Ashneer Grover–The Elizabeth Holmes Of India

Shark Tank India season 1, was both Fascinating and Dramatic, the Magnus opus which had Love, Compassion, drama, Sympathy, patriotism etc, it wasn’t just a reality show that deals with entrepreneurs presenting there business ideas to a diverse set of investors, but a spiced up family drama where the wannabe brides were trying to impress the grooms family members, with a tadka of IIM.

Anupam Mittal reminded me more than once of the elderly Tauji, who would be silenced by the other aggressive family members, his tag line “Yaar koi mujhe bhi to bolne do”.

Namita Thaper, the vivacious diva, the Badi Bhabhi of the family, would always ensure to encourage the contestants, but mostly beg herself out of the deals.

Aman Verma : The Chota Devar, the daredevil, who would show his flamboyance more than once in every episode, his tag line “Brand to bana denge hum”.

Ashneer Grover: The evil uncle or chacha, he would abuse at will, would love to demean the bride and her family, he was like the Gulshan Grover of 80s and 90s, his tag line “Sab Dogla Pan hai” and “Band Ker de tera business”.

Vineeta Singh : The chooti bahu (younger daughter in law), too talkative, always smiling and empathetic while bowing out of a deal, she had no particular tag line.

The spiced up reality show caught the imagination of the entire country, business ideas became dinner discussions in the average Indian households, we saw young men and women from marginalised sections of the society, taking  lead in identifying the problems and putting forth the solution, we saw inventors showcasing painless or no needle blood sugar diagnostic machine, we also saw portable ecg machine which has the potential of saving many lives, and we also saw the humble son of a farmer, hailing from the region which has thousands of agrarians committing suicide every year, coming up with a jugad to make the excruciating work of the farmers easy.

The judges became the instant gods among the average youngsters, there success stories, there struggle and there perseverance made them god like for the average Indian youth, Aman Gupta, the candid and rusty Millionaire, Ashneer Grover the biggest shark in the tank, was brutally honest and calculative, Namita Thaper, very charming but had impressive business acumen, Anupam Mittal had tons of experience and he is probably one of the oldest angle investor in the country. The show topped the TRP charts in no time.

And then came the infamous Ashneer Grover call with the hapless Kotak Bank employee, it shocked me like many loyal Sharktank viewers, it exposed the GOD syndrome pathogen Grover was carrying in his head, in fact it was so dominant that it had simply annihilated the persona of the young billionaire, when I heard Ashneer abusing, I felt disgusted and wondered how a shallow man like him came at the helms of one of India’s leading fintech companies!

The infamous but viral phone call then opened the can of worms, exposed the rotting underbelly of one of the leading Fintech companies of the country, what I understood was that Ashneer and his wife were robbing investors of there money to finance there extravagant lifestyle, there luxury cars and abroad vacations, even the makeup stuff of Madhuri Jain was billed to the company.

Ashneer had stark resemblance with Elizabeth Holmes, slightly miniaturised or probably was in the making of it, a person with compromised morality knows no dearth and can sink the entire ecosystem of budding entrepreneurs for his personal gains, luckily he was caught before he could inflict fatal blow on the fragile ecosystem, or even worse getting away with it, creating a narrative of a system where the fraud and embezzlement becomes a norm and acceptable evil.

Once the rot was out in the open, Ashneer was sent on a forced leave, his wife was sacked, It was meteoric fall of the demigod of the startup world of India, it broke many hearts but it raise some very important questions:

• How can, in todays world, RBI and GOI can leave the fintech companies unchecked and unsupervised?
• With the tons of customer data, including personal data of the millions of users, is there a mechanism to check the likes of Ashneer from profiting from it? Or should they have an unchecked control over it?
• How to save the the image of the Ernest entrepreneurs from taking a hit because of the deeds of a bad unicorns like Ashneer grover?

These are some very important questions which need to be answered before the budding and booming atmosphere of Indian Startup world takes a permanent Hit…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Politics of Religion

Only thing common in every religion is love and compassion…be it Islam, Judaism, Hinduism or Christianity, the foundation of every religion is peace and justice. Religion gave legitimacy to the union of man and woman, laid the foundation of family, we learnt to remember our ancestors, thus laying the foundation of our modern society. Religion served and helped humanity to modernise and grow.

