters, Indians will be asking for results – sooner than later. Unfortunately for the BJP all the aforementioned problems are going to take a while to get resolved. Economy cannot be fixed overnight. Infrastructure could take better part of the next five years. To win the upcoming state elections and maintain the voter confidence, Modi sarkar really needs to show tangible results and measurable success before long. Here are some suggestions.

1. They need to go after hoarders and middle men in the consumable goods market. Distribution of food in storages need to be taken up with extreme urgency. If there is going to be a drought (no matter how partial), the poor are going to get affected. Distribution and price control of basic food needs to be taken at a war footing.

2. Power plants are not running at their optimum because of shortage on coal supply. Sounds like an eminently solvable problem. This also needs to be addressed in a hurry.

3. The Rail budget is a very good move. However people need to see that increased fare is resulting in better services. At the very least safety and cleanliness in our trains need to be addressed quickly.

4. Safety. Even a slight improvement is going to get noticed. The way the stranded Indians have been brought back from Iraq has not gone unnoticed even in the BJP unfriendly state of Kerala. The BJP really need to establish courts to expedite the rape cases. These cases really need to be adjudicated and the rapists need to be punished to the fullest extent of the law. Maneka Gandhi was never the best person for the job but now that she has it, she really needs to step up and ensure the welfare of our women. Terror cases also need to be addressed. The lingering ones need to be solved and the guilty punished. Going after criminal infrastructure of people like Dawood Ibrahim will also get noticed. Rajnath Singh needs to justify his appointment to the second most important post in the government.

5. Black money in and out of India. I never understood why we could not go after black money in India. Arvind and Tinu Joshi who is the IAS couple from MP, accused and proven to have stolen more than 300 crores are still in the employ of the Indian government. Why is it taking so long to expel them from the services and send them to jail. Imagine the message sent to the babus and the voters. As far as the money abroad, we now have the attention of the western world. They know India is open for business. We really need to use that clout and force the foreign banks to return the Indian black money. Even If it the return gets initiated, Modi sarkar can claim a huge victory which will be appreciated by the Indian voters.

The list is by no means complete. I am sure that there are many other ways that Modi sarkar can show tangible and immediate progress to the voters. But the voters need to see their government in action. They need to see the results. They need to see someone unlike the leaders before, is in charge. The Gujarati Lion needs to transmogrify into the Indian Tiger. Modi needs to earn his stripes. He needs to do it in a hurry. He needs the voters to see that.

"Big Troubles Are Coming ..Soon"

by Vibhuti Jha , President , Human Potential Project

At a recent celebration of NaMo victory, at the Hindu Temple in Queens , New York , I met with someone after a long time. He was obviously a little concerned about the presence of so many Hindus at the temple who , for the first time perhaps , felt proud being a Hindu and had great expectations from the new Government. The Hindus have so far been made to feel that they were a benign and an irrelevant majority in their own country, given the much talked about secular principles and values of which every political party other than BJP held claims to ! Since BJP was a Hindu party it couldn't potentially lay a claim to being secular despite the fact that Hinduism and Hindu practices are remarkably secular and democratic in theory and practice !! India has never led a program to extend the territory either via religious proselytization or political expansion via a war!

As the conversation moved forward about the opportunity , expectations , fear and realities , I was told "Big troubles are coming.. soon" !

It is true that NaMo win has indeed created hitherto unknown expectations and ambitions in the people of India. Perhaps rightly so. We read reports about the new work timings and ethics set by the PM himself that ministers and bureaucrats are trying hard to cope up with and adjusting to the new norms. There is so much to do and there is almost so little time , given that expectations are running wild amongst the supporters. If there was ever a real need for patience , it is now. To overhaul the practices overnight , set in place by the 60 plus years of Congress party rule , is expecting miracles to happen at your own will. That's not going to happen unless the new Ministers are able to handle the smart , intelligent bureaucrats who are designed to protect the status quo and historical lame precedence's. What India needs is a change and unshackling from its past and far beyond the games of thrones played by people who cant go beyond being " Yes Minister and/or Yes Prime Minister" !

Mr. Modi is following Mahatama Gandhi's famous statement about being the change that you want to be and bring about, in every sense of the term a work environment of service , governance and performance that we have not known before. Indian leadership needs big declarations and big actions to fulfil the promises made to the people with full awareness that incrementalism will just not work. India needs transformational practices to replace incremental behavior and practices which has become a cultural disgrace of what is called the common minimum program... translated in simple language means doing something for the namesake.

