Sahara Confident of getting out of financial Constraints

सहारा इंडिया परिवार आर्थिक मसला

Sahara India Pariwar Financial Issues

Birthday Wishes to Saharashri Subrata Roy

On his 70th birth anniversary, we pay a hearty tribute to Saharashri Subrata Roy. The humble and determined man who brought smiles on millions of faces. #SaharaIndiaPariwar #Splendid70

Life Mantras – a manual for positivity

The world at any given point of time is filled with people that are successful and can teach about it to other people so that they too can prosper. Many people have the capability to be that kind of a person but those that actually care about the rest of us are few in number. Mr Subrata Roy is a man that can be considered as a part of the latter group. He is the former chairman of the Indian multinational conglomerate ‘Sahara Group’. ‘Sahara’ is a business empire with interests in various sectors of business and the Subrata Roy is the man who built it from scratch!

He started the company with a few thousand rupees in capital and not more than a few employees. In a relatively short time, Subrata Roy managed to turn the fortunes of the company soaring skywards. He took charge of the company and instilled a specific work ethic among his huge workforce. He looked upon them as members of his extended family rather than people that work for him. This philosophy is what guided him in his path according to his informative book, ‘Life Mantras’.

Mr Subrata penned the book while he was going through a major difficult time in life. Instead of focusing on the negative aspects of his life, he chose to ruminate on the positive qualities in life that made him a successful man and compiled them all into a single book, ‘Life Mantras’. It has some of the best advice to achieve a balanced and positive outlook in life. Along with a positive outlook, the book is filled to the brim with real life experiences of Mr Subrata that had an impact on him or taught him the value of something important. These experiences have been drawn from both his personal life and professional life.

The book has Subrata Roy’s thoughts on almost all the important things in life like marriage, time, love, respect, dedication, resilience, usefulness etc. The mix of topics is eclectic and it has a wonderful effect on your personal motivation after just one reading session. 

Saharasri Subrata Roy Sahara’s book – ‘Life Mantras’ remains in top 5 for the last 4 weeks in the bestseller chart of Nielsen

·         The book hit number one spot in the recent week

Lucknow, March 21, 2016: ‘Life Mantras’ – An exhaustive and thought provoking treatise by Shri Subrata Roy Sahara, Managing Worker & Chairman, Sahara India Pariwar, on his life-time experiences, observations as well as his insights on the day-to-day issues of people, has been in the top 5 in the bestseller chart of Neilsen for 4 consecutive weeks. According to Nielsen, bestseller list, last week, ‘Life Mantras’ topped the chart by ranking number one and has become bestseller in the non-fiction category of Nielsen BookScan. The book ‘Life Mantras’ is published by Rupa Publications.

The Nielsen BookScan service, which happens to be the world’s largest continuous book sales tracking service operating in India, the UK, Ireland, Australia, US, South Africa, New Zealand, Italy, Brazil and Spain, collects total transaction data at the point of sale directly from the tills and dispatch systems of all major book retailers. Nielsen collects data from online and offline booksellers including Bookadda, Crosswords, Connexion, DC Books, Flipkart, Indiatimes, Infibeam, Landmark, Landmarketail, Capital Book Depot, Rediff, Odyssey, Pageturners, TV18 Homeshopping, WH Smith India, ebay, Mahindra Retail, Relaince Timeout, Snapdeal, etc.

Within a month of its launch, the book - ‘Life Mantras’ has walked upright in the chart to acquire the status of a Bestseller. In his book, the author, Shri Subrata Roy Sahara, has elaborately detailed out the various psychological and emotional aspects of life vis-à-vis the basic instincts inherent in all human beings so as to bring forth the true beauty of the multi-dimensional human life.

The book ‘Life Mantras’ is the first among the ‘Thoughts from Tihar’ trilogy series and is available at all leading book stores across India as well as abroad. It is also available at all leading online portals and even in the form of an e-book. The other forthcoming books of the aforesaid trilogy series are 'Think with Me - How to make our country ideal’ and 'Reflections from Tihar - A book on Tihar Jail’. These other two books of the trilogy series will be released soon.

For further information please contact:

Ghulam Zeeshan

Corporate Communications

Sahara India Pariwar

Mob: 9792982666; Off.: 0522 - 2724545

email id : ghulam.zeeshan@gmail.com

The Subrata Roy case: What’s happening to the billionaire who couldn’t get away?

