Subron Statements That Don't Survive A Fact-Check

1. We have reached the end of a cycle so we need a new constitution (2023 onwards). Bérenger and Ramgoolam have reached an advanced age and are way past the date they should have retired from active politics. Ramgoolam hasn't been looking healthy for quite some time – and he's been an unmitigated disaster as PM when he was – while Bérenger is seeing at least one ghost in Parliament. Subron is now a pensioner. Our constitution has not aged one bit though. It's still a national treasure that will serve us well for the next 100,000 years albeit with a few overdue additions. Subron seems to be confusing the cycles that a typical human goes through with our awesome constitution that was built to last many centuries. It's like the Hindu numerals, they have not gone out of fashion for the past 2,000 years. I don't know of anybody who wants their smartphone to run on Roman numerals.

2. Our FPTP system doesn't allow any new party to emerge (At least since 2010). 

Not only is this assertion not true but our FPTP system has also got rid of several parties over the past 65 or more years. And kept good-for-nothing loudmouths out of parliament forever.

3. Our constitution is a big pile of rot (2023 onwards). We have a constitution to die for. It is the result of decades-long struggle and deep study by several extraordinary people including Renganaden Seeneevassen and Kher Jagatsingh. The latter was also the one moving around the constitutional expert offered by India to help us to keep him under the radar. Our constitution has played an important role in proving Meade wrong and building our reputation as The Great Little Country. The rot we're seeing is not because of our excellent constitution which hasn't changed that much since 1968 but due to the unsustainable Sithanen flat tax implemented as from 2006. 

4. The BLS has institutionalised communalism (At least since 2011). At one point in our political history we decided to settle for it, I have understood, for a few general elections along with specially-delineated ridings because of the unwarranted fear spewed by a bunch of racists and possibly because of the failure of some politicians in understanding what is a good electoral system. It has served its purpose well without preventing voters from becoming increasingly sophisticated election after election and changing governments several times. Any dose of PR would have been disastrous for Mauritius compared to the outcomes we've experienced with the BLS including communally. And we don't need a dose of PR to remove the BLS as I've demonstrated since 2014.

5. It is not because our constitution has worked that we should keep it (2023 onwards). So what do we do, we get rid of things that have worked very well like our FPTP system and our constitution and keep those that have failed spectacularly like the flat tax and concreting agricultural land while Mauritians starve?

6. Only 20 PR MPs are needed for an electoral reform (2014 onwards). Our parliament is already too big. We have many MPs that don't have any track record. Why would we need 20 PR MPs after each general election when the results have varied significantly from 60-0 to 32-30. It doesn't make any sense. Plus this would throw governance out of the window. 

7. We should add the names of Anna van Bengale and Anjalay Coopen in our constitution (As from 2023). Clearly Mr. Subron doesn't understand the difference between a constitution and history books. What's next, adding an old picture of his as a brand ambassador wannabe of a famous South-American doctor or holding a torch in Hendrik Fort?

8. I'm against costing of electoral pledges (2023). The Sithanen flat tax of 15% has ruined Mauritius and now Ramgoolam wants 18-28 year-olds not to pay any income tax. Is this why Subron wants to join the LP/MMM/PMSD alliance? Should we also remove speedometers from cars and planes?

9. So where's the problem if sugar represents only 1% of GDP? (2012). That was his reply when I told him that it's way better for Mauritius to remove sugar cane, recycle workers from this industry and use the land for economic activities that are more commensurate with the cost of living here and aspirations of Mauritians.

10. A red line was crossed with the killing of Kistnen (2023). There have been a number of unsolved murders during the past 25 years and it is urgent and important that everything is done so that the affected families get closure, justice is served and Mauritians find out the truth. But how is that exactly the fault of our excellent constitution and the best electoral system in the world that is embedded in it? 

11. It's not good that a party heads government for three consecutive terms (2024). It's something for voters and not Subron to decide. SAJ did four consecutive terms as PM between 1982 and 1995 (the first one, only 436 days long, was marred by in-fighting almost from day 1).

12. I'm against double candidacies (2012). Have a look at what is in ReA's 2014 electoral manifesto.

13. BLD (2020).

Sis Kolos Travayis Ki Pa Ti Pu Vot Pu Navin

Maurice Curé. Listwar Parti Travayis (Ptr) kumans ar li. En lorea kin al apran medsin langleter, kin develop en bon klientel parmi ban nanti kan lin returne an 1913 me ki pa ti ditu kontan, Selvon ek Teelock rakont nu, kot so pei ti ete. Li ti ena osi ban klian dan vilaz e sa fer li trakase move kalite pu lasante travayer ler li truv zot leta. An 1934 li dan Konsey Guvernmantal kot pu so promie diskur li deman reprezantasion travayer dan sa konsey la e rekonesans muvman sindikal. Sitiasion telman dan dife ki sis mwa pa gayn letan pase e ala li pe fer ban nuvo revandikasion: pansion vieyes e ameliorasion kondision ban travayer lindistri sikriyer. 

