Amartya Sen Defends his Comments Against Narendra Modi

                                    Narendra Modi is BJP's potential prime ministerial candidate.

Some Wise Sayings

1. Give a man a fish and you have fed him for a day; teach him how to fish and you will have fed him for a lifetime.

-- Chinese Proverb

2. Earn as much as you can; give as much as you can.

3. With great riches come great responsibility.

4. You do not stumble over a mountain, but over a stone.
 -- Indian Proverb

5. Great minds think alike
 -- Greek Proverb

6.  Advice him and counsel him. If he refuses to listen, let adversity teach him.
 -- African Proverb

Once Upon a Time

Making Best Use of a Jubilee

According to the latest figure given on July 11, 2013 there are 622 villages in Senapati district, which is less than that of the 2001 report which recorded 621 villages. There are some villages that have two churches; a church each for different denominations. There may also be some villages where there is no church. Taking this factor into account, it is fair to surmise that there would be some 622 churches in the same district. It is also fair to surmise that each village would have its Union or Association for the youth group; and therefore there would be approximately 622 Unions in the district. There would possibly be a Union for each block or tribe. If one may include the Women Society and the Village Council/GB, the number of institutions might possibly cross two thousand altogether. If we take into account all the institutions in the five hill districts of Manipur and also the entire state of Mizoram and Nagaland, the monetary figure would be mind boggling!

It has become a culture to organize the 50^th Anniversary of a church or an association with a not so insignificant display of glory and achievement. For many institutions the Golden Jubilee, as it is commonly known, is over; but the Diamond Jubilee and the Centenary celebration are being awaited and prepared for. Depending on the size of the institution, the budget is made, which possibly would range from a lakh to a crore rupees. If one takes an average of Rs. 10 lakh for a Union/Church and multiplies it by two thousand, the amount is huge! But at the end of the entire spending, what has been achieved? Is there any significant change that has come about as a result of so many Golden Jubilees? Or is Jubilee just another traditional Christmas, much larger in size though, where people get together to make merry and greet one another and go back home with their heart, mind, pocket and stomach emptied?

The original idea of Jubilee is to set people free. To be set free from the bondage of slavery and debt; to be released from sin and shame; to be forgiven and to express one's trust in God. How much of that original vision do we, as a church or as a social organization, incorporate in the Jubilee year that we commemorate? If there has been a flaw in our understanding of Jubilee which has resulted in so much of resources being wasted, it is time we gather our thoughts and actions and chart a new direction. And I would like to suggest how to go about this in the following paragraphs.

Broadly speaking, the key mission of a church is to help people develop a deeper understanding of God and holy living. If growth in terms of understanding and holiness is absent, then such a church requires deep introspection. Growth in terms of understanding must necessarily lead to holier living. Unholy living with a deeper understanding of God is a contradiction! So if one questions whether a person's understanding of God is deep or not, one must look at the moral conduct of the person; or whether the fruit of the Spirit is present or not. The moral conduct of a person is double-edged. It consists in avoiding evil actions and performing good actions. To avoid murder, theft, adultery, swindling of money etc is just one side of being a morally good person. A morally good person must also actively pursue doing good actions. So when a church commemorates a Jubilee and spends ten or fifty lakhs, it needs to set an objective which will result in the members growing in terms of understanding that will lead them to avoid doing evil acts and pursue good and upright actions. For example, a Jubilee pledge of a church can take the form of government employees making a promise that they will never take a bribe; and that they will come for duty on time. This is an example of church members becoming holier; being morally more pure. Setting an objective for a Jubilee may not necessarily result in a drastically noticeable change. However, it is a significant step towards ensuring a meaningful commemoration of a Jubilee.

A social union or an organization can set an objective different from that of a church when it observes a Jubilee. A social institution can set an objective that will enhance the substantive freedom of at least the members of that union, if not that of the larger society. Thus a social institution can primarily aim to improve the literacy rate or the health or the economic condition or all the above points of the members of that union. These parameters are very similar to the Human Development Index set by the United Nations. If observing a Jubilee cannot explicitly engender positive change in the parameters mentioned above, it can still aim to bring about an implicit change in the above parameters. By this I mean to say that the Jubilee year/week can be used to change our perspective on the importance of forest conservation or adult learning or something similar. For example, highlighting the importance of forest conservation during a Jubilee can implicitly effect the economic condition of the people. Since it is known that the indiscriminate felling of trees can cause soil erosion and less precipitation which in turn adversely affects the farming community, highlighting the significance of this can be a key message of a Jubilee.

(For the Hornbill Express to be published on 16th July, 2013)

What if Modi had Rescued 15,000 Gujaratis...?

