Remembering emergency to camouflage failures
India saw days of ‘emergency’ exactly 43 years ago, when Indira Gandhi was the prime minister. In the last four and a half decades after that, much water has flown under the bridge. Many people who lived through those ‘dark days’ have passed away. The new generation that came after those days, do not have any experience regarding how terrible those days were.
All of a sudden, Finance minister Arun Jaitley has been referring to ‘those’ days like they happened yesterday. Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the days of emergency are a blot on the history of India. Arun Jaitley has gone a step further, and has said Indira Gandhi was worse than Hitler. He probably does not know that it is not decency to speak about people who do not exist among us anymore.
Many other BJP leaders including Modi and Jaitley have been remembering the days of emergency, stating fundamental rights granted by democracy were being violated blatantly during those days. These skeletons of the past are being dug up to compensate for the failures of current dispensation, and divert the attention of the country from the problems for which they have not been able to find any solutions so far.
The country has revisited and criticized the days of emergency way too many times since India Gandhi invoked it over four decades ago. The country even served an electoral defeat to those who committed the crime, and subsequently brought them back to power too. Indira Gandhi imposed emergency and withdrew it too, all by herself. She sought people’s mandate after that. This is the history. To compare her with Hitler is intellectual bankruptcy that Arun Jaitley seems to be experiencing right now. Modi and Jaitley are followers of Savarkar and Golwalkar, who designed Hindutva ideology based on the fascist ideology created by Hitler, are saying Indira Gandhi is worse than Hitler. There cannot be bigger irony than this.
In reality, the country shouldn’t be invoking memories of whatever happened 43 years ago. The nation should actually be taking stock of whatever progress has been made in the last four years of BJP/NDA being in power. Have the pre-poll assurances by Modi to the people of this country have been met? How has the government performed in the office? People were made to believe ‘acche din’ will arrive with Modi being in the PM’s seat of this country. But thanks to neo-liberalisation policies, common people are reeling under many challenges those are threatening their existence. The promise to create 2 crore jobs annually has fallen flat along with the promise of bringing back black money stashed abroad.
More than anything else, the parliamentary democracy is on the brink of being compromised. Democratic institutions are being constantly under attack. People are suffering owing to the drastic demonetization decision that was taken by Modi. GST has posed very difficult challenge to small businessmen. People like Nirav Modi and Vijay Mallya have escaped the clutches of the government after swindling banks of thousands of crores. As a result of this banking sector is under threat. Agrarian crisis has pushed farmers to suicide. Gau Rakshaks are acting like quasi government and killing innocent people in broad day light too. University campuses are not witnessing unreasonable fights. ABVP goondas in those campuses are indulging in smearing black paint to the faces of their professors and taking out processions.
Autonomous bodies like Election Commission, CBI, Implementation agencies and even Supreme Court are witnessing massive interference by the government. As a result of all this, one cannot help but suspect if a cultural emergency has been imposed on the country.
The government led by Narendra Modi is harming the federal structure of this nation and its basic tenets. It is also trying all possible ways to topple state governments by using their ‘agents’.
For example, the central government is instigating IAS officers to create instability within AAP government in Delhi. Lt Governor in Delhi is doing whatever he can to ensure AAP government does not work and people vote them out of power. Kerala CM Pinarayi Vijayan has sought the appointment of PM Modi since last three years but he has not been given any time for this. Andhra Pradesh CM Chandrababu Naidu was also denied an appointment with Modi. However, the PM was kind enough to give some time to Karnataka CM H D Kumaraswamy. This was not done out of respect for the state, or a mind of duty or any affection for CM HDK. Instead, this was done to create ripples among the coalition government.
Pinarayi Vijayan or Naidu hadn’t sought the audience as private persons. Instead, they had taken their all-member committee to Delhi to discuss the issues and challenges faced by their governments. They were not given any audience. This is an insult to the federal system. This dictatorial attitude does not serve anybody well.
Vijayan wanted to discuss PDS and agricultural issues faced by his state. Today, except for Sangh Parivar bhakts who sing praises of BJP and Modi, no one else can live a comfortable life. Many intellectuals who have spoken against the establishment have been killed or punished. RTI activists are being hounded. Dalits, backward classes and minorities are living in fear. The secular fabric of the nation is under threat of turning into a land that follows the ideologies of Manu. All the pillars of democracy are being threatened. Since there are no great works that the government can speak to uphold its own merit, it is taking the support of invoking the memory of ‘dark days’ of emergency, and misguide people into something else.
Let the Truth be known. If you read VB and like VB, please be a VB Supporter and Help us deliver the Truth to one and all.
Indian-American seventh-grader from Florida wins Scripps National Spelling Bee title
Washington, May 31: Bruhat Soma, a 12-year-old Indian-American seventh-grade student from Florida, has won the Scripps National Spelling Bee after he spelt 29 words correctly in the tiebreaker, maintaining the dominance of the children from the small ethnic community in the prestigious competition.
