Controlling COVID-Fire (ProVIso)

By L V Nagarajan

If you do nothing, forest fire will spread very fast, same way as a pandemic like Covid-19. The comparison should not end there. We should be able to control it also in a similar way. Herein I have evolved a generalised SOP, (Known as ProVIso) for controlling any pandemic, which any affected city, state or country may adopt and implement.

I have seen how they fight Forest-Fires in the US. First what they do is to limit the damage to the specific areas. They don’t try to put out the fire; first, they spray water from helicopters all around the affected area so that the fire is contained within and it does not spread. It is like ‘quarantining’. Then they will run their ambulances and specially equipped emergency fire fighting air brigades to the affected area, The RED ZONE. They will try to put out spot fires and will see to it no new fire breaks out. They will also try to treat all the damages that have been caused.

At the same time, they warn the reasonably far-off areas, known as SAFE ZONE, to take care of themselves. They can test their fire protection systems and keep them healthy. They will warn the local fire brigade to ensure supply of water and availability of all fire extinguishing devices. All the people in SAFE ZONE will be asked to protect themselves from smoke & air pollution. They will also put up a barrier around the safe areas and guard the same so that there is no unnecessary movement from SAFE ZONE to the UNSAFE ZONE.

UNSAFE ZONES are some intermediate spaces, between the SAFE ZONE and the affected area, the RED ZONE. These areas are always at a risk, because of  smoke, air pollution, heat and even some falling embers exploding from the fire that is already raging nearby. Herein local fire brigades will keep on going around and putting out smaller fires, and in case of any major ones they will call for emergency support

As they make the RED ZONE smaller and smaller gradually, they will also declare mare areas under SAFE ZONE. However small the  RED ZONE becomes eventually, say, in about two weeks, Fire dept will continue keeping watch in this area, so that, no fresh fire breaks out

Can we not control spread of Covid pandemic also in similar ways?

Let us try.

Control of Covid-19 Pandemic

In the case of Covid-19 infection also, the pandemic is spreading fast, like forest fire through air. It attacks the crowded areas faster.  Luckily, here also it is possible to separate out areas as crowded RED Zone, nearby Yellow Zone, and farther-off disciplined Green Zone.

When any pandemic strikes, it is very important to identify the Red, Yellow and Green zones early enough to formulate relief measures by local governments and civic authorities. First thing to do is to go for a full lockdown for three days for all zones. This is mainly to organise relief measures and tune up the medical infrastructure.

RED ZONE: (Isolated Zone)

The boundaries of Red zone, with maximum infection, should be kept under strict watch, after quarantining the area. Only health workers, sanitary workers and volunteers should be allowed across this boundary.  The residents of the area should not be allowed to move outside of Red zone, even if they are not infected. No one, even if they are found not-infected after testing, will be allowed inside the zone, unless he is prepared to stay ‘in’ for an indefinite period. Maximum medical attention will be given to all inside the zone. Those with symptoms will be admitted to hospitals within the zone, which will all be upgraded with immediate effect. All important drugs, like Ramdesevir, for treatment of Covid will be made available in these hospitals on a priority basis. Even some of the medicines from the AYUSH system of medical care will be made available and will be given for those who have faith in the system as an emergency relief. Oxygen cylinders, O2 concentrators and ventilators should be made available in large numbers. The contact tracing of all these patients for the last one week will be done. All these suspected people will be instantly tested for Covid. Covid positive cases will be immediately quarantined at home or on in any of the Health Facilities, to be provided in the zone in adequately large numbers. All those, tested negative should be given the first dose of vaccination. All the residents should be asked to strictly follow the lockdown rules. Lockdown in the zone will be extended every week, depending on the conditions. General compulsory vaccination programme throughout the zone to be carried in a Priority Graded Standard Manner, starting from

1. health workers, sanitary workers and volunteers,
2. any other vulnerable group of public servants
3. Senior citizens without any symptoms
4. All those in the teaching profession
5. To all living within 500 meters on either side of the boundary of Red zone
6. People above 50 without symptoms
7. People between 25 and 50
8. People between 12 and 25
9. Children below the age of 12.

After every weekly review the boundary of this Isolation Zone or Red zone to be revised and redrawn. It is expected with all the above measures, the boundary of this Red zone, will keep on contracting.

GREEN ZONE: (Protected Zone)

The Green zone is expected to provide the ‘living hope’ for the whole city or state. Hence this zone should be given all safety. We may even call this as Protected Zone.

The boundary:

Since this area displays low to nil infection, it is the duty of all the citizens and the state, to keep it the same way. At the end, it is going to turn out as a win-win strategy. Here also it is best to adopt strict quarantine which will work in the reverse as compared to Red zone.

• Only health workers, sanitary workers and volunteers should be allowed across the boundary of this Green zone
• The residents of the zone will not be allowed to move outside of the Green zone, unless they are prepared to stay ‘out’ for an indefinite period.
• even when they are not infected, no one will be allowed inside the zone, until they are fully vaccinated and have a “no-covid” test certificate

Medical Attention:

Since the area is free of infection, only minimal medical attention will be needed. For routine and non-covid cases that may come up, same will be treated by the local hospitals in the area.  All the local hospitals and health centres in the area should be totally sanitized in the first 3-days of lockdown. All emergency systems like ventilators, oxygen supply systems, fire protection systems should be tried and tested for healthiness. These medical facilities should be available for all non-covid treatment for the whole City/State. All public facilities like parks, play grounds, gyms, theatres and auditoriums should also be thoroughly sanitized before we declare this as Green Zone. Crematoriums and burial grounds also should be inspected and cleaned to felicitate such services for unfortunate non-covid fatalities.

Anyone with Covid symptoms foun in the zone, will be home-quarantined and will be attended by local GP’s and doctors, who will be a part of the team of health workers. Suspected and actual Covid patients should be Priority Graded Standard Manner, treated only in specially quarantined hospitals dedicated for the purpose. Initial lockdown period of 3 days mat not require to be extended. However the general quarantine and Room/Hospital quarantines will be strictly followed.

a) Some low level of routine testing may go along with vaccination

b) Economic and commercial activities may restart within the zone.  

c) General compulsory vaccination programme throughout the zone to be carried in a Priority Graded Standard Manner, starting from

1. health workers, Sanitary workers and volunteers,
2. any other vulnerable group of public servant
3. Senior citizens without any symptoms
4. All those in the teaching profession
5. To all living within 500 meters on either side of the boundary of Red zone (**)
6. People above 50 without symptoms
7. People between 25 and 50
8. People between 12 and 25
9. Children below the age of 12.

(**) If any in this 500-meter band display any symptoms, they will be tested for covid. If any found positive, they will be treated under home quarantine, in the respective zones.

After every weekly review the boundary of this Protected Zone or Green zone to be revised and redrawn. It is expected with all the above measures this boundary will keep on expanding. All Commercial, Finanacial and socio-religious events may be allowed in this with minimal restrictions, maintaining Covid Norms.

This yellow zone will act as a buffer zone between Green and Red Zones. People or places who have been cleared off Covid, after treatment, testing and vaccination, can be admitted to Green zone only via Yellow zone.

Yellow Zone (Virus/Vacccine Zone)

The Boundary:

This zone does not have its own specific boundary.   It is bounded on one end by Red Zone YR-Boundary and on the other end by Green Zone, G-Y boundary. Both the Boundaries are strictly monitored by the respective zones.

(─Xà)  No one will be allowed to move from (more infected) Red Zone to Yellow Zone or from (viral) Yellow zone to Protected Green zone (─Xà), even if they are not infected. All will be advised not to move from Yellow zone to Red zone or from Green Zone to Yellow zone unnecessarily. These people should realize that they will not be allowed to return back to their earlier Yellow or Red zone (even when tested Covid –ve,) for an indefinite period of time.

They may comeback, only along with others in Red zone, when any area in the Red zone is declared free of covid and is allowed to merge in Yellow zone. They may come back into Green Zone only along with others, when any area in the yellow zone. is declared free of covid and is allowed to merge in Green zone.

Medical attention:

This area being much bigger may require much higher level of testing and vaccination. Vaccination routine will generally be in the same Priority Graded Standard Manner, followed in other zones. It will also require a large number of covid-appropriate hospitals. We cannot run the risk of shortage of such hospitals. Hence we should upgrade the primary health centres also into hospitals with isolation facilities. All the nursing staff could be further trained into covid care, Testing and vaccination. The number of sanitary staff should be increased, almost doubled to care for safe disposal of increased medical waste. The crematoriums and burial sites should be augmented for safety and isolation, to take care of the unfortunate cases of demises due to Covid. A few crematoriums and burial sites should be kept away and apart for Non-covid fatalities. Likewise, some private and super speciality hospitals should be reserved for non-covid patients with proper safety precautions against infection. All the public should be warned to observe Covid appropriate behaviour of Masking and social distancing. The lockdown may be extended beyond three days also depending on the level of infection and public cooperation. Commercial, Finanacial and socio-religious events may also be allowed with restricted attendance, maintaining Covid Norms.

Conclusion

It is hoped if all the states and civic authorities follow the general instructions based on the above principle of, (shall we call it as,) PRO-V-ISO as above, any pandemic may  be controlled in a phased and logical manner.

GOD SAVE INDIA

VANDE MATARAM

My Grandfather from Sholavandan

L S Rajaramanatha Iyer

(1892 – 1961)

L S Rajaramanatha Iyer was my paternal grandfather. I am not sure of his period as mentioned above. I am sure he died in 1961, when I was in 2nd year B.Sc., in Madura College, Madurai. I also faintly remember his 60th birthday celebrated in 1952 along with thread ceremony of my brothers LVMahadevan and LVSundaram. He was the first son of one L A Samy Iyer. He had two brothers L S Srinivasa Iyer and L S Krishna Iyer. I am not sure whether they had any sister or any other siblings. I understand, it was Sri L A Samy Iyer, who was the first one to settle down in Sholavandan, a very fertile village near Madurai on the banks of river Vaigai. Sri Samy Iyer was a well educated man from Lalgudi who became a Deputy Collector in British regime. He was in service in erstwhile Madras Presidency which included Andhra and parts of Karnataka also. During the last days of his service, he was in southern Tamil Nadu. Most of his family settled in Madurai, whereas he himself, post-retirement, moved to Sholavandan. Even today old timers of Sholavandan know us as of  Collector’s family. Even 10 years back when I was roaming around our village, an old man recognised me as Collector’s grandson, though I was only his great grandson. My grandmother is Sow Akhilandam, more popularly known as Ammalu. She was from a village near Lalgudi known as Edayatru-mangalam. Her brother, our mama-thathha, was one E R Kalayana Sundaram, who was a landlord of quite a bit of fertile land in Cauvery delta region. He lost almost all his lands, during an unprecedented season of floods in river Cauvery in 1930s, when his lands became full of sand. And he became very poor. He was a very good mathematician and an astrologer. After he lost his lands, he was eking out a living by giving astro-predictions and by marriage matching. As he got older, he used to stay with his relatives in rotation. Whenever he visits Sholavandan, he will spend with us 2/3 months.  He used to give the children a lot of math-puzzles.

