Happy faces, a welcoming atmosphere and warm people, it is that time of the year when the sprawling lush-green Osho Ashram lit up for the five-day Osho Spring Festival that brings artistes, painters, dancers and yogis from all across the globe under one roof. Day one of the festival started with a soothing performance of jazz and Carnatic music by Aditi Ramesh. Aditi, along with her ensemble Ishan Jadwani, Vinay Kaushal and Bijit Bhattacharya transported the audience to the world of trans with their performance on jazz, blues and Carnatic music. Aditi said, I had no plan for the performance tonight; I blended various emotions, life stories and different tunes for them. To perform in front of an audience that is so receptive to fluid and experimental music is a dream come true for an artiste like me. The festival also saw performances by Ustad Usman Khan on sitar, a creativity night, where visitors took to paintbrush and canvas to make art, a spiritual reading session, singing, spring dance and meditation etc. were the highlight of the festival. Amrit Sadhana from Osho Ashram said, It is a different world inside, people from all walks of life sing together, stay together, dance and meditate. It is a perfect ode to the spring season.

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Soaking in art, music, dance and the spirit of spring - Times of India

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New Delhi: Congress will flag off a 27-day-long Gandhi Sandesh Yatra on March 12 to mark the 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi.

The march is also being undertaken to commemorate the 90th anniversary of Mahatma Gandhis historic Dandi March, which started on March 12, 1930, and ended on April 6, 1930. The Yatra will begin from Sabarmati Ashram, Ahmedabad and will be culminating at Dandi in Gujarat on April 6, covering the 386 km route in 27 days.

Congress interim president Sonia Gandhi and party leaders Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi and Congress Chief Ministers will attend the 27-day long padayatra. On the culminating day at Dandi, public meetings will be organized which will be addressed by Sonia, Rahul, all Congress-ruled state Chief Ministers, PCC chiefs and CWC members. The objective of the yatra is to recall and recapture the spirit of Gandhis Dandi March. We will be re-establishing our resolve to protect and promote the values enshrined in our Constitution and to emulate Gandhijis thoughts especially those relating to truth, peace, non-violence and social harmony, said the Congress in a statement.

The Gandhi Sandesh Yatra will give an opportunity of making our younger generation appreciative of the great legacy that we have inherited from the Father of the Nation, it added.

The party has directed each PCC to participate for a day with their contingent of leaders making it an All India Participative Programme.

Also read: Institutions of law & order abandoned dharma, those of justice, media failed India: Manmohan

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On 90th anniversary of Dandi March, Congress to take out Gandhi Sandesh Yatra - ThePrint

Sweetness and Light the title echoes Ruth Prawer Jhabvalas Booker-winning Heat and Dust is the story of two foreigners in India to find themselves only to end up getting more lost. Every human being has a choice, Pieper writes, to be a predator, alone and cruel, or to be part of something greater. This divide, between creator and destroyer, characterises the lives of Sasha and Connor, strangers who, through a cruel twist of fate, cross paths on a sleeper train.

Connor, an Aussie expat, fled his island home after a troubled upbringing reigned over by a father who drank wildly and developed delusions of grandeur about his sons chances to become an Olympic swimmer.

Credit:

Bitter and jaded beyond his 30 or so years, he spends his days in self-imposed exile in Shanti Beach, a little-known backwater town, thieving from women, alone, not too young who arrive on the rare tour bus in search of zen, beachside meditation or a shipwreck off the coast the towns sole tourist attraction.

But his knack for criminal deception has waned, and a combination of drinking to obliteration and working for his big-fish gangster boss, Baba, has turned him into a scarecrow, every day knocking a little more stuffing out of him.

Ostensibly, Connors job is to take tourists scuba diving, but his real business lies in persuading women hes the mistake they didnt know they wanted to make. Pieper sets this up in the opening pages, with a sweeping long-shot of Connor sitting on a hill, scanning the tourists that exit a bus for the Talent, meantime being kept at arms length from the Indian locals he lives among.

One day, however, his petty but elaborate scam goes horribly wrong, and he is blackmailed by Baba into a far more dangerous plot that coerces him to travel across the country, to Chennai on the east coast. Along the way he meets Sasha, wounded by her ongoing divorce from a wealthy surgeon. Back in New York state, shes left behind a medical career as tattered as her marriage.