But now, all the major wars across the world are being fought in the name of God, religion being used as a tool of oppression and persecution, innocent men women and children being slaughtered, its abominable to see how priests abused hundreds and thousands of children in France, or how some mullahs banned the education for girls in Afghanistan, it breaks my heart, kids in there teens waging war in the name of religion and killing innocent men women and children of different religion, it filled my heart with disgust,

The important question is that who should be blamed for it? is it the religion itself that’s driving people monster, can religion which carved the fundamentals of our civilisation become the ultimate destroyer of it, where people would consider it as a valid excuse to kill other human being each other.all I see and so the important question is that where dose it all go wrong?

I may have understood the problem, which lies in the ethos of every religion (almost), which is that the disciple or the believer must surrender to the god, must abnegate logic and follow every instruction verbatim, he must obey the instructions given by the monks or the priests or the mulla, and each one of them started interpreting it, in a way that suits them. And then came the politics of religion, and the politics became the religion.

It was easy for the power mongers to exploit the vulnerable class, which eventually constitutes the majority in almost all the religions and countries, they understood the fact that people are more concerned not about the life but the life after death, the idea that every human being exists  on this planet to serve a greater purpose and a greater being, and they bow down to that Fictitious being.

Politics successfully exploited the situation, the Mulla military alliance successfully defeated the soviets in Afghanistan, after the USA, Pakistan became the torchbearer of international jihad and wedged proxy war to snatch Kashmir from India, which is still going on, the body count is close to tens of thousands of innocent people, US paid a heavy price for its ignorance when 9/11 happened, for the first time the USA was attacked on his own soil. Along came ISIS, midivil islamic monstrosity which appealed to a handful of young men and women across the globe, which basically said that its Ok to kill an infidel or a person of different faith, they infected horrors to the innocent people which is beyond comprehension.

Rather than understanding the real problem, West responded by painting the billions of muslims as ISIS supporters, innocent muslims in the west and east faced discrimination for no fault of there.

US used Mullas to drive away USSR from Afghanistan, the war in Afghanistan was depicted as a holy war, hundreds and thousands of uneducated muslim youth joined it and defeated the Russians, once the the objective was achieved, the USA left the region to its fait, which created the monsters like Osama.

With great power comes great responsibility, this famous line from Toby Maguire’s Spiderman is true to the essence, and if the responsibility isn’t taken by the one with power, he too will pay a great price.

I can conclude that basically like any lie which is spread to achieve a political Goal, Religious extremism is pure politics, its spread to win wars, and to weaken a country by igniting civil wars, people who became a participant in these sinister conspiracies are mostly uneducated and extreme poor, they are those who have left all hopes in this world, and there only hope is life after death.

The only vaccine for this pandemic is education, If the USA would have spent 2% of the money it spent on war in Afghanistan, world would have seen a reincarnation of the old Afghanistan, and complete eradication of the Taliban.

 

 

UNKNOWN MANIBEN & an ungrateful Country

Maniben Patel was Sardar’s only daughter. When only 16 she switched to Khadi and worked in Gandhi Ashram!
When 17 she put all her gold bangles, earrings Gold Wrist Watch and all ornaments & jewelleries in a bundle of cloth and obtaining her Father’s nod, deposited them in Gandhi Ashram, for the cause of freedom.
All the garments Sardar used to wear after 1921 were woven out of the yarn made by Maniben.
Unlike Nehru’s daughter Indira, Maniben was a freedom fighter, who actively participated in the non-cooperation movement.
In 1928, in the Bardoli Satyagraha she helped out Satyagrahis in Camps.
She was arrested and Jailed in 1930 in the Salt Satyagraha!
Thereafter, she was arrested and jailed on several occasions.
Defying ban in Bardauli, arrested in 1932 again re-arrested for defying ban in Kheda and Sentenced to 15 months imprisonment, for arousing people in villages of Rajkot arrested in 1938!
Gandhiji complimented the girl that he had not seen another daughter like Maniben!
Under Gandhiji’s selective disobedience, Maniben was arrested in 1940 and was released from Belgaum jail in May 1941. When she again wanted to court arrest Gandhiji had prevented this frail girl for ill-health!
She got arrested during Quit India 1942 with
Kasturba Gandhi and released in March 1944 and again re-arrested in May 1944 in Bardauli and was sent to Surat Jail & then to Yervada jail!
She didn’t marry and served her father till
Sardar Died in 1950!

Here is a shocking episode relating to Maniben based on various sources, specifically Dr Kurien’s autobiography: ‘I too had a dream’!