My Grandfather LSR was a professional level musician and a Veena player and great fan, friend and contemporary of the Veena legends Karaikudi Brothers. My grandma used say, “Karaikudi brothers invariably will alight at Sholavandan station, during their concert trip to Chennai. They will have days long practice sessions in the hall upstairs”. Not only was he a veena player he was also a veena technologist. He will completely dismantle veena and assemble it all over again, including the waxing-in the frets. He will also tune up the veena from the Aadhar sruthi of 250 Hz. He had an accurate tuning fork for this purpose.

LSR’s daughter and his student Smt. Janaki Dorairajan

Our Thatha was teaching veena to several people in our village. He was teaching Music and Veena to her daughter, my Aunt Sow. Janaki. Unfortunately she died very early at the age of 25 due to mysterious illness. I was just born and three month old. She had two lovely boys, my cousins, Ramalingam and Balu. They were respectively 9 yrs and 4 yrs of age when the tragedy stuck.

This is what my cousin Ramalingam remembers emotionally about the incident.

THE MATERNAL GRANDFATHER

I had only one Thatha, Sholavandan thatha as my paternal thatha was no more when I was born. I lost my mother when I was 8yrs and Balu 3 and a half yrs. We were studying in Thirupuvanam, me in 4th class and Balu in 1st class. As usual, we came to, Sholvandan for vacation. Amma was ailing for some time. We visited her in the hospital in Madurai. Now she was lying on the floor in the big koodam in our house at sholavandan. Appa went to fetch milk for her. By the time he came, she was shaking her head up and down. I saw her life coming to an end slowly.

It was in 22.6.1944

That made my thatha and paatti showering immense love on us. Sholavandan was our vacation place till we went to college, Balu and I shifting to North, Balu to Pilani and I to N. Delhi.

We visited thatha when he was ailing. It was a pathetic sight to see him on dialysis. I was staying with Jayarama mama at King Edward Mess, N. Delhi, I working at National Productivity Council. When thatha breathed his last, mama proceeded to SDN for two weeks, leaving Geetha under our care of me and Kodumudi Sundaram.

Thatha conversed with me a lot. Enquired about our Delhi stay, what we do for eating. He equired about my study content. He gave me two books, A Tale of Two Cities and David Copperfield for reading. They were kept so tidy that they looked as new. Thatha was a tall and a magnetic personality. Whenever he went to Madurai for meetings, he was in panchakatcham,  jibbah and a flowing angavasthram, so majestic.!

He took me to his strong room to show how money was kept. No banks then. ₹ 100 notes kept in between the pages of a notebook.. His normal place of work was always at the strong room entrance. A steel trunk on the table, key on his poonal and Correspondence on a drawboard resting on the arms of the chair. Morning walk by him with his walking stick was inspiring. Appa would show me thatha’s letters. Such a steady and clear hand writing. I am proud to be his  தௌஹித்ரன் (grandson).

These are the emotional words from Ramalingam who himself is now a grandfather of 85 years.

LSR’s Music Notes

I wish to add something here about my Aththai Sow Janaki. My thatha wanted her to become a performing artist in Veena. He was so dejected after her death for the next almost 15 years he did not touch his Veena.  My brother Mahadevan once asked him to teach Veena. He flatly refused saying that ‘you go and look after your livelihood”. Suddenly he restarted his practice.   

He was a very noble person with great personality. He had served, as Madurai District Board President, after contesting elections. When he goes to Madurai for those meetings, he dresses up very grandly, with Pancha-Kacha, Jubba and Turban etc. He was one of the founders of Madura College and was a board member of the college. I remember our college was closed for half a day when he expired as a mark of respect.

My thatha was an expert in selecting diamonds. He used to have special lens kit and wax boxes. In the wax-box he will fix the diamonds in the shape of ear-ring or pendent and then look through the lens for any dosha or defects. He chooses diamonds matching in shine, colour, size and cuttings. So much so, almost all the members of our extended family used to approach thattha for selecting diamonds. Krishnan Chettiar, a diamond merchant and Jeweller from Madurai city, used to bring his customers also to Sholavandan for impressing them and completing the business. Even the diamond ornaments used to be hand-made in our house by the jeweller. My mother also learned to look for doshams in diamonds from my Thatha.

He likes Madurai Mani Iyer’s Classical vocal music very much. Once during my cousin Lalithu’s marraige in Trichy, the reception concert was by Madurai Mani. My Thatha was occupying the first seat. He used to know the musicians of the day by their pet names. Semmangudi Cheenu, Serukalaththur Sama, etc. He does not like MS because he felt she made the song lighter to cover the audience. In those days she was somewhat nasal and using false voice in upper octaves. Later on she improved her music in leaps and bounds. I have two of his music manuscripts. His hand writing is just too good and clear both in English and Tamil. He also knows Telugu. His English was just too good.

Our cousin Babu Aththan, being the first grandson of our family, was a pet of LSR. Babu was once telling me, “LSR when he was in his 40s was offered a job in Imperial Bank (which became as RBI later), because of his language skills”. Very few Indians will get such a Job. Being a Nobility, he refused the job. As per Babu, had he accepted the job, he might have even become the Governor of RBI in independent India.

He had one bad addiction. He is a heavy user of snuff, a concentrated powdered tobacco, which people used to sniff through their nasal track. There used to be a brand known as TAS Rathnam. He is a long term client of a particular shop (at the Amman Sannidhi entrance to Meenakshi Temple) who, on his own, fries and grinds fresh branded tobacco specially for our Thattha. Once, my cousin Sekar was mandated to buy this out from Madurai. My Thatha found out that it was not bought from the right shop. He threw the whole thing out, and from next time it became my duty to buy this stuff. 

In the last stages of his life, what he thought as piles turned malignant and finally died of cancer of intestine and urinary tract and expired in 1961. 

(My brother Mahadevan Adds) 

Out thattha LSR was a very well dressed man. I remember he was the only man in Sholavandan who used to wear white canvas shoes and go for walking at SDN. He had lot of friends in high places including collector of Madurai Mr.Fokes and another one Madhurapuli Gownder who had estates in Kodai hills. There is a photo in Sholavandan along with him taken at Kodai hills. LSR was once on a visit to Mumbai, post independence, to stay with his 2^nd son, Comm’dor L R Jayaraman (Indian Navy), who was truly a hero of our family. He so much liked the disciplined life of Mumbai, he used to say “one should see Mumbai before dying”. 

My brother Sundaram once told me that he saw Sri.L A Samy iyer’s name in a govt guest house near Kurnool. I was also told that our high school came to SDN because of his efforts and influence with the then collector of Madurai. LSR is a lover of British and their customs like punctuality etc. He used to take coffee like the English men with decoction and milk served separately. He loves eating, though he eats full meal only once a day as lunch. Patti will make lunch only after consulting him.

He was having rheumatism with pain in his knees. He removed all his teeth and went on full set of dentures, because somebody advised him that it will help.

He was learning Bhagavad Gita from someone I think one Mr. Sundaram Iyer in our house in the late afternoons. Whenever the school sessions started he will take the trouble of buying white paper and make note books 40 pages and 80 pages etc. He will neatly stitch them and give it to us. All the new books he will wrap with brown paper covers and write our names and give. Such a caring grandpa he was.

My sister, Sow Prema Ramakrishnan says: During  Deepavali  time our LSR   thatha  will buy  long piece of   colour cloth for trousers & shirts  for my 4  brothers and cousins (Rajoo, Sekar, Gowri and Balu) and will get it  stitched by our family Tailor Gopalu. Come summer, our barber Singaram will be called home and all the four boys will be given a close hair-cut under his special supervision. Thatha will insist on the same shape of SUMMER CROP (Hair Cut)  for all boys at back yard by our family barber.

Sow (Dr) Geetha Pakash, my cousin (and daughter of Comdr. L R Jayaraman, I. N.) adds: I was only 10 years old when he died and secondly I spent very little time in Sholavandan, unlike my brothers Sekar, Gowri and Balu. I used to come there only for my vacations for three weeks so I don’t think I know about him as much as others do. So my contribution will not be much. I only know that I used to speak to him boldly and he was fond of me because I could speak English at an early age as I was the first ever convent educated child from our family.

I know there are many others who have been interacting with him a lot.  My young uncle Sri L K Nageswaran (s/o LSR’s brother L S Krishnan, we call him as Kittappa Thatha or Kunjappa Thatha) was a pet of LSR, especially because he lost his father at a young age. He was working in the nearby city of Madurai. He comes home by 8:30 PM. Every day after dinner he will spend close to an hour with LSR’s bedside, giving him a body press and massage and generally sharing city news. Some days when he is delayed he will directly meet LSR in his bedside. When Thatha asks whether he had his dinner, he will lie and say yes. When his mother comes and calls him for dinner, LSR will pat him and say “Ada, Fool, Go and have your dinner, it is already 10 PM”. I cannot forget even today, the way Nagu Chittappa cried over the dead body of  his Periappa when he came back from his office at 8:30 PM.

I expect after seeing this write-up many will share their experiences also. I welcome them to do so by commenting on this blog.

Appendix

I have mentioned names of several of LSR thatha’s children and grand children. Just to give an idea of exact relationdhips I am giving the LSR’s family chart below:

Let LSR’s memory linger forever

 among the members of our family.