Bruhat emerged victorious in the Scripps National Spelling Bee on Thursday, earning more than USD 50,000 in cash and other prizes.
This year's contest came down to a tiebreaker in which Bruhat spelt 29 words correctly in 90 seconds, beating Faizan Zaki, who managed to correctly spell 20 words in the lightning round.
His championship word was “abseil”, which is defined as “descent in mountaineering by means of a rope looped over a projection above.”
Organisers calling for a spell-off to determine a winner following 14 rounds over three days at the national championships.
Bruhat went first in the tiebreaker, and after he got through 30 words, it appeared he would be impossible to beat. Faizan's pace was more uneven at the outset. He attempted 25 words but flubbed four of them.
“Bruhat Soma rules the word! The Champion of the 2024 Scripps National Spelling Bee! The boy with the unbelievable memory doesn't miss a word all week and takes home the Scripps Cup!” the organisers said.
"Bruhat Soma correctly spelt 29 out of 30 words attempted to earn the coveted champion title and beat the standing spell-off record set by Harini Logan in 2022. Logan spelt 22 out of 26 words correctly during the competition’s first-ever spell-off," the organisers said.
“As the competition progressed, it was clear that Faizan and Bruhat - our final two spellers - showed up tonight ready to take down the dictionary,” said Corrie Loeffler, executive director of the Bee.
“Together, they were a powerful match. Bee officials activated the spell-off in the competition’s closing minutes, giving these stellar spellers an opportunity to show even more of what they can do,” Loeffler said.
The two final spellers each had 90 seconds to spell as many words as they could from a predetermined list of words while the other speller was sequestered.
He spelt every word thrown his way correctly over the 90-second duration: brouette, adelantado, hyporcheme, bisellium, mycteric, endecha, sericin, nyctalopia, ascham, wenzel, cebell, heautophany, kwazoku, panetiere, sagaie, nachschlage, exorhason, giclee, ashwagandha, puszta, asarotum, scintillante, myrabalanus, sciniph, voussoir, caizinha, ramoneur, aposiopesis and abseil. The 31th word was posology, but time is called before he can finish spelling it. He only spelt porphyrio incorrectly.
While competing, his forehead was marked with a vermilion tika, a Hindu symbol of power and purity. His parents said that Bruhat memorised about 80 per cent of the sacred Hindu texts, the Bhagavad Gita.
"My heart was pumping so fast when I realised I won," Bruhat said. "I had a good feeling I would win because I did pretty good, but yeah, you never know. I still couldn’t absorb the moment yet."
Adam Symson, president and CEO of The E W Scripps Company, presented Bruhat with the championship trophy.
“At just 12 years old, Bruhat impressed with his display of knowledge and composure,” Symson said.
Bruhat's father Srinivas Soma is originally from Nalgonda in Telangana.
This was Bruhat’s third time participating in the Scripps National Spelling Bee. He tied for 74th in 2023 and tied for 163rd in 2022.
Zaki of Allen, Texas, received USD 25,000.
Shrey Parikh of Rancho Cucamonga, California, tied for third place in the competition received USD 12,500.
Ananya Prassanna of Apex, North Carolina, tied for third place in the competition and received USD 12,500.
Coached by 16-year-old former speller Sam Evans, Bruhat previously competed in 2022 (tied for 163rd place) and 2023 (tied for 74th place). A multifaceted person with many interests and hobbies, he had previously won the Words of Wisdom Bee and SpellPundit Bee before arriving in a Maryland suburb of Washington DC for a prestigious competition.
The 2024 Scripps National Spelling Bee had eight finalists, five of whom were Indian-Americans: Rishabh Saha, 14 and Shrey Parikh, 12, from California; Aditi Muthukumar, 13, from Colorado; and Ananya Rao Prassanna, 13, from North Carolina.
Indian-American Dev Shah won last year's Bee by correctly spelling "psammophile." Harini Logan had won the championship in 2022.
The Scripps National Spelling Bee is the nation's largest and longest-running educational programme, having been launched in 1925. It is a high-profile, high-pressure endurance test as much as a nerd spelling match and spellers spend months preparing for it.
The Bee was cancelled in 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic. There were eight co-champions in 2019, seven of whom were Indian-Americans. Twenty-nine Indian-Americans have emerged as champions in the competition since 1999.
In all, there were 245 spellers who came to participate in this year's competition sixty-five spellers had previously competed in the Scripps National Spelling Bee. As many as 24 spellers, mostly Indian Americans, had relatives who had participated in a combined 40 Scripps National Spelling Bees.
Four 2023 finalists advanced to the 2024 national competition: Sarah Fernandes, tied for 10th place; Aryan Khedkar tied for fifth; Tarini Nandakumar, finished ninth; and Shradha Rachamreddy, tied for third.
Aliyah Alpert and Kirsten Santos were finalists in 2022. Indian American Akash Vukoti has qualified for a record six finals in 2016, 2018, 2019, 2021, 2022, 2023.
