Wednesday, June 27, 2007
Viva Suvarnabhumi
27 Jun, 2007 l 1258 hrs IST, www.timesofindia.com
Tarun Vijay
When the Prime Minister of an immediate neighbour and one of the most important countries in the east arrived in Delhi, our newspapers were full of Gordon Brown assuming power in London and some even reported about how his wife will be different from Cherie Blair in her public appearances and behaviour। So much is the western fixation, nay a hangover of the colonial era। Thailand is not only a very significant strategic partner of India but has long been a cherished cultural and civilisational friend. Its Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont arrived in Delhi with a high-power political and business delegation this Tuesday. His visit marks an important milestone in bilateral relations and the Thai delegation will discuss what has been on India's wish list for long – the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean), the Bay of Bengal Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Co-operation (Bimstec), and the Mekong-Ganga Co-operation project – sub-regional groupings of which India and Thailand are members. The Thai PM is accompanied by his foreign minister, commerce minister and energy minister too, indicating how important the visit is. It's ironical that we tend to appear arrogantly ignorant of the importance of winning the hearts of our neighbours. The eastern side especially, is completely missing from our television channels and papers, though they are the vital ports to strengthen our trade, business and security sectors. None of our newspaper barons have found it useful to have full-time correspondents in any of the eastern countries to report from Bangkok, Laos, Vientiane, or Angkor Wat. The entire East Asian block is left at the mercy of western and Chinese news agencies and we have opted to understand our closest and friendliest neighbour through American, British and Chinese interpretations. On the other hand, China has taken a lead in this region and emerged as the 'legitimate' heir of the Buddhist circuit. It's the growing Chinese presence in the economic, business and social sector in the entire eastern belt, once known the world over as the Suvarnabhumi region, that finally shook India from its deep slumber and for the first time, P V Narasimha Rao, the forgotten warrior of the Congress, formulated the Look East policy which was taken forward by the Vajpayee government in a big way and Jaswant Singh crafted a brilliant and effective format to further strengthen it. Historically and culturally, eastern Asia has been a Hindu influence region. The biggest temple of the Hindus is not in India but in Cambodia -- namely Angkor Wat. And the best part of it is that these countries feel proud of their Indian connection because that was built thorough love, compassion and friendly cultural links.
In a book Greater India by Arun Bhattacharjee, this has been explained thus: “That culture can advance without political motives, that trade can proceed without imperialist designs, settlements can take place without colonial excesses and that literature, religion and language can be transported without xenophobia, jingoism and race complexes are amply evidenced from the history of India's contact with her neighbours...Thus, although a considerable part of central and south-eastern Asia became flourishing centres of Indian culture, they were seldom subjects to the regime of any Indian king or conquerors and hardly witnessed the horrors and havocs of any Indian military campaign. They were perfectly free, politically and economically and their people representing an integration of Indian and indigenous elements had no links with any Indian state and looked upon India as a holy land..." When I was in Bangkok recently, the first thing that struck me was the name of their fabulous international airport – it’s called Suvarnabhumi. And there in the middle of it is a magnificent giant sculpture of Sagar Manthan -- 3 meters wide, 21 meters long and 5.5 meters high with a plaque introducing it as the “The Churning of the Ocean of Milk”. I told the gentleman taking me on a tour de vivre of the world's largest airport that we can't even think of having such a beautiful sculpture depicting a Hindu heritage story at any Indian airport because it would immediately attract the ire of secularist Taliban. He simply smiled and moved on. Suvarnabhumi means land of gold in Sanskrit and this name was chosen by the most popular king of Thailand Bhumibol Adulyadej, who is officially known Ram the IX. He has been reigning since June 9, 1946, and has become the world's longest-serving current head of state and the longest-serving monarch in Thai history. In 2006, 60 years of his coronation were celebrated and although most of the Chinese and the western magazines and newspapers published colourful special stories on it, we hardly saw any interest in the India media about it. The respect and devotion King Bhumibol Adulyadej receives from people is simply unbelievable. He is truly a people's king, who devotes most of his time in developmental activities, though sometimes he intervenes in political affairs too, like last year when he supported the overthrowing of Thaksin Shinawatra's government under charges of corruption and nepotism. His decision was hailed by everyone – the Thai media and commoners alike. Thai temples, as magnificent as their cultural heritage, have everything that can inspire an Indian visitor. Statues of Vishnu, Ganesha, Saraswati, Shiva are found everywhere and the Hindu-Buddhist harmony can be seen at its best .The language is deeply influenced by Sanskrit, they greet visitors with a Sawasdee (derived from Swasti in Sanskrit meaning greetings to thee), and folded hands. There were stories that the King had Gangajal especially flown from Kashi along with learned Pandits to commemorate the 60th year of his coronation amid Vedic chants. Like we celebrate our Holi and Makar Sankranti they celebrate Songkran, as their national New Year’s Day on April 13th.
They call it Maha Songkran Day or the day to mark the end of the old year, April 14 is Wan Nao which is the day after and April 15 is Wan Thaloeng Sok, when the New Year begins coinciding with our Hindu new year on Baisakhi with such gusto and fanfare that it has become an international festival attracting thousand of western tourists. Their ochre-robed Buddhist monks begin collecting alms in the morning just before sunrise and the faithful wait outside their houses barefooted and with folded hands. All the food collected thus is used for the monks and students in the monastery under a strict regimen. When I witnessed this ritual, waking up early in the morning at five, I felt our priests should be sent to Thailand for a course in religious discipline and management. They have an ancient Ayodhya city, their first capital and they can show us how to protect and showcase national heritage in a much finer way that would make any visitor proud. Their temples are clean and well maintained, the guided tours to their religious sites and the methodical manner in which they do the rituals with a mesmerizing finesse should be an eye opener to those Hindus in India who have made it a habit to keep their temple the dirtiest and highly mismanaged places. Thailand is also passing through a serious Islamist insurgency and its borders have seen a lot of such skirmishes, especially with Karen tribes. But the India-Thai cooperation to quell the Naga, Manipuri insurgents on the border area has been a perfect one so far. Indian security interests in the Bay of Bengal area too demand a much more close relationship between us. That China should use the Buddhist 'legacy' to its advantage to emerge as the representative face of the Asian region and India be pushed behind, in spite of having a larger and much greater picture of its Buddhist roots is a matter of self-introspection exposing our colonial mindset and a 'secular' disdain for our heritage.
