Vivek Jyoti Magazine from Ramakrishna Mission

'Vivek Jyoti' is a Hindi magazine published by Ramakrishna Mission Vivekananda Ashram, Raipur (C.G.). It is a wonderful magazine with some regular features and articles on various aspects of spirituality, yoga, religion and society, many written by the monks of Ramakrishna Mission and some reproduced articles written by Swami Vivekananda.

Earlier I had shared about it with friends and some of them asked to share a few pages as sample. I have now scanned and uploaded a few articles from its May 2015 issue which you can view and read. The document is in .XPS format which opens with XPS Viewer. 

If you are not able to view it online, try to download it and then open.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B9Kl-PQwxOyRZ2ZUZ3Y1NXNXLU0/view?usp=sharing

Subscription details are on Page-2 of this document. You can also view it directly in below image (click on the image to enlarge):

If you have any queries, let me know. 

Disclaimer: Views expressed are personal. 

Problem with Historic India - Bangladesh Land Swap Deal

Today, India PM Narendra Modi is in Bangladesh and he will be freezing an agreement over resolving land disputes by exchanging land pockets (enclaves) with Bangladesh. It will be a historic decision which will indeed prevent infiltration, disputes and inconvenience to people from both sides. Despite being a Modi fan, ever since I learnt about this plan I have been a little disturbed about it. What is the cause of concern? Before I come to that, let us understand what are these "enclaves" which the two countries will be exchanging?

Enclaves are small pockets of land belonging to a country which are completely surrounded by land of another country. The most common enclave in a way is the Vatican City which is completely surrounded by Italy. India has about 106 enclaves inside Bangladesh while Bangladesh has 92 enclaves inside India. It results in infiltration and extreme inconvenience to the people living inside these enclaves. To make it more complex, 24 of these enclaves are actually "enclaves inside enclaves"! These enclaves came into being around 300 years ago during wars between the Mughals and the King of Cooch Behar. Mughals won over certain regions but could not defeat certain local Cooch Behar Jamindars from their lands; similarly Cooch Behar King defeated Mughal forces but could not evict their soldiers from certain pockets and hence by the time a treaty was made, these enclaves came into being. Later, since East Bangladesh went to Pakistan, there could be no solution to this problem because of India-Pakistan rivalry and wars. Now let us see my dilemma about the land-swap deal.

The problem with the land-swap deal is that India is giving away more land to Bangladesh than she is receiving in return! Although the land size India is losing is only around 40 square kms. But still, our "mother India" is going to become smaller and it is an emotional issue for the patriotic population.

If we think of pure economics, this decision does not make sense. Why would someone give you a land worth hundred million and ask for another piece of land worth ninety; unless one's life or something extremely critical depended on it? I am sure even in the stone-age human beings did not do "barters" in this manner. So why are we doing it now?

If we think of the two nations, Bangladesh being one of the most densely populated nations needs land more than a big nation like India does. So Bangladesh may be able to gain more than India does by swapping land.

In international politics, such land-swap deals are associated with "monetary compensations". If we have to give some land to Bangladesh in order to simplify matters; we could take compensation. Some news reports say that Bangladesh was ready to pay compensation for the extra land it has to receive, but India said she won't take any. It displays a kind of "Big Brother" approach India naturally plays in the region. Although, India seems to have been blind eye towards how Bangladeshi political parties use the same "Big Brother syndrome" to build a public anger against India (to garner votes)! India sees such large heart gestures as her natural role; but the same largess is seen with suspicion amidst conspiracy theories about India being a ‘hidden aggressor’! So far India's foreign policies have not done anything to quell these fears. India could have been less emotional and more economics driven in order to appear like a neutral force in the region. But maybe then India won’t be like India!

There is another concern about the deal according to which more than fifty thousand villagers from both sides will be given an option to choose nationalities. I guess logically more people will choose to become part of India (since it is more economically prosperous), resulting in increase in population which is undesirable. There should have been a better way to identify nationalities.