After being gobbled up by middle-class ennui, shes been spat out craving intimacy and spiritual awakening. Thanks to her ex-husbands bottomless pockets, she joins an ashram led by a revered guru with a personality cult that could match Stalins. Her disciples live solitarily in a crucible in the jungle, building a kingdom of sweetness and light all at a handsome price thats deducted weekly from her bank account.

Pieper is an endearing and generous storyteller. He writes fully: nearly half the book gives us the earlier lives of Sasha and Connor, both of them plagued by some cliched trouble the Alcoholic Parent but does so with sensitivity and uniqueness to look beyond its hackneyed origins. Theres a flourish of dramatic irony, too, as neither character realises the eerie similarities between their upbringings.

Sweetness and Light gives the exhausted story of Westerners driven toward the spiritual world of India a bit of punky attitude. Its belief in the undertow of karmic cycles dances gleefully between Jonestown and nirvana, refusing to preach, or drench the reader in dull mantras. Its a far cry from the Big Indian Novels, the likes of Vikram Seths A Suitable Boy, Rohinton Mistrys A Fine Balance, or even Gregory Roberts Bollywood blitz, Shantaram, which are more bitterness and dark. Instead, in Piepers entertaining tale, two lost souls roam an ancient land they barely understand.

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Two loners adrift in the mysteries of India - The Age

Sri Mata Amritanandamayi Devi (Amma) is a world-renowned humanitarian and spiritual leader. Amma is the head of the Mata Amritanandamayi Math and Embracing the World, a multi-national collective of not-for-profit organisations dedicated to providing food, clothing and shelter for the poor and needy. The Math has helped more than two-lakh women start their own home-based businesses powered by vocational training, microfinance and Self-Help Groups. Amma is also the chancellor of Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, which, in 2016, was made India's first-ever UNESCO Chair on Gender Equality & Women's Empowerment. Every day thousands of people come to seek Amma's solace, spiritual wisdom and blessings, which she gives in the form of motherly hug.

QUESTION: Amma is globally known as a spiritual leader, a guru and a humanitarian. What inspired you to take this path?

AMMA: I am a mother. Just as flowing is the nature of a river and sweetness that of a fruit, motherly compassion is my inherent nature. What can I do? That feeling of oneness is very real to me. I see others as my own self, and seeing their pain, sorrow and problems, I want to help them. It has been like this since birth. I don't feel any sense of distinction. This is just my nature. It is like how when our left hand is injured, our right hand immediately comes to its aid-to caress it and apply medicine if needed. This is because it does not see the left hand as different from itself. If we have spiritual understanding, this is how we will react when we see others suffering.

QUESTION: A lot of your work talks about peace. How do you see the relationship between women and peace?

AMMA: Women are mothers, and the mother is the first guru. Inside the womb, the child is one with the mother. The baby eats, drinks and breathes through the mother. Even after birth, that connection subtly remains. So, if mothers try, they can sow seeds of goodness and culture in their sons and daughters. Along with their breastmilk, they can impart compassion, patience, selflessness, peacefulness, etc. So, through the influence she has on her children, more than anyone else, it is mothers who influence the future of the world. A woman who has awakened her matrutvam [motherliness] turns earth into heaven, wherever she is. It is the one who rocks the cradle who holds up the lamp, shedding light upon the world.

QUESTION: Would you say that the feminine may hold the key to the survival of our species and why?

AMMA: Yes, because those motherly qualities-kindness, patience, adjusting, compassion, peace, selflessness, humility-are needed more now than ever before. Those qualities must awaken in society-in both women and in men-if we are to survive.

QUESTION: Amma is considered an "Embodiment of Pure Love," where does all this love come from?

AMMA: The source is within. Infinity is within. In fact, love is everyone's true nature. It is expression of the one True Self that is the true heart of everyone. Our lives are meant to be born in this love, to be lived in love, and to eventually end in this love. Upon this eternal love, every aspect of creation is woven like beads on a string-human beings, nature, God. The effulgence of love is thus forever within us as our very essence. Tragically, most people die without ever experiencing it. When people come to me, the love I feel for the entire universe flows towards them. For many, this is like drinking cool, pure water for the first time.

QUESTION: What is "Women's Empowerment"? Is this about gender equality, or is it more than that?

