Reflections of Rajaram Bojji

Why a citizen should risk his life to do public service? To merely collect information, if one seeks to use the RTI, so long as it is well sanitised, the government releases the same. You do not know what you did not get.Really sensitive information will be hidden. If too much pressure arises, then life itself is taken. There are cases when really damaging information comes out under two sets of circumstances: 1. When a group of persons or an organisation operates through some court process and some one in the government is willing to cooperate 2. When the government itself in a planned pre-meditated manner, create such document duly marked secret, but release at the right time under RTI to achieve own internal agenda of setting right a rogue political colleague, whom they are otherwise unable to handle. So RTI is either misused or abused. The basic lacuna in the ACT is you do not what to ask for , and do not know how much more the government is hiding while giving some information. It...

[ In reply to a senior respected person] Sir, I do not know if only muslims live in ghettos. Others too do. In my childhood, I lived with muslim class mates who were my close friends in as much as some class mates going through the evening RSS classes, but all of us were living well and also in engineering college and in IIT too. Never had any inkling that they were poor or living in ghettos. That way as many or even more non-muslims too live in ghettos. That includes brahmins . For example AR Rehman had become Muslim by choice, though he belonged to the Iyer community, one of the most revered brahmin community in Tamil Nadu. The poverty and the inability to look after parents and family attracted him to adopt. But I respect and enjoy his music. We similarly honour Bismillah Khan. We do not have any prejudices in reality. Poverty does not favour one religion. Actually in my home town , the richness of muslims increased manyfold, with money flowing from Dubai. The Hindu businessmen for...

It is a historical fact: barbarians start as barbarians to win over soft civilised societies, weakened by own civil and high thinking and living habits, and then once pinnacle is reached, they themselves become civil, soft and start high thinking and high living, become ripe for another emerging barbarian groups to attack leveraging the civil behaviour of the opponent to own advantage. The in built tolerance of the civil society itself is used by these forces to survive and destroy the civil society. Perhaps the only exception to that cycle is , may be Afghanistan. After Genghis Khan winning all over, still, the country continued to live in highly volatile manner. Not becoming civil could be the best stable option? Kurukshetra war is a symbol of that need for good people ultimately to pick up the weapons of destruction to establish back civil society. The new barbaric groups amongst Islam , can cause doom to the societies in a similar manner, if they continue to apply their civic laws...

http://www.latimes.com/news/ opinion/commentary/la-oe-- bilmes-war-cost-20110918,0, 1598244.story?track=rss&utm_ source=feedburner&utm_medium= feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+ MostEmailed+%28L.A.+Times+-+ Most+E-mailed+Stories%29 "Ten years into the war on terror, the U.S. has largely succeeded in its attempts to destabilize Al Qaeda and eliminate its leaders. But the cost has been enormous, and our decisions about how to finance it have profoundly damaged the U.S. economy. Many of these costs were unnecessary. We chose to fight in Iraq and Afghanistan with a small, all-volunteer force, and we supplemented the military presence with a heavy reliance on civilian contractors. These decisions not only placed enormous strain on the troops but dramatically pushed up costs. Recent congressional investigations have shown that roughly 1 of every 4 dollars spent on wartime contracting was wasted or misspent. To date, the United States has spent more than $2.5 trillion on the wars i...

Of late I have started watching old Vithalacharya movies ( 40-50 years old), telling stories of cruel wizards kidnapping beautiful princess and then a brave prince rescuing after a fight over two hours after realising I am after all expected to live like a simple cockroach and attempt no serious heroics. Without any opinion from my side the various stages verifiable by records of railways, let me narrate the story of ACD.Only matters of fact I would list below, how ACD arrived in railways and seems to be creating needless problems to the Ministry. 1. March 1999- A single page concept paper I sent to Board while grieving hundreds of lives lost in quick succession on railway collisions and level crossing collisions. 2. Shri SM Vaish (Member Khanna Safety Commission) said spend some money and demonstrate a prototype. 3. First prototype demonstrated to Shri VK Agarwal CRB on 15th Oct 1999. 4. First filed runs demonstrated to Members Khanna Safety Commission, Expert team from RDSOcomprising...

You may have read about the experience of the retired army officer who met a lot of people at Ram Lila Maidan where Anna Hazare was on fast. Here is something experienced by my cousin who happened to be in Delhi that time. "I was in Delhi to attend a meeting in the Planning Commission's Office. When I got out of Delhi airport, some youngster approached me and gave me a small national flag to pin on my shirt. This is something which I could obviously not refuse. Then they gave me a white cap with "I am Anna Hazare" written printed it in. I decided to wear the cap, got into a taxi and told him to take me to my lodging. On the way there was a police check point, and the cop peeped into the taxi and waved us on. The cabbie seemed to be happy. and said "Aap ki wajah se bach gaye" (Escaped, thanks to you). When I asked what I had doen to save him, he said 'Every day, these police guys make us pay 100 rupees to pass this point, and if someone does not pay he i...

Requires courage to write such an article. But for some reason he is not willing to consider the entire spectrum.(Ref: Write up attached below). Had US taken to the alternative route of diplomacy, would Afghanisatan under Taliban at that time cooperate? While the war on Iraq was totally uncalled for, focused change of regime to facilitate capture of the culprits in Afghanistan would have served the purpose. Iraq even to day daily loses double digit lives with the way the society is fractured. Of course entire Arab world is in a state of destabilisation. SO is the world economic order too. What is a the root of all these events occurring in a quick succession too in the last decade? The 9/11 triggered more than what meets the eye. Nostradamus prediction that a man in green makes fire come on New York like city has proven right? We can only conjecture but nevertheless, the suffering is real when the incidents really happen. India did not go and attack like US nor indulge in any violence...

Charley Reese's Final column! A very interesting column.. COMPLETELY NEUTRAL Be sure to Read the Poem at the end. Charley Reese's final column for the Orlando Sentinel... He has been a journalist for 49 years. He is retiring and this is HIS LAST COLUMN. Be sure to read the Tax List at the end. This is about as clear and easy to understand as it can be. The article below is completely neutral, neither anti-republican or democrat. Charlie Reese, a retired reporter for the Orlando Sentinel, has hit the nail directly on the head, defining clearly who it is that in the final analysis must assume responsibility for the judgments made that impact each one of us every day. It's a short but good read. Worth the time. Worth remembering! 545 vs. 300,000,000 People -By Charlie Reese Politicians are the only people in the world who create problems and then campaign against them. Have you ever wondered, if both the Democrats and the Republicans are against deficits, WHY do we have def...

I do not understand the uncalled for confidence that, we, by issue of order or making a severe law can make some event stop. Somehow our respected IAS and many intellectuals think that it is lack of a law that allows bad things to happen. Typically delay in issue of rules is being pointed out for some one to keep a watch on ammonium nitrate. The moment it is declared as an explosive...what other rules one needs to act? The rules applicable to explosives all of us know. They are there. Why again wait for issue of fresh rules A District Collector does not need any new rules specially for Ammonium Nitrate because it is an explosive of a particular class under the explosive act. All the existing rules kick in. The district collectors and the explosive inspectors merely give this kind of excuse to avoid accountability. Even carriage by ship in to Vizag in huge quantities becomes a case of violating the ACt, under the existing Act and rules available for explosives mutatis mutandis for Ammo...