In the article I wrote the importance of bringing “change in people’s mindset” by promoting intercaste marriages.. Then only India could break free from the shackles of caste constraints and work towards social and economic growth, rather than fight over which caste is superior or inferior…

That is exactly the initiative taken by Maharashtra government… It has decided to gift Rs 50,000 to a couple opting for inter-caste marriage… Earlier, the amount was Rs 15,000… The government would give a cheque of Rs 20,000 and invest Rs 25,000 in postal savings scheme, Indira Vikas Patra, in the name of the couple…. The remaining amount would be given in form of marriage expenditure or household things….

Keeping jokes of “just marrying to get paid” a side… I think its a great initiative, which should be backed by the Central Government an also NGOs around India…

The worst side of the caste system is that it does not encourage intercaste marriages…. It is a matter of shame that the most obvious form of punishment for intercaste marriages even today is expulsion from the society…. Even in educated families, parents often threaten their children to chuck them out of their house in case they get married to someone belonging to a different caste….. I personally feel it is not obligatory that you need to belong to the same community or caste to fully understand your better half… There are plenty of examples of a girl and a boy from an entirely diametric background tying knots together and spending a happy life…. And above all haven’t all holy books acknowledged that love as something beyond all social and economic labels????

But i have realized that it is pretty hard to completely do away with the negative attitude concerning intercaste marriage because it is well implanted in the psyche of the people for a long time… As Fr. John Afonse-Correia once said “In India we drink in our caste with our mother’s milk“…. So to change views of people is a mammoth task, near to impossible….

The concept of caste discrimination is a curse on the path of national progress, for it has spoilt the lives of millions of people who dream high but could not reach the stars because of the caste constraints….. We need to strongly commit ourselves if we are genuinely interested in curbing the negative mentality towards intercaste marriages….. In order to completely change the people’s mindset, it is important to promote intercaste marriages… This is not possible until and unless we equate people regardless of caste, culture and religion…

Religion is a touchy subject which many people try to avoid, but not me…. To me every religion is the same so long the religion teaches you to be good and morally upright… Please don’t come debating with me that my god is different with your god, only my god exist and there is only ONE god. I call that HOLY CRAP!!! Don’t come and bullshit with me that how great your god is…. Ya your god is great so is other peoples god. Basically every god is great if not they will not be call GOD by their followers…. right?? O_o

We read about wars happening in the mighty name of religion and we read about hate crimes from one religious sect towards another…. Throughout history, millions have died for the sake of religion… And all because of this i feel ashamed of saying I’m a Hindu or etc…

I cannot resit posting the following text of Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar. He was an Indian nationalist and the principal architect of India’s constitution. He came from a Dalit background.

Religion is for man; man is not for religion.

If you want to gain self-respect, change your religion.
If you want to create a cooperating society, change your religion.
If you want power, change your religion.
If you want equality, change your religion.
If you want independence, change your religion.
If you want to make the world in which you live happy, change your religion.

Why should you remain in a religion that does not value your manhood?
Why should you remain in a religion that does not let you enter its temples?
Why should you remain in a religion that does not give you water to drink?
Why should you remain in a religion that does not let you become educated?
Why should you remain in a religion that bars you from good jobs?
Why should you remain in a religion that dishonours you at every step?

That religion which forbids humanitarian behaviour between man and man is not a religion but a reckless penalty.
That religion which regards the recognition of man’s self-respect as sin is not a religion but a sickness.
That religion which allows one to touch a foul animal but not a man is not a religion but a madness.
That religion which says that one class may not gain knowledge, may not acquire wealth, may not take up arms, is not a religion but a mockery of man’s life.
That religion which teaches that the unlearned should remain unlearned, that the poor should remain poor, is not a religion but a punishment.

Do not say that men who treat animals with more respect than humans and who respects all Brahmans as Gods are religious.
Do not say that men who feed ants with sugar and let men go hungry religious.
Do not say that men who embrace another religion and push their own far from them hate society.

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The Government of India confirmed that a user were able to have Domain Name in an Indian language, moreover, it would be possible to type and access the C-DAC site.

The project’s policy is in place, and now developers are looking to involve authorities including the Domain Name registrars, web portal developers and designers, language and educational experts and e-government representatives, among others, all of who will provide their feedback on the structure of the project.