Sardar Patel had no bank balance or property!
Even though he had substantial earnings as a very Successful Lawyer, he gave up everything after plunging into the Freedom movement.
He used to say: THOSE IN POLITICS SHOULD NOT HOLD PROPERTY, AND I HOLD NONE!
(Today Everybody in India may think Sardar a Big Fool)

When Sardar died, he kept nothing for his daughter!
With Sardar no more she had to vacate the house!
With no roof over her head and no money
Maniben had to fend for herself!
Obeying Sardar’s parting instruction, Maniben had gone to Nehru to hand over a bag and a book!
Dutifully, she took an appointment with PM Nehru, she handed over the bag and the book to Nehru in person!
The book was an Account Book!
The bag contained rupees Thirty Five Lakhs! (It was 1950)!
After delivering both to Nehru, she waited a while!
Nehru did not thank her!
Nehru didn’t enquire what she would do!
Nehru didn’t ask where she would stay!
Nehru didn’t ask if she had any money on her!
Nehru didn’t ask if she was in need of any assistance or help!
Nehru didn’t ask, if he could do anything for her!
Nehru, not to speak of sympathy, had shown absolutely no interest in her!
For him, after receiving the huge sum of Rupees 35 lakhs Maniben didn’t exist!

Maniben went back to Ahmedabad to stay with a cousin the rest of her life, forgotten by an Ungrateful Country !

Via.. Dr. Gour Mohanty

Communist Party of China –Celebrating 100 years of oppression ….

There are stark similarities between the Nazis and the Communist party of China, 1) They enslaved there own people, 2) They have (Nazis still exist, AKA White supremacists)  serious superiority complex, 3) They both were cowards.

China is a villainous bully, the only way to face them is by standing up against them, If a country shows slightest sign of weakness, it will surely loos its territory and its people will be butchered.

If a country really want to learn how to confront China, they must learn it from India, the only country in the world which opposed the pet project of “XI” Belt and road project and the way Indians confronted the Chinese on the Himalayas.

World must realise that is bully is actually the weakest one, he will seek vulnerable opponents to oppress, and will backoff if the opponent retaliates.

World must stop this evil ideology and must unite to overturn the vile government of China, must support the democracy to liberate more than a billion human beings.

This can only happen if the people around the world start discarding Chinese Goods, please remember that if you are purchasing any thing that’s made is China, you are supporting slavery and feeding the monster who will eventually come after you.

Emergency In India “Decoded”

How Emergency imposed by ex – PM Indira Gandhi in 1975 changed Indian politics forever 

Rahul Gandhi, Congress leader and grandson of late PM Indira Gandhi said that Emergency                    was a ‘mistake’ and what happened in that period was ‘wrong’.

On June 26,1975, former President Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed Proclaimed a national emergency across India, Under the directions of the then Prime minister of India Indira Gandhi- which lasted for 21 months. During this time elections were suspended and civil liberties curbed.

After 46 years, on Tuesday, Rahul Gandhi- Congress leader and grandson of late PM Indira Gandhi, said at an event that the emergency was a mistake and what happened in that period was “Wrong”. Rahul Gandhi also said the emergency during which time constitutional rights and civil liberties were suspended, the media was severely restricted and many opposition leaders were jailed, was “fundamentally different from the current scenario.'”I think that was a mistake. Absolutely, that was a mistake. And my grandmother (Mrs Gandhi) said as much. (But) the congress at no point attempted to capture India’s institutional framework…frankly, it does not even have that capability,” Rahul Gandhi said in a conversation with renowned economist Kaushik Basu.

But what is Emergency and how did it came into effect and how it changed the entire political dynamics of this nation – is something this generation may not know. So here we bring you in simple words on what happened in 1975, which can be easily be termed as the biggest political blunder of independent India.

 

The Justification for Emergency

The reasons given for the emergency in the country was to control “internal disturbance”, for which the constitutional rights suspended and freedom of speech and the press withdrawn. Former PM Indira Gandhi gave three reasons to justify the extreme step- first, India’s security and democracy was in danger owing to the movement launched by Jayaprakash Narayan.

The second reason cited was that Indira in 1971- In parliamentary elections, Indira Gandhi had defeated Raj Narain from the Rae Bareli constituency, who subsequently had filed a petition in the Allahabad High court accusing Indira Gandhi of electoral malpractices.

January 1974- Students in Gujarat protested against raising prices of food grains and other essential commodities and corruption in the state government. Major opposition parties joined the protests, this led to the imposition of the president’s rule in the state.Demands for fresh elections became intense. subsequently elections were held in Gujarat in June 1975, which the congress lost.

1974- Students in Bihar started a movement to protest against the same issues. Jayaprakash Narayan (JP), who had given up active politics and was involved in social work, lead the movement. This took the issue to a national level.