The nationwide bust up over how a certain liquor baron made bankers kiss dirt, walking away with bagful of cash through a VIP channel, possibly to an undisclosed city in Europe, is making headlines and triggering breaking news almost every day now.

But questions need to be raised about the curious case of billionaire Subrata Roy who paid loads of cash to the market regulator and last week completed two years behind bars in Delhi's maximum security prison.

Roy, who recently wrote a tome on his life experiences, is now called a philosophical author by many .

Jokes apart, someone seriously needs to scrutinise the case again, especially at the way the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) handled it and the way Sahara group demonstrated considerable resilience. A few days ago, a handful of Sahara employees protested the delay in payment of salaries; they were in their undergarments. The idea was to be visible  on television.

But what's happening in the case?

On 31 August, 2012, the apex court had asked SEBI to return money to Sahara's investors. In the last 40 months, it has been able to pay Rs 50 crores. The Mumbai-based market regulator advertised four times in as many as 144 newspapers, inviting demands for repayment. Worse, the fourth advertisement said it was the last opportunity for raising demand for repayment.

Does that mean that - under any circumstances - SEBI won't be able to pay over Rs 100 crores? And what has it got in its kitty? It has received a whopping Rs 12,000 crores and even earned interests on FDs. Also, SEBI has the property papers of Sahara's land bank worth Rs 40,000 crore in its custody. There are chances it will have another Rs 5,800 crore ( Rs 800 crore cash and Rs 5,000 crore bank guarantee) by the time Roy and his two directors walk out of the prison gates. Sahara, which sought time for raising the stipulated cash from its assets for SEBI, was given a 45-day extension that ended in November 2015. The group claimed it had five "solid offers" for its properties.

The slugfest between the market regulator and Sahara has been described as corporate India's best known samudra manthan. SEBI disputes Sahara's claim that it has paid 95 per cent of its investors from whom it had collected Rs 24,000 crores through optionally fully convertible debentures (OFCD) in 2009-10, after the written permission from 2 Registrars of Companies. The Supreme Court however, upheld SEBI's plea and directed that Saharas' investors have to be refunded the money along with interest through SEBI.

The billion dollar question that needs to be raised is when will SEBI verify the authenticity of these investors? If four advertisements have failed, doesn't it become obligatory for SEBI to verify Sahara's repayment claim? After all, the Supreme Court says the the final decision on the issue of unpaid investors lies with SEBI. The market regulator, which said in January 2013 that it wanted to hire a verification agency, has reportedly failed to organise one. So who will help ascertain the genuineness of bondholders in the Sahara case.

Look at the way the events have progressed. SEBI has not given any reason for withholding its notice inviting the tenders. The first tender to seek a verification agency was floated on 2 November, 2012. SEBI asking for applications by 22 November, 2012. It did not happen and so the deadline was extended to 21 December, 2012, and again extended till 15 January, 2013. After the expiry of this last deadline, SEBI decided to withhold the tender notice.

It is now March 2016. Someone must ask questions, either in court or on televised debates. Otherwise, the billionaire, will have no option but to write the second sequel of his planned trilogy.

Subrata Roy reveals the secret to success

Some men succeed by what they know, some by what they do, and a few by what they are. Life Mantras is a success story written by one of the most successful man in India, Subrata Roy. They say that a successful man is the one who lays a firm foundation with the bricks that others have thrown at him. With great struggle and constant hard work Saharasri laid the foundation of the Sahara India Pariwar and has ever since been the guardian to his over 1.2 million fellow employees. He has always been a profound thinker, a mentor, and a guide to his subjects.

Life Mantras has become the talk of the town. Everybody wants to be successful, and knowing what it takes to reach that point where the air is crisp has become a necessity for people who strive hard to achieve success. Subrata Roy has written his lifetime experiences, observations and insights on the daily issues of people at altered corporate establishments of the conglomerate across India and also abroad. He further elaborates the details and various psychological and emotional aspects of life. He tells about the basic instincts that inherent in human beings as a gift of life, and how to respect it and grow more.

Along with the success story he you will also realize of what it takes to attain peace, true happiness, contentment, and continuous progress in life in terms of material gains, respect and love. The key is in your hand. Because only you can write your own success story.  

Sahara employees face salary delays on liquidity crunch

NEW DELHI, FEB 27:  

Sahara’s long-drawn dispute with regulator Sebi over investor repayments has begun to take its toll on salaries of the group’s employees, which are getting delayed amid a major liquidity crunch.