AMMA: Basically, "Women Empowerment" is something that should happen within. In truth, women are already powerful. In the Sri Lalita Sahasranama, the Divine Mother is described as iccha-sakti jnana-sakti kriya-sakti svarupini-"She whose own form is the power of will, knowledge and action." The truth is that these three powers are inherent in every woman. But many women have yet to awaken to that. Women are not helpless or weak. Society has come up with this idea and shackled them with it. But there is nothing a woman cannot do if she sets her mind to it. All that is needed is to create the right circumstances to awaken her inherent strength. Through the Women Empowerment programs of the ashram and Amrita University, we are trying to create circumstances to help this awakening. After the tsunami [in 2004], we started a program called AmritaSREE [Amrita Self-Reliance, Employment & Empowerment]. Today more than two-lakh women throughout India are enrolled. The ashram gives these women start-up capital and the skillset to start their own business.

QUESTION: What are the qualities of an empowered woman? And how can women be empowered while maintaining their femininity?

AMMA: There is nothing a woman cannot do if she sets her mind to it. Today, we see women flourishing in political, social and economic spheres. Anything a man can do, a woman can do. But women should always remain firm in their motherly nature. It is without leaving that foundation that they should strive to excel in all other fields. In our culture, we have the concept of Ardhanarisvara-God as half-woman/half-man. This shows us that completion comes when we have balanced our feminine and masculine qualities. But that doesn't mean women should imitate men in their behaviour, mannerisms and clothing.

QUESTION: Tell us something about what "Embracing the World" is.

AMMA: That is the name given to the charitable humanitarian programs of the devotees throughout the world. I have many good children who want to give selflessly give back to society. Through the ashram in India and other groups abroad, we have been able to provide many services to the poor and sick. We have constructed more than 47,000 homes for the homeless throughout India. We have provided disaster relief after tragedies like tsunamis, earthquakes, floods and cyclones. We are providing free healthcare and surgeries for the destitute. Fifty-thousands scholarships for poor children, SHGs for women, environmental clean-ups and tree-planting drives, orphanages, adopting 101 villages throughout India So many programs are there. For Amma, service to the poor and needy is service to God. You can debate whether God exists, but no rational person can claim the poor and suffering don't exist. We can see them with our own eyes. Let us do what we can to help them.

QUESTION: On International Women's Day, what is the most important message you want to send out to young women?

AMMA: Men may have more muscle power than women, but women have one muscle that make them more powerful than men. They must strengthen that muscle. It is the muscle of the heart. If women try to compete with men physically by developing their physical muscle power, it will be like trying to rectify one mistake using another mistake. This is like trying to connect two positive poles of a magnet. It will lead society nowhere. Women should remember: You are not candles that need to be lit by someone else; you are the self-effulgent sun. You are not helpless and dependent like little kittens; you should cultivate the courage and strength to roar like lions.

Original post:

Woman of Worth - India Today

New Delhi, Mar 10 (PTI) The national capital witnessed a subdued celebration of the festival of colours on Tuesday due to the threat of coronavirus, while in parts of riot-affected northeast Delhi most people played Holi inside their houses amid heavy presence of security forces on the streets.

While many chose to skip the celebrations altogether, some preferred small gatherings of friends and relatives but without colours. Some however played Holi only with ''gulal''.

Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal stayed away from Holi celebrations this year. He had earlier said that he would not play Holi this year due to the coronavirus threat and last month''s riots in northeast Delhi that claimed 53 lives.

"Happy Holi. Please take care of yourself while playing Holi. Please protect yourself from coronavirus," the chief minister said in a tweet in Hindi.

The national capital has reported four coronavirus cases so far. Health experts and government have advised people to stay away from large gatherings.

The United Residents Joint Action, the apex body of Resident Welfare Associations (RWA) of the city, had also issued an advisory against holding public engagements or ''Holi milans''.

Rita Sharma (60), a resident of Saket, said every year on Holi the E Block Central Park sees many food stalls being put up and gathering of a large number of people, but this time the celebrations were called off due to the fear of coronavirus.

While 22-year-old Bipasha Mukherjee (22) said she chose to play cards with friends than with colours due to the coronavirus threat, Vinod Kumar (30), a resident of Ashram, said he chose to play Holi without water.

"Some of my friends played Holi with water but I chose otherwise because of coronavirus," Kumar said.

Riot-affected Maujpur and Yamuna Vihar saw people playing Holi inside their residence rather on roads and streets.

There was heavy deployment of security forces across riot-hit areas of northeast Delhi. There were no reports of any untoward incident.