Let us all try and emulate his nobility throughout our life

– – – – – – – – – – – – – o0O0o- – – – – – – – – – – – –

Religious Polarization in India

L V Nagarajan

When I was a school boy, I was in small town near Madurai in South India. I was living with my parents, uncles, cousins and grandparents, in a joint family, for about 18 years. I graduated at the age of 18 and came to Mumbai for a Job in BARC in 1962. In my small native town, I was living in a Brahmin street (Agraharam). In those days it was common to have such areas in small towns, like, Mudaliyar Kottai, Pillaimar Theru, Saibu Pettai, Rowthar Street, based on castes, religion and culture. Some of my friends and classmates from these areas come to our street to play with us. There had never been any cast-clashes, way back in 1950s and 60s.

1. In my town, in the local Mariamman Temple, one day’s festival is sponsored by Rowthar community of Muslims. The procession, dressing and decoration will all be in a typical Muslim style.
2. In the Ratha Utsav, the chariot pulling right is given to SC/ST people and they would not lose this right to anybody, come-what-may.
3. My grandfather was one of the sponsors for the Ashura festival of Muslims in our town.
4. Christmas Carols visit a few prominent Brahmin houses and spread the blessings of Jesus Christ on the whole Brahmin community.
5. The sandal pastes, agar batthis and perfumes for religious and social festivals are always supplied by a Muslim shop keeper.

Things had drastically changed by 1980s. Earlier the reservation policy covered only SC (18%) and STs (1%). As we all understood, this is a good initiative and we all supported this affirmation policy. Later in late 1970 onwards, Tamil Nadu govt. introduced 23.5% reservation for other backward classes (BCs). This was not accepted by many communities, as most of them wanted reservation after SC/ST, to be based only on economic backwardness. This dislike for the policy took another dimension when many castes and sub-castes fought for inclusion in the above BC category. The Mandal Commission, or the Socially and Educationally Backward Classes Commission (SEBC), was established in India on 1 January 1979 by the Janata Party government under Prime Minister Morarji Desai with a mandate to “identify the socially or educationally backward classes” of India. However in the meantime, pressure groups started developing among various castes and sub-castes claiming quota of reservations for them also. This led the progressive state of Tami Nadu, to have many caste based political parties and associations. Thus instead of just removing caste barriers in human development, the expanded reservation policy has also brought up many more caste barriers in other social areas

Tamil Nadu did not wait for the Mandal Commission report. TN Govt implemented further 26.5% reservation for what they called it as Other Backward Classes (OBC), thus raising the total reservations to 67%. But this move by Govt had only widened the competition by people of many castes demanding to be included in this MBC or OBC. Those who are not included in any of these categories were called as Forward Caste (FC), irrespective of their social and financial status. This naturally angered them and they filed a petition in the High Court and Supreme Court. The courts ruled that at least 50% of Government jobs and Education admissions should be based on merit and not to be under any quota system. But this did not stop TN Govt under Jayalalitha to pass a  Tamil Nadu Act of 1994. After a demand for the scheme to have constitutional Protection, the act was adopted in 1993 by the Assembly and got the same included in the 9^th Schedule of the constitution. This included reservation of seats in education and employment for backward classes, and scheduled castes and tribes.  

At about the same period, another injustice was brought to light. The social backwardness arising out of caste system is considered as a typical nature of Hindu community. Muslim community was considered as a casteless one (!). Hence they were not eligible for any reservation, however socially and economically backward they were. Indian constitution also is against any reservation based on religion. However most of the Indian Muslims were earlier belonging to one of the oppressed classes of Hindu community. They converted to be Muslims either in the hope that they can escape caste discrimination or because of some other socio-political and economic incentives.

Hence the Muslims of India knowing or unknowingly became a vote bank of Islamic Political parties right from late 1970s. This is the beginning of religious polarisation in India. At about the same time the ‘Ram Janmabhoomi’ movement was spearheaded by the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) and supported by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and gathered momentum in the late 1980s. This along with minority appeasement policy of ruling Congress helped Muslims to stick together and vote en-block for Congress.

Since then at every election, be it for state assemblies or the Parliament, the poles of religion  started diverging, to start with, in the North, and gradually to the South also. Of late, majority of the Muslims have realised that they have been exploited by all political parties including the Congress. However their reactions are varied. Those who suffered because of Partition have unwisely started supporting Pakistan and the cross border terrorism. Those who were disturbed because of Babri Masjid demolition became more ardent supporters of Mughal invaders and their atrocities. Those who did not like the resultant Hindu resurgence became sacrificial goats for Islamic movements like ISIS etc. Luckily majority of the Muslims applied their mind instead of heart and started taking the path of education and enlightenment and retained their innate Indianness or Bharatiya. It is this majority of Muslims who is going to contribute restoring India’s true secular society that existed before Mughal invasion.    

We can already see the sign of such moderation among Indian Muslims, talking some sense into others. Zakia Soman is a women’s rights activist and a founding member of Bharatiya Muslim Mahila Andolan, which played a major role in abolition of ‘triple talaq’ rule among the Muslims. She writes in an article in Times of India, in October 2020 on polarization in India, ‘Muslims should have conceded the birth place of Lord Ram’.

Yes, I was also a remote witness to the demolition of Babri Masjid thru TV screens. Though you cannot blame any specific leaders of the Ram Janmabhoomi movement for this incident, some of them did talk in an inciting manner, but nothing more than what Owaisi brothers are doing now. But to conclude that to be the reason for the demolition is rather childish. Yes, it was a criminal act by a few; but we had the TV footage; could have identified exactly the individuals involved in the act and could have punished them severely. There is absolutely no point in filing a case on all the people who led the Ram Janma Bhoomi movement. This is the reason why people suspect the intention of the so-called seculars.

India is a land where people of different faiths co-existed for many centuries even before the occupation by Mughals. When Mughal thugs forced the conversion on Hindus, Indian Muslims did not support them. In my younger days I have never heard the word Jihad or Kafir.  But I have heard some Hindu preachers mention ‘Mlechcha’ when they refer to Muslims, but many of them added a foot note saying that they mean people like Aurangazib and Malik Kafur, and not the Indian Muslims.

When Muslim intellectuals chose the list of visionaries from freedom struggle, who laid the foundation of plural democracy in India, they were very careful in avoiding some people like Jinnah Saheb, who helped trisecting this nation on religious basis. They were also very careful to avoid one person, Mr. Sirdar Vallab Bhai Patel, who prevented one more dissection of our country on religious basis in the Deccan area.

There was a time when Indian Muslims were different from other Muslims of the world.   Those were times when the Indian Muslim respected the Christian teacher who taught English to his son equally with the tutor from local Mosque who taught him Quran. Those were the times when a child who was later to become the Shankaracharya of Kanchi Mutt stood first in his Bible class in a local school. Those were the times Christmus Carols used to visit prominent Hindu houses spreading the blessings of Jesus. In those days cross religious faiths need not result in conversion.

Compare the situation now: Indian Muslims have more affection towards Rohingyas and Tablighis than towards the real Indian Muslims like Abdul Kalam. If the Kerala Governor, who is a Muslim, visits a temple they issue a fatwa against him. If Kasab is hanged, he is being celebrated as a hero by Indian Muslims. I can keep on quoting several such misconducts by Indian Muslims which are basically designed to polarize this country on religious basis, to whose benefit I wonder!

“Appeasement of Muslims” is often referred to, as though it is non-existent, like many treat the term “Love-Jihad” as though it is piece of fiction. The biggest minority appeasement was the fraudulent Sachar Committee report. The report says Muslims are the poorest and least resourceful in India. All of us know “the poorest and least resourceful” Hindus were the target of forced and incentivised conversion in to Islam, since a very long time. They were already “the poorest and least resourceful” before they became Muslims and not because they were Muslims. However I am always for affirmative action, and reservations in jobs and education, for socially and economically backward citizens of India. 

Now as far as polarization is concerned, tell me which community vote en-block in any election on the advice given usually during mass prayers, by a local leader? It is very easy to prove me wrong. Please let me have the statistics: How many Muslims are elected from Hindu Majority Constituencies and how many non-Muslims are elected from Muslim Majority constituencies?

Many of the nationalist Muslim intellectuals come out with one advice for Muslims which is now useless, i.e, ‘Muslims should have conceded the birth place of Lord Ram’. Instead of such useless advice, can they take up with Bharatiya Muslim community and advice them promptly in the following matters also:

1. It is an accepted historical fact that several Hindu Temples were destroyed to build Mosques not by Indian Muslims but by Mughals. The Muslim community may setup committees to historically check the facts, and wherever they can establish truth of demolition of Hindu Temples, they can offer the site to Hindus to rebuild their Temples.
2. The Hindus, on their part, should not insist on complete rewriting of religious history that could endanger the beautiful diversity of India.
3. The Muslim Community should desists from annexing even the existing disused temple sites and instead help Hindu to rebuild the same.
4. Muslim community should disengage themselves from forced and incentivised conversion. On the contrary, they should propagate the values of Islam which people can follow without the need of converting to Islam. (like in olden times)
5. As a community they should discourage the use of religious gatherings such as in Mosques or Idgas for political propaganda
6. Last but the most important, they should maintain their identity of Indian Muslims, instead of subjugating themselves to ISIS, Rohingyas or Tablighis.

Indian Muslim community is the second largest in the world, even larger than in Pakistan, the first largest being Muslims of Indonesia. I feel Indian Muslims should have a greater say among international Muslim community. They should influence the Muslims of the world to follow the path of secularism, which just does not mean, just tolerance alone, it means acceptance of other religions also.   

Before you call me names as BIGOTS or Rightists, like all other pseudo seculars, let me state below my religious orientation.

1. I was in Dubai with family for about 15 years. Whenever I am invited by my colleagues and friends for Iftar opening during the holy month of Ramzan, I also used to fast on that day.
2. My technician was one Abid Hussain from Pakistan. Whenever I need some maintenance on any of my appliances, he will finish his Friday Prayers, come home, attend to the appliance, have lunch with me, see an Indian movie along with me and my family and then go home late in the afternoon, with dinner from my house packed.
3. My driver was one Eid Wali Khan, a Pathan from Pakistan. Any guests or visitors come to my house, he volunteers as a guide cum driver to take them around Dubai and UAE.
4. One of my lady cousins has married an Indian Muslim and both have migrated to US. We visit them whenever we are in the US. It is a pleasure to see them live happily with a healthy mixture of Indian Hindu/Muslim culture, which of course would not have been possible in India.

So I am secular in a Hindu way of acceptance (and tolerance).