Wednesday, June 20, 2007
The desirable
20 Jun, 2007 l 1049 hrs IST, www.timesofindia.com
Tarun Vijay
Abdul Kalam has achieved what others won't even dream --a legendary status in his own life time। An unprecedented position that inspires mothers to say their children should emulate him। If there was a public vote on the Presidential elections, he would win hands down। That a Presidential candidate like Shekhawat would feel good to take back his candidature in case Kalam accepts the Third Front's offer is not a clever masterstroke but shows strength in a name that spells Kalam. Still, I feel he should let a new face occupy the Palace Lutyen built. He has had his best time in the fullest possible manner, had more than a usual quota of books, 'ignited' imaginations and hopes for our future, rode the popular mood, and all this should suffice one life time. While it looks good that just coincidentally a fortnight after my column on woman Prez appeared on timesofindia.com (
Too much to ask for a woman Prez? ), we have one. But the choice of Pratibha Patil has left much to be desired. What's there in her nomination that should cheer up the women folks? Has she been truly selected for being a woman who served the women's cause so well that she was considered a deserving candidate to be the head of the state of a thousand million people? Or was she thought to be a fit candidate being herself a Shekhawat to face another Shekhawat, whose stature and long political innings have made him a formidable rival for the UPA? Her comments on the veil, though true to some extent, have also created an unnecessary controversy, though what she intended to say was appropriate in the context of Rajasthan. Incidentally it's still a paper-thin mystery that while Sonia chose to become a Gandhi after marriage, Pratibha stuck to her maiden name Patil, though she married a Shekhawat, originally from Rajasthan. It was left to Sharad Pawar to demystify her name in the meeting that announced her name at the PM house. Now perhaps to be rightly effective in the partly caste-based voting for the top job, she may start using the Shekhawat appendage for the time being. That's her choice, anybody would say.
Accepted Ma'am, it’s democracy. Some time back I had met a gentleman, a medical doctor of high repute who introduced him as Dr. N S C Bose. He was from the right quarters in Chennai so I was amazed and requested for his full name. Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose, pat came the reply. If that can be the name of a Tamilian who later rose to become the president of the IMA, and another political celebrity can be a Stalin, why can’t Pratibha, too, have the freedom to choose her first or last name whatever she feels like. Well if the top job was considered good enough for a woman this time and Kalam had finally made up his mind not to contest, there could have been different choices for the job. Having seen the superb performance of our outgoing President Abdul Kalam, I, for once, would have preferred a non-political face and there are plenty in my list. Why not Sunita Narain or Vandana Shiva, who are energetic, young enough to represent the 'youngest' nation at the parameter of age factor of the citizens? They take up right issues for Nature and humans, advocate green policies and are not cowed down by any bullish multinational. And what about Sudha Murthy, whose writings have inspired millions, who has really taken up women's issues in a decent and Indian way, has created a niche for herself independently and looks so dignified and graceful? Hema Aziz, the brave mother of Capt. Hanifuddin, who laid down his life in Kargil defending his motherland at 24 would have been another elevating candidate to adorn the Rashtrapati Bhawan. She runs a school now, to train young children in patriotism and bravery called Samarth. For Capt. Haniffuddin's family, the tears have dried up, but the pain is alive. “We are channelising it by opening a trust in his name to run this school,'' she says. A mother who gave her best for the nation can understand the responsibility to keep up the pride and honour of her land and shall never yield to undue pressures under any circumstances. She would also be well qualified to represent the forces as their constitutional supreme commander.
And what about Mata Amritanandamayi? She belongs to a fishermen's community in Kerala, was hardly educated in the formal sense of the term, yet has risen to inspire and show the way to humankind across the globe. She is young, effective, motherly, affectionate and can never be pressurised to act as a rubberstamp. Her spiritual effervescence and aura is too divine and healing for the suffering masses. She represents self-reliance, independence and charms the nation with her innocent smile and reservoir of ancient wisdom. The woman as Shakti, the real power centre, has motivated and inspired the Indian psyche for ages. There is a woman in every man and a man in every w oman, say our old shastras, explaining the concept of Ardhanārīśvara, the perfect symbol of godly attributes. The traditional Sanskrit name for this form is best tran slated as "the lord who is half-woman", and not as "half-man, half-woman". Even the best man in Indian tradition is one who has the attributes of a woman -- love, compassion, steely resolve and an instinct to be unpardonable to the foe. The scene reminds me of the 1964 movie, The Best Man , based on a theatre with the same name. Both were written by Gore Vidal and move around the story of two presidential candidates. At the zero hour, the two known and much talked-about candidates are out of the race and a third dark horse wins. Ultimately in the politics of convenience, the choice for the top post has hardly been decided by factors of real grit and merit. Right from V V Giri's election on 'conscience vote' and Sanjeeva Reddy to Zail Singh, trust along with expectations from the would-be candidate has been the decisive factor. Actions speculating he or she may take in the critical time, meaning when the party's interests are in real difficult spot, decide finally. Though it's all meaningless, because often when the trusted person gets the final job of his life, he likes to mark his name as independent, courageous and objective statesman in the history and may well disappoint the earlier hopes of his mentors.
Too much to ask for a woman Prez?