The salary delays are mainly being faced by the staff members in the corporate offices of the crisis-hit group, while there are also delays on certain statutory payments and operating obligations or expenses related to day-to-day business due to difficulty in fund flows.

When contacted, a Sahara spokesperson confirmed the delays in salary and other payments, while adding that the junior staff members are being given priority for the payments.

“We are working to diffuse this crisis, which has also created grave difficulties for our employees. Sahara India is one big Pariwar (family) and all the employees are its members, who are standing together in these difficult times.

“With our dedicated employees and the strong fundamentals of the group, we are hopeful that we will soon come out of this crisis,” the spokesperson told PTI.

The group has over 10 lakh full-time and part-time employees, including permanent staff at its various companies, permanent agents who get regular incentive payments besides a large number of part-time agents.

While the exact number of persons whose salaries and other payments have been delayed could not be ascertained, sources said their numbers could run into “tens of thousands”.

“The group is facing a liquidity crunch for past one year due to embargo and double payment (for investor refund), resulting into many problems like meeting the salary, statutory and other operating obligations/expenses in doing business,” the spokesperson said.

“We are however releasing the salaries time to time based on the fund flow on a continuous basis. The delayed salaries of junior staff were released just a few days back as extra care has been taken for our junior staff. Soon salaries of other brackets will be released,” he added.

“In some business divisions, salaries of our employees have got delayed by many months. However, situation is better at those divisions which have their own fund-flow like the Group’s luxury hotel Sahara Star in Mumbai, resort town Aamby Valley City and the 500-bed tertiary care Sahara Hospital in Lucknow.

Replying to queries on salary delays, the group spokesperson said that “for the past 14 months, Sahara India group’s all kinds of assets and bank accounts are under embargo of Supreme Court and there is an extra burden of demand of double payment against single liability in Sahara-Sebi case”.

Sahara is trying to raise necessary funds to secure release of its chief Subrata Roy, and two other officials, from Tihar Jail where they have been lodged for almost a year in connection with the investor repayment case.

The group was asked by the Supreme Court in August 2011 to deposit over Rs. 24,000 crore with Sebi for refund to investors. Sahara, which has deposited some instalments since then with Sebi, maintains that it has already refunded over 95 per cent of investors directly.

The spokesperson further said that “any fund raised by the group, which we are doing, through sales and mortgaging of properties, that money shall go to Sahara-Sebi account and nothing will come to the corporate“.

“The money deposited in Sahara-Sebi account is a double payment, which we are making.”

The spokesperson also said that “Sahara’s two Companies in question collected Rs. 25,780 crore through OFCD (Optionally Fully Convertible Debenture) schemes. Of this, Sahara repaid almost 95 per cent (around Rs. 23,000 crore) of OFCD liabilities of these two companies by 2012.

“In addition to this, Sahara till date has already deposited more than Rs. 11,000 crore (including interest) with Sebi and by the time our Chairman (Subrata Roy) comes out of custody, we shall be having aroundRs. 18,000 crore with Sebi.

“... as per the order of Supreme Court, the entire money with bank interest shall come back to Sahara after verification. But for the same, Sebi has to initiate verification of our investors and the repayments which we have made and return the money to us.”

The recent attempts by Sahara to raise funds through a US-based entity Mirach Capital failed, while the group has said it is now in talks with an European bank and a Dutch pension fund, among others, to explore garnering funds to ensure release of Roy and two others from jail.

The Supreme Court recently posted the matter for further hearing on March 13, while asking Sebi and other parties to respond to Roy’s plea for extension of facilities inside the prison by at least two working weeks to explore negotiations with these prospective parties.

SEBI versus Sahara: Rs. 22 crores versus Rs. 18000 crores

Today, Sebi has around Rs.11,500 crores of Sahara's money, including bank interest.

By the time our Chairman shall come out, that is, when full bail amount is paid, our money lying with SEBI will be Rs.18,000 crores cash.  Since no bank is ready to give Bank Guarantee to us without 100% cash margin, it is going to be Rs.18,000 crores of cash with Sebi.

While in the last 26 months,Sebi had to pay only around Rs.2 crores.

More importantly, Sebi came out with an All-India Media Advertisement, twice, inviting investors for repayments. But till now, they have received from all over India, a demand of Rs.20 crores only.

A question can now arise that whether the investors exist or do not exist; meaning, are these all fictitious accounts?

Only verification can clarify this point, as mandated in Hon'ble Court's order of 2012. Since then, in almost past 26 months, Sebi has not started verification; the reason best known to them. 

