Love the ones who hate you

Even the best and the most beautiful of all people have had people who hated them. Lord Jesus Christ, Mahatma Gandhi and Sir Abraham Lincoln had haters. Then how can you and me not have our share of them!

From great or extraordinary lives to special to ordinary lives, the number of haters normally increases. Why is this so? It is because extraordinary people are great, their thoughts transcend all sorts of physical and mental boundaries, their mind not myopic, their deeds never destructive and their love always limitless. As we become less great or shift from extraordinary to ordinary, we see many of these traits evanesce and observe more people hating us. Making our lives great could take much time and will require a great deal of effort but winning over our haters can be easily done and would be a step in the right direction to be happy and successful.

Haters are ubiquitous and we can neither run away from them nor can we avoid them. All what we can do is to engage with them. But how? By giving them the taste of the same medicine they give us? Oh, no! Love them, love them as much as they hate you.

Hatred comes easily, it is a shallow feeling and it does not come from the bottom of our hearts. Those who rely on the weapon of hate, do not actually rely on their hearts. They turn into slaves of their own momentary feeling of hatred.

Loving your hater does not mean that you have to submit to his wrongs. Oppose him with all your might, says Gandhiji, but patiently and without resentment suffer all the hardships that he may subject you to. This simple rule itself can mend your hater's mind. The hardship you face will definitely melt the hatred of the greatest of your haters.

Next we need to be kind to all, more so to our haters. Kindness, says the leadership guru Mr. Robin Sharma, quite simply is the rent we must pay for the space we occupy in this planet. Being extraordinarily kind to your hater gives him a humbling experience which would reform him.

Haters are not always filled with hatred alone. They, too, have goodness in them. We should remember what the great orator and Tamil politician Shri. Annadurai succinctly said to his partymen, 'The rival garden's jasmine is also fragrant.' Our task remains primarily to explore the goodness in the people who hate us. And once we get to know that, we start to think about their goodness and then slowly become appreciative of them. The great Leo Tolstoy asks people to be like the spider that spreads out in all directions its web, the web of love, and to catch in all that comes.

To be successful is everyone's wish and to be so one must win over most, if not all, of his haters. The successful person, said E.N. Gray, has the habit of doing things failures don't like to do. Develop the habit of loving your haters as much as they hate you, not all can do this, but, if you do you will soon see yourself becoming happy and successful.

Personal life of a political person is important

Any person who wishes to lead a public life should ensure that his personal life is above board, if not exemplary. 

Some do not understand the simple logic behind this. Or they pretend to do so for convenience. Those in public life are those about whom ordinary people read, listen and talk about. They are very often those upon whom ordinary people look up to, or, in certain cases, become role models for many a common man.

Let us consider God-men. Yes, they are now in legion and hence cannot be ignored. God-men possess enormous influence among their followers. Any serious problem a person who believes in such men faces, he visits them and tries to find 'peace'. In return he becomes prepared to offer anything.

Such bing the influence of God-men, wouldn't their followers be interested in their guru's personal life? If not, or, more so, wouldn't they want to know it when something contentious props up? Definitely they would! Only if their personal lives are above board can their followers have complete faith in them and their preachings.

The book that was published by an American follower of a God-woman of Kerala about her days at the ashram where the former was sexually assaulted by many of her fellow followers and where she also alleged that the ashram including its head was indulged in many illegal activities corroborates the point that I just made.

The reactions that ensued in this particular case would, too, be of interest. A section of her followers, pathological in faith and approach, retaliated with violence. Some, less enraged, took to television studios and social networking sites. Some supported the guru, some the follower-turned-antagonist. There was hardly any effort to dwell in to the issues raised so as to find the truth.

Another God-man in Madhya Pradesh recently went absconding and was later arrested on charges of sexual assault on his follower. Knowing this, would people still go to him? A 'Baba' was and still remains under the scanner of the income tax department for  embezzling funds that was received in the name of his trust. Doesn't the personal lives of such men and women impact their followers? Don't the followers have the right to know?

Coming to the politicians (not all deserved to be called 'leaders'), they have a lot of followers. Some among the followers see them as role models. These politicians are those who formulate policies for us, decide how our lives would be. People depending on God-men would be far less at least when compared to the people who depend on the politicians.

Therefore the politicians need to be more clean on their personal front than perhaps anyone else. Politicians caught for financial frauds are not a rarity. Those caught for perpetuating violence and harassment are in the rise. There have been cases of politicians having extra marital relationships that goes on to become conspicuous blots on their public life. But strange is it when a politician tries to hush down his sole and legally not separated wife.