Long Live India’s Social Secularism

Makkal Sevai Katchi

(A new concept of a Poltical Franchise)

Suggestions For Makkal Sevai Katchi of Rajinikanth

I am one of the highly disappointed citizens of Tamil Nadu to hear Sri. Rajinikanth’s decision of not entering active politics. I fully understand his health conditions, which will not allow him to move with voting public with ease, under these pandemic conditions. Still after giving us hopes of freedom from narrow, sectarian and corrupt Dravidian rule, it was somewhat shocking for us. As Poet Kambar says, we all feel like somebody who was blind, got the sight for a short time, and again became blind. (கண்ணிழந்தான் பெற்று இழந்தார்போல்).

Instead of totally withdrawing from active politics and later on endorsing the same set of people again, I have a better suggestion which will try achieving the “System Change” Rajini Sir so passionately wanted to bring in. He will still have the bare necessary contact with the voting public, but without endangering his health.

The Makkal Sevai Katchi has already been registered with CEC with the excellent symbol of Auto Ricksha. The Katchi may release a basic policy documents (as given in Example-1 below). This basic document can be evolved further as we move along.

The Katchi headed by Rajini Sir, can give a general call for (Independent) candidates who accept this basic policy document to come forward to contest elections in May, under the MSK Katchi banner with Auto Ricksha as symbol and with Rajini Sir’s support.

Rajini Sir, the Thalaivar, may stipulate some criteria for the candidates for his support. (as given in Example-2 below)

Katchi may also specify a Common Minimum Programme (as given in Example-3 below), if, by people’s choice, these candidates win in large enough numbers and bring the majority for Katchi.

At least for this all important TN elections in May 21, my suggestion is, Rajini Sir may run his Katchi as a Franchise. (இப்போது இல்லை என்றால், எப்போதும் இல்லை). All the 234 candidates will become Katchi’s franchisees, running their own part of the Katchi . Once this mode of operation gets established, Katchi may stipulate:

• some kind of code of conduct and even a dress code,
• some standard slogans like  ‘எல்லாவற்றையும் மாற்றுவோம்’, ‘இப்போது இல்லை என்றால் எப்போதும் இல்லை’.
• Some standard posters. etc

The biggest advantages of this are; for the candidates will be the Endorsement by Rajini Sir and the Symbol of Auto Ricksha (which can easily beat Two Leaves and Rising Sun); and for our Thalaivar, he can totally hold a full fledged campaign without endangering his health. The formal constitution of Katchi can be done at a later date. For once it will be true democratic constitution with all the 234 candidates as the constituent founding members of the Katchi.

The Katchi may also accept Franchisees at every city level. My own proposal of 250 franchisees will be:

• 234 constituency level Franchisees headed by the respective party candidates
• 10 City level franchisees: for Chennai, Madurai, Kovai, Trichy, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Trivandrum, Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkatta,
• 6  for Pudhucheri

The above arrangement will meet all the requirements of Rajini Sir. There would not many party functionaries to care for. Katchi will be totally federal. There would not be any need for booth level buildup, as the same will be taken care of at the constituency level franchisee.

I fondly request Sri Rajini Sir to consider this proposal. Otherwise his Endorsements, Ideas, Slogans and Symbols may all get misused.

I request any reader who reads this to forward this to all their contacts. I will be terribly disappointed if this does not reach our Thalaivar’s due attention in proper time. I wish some people close to him take this up with him.

Yours truly, a highly pationate Follower,

L V Nagarajan

B.Sc, B.E. (IISc), M.Tech(IIT/Kanpur), (Retired) Chief Engineer OperatIons (Dubai Electricity)

For More –  https://lvnaga.wordpress.com/

EXAMPLE-1 Makkal Sevai Katchi – Basic Policies

1. Aanmic Secularism
2. Law against forced conversion
3. Education policy
4. Promoting Skills in ITIs and Polytechnics
5. Language Policy
6. Post Graduation Education
7. Reforms in Religious institutes
8. South Indian Cooperation council
9. Senior Citizen care
10. Policy on Migrant workers
11. Care of Migrants workers in TN
12. Care of TN migrants in other states
13. People of Tamil origin in other States and countries
14. State TV channel and promoting district wise TV news channel
15. Conservation of Power and water
16. Trees and environment
17. Election Eligibility Tests
18. Urban transport and Electric vehicles.
19. Suddhame sugam tharum – Village toilets and bathing ghats
20. Safety, security and empowerment of women.
21. District level chain of public libraries
22. Re organising Medical facilities
23. Mental health and counselling
24. River enlivening and sand quarrying
25. New policy on prohibition
26. Meaningful sex education

EXAMPLE-2 Criteria For Candidate – Franchisees

1. Age 35 to 60
2. Specially talented – 30 to 70
3. Non drinker / Non smoker
4. God loving / Secular
5. Native of the district
6. Literate both in Tamil and English
7. Educated / experienced
8. Socially active.

EXAMPLE-3 Common Minimum programme:

1. Prohibition
2. Permit system for alcohol consumption
3. Gradual closure of TASMAC shops.
4. Cooperation from neighbouring states.
5. Language education:
6. Tamil for all, English from 3rd standard, 3rd language from 8th std.
7. Wide choice of 3rd language:
   1. languages of border-states,
   1. Hindi, Sanskrit, Urdu,
   1. Arabic, French & German.
8. Every school should offer choice of at least three languages out of the above.
9. The school board should allow students to choose any other Indian language.
10. In case this language was not available in the School, the students should be allowed to learn the language on their own, and should pass the exam conducted by the board at appropriate time periods.
11. Every town/village local government should be encouraged to provide School transport to all nearby schools.
12. Periodic Refresher courses for teacher in all subjects.
13.  Improving the Primary health centres in both rural and urban areas. To ensure viability of such centres, direct approach to specialist, should be discouraged. Specialists should take up cases only as recommended by a GP or Primary Health Centres.
14. Review of Religious endowment act
15. Establish ownership of lands and real estate supposedly owned by Temples and religious organisations
16. Review tenancy and lease agreements of such properties
17. Restoration of rivers, lakes and canals
18. Promotion of Solar  Energy in a big way
19. Reservation for SC/ST, MBC’s, OBC’s will be retained.

– However, some of the OBC’s, who have already reached higher Social standards will be      encouraged to give-up their privilege of reservation, which will go to other OBCs.

– Reservation policy for Economically Backward Individuals will be reviewed

– Creamy Layer policy to be implemented to the advantage of the poorer sections of the same community

20. The salary, Perquisites and Pension policy for MLAS will be reviewed.

A Budget for Tamil Nadu Elections 2021

The Election Commission has put a limit on election expenses. In the case of Assembly Elections, the election expenses in all the major states are limited to Rs. 30,60,000 for each constituency and for Parliament elections, it is Rs 77,00,000 But everybody including the election commission knows that this rule is rarely respected by any candidate including those of the recognized political parties. The actual expenses by each serious candidate exceed several crores of rupees. There are many questions here for which nobody seeks answers: what is the source of such money being spent in the elections, how do these candidates or political parties plan to recover such amounts spent, how do these political parties (including the opposition) create funds for the next election, are there any accounting or auditing of such funds? This is one area where all political parties, ruling and non-ruling, collude together and keep the people in the dark, both literally and figuratively. Is it illegal money that is spent illegally as above? No finance minister ever questions the legality of such big sums of money or its nexus with illegal and criminal activities in the country. No surprise then, that Indians hold about Rs. 6,40,000 crores in Swiss Bank and other off shore accounts, according to official reports. Unless election expenses are actually reduced to a more reasonable level, there is no way to reduce the influence of criminals on party politics and to help a meaningful democracy emerge in India. Now let us try and see what is the reasonable level of election expense is for a parliamentary candidate. Let us make an election budget. Hopefully this will help some people seriously thinking of contesting the elections, say as independents.

 

The election expenses can be put under many heads as below:

1	Election Deposit and Nomination	Rs.    50,000
2	10 Public Rallies x Rs 25,000	Rs. 2,50,000
3	25 Public Meetings x Rs 6000	Rs. 1,50,000
4	50 Road Shows x Rs 1500	Rs.    75,000
5	Big Posters 50 x Rs. 10000	Rs. 5,00,000
6	Small Posters 200 x Rs. 2000	Rs. 4,00,000
7	Mini Posters 2000 x Rs. 100	Rs. 2,00,000
8	Manifesto 1000 x Rs.25	Rs.   25,000
9	Appeals 5000 x Rs. 5	Rs.   25,000
10	Bit Notices 50000 x Re.2	Rs.1,00,000
11	Transport (6 cars, 20 Autos, 200 bicycles) x 20 Days
	(120 x 1500, 400 x 300, 4000 x 100)	Rs. 7,00,000
12	Computers & Communication	Rs. 3,00,000
13	Expenses towards guest speakers, volunteers, political workers and election agents	Rs  2,00,000
14	Election Offices 30×2000	Rs.    60,000
15	Miscellaneous Expenses	Rs.    25,000
	Total Expenses	Rs. 30,60,000

These estimates can be adjusted according to actual field conditions and the types of constituencies, urban, semi-urban or rural. 

 

We, as voters, should not expect the candidates, especially serious independents to spend the above amount, out of their pockets. Then it becomes an investment for them and naturally they will look forward to profiting from his office as elected member of the house. This will lead to growing corruption. Hence as voters we should donate major portion of the above amount. Here is guide to independent candidate to mobilize resources for the above amount:

10 proposers	@  10000 each	Rs   4    Lacs
10 Major Industrialists	@  60000 each	Rs   6    Lacs
30 Major Business men	@  30000 each	Rs   9    Lacs
50 Major shop owners	@   6,000 each	Rs   3    Lacs
500 Small shop-keepers & Business men	@    600 each	Rs   3  Lacs
5000 well employed people	@      100 each	Rs.  5    Lacs
Hundi Collection from  10-Rallies	10×3000	Rs.  0.3 Lacs
Hundi Collection from 25 public meetings	25×1000	Rs.  0.15 Lac
Hundi Collection from  50-road shows	50×300	Rs.  0.15 Lac
TOTAL Collections		Rs. 30.6    Lacs

We may not be able to collect all this at one stretch. The candidate should create an election fund to be managed by one of his supporters. He should send appeals to all prospective doners. He should publish periodic accounts of the fund’s income and expenses. As his presence on the election scene gets stronger, more and more people will come forward to contribute.