20 Jun, 2007 l 1049 hrs IST,www.timesofindia.com
Tarun Vijay
Abdul Kalam has achieved what others won't even dream --a legendary status in his own life time। An unprecedented position that inspires mothers to say their children should emulate him। If there was a public vote on the Presidential elections, he would win hands down। That a Presidential candidate like Shekhawat would feel good to take back his candidature in case Kalam accepts the Third Front's offer is not a clever masterstroke but shows strength in a name that spells Kalam। Still, I feel he should let a new face occupy the Palace Lutyen built. He has had his best time in the fullest possible manner, had more than a usual quota of books, 'ignited' imaginations and hopes for our future, rode the popular mood, and all this should suffice one life time. While it looks good that just coincidentally a fortnight after my column on woman Prez appeared on timesofindia.com (
Too much to ask for a woman Prez? ), we have one. But the choice of Pratibha Patil has left much to be desired. What's there in her nomination that should cheer up the women folks? Has she been truly selected for being a woman who served the women's cause so well that she was considered a deserving candidate to be the head of the state of a thousand million people? Or was she thought to be a fit candidate being herself a Shekhawat to face another Shekhawat, whose stature and long political innings have made him a formidable rival for the UPA? Her comments on the veil, though true to some extent, have also created an unnecessary controversy, though what she intended to say was appropriate in the context of Rajasthan. Incidentally it's still a paper-thin mystery that while Sonia chose to become a Gandhi after marriage, Pratibha stuck to her maiden name Patil, though she married a Shekhawat, originally from Rajasthan. It was left to Sharad Pawar to demystify her name in the meeting that announced her name at the PM house. Now perhaps to be rightly effective in the partly caste-based voting for the top job, she may start using the Shekhawat appendage for the time being. That's her choice, anybody would say.
Accepted Ma'am, it’s democracy. Some time back I had met a gentleman, a medical doctor of high repute who introduced him as Dr. N S C Bose. He was from the right quarters in Chennai so I was amazed and requested for his full name. Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose, pat came the reply. If that can be the name of a Tamilian who later rose to become the president of the IMA, and another political celebrity can be a Stalin, why can’t Pratibha, too, have the freedom to choose her first or last name whatever she feels like. Well if the top job was considered good enough for a woman this time and Kalam had finally made up his mind not to contest, there could have been different choices for the job. Having seen the superb performance of our outgoing President Abdul Kalam, I, for once, would have preferred a non-political face and there are plenty in my list. Why not Sunita Narain or Vandana Shiva, who are energetic, young enough to represent the 'youngest' nation at the parameter of age factor of the citizens? They take up right issues for Nature and humans, advocate green policies and are not cowed down by any bullish multinational. And what about Sudha Murthy, whose writings have inspired millions, who has really taken up women's issues in a decent and Indian way, has created a niche for herself independently and looks so dignified and graceful? Hema Aziz, the brave mother of Capt. Hanifuddin, who laid down his life in Kargil defending his motherland at 24 would have been another elevating candidate to adorn the Rashtrapati Bhawan. She runs a school now, to train young children in patriotism and bravery called Samarth. For Capt. Haniffuddin's family, the tears have dried up, but the pain is alive. “We are channelising it by opening a trust in his name to run this school,'' she says. A mother who gave her best for the nation can understand the responsibility to keep up the pride and honour of her land and shall never yield to undue pressures under any circumstances. She would also be well qualified to represent the forces as their constitutional supreme commander.
And what about Mata Amritanandamayi? She belongs to a fishermen's community in Kerala, was hardly educated in the formal sense of the term, yet has risen to inspire and show the way to humankind across the globe. She is young, effective, motherly, affectionate and can never be pressurised to act as a rubberstamp. Her spiritual effervescence and aura is too divine and healing for the suffering masses. She represents self-reliance, independence and charms the nation with her innocent smile and reservoir of ancient wisdom. The woman as Shakti, the real power centre, has motivated and inspired the Indian psyche for ages. There is a woman in every man and a man in every w oman, say our old shastras, explaining the concept of Ardhanārīśvara, the perfect symbol of godly attributes. The traditional Sanskrit name for this form is best tran slated as "the lord who is half-woman", and not as "half-man, half-woman". Even the best man in Indian tradition is one who has the attributes of a woman -- love, compassion, steely resolve and an instinct to be unpardonable to the foe. The scene reminds me of the 1964 movie, The Best Man , based on a theatre with the same name. Both were written by Gore Vidal and move around the story of two presidential candidates. At the zero hour, the two known and much talked-about candidates are out of the race and a third dark horse wins. Ultimately in the politics of convenience, the choice for the top post has hardly been decided by factors of real grit and merit. Right from V V Giri's election on 'conscience vote' and Sanjeeva Reddy to Zail Singh, trust along with expectations from the would-be candidate has been the decisive factor. Actions speculating he or she may take in the critical time, meaning when the party's interests are in real difficult spot, decide finally. Though it's all meaningless, because often when the trusted person gets the final job of his life, he likes to mark his name as independent, courageous and objective statesman in the history and may well disappoint the earlier hopes of his mentors.
Readers Opinion
Too much to ask for a woman Prez? 1
Comment:Of course a woman could be a Prez of India. But not because women need to prove a point to the men ! Why is any achievement by a woman associated with male bashing? Also a woman should be Prez for the right reasons not based on her gender. And no matter what the tabloids write, a woman is never a prop or a show-piece and her contributions to society have always been ignored--by men and women alike. How many women would actually think a woman is good enough for the job ? And pray tell me how many would NOT say "She can do it. She is just like a man!" Name:rinku mukherjee Location:denver, usa 24 May, 2007 2052hrs IST
Comment:India is a heterogenous country, with views on a single subject ranging from one extreme to the other. Having a woman president is not going to do our country any good as long as our policy makers continue to pursue their divisive politics. So long as our policy makers have a 'conservationist' and 'protectionist' attitude towards women and their affairs, this half of our population is not going to have the strength needed to develop as an equal vis-a-vis their male counterparts. Name:sanjay pandita Location:delhi 24 May, 2007 1650hrs IST
Comment:I totally dig the idea. India could, seriously, use a women president. I think we should jazz things up, in our political system, a little and a women president would be a good idea, for starters. Name:rahul Location:kerela 24 May, 2007 1407hrs IST
Comment:In Greece, a couple of thousand years back, even great people such as Plato and Aristotle, debated in the senate, that whether women were 'humans'. And now, after so many years, having acquired the human status, women are still subjected to doubtful concerns about whether they are talented and skilled enough to do any kind of work, let alone be the president.
