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Showing posts from February, 2022

Why is no Muslim found to be a Kabirpanthi?

I have visited Maghar only twice, although it is only 25 Kilometres away from Gorakhpur, where I go almost every year to my in-law’s house. This place is famous because it is associated with the great saint Kabirdas. This place was earlier in the Basti District but now it falls in Sant Kabir Nagar, which has been named after him at the bank of the Aami river. A few years ago, it was a neglected place but now a lot of developments have taken place and many more are underway mainly after the visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the UP-Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath. Sant Kabir was a revolutionary, not only by perception but also by practice. He had hit hard on the superstitious practices of both Hindus and Muslims. He is believed to have lived for 125 years and in the last days of his life, he left Kashi to live in Maghar. ' क्या काशी क्या ऊसर मगहर , राम हृदय बस मोरा | जो कासी तन तजै कबीरा , रामे कौन निहोरा ' It is said that those who die in Kashi, go to Hea

Galloping Progress of New Media

  Galloping Progress of New Media  The age-old principle of journalism has been to make headings short and attractive so that the reader, audience, or viewer may get interested in the news. The INTRO i.e., the introduction should be crispy, and it should be able to convey the gist of the news at the beginning itself. In the 'Body', details used to be given and the 'Tail' was considered to be the least important. But nowadays 'Tail' has assumed the highest importance. Today we find that most of the Youtubers, many of them have been former journalists, have totally forgotten old rules. Most of the time is now wasted in the preamble itself and the kernel of the information comes in the last.     More often than not, it is seen that there is a complete mismatch in the heading and the news. Even if one has read or seen the complete news or video, one is lost in finding out the grains from the chaffs.  It is true that the present generation of journalists is more tech

Resolve Hijab Controversy by Enacting Uniform Civil Code

                              Parmanand Pandey,  Advocate                               Supreme Court of India   Hijab controversy is raging in the country. Ideally, there should be no objection to what one wears if it does not violate decency. Modern Muslim feminists like Wafa Sultan, Ayan Hirsi Ali have, in fact, have been campaigning against those Islamic orthodoxies, which are retrogressive, and they have said unequivocally in their books that any type of veil is retrogressive, and they plead that earlier this practice is eschewed by the Muslim women the better. However, presently society appears to have got divided along religious lines.  Even those, who have till yesterday been opposing the dictates of Taliban for women to compulsorily wear veils and not to venture out of their houses without the company of any male member have come now out in support of the Hijab for women. Sudden change in their attitudes may be intriguing but those who have closely watched them in the last few

Padma Vibhushan to late Radhey Shyam Khemka: A Well-Deserved Tribute to a Saintly Editor

          Gorakhpur stands out for three things- Geeta Press, Gorakh Nath Mutt, and its Railway Station, which has perhaps one of the biggest platforms in the world. It was here in the Railway quarters, the world-renowned Kriya Yogi – Parmahansa Yoganand was born, who wrote the bestselling book, ‘An Autobiography of a Yogi’. Two Marwaris, Hanuman Prasad Poddar and Radhey Shyam Khemka associated with iconic Geeta Press, have been the other inspiring and impelling persons to bring Gorakpur on the world map. While Shri Poddar was one of the primary trustees, along with Jay Dayal Goenka, to set up the Geeta Press, Radhey Shyam Khemka edited the Kalyan Magazine for 38 long years. He literally took the Sanatan literature to masses through Kalyan, apart from publishing innumerable religious books, which have been sold in crores across the world.    My journalist friend Shri Chandrashekharam of Munger tells me that Shri Khemka also belonged to his hometown but for the last many years he li

Digitalisation of Currency will Revolutionise the Money Circulation

  The biggest announcement that has been made in this year’s budget is that of the introduction of digital currency. It will, without doubt, revolutionise and transform the transaction of money sooner than we think. Evasion of taxes will become a thing of the past, but the biggest advantage of this currency will be savings in the printing cost of the currency notes. Year after year a very large number of notes become useless due to wear and tear. Counterfeit currency notes have also caused huge damage to the economy. So by adopting blockchain technology, there cannot be any threat of counterfeit currency because nothing can be tampered with in this method. People adopt many tactics to get torn notes into circulation. One could see long queues outside some banks to change the torn and soiled notes. Some people also make a quick business by exchanging the old notes with new ones. Tax evaders normally keep huge amounts of currency notes, which is also known as black money. But when