 

I am presenting below  a suggested cash flow scheme which can be fine tuned as per the field conditions:

Campaign Strategy:

Apart from organizing rallies, public meetings,and road shows, a candidate should also have separate face-to-face interactions with different sections of society as below:

a)      Politically and socially active people of the constituency

b)      Teachers and college students

c)      Farm labourers and other workers

d)     Artisans like, masons, carpenters, , painters, black smiths and gold smiths.

e)      Fabricators and owners of small workshops and garages

f)       Hoteliers, restaurants and shopkeepers

g)      Senior citizens

h)      Women activists and women associations

i)        Religious groups (Care to be taken to avoid appeals on the basis of religion)

j)        Cultural groups and troupes

k)      Employees from Govt and private enterprises

l)        Tax payers…..etc.  

 

The above will help him understand his constituency better and would also help him draft his manifesto (which will be released just two weeks before the election date).

During the campaign, care should be taken to avoid association with criminals and corrupt people in general, especially the already notorious ones. One should also avoid being identified with any special interest groups or any vested interests.

 

It is earnestly hoped that this draft budget for election expenses will encourage honest and socially active independents to come forward to fight the elections and the corrupt political system. We should reduce the need to spend so much on elections to make it as a democracy for the people, of the people and by the people. The people should aspire to do more than just vote. Of course more importantly all people should vote. Jai Hind!

 

			


A law to protect Women against forced conversion

In my close circle I have seen four inter religious marriages. In all these one party was always Brahmins, the other one was always Muslim.

In the first case, in 1970s, the groom was a Muslim. After the first child the Hindu wife was abandoned since she refused to convert. In this case both were engineers and were classmates. They promised their parents, they will follow both religions without the need for to any conversion. The Muslim parents suddenly visited the bride’s family asking for their daughter in marriage. All were well till they got their first child, a girl. She was given both names of Islam and Hindu. The pestering for conversion started. The groom meanwhile got a job in a gulf country, (by natural process or by design, I am not sure). The lady could not join him because, the gulf country refused to issue spouse visa for the Hindu wife of a Muslim. After two years she had to convert for getting the spouse visa. When they came back to India the wife became a Hindu again and hence abandoned by her husband (and her daughter, who was 6 years old by that time) 

In the 2nd case, in 1980s, both were well educated and they decided on no-conversion on both sides even after the marriage. The Brahmin bride was intelligent; she migrated to US along with her Muslim husband. And till this day they follow a healthy mix of both religions.

In the 3rd case (1990s), the Hindu boy is a Doctor, married his rich colleague whose Muslim family helped him to setup a nursing home; of course, he had to convert and abandon his Hindu parents.

In 4th case (2000s), she eloped with her Muslim friend. She was abandoned in an unfamiliar northern city with a girl child, since she chose to remain as a Hindu. She called her parents who had actually disowned her. She was brought back to south. She is now married to a Hindu divorcee. The couple are doing very well professionally.

In 1970s, Indian Muslims had respect for Hinduism and Indian culture, though they were devoted to their religion as they should be. In those days a Hindu bahu in Muslim household was allowed to do pooja in privacy. But things started changing quickly. The lady realised this and wanted to be away from the family. Husband was not co-operating and finally it resulted in abandonment. That was case-1 above.

In 1980s, though the girl was not very much religious, she realised it may not be possible to live in a Muslim household even as a non-practicing Hindu. That was case-2 above. Those were the times then.

In 1990s, Muslims realised that money and standard of living could attract any unsuspecting secular Hindu to their mould. Thus we have case-3

In 2000s, Muslims started taking Hindu like names like Pradhan, Praveen and secular names like Akash, Amir, Pichchai etc. With well trained etiquette and behaviour, they were able to attract innocent girls living away from their parents. After they get emotionally involved, when they come to know of their religious difference, it shocks them slightly. But their emotion and guilt takes over and make them agree for the marriage. Even after the poor girl comes to know of her worthless, make-believe mate, she still sticks with him, till she is finally abandoned with one or more kids, as in case-4.

The first two cases may be a genuine love between pairs of youngsters. They were a little idealistic in believing that they can have love and respect for each other irrespective of the way they pray. But then in any marriage in eastern culture, family is very much involved. As long as they are in India they don’t want to be away from their families. Here comes the question of adaptability with the family. In the first case the marriage failed because of the family and in the 2nd case the marriage was saved because there was no proximity with the family. In the 3rd case marriage was saved because of acceptance of the family.

The 4th case which is now very common among interfaith marriages, there is no element of any love but only infatuation and exploitation. Let us call her Anamika. She never met his parents, who were actually very poor, as she found out later on. She wondered HOW he could afford such a grand life style. When they eloped they were able to pull on for about a year living in a fairly decent area. How, when he was of very low skills and not employable at all? When she conceived, she was admitted to a good hospital, but who paid?. Finally when he said he got a job in his uncle’s company, he also declared, to get the job she needs to convert. When she refused, in a few days, she was abandoned, along with the girl child, in an unfamiliar city. At that time she did not have the answer for her How’s and Who’s. But now Anamika knows!

I think this is still the early years of conversion by Love, which was later given a term as LOVE-Jihad. Though I was in a gulf country for more than ten years, I never knew the terms like Jihad, Kafir etc. I leaned about these terms only after 2003, when I was back in India.

Whether you call it ‘love jihad’ or not, I have recently heard of many recent Anamikas and would-be-Anamikas. They definitely deserve to be saved from this emotional fraud and cheating. Already rates of divorce cases are on the rise, because of incompatibility in both arranged and love marriages within the community. How can we expect marital harmony when young girls just around 20 years of age chose their life partners simply by their looks without bothering about future compatibility? If they are mature enough they will make plans to improve their compatibility, either by shifting away from the influence of their families like the case-2 above or accept the conditions of compatibility like case-3 above. Hopefully the example of case-1 is not likely to happen nowadays, due to maturity of both the groom and bride.

Looking at all the above cases it is obvious we need some kind of protection for our youngsters, at least those who are living away from their parents. With the badly needed stress on women’s education and employment, we see more and more girls in their late teens and early twenties living away from their parents in women’s hostels and hired apartments. With this new found freedom, some girls become more adventurous, “why boys alone” mood. This mood should not be allowed to be exploited by antisocial and bad elements. While on one side our society should take care of them by proper counselling, some kind of legal provision also will be required to endure and ensure their freedom, at least till such age where they attain some amount of mental maturity to be able to judge and decide on their life partners. The government is also thinking of increasing the marriageable age of girls to 21 years. While we recognise the rights and privileges of women, we are also concerned about our sons and daughters to use such rights in a safe and secure manner. We need some balance between parental concern and children’s rights. Hence if people say we need laws against the so called ‘Love-Jihad’, please see them in this context.     

Such a law, against forced conversion for marriage purposes, may include the following features:

– Marriage between youngsters of different religions can be allowed only after the age of 24 for both the genders

– All inter-Religious marriages should be given public notice thru registrar of marriages. None of the couple will be allowed to convert in these 2 months.

– The notice should also show the marriage rites to be followed. It should also show whether any formal conversion of either party is involved during the marriage ceremony or any time later in the next two months

– if so, one should attach a sworn affidavit agreeing for such conversion.

– In the absence of such an affidavit, no one should be forced to convert; at least in the first two months after marriage

–  Notwithstanding such an affidavit, any one of the couple can file an appeal for annulment of the marriage for religious reasons during this 2-months.

Legal Considerations:

There are many pseudo-seculars and so-called liberals who are not happy with this law since they think, or atleast paint the picture as though, this law is against interfaith marriages. On the contrary this law, as we can see, is only putting some pre-requisites for such an interfaith marriage, which are not difficult to meet by real lovers or betrothed. Let us see what are the provisions of the law as being discussed by different State Governments.

As far as we know, in most of the so called Love-jihad laws, the following provisions are already included

1. Consenting adult can even now marry regardless of family, caste or religious objections. They will even get legal protection, if they give 2 months notice of such a marriage. Such notices are mandatory even now among some of the communities. 
2. Inducement for change of religion, immediately before or immediately after marriage will have to be examined. If the couple are already of the same religion from two months (or more) before the marriage then there is absolutely no case for the application of the law. However if they want stronger legal support, then they can still give 2-months notice of their intention to marry.
3. If any one of the couple converts two months after marriage, then also we can say it was a conscientious decision by the spouse to make the marriage happy and successful. However if any of the spouses files a complaint, even after 2 months after marriage, of forced conversion, the same can be examined under the existing laws, and not necessarily under the new law.  
4. However, within this window of total 4 months or 120 days, 60 days on either side of the marriage date, if the Law comes to know either thro’ a complaint from people close to either of the spouses or a complaint from one of the spouses themselves, or even spontaneously, the marriage comes again under the scrutiny of this new law. In this sense the alleged offence becomes cognisable and non-bailable, only in this window of 120 days.
5. Even though forced conversion is illegal under the existing laws also, it is not cognisable and hence the crimes continue to happen. It is like under-age marriages. If you want to reduce these crimes you have to make them cognisable.
6. In these cases of interfaith marriages, proof of offence is not an issue at all. It is fairly straightforward to prove the offence or innocence.

Most of the laws grant you certain rights, and conversely, most of the rights are supported by law. However every right needs to be restricted to avoid being misused. Most of the time the law enshrines such restrictions also.  (eg)

• Sex even within consenting adults is restricted in case the girl is less than 18 years of age
• Marriage even within same community is allowed between a boy and girl aged more than 21 and 18 respectively. And there is a proposal to make the age rule, gender neutral, by rising the age of consent to 21 for both.
• To be a voter one should be more than 18.

All these are only age restrictions, since the age gives you some maturity to understand your rights and responsibilities. In a similar way the couple involved in a proposed interfaith marriage can be ruled to be above 24 years of age, since such interfaith marriages require higher level of maturity to succeed, than normal ones.

I request the Apex court to rise above politics of religious conversions and consider all the above aspect and then advice the governments to amend the law suitably to include a few restrictions as stated, to avoid misuse of the law. They could also try for some uniformity in these laws as enacted by different state government.

Rejuvenation of Congress Party

As a responsible citizen of India, I am deeply concerned about the state of our Democracy. Our Saint Poet Tiruvalluvar has declared:

Idipaarai illatha emara mannan 

Keduppar ilaanum kedum.    

