PEACEFUL INDUSTRIALIZATION

In the middle of an assembly session our honorable chief minister gets surprised to see something under the red carpets in Odisha assembly. He suddenly passes a resolution to put a break in assembly proceedings. This time the opposition is not allowed to run a symbolic assembly. The media can not break into in to the matter so as the MLAs of the ruling party. Rato raat our CM calls for an expert geological team and the team hands over their report after one week. The people of Odisha eagerly wait the outcome of the report thinking a danger prevailing in the assembly premises.

But after 15 days the CM addresses the media with a smile on his face because the geological team finds large deposits of Diamond in assembly soil and our CM was the 1^st one to discover the trace of shining metal from a hole created on the floors under the red carpet. The news spreads like a wild fire and every one in the cabinet gets very happy because after chromite, iron and so many ores finally we have a diamond deposit.

The next day CM signs an MOU with a multinational company. As a firm believer of industrialization he assures rapid acquisition of land. The other day almost all the leading news papers come up with a headline”Multicrore diamond factory is to be set up in Assembly premises”.

Then the most difficult stage of land acquisition comes to picture. The cabinet decides to shift the assembly house to a new place. The opposition stages a dharna demanding shifting of the project to another place. But the Government decides not to alter the location and assures good compensation packages for every affected person. The ministers also get in deep thinking to shift their offices. In the mean while the agitation of the opposition continues and the fury takes a violent mode. The state takes the help of police department saying that the agitators are not the legal owners of the land. The police brutality touches to extreme point and the agitators start taking the pinch. The next day all the newspapers quote CM “Negotiations are still on and we want peaceful industrialization”.

Religion of poor

The much awaited verdict of Ayodhya is yet again delayed, thanks to our slow legal procedures. Both Hindus and Muslims are eagerly looking forward to the never ending drama of Babri Masjid and Ram Temple. But in a time when country is facing serious internal conflicts and when “Mehangai” is on the rise what does this Verdict mean to the common man?

It took almost 18 years to come to a conclusion. The court will decide whether there was a Ram temple before the Mosque was demolished. However the total expenses of the trials should also be mentioned in the Verdict. At least the common man must know how costly the conflict of religion is? This much of amount could have done a greater bit of development in the smaller town like Ayodhya. Despite of the fact that Ayodhya has been in the centre stage of national politics for the last 20 years, politicians have showed less interest in development of Ayodhya. The state politics has also revolved around the issue. That clearly indicates that the political group is the sole beneficiary of the religion clash.

Since independence India has witnessed political upsurge relating religion, caste, sub caste and lots of separating factors. But among all the speculation of development of poor we have achieved very less. In every five years we see political rhetoric regarding eradication of poverty. But once the elections are over, most of the programs only lie in red files. The remaining programs only help corrupt official taking advantage to gain money. As a result the number of people living below poverty lines in not remarkably decreasing. Lots of factors like political instability, inflation are also not adding salt in the wounds of the poor.

Surprisingly after 64 years after independence we witness people dying of hunger and poverty. Hardly there will be any developing country that can race with us in this context. One side of the coin shows that we have number of billionaires where as the other part of the coin shows that we have 50% of our population who lives below poverty lines. Neither lord Ram nor Prophet Mohammad could have ever wished their followers fighting for hunger.

The political class always desires to divide the people on the name of religion and taking the advantage. The battle of religion has devastated the socio economic condition of the communities in the past. And the battle of religion still continues to harm the normal public.

Religion is baseless for the people who still struggle for a square meal a day. Religion is baseless for the people who are still deprived of medical facilities. Rather than fighting for the religion all Indians should declare a war against poverty which seems never disappearing.