About fictitious account, we would like to mention here another issue pertaining to the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) which is as follows:

Between 2008 and 2012, on RBI's order, Sahara paid back Rs.18,000 crores under the command of RBI's two Statutory Auditors and 3 RBI nominated Directors.  The bank account of that amount was controlled by the RBI.  A strict rule was followed that when RBI auditors finally checked the identity of all investors (KYC), only then the next months' payments were allowed by the RBI and during the process, in 4 years, RBI did not find any fictitious account; not even one.

--

Regards,

Corporate Communications,

Sahara India Pariwar

Sahara’s Plaza property world’s 2nd most popular hotel for uber-rich: Survey

New Delhi: The Sahara group's iconic hotel The Plaza, New York, figures among the top 10 hotels in the world for multi-millionaire visitors in 2014, a survey said.

The Plaza is the second most preferred hotel for the uber-rich people globally, said the survey by New World Wealth. It was based on a sample of 450 multi-millionaires.

The Plaza, which is jointly owned by Sahara Group and Kingdom Holdings, a Saudi Arabia-based corporation, had 3,700 multi-millionaires in the 12 months to June 2014, second only to The Bellagio in Las Vegas, which received as many as 6,400 multi millionaires.

"The Plaza's high place on the list is impressive considering it only has 280 rooms which puts it at a disadvantage to larger hotels which can accommodate more guests in a year," the report said.

According to the report, titled 'Most Popular Hotels for Millionaires', The Raj Palace, Jaipur, had 300 or more multi-millionaire visitors in the 12 months to June.

The Raj Palace, Jaipur is the only one hotel from India has made it to the list of select few boutique hotels that witnessed 300 or more multi-millionaires visitors.

Other most preferred hotel destinations for multi -millionaires include Caesars Palace, Las Vegas (3,400 visitors); Waldorf Astoria, New York (3,300); Marina Bay Sands Singapore (3,100) and The Breakers, Palm Beach (3,000) among others.

Las Vegas hotels dominate the list. "This reflects Vegas's appeal as a short stay holiday destination for the super-rich," the report said.

The other boutique hotels which were mentioned by several multi-millionaires in the survey include -- Baur au Lac, Zurich; Chateau Marmont, Los Angeles; Goldeneye, Jamaica; Hôtel du Cap-Eden-Roc, Antibes; Little Nel, Aspen and Raffles, Singapore.

For the purposes of this study, an individual with net assets of at least $10 million is considered multi-millionaire. There are around 495,000 multi-millionaires worldwide (as on June 2014).

Sahara's The Plaza 2nd most popular hotel for the uber-rich

Sahara group-owned, The Plaza in New York city is the second most preferred hotel for the uber-rich people globally, said the survey by New World Wealth.

The Sahara group's iconic hotel The Plaza, New York, figures among the top 10 hotels in the world for multi-millionaire visitors in 2014, a survey said. The Plaza is the second most preferred hotel for the uber-rich people globally, said the survey by New World Wealth. It was based on a sample of 450 multi-millionaires. The Plaza, which is jointly owned by Sahara Group and Kingdom Holdings, a Saudi Arabia-based corporation, had 3,700 multi-millionaires in the 12 months to June 2014.

KUNAL DESHMUKH: (WITH) THE LOINS OF PUNs & JABs..!!!

Oh dear! Excuse the typo error. I meant the Lions of Punjab since I am personally & always immensely impressed with men of courage, wisdom and vision. Somehow my title went into sounding into an innuendo.  I will choose the liberty of thinking that perhaps those with a sense of humour would enjoy this inconsequential comedy of errors!

Infact, I do think that I posses a rather healthy and liberal sense of humour. What is life without a hearty laugh and comical twists of absurd yet funny incidents? Pick up the newspaper and it will tickle your mind with some of the most bizarre & fantastical stories you will ever hear or read. I must say our new breed of journalists have learnt to grow a funny bone and have taught us the same. Interestingly our new age news makers don’t fail to amuse and entertain either.

Recently, I read an article about Kunal Deshmukh’s aspirational directorial piece which he is calling Raja Natwarlal, so sadly, based on his ill-informed references of a major business tycoon, Mr.Subrata Roy Sahara, who is currently in a legal turmoil with the SEBI. For those who haven’t heard of Kunal Deshmukh I am not surprised. He is a dot in the massive Entertainment industry with his directorial ventures mostly revolving around Love, Sex and Drama. What is really baffling and worth mentioning is the ignorance that Deshmukh displays. I mean come on! A new age, educated 32 year old, metro-sexual man with such a horrible grasp on current affairs?