Sohan Pal (63), a pan shop owner, said this year there was less people on the roads on the occasion of Holi as they are struggling their bring their lives back on track after the violence.

"People still fear that there could violence again," Pal said.

Ankit Tyagi (27), a resident of Shiv Vihar, another riot-hit area, said, "Last night we celebrated ''Holika Dahan''. In the morning, we celebrated Holi with colour. People here are again trying to normalise their life after the riots." PTI NIT NOU NSD

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Subdued Holi in Delhi due to coronavirus threat - Outlook India

VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / March 9, 2020 / Commerce Resources Corp. (TSXV:CCE)(FSE:D7H0) (the "Company" or "Commerce") is pleased to announce a collaboration with CanmetMINING focused on beneficiation test work for the Ashram Rare Earth and Fluorspar Deposit. The primary objective of CanmetMINING's work on the Ashram Deposit is to identify a key approach to further enhance beneficiation performance by exploring and testing a range of potentially applicable process methods at varying test conditions. These methods are expected to include flotation, gravity separation, magnetic separation, and ore sorting, in addition to several other physical separation approaches.

Preliminary flotation results by CanmetMINING have been very encouraging with similar results (<25% mass pull and >80% recovery) to the base case flowsheet achieved while using a modified reagent scheme and test conditions that provide a cost advantage. These results continue to illustrate the versatility and optimization potential of the Ashram Deposit's flowsheet. Flotation test work is continuing, including further reagent screening, mixed collector studies, and preliminary locked cycle and reverse conditioning tests. Test programs for gravity separation and ore sorting are also being advanced through CanmetMINING.

In addition to these test programs, the Company is pleased to announce that a joint abstract by the Company and CanmetMINING titled "Mineral Processing Flowsheet Options for the Ashram Rare Earth and Fluorspar Deposit" has been accepted for presentation at the 2020 Conference of Metallurgists (COM2020) to be held August 24th to 27th in Toronto, ON. The abstract will also be expanded upon in a paper to be presented at the show.

The funding for the test work is provided by Natural Resources Canada (NRCan) through CanmetMINING's 6-year rare earth element ("REE") and chromite program, (announced in January 2015), focused on developing new extraction technologies, addressing Canadian regulations, and improving the knowledge of Canadian deposits (www.reechromite.ca). The Company's contribution to the collaboration is a supply of REE mineralized material from the Ashram Deposit, in which several tonnes remain readily available from a bulk sample completed in 2012.

The Ashram Deposit outcrops at surface, allowing for cost-effective collection of material for test work. As such, the Company is actively engaging with various research and academic institutions to support the advancement of the REE industry in Canada, and in Quebec specifically.

NI 43-101 Disclosure

Darren L. Smith, M.Sc., P.Geo., Dahrouge Geological Consulting Ltd., a Permit holder with the Ordre des Gologues du Qubec and Qualified Person as defined by National Instrument 43-101, supervised the preparation of the technical information in this news release.

About Commerce Resources Corp.

Commerce Resources Corp. is an exploration and development company with a particular focus on deposits of rare metals and rare earth elements. The Company is focused on the development of its Ashram Rare Earth Element Deposit in Quebec and the Upper Fir Tantalum-Niobium Deposit in British Columbia.

For more information, please visit the corporate website at http://www.commerceresources.com or email info@commerceresources.com.

On Behalf of the Board of Directors

COMMERCE RESOURCES CORP.

"Chris Grove" Chris Grove President and Director Tel: 604.484.2700 Email: cgrove@commerceresources.com Web: http://www.commerceresources.com

Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Forward Looking Statements

This news release contains forward-looking information which is subject to a variety of risks and uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual events or results to differ from those projected in the forward-looking statements. Forward looking statements in this press release include that CanmetMINING's work on the Ashram Deposit will identify a key approach to further enhance beneficiation performance. These forward-looking statements are subject to a variety of risks and uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual events or results to differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking information. Risks that could change or prevent these statements from coming to fruition include that CanmetMINING's work may not be successful; changing costs for mining and processing; increased capital costs; the timing and content of upcoming work programs; geological interpretations based on drilling that may change with more detailed information; potential process methods and mineral recoveries assumption based on limited test work and by comparison to what are considered analogous deposits that with further test work may not be comparable; testing of our process may not prove successful and even it tests are successful, the economic and other outcomes may not be as expected; the availability of labour, equipment and markets for the products produced; and despite the current expected viability of the project, conditions changing such that the minerals on our property cannot be economically mined, or that the required permits to build and operate the envisaged mine can be obtained. The forward-looking information contained herein is given as of the date hereof and the Company assumes no responsibility to update or revise such information to reflect new events or circumstances, except as required by law.