What is the Unique ID project?

A project in which every Indian citizen would have one unique identification number(similar to a U.S. social security number) that will identify him/her. It would not just help the government track down individuals as is highlighted by the media, but would make life far easier for citizens as they would not have to submit so many documents each time they want to avail a new service—private or government. The project is headed by Infosys co-chairman Nanden Nilekani.

This task is not small considering the population of India is around 1.2 billion. This would involve very powerful technology to assign these unique ID’s and then to organize/store these ID’s would require a large database. This is why i think Yahoo and Microsoft are keen to help out.

Yesterday only Yahoo’s worldwide Chief Executive Officer Carol Bartz met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and expressed interest to partner the government in the project. She also stated that tey(Yahoo) don’t have any commercial interest in the deal, Yahoo would help out on a non-profit basis.

If i can remember clearly earlier this year Microsoft was also keen to help out in the project. Bill Gates himself stated this once i think. Anyways i don’t know if they would also help out on a “non-profit basis”.

Other companies like IBM and Cisco are also willing ot help out in the project. Indian IT companies such as TCS, Infosys and Wipro are also hoping that this project would help stimulate the domestic software market.

The first set of identification numbers are said to roll out in 12-18 months, lets see if its possible. Its said by UIDAI that they would cover at least 600 million residents within five and half years. They have also pointed out that the identification number will be a proof of identity linked to demographic and biometric information but not confer citizenship.

I have been watching all the election analysis programs in channels yesterday. Every opinion poll prediction was no where close to the actual result, the ruling United Progressive Alliance (UPA) led by the secular Congress Party won a clear victory, giving a crushing blow to the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its allies. This time, presented with a free choice, Indian voters have rejected the politics of myopic communalist bigotry and chosen a political path which separates religious belief from political practice. As the complete results show, the Congress alone has won more seats than the BJP and its allies combined, marking a shift away from the recent trend of regional parties holding the national parties to ransom as they scrabbled to form governments.

Mayawati Kumari (the first Dalit regional premier and leader of the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP)) has been frustrated by seeing her ambition to hold power get shattered into pieces. Acting childish she said in her post result statement that both Congress and BJP tried to keep her out of the Lok Sabha. Now could someone tell me that isn’t this what all parties try and do?? The job of one party is to try and defeat the other party right?? Now imagine if Sachin Tendulkar gets bowled by Malinga would he say that “this is wrong, Malinga was trying to get me out, instead of letting me bat”. How can you imagine such a politician who instead of accepting defeat gracefully starts a kiddish fight to be the Prime Minister of this country. This is one instance to prove that Indian voters are tired of old political methods.

One more instance to prove this is the defeat of Mr Ramvilas Paswan (union Minister and Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) chief) who had earned fame by registering his name in the Guinness book of world records for defeating his rival with a margine of 4 lakhs 77 thousand votes. This time Mr Paswan lost to former Bihar chief minister Ram Sundar Das by a margine of 37954 votes contesting election for Hajipur. For years Mr Paswan, Hajipur seat had proved to be lucky one for him as he had got elected from here for maximum number of six times from 1989 till 2004. In case Mr Paswan would have won the election he would have made his entry into the Lok Sabha for the seventh consecutive term this time. But this time it looks like the people of Hajipur are sick of him and wanted some change.

These elections saw India standup and say no to old methods of politics. In Bihar all criminals from all parties including Nithish Kumar’s Janata Dal United (JDU), lost election. Even if it is just a coincidence, it is an amazing one. I wish we get a similar outcome in the 2010 assembly elections too. Even a better part Shiv Sena and Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) did not win any seats in Mumbai. Now what will Raj Thackeray do??

Look at the Left now, who have got around 25 seats in the 543-seat Lok Sabha. Before results these people were acting like the government makers and bosses and now they got nowhere to go. At last now there is an end of the Left parties hold on national politics.

One more thing what this elections saw was the emergence of Rahul Gandhi as a leader in his own rights. Rahul campaigned almost-non stop, won his ancestral seat and decimated the opposition. I believe that he is the next Prime Minister of India, his views of getting young indians into politics is really motivating for youngsters like me…

Overall, what does it mean? With Congress winning by such a large margin India would now have a stable government after a long time. Now the government can take decisive decisions without feeling insecure.

Cheers..