Where on earth did he learn that Subrata Roy’s business dealt with chit funds? Who on earth told him that he is in a legal turmoil because of some non-existent property scam?  Mr.Deshmukh when you plan to enlighten us with your vision (I’d love to call them nightmares) and creative non-genius, atleast get your facts correct! So much for a spin with so few, rather, zero hard facts! Your statement only projects a pathetic attempt to exhibition your inspiration as “more 'shocking' and 'in-depth' than your last one” & your dumbness is both laughable and pitiable.

And there goes my hunger for a good laugh, fed. LOLs, ROTL..!!! Feed people only trivia and entertainment, you will wither their appetite & feed them nonsense, you will surely food poison them! I wouldn’t get into the elaborate details of what the SAHARA SEBI issue is about but in a gist it’s been revolving around SEBI’s conceited claim over investor protection arguing that Sahara’s business practices are unhealthy and harm the depositors. Sahara is an enormously diversified Indian conglomerate employing around 12 lacs employees with business interests in Motion Pictures, Hospitality, Para-banking (Mr.Deshmukh! you must, especially, Google Parabanking before you ignorantly ramble some mumbo jumbo about the subject and embarrass yourself further..!!!!), Retail, etc. Sahara has never been in the business of Chit funds and most certainly never in Lotteries either.

When someone like a Kunal Deshmukh makes such juvenile, foolish, ill informed statements, it’s scary!!! He comes from bracket of an industry that moulds impressions. So the least you expect from him is sound and good research on his subject of inspiration. Just making appearances match, doesn’t do the job. And if you are ill- informed on the subject then admit so. Saves you the embarrassment! Has he ever interviewed Mr.Subrata Roy? Has he reached out to his family for his research or spoken with his employees, ever? Has he ever made any intelligent enquiry about his businesses, as a part of his study?

assuming the answer is, No! What is even more amusing is what the journalist, Ms. Priya Gupta, finds interesting about the similarities. Being a journalist, I thought she knew the undertones of the Sahara SEBI issue and would have utilised the opportunity to dispel some myths about the matter.  She could have very easily burst Mr.Deshmukh’s bubble and conducted some responsible reporting.

G.K. Chesterton once said, “Journalism largely consists in saying "Lord Jones is dead" to people who never knew Lord Jones was alive.” Ms.Gupta, i thought you had more substance in you than taking a jab at a man who is much more seasoned than you are, experienced more life than you ever will, struggled his way up to accomplishments and fathers an army of loyal, hard working & honest workforce. Lead these many men; first, in your lifetime tell and then us what you found interesting about that. Likewise for you Mr.Deshmukh! Your Goliath emerges to lack any soul or intensity. Your statements in Media are imbecile and your knowledge of the subject is appalling. You sure you haven’t mixed David for Goliath? Or perhaps in your fit of ignorance you’ve drawn an incorrect analogy. You should probably draw the parallel with IGNORAMUS & STUPIDUS!! I already feel bad for myself for having apologised for my accidental innuendo, in the beginning. Mr.Deshmukh hasn’t even offered his! I knew he was ignorant and ill read, what I didn’t know was that he lacked mannerisms, too.

My commiserations to your nightmare “Raja Natwarlal”, Sir and my LOLs and ROTLs too!!! Also, please accept my loaded statements with puns and jabs at your intelligence, with no prospect of an apology!

Limits of judicial activism

Limits of judicial activism

In many cases, the arrangements being made by the judiciary and after reading comments on the Indian people wonder why most of the time we show the activation of the judges why constrained to. Then Whether it was the 2G scam are mining scam or the coal mines in the allocation of the storm - the scandals, all these cases, monitoring the work of the Supreme Court in an important and active role discharge, and that you know amenities. Its biggest advantage was that civil society has realized that corruption can be controlled or can be prevented. In recent times some of the top court orders or moves naturally expressed satisfaction with the country's many reviewers are shocked.

The Supreme Court in a case of fraud chairman of Samsung Electronics recently ordered to appear before a Ghaziabad court. The reason no one can ask the court to summon the chairman of Samsung was necessary? Although Samsung has officially expressed confidence that the Indian court considers their innocence and finally justice will be done with them. Probably we have a very large company, Global Chairman're pulling too much into a single case. In the case before the court in India of any unnecessary muscle is not that great.