SOURCE: Commerce Resources Corp.

View source version on accesswire.com: https://www.accesswire.com/579537/Commerce-Resources-Corp-Announces-Metallurgical-Collaboration-with-CanmetMINING-for-the-Ashram-Deposit-Quebec

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Commerce Resources Corp. Announces Metallurgical Collaboration with CanmetMINING for the Ashram Deposit, Quebec - Benzinga

by Sukumaran C.V.

In the first week of September 2017, I was in Gandhinagar with my JNU friend who is an Assistant Professor at the Central University of Gujarat, Gandhinagar. He picked me up from the Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport, Ahmedabad and while travelling through the city, I noticed a plastic mat was draped as a wall for a long stretch preventing our view beyond it and I asked my friend what was beyond the mat wall. He replied that it is a slum and it was matt-walled in order to prevent its view from the sight of the Japanese PM Shinzo Abe who would arrive in Ahmedabad the next week.

When I visited Sabarmati Ashram and the medieval Sidi Saiyyed mosque, they were getting a facelift and my friend told me that they were beautified because the Japanese PM was scheduled to visit both the mosque and the Ashram.

When I read the news of the wall being built to block MrTrumps sight from a slum area along his route from the airport to Motera Stadium, I WhatsApped my friend and asked about it. He replied that it is the same colony that was hidden by a temporary mat wall in 2017, now being hidden by a permanent wall.

There have always been abstract walls in India, especially since Dr Manmohan Singh started the servile corporate economic policiesunder the sweet name called Liberalisation in 1991between the poor and the rich. But the Ahmedabad wall is the first instance of the abstract metamorphosing into the concrete. India is quite incredibly incredible!

Arent those people, whose presence is now hidden by a permanent wall, Indians? Can a democracy hide the underprivileged people from the sight of the VIPs who come from other democratic nations? Do those who rule the people by garnering these same peoples votes have the right to erect walls to hide their very existence from the President or Prime Minister of another nation? When elections come, wont these people who erect walls to hide the slums go to these slums asking for the votes?

Huge amounts were spent to beautify the cities which MrTrump visited. It is reported that 14,000 litres of water was released into the Yamuna in front of Taj Mahal to enable MrTrump to see the monument in a stench-free atmosphere. Yamuna and all the rivers should be stench-free. But is pumping water into the rivers the way to make them stench-free? Why dont we stop making our rivers sewers? Are only the persons like MrTrump entitled to see Taj Mahal without having inhaled the stench the people of India are forced to inhale everywhere in the so-called Swachh Bharat?

If you can spend huge amounts to pump water into rivers and to beautify the cities for the road-show of VVIPs like Trump and Modi and for useless events like Namaste Trump, why cant you spend anything to provide the slum dwellers with better living conditions? When you spend Rs 700 crores to build the Motera stadium, cant you spend at least Rs 7 crores to ameliorate the pathetic living conditions of the slum dwellers instead of insulting them by building walls to hide their very existence? When you spend Rs 2989 crores to build a Statue of Unity, why dont you spend at least Rs 200 crores to eradicate poverty and illiteracy to make the people really united?

India is the nation of Gandhi, the apostle of nonviolence, who said that I shall work for an India in which the poorest shall feel it is their country, an India in which there shall be no high class and low class of people. Can the walls that are erected to hide the very existence of the poorest help them feel it is their country? When the Father of the Nation sees the walls that have been erected between the rich and the poor in his country for whose freedom he sacrificed his life, he will be more pained than the pain the bullets of Godse inflicted on him. If the Mahatma sees the walls that are erected to hide the existence of the lesser beings of his nation, he will realise that the Swadeshi rulers are more alien than the real alien rulers who were made to quit India in 1947.

The curse of India is that our politicians/rulers, whether they belong to the Left or the Right, praise Gandhi in words and kill him in deeds.

The Ahmedabad wall reminds me of the Turkman Gate massacre during the Emergency (April 18, 1976) as a result of the demolition drive launched by Sanjay Gandhi to cleanse Delhi of its slums. When the residents of the Turkman Gate were asked to leave the colony, they refused and the police opened fire at the protesting residents and they were even run over by bulldozers. Still it is not really known how many people were massacred as the press was not allowed to cover the incident. The government, that was Indira Gandhi and her son, ordered the newspapers not to publish the news about the massacre. And Indians came to know about the massacre through the foreign media!

