Many years back, a struggle to get my dues held up by corrupt government employees taught me a few lessons.

First, do not underestimate the power of the corrupt because they are well connected, influential and can make your life miserable. Initially, I undermined those government employees and took them head on, quite literally using muscle-power, and consequently ended up complicating the problem.

Second, the corrupt compelled me to think out of the box and made me an ardent student of the history of freedom movement. I found that the nexus between corrupt officials, businessmen, politicians, police, and criminals make India more or less like the British Raj where the stake holders allow the rotten system to continue. Consequently, most of the participants in the movement could not sustain the struggle for more than 2-3 years; some were hanged and killed, some suffered rigorous imprisonment, few escaped to distant lands to carry on the armed struggle and perished. Finally, there was only one group left that took the struggle to a logical conclusion.

This group taught me how one can take the struggle to a logical conclusion and I won.

However, as a student of history of this unique movement, many questions came to my mind regarding the role of Mr. Savarkar and his party men, which I found a bit strange. The more I read about them and watch their movies – Savarkar and Godse Gandhi Ek Yudh – those questions crop up.

I believe that those who appreciate their (Mr Godse’s and Mr Savarkar’s) efforts, can answer these few questions. I have grouped the two gentlemen together because their followers are the same.

1. We all know Mr Savarkar sought mercy from British, which appears to be a desperate plea. His supporters justify this plea. However, a pertinent question arises; which movement he launched or supported for the freedom of India, after his release in 1924 and up till 1947? For instance, Gandhiji during the period launched Civil disobedience movement, Non-Cooperation movement, Swadeshi movements to Boycott British cloth, foreign liquor, spread the Khadi movement, launched number of farmers’ movements, Champaran movement, Salt Satyagraha, and supported many movements for the entry of Dalits in temples. What did Mr. Savarkar do for the freedom of his country during almost two decades after he was released by the British?
2. Congress and Gandhiji are called by the supporters of Mr. Godse and Mr. Savarkar as British stooges. But then why did the Hindu Mahasabha leader along with Jinnah and Ambedkar attend the roundtable conference in the 1930s on the invitation of the British government when Congress had boycotted the conference? The Cong leaders were under arrest due to the civil disobedience movement for India’s freedom at the time and it was widely known that this conference was called by the British to pursue their agenda and not freedom. What purpose did the Hindu Mahasabha leader serve in attending a roundtable conference, which was not convened to give independence to India?

