Reservation for women in rural and urban bodies should not have been there and should go.
Reservation will mean women from families of existing legislators will become candidates. It will not help ordinary women. To say that even if they are family members they are women is not a sound argument.
Women who are competent win elections. Indira Gandhi became prime minister. Pratibha Patil became president. There have been many women chief ministers. Some of them are leaders of their parties. All of them succeeded without reservations. Reservation for women in legislatures will mean incompetent women will become legislators.
Author: Vincent Augustine D'Souza
Vincent Augustine D'Souza is a blogger, author, novelist, and quiz master.
He writes on politics, economy, corruption, terrorism, current events, sports/games and many more topics on his blog Voice From The Rooftop (http://voicefromtherooftop.com).
He has written four novels — King, Pope, Dream and Trump.
They are available in ebook format.
His major non-fiction work is English Konkani Dictionary (https://englishkonkanidictionary.com).
He has also written Model Constitution for India and
Model Constitution for United States of America.
His quizzes appear on his quiz site Go 4 Quiz (https://go4quiz.com).
Amazon Page: https://amazon.com/author/vincentdsouza
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Appointment of judges
In India appointment of judges is shrouded in secrecy. It is time to make it open.
The names of judges who are to be appointed to the Supreme Court and High Courts should be made public. Committees should be appointed to discuss the appointments. For Supreme Court judges a committee comprising members of Lok Sabha should be appointed. Anyone who has objection to the appointment should mention in to the committee. The candidate should be given an opportunity to defend himself or herself. Similarly for High Court judges a committee comprising members of Legislative Assembly of the state should be appointed and procedure followed. Judges should be appointed after the committee clears appointments.
India and Terrorism
India faces terrorism within and abroad. Indians in Afghanistan are targets of terrorism. Asking Pakistan to hand over terrorists has not helped. When the evidence is presented to Pakistan’s foreign secretary he calls it literature.
Nagaland and sovereignty
NSCN-IM general secretary Thiungaleng Muivah is in Delhi for talks with the Government of India. There is demand for Nagalim or Greater Nagaland and sovereignty for Greater Nagaland. It is unlikely that both demands will be granted.
India, Qatar and democracy
Some feel M. F. Husain should not have accepted Qatar nationality because Qatar is not a democracy. They have not considered the reality.
Qatar has better rule of law than India. M. F. Husain felt safe in Qatar. In India people who call for murder of someone are not arrested. Is that democracy?
Budget 2010
On 26/2/2010 Pranab Mukherjee presented India’s budget for the Financial Year 2010-11. Since 1992 prices used to come down after budget or did not go up. This time prices went up. Previously prices used to increase 15 days before the budget or some days after the budget or during the year and the government of the day used to claim that there is no increase of prices in the budget.
Maqbool Fida Husain, India and Qatar
Maqbool Fida Husain, a famous painter from India, has been offered Qatar nationality and he has applied for it. He has said “I, the Indian origin painter M. F. Husain at 95, have been honoured by Qatar nationality.â€
M. F. Husain has attracted controversy for his paintings. Exhibitions having his paintings were disrupted. There were many court cases against him. His life was in danger. For many years he lived abroad. He was not in exile because the government did not banish him.
Impeach Pratibha Patil
As per one report India’s President Pratibha Patil has refused to reject mercy petitions of murderers sentenced to death penalty. She follows Home Ministry’s advice only when it is to commute death penalty to life imprisonment.
Supreme Court and CBI
CBI’s record is pathetic. Many times CBI officers are susceptible to fear or favour. It is likely that they will not do a better job than state police and many times may do a worse job. There is no guarantee that if the judiciary orders a CBI probe it will do better or guilty will be caught and punished. Jain hawala case is an example.
Poona Blast
On 13/2/2010 in the evening, according to one report at 6.52 p.m., there was a blast in German Bakery at Koregaon Park in Poona. The bomb used is said to be a mixture of high intensity RDX and ammonium nitrate. At last count nine were dead and around forty were wounded, including some foreigners.
It is said that Chabad House and Osho Ashram were original targets of terrorists. However security there unnerved the terrorists and they planted bombs in German Bakery.