Any ruler without critics needs,

not Many a saboteur, to get bad

As we all already know our country now is in such a situation. The responsibility for enduring democracy is mainly in the hands of the opposition parties. But I am afraid the congress party and its leadership have not realised this responsibility. Congress party instead of being an opposition party, it has becoming an ever-opposing party.  This way they are becoming more and more unpopular. In the elections due on 2024, if BJP returns to power, the Govt may not be headed by Mr.Modi and hence it is likely to get bad. To stop this from happening, we need a strong Congress, not only at the centre and also in as many states as possible.

A Plan for rejuvenating Congress

There are only 52 cong MPs in the current Lok Sabha:

30 – From South India

7 – From East India

8 – From Punjab, North India

7 – From Hindi/Cow Belt

Hence South has more than 50 % of cong MPs. In this Kerala contributed 15 and TN- 8, thanks to Congress alliance in both the states. Next election 2024, both may reduce, thereby further reducing the presence and relevance of Congress in parliament and in national politics. Hence any rejuvenation effort should start from South.

The central leadership does not seem to bother about this. It keeps on harping on senseless opposition to each & every Central Govt initiative. It makes them unpopular with the general public. Sometimes I feel the Gandhi’s and their chamchas are intent on closing down the INC, to be able to share the spoils among them, because they do not see any future for themselves.

Sonia Madam is just a shadow of what she was before. Her age and health may not allow her to be even half of what she was before.

Rahul Gandhi, even with 3 completed terms (15 years) as MP, has not done anything remarkable. He, even as the president of Congress Party, could not retain his own seat in Amethi. He got his 4^th term as MP as a gift from the South. Even in this 1-1/2 year in 4^th term, he is not able to impress anyone with his work. He did not even attend any meetings of Parliamentary Committee on Defence in which he is a member. It is his basic democratic duty to attend these meetings. Basically he is not enthusiastic about taking up any executive responsibility in any governmental activity. Neither has he had any professional, managerial or executive experience on his own. He is not able to command respect as a leader and neither he is able to recognize and encourage talent among his followers.

Next in line from the family, (that is, if leadership from the Gandhi family is insisted on), will be Priyanka Vadra. Though she resembles her grandmother Indira Gandhi a lot, she will be recognized more as a Vadra than as a Gandhi. Her campaign at UP and especially in Amethi in 2019 was a disaster. It continued to be bad even in the recent UP assembly by-elections in November ’20.

This is the reason, why these Gandhi’s may not see any role for themselves in the future of INC. Best they may like to do, is to preserve their interests and perhaps cash them gradually at appropriate times. If this process results in a total failure of Congress, that will be a sad day for, and end of, meaningful democracy in India.

In such a case, what should the people who wants the Congress party to survive and come back to prominence all over the country, should do? Do they not have to necessarily depend on younger leaders? We thought of Jyotiraditya Scindia, Sachin Pilot, Milind Deora. But since they are all, one by one, losing hope in INC, the party is losing them. Now I feel, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Punjab are the only hopes.

With this background I am coming to my suggestion of how the present MPs from the South can help India to resurrect the democracy from the hands of powerful BJP. In the next election, in 1924, if BJP wins again, it could be BJP minus Modi. Generally people feel the other alternative to BJP could be much worse, as they do not see any better leader or party. Hence this is the right time to refurbish the image of the Congress and make them a ‘party in waiting’ to form the next government. There is no other way than to dump the Gandhis and let them and their cronies share whatever left of INC. The younger leaders from South and Punjab should take over now. But how?

As can be seen in an earlier paragraph, the MPs from Punjab, Tamil Nadu and Kerala add up to a figure of 38, which is more than 2/3rd of the total congress strength of 52 in Lok Sabha. They should take over the party even if it means leaving the INC at least temporarily and forming a new party; like the earlier INDC, Cong(O) or Tamil Manila Congress etc. Since their strength will be more than 2/3rd, it will not attract anti defection law also. Cong MPs should consider this suggestion seriously. I am sure such a move by MPs from South and their colleagues from Punjab, will get the support of several other state congress units such as West Bengal, Andhra, Telengana, Bihar etc. Some disgruntled elements from Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh may also help.

If agreed, then they have to move very quickly, if possible before Bihar elections and definitely before elections to West Bengal and Tamil Nadu. In all these three elections Congress will be totally decimated by Nitish, BJP and Rajinikanth respectively. After this, Congress will have no face to go before the people, since they will see you as leaving the sinking ship.

NOW IS THE TIME.

Luni-Solar Calendars of India

Solar calendars are followed by Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Odissa, West Bengal, Punjab and Sri Lanka. It is also followed in a few Eastern States and by some countries in far-east. This calendar follows the sidereal year (of 365.2564 days), while the Western or Gregorian calendar directly measures the tropical year (of 365.2422 days). The difference is about 20 minutes per year, which is quite significant. In 72 years the difference could go upto a day. For more on this: (https://lvnaga.wordpress.com/2012/04/12/tamilindian-solar-calendar/)

The Tamil panchangams always mention not only Tamil/Solar New year, but also Telugu New year known as ‘Yugadi’.  Yugadi, this year 2020, was very early on 25^th March ‘20 itself, (i.e.) 20 days ahead of Tamil New year. However the next Yugadi in 2021 will be on…(let me see, wow) it will be only on 13^th April 2021, so close to Tamil New year day. Have you ever wondered why the Telugu/Luni-solar calendars have so much variation? How come the present Luni-solar year is so long from 25^th March 2020 to 13^th April 2021, (i.e.) 20 days longer to 385 days? But how do they manage 12 months in a year with 385 days. Oh yes, this year there are 13 months in their Luni Solar Calendar.

We have just completed that particular (extra or double) month of the Hindu luni-solar calendar. Now we are in the 9th lunar month, known as Karthika of this current Hindu Luni-Solar calendar. after completing the months of  Chaitra, Vaisaka, Jyeshta, Ashada, Sravana, Bhadrapada and Adik-Aasvija, Nija Aaswija and there are still 5 more months to go before the end of this Luni-solar year on 13^th April 2021, namely, Karthika, Margasira, Pausha, Magha, Phalguna, (hence totalling 13 Lunar months)

The Sidereal and Synodic Lunar Months

The Sidereal month is the time the Moon takes to complete one full revolution around the Earth with respect to the background stars. However, because the Earth is constantly moving along its orbit about the Sun, the Moon must travel slightly more than 360° to get from one new moon to the next. Thus, the Synodic month, or lunar monthbetween two new Moons, is longer than the sidereal month. A sidereal month lasts 27.322 days, while a synodic month lasts 29.531 days. Lunar calendar considers 12 (synodic) lunar months in a year. i.e. 12 x 29.531 days, or 354.372 days. Let us say at a point of time, Solar calendar year and Lunar calendar year starts on the same day, say 14^th April. The next lunar year will start 11 days earlier, i.e on 3^rd April. The third lunar year will start still 11 days earlier, i.e on 23^rd March. The 4^th lunar year will start still 11 days earlier, i.e on 12^th March. Herein, the Luni-solar followers do not allow this lag to continue. They recognise there were 13 New moons in the last solar year, and hence they introduce a 13^th Month known as Adik Mas in the third lunar year, so that the 4^th lunar year starts around 9^th april. On an average, Adik Maas (or extra month) comes once in 2 years and 8.5 months.

In the whole world only one religious group follows the pure Lunar calendar. Islam follows even today the Lunar years which falls short of the Gregorian year of Common Era, by 11 days every year. Hence their major festivals like Ramzan, Bakrid etc will keep on advancing by 11days every year, compared to international calendar. The international Gregorian calendar being basically Solar, follows the seasons very closely, while Islamic years do not.

Many earlier followers of Lunar calendars, quickly switched over to Luni-Solar calendar, with a periodic correction, to be in phase with solar calendar. There are two systems of Luni-solar Calendar. The most common system is known as Amantha (Ama-antha), this has the months ending with each New moon or Amavasya. This is the system in all purely Lunar calendars also. The other one followed in many of the northern regions of India is known as Purnimantha (Purnima-antha), where the month ends on Full moon day.

Last time  we  had  Adik  maas  in  2018 May,(from 16^th May 2018 to 13^th June 2018), in the solar year Vilambi. You may see more on this in my blog – https://lvnaga.wordpress.com/2018/06/10/adik-maas-extra-month/. In about 2 years 6 months, in 2020, (from 18^th Sept to 16^th Oct), in the present solar year of Sarvari, we had another adik maas of Luni-solar year.

There are two problems here. Telugu Luni-Solar Calendar has the names of the years same as in Tamil (i.e) Prabava, Vibava etc. But for some reason they are 13 years ahead of us at least in the names. For example this year is Sarvari for Tamils but for Telugus it is Pramadicha.

The 2^nd problem is: Our solar months have the same name as Telugu lunar months. As many of us know the 12 months of solar calendar are called by the names of Rasis or Zodiacs. Most solar festivals go by the stars and zodiacs, whereas most of the Lunar festivals go by Thithis, or phases of the moon. The 27 stars, as Hindus classify them, are spread around the 12-Zodiacs of the Sun. Each of the 27 stars has 4 sub-periods, known as Paadhas. 9 paadhas come under one Zodiac to complete all the 27 stars. Hence the names of the month is also given the prominent star in the above 9 Padhas, starting from star Chitra for the first Zodiac Mesham. Now we know from where we get the table, we learnt as children, “Chitra – Mesham, Vaikasi – Rishabam, etc”. These stars Chitra, Visaka etc falls on or about the pournami or Full moon day of the solar month.

As told earlier, most solar festivals go by the stars and zodiacs, whereas most of the Lunar festivals go by Thithis, or phases of the moon. This gives major problems in fixing some of the lunar festival dates. This year, because of Adik-Aasvija month, the problem was more.

We Tamils are singing “ஆவணி மாசம் ரோஹிணியில் அவதரித்தானே”, for Gokulashtami. But this year we had it in the Tamil month of Aadi itself. Muthuswami Dikshitar sings “Bhadrapada Masa chaturthyam” about Ganapathi, but this time we had Ganesh Chaturthi as early as 6^th of Tamil month Avani. This confusion lead to Tamil Vaishnavites observing Sri Jayanthi after Ganesh Chaturthi. The funniest thing is, the Tamil year of Sarvari does not have Rama-Navami at all. In the next Tamil year of Bilava, we will have two Rama-Navamis, once early in the new year, another one before the end of the year. Our worst experience was regarding Mahalaya Paksham. Normally it will start after the pournami of Purattasi and end with the subsequent Amavasya. Then we will immediately start with Navarathri. Since there were Two Aasvijaas this year, Navaratri was delayed up to Nija Aasvijaa, though Mahalaya Paksham was rendered in Adik Aasvijaa.