Lagazet tret li de kominist e li perdi dan eleksion Zanvie 1936. Me li pa dekuraze u perdi letan. Mwa swivan, 88 banane zordi, le 23 Fevriye 1936 li organiz en miting dan San de Mars ansam ek Moutou, Sahadeo ek ankor pu fond pli gran parti dan listwar Moris. Ban miting e rasanbleman Ptr se ban seans pu edik ban gro laful dimun vit lor ban zafer estra inportan pu zot byinet e pu kre en vag progresis. Curé viktim telman represion ki li fayit e demisione depi Ptr an 1941. En lot kolos lamem pu pran labar.

Emmanuel Anquetil. En marin kin pas buku letan an Ostrali ek Langleter e kin konpran kuma sindikalism se en zarm pwisan ti en kolaborater Curé apre so retur Moris. Emmanuel usi ti truv ban kondision ban travayer telman dan bez ki lin servi so gran intelizans e so ban talan pu zot sor ameliore. Ban otorite kolonial ti pe per so ban kapasite organiz dimun alor zot fin deport li Rodrigues an 1938. Me lin revini ase vit e fin kontinie organiz dimun rapidman. Lin bril so lavi pu avansman so ban konpatriot. Mersi Emmanuel pu sa zoli fedartifis la. Anu dekuver kuma nu trwaziem kolos fin tini guvernay Ptr.

Guy Rozemont. Nu rapel sa Lider Parti Travayis la pu so mosion fer Promie Me vin en konze piblik pu selebre dinite ban travayer e rekonet zot gran rol dan kreasion larises dan Moris. Me Guy fin fer plin lezot zafer osi sinon pli inportan. Lin konbat pu amelior kondision ban travayer inklian don zot drwa de vot e elir zot ban reprezantan dan konsey lezislatif. Pa difisil konpran kifer travayer ti pe anvi gayn ban dimun ki pu fer kiksoz de fondamantal laba e amen developman konstitisionel ki bon pu zot e sitwayin an zeneral – se pa selman akoz ban kondision ki ti dan dife e ki ti fer krim kont limanite lor later Moris me se osi prinsip de baz amelior ban zafer tan ki ena lavi. 

Seski nu lir usi pli u mwin dan Petals of Dust. Bi mosion Guy an Desam 1953 se byinsir transfer inpe puvwar Guverner a ban reprezantan popilasion. Apre se en memorandum ki zot avoy Lord Munster. Ban diskision kontinie dan Lond ek Moris ziska ki Sekreter Deta pu ban Koloni Lennox-Boyd pibliye so ban propozision. Li rekoman PR (Proportional Representation) pu anpes en swadizan dominasion Indu me sa Ptr absoliman e avek rezon pa dakor. 

Chit Dukhira dan so liv Experiments in Democracy rapel nu ki Komite Egzekitif Ptr preside par Guy ti ekspilse so frer Philippe Rozemont apre ki li ti vot an faver sa propozision PR la. En tigit letan apre Guy desede e ena en eleksion parsiel dan Porlwi kot ban minorite an mazorite. En zoli plas pu nu zwen nu katriem kolos.

Renganaden Seeneevassen. Pa pran buku letan pu konpran ki li ti en dimun mari inportan pu Ptr e donk pu Moris. Pli tar mon lir Renga Is No More e sa fin fer mwa kon li plis. Sada Reddi rakont nu dan biografi Ringadoo ki Renga ek Edgar Millien ti ban prinsipal portparol dan muvman anti-PR ki Ptr ti lanse. E ki Renga ti kapitaliz lor so ban talan ansyin profeser pu explik en lodians dan Teat Porlwi lor tablo ek lakre ki ban implikasion PR. Mauritius Times li, ti lans so fame kanpayn Down With PR. Ptr fini par ranport sa parsiel Me 1956 la dan en landrwa, kot li bon rapel, minorite an mazorite e trwa mwa apre zot pran minisipalite Porlwi pu promie fwa. Sa ban viktwar la anter PR pur de bon e nu evantielman gayn FPTP (First-Past-The-Post) ki meyer system elektoral dan lemond. Zot fin pare pu sinkiem kolos?

Anekdot Guy Forget dan so obitier pu Renga dan Mauritius
Times lor en dezene organize par Lennox-Boyd an 1955.