3. After this Conference, the Muslims’ demands, called as Communal award, were accepted by the British. This award guaranteed separate electorate to them and thereafter, the British announced separate electorate for backward Hindus. What did Mr Savarkar and Hindu Mahasabha do to compel the British to take back this award? For instance, when British government granted separate electorate to backward Hindus in 1932, Gandhiji set on a fast unto death to make sure that the British were unable to divide the Hindu society. This led to the signing of the Poona Pact. What did the Hindu Mahasabha do to stop this division of the Hindu society?
4. Why did the Hindu Mahasabha form Provincial governments in alliance with the Muslim League who was demanding partition of India? On the one hand, Mr. Savarkar was opposing the demand of partition and on the other aligning with League for power. Is this not blatant hypocrisy on the part of the Hindu Mahasabha?
5. Why did Mr Savarkar and his party oppose the Quit India movement and wrote a letter to the British Government to take stringent action against the participants. This movement called ‘Do or Die movement’ was launched by Gandhiji after the British had failed to secure the Indians’ support for World War-II. This was a golden opportunity, because Subash Chandra Bose’s INA was fighting the British from outside and from within, the entire country had risen. Then why did Mr. Savarkar let it go and instead resorted to petty politicking and gleefully announce that Quit India was a failure?
6. As soon as Gandhiji announced the Quit India movement the British acted swiftly and arrested the entire Congress leadership. Nonetheless, hundreds of railways stations and police stations were burnt and one lakh Indians were imprisoned. So was it not Mr Savarkar’s responsibility as a patriot to take up the leadership of the movement burying all the political differences?
7. During the Quit India movement, Mr. Savarkar once again stood alongside Muslim league which supported the war. What does that indicate about Savarkar’s character?
8. It does not take much time to understand the true nature of our bosses or senior managers, so by that logic how could Sardar Patel, C RajagopalaChari, Dr Radhakrishnan etc be so naïve and stupid that even after working with Gandhiji for so long they could not understand that Gandhiji was a British stooge and a characterless man, as accused by Mr Savarkar and his supporters. There are hundreds of pictures of Sardar Patel sitting next to Gandhiji, as late as January 1948 listening to Gandhiji with apt attention. Do these pictures and even the written correspondence indicate that Sardar considered Bapu a characterless man and a British stooge? No they don’t.
9. For a solid 23 years, between 1924 and 1947, all Mr. Savarkar did through his writings and speeches was to create more divisions between Hindus and Muslims, thereby making impossible to attain unity which was very essential to keep India united. The question then arises - was he not helping the British cause of DIVIDE AND RULE and making Jinnah’s task easier? Perhaps accusing Gandhiji for being a British agent became a political necessity primarily to hide their own embarrassment.
10. So, was it finally the frustration of Mr Savarkar, Godse and many of their supporters that led to the murder of Gandhiji? It appears that all their efforts including to defame the old man and to derail the freedom movement had failed and the old man finally took the movement to its logical conclusion.
11. Why did Dr Ambedkar write in his book ‘Thoughts on Pakistan’ that Savarkar’s suggestions on Muslims’ issues are strange and dangerous for India’s safety and security as both Jinnah and Savarkar are saying the same thing that there are two nations in India?
12. Why Mr. Savarkar and his party, mainly composed of Brahmins, did not support Dr Ambedkar’s non-violent movement for Dalit’s entry in Nasik’s Kalaram Mandir?
13. Why did the Hindu Mahasabha never launch a movement like Gandhiji and Dr Ambedkar to force upper caste Hindus to open temples for Dalits? Was it because Mr Savarkar did not wish to disturb the Upper caste members of Hindu Mahasabha?

It is not understood why this movie been named -Gandhi Godse ek Yudh. A difference of opinion cannot be termed Yudh. Bipin Chandra Pal, Lala Lajpat Rai, Bose, Sardar Patel, Nehru and many others including Bhagat Singh had difference of opinion with Gandhiji on many aspects, but they did not treat that as Yudh and resorted to his murder. They all rather continued in their common mission to fight against British.

So, it apparently looks that some people deliberately want this to be turned into a Yudh in order to justify a murder done in National interest.

However, the above questions clearly indicate that Mr Savarkar and his partymen hardly ever acted in National interest.

Honesty, integrity, nonviolence, justice, fair play, and love, are the values that are the bedrock of any society and those leaders who uphold those values need to be our role models and not those who indulge in conspiracies and murders. If we as a society are ready to welcome and celebrate rapists (see what happened in Gujarat) and murders, then be prepared for the worst.

On August 16, 2021, A 24-year-old rape survivor who had accused Bahujan Samaj Party, MP in 2019 of rape, set herself ablaze , in front of the Supreme Court of India. She is now dead. 

Sadly, in India We are busy dividing people and scratching old wounds instead on focusing on issues that have an impact on the common man’s life - our own lives. Surprisingly, no one demands ; Rule of the law.

There is not a single country which doesn’t have an unpleasant History of wars, of subjugation, of deprivation; USA, UK, Japan, China, Germany, Italy, Switzerland …each one of them have historical grievances and many nations have one or more communities who might be carrying grouses and complains against the other. But by and large their politics worked to make peoples life better and that’s why they have prospered and are today developed, where millions of Indians have migrated and do not wish to return.