Being true fan of cricket betting scandal in IPL, BCCI about getting my eye on developments. N is the most important thing is that in this case. Srinivasan dogma to be followed over the investigation. Given the betting controversy, the Supreme Court said Srinivasan not only to quit, but Sunil Gavaskar took over for the 7th IPL also ordered. In this context it is important that anyone who raised their voices in favor of Srinivasan. BCCI Here we look at this as a state under the provisions of the Constitution or a major deletion, consider what the organization would be justifiable? Can anyone suggest the name of the court chief? In fact, it is not the job of elected representatives choose their chief? After all, why Gavaskar's name was suggested? Would not it reasonable that the court investigation against Srinivasan and get a clean chit to the work of the appointment of an interim administrator leaves to the discretion of the Board?

I am not a fan of Srinivasan same way about Subrata Roy Sahara India chief can not give too much information. बैंक सुविधा से महरूम इस वर्ग के पास सहारा के एजेंटों ने वक्त-बेवक्त पहुंचकर उनसे उनकी बचत जमा की और गाहे-बगाहे कभी शादी, बच्चों की शिक्षा, अपने लघु व्यवसायों के विस्तार तो कभी पक्के घरों के निर्माण आदि कायरें के लिए उन्हें धन मुहैया made. This task could not be completed KYC Stren some reasons why, in spite of the Sahara has better performance than other financial institutions. Disorders that may be left, but could be improved through the system. You can not close the resort. Subrata Roy, sent to jail by the Supreme Court for bail and asked to deposit Rs ten thousand crores. Their lawyers are still argue that it is unfair. Lawyers are also saying that the judges concerned should withdraw from the case because they do not expect fairness from them. It's certainly not the best position to judge the fairness of judges and lawyers do not trust. Justice VR Krishna Iyer makes me miss the buzz word - not Bell prison.

Courts under judicial activism, no doubt, have the right to interpret or apply the law, but they have no right to make laws or changing them. Similarly, during the days have passed when the hearing was postponed judges laughed unusual observations. Alert the media takes them to wrest away the sensational headlines. A few comments would not have a direct connection with the case. For example, a judge says - Please do not test my patience. There is no mention of such comments in the final results, but the next day the headlines.

In the absence of proper governance or policy or widespread frustration over inaction on the part of the courts hope-filled eyes everyone sees that they will defend democracy. But we all need to ensure that justice is not only to be self-communion, but he would also have seen the stock.

[Author Sudip Bandyopadhyay, president of Destimni Security]

PEACE SPEECH OF ‘SAHARASRI’ SUBRATA ROY SAHARA DURING SAHARA BALKAN PEACE FESTIVAL

Your Excellencies

Hon’ble Ministers

Distinguished Guests

Esteemed Journalist Friends

And our respectable elders and loving young ones who are witnessing this Peace festival live on Television Channels.

On behalf of Sahara Pariwar that is Sahara Family and myself I convey my thanks from the core of my heart that all of you have gathered here on our invitation.

This would not have been possible without the support and blessings of His Excellency President, Hon’ble Prime Minister, Hon’ble Dy. Prime Minister and their highly committed capable team of Republic of Macedonia.

I shall fail in my duties if I do not thank my senior colleague who is like a son to me; Shri Amreesh Chandra whose initiative has given shape to this peace festival.

As a promoter speaker I had to pass on this speech to our media friends in advance and also to facilitate  translation in 13 different languages so I have been asked to speak today verbatim that is same word by word whatever I have passed on to them.  So I have been asked to read out my lecture.

Today we have gathered to speak about and discuss peace.

Though it is Balkan Peace Festival, we are hoping that this message of peace will have a trickle effect and this initiative will actually be a message of Global Peace for the entire planet.

Although, I have already passed on my thoughts on Peace to all of you through more than 1800 words write up appearing in the Peace festival brochure which is already with you all, I still want to say something here in the presence of this August gathering for the great purpose.

For our external personality, that is, our body, food and water keeps it energetic, active and healthy, but for our internal personality that is the spiritual personality, that is for our mental body, the food is peace and happiness for giving us best quality mental health with lots of strong will power and positive energy always seen as active optimism.

Every human wants always to have a happy and satisfied life.

But no life can be happy and satisfied without a peaceful state of mind.  Happiness chases peace, but peace does not chase happiness.  Peace has to be in a person’s life and all around him.  Peace in his immediate family, peace in his neighbourhood, peace in his work place, peace in his city, peace in his country…. and so on.

