Can You Take It Arun Shourie? : Newlaundry

Can You Take It Arun Shourie? : Newlaundry

ARUN SHOURIE* on "ARE WE INTEGRATING OR DISINTEGRATING THE NATION ?

ARUN SHOURIE* on "ARE WE INTEGRATING OR DISINTEGRATING THE NATION ?
The Third Prof. E. G. Parameswaran** Endowment Lecture

by

SRI ARUN SHOURIE*
Eminent Journalist and Former Minister, Government of India

on

Arun Shourie speaks on - Public discourse in India today, and what we can do about it

Arun Shourie speaks on - Public discourse in India today, and what we can do about it

Year 2004 speech of Shri Arun Shourie on The Next Steps in Economic Reforms

Year 2004 speech of Shri Arun Shourie on The Next Steps in Economic Reforms

Publicity is oxygen for terrorists, and so for politicians, Arun Shourie quotes Margaret Thatcher

Arun Shourie, Former Union Minister of Disinvestment

Best Ideas

We have to have a lean state. The role of the state in our lives must continue to be diminished.

Instead of tougher new laws, we need to implement the existing laws.

The onus of proof in disproportionate assets cases must be shifted to the accused. If found guilty, all assets must be confiscated.

The offender should be barred from public office for life.

Rules are important but in our country, the influence of a person is usually gauged by the number of rules he can violate.

People are completely fed up with the continual disruption of Parliament.

Parliament sessions should be curtailed to moving average of the effective days of the last session.

Our filtering mechanism is not placing power in the hands of men and women.

Key Quotes

"Do not be seduced by a new law. Enforce the existing law."

Arun Shourie

"The real tribute to the Delhi gangrape victim would be to finish rape case trials within 3 months."

"Commitment does not mean shouting slogans and standing with candles."

"Gandhiji said: Be the change you want to see in society. This is a cliche but most cliches are fundamental truths."

"As a silversmith removes impurities, we should take up one issue at a time."

"This govt is not able to argue its own case because it lacks conviction about its own legitimacy."

Fun Facts

The great altruism in India is that every party works for the other.UPA itself is making the biggest case for Modi as PM.We will shout on reforms but you carry on, Cong to Shourie.

Arun Shourie India Today snippets

Arun Shourie: As silversmith removes impurities from silver, so does the concerned citizen from institutions.

Arun Shourie: Since the Emergency, any government which has clamped down on freedom of expression has been singed.

Arun Shourie: Do not be intimidated by state violence.

Arun Shourie: Judges are appearing more assertive as the government is practically absent.

Arun Shourie: Nobody is making the case for Narendra Modi as much as the present government.

Arun Shourie: How is it that the biggest criminals get the biggest lawyers?

Arun Shourie: When Gandhiji says, "Be the change you want to see", it is not a cliche. Actually most cliches are fundamentally true.

Arun Shourie: No bribe has been received before it has been given.

Arun Shourie: Ambit of Parliament should be reduced to legislative processes. Headlines Today should not be discussed.

Arun Shourie: Qualification for legislature is one of the biggest reforms we need.

Arun Shourie: Enforcement, implementation, accountability, scrutiny and partnerships are the mantra's for effective governance.

Arun Shourie: We need to work with the Defence forces and address their problems, not just in acquisitions but in every sphere.

Arun Shourie: I have never seen so much suppressed anger in the Defence forces in my 30 years of work with them.

Arun Shourie: There should be a partnership of the government and judiciary instead being at each others throats.

Arun Shourie: Every CM is now trying to portray good governance because of India Today's state ranking.

Arun Shourie: India Today has done stellar work on the ranking of states.

Arun Shourie: Thatcher once said,"Publicity is the oxygen for terrorists". It is also the oxygen for politicians.

Arun Shourie: The media is also complicit. When people violate rules, black them out instead of making it a breaking news.

Arun Shourie: In India the status of a person is based on how many rules you flout.

Arun Shourie: No matter how frugal Sukhram was he could not have savedRs.4 crores on an MP's salary.

Arun Shourie: If you want to check corruption, force simple changes: No adjournments, tainted politicians should not be allowed.

Arun Shourie: Am not in favour of the Lokpal, because it will be just another institution.

Arun Shourie: If Rajat Gupta, Rajaratnam, Maddoff can be convicted in 3 months why can we not dispose off our rape cases in three months.

Arun Shourie: The advantage of India is that our society is far more progressive than our state.

Arun Shourie, Former Union Minister of Disinvestment, speaks on 'An Insider's Account: How can We Make the Government Work?

Read more at:http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/india-today-conclave-2013-live/1/257968.html

Source http://conclave.intoday.in/article/india-today-conclave-2013-arun-shourie/3608/39.html

Arun Shourie in conversation with India Today before his session at #Conclave13

Arun Shourie in conversation with India Today before his session at #Conclave13 http://vine.co/v/bdpDhPrOrgb 

10:27 AM - 15 Mar 13

Banish her eyes, they distract men! – Arun Shourie

The Muslim clergy issues fatwas for two primary reasons: First, to impose their interpretation of shariah; and, second, to maintain their stranglehold over the community of believers lest they break free and move with the times. This is most evident in Saudi Arabia, the powerhouse of Wahabi Islam, which inspires the ulema worldwide to militate against modernism.