The table below gives the different New Years being celebrated by various communities across India. Here also there are a few changes. Gujaratis though they follow Amantha Lunar Calendar, their new year falls on the beginning of lunar month Kartik, which this year coincides with Solar Calendar 1^st of Vrischika mass or Tamil-kartikai month. Punjabi Sikhs follow Solar Calendar. However their first month from 14^th April to 13^th May is called Vaisakha and not Chitra.  

Keralites are more consistent on the use of solar Calendar. They do not have any names for the years only numbers, (eg) Sarvari =1195. In addition they do not name their months based on the exalted stars, like Chiatra, Visaka etc. They purely go on the solar principle of Rasi’s or Zodiacs, like Mesha, Rishaba etc. All the solar festivals are based on the prominent star of the respective zodiac. For example, irrespective of when Tamils observes Avani Avittam, Keralites always have ONAM on the month of Chingam or Aavani, when Thiruvonam star and Purnima are close together. Historically and traditionally, Tamils are also celebrating their solar festivals in the same manner – Vaikasi Visakam, Adi Krithigai, Karthikai Deepam, Tiruvadirai, Thai Poosam, Masi Maham and Panguni Utthiram, etc.

To Know more on Luni-Solar calendar and Adik Mass please read my earlier blog:

Adik Maas in Luni-Solar Calendars of India

New Year Days of different Communities in India

Date	Festival name	Religion / Regions (Hindu)
varies, Mar/Apr	Ugadi	Karnataka,  Andhra Pradesh,  Telangana
varies, Mar/Apr	Bighu	Jharkhand
varies, Mar/Apr	Holi (Phalgun Pratipada)	North India (U P, H P, Haryana, Bihar,  Madhya Pradesh)
varies, Mar/Apr	Bikhu	Uttarakhand
fixed, Apr 14/15	Buisu	Tripura
varies, Mar/Apr	Gudhi Padwa	Maharashtra, Goa,  Konkan
varies, Mar/Apr	Cheiraoba[5]	Manipur
varies, Mar/Apr	Navreh	Kashmir
varies, Mar/Apr	Navratra	Jammu
–	Navratra	Rajasthan
varies, Mar/Apr	Cheti Chand	Sindh
fixed, April 13/14/15	Vaisakhi	Punjab
fixed, April 13/14/15	Bohag Bihu	Assam
fixed, April 13/14/15	Puthandu	Tamil Nadu
fixed, April 13/14/15	Vishu	Kerala
fixed, August 15/16/17	First day of Chingam    (Kollam Era)	Kerala
fixed, April 13/14/15	Pana Sankranti	Odisha
fixed, April 14/15	Poila Boishakh	Bengal
fixed, April 13/14/15	Jud Sheetal	Bihar(Mithila)
varies, Oct/Nov	Nav Varas	Gujarat
varies, Aug 17,18,19	Pateti	Parsis
Fixed, March 21	Nowruz	Zoroastrians

Co-operative Food Banking System

Co-operative Food Banking System

L V Nagarajan

In present day India, there are many senior citizen couples who stay on their own and most of them prefer to stay that way. They would like to live on their own terms, keeping their interests alive. They have great affection toward their children and grandchildren and may even visit them as often as needed and as convenient to both.

Though they enjoy their life together, most of them find it very difficult to cook their meals on their own for the following reasons:

1. Since they are only two of them, it is sometimes too difficult to cook such small quantities of any food items.
2. Most of the time they cook more than they can consume and have to preserve it for the next 12 to 24 hours.
3. Next day they don’t feel like eating the leftovers for various reasons, finally leading to waste of food items.
4. However, they also need to eat nutritious food with some variety.
5. Most of these people have very little tolerance for food items from restaurants, ordered thru Zomato / Swiggy or whatever.

So what is the solution?

Why not we start a Cooperative Food Banking System, wherein we exchange our extra Rotis for a cup of Subzee; or our extra Dal for some Rasam; or some Batata Vada for some tasty poricha koottu etc.

Well, looks nice, but how does it work?

1) At first we have to establish some equivalence of different food items. This can be augmented and modified continuously with feedbacks from customers

Examples: One unit of food can mean any of the following:

2 Rotis/Poories (of 6” dia)

1 cup (250 cc) Palak or green vegetable (with gravy) 

1 cup of Potato/Onion bhaji

1.5 cup of prepared plain rice

1.5 cup of Pulav, fried rice or coconut rice

1 cup of Sambhar/ Rasam/ Dal

150 cc of dry vegetables (Bhendi, Gavar, Tondli etc)

200 cc of dry vegetables (Cabbage, Carrot, cauliflower etc)

3 idli or 2 Vadas

150 gms Salad (Kakadi, Carrot, Tomato)

Note: We can procure a few standard graduated cups of 2 or 3 sizes for this purpose

2) We need a common venue for the Bank. Most of the residential buildings and Complexes have an office for the housing society or assocition. This could function as a bank for exchange of food items, only in the daytime, say from 10 AM to 2 AM.

1. All the food items to be ’credited’ in to one’s account in the food bank, should be deposited at the bank between 10 AM and 11:30 AM, earlier the better.
2. Any food items to be consumed can be withdrawn from 10:30 onwards up to 12 noon. The appropriate Food units will be ‘debited’ to their respective accounts
3.  By 12.05 hopefully, all the normal deposits and withdrawals will be completed.
4. The banker will check the stock balance, if any, and put up the same in the Whatsapp group of account holders.
5. If anyone needs them, they can withdraw the same before 1 PM and it will be debited in their accounts.
6. Any balance of food stock after 1 PM will be taken back by the respective depositor. Her credit will be adjusted accordingly.
7. The banker will maintain the accounts as shown in the attached work sheets.
8. Each account holder will have a passbook and entries will be made as shown.

3) Rules and conditions:

1. No one will be allowed to have a credit balance of more than 15 units, (to avoid using this facility for commercial use or profiting).
2. No one will be allowed to have a debit balance of more than 15 units (to avoid using this facility as a take-away restaurant.)
3. Timing 10 AM to 11:30 AM is for deposits and withdrawal by the depositors of the day.
4. Timing 11:30 AM to 1.00 PM for withdrawal by all account holders.
5. During this period account holders may authorize others also to withdraw on their accounts.

 4) Example of the banking Process:

On Day –1

1. Mrs Gowri cooks and deposits 600 gms of Palak Paneer
2. Mrs Geetha deposits 750 gms of Drumstick Poricha Koottu
3. Mr. Mohan gives 4 cups of Sambhar.
4. Mrs Seema makes 7 units of Vegetable Pulav
5. Mrs Gupta makes 12 Rotis
6. Mr. Ramachandran – nil
7. Mr. Ravi – nil

The above process is shown in the attached table – “Day-1 Transactions”. Similarly, the Table “Day-2 Transactions” shows the data for the next day. The Banker can keep these daily transaction data independently for each day, since as it is there is nothing to “Bring Forward” or “Carry Over”. Only data that is carried over to the next day is the Cr/Db balances of individuals.

 5)  Actual process of banking is evident from the following transaction records:

1. Banker’s Account of daily transactions
2. Passbooks held by a/c holders, Of course with copies with the banker.

To keep the process simple, an additional feature has been added in the process. All items deposited in a day, should be consumed the same day. There are two advantages in this –

1. There is no need for storing any leftover food items as all such items will be taken back by the depositors themselves, as shown in Day-2 transactions and
2. Tallying individual accounts on a daily basis becomes easier as we are always left with nil balance at the end of each day.

6)   Conclusion

This banking process has been purposely made simple, so that even a housewife in a senior community will be able to operate this bank as Banker. Or, any recently retired person can also take up this commitment as a service to the society. We may keep the membership initially to less than 10. In any case, not to complicate the process, it is advisable to restrict the membership to 25 or less. If ever there is a need to increase this membership, we may always split the bank into two independent branches. It is sincerely hoped this kind of community living will find with our senior citizens living independently on their own. Their wards can actually help them by encouraging this co-operative effort.

SARVE JANA SUKINO BHAVANTH

Click to access passbooks.pdf

Passbooks

Click to access daily-transactions-and-balances-1-1.pdf

TRANSACTIONS and BALANCES

transactions-and-balances-1-1Download

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High Voltage DC Link – Basics

High Voltage Direct Current Link – Basics

HVDC Link was introduced in India about 30 years ago with the Vindhyachal project in 1989. The first UHVDC (Ultra High Voltage DC) multi-terminal North-East Agra link has already been completed in 2015. The second UHVDC Rajgarh-Pugalur Link is ABB’s sixth HVDC project in India. The above DC Link Pole 2 and Pole -1 were commissioned on 18^th May 2020. Many of my friends, colleagues and my readers have requested me to write a blog on the HVDC link, giving details of basic technology and application, in popular language. Here is an attempt to do the same. Since I cannot satisfy the normal technocrats and tech enthusiasts and the Electrical Power Engineers with the single write-up, I propose to do it in two parts. The present Part-1 will deal with the basic principle of realising a high power DC link in a totally AC domain. In Part-2 I will deal with more technical issues.

Any power supply from devices like batteries is called DC (Direct Current), since its voltage is constant and the current is uni-directional. However, the normal domestic supply is always AC or Alternating Current where Voltage and Current in a circuit will always be changing from one direction to the other in a cyclic manner at a frequency of 50 Cycles per Sec. But in US historically they adopted the frequency of 60 Cycles per second. For more on AC and DC you may refer to my FAQ as below.

(https://lvnaga.wordpress.com/2008/11/06/faq-on-electrical-power/ )

There are several levels of power supply. For domestic use it will be at 440V(3-Ph) and 230V(1-Ph) AC. For normal industrial use, it will be at 11kV(3-Ph). For heavy industries, it will be at 33kV(3 Ph). The bulk transfer of power from generating stations to Sub-stations (load centres) will be always at high voltage of 110kV, 220kV, 400kV AC(3-Ph). Generally, any power transfers between major power systems will generally be at extra high voltage of 400 kV or more.