John Dayal and Ajoy Bose write in their book For Reasons of State: Delhi Under the Emergency: The 16 bulldozers kept on moving. They did not stop that night, nor the next day or night. In fact the bulldozers worked round the clock till April 22, till they had decimated all signs of life as well as death in Turkman Gate.

The rubble was scooped up into trucks and thrown behind the Ring Road every day where buzzards and jackals were seen rummaging through the rubble. Only the stink of stale meat which hung for days together over the thrown rubble remained to tell the story of the life and death struggle of the people of Turkman Gate.

After Indira Gandhi was ousted from power in March 1977, the Janata Party Government appointed the Shah Commission to inquire about the Turkman Gate massacre. The Commission indicted many bureaucrats and Congressmen like Pranab Mukherjee. The report was particularly scathing of Indira Gandhi, her son Sanjay Gandhi, Pranab Mukherjee, Bansi Lal, Kamal Nath and officers belonging to civil services who helped Sanjay Gandhi.

After Indira Gandhi returned to power in January 1980, she tried to destroy every single copy of the Shah Commission report and she virtually succeeded in her mission. And we know how prosperous were the political careers of people like Mukherjee, Bansi Lal and Kamal Nath. (Era Sezhiyan published Shah Commission Report: Lost, and Regained in 2011.)

The Modi era of India seems to be marked by continuous deaths of the citizens on the streets. First it was street lynchings; then people died standing in queues as a result of demonetisation. Then came the CAA and people started to be killed on the streets of UP. Now it has virtually become communal riots in Delhi. India has been scourged by communal riots in British era as a result of their divide and rule policy. The lack of unity among the Indians as a nation resulted in the greatest tragedy in the history of the sub-continentthe Partition of India. Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, who was the greatest opponent of Jinnahs two-nation theory and fought the Partition of India tooth and nail until the last moment, said in a statement he issued, as the President of the Indian National Congress, on April 15, 1946: I have considered from every possible point of view the scheme of Pakistan as formulated by the Muslim League. As an Indian I have examined its implications for the future of India as a whole. As a Muslim I have examined its likely effects upon the fortunes of Muslims of India. Considering the scheme in all its aspects I have come to the conclusion that it is harmful not only for India as a whole but for Muslims in particular. And in fact it creates more problems than it solves....Two states confronting one another, offer no solution of the problem of one anothers minorities, but only lead to retribution and reprisals by introducing a system of mutual hostages. (Quoted from his autobiography India Wins Freedom)

We have been witnessing the retribution and reprisals of the system of mutual hostages the Partition of India permanently created in 1947, ever since. Delhi 2020 is its latest manifestation. As long as the religious, sectarian and exclusive politics rule the roost, India will not stop witnessing people dying on the streets.

As the communal tension in India is having a larger historic context, it cant be solved nationally. When an untoward incident happens in India, its repercussions are felt in the villages of Bangladesh (and Pakistan) as described by Taslima Nasrin in her novel Lajja written in the backdrop of the Babri Masjid demolition. The best method to solve the communal hatred the Indian subcontinent chronically experiences ever since the Partition of India is to form a federation of the sibling nationsIndia, Pakistan and Bangladesheach nation committing to the safety of the religious minorities in it. Such a mechanism may help the systematic disintegration of the religious intolerance in each sibling nation and strengthen the secular democracy that is throttled in India today, and has never been allowed to flourish in Pakistan and Bangladesh.

A former JNU student, the author is now working as a senior clerk in the Kerala State Government Service.

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A Nation that Segregates and Kills the Less Privileged - Mainstream

By ANI

NEW DELHI: Congress will flag off a 27-day-long 'Gandhi Sandesh Yatra'on March 12 to mark the 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi.

The march is also being undertaken to commemorate the 90th anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi's historic Dandi March, which started on March 12, 1930, and ended on April 6, 1930.

The Yatra will begin from Sabarmati Ashram, Ahmedabad and will be culminating at Dandi in Gujarat on April 6, covering the 386 km route in 27 days.

Congress interim president Sonia Gandhi and party leaders Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi and Congress Chief Ministers will attend the 27-day long padayatra. On the culminating day at Dandi, public meetings will be organized which will be addressed by Sonia, Rahul, all Congress-ruled state Chief Ministers, PCC chiefs and CWC members.