June 12, 1975- Justice Jagmohanlal Sinha found the Prime Minister guilty of misuse of the government machinery during her election campaign and declared her election null and void and also barred her from contesting an election for the next 6 years. The court, however gave the congress 20 days to find a replacement to Gandhi as PM. Indira Gandhi moved the Supreme Court against the verdict.

June 24, 1975 – The Supreme Court granted her a partial stay on the High court order till her appeal was decided and that she could remain an MP but could not take part in proceedings of the Lok Sabha.

June 25, 1975- JP Narayan led a huge political rally in Delhi’s Ramlila ground where he announced a nationwide Satyagraha for Indira Gandhi’s resignation. The employees of the railways too called for a nationwide strike, led by George Fernandes.

June 25, 1975- This fateful night a state of emergency was declared as a government response to the June 25 Strike. All the powers were concentrated in the hands of the Union Government. The Government restricted the fundamental rights of the citizens during the period. All elections were suspended  and civil liberties curbed.

Most political opponents were imprisoned. Press was censored. All newspapers needed to get prior approval for the articles to be published. Rashtriya Swayam Sevak Sangh (RSS) and the Jamait-e-Islami were banned. Constitution was amended in an autocratic manner, particularly in the 42nd amendment.

An amendment was made declaring that elections of Prime Minister, President and Vice- President could not be challenged in the court. Sanjay Gandhi, who did not hold any official position at the time gained control over the administration. The period saw the symbolic forced mass sterilisation campaign spearheaded by Sanjay Gandhi.

Undoing Lincoln

America is a great nation, a nation built by the free, immigrants from all parts and ethnicities of the world, came together with diverse cultures and Gods, challenged the set orthodox norms of the medieval era, created a marvel of humanity, where a person is worth what he could become and achieve in a free and fair climate, where every and any one can challenge the mightiest, and no one is above the constitution, which guarantee absolute freedom and equality.

Lincoln was probably the most unique Leader world has ever seen, he was white, a men of so called superior race, fought for the freedom of the Blacks, raised arms for them fought for equality and eventually paid the ultimate prise for his dream of building a country free for all.

True disciples of Lord Krishna, working on there Karma and the believing in the inner strengths of the people, a country built on the blood and sweat of the men and women, unlike my country the birthplace of lord Krishna, which ironically still embraces the medieval monstrosity of casteism and religious hegemony, mixed with socialism, bigotry still used to pull the crowds and Win elections, people more interested in freebies, people instead of focussing on innovation, focus more on how to manipulate and extract the most for themselves and there families.

And then came Donald Trump and his tirade against the ethos of his own country,

I have followed Trump since the Republican primaries in 2015, he was the most flawed politician I had ever seen on a podium like this, his message was clear, he was not Barak Obama, he was anti immigration, racist, fearless(shameless), corrupt to the core, promised his supporters that he will save America from being overrun by illegal immigrants, openly supported the white supremacists “Stand back and Stand by” is what he said to the Proud Boys.

Lincoln ironically also was a republican must be twisting and turning in his grave when he saw a mob of bums attacking and ransacking the Capitol instigated by none other then the president of America him self, I was also dismayed to see Senators defending Trump and even after ransacking of the capital.

The senators along with Trump screamed on top of there voice that the elections which made them the senator and Trump president, were rigged, there conduct would shame even the most corrupt Indian politicians, under there watch there temple of democracy was defaced but they were so unabashedly adamant that they couldn’t see that they have reduced there country to a laughing stock in front of the whole world.

It also shows the fragility of the US democracy, it exposes the flaws of its democratic system, which is the extraordinary powers entrusted to the President, they must dilute the powers of the White House to ensure that the Capital Hill event is never repeated in future.

 

 

Defender of Personal Liberty

A democratically elected government is suppose to upheld the rights of its citizens and also to maturely handle criticism, but Once again we witnessed unabashed and blatant misuse of power in Maharashtra, it was more like watching a B grade Bollywood movie, where people in power when criticised by media, reopened a false case against the journalist who criticised the government and arrested him, what’s amusing in this case was that the top encounter specialist along with 50 armed cops were sent to arrest him, a harmless person living with his wife and kids was assaulted and forcefully taken under custody and the entire incident was covered by all the media channels and telecasted Live, it was the Chief editor of the Republic Mr.Arnab Goswami.

After spending 7 days in custody he was granted bail by the Supreme Court, which in its order stated that “the judiciary should ensure criminal law does not become a weapon for selective harassment”

Once again it was the top court which pulled the basic ethos of the Indian constitution out of the quagmire and defended the personal liberty of a citizen.

Question is : Can an ordinary man afford to challenge people in power and survive the consequences???

