Mandela versus Gandhi

Nelson Mandela is one among the greatest few leaders who lived and led the oppressed and deprived people in the 20th century. His epic leadership in the struggle against the apartheid regime of the minority white government is recent history. Mandela had very high respect and regard towards Mahatma Gandhi who had the opportunity to start his struggle against the colonial rulers in South Africa. As far as our nation is concerned the biggest tragedy during the last millennium is the partition of our country in 1947 and our great national leaders such as Mahatma Gandhi, Pandit Nehru, Sardar Patel etc., could not prevent disaster owing to a combination of factors such as 'Divide and Quit' policy of the British and the fanatically violent agenda of the Muslim League.

In my opinion the greatest achievement of Nelson Mandela is the unified South Africa which we see today. It was the towering personality and strong leadership of Nelson Mandela that prevented the balkanisation of South Africa into several units. He was bold enough to declare that he was ready to wait for many more years to attain the freedom rather than dividing the country among Whites, Hutu tribals, ANC etc.

Bleeding Kerala ~ A Solution

Kerala state is thickly populated with more than sixty percent of the state’s population living in urbanized and semi-urbanised areas. Rapid increase in the vehicle population with in sufficient and low-quality roads have rendered the state with the highest accident rate in the country. Around 5000 fatal accidents and ten times of that being the number of non-fatal accidents place the state in a most precarious scenario. If we prudently compute the cost of these accidents such as loss to the families of the victims and the society at large, it will be to the tune of several thousand crores per year. To arrest this dangerous situation from getting out of hand, the political leadership of the state, both UDF and LDF who rule the state alternatively at five year intervals, has to act decisively. There are several areas in which the state can do wonders through good governance and dynamic policy decisions. Efficient and affordable public transport system is the best guarantee to reduce the vehicle population on the roads at daytime peak hours. Greater Mumbai with 2 crores(approx) population is the best example in this regard. Seventy five lakhs people travel in MEMU services in Mumbai and forty five lakhs people travel in public transport buses there. Precisely this is the reason why Mumbai roads are available for those who use other modes of transports for their daily needs. The  only option for Kerala is to drastically introduce MEMU services exponentially in all the electrified railway lines in the state. Comparing the benefits which can be derived from this system the cost will be much less and affordable.