Seewoosagur Ramgoolam. Pli gran PM ki Moris fin gayne. Malgre en lanfans byin difisil kot li ti perdi en lizie dan en fason dramatik. Lin persevere e lin transform li an en gran lider ki ti osi byin rize. En so ban pli gran realizasion se ban gran lekip dimun ki lin met dibut pu amen lindepandans, relev ban defi kaziman insirmontab ki pei ti pe fer fas an 1968 e develop Moris den fason estraordiner. Se en dimun ki ti konpran ki diob pli inportan en lider se rekritman talan. Anu zwen en so ban meyer rekritman e nu siziem kolos.

Kher Jagatsingh. Idol SSR, en fonksyoner kin kit servis sivil pu al ko-fond Mauritius Times laz 23 an. Depite avan li gayn 28 an, Sekreter Zeneral Ptr a 30 pu 21 an e Minis Lasante a 36, Minis Planing Ekonomik e Developman a 40. Politisyin dan Moris kin probableman plis voyaze e ti kon plis dimun inportan dan lemond. Buku dimun dan diferan parti dir se en ban politisyin kin fer plis pu Moris. Sirman akoz li en ban prinsipal arsitek nu leta providans. An 1956 li ti osi partisip dan kanpayn anti-PR. 

Kuma Ban Kolos Ti Pu Truv Performans Navin

Si zot ti la zordi le 23 Fevriye 2024 dan meyer form zot lavi pu manz en bon but gato laniverser zot parti zot ti pu kontan truve ki FPTP tuzur meyer system elektoral dan lemond kin servi buku pei i konpri Moris mari byin. Zot ti pu sirman dir sa tigit dimun ki pankor konvinki ki depi Zanvie 2015 nun al vote dan eleksion zeneral 1 sel fwa alor ki Israel kot ena PR in al vote 6 fwa akoz instabilite perpetiel ki PR suvan zenere eleksion apre eleksion u Belzik ki usi servi PR ti pran 541 zur pu form en guvernman an 2011. Renga ek Kher ti pu mari kontan ki elekter Morisyin ti rezet PR en deziem fwa an 2014. Me ena buku zafer ki pa ti pu fer zot plezir e en bon parti ladan fin arive akoz Navin.

Zot ti pu sirman vot Ptr an 1995 e kontan retruv en PM ruz. Me zot ti pu sirman ena rezerv lor sertin kandida ki Navin ti swazir e vit truv so performans mari mediok. Tro buku rise puse steril san nanye arive. Zot ti pu soke ek seki li ti pe rod fer ek CWA e zot probableman pa ti pu inpresionie par fason kanpayn elektoral ki zot parti ti fer an 2000. Sandut zot ti pu rod konsey li me se pa sir ki li ti pu ekute. Parksi zot aksion pase byin dokumante donk si li ti anvi kontinie ek direksion ek nivo zot travay li pa ti pu inposib. 

Zot ti pu revot li an 2005 me zot pa ti pu dakor ek en flat tax 15% pu plizir rezon evidan ek ban katastrof ki ti pe arive en deryer lot. Takse lintere e elimin ban egzanpsion kin tuy nu kiltir epargn, don kado 5 milyar rupi en lindistri kin mor depi lontan, siyn ban kontra abizif, zwe rulet ris ek sibsid SC/HSC, tir sibsid lor diri/lafarin pu ban rezon konpletman debil, ras dipin dan labus zanfan lekol e fer pri later determine par milioner etranze. Zot ti pu truv sa propagand ki MBC ti pe fer la infekt. SSR pa ti pu dakor ki atribie li tu zafer ki Ptr in fer. Renga posibleman ti pu rant en kes pu tialenj flat tax 15% la parksi nu ti pe pas de demokrasi a plutokrasi. Emmanuel, Guy e Maurice ti pu bros latet Navin e si li pa ti konpran mem zot ti pu lev pei kont li sirtu pu so ban lalwa travay. Par kont zot ti pu siport Bheenick pu so ekselan travay labank Moris.

Pa sir zot ti pu vot Navin an 2010. Pa ti pu drol si zot ti pu organiz so depar depi Ptr. Zot ti pu definitivman pa vot pu li an 2014 e an 2019. Ferm parlman pandan 9 mwa pu pon en papier lor reform elektoral ki preske en frer zimo propozision toksik Sithanen pa ti pu fer zot kontan ditu. Azut en doz PR dan nu system elektoral 58 an apre ki zot ti anter li dan Porlwi? Tu lezo dan zot lekor ti pu kont sa. Desizion Navin redon Sithanen de tiket apre se ki lin fer ant 2005 ek 2010 ti pu fer zot mari araze e pa drol si zot ti pu fer kanpayn kont li.

