Math vs. Religion

Conception without copulation?

Did you watch the Hollywood blockbuster Godzilla? In that movie, Godzilla fertilizes its eggs on its own i.e., without help from a male partner. This stuff actually happens in reality:

The first recorded ‘immaculate conception’ in a Komodo dragon is expected to produce eight babies, scientists at a British zoo have revealed.

Flora, a female housed at Chester Zoo, managed to lay fertile eggs in a natural phenomenon known as parthenogenesis, under which the female self-fertilises her eggs without the involvement of a male mate.

Strange isnt it? Naturally, I’d be inclined to ask, like Maria Pitillo does in that movie, “What’s the fun in that?!”

Kevin Buley of Chester Zoo said it was not unusual for females to lay a clutch of eggs in the absence of a male, but they had never before been found to be fertile.

“This is absolutely the first time it’s been shown in Komodo dragons, it’s the first time that such a large and charismatic species such as this has been shown to be able to have a virgin birth.”

He said “nobody in their wildest dreams” expected such a development.

“It is nature finding a way.”

You bet! I guess that’s some indirect encouragement for homosexuals. :p

Inclusion of creamy layer in reservations for OBCs is suicidal

Completely disregarding the advice of the Parliamentary Standing Committee (to provide reservation for the truly backward first and then creamy layer candidates only if seats are vacant), the Centre has included the creamy layer also among those who will get OBC reservation. Effectively, this puts the most backward among the OBCs and the most forward on the same level. This is going to be suicidal because the most socially and (especially) economically “forward” among the OBCs will be the first to occupy seats reserved for OBCs, defeating the whole purpose of reservation.

The purpose of reservations, apart from alleviating historical injustices is:

1. To empower the socially and educationally backward classes.

Here, the key word is backward. Is the UPA government telling me that the son of an OBC Prime Minister is socially and educationally backward and is vulnerable to caste discrimination? That the daughter of an OBC IAS officer is socially and educationally backward and needs empowerment? Or the children of a successful and affluent OBC doctor are discriminated against based on caste? What ever happened to something called common sense?

2. To ensure fair representation.

Fair representation of the socially and educationally backward classes among the OBCs – again, here the key word is backward.

Article 15(4) of the Indian Constitution:

(4) Nothing in this article or in clause (2) of article 29 shall prevent the State from making any special provision for the advancement of any socially and educationally backward classes of citizens or for the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes.

Sons and daughters of OBC Union Ministers, OBC bureaucrats, OBC engineers, OBC doctors and OBC lawyers are NOT socially and educationally backward! Only the truly backward among the OBCs need fair representation.

Previously, I believed the UPA was genuinely concerned about the OBCs and genuinely wanted to do justice for the socially and educationally backward among the OBCs, which is why I supported reservation for the OBCs, vociferously. It is now very clear that the whole move – to provide reservations for OBCs in higher education – was intended to please certain groups and certain powerful men in the government or with connections in the government. Moreover, the fixed percentage (27%) rests on shoddy statistical basis. If the UPA was really interested in empowering the socially and educationally backward, it would’ve kept the rather socially and educationally “forward” groups out of the purview of reservations so that the truly backward among the OBCs enjoy the benefits of reservation. But it did not.

In short, the UPA stripped itself naked and displayed all its insincerity to me. I’m already dissatisfied with the present government. This decision to include the creamy layer in reservations for OBCs has taken that dissatisfaction to a new low. It has brought injustice, not empowerment, to the socially and educationally backward among the OBCs.

(Also published at Desicritics.org)

Kashmiri Pandits, refugees in their own country – a video

This is a must watch. Here’s the link: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=842219646390515565 (Better download it with Google Video Player and watch.)

It’s a touching video. Might be uncomfortable.

Kashmiri Pandits must be the most uncared for people in the world. Eurocentric organisations like Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch and bleeding hearts like Arundhati Roy dont probably think Kashmiri Pandits can be clubbed with human beings. The devils who kicked the Pandits out of their homeland for millenia seem to deserve more human rights than the Pandits do. I liked the line “Freedom at the expense of others’ freedom is no freedom at all” in the video.

Seventeen years after being kicked out of their homeland by Islamists making them refugees in their own country, Pandits still live in refugee camps with little infrastructure. They have no proper educational and health facilities.

Numerous promises have been made. None of them have been fulfilled. The camps are full of children. If they are not educated and if their health is not taken care of, their future will be in danger. The sect of Indian greats like Aryabhatta, Kalidasa, Kalhana (even Jawaharlal Nehru) is in danger of becoming extinct today – unless someone comes to their rescue.

This video can aid in their rescue because right now, what is needed is awareness. Unless people get to know fully about what happened to Kashmiri Pandits post-1989, it is difficult to do something for them. So, please spread it.

The website, Panun Kashmir (http://panunkashmir.org) talks about a separate Homeland for Kashmiri Pandits in the Kashmir Valley, their home for millenia.

Radio Kashmir (http://radiokashmir.org/video/index.html) is a sort of Kashmiri Pandit cultural website which says it is dedicated to

• more than one thousand Kashmiri Pandits who lost their lives to terrorists’ bullets;

• hundreds of thousands of Kashmiri Pandits who were forced by terrorism to leave their homes and hearths to live in tents as refugees in their own country;

• hundreds of thousands of the Kashmiri Pandits who were forced to convert to Islam since the 14th century;

• thousands of Kashmiri Pandits whose houses were burnt and looted; and

• thousands of secular, peace-loving and moderate Kashmiri Muslims who became victims of fundamentalism within their own religion.

The IndoAmerican Kashmir Forum (http://www.iakf.org/main) says

IAKF was formed to inform the world community of the oppression against Kashmiri Pandits that led to their forced exile from Kashmir and the sad plight of the community members, many of whom are still living in makeshift ‘refugee’ camps. The organization seeks the return of Kashmiri Pandits to the Kashmir valley with guaranteed security and freedom to exercise their religious faith and cultural way of life without fear or intrusion.

I support the Homeland Resolution – a separate state for Kashmiri Pandits within the Indian Union. One day, I wish I see Kashmiri Pandits back in their home, living without any fear of being hunted down by Islamists. If ever India is going to free Kashmir, then it MUST also create Panun Kashmir.