RISE OF PEOPLE’S PARTY WOULD HELP LIBERALS

July 27, 2019Edit

By Promod Puri

The best thing which can happen to the Liberal Party in the October election would be the rise of Maxime Bernier People’s Party.

According to the latest poll, the People’s Party has three percent support across Canada. And if the party gathers momentum, the kicked-out leader from the Conservative Party would significantly help the Liberals by vote-splitting among the diehard Conservatives.

That would be a strategical development on which the Liberals will keep a tab in its game plan for the upcoming federal election.

In the meantime, the latest numbers as gathered by the Research Co., suggest the Liberal Party has 34 percent support among the decided voters, while the Conservative Party has 31 percent.

Keeping in mind there is always an error of 2 to 3 percent, it is a neck to neck fight if the election were held tomorrow.

About the score of the other parties, 17 percent would vote for the Jagmeet Singh led New Democratic Party. The Green Party has 10 percent support, and the Bloc Quebecois sits at 3 percent.

Since the numbers keep on changing till the final day of the election, for both the leading parties, the Liberal and the Conservative, it would be an indecisive scenario.

Being barely ahead of the Conservative, it is imperative on the leadership of Centre-left Liberal Party to seek electoral alliances with the two Left parties, the NDP and the Green.

If that happens, the Conservatives, under its right-leaning leadership of Andrew Sheer, will remain in the Opposition at least till the next big one. And the Bernier’s ultra-right party could be annihilated.

And that is what progressive Canadians would like to see that this country does not become a shadow image of the USA under Trump’s presidency.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau can take the alliance route, which would be historical in the politics of Canada, as his approval rating is ahead of Sheer with 41 percent and 36 percent respectively, according to the Research Co.

(Promod Puri is a journalist, writer, and author of “Hinduism beyond rituals, customs, and traditions).

WATERMELON, THE DELIGHT OF SUMMER

In the abundant rally of summer fruits, watermelon is the heavyweight champion. The green globe occupies its own majestic space in separate and more significant bins apart from the rest of the babies in comparison. Its real value lies in the sweet and ninety percent watery pulp. It is the delight of summer and pride of picnics. Being high in nutrients, doctors recommend watermelon as it lowers BP. In fact, the king of fruits is soaked in nutrients. It is loaded with lycopene, the antioxidant, which is said to control cancer and diabetes, according to WebMD. The selection of watermelon, which has red and sweet pulp, has always been a big question mark. Does knocking on its thick outer surface and feeling the hollow sound from inside help. Maybe!
-Promod Puri

Don’t Believe “Because It Is Said”

Lord Buddha said:

“that we must not believe in a thing said merely because it is said; nor traditions because they have been handed down from antiquity; nor rumors, as such; nor writings by ages, because sages wrote them; nor fancies that we may suspect to have been inspired in us by a Deva (that is, in presumed spiritual inspiration); nor from inferences drawn from some haphazard assumption we may have made; nor because of what seems an analogical necessity; nor on the mere authority of our teachers or masters. But we are to believe when the writing, doctrine, or saying is corroborated by our own reason and consciousness. For this, I taught you not to believe merely because you have heard, but when you believed of your consciousness, then to act accordingly and abundantly.”
—Secret Doctrine III. 401. (adapted from Alice Bailey’s “A treatise on Cosmic Fire”)

(This note courtesy Hints To The Ancient Wisdom)

A Rationalist's Open Window

I am NOT A LEFTIST,

RIGHTIST OR CENTERIST,

BUT A RATIONALIST,

OPEN TO ALL OF THEM.

-Promod Puri

WHAT’S HINDUISM

June 13, 2019Edit

Ignoring its ritualistic aspects, 

Hinduism truly is a 

“union of reason & intuition."

RABBA HUN KEE KARIYE: A POWERFUL DOCUMENTARY ON ’47 GENOCIDE

June 13, 2019Edit

Why?

That is a big question mark Rabba Hun Kee Kariye does not answer. Nor does it intend to answer. But it does shake our morality when we are drawn on religious fronts of hate.

Rabba Hun Kee Kariye is a documentary on bloody mayhem following the partition of India in 1947. “It constitutes a vital link in the chain of Partition memories.” In doing so, the film creates a pictorial monument of genocidal killing, which cannot be blacked out either by time or by society.

Vancouver-based UBC scholar and documentary filmmaker Ajay Bhardwajpresents a powerful and compelling presentation about the horrors and dreadful count of mass killings inflicted through religious vengeance.

Earnestly crafted by Bhardwaj, the 65-minute documentary in Punjabi, with subtitles in English, is a captivating presentation of interviews scripting the brutal chapter of recent Punjab history after the partition.

Bhardwaj’s camera roams the fields and streets of the Indian side of Punjab, in its Ludhiana, Bathinda, Patiala, and Malerkotla districts. It instinctively captures the insanity of humankind in its indiscriminate but sudden eruption of hatred against fellow human beings.

The gripping narrations by aging witnesses in the documentary bring a vivid portrait of hate which the fanatic murderers of ‘47 often boasted with some pride in the slaughter of those who are different by their religion only.

The film besides presenting the dreadful carnage through the eyes of the witnesses earnestly seeks the commonalities which bind the people together. In this exploration emerges a sense of “guilt and remorse.” It is a feeling of consciousness which “they expressed in a language that is distinctly their own, in their unique tradition/cultural specific ways — a language often ignored by the portals of academia. Yet this seems the most powerful organic response of Punjabi people against the genocide of 1947as also the silence of the state”, as Bhardwaj observed in filming the documentary.

Religions might be different in their names, but all of them have the same bottom-line of universal brotherhood. Poet-philosopher Mohammad Iqbal says “Mazhab nahi sikhata aapas mein bair rakhna… (religion does not teach hatred among us).

Sharing the same culture, same language, same skin color and looks, same music, and the same literary heritage have been beautifully laced together by popular Punjab singer Puran Shahkoti in his explanations as well as musical presentations in Rabba Hun Kee Kariye.

Then why this sudden butchery by fellow neighbors living side by side for generations. And despite all that oneness, it happened.

Why?

– Promod Puri (promodpuri.com)

(The above picture is of Prof. Karan Singh Chouhan, a retired linguistic scholar who was one of the interviewees, and who witnessed the 1947 communal riots). 

NATURE OF POSSIBILITY

Edit

Today’s problem can be a solution to tomorrow’s problem.

While today’s solution can generate a problem for tomorrow.

It is the uncertain, but logical nature of possibility.

-Promod Puri