Anil Paba
Human activity has become the greatest threat to our heritage, according to the World Monuments Fund(WMF).WMF is a non-profit organization based in New York city that works to protect and preserve cultural Heritage sites around the world. Climate changes are impacting  all aspects of the human and natural systems, including both cultural and natural world heritage properties. UNESCO is aware of the changes posed to sites by climate change.” Natural World Heritage”, sites are under major threat due to reduction in biodiversity, species extinction and desertification. Climate change and the degradation of earth’s fragile ecosystem affect cultural heritage sites. As we consider global predictions about climate change impacts, it is clear that sites on every continent are in danger, from ancient sites in Peru threatened by melting glaciers to whole swaths of Pecific Rim that will be under water, and every thing in between. The most important sites included Herschel Island, in the Canadian Yukon located on the Beaufort Sea near the border between Alaska and Canada. Herschel Island is in the fastest -warming part of the world. In Norway, a picturesque fishing village at Sandviken Bay, near Bergen. In Baleshare, the problem is so acute that archaeologists have appealed to the local community to help them record them before they are gone. Other sites at risk from climate change are Chinguetti Mosque, in Mouritania, an important center of Islam, and today a major collection of medieval Islamic manuscripts is housed there beside Sonargaon Panam city in Bangladesh, a formal medieval trading hub. Several hundred buildings in  downtown Srinagar have been identified for protection as part of a cultural resource mapping project carried out by the Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (INTACH).
In the Himalayan region of northern India, traditional temples and towns appear as simple mud and wood structures set in a spectacular land scape. Inside, these apparently humble buildings have beautiful and complex interior, decorated with elaborate paintings and brightly colored sculpture.
Recently, the old town of Leh was added to the world monuments fund’s list of  100 most endangered sites.
Even the monasteries of Ladakh-one of the very few repositories of Vajrayana sect of Buddhism-are today victims of utter neglect and the ravages of  times. The deterioration is usually attributed to changes in climatic conditions. A traditional arid climate, this region used to experience  rain largely as light as sprinkles, but in recent years area has experienced short, but heavy, downpours that the traditional mud structures are simply not equipped to  withstand.
Earthquakes, floods, volcanic eruptions and other natural disasters  impact many UNESCO World Heritage Sites every year.
According to UN Reports, the density of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere are increasing significantly due to human activities, and today the carbon dioxide density is at the highest level in some 6,50,000 years. If people do not take concrete actions, they can expect to face many natural disasters and death.
More important, however, is that climate change is not just a historic preservation problem, it is perhaps the most far- reaching and wide ranging problem of our time and will affect every sector of human life for years to come. The 2008 World Monuments Watch List demonstrates that climate change impacts are already being felt today at cultural heritage sites around the world. Predictably, rising sea levels pose a substantial problem. A large portion of the world’s population lives now and has always lived along the coasts and in cities built along major rivers, and so with them are many of the world’s cultural sites and historic cities.  The Green peace foundation has already alerted the Indian Government and people about the possible future threats posed by global warming if urgent steps were not taken. The heritage monuments which included the Jagannath and Konark temples in Orrisa, the shore temple at Mammalapuram in TamilNadu and the Gate way of India at Mumbai at the tidal zone of the Golden beach in Puri that are under threat and that could go under water if global warming is not stopped. ” It is not just people not money but every  thing that is at  stake and that is the reason we need to fight global warming.” In addition to rising sea levels, changing weather pattern will also cause substantial damage to historic building.
Who is responsible for Heritage? I, you, We, Us, They? All of us must answer this question. The conservation and preservation of Heritage is everyone’s responsibility. We all. And not just the Government, have to care for Heritage-for our living traditions, our composite culture, our natural environment , our architectural masterpieces.
Heritage for many people is not their problem, it is some body else’s problem, some body else’s responsibility. They think it is the function  of the Government to look after Heritage- while their job is to look after themselves and the immediate future of their families.
Perhaps people do not care because they think heritage is about the past and irrelevant to their daily life today. India is changing rapidly, may be some people even believe that Heritage preservation is out of Sync with development and hold back our progress.
Willaim Dalrymple’s in the City of Djinns perceptibly observes: ” you see actually in India today no one is thinking too much about these old historical places . India is a developing country. Our people are looking to the future only.”
The thought echoes many voices. It is not surprising that Heritage is often misinterpreted and undervalued by State Governments and local authorities. The general misconceptions persist that our Heritage is remote from people’s daily lives, that it is not a bread and butter issue that merits immediate and priority concern given the constraints of funds. Local authorities, who have an executing role to play in protecting this national wealth, fail to understand the  contribution Heritage makes to quality of life, enhancement of environment, and the socio-economic benefits to be gained for all citizens within their domain.