The most branded politician of this general election, Narendrabhai Modi has, after leaving unanswered a question about his marital status in the election nomination form he had filed for four assembly elections in Gujarat, now filled in it the name of Smt. Jashodaben as his wife.

A simple question that arises in every individual's mind would be that why did he choose to hide it in all the nominations he had filed earlier in 2001, 2002, 2007 and 2012 and reveal it now in 2014!

His wife reportedly said that they were together only for 3 years and then mutually separated. Since they are not legally separated, and that Modiji himself has said that she is his wife, by no reckoning can he be termed a bachelor, as is being done by many of his followers and image builders. The fact that he left questions about this unanswered shows how he has been, in the words of Mr. Karan Thapar, 'less than honest'.

I would go a step further. Hiding a truth is equivalent to lying and hence I would not hold back my tongue in spelling out that Modiji had lied in this matter. Whatever had been the reason behind his not revealing this truth earlier, it was incorrect on his part and is certainly unbecoming of a man aspiring to become the Prime Minister of our country.

This person was not even able to mention the name of his estranged wife whom he had married closely 50 years before. No wonder he has not been able to even tender an apology for the 2002 riots.

His own party men in Gujarat say that he was given 'better legal advise' this time and hence this revelation now. Probably he and his men could not think of his losing the Prime Ministership after getting a clear majority, which the party is surprisingly already sure of, if  the Election Commission took objection to his leaving blank the question about his marital status, the answer to which he very well knew.

I see this issue through the prism of propriety than that of legality. It is seriously an issue every voter should sit back and think. Do we want us to be led by a person who quite dis-honestly hides, and reveals, even his marital status for purely political gains? Has it stooped so low?  

     

Why is Sheila now in Kerala?

Mrs. Sheila Dikshit has been appointed as the Governor of the state of Kerala replacing Shriman Nikhil Kumar. Tough the Constitution of India provides for a term of five years for the Governors it does not provide for a fixed term of office or a security of tenure. This is because the five year term is subject to the pleasure of the President. Also the Honourable Supreme Court has made the pleasure of the President non justifiable, which means none can approach the courts and file a complaint regarding a Governor’s appointment or replacement.

The Governors are entitled to a lot of immunities. They enjoy personal immunity from legal liability for their official acts. While in office, they are immune from any criminal proceedings. They cannot be arrested or imprisoned. Such immunities are given to Governors because it is a highly dignified Constitutional post.  It is equivalent to the President save in some like that of military or emergency powers. 

The Governors being appointed by the President, which in effect means by the Union Cabinet, are in most cases, a gift in return to their favours to the government. Post retirement from bureaucracy or if some politician seems too old to be in active politics they are offered Governorship. It is mostly the ‘loyal’ politicians or bureaucrats who get this cherished gift. Harmless and ‘yes-sir’ kind are offered this gift with much ease. Nepotism is a almost like a norm in such appointments.

All said, what if Governorship is offered keeping in mind the immunities available to this respectable Constitutional post and hence to protect the ‘loyalists’ from criminal proceedings? Disgust can be the only feeling that can be expressed. It becomes a clear case of disrespect to the Constitutional post of the Governor and also to that of the Constitution of India itself because the Union Cabinet takes such a decision knowing the loopholes embedded in it and also exploiting the respectable Supreme Court’s ruling that the removal/replacement/appointment of the Governors cannot be taken to the courts.

This is why Sheila is in Kerala now. The just resigned Delhi government headed by Shriman Arvind Kejriwal had registered an FIR against her in connection with the Common Wealth Games Scam. On the eighth of December last year she lost terribly in the Delhi elections and lost her Chief Ministership. Post declaration of the election results, all these months she was in self-set asylum in Delhi. Her close relations to Soniaji Gandhi and Rahulji Gandhi are well known. With the FIR lodged against her and her knowing well that she will not be able to come out clean from the charges of corruption filed against her, she, the mother-son duo and the Congress party have decided to exploit the Constitutional immunity provided to the post of Governor. Once she takes oath as the Governor of Kerala, the case of corruption against her cannot be proceeded with.

How will the Congress party, which boasts of its anti-corruption credentials despite being ridden with scams, justify this appointment? It is not legally binding on them to justify this but to the people of the country, what will it say? The day she takes oath as the Governor of Kerala will be a black day for our democracy and the Congress party shall never be forgotten for such brazen exploitation of the Constitutional procedures.

After taking oath Sheilaji will be Hon’ble Her Highness Sheila Dikshit. What a pity!