Welcome PM Shri Modi to Bhutan

Prime Minister of Bhutan, Tshering Tobgay and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi

I on behalf of the people of Bhutan and on my own behalf cordially welcome Indian Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi to Bhutan -the land of Thunder Dragon. We the people of Bhutan pay esteemed thanks for the Prime Minister’s visit after assuming as the Prime Minister of the great nation in the world –INDIA. Prime Minister’s visit will enhance Indo-Bhutan Friendship, which was strongly tied for last many years, stronger than before.

The Royal Government of Bhutan (RGoB) will host the Prime Minister Modi’s visit as highest state guest in the country. It is good time for the Bhutanese people since two Nation’s friendship and inter-linkage between two people in border areas are respectfully attached forever. The Indian Prime Minister’s visit will enhance our respectful attach become more attached.

Narendra Modi

Narendra Damodardas Modi was born on 17th September, 1950 is the 15th and current Prime Minister of India. Modi, a leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), also served as the Chief Minister of Gujarat from 2001–14. He is currently the Member of Parliament (MP) for the Varanasi constituency.

Modi was a key strategist for the BJP in the successful 1995 and 1998 Gujarat state election campaigns. He became Chief Minister of Gujarat in October 2001 and served longer in that position than anyone else to date. Modi was a major campaign figure in the 2009 general election, which the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance lost to the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA). He led the BJP in the 2014 general election, which resulted in an outright majority for the BJP in the Lok Sabha (the lower house of the Indian parliament) – the last time that any party had secured an outright majority in the Lok Sabha was in 1984.

Modi is a Hindu Nationalist and a member of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). He is a controversial figure both within India as well as internationally as his administration has been criticized for the incidents surrounding the 2002 Gujarat riots. Modi has been praised for his economic policies, which are credited with creating an environment for a high rate of economic growth in Gujarat. However, his administration has also been criticized for failing to make a significant positive impact upon the human development of the state. 

Modi was born on 17 September 1950 to a family of grocers belonging to the backward Ghanchi-Teli (oil-presser) community, in Vadnagar in Mehsana district of erstwhile Bombay State (present-day Gujarat), India. He was the third of four children born to Damodardas Mulchand Modi and his wife, Heeraben. He helped his father sell tea at Vadnagar railway station. As a child and as a teenager, he ran a tea stall with his brother near a bus terminus. In 1967, he completed his schooling in Vadnagar, where a teacher described him as being an average student, but a keen debater who had an interest in theatre.

That interest has influenced how he now projects himself in politics. At the age of eight, Modi came in contact with RSS and he began attending its local shakhas where he came in contact with Lakshmanrao Inamdar, popularly known as Vakil Saheb, who is known as his political guru and mentor. Inamdar inducted Modi as a balswayamsevak, a junior cadet in RSS. During his morning exercise session at the keri pitha shakha of RSS, he also came in contact with Vasant Gajendragadkar and Nathalal Jaghda, leaders of the Jan Sangh who later founded the BJP's Gujarat state unit in 1980. 

Modi's parents arranged his marriage as a child, in keeping with the traditions of the Ghanchi caste. He was engaged at the age of 13 to Jashodaben Chimanlal and the couple was married by the time he was 18. They spent very little time together and were soon estranged because Modi decided to pursue an itinerant life. However as per Modi’s biographer Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay, the marriage was never consummated. Having remained silent on his marital status, during declarations related to candidature during four state elections since 2002 and having claimed that his status as a single person meant that he had no reason to be corrupt, Modi acknowledged Jashodaben as his legal spouse when filling in his nomination form for the 2014 Lok Sabha elections.

As per Modi in Kishore Makwana's Common Man Narendra Modi, published in 2014, after leaving home at 17, he went to Ramakrishna Mission ashram in Rajkot and then to the Belur Math near Kolkata. Then he went to Guwahati and later joined another ashram set up by Swami Vivekananda in Almora, in the Himalayan foothills. Two years after, he returned to Vadnagar and after a brief halt at his house, Modi left again for Ahmedabad, where he lived and worked in a tea stall run by his uncle where he again came in contact with Lakshmanrao Inamdar who was then based at Hedgewar Bhavan, the RSS headquarters in the city. He then worked in the staff canteen of Gujarat State Road Transport Corporation until he became a full–time pracharak (campaigner) of the RSS in 1970. In 1978, Modi graduated with an extramural degree through Distance Education in political science from Delhi University. In 1983, while remaining as a pracharak in the RSS, completed his Master's degree in political science from Gujarat University. He still continues to visit Belur Math occasionally and talks about his reverence for the Ramakrishna Mission.