In this excerpt from an all-new edition of his path-breaking book The World of Fatwas or the Shariah in Action (HarperCollins) scholar, author, celebrated journalist, former editor and minister and one of the foremost voices in India’s public life and discourse, Arun Shourie looks at how fatwas work in Saudi Arabia. – Editor

As part of his efforts to introduce reforms, in 2009 Saudi King Abdullah had inaugurated a university in which young men and women were studying together. In February 2010, Sheikh Abdul Rahman al-Barrak, reputed to be “the leading independent authority of Wahabism”, issued a fatwa decreeing death for those who were promoting ikhtilat — the impermissible mixing of sexes. This makes it possible for the parties to see what is forbidden and to engage in exchanges that are forbidden, the fatwa declared, and “All this leads to whatever ensues.” “Whoever allows this mixing allows what is forbidden,” the Sheikh decreed, ”and whoever allows them is an infidel and this means defection from Islam.”

“Either he retracts,” the fatwa read, “or he must be killed because he disavows and does not observe the shariah.” Furthermore, “Anyone who accepts that his daughter, sister or wife works with men or attends mixed-gender schooling cares little about his honour and this is a type of pimping,” it held.

The fatwa had brought discomfiture to the royals themselves. Soon after 9/11, in September 2001, Sheikh Hamoud bin Oqla Al-Shuabi, an 80-year-old blind religious authority had issued a fatwa expelling King Fahd and his entire — 30,000 strong — family from Islam. He had charged them with what is in Islam one of the gravest of crimes, that of helping infidels — in this case, the US — in their war against Islam… When the royal family sought retraction of his fatwa, other religious scholars added their voice, including some mainstream preachers. The Sheikh scorned the overtures, and stuck to his fatwa, telling the authorities that came to question him, “Whoever backs the infidel against Muslims is considered an infidel.”

The fatwa was of the gravest import as the Saudi rulers derive a very large proportion of their legitimacy from the Wahabi clerics.

Come mid-August 2010, and King Abdullah decreed that henceforth only the –  officially appointed and recognised — Committee on Scholarly Work and Ifta shall issue fatwas. It would function under the twenty-one-member Council of Senior Ulema.

Soon after being constituted, the council denounced the practice of bringing or sending flowers to patients in hospitals. This is a foreign custom, it decreed, and “imitates Allah’s adversaries”.

In 2009, the Grand Mufti declared that it was permissible for girls of ten or above to be married by their fathers. The Saudi Government tried to limit the age at which girls so young could be married.

Sheikh Saleh Al-Fawzan (a member of the Committee on Scholarly Work and Ifta and Council of Senior Ulema) issued a fatwa. The fatwa declared that fathers could marry off their daughters even if they were in a cradle. There is only one caution, it said. The husbands are not permitted to have sex with the little girls “unless they (the little girls) are capable of being placed beneath and bearing the weight of the man”.

The Committee for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice is a much feared body in Saudi Arabia. And justly so. In 2002, a school in Mecca caught fire. Young girls trapped in the burning buildings were trying to rush out. The personnel of the committee prevented them from coming out — they were not wearing the mandatory head cover. Fifteen girls perished as a consequence. Outrages of this kind have taught everyone to steer clear of members of this organisation.

It so happened that one of the members of this powerful organisation was walking down a street in November 2011. He chanced to see a woman who was walking with her husband. Her eyes aroused the committee worthy. An altercation ensued. The husband suffered two stab wounds. And on whom did the blame fall? On the poor woman’s eyes.

So, steps were taken to pass a law to make it mandatory for women with attractive eyes to cover, not just one of the eyes but both of them. – Niti Central, 22 August 2012

Legitimacy of political class eroded, says Shourie: Shourie

Oct 28 2012
 LUCKNOW: Taking a dig at the current political situation in the country, senior BJP leader and former minister in Atal Bihari Vajpayee's cabinet Arun Shourie said the "legitimacy of the political class has been eroded." His comment on Sunday came even as he reiterated indirectly his support to the Congress-led UPA II government's decision to hike diesel prices. Shourie said opposition for the sake of being in the opposition was not the right approach.
Shourie asked: "If I say the need of the hour is to check subsidies and reduce fiscal deficit there is a sudden uproar. Why? Each party simply wants to criticise the other," he added. Shourie was in Lucknow to attend a function organised by Mahamana Malviya Mission on 'Malviya's vision on industrial development and challenges ahead' in Gomtinagar locality.

He, however, refused to talk to journalists present, blaming media for playing up his comments unnecessarily. But during his lecture, he criticised repeatedly the political classes too for behaving in a stereotyped fashion.
Source: http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2012-10-08/lucknow/34322140_1_arun-shourie-hike-diesel-prices-political-class

Arun Shourie at SAP Labs India part 1