Here in this peace festival if we only talk about peace between two countries, that is if we talk and discuss about war between the countries, I fear we shall reach nowhere, we won’t be able to achieve peace in the life of individual human beings for a long term or most desirably life long.  This is not about only stopping war, its about choosing PEACE.  WE CHOOSE PEACE OVER WAR.

Any country is not a human being in itself.  Country’s body and face is the combined and collective faces of people of the country, however, few human beings sit at the helm of affairs and take all decisions for the country.

If I talk about Macedonia, it is a very wonderful and a very peaceful country.  The first time when I had come here, on the first day itself our Hon’ble Prime Minister and Hon’ble Dy. Prime Minister, myself and my son roamed around in the main market area for almost 30 minutes to finalise a correct site for Mother Teresa’s statue.  To my pleasant surprise there were no security personnel’s as such accompanying us!

Gradually over a period of time, in this peaceful country, I interacted with various kinds of people from different walks of life and I found everyone very peace loving, law abiding and ethical.  I must appreciate everybody in the Government and Government machinery because we have not seen or felt any indication or even a desire of even one Euro. A wonderful and quite unbelievable corruption free Government and Government machinery.  So it is a very right thing happening that Sahara Balkan Peace Festival is starting in a beautiful, wonderful and peaceful country that is Macedonia.

When we talk about peace, compassion and humanity two names come immediately to mind.  Shri Mahatma Gandhi who is the symbol of Non Violence, no words and sentences can describe his unbelievably great personality.  Another great name is Mother Teresa.  I am really fortunate that I knew her personally, very closely and I can try to describe her in a number of pages, but truly speaking even after knowing her so closely I cannot describe that great personality in words and sentences.   Mother Teresa’s birth place is Macedonia.  Well, what a coincidence that first peace festival is happening in birth place of Mother Teresa.  What a wonderfully lovely feeling it is.

It is human beings everywhere who are instrumental in bringing about peace or violence.  In any country is Government or Government machinery, religious groups, sects or different kind of organisations, the human beings who are given leadership at various levels are responsible for Peace or Violence.  All such people out of ignorance about fundamentals of life, indulge foolishly in violence and in turn invite irritation, tensions, dejections, disappointments, dissatisfactions etc. in future in their own lives too.  May be at any moment of time some individual in a leadership position plans, thinks and initiates within a narrow limited vision; may be he does it out of greed, but he cannot visualise or does not have clarity about knowledge of life or about the future when he shall have to reap poison for his today’s wrong action or reaction seeds which he has sown.

I shall humbly request all of you here to kindly spare some time to read out my thoughts on peace which appear in the brochure of Sahara Balkan Peace Festival already handed over to you.  Two sets of the write-up together will give clarity to this thought of Peace.  So here today I am not making a long speech by explaining about the philosophical, that is psychological, or emotional aspect of life, in other words realities of life with which we are born with and we live with.

One very important point is that EVERY HUMAN BEING HAS A VERY STRONG COMPETITIVE INSTICT. A

human always wants to be victorious and finds enjoyment in defeating others. That used to be one of the principal reasons in the olden days that strong or weak Kings, used to continuously fight.  There used to be continuous small and big wars.  People under the winner Kings used to imagine their Kings as Heroes and used to satisfy their own strong competitive instincts through their winner Kings.  Ofcourse, material gain also used to be a principal reason for such fights and wars, but now by maximising own production and development through scientific ways and with peaceful import and export trade no material gains are really achieved by winning any war.  The truth is in today’s war nobody is a winner.  The price of a war has to be paid by both the sides.  So we should think, understand and discuss about satisfaction of humans strong competitive instinct to feel like a winner hero of some kind of battle.

Gradually sports have taken that place.  We satisfy our strong competitive instincts through the players who win laurels in the international arena.

I strongly feel and I want to strongly advocate that sports should be taken very strongly and very seriously by every country.  We should further try to make it more competitive, more interesting by introducing several incentives between countries. For example loser country will have to make a small hospital at their cost in the land of the winner countries. In Olympics or in such inter country sports marks for events could be given to the winners, which shall decide which country gives more import orders and which of them gets more export orders etc. etc.  Very active sports which are mentioned here can help tremendously to maintain harmonious relationship that is peace amongst the countries.

My humble proposal to Balkan region countries is to initiate in a big way and on a regular basis various discipline inter country games, sports tournaments etc.  Inter country competition of cultural events should also be introduced actively and if you all agree then kindly introduce incentives, may be small – small incentives for winner countries for different events.