Early political career

Modi formally joined the RSS after the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971. After Modi had received some RSS training in Nagpur, which was a prerequisite for taking up an official position in the Sangh Parivar, he was given charge of Sangh's student wing, Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad, in Gujarat. During 1975–1977, when Prime Minister Indira Gandhi declared a state of the emergency, political opponents were jailed and political organizations including RSS were banned. Modi went underground in Gujarat and to evade arrest was occasionally disguised as a Sikh, saint, elderly man etc. and printed and sent booklets against the central government to Delhi. He also organised agitations and covert distribution of the Sangh’s pamphlets.

He also participated in the movement against the Emergency under Jayaprakash Narayan. He was made the general secretary of the Gujarat Lok Sangharsh Samiti and his primary role was to co-ordinate between activists in the state. During this period he wrote a book titled Sangharsh ma Gujarat (Gujarat's struggle) in Gujarati which chronicles events, anecdotes as well as his personal experiences. The RSS assigned Modi to the BJP in 1985.  While Shankersinh Vaghela and Keshubhai Patel were the established names in the Gujarat BJP at that time, Modi rose to prominence after organising Murli Manohar Joshi's Kanyakumari-Srinagar Ekta yatra (Journey for Unity) in 1991. In 1988, Modi was elected as organising secretary of BJP's Gujarat unit, marking his formal entry into mainstream politics. As secretary, his electoral strategy was central to BJP's victory in the 1995 state elections. 

In November 1995, Modi was elected National Secretary of BJP and was transferred to New Delhi where he was assigned responsibility for the party's activities in Haryana and Himachal Pradesh. Vaghela defected from the BJP after he lost the 1996 Lok Sabha elections, having previously threatened to do so in 1995. Modi was promoted to the post of general secretary (Organisation) of the BJP in May 1998. While on the selection committee for the 1998 Assembly elections in Gujarat, Modi favoured supporters of Patel over those loyal to Vaghela, in an attempt to put an end to the factional divisions within the party. His strategies were credited as being a key to winning the 1998 elections.

The article courtesy: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Narendra_Modi

ས་ག་ཟླ་བའི་དུས་ཆེན། Saga Dawai Duechen

Lord Buddha

༉ ལོ་བསྟར་བཞུན་དུ་འབྲུག་ཟླ་བཞི་པ་འདི་ ས་ག་ཟླ་བའི་དུས་ཆེན་ཟེར་བརྩི་སྲུང་ཞུ་སྲོལ་ཡོདཔ་ཨིན། དུས་ཆེན་ལྔ་འཛོམས་སྦེ་བརྩི་སྲུང་ཞུ་མི་འདི་ཡང་ རང་ཟླ་༤པའི་ཚེས་༡༥ ལུ་ལྷུམས་སུ་བཞུགས་པ་ སྐུ་བལྟམས་པ་ བདུད་བཏུལ་བ་ སངས་རྒྱས་པ་ མྱ་ངན་ལས་འདས་པ་དང་ དུས་ཆེན་ལྔ་འཛོམས་སྦེ་བརྩིཝ་ཨིན།

Endlish Translation below:

In the 15^th Day of 4^th the month of Bhutanese calendar is said to be auspicious days, apart from 4^th month being Saga Dawai Duechen. It is the day of Buddha’s Parinirvana on which, Buddha was conceived, born, subdued evil, gained enlightenment and attained Nirvana. 

Happy Buddha Day!!!

