Kanan Jaswal's Thoughts of the Days of March, 2022

 Mar 01:     We are not yet out of a once-in-a-century pandemic and now the frightening apparition of a world war; what's wrong with the 2020's?

Mar 02:     We should be flexible except when it comes to our values and principles.

Mar 03:     When a State government is not functioning in the manner laid down in the Constitution, it is the Centre's bounden duty to invoke the Article 356 and dismiss it.

Mar 04:     The Opposition leaders have shown unexpected maturity in commending the stand taken by the Indian government on Russia's invasion of Ukraine. 

Mar 05:     For reasons not difficult to fathom, government agencies prefer spending huge sums of money on buying or creating new assets to spending far less on properly maintaining the existing ones.

Mar 06:     It is now so painful to recount that in 1994, all five veto powers of the world, Russia, US, UK, China, and France, had given security assurances against violation of Ukraine's independence and territorial integrity, as a result of which Ukraine gave up its nuclear arms.

Mar 07:     If you did your best considering the then circumstances, you should have no regrets on success eluding you.

Mar 08:     For its defence, India has to be self-sufficient in weapon systems and ammunition. That will also give a technological boost to its economy in general and manufacturing in particular.  

Mar 09:     How do the Opposition stalwarts accusing the BJP government at the Centre of manipulating electronic voting machines explain BJP's defeats in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Delhi, and West Bengal?

Mar 10:     Good days continue for Uttar Pradesh!

Mar 11:     If the Indian National Congress is to survive, the family will have to be packed off to wherever it would be relevant.

Mar 12:     For getting into the habit of winning, one must first get into that of working smart and working hard.

Mar 13:     By taking on hindrances as if they were challenges, we bring to the surface our latent capabilities.

Mar 14:     We should pity those who prefer making money to making friends. 

Mar 15:     In these days of computerised machining and 3-D printing, it should not be so difficult to timely manufacture in India high-quality parts of imported weapon systems. 

Mar 16:     By repaying all our debts, big and small, on time, we not only improve our creditworthiness but also our self-worth. 

Mar 17:     We may not be financially free ever but we owe it to ourselves to live and die financially independent.  

Mar 18:     Festivals like Holi, the festival of colours, have helped forge our cultural and civilisational identity, which underpins our national identity.

Mar 19:     Left-leaning liberals not only find ideological justifications for Islamic terrorism and Naxalism, they also serve as their support system and force-multiplier.     

Mar 20:     For your own growth as a person, you should try to forget the hurts suffered but never allow yourself to forget the circumstances under which you had to suffer them. 

Mar 21:      It is not rational to believe that Omicron BA.2 subvariant, which is spreading like wild fire in East Asia and West Europe, will spare India. Therefore, booster doses should be allowed to all adults who have been fully vaccinated for six months or over. 

Mar 22:     Prime Minister Narendra Modi should visit Moscow and try his best to get the Russian president Vladimir Putin to agree to an immediate cessation of all violence in Ukraine. But if Putin does not agree, India must condemn Russia's invasion of Ukraine.      

Mar 23:     The average government officials are happiest taking bribes but when there is no scope for that, they feel great happiness in saying that this particular work is not theirs to do or in giving out the reasons for which the work could not be done.  

Mar 24:     Enemies of the nation ought not to be allowed to be venerated in public in the name of religious freedom.

Mar 25:     A soft state resembles in some ways an over-ripe fruit.

Mar 26:     The Goods and Services Tax system is in operation in India for almost five years, but it is a shame that even today, most shopkeepers would help their customers in avoiding this tax.

Mar 27:     The film 'The Kashmir Files' has shown how instead of trying to solve a long-simmering problem in the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir, the irresolute and weak governments at the Centre in the late 1980s and early 1990s helped to bring it to a boil.  

Mar 28:      When your contribution is not even acknowledged, don't allow this to make you unhappy because that would be a double whammy.     

Mar 29:     Neither Aligarh Muslim University nor Jamia Millia Islamia is a minority institution, funded totally as they are by the Central government. Therefore, the University Grants Commission should ask them to admit students only through the Common University Entrance Test.

Mar 30:     For having integrity, having courage is a necessary but, regrettably, not a sufficient condition.

Mar 31:     While we may not be able to do much to increase our IQ, or intelligence quotient, increasing our RQ, or reliability quotient. is very much in our hands.