Name:rini Location:delhi 24 May, 2007 1359hrs IST
Comment:An excellent, thought provoking article I must say. To be honest, being a woman myself, I dig the idea. More women should think in that direction.
Name:lolita Location:uae 23 May, 2007 1332hrs IST
Tuesday, June 19, 2007
Once, there was a Hindu Nation
13 Jun, 2007 l 1001 hrs,IST, www.timesofindia.com
Tarun Vijay
Nepal used to be the only constitutionally declared Hindu nation on this planet। Last year in a quick change in the state's governance, it removed the word Hindu and became secular। This beautiful country, Shangri-La of the East, and in many ways as charming and scintillating as Kashmir or even better than Switzerland, lost more than 12 thousand lives under a bloody 10-year long 'Maoist peoples' war' which culminated in a joint interim government last May. The first thing that this new set of governors did was to remove the celebrative tag of a constitutional Hindu nation from her name. Very soon after the formation of the new constitutional assembly, they may get rid of the constitutional monarchy system too. With a population of 27.1 million and a life expectancy rate of 62, Nepal's only 46.8 per cent population above the age of 15 can claim some literacy. And all this happened when the constitutional monarchy was in saddle firmly and a democratic movement had taken shape to have 14 Prime Ministers in last 16 years. Still it seemed working better than a direct and dictatorial regime of the King. But the development issues remained mired in growing corruption, nepotism and unfocussed policies with continuous brickbatting within the political parties leading to the growth of a violent Maoist movement that promised a 'revolutionary rule of the proletariat' . It did garner support amongst the rural masses, through selling dreams, guns and a systematic annihilation of the Opposition, thus creating an atmosphere where to be with them was life and to remain aloof meant a bullet. Now they are running the show in Kathmandu. Nobody questions that if there can be a hundred Islamic and Christian nations with their 'Christian or Muslim only' constitutional provisions for their head of the states, and democracy and pluralism can still flourish in a royal Britain with a Church of England taking care of the faith officially and a US president taking oath on Bible without murmurs from citizens belonging to other denominations, why on earth, a lonely Hindu nation was looked up as a threat to democracy and egalitarian values, while it ensured full freedom to all for propagation and practice of whatever they believed in? One can't even imagine a temple in front of the presidential house in Pakistan; leave aside Saudi Arabia, where passengers are not allowed to carry a copy of Gita with them. In its previous avatar as a Hindu nation, Nepal saw the construction of a highrise Jama Mosque facing the Narayan Hitti palace, the abode of the King, traditionally equated with Vishnu. There were madarssas , a regular flow of religious Tablighs from India and Pakistan and always a Muslim cabinet minister in the Hindu kingdom. But the Maoists and their shadow democrats felt that the Hindu nation tag is obscurantist, hence they got rid of it. The key point is whether removing such innocuous labels as Hindu Nation has helped the new regime to move ahead in development and providing security and stability to its people? Has it helped Nepal's ranking amongst the comity of the nations go up as a more progressive, forward-looking and futuristic nation? Or on the other hand, has it demoralised its own majority and demonstrated that to show the Hindu tag means being less progressive? Can a deeply religious Hindu majority land claim this flagellantism as a path to neo nirvana? Known and respected world over for their valour, brilliance and dynamism, Nepalese never felt this low in their glorious history. Everything Maoists and their cohorts have done carries an inseparable and often an overriding hue- hatred for Hindus. They attack Hindu sensibilities and icons freely in the name of 'reforms', 'revolution', 'progress' etc. Their reformist zeal, read changing Hindu traditions through a declared atheist methods, knows no bound only for Hindus, while other religious communities are untouched by it, as if they need no reform. Or are they afraid of their foreign fund-raisers?
So Hindus being a soft target and Indian Hindus proving themselves incapable of helping neighbours, Maoists had enough courage to stop age-old Sanskrit schools in the villages, prohibit Brahmins having shikha (small tuft), targeted only one community –Hindus in their 'war ', desecrated Hindu temples and prescribed beef and buffalo meat to their recruits in the Maoist 'guerilla army'. This has enraged the deeply religious and pious Nepali people but the fear of the gun and a change in the regime, with no organisation willing to take on the violent Maoists, nothing much has come to the fore. Having been a regular to Kathmandu and other distanced areas, this time I found people resigning hopelessly to their fate. They don't talk about the great future any more but lament that perhaps in coming days, relations with India will further sour. The new generation is no more interested in India. They yearn to go to US or Australia and China provides cheaper and easier access to its educational facilities. Previously, India was the hub of Nepal's education and religious instructions. The older generation had received education in Indian colleges and universities and the Nepalese democratic movement got inspiration and strength from Indian friends and connections. No Hindu can complete his essential pilgrimage cycle without visiting Pashupatinath and the temple priest comes from Kerala's Nambudiri community. Nepal's trading and enterprising community overwhelmingly belongs to India's original Marwaris and even the royals trace their lineage to the Rajputana's Shishodia blue blood. Such is the strong cultural relationship between the two nations. Apart from this, the security aspect is too significant to be ignored. It's the most important buffer between India and China. With Nepal's more than ninety per cent population being Hindu, India has a natural bond with this tiny state that is now to be severed by the Maoists for reasons not unknown. Foreign powers see destabilising Nepal as another step to over-stress India -an emerging world power. The first step towards this can be achieved by reinforcing disaffection and hate against India amongst the common people and leaders. Today, thanks to Indian negligence, it pays to speak against India in contemporary Nepal. The younger ones, having no India connection like their forefathers, love to criticise Delhi for everything bad that has happened there. Obviously the Pakistanis and the western Christian donors reap the hate -harvest to their benefit in a war of influence. There was a time when marrying in India was a matter of pride and status. No more now. Recently, Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala's granddaughter married a Bangladeshi Muslim in Kathmandu with such lavish fanfare that it invited a wide-ranging criticism with Maoists boycotting the ceremony and winning further public applause. But as Vivekananda said you can't worship God or save dharma with empty bellies. The malnourished, underdeveloped people cannot be fed on culture and great traditions of the past too long. It's the failure of the monarchists and the democrats both who remained Kathmandu-centric and ignored the pains and anguish of the Nepalese people and their burning issues for too long. The democratic parties do not have charismatic leadership, and hence had to agree on an octogenarian Koirala to head the interim government. Most of the political parties do not dare to reach the rural population for fear of the Maoist attacks and have lost touch with the ground-level workers, who have shifted their loyalties too. After one year of the 'revolutionary change over' in Kathmandu, the people have got only new slogans, clichés and Young Communist League (YCL), whom Koirala described as the Young Criminals League, inviting the wrath of the Maoists in harsh language and burning his effigies. In the last one year, the Royal Nepalese Army had to be rechristened as the National Army, the King's powers were taken away and there was a public scramble for lucrative postings and ministerial berths between Maoists and the other seven-party democratic alliance.