Still there: the PRELIMS for University Graduate

Graduates waiting for Preliminary Exam paper

‘Do away with preliminary examination’ is one of the much expected pledges made by People’s Democratic Party (PDP), which formed the government after landslide victory, during the campaign. It has then become much debated issues within parents, relatives and mostly within the graduates. The thousands of university graduate students are eagerly waiting for the same. The great expectations generated within the groups. The contentment out of pledges of ‘Do away with preliminary examination’ was one where every graduate are waiting for so long.

Indeed, I am aware that in the democracy, the pledges made by parties are partially fulfilled. In many democratic countries in the world, the pledges are made in two categories. This time in our country, the pledges are made in two categories viz. 100 day pledges and pledges for the entire tenure. The ‘Doing away with preliminary examination’ falls under the 100 day pledges. This should be fulfilled within first 100 days as they pledged. Our nationwide general election was conducted on July, 13, 2013. The preliminary examination for graduates was conducted on 11^th August, 2013, after few weeks of new government came to the power. The new government could not do anything else owing to the shortage of the time.

No matter what, but government says that they will do away next year. They worked jointly with Royal Civil Service Commission (RCSC) regarding eliminating preliminary examination. In Kuensel issue of November 13^th, 2013, it was listed in “Partially fulfilled” pledges. “Lyonchhen said the last preliminary examination was held soon after the government took office, which was why it was unable to fulfill the pledge of doing away with it. He said they were, however, working it with the commission.” Kuensel reported.

When pledge of ‘Do away with preliminary examination’ was unable fulfilled last year, they will fulfill this time? This is a question that all the graduates were having in mind before November, 2013. “The ball is in RCSC’s court, but this is something we’ll discuss with RCSC,” Lyonchen was quoted in November issue Kuensel. “We believe this serves no purpose; but we’re willing to ensure that RCSC has access to enough funds to do proper examination for all the graduates; but if we can’t reach an agreement, then we might have to change certain laws also.”

There were issues that Main Examination need huge amount of money. To reduce expenditure, RCSC conducts Preliminary Examination, is it true? To do away with preliminary examination for graduates, there is need of more funds to conduct main examination? The need of funds is baseless, but rather the Civil Service Act of Bhutan (CSAB), 2010 and Bhutan Civil Service rules and regulations (BCSRR), 2012 should be amended. When preliminary examination is depicted in the laws, there is no way to change it by few people; there is no authority for the cabinet to remove it from the list. This should undergo various processes in the parliament to amend the laws.

The opposition, Druk Phuensum Tshogpa’s (DPT’s), North Thimphu MP cited an example that doing away with preliminary examination, he said “RCSC schedule and election schedule were in existence, and using the justification that the exam was conducted right after the government came to the power was baseless.” The pledges were one of the main controversies in the society after the news of ‘Do away with preliminary examination’ was listed in ‘partially fulfilled’ pledges by government in Medias.

The government has fulfilled some pledges within 100 days and some are still waiting to be fulfilled. Some pledges need more than years to get it fulfilled. However, pledges are important factors of winning the election, so we wish our government will soon fulfill it. The people in rural areas are waiting other full-tenure pledges to see in their villages almost immediately.

Currently, the parliament is in the process. During question-answer session of the parliament on Tuesday, 10^th June, Pangbang MP questioned government about what is status of the pledge of ‘Do away with preliminary examination’. In answer to that, Labour and Human Resource Minister firmly states that they have respect for the institution and they talked about it. Now government is asking RCSC to conduct different exams for different university graduates. Hope this will come true as the light path to all the graduates. We are waiting for this to come true.

It is only two months to conduct preliminary examinations, if the schedule for the examination is on same date, i.e. 11^th August. Now there is no time to stay stagnant or sluggish, as this change should be made before Commission prepares for the prelims. Did RCSC agree to conduct different exams for different subjects? If so, for example, what kind of exam papers will Bachelor’s of Arts graduates have to appear? Now it is high time for all the graduates be informed for better performance in the exam. We are hoping for the notification to see soon airing in BBS or other print Medias.