The objective of the yatra is to recall and recapture the spirit of Gandhi's Dandi March. "We will be re-establishing our resolve to protect and promote the values enshrined in our Constitution and to emulate Gandhiji's thoughts especially those relating to truth, peace, non-violence and social harmony," said the Congress in a statement.

"The Gandhi Sandesh Yatra will give an opportunity of making our younger generation appreciative of the great legacy that we have inherited from the Father of the Nation," it added.

The party has directed each PCC to participate for a day with their contingent of leaders making it an 'All India Participative Programme'.

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Congress to take out 'Gandhi Sandesh Yatra' to mark 90th anniversary of Dandi March - The New Indian Express

Sunil Singhs car was following ours when he called me to find out where we were.

About to reach the ashram, I replied.

Are you in a black car?

Yes, I said.

Im in the car behind you.

Raul and I pulled over and he joined us in our car.

We exchanged pleasantries. He couldnt place me till he saw me. I had visited the ashram a couple of years earlier to do a story about how a certain segment of humanity is the cows biggest enemy. As we entered the ashram now, illuminated by warm sodium lights under the red sky of a dying day, our surroundings had an occult-like quality. I wondered, is this a temple to the cow? For sure, its a retreat or an old-age home for cows. In a state of general excitement, I began explaining to Sunil what science had to say, that cows and dogs, followed by perhaps the horse, were the earliest friends of mankind.

Sunil is a big guy with a stout, solid torso that supports an enormous round, balding head. He looks like he might have been a wrestler, though he has never wrestled. Sunil was barely five years old when he joined Ramesh Baba, the spiritual leader and founder of this ashram, in the late 1980s. Since then, he has been here, working day in and day out, and has risen through the ranks to become, for all practical purposes, the ashrams chief executive officer. He shares some of his management responsibilities with two other influential men deputed by Ramesh Baba.

Sunils face glows in the fading light of the day. His menacing figure belies an affable disposition. Hes a vegetarian and does not consume any mind-altering substances, not even tobacco. He has a certain reputation in the region. People know him, and those who know him revere him. Its the kind of reverence thats laced with more fear than love.

Particularly in the Hindi heartland, with its patriarchal, feudalistic traditions, it is muscle power and grit that keep a set-up like this running. Sunil is capable of defending the ashram; hes not dependent on the police like an ordinary citizen. The local cops treat him like a mafia man who can pull strings in the corridors of power. The chief minister of the day is eager to travel to the ashram to meet him and his guru, Ramesh Baba, who, Sunil informed us, was not well.

******

Sunil, it turned out, was not a diehard fan of Yogi Adityanath. Its not that Yogi Adityanaths cow vigilantism is not effective, he said. Gau-taskari or the smuggling of cows has come down. It is now 70 per cent of what it had been a year ago. But that means there are 30 per cent more cows on the streets in this region. Not that anyone notices it, for cows have always been around. You cant miss them as they eat garbage and plastic bags in the suburban landscape, or stand listlessly in the middle of the road as if their journey had ended just there. The piles of garbage, the snake charmers and the revered cows on the streets of India have, in fact, fascinated visitors since the times of Rudyard Kipling.

Sunil was not happy about the rise in the number of abandoned cows. Theres a limit to how many cows he can accommodate in this ashram. They are abandoned like the widows of Vrindavan, left to fend for themselves when they are past their prime, just when they need to be cared for the most. They are sacred, mother-like, not to be killed for meat, but they are abandoned to starvation and disease. The inherent sacredness of a cow and the treatment it receives is typical of India, a country of glorious contradictions.

Sunil said that farmers are not happy with so many abandoned cows strolling around. They are everywhere, like pests, and they enter farms, trample on the crops and destroy them.

Its a big problem here, he said. Some farmers, mostly Hindu, are then forced to bring in people who are part of the supply chain of the tanneries in the neighbouring areas. Mathuras neighbouring district of Agra is a leather industry hub.

******

Two years ago, Sunil had told me that one or two cows are stolen every day. He carried out a bit of an investigation to learn who the culprits were. They were poor people, mostly Hindus. One of them, caught red-handed, was a Hindu boy in his late teens. He would sell the stolen cows across the border in Rajasthan for their hides. Each dead cow would fetch the locals at least a couple of thousand rupees useful to run the household for a month or two.