 

26/11 “Travesty of Justice”

26/11 Attack on Mumbai was designed and executed by the Pakistani intelligence agency and its Army, two Pakistani army majors, Major Pasha and Iqbal orchestrated the attacks in which 170 innocent civilians lost there lives, India refrained from using military option fearing backlash against its muslim minority, at least that’s what Ex PM Manmohan Singh told Barak Obama, however the message resonated was that you can get away easily after committing an act of horror against the civilians and innocents of India.

Now however India has started hitting the terrorists back, by doing so India has curtailed the acts of terror but the problem is far from over.

But what’s really disturbing are the news in the media that in Pakistan, people paid there respect to the terrorists killed in Mumbai…

Even after 12 years not even a single perpetrator is brought to justice.

An old Thug, A conman and the POTUS

The POTUS is a broke man, he is probably the worst nightmare of the policy makers in the US, they are coming to terms to the fact that the systems built and the powers bestowed to the POTUS are just enormous and now they know what happens if a morally debouched man like Trump comes to the throne, it costs lives and decades of hard work, diplomatic web shattered and alliances put to test.

World is quickly moving on and the leadership vacuums made by US will not last long, EU for instance is now realising its strength and they know they can’t depend on US anymore against the Russia, the unpredictable USA will need decades to clean the mess created by Trump that too if he doesn’t win another term in the office, because if he dose, he will make USA irrelevant again.

A debt of 450million dollars, just imagine how desperate he would be, in the debate with Joe Biden, he reached out to the white supremacist groups in front of the whole world, and world watched in dismay the unabashed embrace of one of the most evil and barbaric ideology “Racism”.

But if you look deeper, you will understand this is a dire effort from a desperate man who is sunk deep in debt, responsible for the deaths of 2 hundred thousand Americans and desperate for support to stage a comeback, even if it comes from the most deplorable low lives of the planet.

I feel strange when I see educated and affluent people in support of Trump, he can easily put Indian politicians to shame, with what he says and what he tweets, its funny to see so much power in the hands of one man and he has shamelessly distributed it to his family and his incompetent loyalists.

 

 

Tears of Durga

On there own, defenceless and at the mercy of the Demons, this is the situation of the Poor and Oppressed of Uttar-Pradesh, what happened in Hathras was so diabolic that it will put demons to shame, what is particularly disturbing is the action of the state government which is actively trying to hush away every one including the victim’s family, they are working overnight to roll this case under the carpet, this is not a tragedy isolated to the victim’s family but its the sorry state of our country which is so agonising that I a mother of two daughters, am sacred and furious and I want retribution, for the Girl who is no longer with us but for every girl and women of this country.

I feel defenceless in my country and the institutions meant to protect us have not only failed us but the only purpose of their existence is to serve their political masters, they can go to any length to make sure that the image of there masters is protected at call cost, In Hathras Police cremated the body of the victim sneakily like thugs at 1:30 AM in the night, they overpowered victim’s family and did it forcefully.

The District Megistrate of Hathras warned the family, to either shut up or to face the consequences….

They stopped the media from entering the village as they were trying to meet the family of the deceased girl, if fact they were detained, taken and released beyond the city limits.

Uttar Pradesh has become a land of Asuras or Demons, where ordinary man and women of every age is susceptible to inhuman and horrific crimes, in the entire state women don’t dare to leave there homes past dusk, they stop going to school and collage because of the eve teasers, they live and die in constant fear, they can’t go to the police or to the Netas because the crimes and criminals flourish under their patronage, Police has become worse then the criminals and most of the times act as the middlemen and cover the dirty works of there political masters.

Justice in the demon land has became the mistress of the corrupt and powerful.

Nirbhaya Tragedy has left an ugly scar on our minds and hearts, and the pursuit for justice took another 17 years, her mother and father fought a very hard and painful battle against a rotten legal system which was hell bent on upholding the human rights of those who murdered a young girl in the most gruesome way, she died a very painful death whereas her murderers lived for another 17 years, this was a unique case where the media had put so much pressure on the judiciary and the state that the victim’s family at last got the justice, but we know how difficult it is for a poor and ordinary person to get justice in India, In India Crime really pays.

The second forensic report claims that the victim was not Raped, the intention of the forceful cremation was to botch the investigation, if there was any, to sell the narrative that the girl was never raped and I won’t be surprised if they prove that the victim in fact committed suicide and no one killed her.

I pray for the victim’s soul, hope she finds peace in the afterlife and will never reincarnate as girl in India and certainly not in the state of Utter Pradesh.