Graduates after Preliminary Exam in worried mood

Our expectations:

We have collective expectations from the government to ‘Do away with preliminary examination’. All the graduates waited for long time to hear or see the news of ‘No preliminary examination for university graduates’ which does not come true. It shows that one of the very important pledges made by government is not fulfilled yet. Whenever, I walk street along with my friends,  and being one of the unemployed university graduates in the town, I could see that people around watching Tuesday and Friday question-answer session intending to know how far government’s pledge of ‘Do away with preliminary examination’ is fulfilled. It was devastating news for us but still we the graduates have faith in our government as they find a solution to conduct different exams for different university graduates.

We are alarmed by the news when labour Minister answered the question put forward by Pangbang MP. The news flourished all over the country and even to the ears of soon going to graduates in India and other parts of the world through friends and families via different means of Medias.

Why Government can't do away with prelims?

As I mentioned in above lines quoting North Thimphu MP, the RCSC is autonomous constitutional body which have supreme power within themselves to enforce the power. Though, they are funded by government but play a role as autonomous body. The RCSC is headed by Chairman and Commissioners directly appointed by the His Majesty the King. They function as autonomous agent under the direct leadership of His Majesty the King.

RCSC has their Act named Civil Service Act of Bhutan (CSAB), 2010 and Bhutan Civil Service Rules and Regulations (BCSRR), 2012, which were passed by parliament which has clause of preliminary examination for university graduates. There is the CHAPTER 7: BHUTAN CIVIL SERVICE EXAMINATION FOR RECRUITMENT OF UNIVERSITY GRADUATES is restricting government to do away with preliminary examination. There are many clauses that restrict too. Read the following clauses from BCSRR-2012, for the government’s failure or main restriction to do away with preliminary examination:

7.3. Examination

7.3.1. The BCSE shall consist of the following two stages of examination:

7.3.1.1. Stage I: Preliminary Examination (PE); and

7.3.1.2. Stage II: Main Examination (ME).

7.3.2. Preliminary Examination (PE)

7.3.2.1. The objective of PE shall be to short-list candidates for the             ME and ensure minimum standard required of a candidate.

7.3.2.2. A candidate shall be permitted to appear PE up to a maximum of three attempts only.

7.3.2.3. PE Papers shall be common to all categories of graduates.

7.3.2.4. PE shall be objective type questions to test English and Dzongkha communication skills, logic and analytical, problem solving and data interpretation abilities of the candidates.

7.3.2.5. Only those candidates who achieve the minimum cut off marks as decided by the RCSC, shall be eligible to sit for the ME; and

7.3.2.6. Marks obtained in the PE shall not be carried forward to the ME and shall be valid only for that particular year/examination.

I am aware of the Civil Service Act of Bhutan (CSAB), 2010 and Bhutan Civil Service rules and regulations (BCSRR), 2012 and I read it thoroughly, but I am sure that some of graduates are still vague. It is for surety that government would be not able to go against the CSAB and BCSRR. Still today, the government didn’t make it clear for the public whether it is done away or not or will have chance to appear different questions for different graduates as per the subjects we studied. Before getting late, the government should announce for the interest of all the graduates, who all are waiting for numerous months.

The preliminary examination for graduates was first conducted in 2010 after the amendment of the Civil Service Act of Bhutan. The thousands of university graduates appeared and more than half who appeared were eliminated. Now it has been forth times the preliminary exam was conducted by RCSC in objective to short-list candidates for the Main Examination and ensure minimum standard required of a candidate.

When government says they will discuss with RCSC to change the format of the questions according to the subjects that students studied. The Labour and Human Resource Minister say in the parliament that prelims will have different questions for different graduates. Will these words be fulfilled as they said? In the BCSRR clause -7.3.2.3 it is mentioned that “Preliminary Examination Papers shall be common to all categories of graduates.” If the government wants to change the format of the questions, this clause should be eliminated from BCSRR. So, therefore, I personally feel the words government aired would be baseless. There are many things to be changed in BCSRR clauses to eliminate preliminary examination for the graduates. This is not an easy task to eliminate preliminary examination when CSAB and BCSRR are active.

