Ram Rajya, What Does It Mean?

The BJP has been talking about Ram Rajya for years now.
I have asked many a right winger what that means, but they cannot say beyond good government, points out A Ganesh Nadar.

Did Babur actually destroy a temple to build a mosque?

How many mosques did he actually build?

These questions have haunted me since 1991. Now that we are done with the Ram temple inauguration, we can move on with governance.

It was quite a build up with the prime minister ditching his official duties, going on a pilgrimage to South India for 11 days. The highlights being sleeping on the floor and drinking coconut water.

My Uber driver reminded me that the poor sleep on the floor all their life and cannot afford coconut water. Now the question remains, how this will translate to votes for the BJP?

In the good old days, long long ago, when we were ruled by kings, they built temples for their people to pray and for God to guide them to provide good governance for the citizens.

The BJP has been talking about Ram Rajya for years now. I have asked many a right winger what that means, but they cannot say beyond good government.

I have never experienced good government.

Now that we are done with Bal Ram who has been consecrated, let's move on to another 'Bal' -- Balveer Singh, an Indian Police Service officer who pulled out the teeth of accused in petty cases in south Tamil Nadu police stations.

Balveer Singh -- an IIT-Bombay almunus -- was suspended by the Tamil Nadu government after the torture came to light. His suspension has now been revoked though he has been charge-sheeted for multiple offences of torture.

The state government says you cannot keep an officer under suspension for long periods. Balveer Singh should have been dismissed from service, and a review of the training of IPS officers conducted. How could such an officer pass through the system undetected?

Is this good governance?

Floods caused havoc in Chennai and in southern Tamil Nadu. This was a particularly destructive monsoon we witnessed.

While Chennai has recovered, the South, I discovered on recent travels, is still reeling while the state government is busy fighting a media war with the BJP.

Two bridges constructed in the last decade collapsed while a bridge across the same river, which also serves as a dam and was built in 1941, continues to stand proudly.

The state government needs to send some of its engineers to England to study the building of bridges.

While the BJP was busy inaugurating a temple, Mamata Banerjee was conducting a harmony event for all religions. She should concentrate on getting rid of poll violence in her state, which was started by the Commmunists who made every election a war.

12th Fail, Vidhu Vinod Chopra's film, made me realise that the selection into India's civil services depends not only on your intelligence, but also on the whims of five men and women who constitute the selection panel.

I had bought a ticket to watch Main Atal Hoon on the morning of January 22. The show was cancelled because of the temple inauguration.

I was disappointed -- I prefer watching Atal Bihari Vajpayee any day to Narendra Modi.

Feature Presentation: Ashish Narsale/Rediff.com