Nepal has not been able to depute a single ambassador in any country, including India, in the last twelve months. The formation of the new constituent assembly has been delayed, the Prime Minister is asked to perform the duties of a head of the state (like administering oath, receiving credentials from ambassadors etc). Even as the 'extortion Raj' of the Maoists continues unabated, their youth wing, Communist Youth League, has become a law unto itself. It 'resolves' citizen's problems, arrests and hands over the 'corrupt' officials and leaders to the police in public meetings, removes illegal encroachments with bulldozers and enforces a 'moral , lawful, honest ' behaviour on the citizens. Maoists want their own old time guerrillas to be incorporated in the Nepalese army, in a move to 'purge' it from the erstwhile royal and hence 'anti-people' influence. The Koirala government has resisted so far because that may create a clash within the army. But the Maoists don't care. In any case, they know that Koirala is a passing phase and after him, they may project Madhav Nepal, the youthful and energetic general secretary of the Communist Party of Nepal, which had earlier been in opposition to the Maoists’ violent methods and has a wide acceptance in India too. Last week he was in India and got virtually a welcome from treasury as well as opposition leaders befitting a 'would-be Prime Minister.' He is seen as the future hope for Nepal by South Block and even BJP leaders accorded him an affectionate welcome, loaded with trust. There are leaders in Nepalese Congress like Chakra Bastola and Deuba, who are promising but have not been given a chance to prove the mettle. The lack of non-political intellectual leadership, immature polity, misplaced revolutionary zeal and a corrupt officialdom have contributed to this mess that offers lucrative market to the foreign vultures with strategic goals. The Terai belt, Madhesh, is burning under a fierce people’s movement on the pattern of Bihar's JP movement against the injustices and discriminatory attitude of the ruling hill elite of Kathmandu. This has emerged cutting across all party lines and has claimed more than forty live in clashes with the police. Madheshi leaders demand development and have threatened to form their own Madhesh parliament and retain revenue within Madhesh boundary. Maoists were quick to sense the mood of the people and one of their leaders, Matrika Yadav, who holds the forest portfolio in the interim government publicly declared that a 'people’s' war ' would be unleashed if Madhesh's problems were not addressed by the Kathmandu government. To whom was he sounding 'revolutionary', people wondered, as he is presently a part and the controller of the governance in Kathmandu. Such hysterical dramas unfold in Nepal every day making the commoner more depressed and disillusioned. The first signs of the decay began appearing long back in the mushrooming number of foreign-funded NGOs. Like Bangladesh, Nepal, too, is fast moving to become an NGC country. Madhav Nepal accepted the inherent dangers in this trend in a talk with me in Delhi and said once their republic gets going; they shall ensure NGOs do not change the character of Nepal taking advantage of poverty and backwardness. He was clearly hinting at the concerns of the Hindu organisations who fear a big harvest 'for Christian proselytizers who have made their presence felt n a big way in rural and less developed areas. Said Rameh Pokhrel, an engineer, who had come from a stint in a US-based firm, “We have fallen from the anarchy of monarchy to Maoist megalomania, with hardly any future. We are angry at India because we had high hopes from you. You did nothing to help us stem the rot, neither your government nor your great Hindu organisations that were seen as clapper boys of the Raja rather than representing the Hindu people’s desire for a change'” From an anarchic Royal rule to another anarchic Maoist regime, that seems to be the fate of this lonely planet once identified as the Hindu kingdom.
