Tuesday 29 May 2018

For Voter - Voters' Vote Protection Act


As a voter I am bombarded with rights of a citizen to vote. Voter is questioned for his role in democracy, if he is not voting.

However, after voting, the political parties start making permutation and combination for formation of Government in the State (i.e. Karnataka, India) based on their conveniences.

I voted (a scenario for discussion) to Janata Dal (Secular). I may have my opinion that Janata Dal (Secular) should not be associated with Congress / Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

Clarity: there was no pre poll alliance with either parties.

Post election, Janata Dal (Secular) received minor mandate.

Nevertheless, to form a Government and teach BJP a lesson, Congress with 78 seats supported JD (S) with 37 seats. BJP could not form since they lacked the mandate for forming Government.

Objective was simple, Congress wanted to remind BJP about Goa and Meghalaya.

Final Tally (Karnataka 2018 elections):
Party
Seats
BJP
104
INC
78
JD(S)
37
BSP
1
K P Janatha Party*
1
Independent
1
Total
222
    K P - Karnataka Pragnyavantha

My question:
I vote based on the pre-poll standing / alliances.
If there is a post poll alliance which was not declared to me as a voter, I should have the right to decide whether my vote still goes to the party.
As a voter for me, if, leader of a political party to whom I voted goes into post poll alliance that will tantamount to anti-defection. Because I voted based on conditions prevailing till election date.
The politicians for safeguarding their interest came out with Anti Defection Law vide 52nd Amendment in 1985. The Law states:
“A member would incur a disqualification under paragraph 2 (1) (a) when he “voluntarily gives up his membership of a party” and under 2 (1) (b) when he/she votes (or abstains from voting) contrary to the directive issued by the party.”
Similar provisions should be there for voters when there is a post poll alliance, based on the need for forming the Government.
Voter should have right to ask election commissioner and consider his vote null and void.
In other words we want "Voters' Vote Protection Act".
In the case of Karnataka, I borrow this question of Nikhil Wagle, “Will the voter now accept their post-poll alliance?”
Let me answer Mr. Wagle many voters will not accept such post poll alliances?
The political party leaders will not give a dime of consideration to the voters. Proof is the below arrogant statement from H D Kumaraswamy (JD (S) Karnataka Chief Minister):
“The people of the state rejected me and our party. I had sought an absolute majority. I have heard the statements of farm leaders too and how much they supported me,” he said. “Mine is not an independent government. I had requested the people to give me a mandate that prevents me from succumbing to any pressure other than you. But today I am at the mercy of the Congress. I am not under the pressure of the 6.5 crore people of the state.
Now question to the leaders of political parties:
“Why are we bombarded with our rights to vote?”
I reiterate my earlier stand in my blog, citizens please vote but press NOTA (None Of The Above) button.
Clarification: I am a voter from Maharashtra. The above is a food for thought.
 Source:

Wednesday 23 May 2018

My Learning - On The Shortness of Life

On reading "On The Shortness Of Life" by Seneca (translated by John W Basore) left me wondering and reflected on importance of time. Time which we always rate highly and let it go lightly.

My learning from the "On The Shortness Of Life" is listed:

Chapter 1

"life is short, art is long;"

“It is not that we have a short space of time, but that we waste much of it.”

Chapter 2

"The part of life we really live is small."

Chapter 3

“Men do not suffer anyone to seize their estates, and they rush to stones and arms if there is even the slightest dispute about the limit of their lands, yet they allow others to trespass upon their life—“

"I see that you have reached the farthest limit of human life, you are pressing hard upon your hundredth year, or are even beyond it; come now, recall your life and make a reckoning. Consider how much of your time was taken up with a moneylender, how much with a mistress, how much with a patron, how much with a client, how much in wrangling with your wife, how much in punishing your slaves, how much in rushing about the city on social duties. Add the diseases which we have caused by our own acts, add, too, the time that has lain idle and unused; you will see that you have fewer years to your credit than you count. Look back in memory and consider when you ever had a fixed plan, how few days have passed as you had intended, when you were ever at your own disposal, when your face ever wore its natural expression, when your mind was ever unperturbed, what work you have achieved in so long a life, how many have robbed you of life when you were not aware of what you were losing, how much was taken up in useless sorrow, in foolish joy, in greedy desire, in the allurements of society, how little of yourself was left to you; you will perceive that you are dying before your season!"