After the flash flood came the war of words among the politicians! It was reported that Narendra Modi, the CM of Gujarat, had rescued 15,000 stranded Gujaratis from the flood hit Uttarakhand. Criticism poured in saying Modi should not have rescued only the Gujarat; he should have rescued Indians. BJP went onto a defensive mode and began denying that such a thing was never claimed by Modi or any BJP leader. Well, it was purely the creation of the anti-BJP camp in the media or whether the news was first planted by Modi, I don't know. But suppose Modi had acted like a Rambo and indeed rescued 15,000 stranded Gujaratis, is there any problem? 

Narendra Modi is the Chief Minister of Gujarati. It is his job to care for the people of Gujarati. He is responsible for the welfare of the people of the state he rules. He is not the CM of Uttarakhand. And so his primary focus should be for the Gujaratis, not those from UK or UP or TN. He is also not the Prime Minister or Home Minister of India and therefore it is not required of him to be equally concerned for all the people of India. It is the office that is centered in Gujarat that gives him the power and position, and therefore his primary concern should be that of the people of Gujarat. 

So, is it really a problem if he had rescued 15,000 Gujaratis on the basis of 'Gujarati first'? I see no problem here. 

Suppose, two children are drowning and one is your child and the other a stranger, and you can save only one: which one would you save? Of course, your child. Suppose, a ship that carries 500 Indians and 500 Pakistanis hit an ice-berg; and Indian Govt has time and resources at that point of time to rescue only 500 passengers: would it save the Indians first or the Pakistanis or toss a coin? Well, Indians first! That's my take. The idea of solidarity: family, state, country... insists that the priority goes that way. Of course, if all the 1000 passengers could be saved, and if only 500 Indians are taken on board that is immoral; that is wrong. But when both the parties are deserving, but one is "your people" and the other party a "strangers", and you have resources to save only one party, then it's really fair to give priority to "your people".

My Experience as a UESI Staff Worker

I worked with UESI as a coordinator/staff for almost eight years. And until I joined as a staff member in 2003, I was an EU member, having even served in the ICEU committee as Secretary and President. It was through a friend that I got introduced to EU; and in a Bible Study led by Dr. David Jayakumar that I came to accept Jesus as Lord and Saviour. In 2011, I left the staff team for higher studies in Delhi University.

The last two years I have not fallen really ill even once. Compared to the frequency I fell ill during my days as a staff worker, this is a big change. As a (national) staff member, I remember falling ill at least two times a year. Point is that physical wear and tear as a staff worker is tremendous. I have not experienced myself how life is like to be in a government service or to be a software engineer in a private company. But I can definitely say the life of a PhD research scholar is much 'easier' than the life of a UESI staff worker. It drains you a lot physically and emotionally being a staff worker. In fact, I notice that even my clothes last longer now than they used to be!

In those eight years, I interacted and learned so much from some of the finest people I worked with. Had I not been in the staff team, I would have missed out those people. I want to point out specially Mathew Varghese in shaping me so much. It's not just the personal learning I got from him, but observing him and staying with him was tremendously helpful. I think it's fair to regard him as a man of fine character. Despite tough life one has to face as a staff worker, the eight years experience with extremely good people was something I would treasure all my life. Only as a staff worker one would get this rich and unique experience!

Maintaining discipline now and then has been different. I have taught QT so many times in DTC. Doing QT then as a staff has been so much more consistent than it is now. The tendency to react or get annoyed at rash driving was almost absent then; now it's not quite that way. Sitting idly on a hot and humid day or on a cold evening is getting more frequent now. As a staff worker that sort of 'vice' is rare because one does not get time to remain idle. One has to read a book or think of some plan or get in touch with a long lost friend or do something productive as a staff worker; it's about keeping oneself busy. Sadly, disciplining oneself is not easy unless one also puts oneself in such a situation where one is forced to be discipline. Being a staff worker helps a lot!

One change I would like to see in UESI is this. It's usual to appeal to 'emotional attachment'  to raise fund or encourage people to get involved. I think this is not a good approach. People must give or get involved, I think, because they are convinced of the vision: the vision to minister to the people in Universities and Colleges. Vision statement of UESI is clear. And I believe it is this vision that must be reminded and expounded. UESI is uniquely raised for the students in colleges and universities; it's unlike the organisations started by Billy Graham or Joyce Meyer. Appealing to this sentiment or some other sentimental attachment will drag UESI down from being a progressive organisation. And fleshing out the vision statement of UESI will include challenging students to ask why they study this subject instead of that subject or why a particular economic theory should be preferred over others as a Christian and so on. It's going to be about why this particular worldview engenders seeing things this way and not that way; and why this lifestyle over that lifestyle etc.

UESI is a man-made organisation, run by imperfect people. So it's going to be infected with this problem or that problem. In fact, every organisation, religious or secular, will be infected with all kinds of problem. Being such a huge organisation, one should not be surprised if the problem in UESI is even bigger than one might have thought. Whatsoever, my way of seeing is that as long as the vision remains, one should get involved as a grad or an EU member or a staff. At certain point of time if you felt called to change direction, so be it. But let's not get bogged down because of the petty differences and the quarrelling one experiences within the organisation. It's all part of becoming more mature....