Eski zot ti pu vot pu Navin an 2024? Pena sime. E sirtu pa kan zot ti pu konpran kot Moris pu ete lafin lane (get tiart) e analiz ban angazman Ptr/MMM/PMSD. Zot ti pu dakor ar li ler li dir ki li pena oken leritaz politik apre 3 manda kom PM. Sa zot ti pu fini warn li depi 2005 mem ki sa pu arive ler zot get sa direksion ki li ti pran la. Zot pa ti pu vot Pravind non pli parski lin pli u mwin kontinie anfons Moris dan presipis. U Paul ki ti bizin fini kit MMM depi byin lontan parski li penan nanye de bon pu ofer Moris. Zot ti pu sandut truv sertin ban propozision Reform Party kuma drwa revok en depite e zir en afidavit pu ban angazman interesan.

Rezon prinsipal kifer det fin depas 500 milyar rupi e sitiasion pe kontinie puri de manier
eksponansiel se en striktir taksasion insutenab kin kumanse ek flat tax 15% Sithanen.

Referans

Dukhira, C., (2002), History of Mauritius. Experiments in Democracy.

Forget, G., (1958), Ce que fut l'homme. mauritiustimes.com. Aksede 15.2.24.

Jagatsingh, K., (1981), Petals of Dust.

Reddi, S.J., (2000), Sir V. Ringadoo, An Opportunity to Serve, Mahatma Gandhi Institute.

Selvon, S., (2018), A New Comprehensive History of Mauritius, Editions de l'Ocean Indien.

Teelock, V., (2009) Mauritian History. From its Beginnings to Modern Times. Mahatma Gandhi Institute.

Analiz Sis Angazman Lalians Ptr/MMM/PMSD

1. Pu redon parlman so let dor. Phokeer se pa Vaghjee me lor sa 35 ekspilsion an 2023 la ena plizir ladan kot lopozision fin rod sikan (e komie ladan inplik en tekewe?). Anu pa bliye usi ki Navin ti ferm parlman pandan 9 mwa pu prodir en dokiman lor reform elektoral kot li ti fer ban rekomandasion konpletman debil. Bon sa pa eton nu ler nu kon nivo Ramgoolam.

2. Abolision FCC. Ranplase par ki zafer? Manier sitiasion pu kontinie deteriore akoz politik fiskal e ekonomik pagla ki Ramgoolam ti kumanse an 2006 ban guvernman ki pu vini pu met tu kalite lalwa libertisid ziska sa eklat dan zot figir evantielman.

3. Constitutional appointment authority. Depi lindepandans nun oper plito byin apart kelke ka ase toxik. Donk pa en bel zafer. Se sirtu akoz 2-3 politisyin ki nu retruv nu dan sa sitiasion la. Ramgoolam in poz 7 fwa ek en tiket zis akoz lin don limem sa ban tiket la. Ek eleksion rekorl zot pu tike avan fer kuyonad.

4. Ogmantasion pansion lao Rs13,500. Nu nek ena get refleksion Ptr/MMM lor pansion an 2014 pu konpran ki se an angazman konpletman dezespere. Navin pu gayn 77 an e Paul 79 byinto. Navin dan karo kan depi 9 an e Bérenger pe perdi tu eleksion zeneral depi 2000.

5. Eliminasion income tax pu ban seki ena 18-28 an. Pei deza pena kas pu fonksion kuma bizin depi 2005 asterla pwal fer en parti dimun pa pey income tax? Se totalman iresponsab. Akoz lin met taksasion lor en trazektwar insutenab ki Ramgoolam so bilan mari katastrofik. Se en angazman toxik parski ek sa nu pu truv zot pe depresie rupi ubyin redwir leta providans e pa regle oken problem pei. Se en angazman ban inkapab.

6. Zot pu bes pri prodwi petrolie de manier sibstansiel. Kav me selman pu en ti lepok. Lerla zot pu remont li buku plis ankor amwin rekumans ras dipin dan labus zanfan lekol, takse lintere, NRPT e bondie kone ki lezot politik vanpir ankor. Sitiasion telman pe puri depi 2006 ki ler pri petrol ti efondre an 2008 pri laponp pa ti bes kuma bizin. Asterla an 2024 zafer buku pli pa bon donk pri laponp pa pu rekonekte ek so nivo mondial. 

Konklizion: Lalians Ptr/MMM/PMSD breyn-ded. 

General Secretaries of the Labour Party

When Kalyanee Juggoo resigned as General Secretary (GS) of the Labour Party recently Arvin Boolell wondered whether with her 13 years in that post she hadn't been the longest-serving. I knew she did not. Indeed as Chart 1 shows, Kher Jagatsingh had been GS between 1961 and 1982 or for around 21 years. Furthermore, a quick Google search revealed that Kalyanee had served since 2013 so that she had been in that position for about 9 years.  