Therefore, in addition to developing new strategies for adapting and responding to climate change threats, the field of historic preservation must also focus attention on helping to convince the public to act to stop global warming by raising awareness of the threats posed to treasured monuments and historic places.

Prof Javed Mughal
In  politics, now-a-days, one general perception is flashing across the minds of almost one and all that the young blood must be given a chance to come forward to uphold the snaffle of the governance in the country all over. This perception is mainly supported by the reasons that the young blood is free from the diseases of corruption and other anathemas like nepotism, regionalism, favoritism, communalism, and corruptionism and thereby possesses an enlightened mind, broad vision and a formative approach to look at the affairs. But the recent disheartening role of Mr Akhilesh Yadav the youngest Chief Minister of UP has dashed all the hopes to the ground which the innocent masses had reposed in him, and has left a big question mark on image of the entire young political generation in the country. UP has set the worst instance of  law and order derailment in the country. Killing of A former SP legislator in Azamgarh, Yashvir Singh in Ghaziabad last February, Dharmendra Singh in Bareilly, Chaman Lal Bhati in Noida and Badri Yadav in Mau, Bhola Singh in Auraiyya,, Miraz-ul-Haq in Gorakhpur, Arvind Yadav, and killing and lynching of other policemen, apart from thrashing and beating the doctors and recent violent attacks on toll plaza staff in Faizabad sends across a photographic representation of  the inside plight of law and order in Utter Pradesh calling the competence of Akhilesh Government there. What can one expect from this Government when their own leaders and workers are not safe, asked Swamy Prasad Maurya, leader of  the  Opposition in the Vidhan Sabha and senior Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) leader.
What happened in Muzaffarnagar is the worst of its kind in the regime of so-called energetic, honest and clear-hearted custodian of UP state. Otherwise too, I have a natural aversion to the politicians simply because the politicians of some caliber are yet to prevail in the country and the politicians ruling this ill-fated nation are no more the leaders of any body’s choice. When the entire Muzaffarnagar was afire and the Hindus and Muslims were daggers drawn with one another; when the spine-chilling cold was claiming the lives of the make-shift campers and nothing was safe in Muzaffar Nagar, a foreign junket of MLAs and some MPs from Uttar Pradesh and Karnataka were on the study tours abroad instead of staying back and playing their role to lighten the situation in Uttar Pradesh. Had the Karnataka MLAs, instead of going abroad to study at this crumbling stage of life, come to UP to study the plight of Muzaffar Nagar victims, it would have been of much more significance. This is the height of inclemency.  On the other hand the utter callousness of the Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister, Akhilesh Yadav who chose to spend time enjoying the ‘tamasha’ by Bollywood stars in Saifai, UP, ignoring the trauma of the riot-sufferers who were dying of the cold in makeshift camps, sent a galvanic shock through the spine of one and all in the country. Such insouciance from the ruling class is reminiscent of Louis XVI on the eve of the French Revolution. It is a recent phenomenon that MLAs and MPs would take off for cooler climes abroad to avoid the harsh Indian summers and to warmer foreign locales during the winters.
Hence the Karnataka MPs traveled to New Zealand and Australia which are enjoying their summers now, because of their location in the southern hemisphere. These junkets have been given the honorable nomenclature of “study tours,” when the journey is more touristic than about study. Why would Indian legislators have to travel to foreign countries to learn about democracy and governance? Should they not be traveling to the Maoist hit areas to better understand the situation in their own country? Why do they choose attractive locales such as Australia, New Zealand, the UK, Netherlands, Rome, the US and even Middle Eastern countries like Egypt, Dubai, Turkey etc, that don’t have any semblance of democracy? Why don’t they travel to South Sudan to see the complexities of statecraft and anarchy because that is where India seems to be heading? However, when the Prime Minister of the country is himself known as the most widely traveled head of state (to foreign countries, 67 times in 9 years) others can only follow his footprints. In a system where no accountability is sought from those who spend such public money recklessly, it is natural that such junkets become de jure and get an official stamp. Thankfully the media has brought this obnoxious practice to the public domain. On the issue of politics and Bollywood, the two have become synonymous now, with the Rajya Sabha looking like a star-studded arena. When the serial blasts happened in Patna on 26 October last year, Union Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde rushed to Mumbai, instead to, attend a Bollywood programme and even apologized for reaching there late. Such lack of concern for the ruled, by a Home Minister of the country can only be called abominable! Can India afford to be ruled by such men and women who are no longer in sync with the travails of the people?