So what steps need to be taken to avoid the "big troubles" ?

One of the worlds greatest scientist , Albert Einstein said , that "any intelligent fool can complicate a simple problem, it takes a courageous one to move in the other direction" ! India , Indian leadership and the Indian people need to urgently recognize this priceless advice that no consulting company or a bureaucrat will offer. It is in the nature of creating complexity that we seek greater solutions, while in reality , the best solutions emerge when we remove the clutter and confusion that breeds inefficiency and inaction. Just as you can't lose 20 pounds of weight overnight , despite having full knowledge about how to do it, likewise to transform the current culture of mistrust , cynicism , apathy , corrupt practices which breeds mistrust in the system and process , will take time and real undoing of old practices. Habits die hard and to that end to break that strangle hold of old habits , new practices need to be put in place. Many people at the moment must be waiting for old habits to return to churn the same old again ! There are two potential areas where one can visualize big troubles emerging from. One relates to the real high expectations of a real change from a frustrated and unhappy people who voted congress out and welcomed Namo's call for growth and governance. The second relates to the communal harmony and the disease of fear factor in the being ignited in the minds of the minorities.

The newspapers are full of advices from ten point to fifteen point agendas which in essence are good directions and pointers for issues that need immediate attention by the government. But most of them point out the obvious urgency for s many things to be attended to. The need of the hour, however, is to introduce PRACTICES that changes the paradigm. For example , the country has got into a mind set of "cheapest tender lowest bid, " for every tender notification be it for civil work or whatever. Since the government has been the owner of these public projects , resource conservation has been the rationale for the "cheapest and lowest bid" . Consequently , the public works itself suffers due to lack of quality and poor performance in every sense of the term. The projects are in conditions of virtual and constant repair all the time resulting in poor outcomes, huge inconveniences for the public and waste of resources. This leads to a general malaise of quality suffering in almost all aspects of social and economic life and causes the reality that India does not produce quality products. We admire and appreciate the "quality" work done by the foreigners but never ever attempt to do it ourselves. And all this while India has the largest number of Deming Juran certified engineers in the world !! There are many more items we could talk about but I will restrict to this one single item for the moment. The essential message being to enforce quality as a means to living and dispel the concept of common minimum program which has translated into an apology for doing very little. Of course this does not mean not to do the bare essential to survive, after all stich in time saves nine ! Setting expectation is key to prevention of disappointment.

The other problem seems to be emerging out of the politically crafted fear factor that the minorities are somehow no longer "safe" in the country with a real good Hindu at the helm of leadership. This is nothing else but a canard and a farcical fear factor imposed by the British and as though only the Congress party is the protector of the minority interests. We must tell the world and everybody in India , a well known fact , that the Hindu way of life is perhaps the most democratic and pluralistic in essence and practice for all concerned. Hindus have never led a war to extend territories and never indulged in proselytization. For example , the believers in Arya Samaj do not fight with Brhama Samajis and Krishna worshippers do not claim that Krishna was better than Lord Ram in any sense of the term and vice versa. Ganesh worshippers do not quarrel or kill Durga worshippers and Kali worshippers are as non violent as Lakshmi and Saraswati worshippers ! And all of these Gods are housed and prayers are offered under a single roof in a temple most of the time. There is an undeniable move to further divide India on religious lines which is evident from the statements made by irresponsible people and incidents created by miscreants. The time is for vigilance and not vigilantism. Sanatan Dharm serves a purpose and has been relevant for ever. The world must know that and we must educate the world about how our Dharma is essentially peaceful and our process a proven example to emulate. The real challenge lies in the fact that we are, in truth , the only country where about 1.2 billion Hindus live. As a country we are truly alone ! Rest of the world is either Christian or Islamic. Therefore the world immediately reacts to any incident of minority abuse whatever it might be. While India is home to virtually every religious practice in the world , few know about it. In addition that India is only country in the world that was under the rule of minorities for the last ten years is hardly known around. We must tell the world that in the last ten years , a Sikh was the Prime Minister , a muslim and a woman were the President of the country , a Roman catholic Italian woman was the leader of the ruling party! How many countries in the world can talk about a record of this kind ? Therefore if the minorities suddenly begin to feel unsafe , it is actually their own make belief world.