I know that we can't really blame PM Narendra Modi government for this decision. In the past many other PMs including Indira Gandhi tried to do the same deal with Bangladesh but failed. PM Modi in a way is exerting his "strong" image when he is solving a "300 years old problem" which all past governments failed to solve. Still, India giving away more land than it receives does not make sense to me. 

I also understand that Indian governments “gifting away” lands to other nations is not new. Way back in 1974, Indira Gandhi virtually gifted an island of Katchatheevu to Sri Lanka. In an article titled “Island Lost” (S. Raja, New Indian Express, 10 Sep, 2013) for example, the journalist writes that Indira Gandhi gifted away the island as if it were her “family silver”. So perhaps Bangladesh deal’s loss is not a first or nothing new; still I think it is not a rational decision. I call it a failure of India’s diplomacy rather than success of it. 

My solution is simple. If India accepts monetary compensation for the lost land, it will not be enough. It will appear like a nation is "selling" land for money. I think Bangladesh should make up for the loss India is incurring by exchanging enclaves. Give us another forty square kilometers anywhere along the border you find suitable. Is this too much to demand?

What do you think about it? Let me know through your comments.

Will Nestle Do a Cadbury or Coke with its Maggi?

Maggi, a popular brand of noodles, was recently found to contain high content of lead and other harmful chemicals. Maggi is a Nestle product; the company is headquartered in Switzerland. If you compare this fiasco with anything else in the past, we can remember two other cases easily - when Cadbury chocolates were found to contain "worms" (year 2003) and Coca Cola and Pepsi soft drinks were found to contain high levels of "pesticides" (year 2006)! Guess what is similar between Nestle, Cadbury and Coke? All are foreign companies selling in India. And during the current controversy over Maggi, what do you think Nestle management must be planning? If I see history, I guess that would be - a new PR campaign!

I think what must be giving comfort to Nestle is the fact that others like it have been able to successfully rehabilitate themselves after their life-threatening fiascos. Indians, who pride themselves of keeping highest standards of hygiene and purity in matters of food, it seems, don't mind keep eating chocolates with worms and soft drinks with pesticides; so why will they behave differently with noodles?

Amitabh Bachchan must be quick in denying anything fishy in campaigning for lead-infested Maggi noodles, but do you know how he played a pivotal role in “rehabilitating” Cadbury after the "worm controversy"? Yes, that is correct - when Cadbury launched a PR campaign to win back customers incensed over worms, Amitabh was a pivotal part of the advertising campaign. Till date, people remember the biggest cine star of India dancing on TV to sell some chocolates. "Kuchh meetha ho jaye?" It seems we have forgotten about worms as if those never happened… Celebrities may not have direct role in promoting ‘bad’ products, after all they also promote so many other ‘good’ products, but we can't deny how clever marketers use them to win back their lost market share - which in the long term sets a bad precedence.

I know there is an undercurrent prevalent in Indian society, though it gets weaker day-by-day. According to it, the foreign companies and MNCs keep double standards - one for the developed countries and another for the so called "third world". We can't deny there are reasons behind such thinking - till a few years ago, a lot of items like toothpastes by foreign companies did not carry an "expiry date" exclusively when selling in India (and perhaps countries like India). Things have certainly improved over time, but now there is another popular theory, especially among the young educated population – due to which people keep supporting foreign brands even though serious violations are done by those. The basic ideology is that a foreign company from a developed country can "never" do something wrong! Both approaches are extreme and I think the truth lies somewhere in between.

If Maggi wins back its market share even after compromising its product quality, will it be only by a repeat of Cadbury or Cola-Pepsi like clever marketing campaigns, or will it be by rediscovering quality control and by firing people responsible for the lowdown? Only time would tell. But the bottom line is clear - Indian consumers are being taken for a ride and the earlier we wake up, the better for us.