However, in India we find even after 70 years of independence we have not come to terms with our history. We have, despite our founding fathers making all efforts to move on ahead in life and look towards better future we are still stuck in our past and do not bother about the PRESENT. We love scratching and creating wounds.

The victim after being humiliated by the Police and Judiciary set herself ablaze before writing a “dying declaration” or the final complaint against the legal system, indicting the police and the judiciary for stripping her of dignity.

Just becoming a Three trillion or a Five trillion economy is not going to make life pleasant, unless the WE THE PEOPLE OF THE NATION demand from ourPoliticians to reform the entire Law enforcement system ; the Police, the investigation agencies and the Judiciary.

Such incidents tarnish the image of the society as well as the Nation and No amount of shouting lungs out that We are an old civilisation and a cultured society is going to help till such incidents keep taking place regularly in our cities. 

Its high time we focus on our PRESENT that will surely make our Future Better, instead of Past that will ruin our Present as well as Future. In this regard attention is drawn to the previous article ; 

For How Long Our Police Will Continue to Be Indifferent?https://www.bharatamrising.com/for-how-long-our-police-will-continue-to-be-indifferent.

Also read ; 

 https://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/columns/justice-in-rape-cases-legal-system-reform-sexual-impunity-7477119/?utm_source=newzmate&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=opinion&pnespid=A65_p0oLQBexJL70WSXba0zznA4XmdoGOOeamOKU

Fruits and vegetables play an essential role in a healthy diet by serving as a source of phytonutrients such as carotenoids, cyclic compounds, indoles, polyphenols, and various other secondary metabolites as well as micronutrients such as vitamins and minerals assisting in performing multiple biological activities in day to day life.

Health advisors and dieticians insist on the consumption of a majority of these fruits and vegetables in raw form in order to retain the complete phytochemicals and nutrients profiles that are otherwise lost during cooking or other processes. Mental health can also be improved by consuming raw vegetables and fruits.

Even WHO also while emphasising on Food safety says ; Food safety, nutrition and food security are inextricably linked. Unsafe food creates a vicious cycle of disease and malnutrition, particularly affecting infants, young children, elderly and the sick.

As of now we are cruising through a pandemic and therefore, besides the sanitization and hygiene, we must also be aware of other aspects related to Food safety, because only an aware citizen can fight and demand for his/ her rights ;

One. The sanitization /decontamination of vegetables and fruits is an important part of our food safety which needs to be taken care of, with utmost diligence as we consume these daily. 

Unfortunatelly, in our country most of the citizens are neither aware of contamination in vegetables and fruits nor about the harm that they can cause. This is primarily, due to the lack of concern and indifference towards citizens' health by the govt machinery and social organizations.

Most of the Fruits and vegetables that we consume are highly contaminated with pesticides residual and heavy metals resulting in increased number of patients of cancer and other related diseases like Alzheimer, diabetes and reproductive problems.

One can easily estimate the amount of harmful pesticides that must be getting into our stomach/ digestive system annually when we look at the survey report conducted in 2019. It said ; An average Indian consumes approx 11.8 kg of Fruits ( Rural areas – 9.6 kg and Urban areas 15.6 kg) and 76.1 kg of vegetables( Rural areas 74.3 kgs and Urban areas – 79.1kgs). per year .

We need to be aware and careful while consuming – green chillies, cauliflower, cabbage, brinjal, tomatoes and coriander, as they are the most contaminated vegetables. Similarly, the most contaminated fruits are – banana, apples, grapes and exotic fruits. These have harmful pesticides residual and heavy metals like lead, nickel, copper beyond permissible limits that can also remain in our body for years and cause irreparable damage to our digestive/ nervous system.

Two. In order to ensure Food safety, the government has laid down some regulations and established regulatory bodies, like : Prevention of food adulteration act 1955 [PFA], Food safety and standard act 2006 [FSA] , Food safety and standard regulations 2010 [ FSSR] and off course the FSSAI (Food Safety and Standard Authority of India ) which is the main Regulatory Body for the enforcement of these laws.