Tarun Vijay
Nepal used to be the only constitutionally declared Hindu nation on this planet। Last year in a quick change in the state's governance, it removed the word Hindu and became secular। This beautiful country, Shangri-La of the East, and in many ways as charming and scintillating as Kashmir or even better than Switzerland, lost more than 12 thousand lives under a bloody 10-year long 'Maoist peoples' war' which culminated in a joint interim government last May. The first thing that this new set of governors did was to remove the celebrative tag of a constitutional Hindu nation from her name. Very soon after the formation of the new constitutional assembly, they may get rid of the constitutional monarchy system too. With a population of 27.1 million and a life expectancy rate of 62, Nepal's only 46.8 per cent population above the age of 15 can claim some literacy. And all this happened when the constitutional monarchy was in saddle firmly and a democratic movement had taken shape to have 14 Prime Ministers in last 16 years. Still it seemed working better than a direct and dictatorial regime of the King. But the development issues remained mired in growing corruption, nepotism and unfocussed policies with continuous brickbatting within the political parties leading to the growth of a violent Maoist movement that promised a 'revolutionary rule of the proletariat' . It did garner support amongst the rural masses, through selling dreams, guns and a systematic annihilation of the Opposition, thus creating an atmosphere where to be with them was life and to remain aloof meant a bullet. Now they are running the show in Kathmandu. Nobody questions that if there can be a hundred Islamic and Christian nations with their 'Christian or Muslim only' constitutional provisions for their head of the states, and democracy and pluralism can still flourish in a royal Britain with a Church of England taking care of the faith officially and a US president taking oath on Bible without murmurs from citizens belonging to other denominations, why on earth, a lonely Hindu nation was looked up as a threat to democracy and egalitarian values, while it ensured full freedom to all for propagation and practice of whatever they believed in? One can't even imagine a temple in front of the presidential house in Pakistan; leave aside Saudi Arabia, where passengers are not allowed to carry a copy of Gita with them. In its previous avatar as a Hindu nation, Nepal saw the construction of a highrise Jama Mosque facing the Narayan Hitti palace, the abode of the King, traditionally equated with Vishnu. There were madarssas , a regular flow of religious Tablighs from India and Pakistan and always a Muslim cabinet minister in the Hindu kingdom. But the Maoists and their shadow democrats felt that the Hindu nation tag is obscurantist, hence they got rid of it. The key point is whether removing such innocuous labels as Hindu Nation has helped the new regime to move ahead in development and providing security and stability to its people? Has it helped Nepal's ranking amongst the comity of the nations go up as a more progressive, forward-looking and futuristic nation? Or on the other hand, has it demoralised its own majority and demonstrated that to show the Hindu tag means being less progressive? Can a deeply religious Hindu majority land claim this flagellantism as a path to neo nirvana? Known and respected world over for their valour, brilliance and dynamism, Nepalese never felt this low in their glorious history. Everything Maoists and their cohorts have done carries an inseparable and often an overriding hue- hatred for Hindus. They attack Hindu sensibilities and icons freely in the name of 'reforms', 'revolution', 'progress' etc. Their reformist zeal, read changing Hindu traditions through a declared atheist methods, knows no bound only for Hindus, while other religious communities are untouched by it, as if they need no reform. Or are they afraid of their foreign fund-raisers?
So Hindus being a soft target and Indian Hindus proving themselves incapable of helping neighbours, Maoists had enough courage to stop age-old Sanskrit schools in the villages, prohibit Brahmins having shikha (small tuft), targeted only one community –Hindus in their 'war ', desecrated Hindu temples and prescribed beef and buffalo meat to their recruits in the Maoist 'guerilla army'. This has enraged the deeply religious and pious Nepali people but the fear of the gun and a change in the regime, with no organisation willing to take on the violent Maoists, nothing much has come to the fore. Having been a regular to Kathmandu and other distanced areas, this time I found people resigning hopelessly to their fate. They don't talk about the great future any more but lament that perhaps in coming days, relations with India will further sour. The new generation is no more interested in India. They yearn to go to US or Australia and China provides cheaper and easier access to its educational facilities. Previously, India was the hub of Nepal's education and religious instructions. The older generation had received education in Indian colleges and universities and the Nepalese democratic movement got inspiration and strength from Indian friends and connections. No Hindu can complete his essential pilgrimage cycle without visiting Pashupatinath and the temple priest comes from Kerala's Nambudiri community. Nepal's trading and enterprising community overwhelmingly belongs to India's original Marwaris and even the royals trace their lineage to the Rajputana's Shishodia blue blood. Such is the strong cultural relationship between the two nations. Apart from this, the security aspect is too significant to be ignored. It's the most important buffer between India and China. With Nepal's more than ninety per cent population being Hindu, India has a natural bond with this tiny state that is now to be severed by the Maoists for reasons not unknown. Foreign powers see destabilising Nepal as another step to over-stress India -an emerging world power. The first step towards this can be achieved by reinforcing disaffection and hate against India amongst the common people and leaders. Today, thanks to Indian negligence, it pays to speak against India in contemporary Nepal. The younger ones, having no India connection like their forefathers, love to criticise Delhi for everything bad that has happened there. Obviously the Pakistanis and the western Christian donors reap the hate -harvest to their benefit in a war of influence. There was a time when marrying in India was a matter of pride and status. No more now. Recently, Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala's granddaughter married a Bangladeshi Muslim in Kathmandu with such lavish fanfare that it invited a wide-ranging criticism with Maoists boycotting the ceremony and winning further public applause. But as Vivekananda said you can't worship God or save dharma with empty bellies. The malnourished, underdeveloped people cannot be fed on culture and great traditions of the past too long. It's the failure of the monarchists and the democrats both who remained Kathmandu-centric and ignored the pains and anguish of the Nepalese people and their burning issues for too long. The democratic parties do not have charismatic leadership, and hence had to agree on an octogenarian Koirala to head the interim government. Most of the political parties do not dare to reach the rural population for fear of the Maoist attacks and have lost touch with the ground-level workers, who have shifted their loyalties too. After one year of the 'revolutionary change over' in Kathmandu, the people have got only new slogans, clichés and Young Communist League (YCL), whom Koirala described as the Young Criminals League, inviting the wrath of the Maoists in harsh language and burning his effigies. In the last one year, the Royal Nepalese Army had to be rechristened as the National Army, the King's powers were taken away and there was a public scramble for lucrative postings and ministerial berths between Maoists and the other seven-party democratic alliance.