Chart 1. Kalyanee cannot be the longest-serving GS.

 

But given that the greatest party of the land is also at 86 years the oldest it is possible that there had been at least one GS that was there for a longer period than Kher in the two large red boxes with question marks. However some more search, see Chart 2, ruled out anybody serving longer than Kher – I cannot use KJ here for an obvious reason – after his stint because there have been quite a few between him and Kalyanee in that post for shorter a period than the latter except maybe Joseph Tsang Mang Kin whose Wikipedia entry gives contradictory information and explains the absence of his name in the charts. 

Chart 2. No one served longer than Kher after him.

But Kher might still not be the longest-serving GS because although it was a wonderful blessing for the LP that he got the job for its Silver Jubilee there are still these 25 years. All it would take for him to keep the first spot would be for the second GS to have been appointed in the WWII year of 1941. This of course assumes that the post existed at that time. Maybe it did. Maybe it didn't. It shouldn't be too difficult to find out. 

Kher Jagatsingh organised the Labour Party like clockwork.

Of course what matters most is not staying in a post for the longest time but having the greatest impact. And when it comes to impact we have to remember that it is widely acknowledged that Mr. Jagatsingh has left oversized shoes in each one of the Ministries that he was appointed to despite not having been there the longest in at least one of them. We should also note that Ms. Juggoo is the only woman so far in this tally and as of now the second longest-serving GS of the LP.

Gentle Elephant Already Back On the Podium

One-fifth of 

Humanity Freed

It's Friday 15 August 1947 and a huge crowd is watching Nehru raise the national flag of independent India at the Red Fort in Delhi for the first time. The subcontinent had been freed only hours before and the chief architect of this mammoth task was greeted just minutes ago with the loudest of roars. Almost. Gandhi is not in the Indian capital. He's in Calcutta hundreds of kilometres away after having accepted to serve as human shield for an infinite number of Muslims. 

Attenborough's 

1982 Masterpiece

Gandhi is thrown off a first class train wagon in South Africa. He returns to India. Negotiates with the British. Organises peaceful strikes. I see Nehru. The massacre at Jallianwala Bagh. They snatch independence but the country is split into two nations as Jinnah wanted a separate and pure land for Muslims. A huge exchange of population follows as Hindustan Muslims leave India for Pakistan while Hindus do the opposite journey. They clash. Gandhi is shot by Godse. There's so much happening in this movie and I register only a tiny fraction.  

Reading Freedom At 

Midnight A First Time

Many years later I read Collins and Lapierre's extraordinary book and was surprised to learn that the population exchange was not complete. Tens of millions of Muslims did not leave India. Pakistan was initially a two-part country and that the second part was one I had known for many years under a different name from my school atlas. But perhaps the most shocking information is that Jinnah, its Quaid-i-Azam, ate pork. Skipped Friday prayers. Drank alcohol. Smoke and spoke so little Urdu that he had to speak in English when announcing to the Indian population that he had secured partition. 

So much for the guy who insisted that a 400-million-strong nation be amputated because according to him Hindus and Muslims were so different that they needed separate dominions. It's not the first time power is a bigger aphrodisiac than religion. The other thing that caught my attention were the details about the maharajahs. Including those of the Nizam of Hyderabad, the richest man in the world at the time. But just like with the movie I missed plenty of things because there's so much stuff in that great book. Not having yet gone to India did not help. How do you process all the places beyond let's say Bombay, Delhi, Amritsar, Calcutta, Kashmir and a few others? While there are informative maps and well captioned pictures in F@M it's still a huge challenge.

What is This Country?

I eventually visited Hindustan. It didn't take very long to be knocked out by the sheer scale of this nation. If you thought Freedom At Midnight was tough to digest just imagine you are checking out Jama Masjid in Old Delhi and still sizing up the iconic mosque when you see a very familiar site between many of its pillars looking at you: the Red Fort. It's overwhelming to see so many impressive landmarks so close to one other. It's true we had sensed that proximity but the map in the brand new and already dog-eared Lonely Planet is not the territory. And you can never be prepared for this kind of dimensionality. No. So we don't go up the minaret and instead ask Scotty to beam us to the Lal Qila hoping to catch a glimpse of Gandhi. But not before smiling at the thought of one Mark Twain quote. 