This way countries will speed it up and acquire and aggressively do all kinds of good research and massive productions for sports items and for development of energy and skill of sports persons and then gradually and drastically reduce the concentration or focus on research and development of arms and ammunitions.  We should introduce in these tournaments various kinds of old and new highly skilled strong and thrilling adventure sports which excites human mind a lot and shall satisfy competitive instincts quite strongly.

We should always remember that human beings always want to live their lives with domination of positive characteristics in their mental body system provided they get good human environment where they get justice and fair treatment and where they can always get food, clothes and shelter comfortably and get a chance for their continuous growth and prosperity.  As human is born with positive  as well as negative characteristics, if there is injustice, discrimination all round with a tough, insecured life under wrong, corrupt leaderships, human being’s negative characteristics dominate their actions, reactions and all expression which culminates into disillusionment, dejection, disappointments, dissatisfaction, fights and battles.

So leaders of all levels should always always take care to provide good human environment as the highest priority so that majority of the people always enjoy domination of positive characteristics in their actions – reactions and in all expression which is always a natural and probably the strongest urge of may be 99% people.  Because every humans basically always desire and enjoy a peaceful life.

Another very important aspect to be considered is the high growth of population.  A human-being's 'I' or self is very dominating. He is born with it. So a high density of population creates all kinds of confusions, people lose their peace of mind because everybody desires a good existence. Say, for example in a room, there are 5 people who are very comfortable with total peace of mind and in the same room, there are 50 people who all lose their peace as they fight because a human’s natural strong instinct is for proper existence; they fight as to who among them shall get a chance to sit on a chair or the carpet and who may not even get a place to stand?

This problem of density of population becomes very grave if a big section remains illiterate, uneducated and afflicted with malnutrition, they don't live in peace and they also affect the peace of others around them. It implies that poverty and unemployment, coupled with illiteracy and no education of life, become a large hindrance to the peace of human mind that craves for the fulfilment of basic needs of health and survival, the lack of which creates unhappiness, disillusionment & fuzziness in the mind.

I do not have the details, but Macedonia has lower density of population.  My short term – long term suggestion to the country is to take all measures possible to always control this population density.  We should also understand that the poor class of people solely for pleasure indulge in free sex with a psychology that if there are more children, there shall be more hands to earn parent’s old age.  Such children in hutments remain a mass of bone and flesh without quality development of mental faculty.  So Government should define through law the ideal family size and an ideal family’s children should get all benefits, special facilities of 1^st grade citizen.  Parents out of domination of their ‘I’ that is the self, will choose the right path for their children.  Parents who do not follow ideal family definition of law of parliament shall lose all benefits and facilities for their children and should also lose the right to vote.  Always remember country’s constitution is written for the welfare of people and for the welfare of people today constitution should be amended as per today’s need of the masses.

Another point - Media is playing a bad role because newspapers, channels etc. mainly talk about negative happenings and give negative news of quarrels, murders, rapes etc. etc. This gradually puts human beings in a confined emotional sphere which always leads to enhanced demand of SELF, without considering other peoples genuine point of view and also leads to a situation where there is no peace of mind.  If there is curfew in the city people get confined in their rooms.  Similarly negative news sub-consciously and unconsciously forces human mind to get confined; meaning absolute self centeredness which causes all sort of problems like corruption and quarrels in the society.  So media should be forced to cut down negative stories and add more positive, encouraging news stories.

Well, at the end, I shall tell few things that God has given us, Brain, Mind, Heart & Soul with a very strong thinking power. We can achieve anything and everything with the aid of these faculties.

People all around the world who are in important, big or small leadership positions should be educated rather they need to be convinced for their peace of mind and only then we can expect all round peace for mankind.

This peace festival is initiated in Balkan region and shall be staged every year.  In next 12 years 12 Peace Festivals shall be staged.  Something has generated so much of high respect in me for the Balkan region after I heard 2 days back that 3 countries have already approached very enthusiastically and strongly to stage and host this peace festival next year.  Balkan region countries can become front runners for World Peace.  It will be the greatest contribution to the world.  Balkan region’s future generations shall feel extremely proud seeing their name written in golden letters in the History of the world. But for that you have to think and decide with confidence and practice everything mentioned here with new and right thoughts coming from positive brain storming sessions and show the path and set an example to the whole world in the coming years.

With kind regards to everybody

Subrata Roy Sahara

Managing Worker & Chairman

Sahara India Pariwar