Nepal has not been able to depute a single ambassador in any country, including India, in the last twelve months. The formation of the new constituent assembly has been delayed, the Prime Minister is asked to perform the duties of a head of the state (like administering oath, receiving credentials from ambassadors etc). Even as the 'extortion Raj' of the Maoists continues unabated, their youth wing, Communist Youth League, has become a law unto itself. It 'resolves' citizen's problems, arrests and hands over the 'corrupt' officials and leaders to the police in public meetings, removes illegal encroachments with bulldozers and enforces a 'moral , lawful, honest ' behaviour on the citizens. Maoists want their own old time guerrillas to be incorporated in the Nepalese army, in a move to 'purge' it from the erstwhile royal and hence 'anti-people' influence. The Koirala government has resisted so far because that may create a clash within the army. But the Maoists don't care. In any case, they know that Koirala is a passing phase and after him, they may project Madhav Nepal, the youthful and energetic general secretary of the Communist Party of Nepal, which had earlier been in opposition to the Maoists’ violent methods and has a wide acceptance in India too. Last week he was in India and got virtually a welcome from treasury as well as opposition leaders befitting a 'would-be Prime Minister.' He is seen as the future hope for Nepal by South Block and even BJP leaders accorded him an affectionate welcome, loaded with trust. There are leaders in Nepalese Congress like Chakra Bastola and Deuba, who are promising but have not been given a chance to prove the mettle. The lack of non-political intellectual leadership, immature polity, misplaced revolutionary zeal and a corrupt officialdom have contributed to this mess that offers lucrative market to the foreign vultures with strategic goals. The Terai belt, Madhesh, is burning under a fierce people’s movement on the pattern of Bihar's JP movement against the injustices and discriminatory attitude of the ruling hill elite of Kathmandu. This has emerged cutting across all party lines and has claimed more than forty live in clashes with the police. Madheshi leaders demand development and have threatened to form their own Madhesh parliament and retain revenue within Madhesh boundary. Maoists were quick to sense the mood of the people and one of their leaders, Matrika Yadav, who holds the forest portfolio in the interim government publicly declared that a 'people’s' war ' would be unleashed if Madhesh's problems were not addressed by the Kathmandu government. To whom was he sounding 'revolutionary', people wondered, as he is presently a part and the controller of the governance in Kathmandu. Such hysterical dramas unfold in Nepal every day making the commoner more depressed and disillusioned. The first signs of the decay began appearing long back in the mushrooming number of foreign-funded NGOs. Like Bangladesh, Nepal, too, is fast moving to become an NGC country. Madhav Nepal accepted the inherent dangers in this trend in a talk with me in Delhi and said once their republic gets going; they shall ensure NGOs do not change the character of Nepal taking advantage of poverty and backwardness. He was clearly hinting at the concerns of the Hindu organisations who fear a big harvest 'for Christian proselytizers who have made their presence felt n a big way in rural and less developed areas. Said Rameh Pokhrel, an engineer, who had come from a stint in a US-based firm, “We have fallen from the anarchy of monarchy to Maoist megalomania, with hardly any future. We are angry at India because we had high hopes from you. You did nothing to help us stem the rot, neither your government nor your great Hindu organisations that were seen as clapper boys of the Raja rather than representing the Hindu people’s desire for a change'” From an anarchic Royal rule to another anarchic Maoist regime, that seems to be the fate of this lonely planet once identified as the Hindu kingdom.
Wednesday, June 6, 2007
TOI online-The Spine and the state
The Times of India -
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Tarun_Vijay/articleshow/2102049.cms
The spine and the state
6 Jun, 2007 l 0913 hrs ISTl
Tarun Vijay
If you have it, keep it straight. One can choose to live like a barnacle but to claim leadership needs a different mettle. Bangladesh sent back our jawan's dead body on bamboo poles, a dreaded terrorist was flown out of the country with more than state honours - a minister accompanied him to ensure his safe escape, the Chinese have refused a visa to one of our IAS officers and claim Arunachal Pradesh in spite of keeping the farce of negotiations on border disputes on, and now the Army, which protects the Kashmiri people, has been slapped with a fatwa by a nondescript petty mullah who thought that the people couldn’t accept the force's benevolence. This is an insult that the Army has been made to swallow in the name of secularism, which means kowtowing before Muslim separatism and arrogance. Recently, Afzal's hanging was postponed to make strange quarters happy and now a Muslim cleric's fatwa against the Army's efforts to renovate and repair mosques in Jammu & Kashmir has been taken with a silent acceptance which means simple and straight cowardice. The Army represents the state power, people's faith and the nation's honour. Soldiers give their blood and life for the cause of the motherland and since the British times they have been maintaining a number of shrines and places of worship belonging to all faiths without any discrimination. They are the best icons of religious brotherhood and amity. In Ladakh, I have seen the Army help restore many a Buddhist monasteries. In fact, a fabulous gurudwara on the Indus banks came up because of the Army, and is still meticulously maintained by them. It has always been a matter of pride for the faithful that the Army is behind them and is taking care of their shrines. That the mullah in the Valley chose to rebuff the Army's benevolence is a slap on the face of the Indian state, as these are the same mullahs who never ever complained or issued fatwas when the dreaded terrorists took shelter inside their mosques, stayed put in their shrines and even charred them, like Charar-e-Sharif to malign the Army or create further communal strife. The mullahs were silent when the terrorists formed violent outfits in the name of Islam like Lashkar-e-Toiba, Jaish-e-Mohammad and killed innocent men women and children. No fatwa was ever issued against such heinous criminal acts done in the name of Islam.