Summing Up India

Not an easy task because of its complexity and very long history. It's a slower process than for other countries. So it's a perpetual updating with new perspectives provided by fresh knowledge and impressions like when I was listening to a fellow citizen talk about his experience travelling around India during his fairly long studies there – we're probably looking at the mid-1970s here. His eyes lit up with fond memories remembering this city and that city, this experience and that experience. The nice feeling of just being there. I'm enjoying the listen. And then he summarised a trip to neighbouring Pakistan with one sentence: Not easy that country! Isn't that just another biased Indo-Mauritian being way too proud about the country of his ancestors? Actually that much-appreciated person is probably a Muslim. I didn't ask. It doesn't matter. He may well be a Zen master. He's just a kind person. And his ancestors are most likely from Bharat too.

 

It's not the Jama Masjid but only its largest darwaza.

Getting Answers 

To Old Questions

I once came across a long list of the major accomplishments of India. You know the one that says she invented the number system we use, yoga, the zero, etc. I was familiar with most of them but there's one that I found very unlikely. It was attributed to Hu Shih, an academic from China, who mentioned some kind of cultural conquest and domination of the Middle Kingdom that lasted for a very long time. I obviously doubted its veracity because of Shaolin Kung Fu, Confucius, acupuncture, the invention of paper, printing press and so many others. But then I read the excellent Tao of Physics by Capra and eye-opening books on eastern thought that explained how Buddhism spread in China because it had answers to questions Confucius did not. Followed by landing on the absolutely delicious interaction between Bodhidharma and Emperor Wu and why the former taught modern martial arts to monks at the Shaolin Temple.

1947 Partition of Bengal 

Not the First One

Watching Satyajit Ray's documentary on Rabindranath Tagore a few weeks back taught me how the Bengali poet responded to Lord Curzon's plan of dividing the province along religious lines to slow down the Indian independence movement. He wrote patriot songs against it and led the singing protests in the streets of Calcutta. When the plan was implemented in October 1905 he asked every Hindu to tie a rakhi to his Muslim brother's arm. Six years later the partition was undone. 

I knew next to nothing about Tagore until recently. Now that I'm a fan he's on my radar. Maybe I will start with that conversation he had with Einstein or the one with Heisenberg where what the latter thought were crazy ideas in physics turned out to be pretty ordinary in Indian thought. This is a lot like quantum scientists telling the Dalai Lama that their discipline had been practiced in India for more than 2,000 years.

Bustling India on its way to the top again.

Nehru's Discovery of India

Read two-thirds of the abridged version of this amazing book 7-8 years ago and read most of the remaining pages recently to understand India a bit better for the big day. I skipped "The Six Systems of Philosophy" section again for the same reason I didn't read it the first time. I'm not exactly into unifying strands of physics. Or adding to the Vedas on the banks of the Indus. But I should have read it for Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav #250. Doordarshan also made a great documentary series directed by Shyam Benegal, Bharat Ek Khoj, based on the book. Don't bother checking the cast – it's excellent, trust me. Just watch the 53-episode drama and be dazzled by 5,000 years of history.

No Tagore in 1947

He died in 1941. But there's Gandhi risking his life again to save an ocean of lives. India's partition has claimed between 200,000 and 2 million lives – some say the bloodiest fortnight in human history – but it would have been a lot more had Mountbatten's one-man boundary force in Bengal not produced a miracle. Unfortunately neither Gandhi or Tagore would be there when trouble would be brewing again in the region twenty-four years later in what appeared to be a new version of Jinnah's two-nation theory. Someone else perfect for the job would though.

Forget Iron Lady,

Meet Woman of Steel

When she was back from one of her trips to India in the last quarter of the twentieth century my mum told me there was something very different about that country that time. A lot more order. People getting onto trains in a more disciplined manner and not the usual chaos. And not only at train stations. It was the same kind of order that had given Tagore pause years earlier when he was visiting the girls' dormitory at Santiniketan and arrived at Indira Gandhi's spot. 

In one of his books Lee Kuan Yew says that Ms. Gandhi was the toughest woman PM he had met in his life. She had a "steel in her that would match any Kremlin leader". This might explain part of the very warm rapport she had with USSR supremo Mr. Breznhev and the signing of the relevant treaty to see a friendly fleet from Vladivostok slide near the Bay of Bengal to help end the Bangladesh Genocide in 1971 which claimed three million lives. Another interesting story in that conflict is how Sehmat Khan, an Indian spy from Kashmir, helped sink an enemy submarine that was on a very strategic mission in the same bay with the intelligence gathered from her embedded position in current-day Pakistan. We also need to salute Missile Man and People's President Abdul Kalam who made his motherland safer while he was around and also left good ideas behind which have been implemented after his death. 

Steel partly made in Santiniketan: lines
from Gitanjali in the study of Indira Gandhi.