This young boy was not handed over to the police. Instead, Sunil asked him, as reparation, to help in the construction of a local temple for a few months. Locals tend to carry out Sunils decree without protest.

Two years later, his version has changed a bit. Both Hindus and Muslims steal cows, he said, more democratic now about the religious identity of those who commit this crime. Though, both Muslims and Hindus commit the crime, they have different roles. Muslims kill the cows and Hindus facilitate the killing. The economic benefits come to Hindus as well because they are the traders, while Muslims do the dirty work. And of course, Hindus dont eat beef. They kill those who eat beef, Sunil laughed. This was not funny.

He made some innovative suggestions that Im sure he will communicate to Yogi Adityanath when he meets him next. One such idea is a subsidy on cow dung. Cow dung has been the main source of fuel for cooking in the Indian hinterland for centuries. Every part of a cow, alive or dead, is useful. Cow urine, for instance, has been found to be beneficial in a host of medical conditions such as diabetes, blood pressure, asthma, psoriasis and many more.

The father of the nation, Mahatma Gandhi, was categorical about cow protection. To him, Mother cow was in many ways better than the mother who gave us birth, and therefore, he said, Cow protection is the gift of Hinduism to the world and Hinduism will live so long as there are Hindus to protect the cow. Gandhi had a message which is now relevant for the lumpen cow vigilante groups, who dont protect cows and kill humans. Gandhi had said: I would not kill a human being for the protection of a cow, as I will not kill a cow to save a human life, be it ever so precious. In other words, the life of a cow is as valuable as that of a human being, but this should not lead to bloodshed.

No politician has done anything for the cow, Sunil said in Hindi. They only do lip service, but there is nothing on the ground. Akhilesh Yadav did nothing, neither has Yogi. And then, he added after a long pause, Ab tak (so far).

Because there is no sincerity in the way cows are treated, there is a general decline in all spheres of life, Sunil pointed out, particularly the environment. The Yamuna is polluted. The natural systems are contaminated. People are dying early; hepatitis B is on the rise. Something is wrong, he said, sounding impassioned, as if something sinister were about to unfold in the land of Krishna. Modi has not taken the time to do something for the river Yamuna, he said. The real gau-rakshak is not happy. Yogi tries to be the thekedar of Hindus, but has only done lip service. Gau-raksha is only a political gimmick. Sunil was unrelenting in his criticism. Nothing is happening on the ground.

Extracted from the chapter, Mathura: The Real Gau-rakshak, of the book (Westland).

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Cows, cows, everywhere: An extract from Love Jihadis: An Open-minded Journey into the Heart of Western Uttar Pradesh - The Hindu

A book on the life and times of Ma Anand Sheela, former aide to infamous spiritual guru Osho Rajneesh, will hit the stands by second-half of this year, announced Penguin Random House India on Friday.

Sheela Birnstiel, who goes by the moniker Ma Anand Sheela, got into spotlight after the Netflix documentary series Wild Wild Country. She managed the Rajneeshpuram ashram in Wasco County, Oregon, and was the personal secretary of Osho from 1981-1985.

The biography, titled By My Own Rules, beside laying bare details of Sheela and her role in the rise and fall of the godman Osho empire, attempts to present readers with an "unwaveringly honest view of her life after Osho". "It takes a lot of courage for any publishing house to work with someone with my history-for I am no writer; I am simply narrating my life. I believe that experiences are, at times, mightier than literature," said Sheela on her upcoming book. The 70-year-old, who was alleged to be the primary perpetrator of the 1984 Rajneesh bio-terror attack in Oregon, post the attack fled to Europe as a fugitive accused of arson, wiretapping, attempted murder, and mass poisonings.

Later, she pleaded guilty to attempted murder and assault for her role and was sentenced to 20 years in federal prison and paroled after 39 months. Presently, she runs homes for the disabled and elderly in Switzerland.

"Ma Anand Sheela is unconventional, fearless, strong, and spirited. She has had an adventurous and extraordinary life, and has always lived it on her own terms.

"By My Own Rules is her memoir in which she talks about her life and work in Switzerland, her family, her memories of Bhagwan Rajneesh and what continues to drive her to live her dream even today," said Milee Ashwarya, publisher, Ebury Publishing and Vintage Publishing, Penguin Random House India.

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Book on controversial spiritual guru Ma Anand Sheela to hit stands soon - THE WEEK