When such AC grid systems are interconnected there are a few problems that get enhanced. Any fault to ground will draw many times heavier current, because all the generators will sense and feed the fault. Hence A problem in one system will affect the others also. A lot of coordinated and disciplined set of operations will be required to keep the health of overall interconnected grid system. The health of any power system depends mainly on the Frequency, Voltage level and Regulating Margins at the generating stations. For more on this, please see my blog on Grid:

https://lvnaga.wordpress.com/2012/12/25/the-power-grid/).

To reduce this inter-dependency on system healthiness, the system interconnections have always been thought of making use of HIGH VOLTAGE DC link (HVDC). However because of the high cost of equipements at either end, it will be economical only at a higher levels power and voltage and also for longer distances. Before going any further on the HVDC (High Voltage Direct Current) interconnections, it will be good to revise our concepts on Semi-Conductors, Diodes and SCRs (Silicon Controlled Rectifiers), 1-Ph and 3-Ph Rectifiers and Inverters which are the basic elements of any HVDC system.

Semi-conductors, as the name suggests, conduct electricity in one direction and block the current in the reverse direction. Diodes are electronic devices developed by using this feature in electronic circuit designs. Before the invention of Silicon based semi-conducting diodes, the diodes were made by using vacuum tubes with heating elements (knowns as Valves). Now the semi-conductor based diodes are much smaller in size with better efficiency. A Diode is represented by the symbol:  

DIODE

If anode has a positive voltage with reference to Cathode, it is known as forward biased. When forward biased, the diode is turned ON and it acts like a short circuit. When Anode is negative with reference to Cathode, it is known as reverse biased. Here the diode will be turned OFF and it acts like an open circuit.

One of the early uses of Diode was as Rectifiers to convert AC voltage to DC, as shown below. The anode is connected Ph terminal of the AC source. and the cathode is connected to neutral terminal through a resistive load. The AC voltage wave form is also shown as alternating from Zero to +ve to Zero to –ve.

1-Ph Half Wave Rectifier

When Anode is supplied with positive voltage during the first half-cycle of the AC voltage, the diode gets forward biased and hence turned ON and the voltage is passed on to the +ve terminal of the DC load drawing a DC current. However in the –ve half-cycle, the diode will berverse baised and hence, turned off. There will be no voltage at the +ve terminal for some time. Again in the next +ve half cycle, the diode will again be turned on and the voltage will appear on the output. For a AC frequency of 50 Hz, a cycle will mean 20 milli-seconds (ms) and a half-cycle will be 10 ms. Since every 10 ms we have a voltage/current on the DC side there will be an average DC voltage, deemed to be present. Thus AC is ‘rectified’ into DC but only half way. Hence it is called half wave Rectifier.

Let us see how a full wave rectifier is realised. As you can see below the live terminal of the AC source is connected to the common point of one pair of diodes, D1 and D2, connected in series. And the neutral or earth of the source is connected to another similar pair of diodes, D3 and D4.

1-Ph Full Wave Rectifier

In first half cycle of AC voltage, D1 and D4 will be forward biased through the DC load and they will be turned ON. The output DC will be (+V). D2 and D3 will be reverse biased in first half cycle and hence will remain OFF. As th voltage becomes in the second half cycle, they will get forward biased and diodes D1/D4 will get reverse biased and will go OFF. However both diode D2 and D3 will be turned ON, with again voltage -V on the -ve terminal of the DC load and Zero volt on +ve terminal thus supplying the load current in the same direction as before, thus achieving the full wave rectification.

As can be seen, alternately D1/D4 pair is turned ON and the D2/D3 pair is OFF and in the next half cycle D1/D4 is turned OFF and D2/D3 is turned ON. The rule is: among the top diodes with common cathode, the one which gets a higher voltage than the other, in their anodes, get turned ON; among the bottom diodes with common anode, the one which gets lower voltage than the other, in their cathodes, gets turned ON. When one pair is turned ON the other pair goes OFF.

Thyristor is a device like a diode but with a third terminal. Silicon Controlled Rectifier (SCR) has the Thyristor as the basic element.

Silicon Controlled Rectifier (SCR) functioning is similar to Diode. In addition to Anode and Cathode, a third terminal Gate is used to control the functioning of the diode. For the diode to conduct not only it requires being forward biased, it also requires a small +ve voltage on Gate terminal also. Once the diode is turned on, the gate signal is no more required. Gate signal needs to be just a pulse, and hence, it is called trigger signal. Once triggered, the conduction will continue till the diode gets reverse biased. By using the SCR, instead of normal diodes, we are able to control the power output of the rectifier, by controlling the instance of diode conduction, as shown below. The Triggers are shown by arrows on the Diodes and the instances of riggers is shown in the input AC voltage wave form. Accordingly the output DC voltage is clipped.

1-Ph Converter

This idea is used in some Washing-machines and Air-conditioners by employing direct driven DC motors for the drum and Compressor. Depending on the load the AC input power is controlled, thus saving power consumption, leading to higher efficiency.

It is far easier to understand the DC link in an AC grid system by initially considering 1-Ph AC systems. As you can really see, Converter at one end of the link will rectify the AC to DC. The output power of the Rectifier will be transmitted to the other end of the DC link, either by over-head lines or by under-ground cables. At the other end a similar Converter device will be used, to invert the DC to AC, to supply the power to the AC system. In the actual power grid, in place of of 1-Ph Convertes, 3-Phase Converters will be used

We are still to see, how using the same Converter Circuit, 1-Ph inverter can be implemented by using SCRs as above .

Let us look at the above SCR based Rectifier again. As the trigger signals for the SCR is gradually delayed further and further, after the zero crossing point of AC wave form, Diodes D1/D4 will get reverse biased and now, even with trigger present they will not conduct. At this point D2/D3 will be forward biased but since the trigger is delayed so much that they will also not conduct. It means, by delaying the trigger pulse, we have gradually reduced the input AC power to zero.

Converter on Inverter Mode

Hence we can as well open the AC side by operating the Circuit Breaker (CB) shown. We may also keep the trigger signals also ‘OFF’. Now when a DC source, with reversed polarity as shown, is connected on the DC side, all the SCRs will get forward biased. However since we made the triggers OFF, none of the SCRs will conduct. Now let us make the trigger signals on D1/D4 and D2/D3 on again alternately, every 20ms. You may very well see that D1/D4 and D2/D3 pairs will start conducting alternately, to give you, +ve/- ve pulses on the AC side. Actually the SCR bridge is now acting as an inverter. But before we could close the CB, We should realise we are about to sychronise two AC supplies. Hence we should take care of some important things like Frequency, Voltage level, Phase sequence and Phase Angles.

The advantage using an SCR is very obvious here, as we are able to use same Converter as a Rectifier at one end and as an Inverter at the other end. This feature will be used even when we want to reverse the direciton of power flow. Using this feature the basic design of a HVDC link is as shown below;

Typical HVDC Link

In the case of actual HVDC link used in the Electric Utilities these converters will be of three phase type. We can easily configure a 3-Ph converter by putting together 3 numbers of 1-Ph converters as below. The R-Y-B Phases of 3 Ph AC input is shown connected to pairs of SCRs. The neutral point is also shown connected to a common pair of SCRs.

As seen earlier, among the SCRs on the top (1, 3 & 5), the one which has the max positive voltage on their anodes will be ready to conduct when triggered, thus automatically reverse-biasing the others.

Similarly, among the SCRs at the bottom (2, 4 & 6) the one which has the max negative voltage on their cathodes will be ready to conduct when triggered thus automatically reverse-biasing the others.

Thus the pair of SCRs connected to Neutral will never get forward biased, as can be seen from the wave forms of 3- Ph voltages shown below. The Neutral voltage of near zero will never be maximum or minimum at any time. Hence this pair of SCRs can even be removed from the rectifier bridge.

Now we are operating the converters as a Rectifier at the sending end and as an Inverter at the receiving end of the HVDC Transmission Line.

Some of you may like the following representation of 3-Ph converters.

But after all these manipulations, what do we have here? We do not have a typical sine wave so characteristic of any AC system. Of course we surely have a 3 Phase alternating voltage with a frequency of 50 Hz and with proper phase shifts of 120⁰ among phases. There is after all a hope for wave shaping them. Any periodically oscillating system can be thought of as a combination of many sinusoidal waves of several multiples of basic fundamental frequency. By using electronic filter circuits, all these higher frequencies (>50Hz) are filtered-out to obtain a reasonable close Sine-Wave form. (These different component wave forms are known as harmonics of 50Hz wave form, e.g., 150 Hz is called 3^rd Harmonic, and 7^th harmonic will have a frequency of 350 Hz. If we can remove these harmonics from the original square wave form, the wave form will become acceptably close to the sine wave of any AC system, as demonstrated below.)

Conclusion: This note describes the basic principle of realising HVDC ink.  The latest HVDC link commissioned between Rajghad and Pugalur in May 2020 is actually the 11^th such link commissioned in India. The other HVDC links are given in chronological order as below:

S.No	Project Name	Connecting Region	Commissioned On	Power Rating	AC Volt	DC Vol	Length Of Line
1	Vidhyanchal	WR-NR	April 1989	2×250 MW	400 KV	70 KV	Back to Back
2	Rihand-Dadri	ER-WR	December 1991	1500 MW	400 KV	500 KV	816 kM
3	Chandrapur	WR-SR	December 1997	2×500 MW	400 KV	205 KV	Back to Back
4	Chandrapur Padghe	CR-WR	1999	1500 MW	400 KV	500 KV	752 kM
5	Sasaram	ER-SR	September 2002	1×500 MW	400 KV	205 KV	Back to Back
6	Talcher-Kolar	. ER-SR	June 2003	2000 MW	400 KV	500 KV	1369 kM
7	Gazuwaka (VIZAG)	ER-SR	Feb 1999   March 2005	2×500 MW	400 KV block 1	205kV Blk-1 177kV Blk -2
8	Ballia- Bhiwadi	ER-NR	Pole1: Mar 2010 Pole 2: Mar 2011	2500 MW	400 KV	500 KV	780kM
9	Mundra- Mohndergarh	WR-NR	2012	1500 MW	400 KV	500 KV	986 kM
10	Bishwanath- Agra	NER-ER	2015	6000 MW	400 KV	800 KV	1728 kM
11

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