There are many categories of graduates viz. degree, diploma, certificates, etc. In degree there are many types of degrees such as Bachelor’s of Education, General Degrees (Bachelor’s of Arts, Business Administration, Commerce, etc.), Technical Degrees (Engineering, Laws, Medicine, etc.) and many more. When General, Technical and any other related degree graduates are scrutinize for two stages, the Preliminary Examinations and Main Examinations. But why Bachelor’s of Education and Diploma and certificates have different recruitment policy? Be it general, technical, B.Ed., diplomas, certificates, and others are under same umbrella, the BCSRR. When recruitment policy in RCSC is different, I personally feel the CSAB and BCSRR should be amended to make recruitment policy same for all. The government’s policy of “Equity and Justice” would be fulfilled.

Ara -the traditional alcohol of Bhutan

Drunk man

Our country, the Kingdom of Thunder Dragon is referred to as one of the richest countries in the world in terms of cultures and traditions that are still alive. The cultures and traditions that are passed from our ancestors or grandparents are accepted as most valued ones. Our cultures and traditions are different from rest of world and due to its uniqueness, the thousands and lakhs of people from around the world visit to see how it is preserved until now. They travel around the country where there is unique cultures and traditions that are alive.

One of the numerous cultures and traditions that are alive is our traditionally fermented Ara. Ever since, the live on the earth started, these traditions of brewing or fermenting Ara must have initiated, because our ancestors during those times must have used alcohol to recreate their tiredness and exhaust. This is very unique cultures which was existed since many centuries and is still alive in rural Bhutan. The people in rural areas use such methods to ferment the alcohol for their family consumption, which directly or indirectly preserves our culture and tradition of fermenting alcohol. Today, the people in rural areas sell their fermented Ara in the village and nearby towns. The beverage is usually a clear, creamy, or white color.

 

Traditional method of fermenting alcohol

Ara is the traditional wine or alcohol fermented in Bhutan. The Bhutanese traditional fermented alcohol has to undergo various processes and methodologies such as collection of materials, followed by boiling it and adding of yeast to take reactions. Then it is stored in the air-tight container for a month or more. Thereafter, one should undergo some few steps to ferment it to make consumable. This is brewed using pot or cylindrical container. Add a bowl full of Chang Aum (Nursery Wine) and water. The small container is placed inside the cylindrical container using three sticks, with little amount of water. The cylindrical container should be made air-tight with its lid and also wrapped with piece of clothes. The final stage is we should add water in the container on top of the cylindrical container and change it for four to five times when water gets heated. Now, alcohol is ready for consumption.

 

Alcohol

As and when I visited the village in December, 2013, I asked one of the oldest men on my way to village about locally fermented wines or alcohol. He shared why they consume alcohol which is locally fermented. He shared his individual thoughts that are interesting and also helpful to me. I talked with him or several hours asking questions on other living cultures and traditions of the village.

Here it goes:

We live in village; we generate whatever we need within the village. We work hard for our family. We start our work early in the morning and until late evening. As and when we reach home we have to drink to recreate our tiredness and exhaust of doing hard work for whole day. This has been our regular schedule for last many centuries. We sometimes, drink in groups and sometimes individually. Before few years, when we contribute labour to our neighbors, the owner has to serve us with lunch and dinner along with enough alcohol. During lunch, we are served with alcohol more than two to three cups. Moreover, an alcohol was served during dinner time, there is no limit. The owners never feel dire for how much we drink but rather they encourage us to drink as much as possible. This too has been part of our culture.

Now system has been changed after thorough discussion in the village level. We are served with lunch with alcohol. In the evening we are served with Alcohol before departure for respective homes. We used to take alcohol a cup or two and depart home for dinner. The dinner for laborers was cancelled. As soon as we reach home, it is our culture that we took a cup or more to recreate our tiredness and exhaust. I am sure that this tradition of consuming alcohol will be alive forever as this tradition is followed by our children too.

When we drink alcohol, we never leave our daily works aside. We have keen interest in our daily works and when completed our farming works, we join construction sites and earn few thousands to support our school going children and meet daily need at home. I will share my personal life being an alcoholic man. I used to drink alcohol ever since I can remember. My late parents used to drink excessive alcohol. Yet they were strong enough. They passed away at the age of 86 and 82. Until they died, they were alcohol consumer. Me too, I am alcoholic and I will be same hereafter. I drink a liter or more every day. My children working in various places are advising me not to drink more. But I never listened to them. I drink and I work hard where dosage of alcohol is minimized. I am 66 now and I have been drinking for more than 57 years, yet I am free of diseases.