The Next 75

It's now Thursday 15 August 2097. India climbed the last step of the economic podium three decades earlier resuming the position she had held for so long. The Cheetahs are thriving, thank you for asking. The 15th Dalai Lama, a woman, is giving a lecture near Mount Kailash on a famous Shantideva chapter to a sea of people while the Tiranga floats in the background. As it does in Peshawar, Quetta and Gwadar.

Quote of Jinnah is from Freedom at Midnight, the book by Dominique Lapierre and Larry Collins, the one of Hu Shih is from wikipedia and several other sources from the internet while that of Sehmat Khan is from the movie Raazi.

Faith is A Hypothesis, That’s Why It’s Tested

Go to Heaven for the climate, Hell for the company.

Mark Twain

It's the beginning of the pandemic and I land on a 2016 video where the great Indian actor Irrfan Khan is debating with some clerics a few statements that had sparked a little bit of controversy. I am watching this after founding out he had just died. It was public knowledge that he had cancer, had gone for treatment overseas but it was still a surprise to learn of his demise because I was under the impression that he had defeated it. 

In the discussion, the Paan Singh Tomar actor was essentially saying that one should not accept any religion blindly but check which parts make sense, test them and that he didn't need anyone to explain the Koran to him. One of the clerics wouldn't have any of this while two others were not only more supportive of the leading man in Maqbool but appeared fairly mesmerised. And probably regretted that Richard Parker wasn't in the studio. At one point Irrfan quotes a dialogue from Life of Pi, the movie based on Yann Martel's award-winning book. 

I Doubt Therefore I Am

Doubt is indeed very important but not only for testing your religion. It's useful in every field. And it's basically why you mange risk. You're not sure about everything so you hedge to an acceptable level and update your beliefs as time goes by. Through better analysis and new information. Think Bayes' rule. What Irrfan told us is not very different from the conclusion reached by one of his fellow citizens, Mahatma Gandhi, almost 90 years earlier. Namely that we need to understand that faiths are true but have errors. These mistakes could arise for example because specific parts have been designed for a particular time period and are not relevant anymore. Plus we humans have so many imperfections and are prone to interpretation errors.

This is What I Found. 

What Do You Think?

This better way of thinking is itself consistent with what Buddha recommended more than 2,500 years ago after making the most of the substantial tectonic dividend India had been enjoying for eons. Indeed the enlightened one encouraged everyone to carefully examine what he found instead of accepting his statements like parrots. Parrots? I just googled up the IQ of parrots. Looks like they are far more intelligent than several politicians so let me rephrase the last part as "instead of accepting his statements at face value". Face value? Wonder what percentage of people understand these words. Let's make the sentence more accessible and settle for blindly.

Advice Taken

Which is exactly what plenty of his followers have done for centuries. Chief among them were the monks at Nalanda including one Nagarjuna, often considered as a second Buddha. They and those that have come after have analysed his observations for so long that they've come up with all kinds of useful criteria to examine every part of their teachings. Like impressive tools to avoid logical inconsistencies but more importantly to move towards compassion for all sentient beings. In the process they have confirmed parts of the insights received over the previous couple of millennia as true while not being so sure about others. 

25 centuries later and one Dalai Lama often reminds us that he starts his day meditating on two things: emptiness and bodhicitta (awakening to be compassionate). He was also unambiguous as to what Buddhism must do with the parts that were disproved by science.

Not every collider has a big carbon footprint.

More Than Just Errors

You also need to examine how much time you mindlessly spend on religion because across the ages beliefs have been used extensively to distract, subdue and control people and to harbour animosity if not hatred against others who have different viewpoints. These have been unsurprisingly pretty bad and bloody objectives. Add to this the many cases of paedophilia recorded in organised religions and you wonder what purpose these middlemen between you and God serve. Something Kabir had already warned us about more than five centuries ago. 

And then last October we found through the CIASE report that these mental disorders among French clerics is at an entirely more massive scale than we had imagined. It's good that other countries are doing a similar exercise. After all we recently learned that Pope Francis had to implore forgiveness from the First Nations of Canada particularly for the evils perpetrated in the residential school system. So you don't want to spend too much time on religion otherwise you won’t have enough to understand what is happening around you, to your community and country which is far more important.

Dalai Lama is Going 

Somewhere Else

The Dalai Lama liked to tease his buddy Desmond Tutu that they would be going to different places after they died. The Archbishop would be enjoying splendid weather for a very long time while #14 would never get bored. Tutu would typically respond that the unfriendly weather his counterpart would get would not last forever thanks to reincarnation. It is always refreshing to hear gems of people like them talk lightly about religion like that. And now thanks to technology we can hear that directly. We don't have to rely on a friend or move to a place of worship to find out. This gets us faster to the truth as far less misunderstandings are possible. Which explains why organised religions are currently under tremendous pressure. 