Sunil Gatade
With the Lok Sabha elections just three months away, the just concluded National Executive and National Council meeting of the BJP was the right occasion to take stock of how near or how far Narendra Modi is from power at the Centre.
At a time when a ten-year anti-incumbency has more than caught up with the Congress-led UPA, Modi has by all accounts emerged as the challenger. The rise of Aam Aadmi Party’s Arvind Kejriwal has come in handy for the detractors of Modi to push the Delhi Chief Minister for an all India role, but it is too early to count the chickens. The problem with meteoric rise of any party or leader could also see a sudden fall in popular perception.
At the same time, it must be conceded that Kejriwal is unpredictable and has put his finger on the pulse of a section of urban India which is restive and aspiring. People of India have a certain liking for political ‘fakirs’ – v p singh being an example.
Modi’s projection as a strong and decisive leader has been successful to a sizable extent given the fact that the BJP has left no stone unturned to paint the Manmohan Singh government and the Congress in dark black. The commissions and omissions of the UPA and the scams and the price rise has helped the BJP strategists including the RSS to write a racy script around Modi.
The inexperience and the incapacity of Rahul Gandhi has come in handy for the BJP to project a larger than life image of Modi. Rahul’s interview to a TV channel recently, his first such exercise, has exposed his depth much to the dislike of the Congress managers.
Cool and calculating, the Gujarat Cihief Minister  has used every trick in the trade to push his leadership and has tried to enlarge his influence from Kashmir to Kanyakumari. How far he has really succeded could be gauged only after the results are out by Mid-May, but one thing is certain that Modi has attained the centrestage in the national debate.
Modi is controversial too. The 2002 riots in Gujarat are seen as an albatross round his neck. Minorities are sought to be shown Modi as a bugbear so as to frighten them to vote for his detractors. One good thing about the BJP strategy is that it is projecting Modi in different ways-from a Chaiwala to a dedicated follower of Sardar Patel, the iron man of India.
Despite the first Home Minister turning RSS into a banned organization, Nagpur has shrewedly reinvented the Sardar as one who could not get his due because of the Nehru-gandhi family, the first family of the Grand Old Party. Such a tactic helps in spreading the anti-Congress rhetoric and in making BJP more acceptable despite its umbilical chord with the controversial RSS.
Modi’s constant theme of referring to his humble origin of a Chaiwala boy helping his father on a Gujarat Railway Station is intended to send a subtle message to the backward classes that the BJP PM candidate is one among them.
The OBC’s are a sizable lot in the country’s 1.2 billion population and though spread over several castes and sub-castes have a general feeling that they have been denied the leadership in Independent India so far.
The Chaiwala boy narrative is also aimed at connecting Modi to the oppressed and the downtrodden. It is also intended to soften the image of Modi in the backdrop of the controversies galore on the 2002 Gujarat riots.
The RSS has given its go ahead to the leadership of Modi realizing that he was the best man available for the BJP for the job who can galvanise the cadres and make a mark among the people. It should be understood that the Sangh was instrumental in promoting the leadership of Atal Bihari Vajpayee with a liberal face and L K Advani a Hindutva hardliner at the same time. The strategy helped the BJP gain power via the coalition route for six long years, a development which has no mean significance in Indian politics dominated by the politics of the Congress.
Modi is no visionary notwithstanding the fact that the main opposition was trying to project a vision for him and plans are also afoot to come out with India vision 2025 to turn the country into a land of milk and honey.
Modi’s forte is his execution and his administration and his ability to make the systems work for the benefit of the aam aadmi. He is also pro-business and therefore his leadership is hailed by the rich and the powerful, the Ambanis and the Tatas. The India growth story has halted due to a variety of reasons and the india Inc is also wanting a strong leader who get the things done for them and one who saves them from troubles of various sorts.
The extent of success or otherwise for the BJP depended upon how the campaign progresses in the next two months. The good show in the recent Assembly polls in four states has already built the buzz around the opposition party and certain moves of the ruling party have also given an impression that it is resigned to its fate.
Political pundits are doubtful about any substantial Congress recovery. They are also watching the silent and not so silent moves of the non-Congress, non-BJP parties to get their act together. The efforts of the AAP to make its presence felt and the tactics of detractors of the BJP to use Kejriwal to stop the march of Modi who is no pushover All in all the Mission 2014 Lok Sabha is expected to be the most exciting poll in recent times.