Finally, the Hindus must come out and teach the world about the values and principles of Hinduism as it is today. There can't be any shame doing so , in fact it is that moment in the life of humanity to begin a conversation that God did not create religion, people did , inspired as they were by whoever. God does not ask anyone to kill other people but insecure people do kill in the name of God and that must be exposed , stopped and prevented from doing so.

By Vibhuti Jha , President , Human Potential Project (June 2014)

Support And Criticism of Dr. Harshvardhan

In Pulp Fiction, John Travolta’s character says the following: “Now look, I've given a million ladies a million foot massages, and they all meant something”. Now the promiscuous young Indians can pretend that their new found “let it all hang out” attitude with non-stop bed hopping has little more meaning than going from one bar to another, it is their prerogative. However as someone who was twenty a while ago, I would like to tell them that while sex is fun it is not something that meaningless unless you have a sociopathic streak in you. Sex outside of marriage has consequences. I dare the liberals to deny that.

The libertarian in me says that why should I care. If these youngsters want to ruin themselves then it is their problem. If they want to exchange bodily fluids and fall sick then also it is their problem. After all, we do not have socialized medicine so the Indian taxpayer does not have to pay if these promiscuous Indians can get sick with AIDS, HCV or HPV caused cancer. If these people after getting sick do remove themselves from the society and die alone then I am fine with their behavior.

However, none of these morons will ever remove themselves from circulation and spread their disease. Some innocent person will catch their disease by blood transfusion and that is the real travesty. That is when I DO CARE. Now the liberals and the “I love everything western” kind of Indians would have you believe that just wearing a condom is a panacea to all ills then they could not be more wrong. By and large condoms will prevent transmission of HIV or HCV or HPV but it is almost akin to playing Russian roulette with your sexual organ with a millimeter thick latex, prone to rupturing. Of course while having sex, these people stick to straight up intercourse then a condom offers some degree of protection. Most people use condoms to prevent pregnancies and are likely to think that performing oral sex will be fine. JP Morgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon has throat cancer and has joined an increasing number of men who are getting throat cancer. The theory behind it is that these men are performing oral sex on people who are infected with HPV. My point is that despite all the so called protection that a condom provides, promiscuous behavior is replete with dangerous possibilities.

Ever since Dr. Harshvardhan came out in support of abstinence, the liberal brigade has spared no effort in mocking him. Thrice married Shashi Tharoor called him out of touch. The author of an article in Firstpost, Pallavi Polanki writes the following about the HM:

Not exactly music to India’s new Health Minister’s ears who has made no secret of his distaste for promotion of condoms and his discomfort with empowering India’s adolescents with information about responsible sexual behavior. The minister’s statements have, expectedly, been roundly criticised by experts as being irresponsible and out of step with the times.

I want to offer support and some criticism of Dr. Harshvardhan’s approach. Unlike HMs so far, he is the first physician to occupy this post. A doctor always errs on the side of caution. That is exactly what he is proposing. After all the traditional Indian way of virgins getting married and staying married till death has no down sight. It is foolproof. Fidelity is the best protection and playing Russian roulette with your penis while wearing a thin piece of latex is an extremely risky proposition at best. Dr. Harshvardhan is absolutely correct on this count. However, a chain is as strong as its weakest link. Traffic is as safe as its worst driver. A society is as safe its worst offender or the biggest idiot. To account for these morons one has to educate every child in ways of sex. In short sex education is actually very important. In fact just like showing a diseased lung or grotesque cancer patients to children to keep them from smoking sex education also has to be taught in the most stark way with all the perils (emotional and physical) of it shown in the most grotesque way. You just cannot sugarcoat it in any way. Definitely Yoga is no solution. This is where the good doctor is wrong. I know it is hard for parents to accept sex education in schools but the alternative is scary. Moreover, if the sex education in schools can scare kids into fidelity and away from promiscuous behavior then it is definitely worth it.

The liberals need to put their point forward without the sarcasm as they are wont to. I am sure that smart man that Dr. Harshvardhan is, will see their point. As far as I am concerned, I would rather listen to someone like Dr. Harshvardhan than Shashi Tharoor on matters of character and behavior. What do you think?

The Firstpost article can be read at: http://www.firstpost.com/india/reality-check-dr-harsh-vardhan-condom-use-booming-india-says-naco-1604717.html?utm_source=FP_HP_CATEGORYRANK