Meet Designer Religions

It's clear that after the death of distance we are in the middle of a substantial reduction in human ignorance through self-discovery. There's simply too much codified knowledge for this not to happen. People will keep on combining practices and religions. Zen with Islam. Sufism with Buddhism. With yoga and breathing à la Thich Nhat Hanh and what not. It will not necessarily have to be scripture-based but it will definitely be more fact-based. And this will lead us to practice something more important than religion and that too on a very large scale: kindness. 

The quote of Mahatma Gandhi is from the Abridged version of Jawaharal Nehru's book, The Discovery of India, the quote of the Buddha is from a lecture of the Dalai Lama on his official YouTube channel, the one of the Dalai Lama is from dalailama.com, Jomo Kenyatta's is from the internet, the quote from Desmond Tutu is from bbc.com while the final quote from Irrfan is from the 2016 YouTube video.

3 Sputnik Products Government Should Buy Right Away

Numero Uno. The brand new Sputnik Nasal Vaccine. Both as a booster and as a 2-dose regimen. We know for a fact that different vaccines not only don’t have the same effectiveness in keeping us away from hospitals and the morgue but they are also not terribly good at preventing infection and transmission. As Israel found out even after a fourth dose of Pfizer. That’s because we have no soldiers to prevent Covid-19 from living rent-free in our noses and spreading around. But as the diagram shows – pulled from Sputnik’s Twitter handle along with the pic of how it is administered – a nasal vaccine changes all that by building a wall of immunity at the top of our airways. It would also make our vaccination campaigns a lot more efficient and provide most Mauritians with a better immune response through heterologous boosting. Plus as it’s a spray no needles are involved.

The Sputnik nasal spray offers a higher level of protection against Covid-19 by building a wall of immunity at the entry point of the virus.

Administration of the Sputnik nasal vaccine 

is straightforward. No needles are used.

Dezyem. The Sputnik Light vaccine. As a booster or a standalone jab. As 36,956 Mauritians have already had at least the first dose of Sputnik V (which in fact is the Sputnik Light shot) it makes a lot of sense to offer them the option of continuing with the same excellent vaccine. According to Gamaleya, its maker, the Sputnik booster is supposed to last 12 months. This compares favourably with the 3 to 6 months the Pfizer booster will offer protection. Surely the authorities are not planning to jab the population with a 6th dose of a vaccine designed for the Wuhan strain that’s not exactly dominant now by this December?

Third. Sputnik-M jab for adolescents (12-17). It’s a 2-dose vaccine just like Sputnik V except that its concentration is 5X lower. Buying the Sputnik-M vaccine would be consistent with the recent decision of government to add a non-mRNA vaccine like Novavax to its list of approved vaccines. 

There are issues with mRNA 

vaccines like Pfizer and Moderna. 

Government Should Update Its Vaccine 

Strategy With Official Data It Has Published

It appears that government hasn’t been buying vaccines for quite some time relying totally on shipments that are mufta instead. This has caused a 100% dependence on mRNA vaccines. A very risky decision while it kept collecting Rs2 on each litre of petroleum products and as the Covid-19 death toll approaches 2,500. It is way better off checking our local experience with vaccines so far and adjusting the vaccine strategy accordingly. Especially two facts. One is that unlike the other jabs (see chart) nobody who had done the Sputnik vaccine had died from Covid as of November 7, 2021 – these numbers need to be updated via a parliamentary question ASAP. Two, as we learned last week from our National Assembly, Sputnik had the lowest rate of side effects of four vaccines used in Mauritius. 

If government doesn’t want to buy these Sputnik products – the best vaccine against death and side effects according to its own data and confirmed elsewhere – because it has spent too many billions of our national reserves uselessly or hasn’t heard of long Covid yet then maybe it should give citizens who have already been vaccinated with or view the Russian jabs as among the best in the world the option of paying for it. And make it widely available. 

Finally, given that Pfizer has now made several billions of dollars of profit there’s no need for a consent form as if its vaccine is faulty it should be held accountable. Incidentally that’s the reason why Moderna and Pfizer were not approved by Indian authorities. 

Nobody had died from Covid-19 after being jabbed by the Sputnik vaccine as of beginning of last November. This is consistent with what several other countries have found: Sputnik offers the best protection against death from Covid-19. 

Sputnik had the lowest rate of side effects 

in Mauritius confirming what has been 

observed in a number of countries.

This is a lot higher than the official figure that government doesn’t publish in Mauritius 

but sends to the WHO.

The Sputnik nasal spray should help us keep long Covid and hospitalisation to a minimum accelerating a return to normality.