Today, the office goers, school goers and others are drinking too much and died out of alcohol. The reason is they never work hard. They travel in vehicles, sit on chair for whole day, and eat less and so on. They do not have to sweat like us. This lead to alcohol infected diseases and finally they die. If they drink and work hard, the alcohol may not affect them anyways. This is difference between rural and urban settlers. When I see news in BBS and from my friends on call who lives in other parts of the country, I feel sad but when I work, I have no choice than drinking alcohol.

Now I am becoming older, so, I am feeling lazy to prepare alcohol. There is trouble in making and fermenting alcohol. But with help from my wife, we always ferment twice a day and we drink together. My children drinks a lot when they were young, but now due to advocacy programs and other related advertisement, they stopped drinking and advise us a lot.

Ap Thinley shared his views and story on alcohol.

When people in rural areas are core consumer of locally brewed alcohol, the more people are died out of alcohol in urban areas. When I asked about how much deaths in villages are occurred out of alcoholism, he says that death is not caused by alcohol rather its depends on our fate. “Death is already written on our forehead, so we should not think that it is caused by alcohol. If person does not consume alcohol, then for what you will blame the death of that particular person.” He notified me with question.

From medical point of view, the locally brewed alcohol is harmful to our health. The alcohol is strong and alcohol content is 100 percent. Alcohol takes away the life of consumers. Today, the people of any age, consumes alcohol for the various reasons; some drinks it to overcome their frustration, some drinks for pleasure, and so and so on. Once I visited hospital along with friends. There we can see more numbers of patients are related to alcohol. Alcohol ruins the life of many people in the world.

Smoking is much debated issues in the country. Smoking too is not good for health and import is strictly prohibited in the country. To my point of view, the alcohol act should be drafted and advocacy programs in rural areas should be carried sooner than later.

We all know that there are uncountable negative effects of alcohol in human life. The bars, restaurants, hotels and other places in the country are filled with people of all ages to take pleasure of alcohol. They sit together and drink a lot to make their life gratifying. The happiness out of alcohol is unacceptable for me. Our country being Mahayana Buddhist country, it is not good consuming alcohol every day and night. This should be taken measures to bring down or eliminate from the country.

We know that alcohol kills, but why people imports foreign wines and alcohols in to the country. The alcohol ban program should be carried out in the country to minimize alcohol related death in the country. I heard that people who drinks alcohol creates problem in the society. The alcohol and related problems are leading in the society today.

Due to increase in alcohol consumption in the country, the imports of alcohol are increasing. The huge amounts of cash are flowing out of the country which leads to economic depreciation. The young people are died and many are admitted in the hospital and health care centers owing to the alcohol related infections. The car accident occurs because of drunk-drive. Many people lost their life to accidents in various places across the country. The quarrel and struggle within the families, friends and relatives are aroused. After consumption of alcohol, the people feel as if they are on top of the world. They argue what other a person speaks. Their egoistic feelings increases and then finally violence against wife, children and neighbors are occurred.

Burglary, robbery and theft problems are rising in the cities and towns. The several unemployed youths are loitering in the town which led to alcohol consumption. When they drink heavily and get addicted, they robe shops and other business centers. This lead to social problems in the society; this is all due to alcoholism.

                གུ་རུ་རིན་པོ་ཆེ་གིས་              

ཆང་ལ་འདོད་ཆགས་ཞེ་སྡང་གཏི་མུག་དང༔ ང་རྒྱལ་ཕྲག་དོག་ཉོན་མོངས་མ་ལུས་པ༔

སློང་བའི་རྒྱུ་རྐྱེན་འདི་ལ་ཚང་བ་ཡིན༔ དེ་ཕྱིར་ཆང་ནག་མ་འཐུང་ཞལ་གདམས་ཡིན༔

Rough Translation

The lust or desire, anger, ignorance, ego or pride, envy and hatred are all caused due to consumption of alcohol. Therefore, never and ever drink alcohol. This is my advice for all.