Although, the Government has created the Rules and the Regulatory bodies like FSSAI which has laid down maximum residual limits {MRL} of all registered pesticides and insecticides, making it mandatory for all the producers of food products to comply with the laid down MRL and adhere to other rules established in PFA and FSSR, it has also appointed inspectors who have the authority to test products for the adherence to the MRL, But all these rules and bodies have grossly failed to serve the purpose, for which they were created.

This has happened primarily because very limited sampling and testing is done on fruits and vegetables, which are mostly contaminated beyond MRL of pesticides and insecticide and also because most of these tests samples are majorly drawn at the Retail supplier end - from sweet shops, grocery stores or restaurants and packaged food items.

In view of the above shortcomings we must together help in improving the national food system and the legal framework and implement adequate infrastructure to manage food safety risks. And as Martin Luther King once said ; Our lives begin to end the day we become silent to things that matter, our Health is surely a matter of importance that we cannot remain silent about… It concerns our own life, our children, our parents and our friends.

Author ; Mr Pankaj Bhatnagar has a huge experience behind him, having spent almost 40 years in the  Food and Agriculture Industry. He has served the industry for such a long period that he is well aware of its nitty gritties and the problems/challenges that Indian agriculture and the farmers face, consequently he is able to provide a Holistic view of the various aspects that have an impact on Indian agriculture and Food industry.

DISCLAIMER

Views expressed above are the author's own

Covid times have taught us lessons the harsh way. Be it the Covid appropriate behavior, or your personal investment choices so as to keep your family safe and running, in case the disaster strikes.

In some cases the person lived to correct the wrong , but certain people were not lucky enough to return from the hospital bed and reassess the investments they had done.

Same applies for Insurance policies – term life, Health, Medical, Insurance against Home loans in case the subscriber dies etc., there is an endless list of providers fleecing the customers with lucrative looking , GOLD plated policies.

Once a person dies, and his family reaches out to Insurance company for redressal, then only one comes to know the terms and conditions that were agreed on the policy and in most of the cases if not all, the claim is rejected owing to some reason or the other - written with * asterisk and in small letters at the bottom of the policy.

Surprisingly, most of the reasons for claim rejection are flimsy such as the person did not die in a hospital, cause of death is not covered as a critical disease in the agreed terms and conditions of the policy and many more such reasons.

One such intimation received very recently from HDFC ERGO  who died due to Covid says the following-

“With reference to the Critical Illness Claim No RR-CI21-12460458 , we have scrutinized the same with respect to policy terms & conditions. We regret to inform you that Your claim has been declined due to below mentioned reason.: As per the submitted documents, insured died due to cardiopulmonary arrest, acute respiratory distress syndrome, multiple organ dysfunction syndrome, covid 19. As the said ailments are not covered under Critical Illness enlisted in SECTION 3. MAJOR MEDICAL ILLNESS & PROCEDURES of policy terms and conditions, hence this claim is being repudiated in the light of above. The illness covered under Critical Illness and Procedures are: : (1) Cancer (2) End Stage Renal Failure (3) Multiple Sclerosis (4) Major Organ Transplant (5) Heart Valve Replacement (6) Coronary Artery Bypass Graft (7) Stroke ( Paralysis (9) Myocardial Infarction”.

Some one got to ask them how the hell one would know in 2016, time when policy was taken that there would be a pandemic COVID-19 and millions will die due to this.None must have heard the name of this disease then.

Or , did the insurance company ever cared to let the subscribers know in 2020 when the pandemic spread to get their policies upgraded to cover this illness.

There is a need to use all possible means to raise concerns so that the Voices of those facing the consequences of this irrationale policies be heard.

The Judiciary must take up this issue suo moto so that the families who have lost near and dear ones, Lost the only earning member in the family and  struggling to save their household, pay back the home loans , pay the education expenses of their Children are taken care off.