“You have all the fears of mortals and all the desires of immortals.”

Chapter 4

“You will see that the most powerful and highly placed men let drop remarks in which they long for leisure, acclaim it, and prefer it to all their blessings.”

Chapter 7

“And so there is no reason for you to think that any man has lived long because he has grey hairs or wrinkles; he has not lived long—he has existed long. For what if you should think that that man had had a long voyage who had been caught by a fierce storm as soon as he left harbour, and, swept hither and thither by a succession of winds that raged from different quarters, had been driven in a circle around the same course? Not much voyaging did he have, but much tossing about.”

Chapter 9

“The greatest hindrance to living is expectancy.”

Chapter 10

“The present offers only one day at a time, and each by minutes; but all the days of past time will appear when you bid them, they will suffer you to behold them and keep them at your will—a thing which those who are engrossed have no time to do. The mind that is untroubled and tranquil has the power to roam into all the parts of its life; but the minds of the engrossed, just as if weighted by a yoke, cannot turn and look behind. And so their life vanishes into an abyss; and as it does no good, no matter how much water you pour into a vessel, if there is no bottom to receive and hold it, so with time—it makes no difference how much is given; if there is nothing for it to settle upon, it passes out through the chinks and holes of the mind. Present time is very brief, so brief, indeed, that to some there seems to be none; for it is always in motion, it ever flows and hurries on; it ceases to be before it has come, and can no more brook delay than the firmament or the stars, whose ever unresting movement never lets them abide in the same track. The engrossed, therefore, are concerned with present time alone, and it is so brief that it cannot be grasped, and even this is filched away from them, distracted as they are among many things.”

Chapter 11

“In a word, do you want to know how they do not "live long"? See how eager they are to live long! Decrepit old men beg in their prayers for the addition of a few more years; they pretend that they are younger than they are; they comfort themselves with a falsehood, and are as pleased to deceive themselves as if they deceived Fate at the same time. But when at last some infirmity has reminded them of their mortality, in what terror do they die, feeling that they are being dragged out of life, and not merely leaving it. They cry out that they have been fools, because they have not really lived, and that they will live henceforth in leisure if only they escape from this illness; then at last they reflect how uselessly they have striven for things which they did not enjoy, and how all their toil has gone for nothing. But for those whose life is passed remote from all business, why should it not be ample? None of it is assigned to another, none of it is scattered in this direction and that, none of it is committed to Fortune, none of it perishes from neglect, none is subtracted by wasteful giving, none of it is unused; the whole of it, so to speak, yields income. And so, however small the amount of it, it is abundantly sufficient, and therefore, whenever his last day shall come, the wise man will not hesitate to go to meet death with steady step.”

Chapter 16

“But those who forget the past, neglect the present, and fear for the future have a life that is very brief and troubled; when they have reached the end of it, the poor wretches perceive too late that for such a long while they have been busied in doing nothing.”

Chapter 17

“For everything that comes to us from chance is unstable, and the higher it rises, the more liable it is to fall.”

Chapter 20

“And so when you see a man often wearing the robe of office, when you see one whose name is famous in the Forum, do not envy him; those things are bought at the price of life.”

Source:

Wednesday 9 May 2018

Power of Meditation


I was inspired by below statement:

Body like a mountain. Mind like the sky. Breathe like the wind.”

Please listen to the music it transports you:




In that article a chart displaying The Mighty Powers of Meditation was well drawn and displayed the benefit derived from meditation.

Hence I decided to re present it over here:






































Please read the info-graphic.