When the blood thirsty gun totters were holed up in the Hazratbal, the stress was not on killing the traitors but to safeguard the shrine at 'any cost' and none, repeat none of the Mullahs from the Valley or the mainland issued a strong statement against the 'boys' who, to the reasonable, desecrated a place of faith. Now, when the Indian Army took it upon itself, under a false impression that their good work will get some nice return gifts in the form of loyalty to the nation and social harmony, plus a positive attitude towards the sentinels of our frontier, the mullah issued a fatwa against its helping hand. Such acts, which have not been condemned by any Muslim cleric from the mainland, also help expose the separatist tendencies grown on poisonous minds against India in the Valley. A couple of years back I was the guest of GOC, 15 th corps in Srinagar and saw the wonderful work they were doing under Operation Sadbhavna (meaning goodwill). The Army, under great stress facing a guerilla war of the Islamists in the Valley, decided to win the hearts of the local populace by helping them in their day-to-day life. They built schools, dispensaries, co-operatives, bus stands and veterinary hospitals. They also distributed free medicines and started special sewing and embroidery training centres for the womenfolk to earn extra. It was an unbelievable sight. Muslim men and women were all praise for the Army's noble intentions and a gesture unheard of so far. This kind of goodwill in a state where all the terrorists are Muslims, where Hindus have been forced to leave their homes and hearth and take shelter in Jammu as refugees, where the other minorities, the Buddhists, have been bitterly complaining about the discrimination being practiced by the Srinagar regime against them based on religion, also posed a question. Can you win the hearts of a people fed on separatism and hate through simple gestures of goodwill, without bothering to see the problem in its holistic form? Is the reason of separatism in the Valley economic backwardness or hate based on some ideology of the Islamists? Can a few hospitals and schools change the attitude? Or the firmness of the state with a commitment to spread and propagate Indian values and education and extension of all the laws and constitutional provisions to the Valley will give a better message helping national integration? When I had toured many a remote place in the Valley where Op Sadbhavna was in full swing, it showed a real genuine urge by the military top brass to win the hearts of the people through providing economic and educational infrastructure. Hundreds of girls were being imparted a composite training package in vocational training centres within a schedule of one year which included various skills like tailoring, knitting, carpet weaving, computer training and a comprehensive education package for the enhancement of their qualification.
The Army undertook a massive adult education drive to set up one Adult Education centre in each Army unit's area of responsibility, thus aiming at educating at least a batch of 3,600 non-literate women between the age of 18 and 35 in an 8-month cycle. Rural electrification in selective areas was undertaken including the village irrigation and anti-drought schemes. Village cooperatives in poultry farming, vocational training for unemployed youths, resources centres for mentally and physically challenged, orphanages, hostels for boys, cultural fusion by mass community participation and the revival of local culture, traditions including horse polo and archery was initiated under the guidance of the Army. Did it give positive results anywhere? See a press report about Operation Goodwill ( Sadbhavna ) released by AFP a few years before. It reported, ' nowhere in the world any army has ever done so much of development and social integration work that was done by jawans in Kashmir. But somehow, Kashmir continues to remain in the clutches of a 20-year-old Pakistan supported anti-Indian insurgency that has left 65,000 people dead by the official count, Separatists put the count at between 80,000 and 100,000. [Agency France Press, September 14, 2003] Misplaced benevolence is as meaningless as misplaced anger. The Indian army must be having better things to accomplish than to help an unwilling mullah's mosque or spend money like water in the sand dunes. At the same time it's the total failure of the Muslim intelligentsia to address this factor amongst the Muslims in the Valley that has further weakened the position of those who advocate a rational approach based on love and understanding. The best goodwill gesture that the Army can present is to ensure safe and honourable return of the Kashmiri Hindus back to their homes, which still are deserted and mostly have been illegally occupied by the Muslims thinking that the Pandits will never come back. Such embarrassments, like a fatwa on Operation Sadbhavna , also show the failure of the politicians who control the movements and actions of the Army and force its ill-considered decisions to be implemented by an obedient and disciplined force. The Indian state can't be left at the mercy of those who value their term in office more important than the long-term interest of the nation. If a state can't force corrections on the dishonest and unrepentant aggressor and protect the self-pride of its loyal citizens, it loses the moral authority to rule.
Monday, June 4, 2007
TOI online-Martha's Maryland
Printed from
The Times of India
In Martha's maryland - false gods flower
30 May, 2007 l 0919 hrs ISTlTarun Vijay
SMS NEWS to 8888 for latest updates
In Jammu, a centre in the memory of Barrister Narendrajit Singh of Kashmir houses a small hostel for girls of the Valley who have lost their parents in terrorist violence. Last month I met a little girl, with a twinkle in her eye, who had seen her brothers and parents getting slaughtered before she fell unconscious. The killers came shouting the name of Allah and glory to Islam.
She was reading the life of Buddha under her teacher Pankaja didi and showed no resolve for a violent revenge against those who killed her world when she was just six. But she remembered everything and just before we sat for supper, she asked, “Uncle, why did they kill my papa and mummy and bhaiya ?”
Officially, more than 60,000 Hindus have been killed in the bloody jihad waged more vigorously since 1990 in Jammu and Kashmir. Seventy temples destroyed and five lakh Pundits forced to leave their homes, orchards and schools in the Valley because they were served notices that either they leave behind their women and property or be ready to get killed.
Those who see women as a property to be "owned" and "used" and have unleashed a reign of terror across the globe have suddenly found a friend and a sympathiser from surprisingly unexpected quarters - Harvard. Martha C Nussbaum, who is best described in a line that contains the word Harvard University, has used all her skills and brilliance to attack Hindus of India in her recently-published, though yet-to-be-released book, The Clash Within : Democracy, Religious Violence, and India's Future.
Right from the first paragraph she has packed lies, utter lies and convenient half-truths to help her predetermined position and to hide the fact that she was unable to find time to study relevant and original source material except those churned out by the extreme hate groups of the Left and jihadi variety.
The Hindus on Sabarmati Express -- 58 women, children and men -- were pilgrims in their own right, and even an illiterate would know that Hindus do not go to Ayodhya for a singular mission to build a temple at the birth place of Rama, but that Ayodhya has been a great holy city since time immemorial even to those who opposed rebuilding a temple where the Babari mosque was erected.
In a paragraph describing Godhra, she has ended up virtually supporting the charring of the living Hindus in the compartment for their unsubstantiated "sin" of getting into "arguments with Muslims passengers and vendors" at a previous station. It's the same arguments one listens to in Pakistan justifying Osama's act of 9/11 citing America's aggressive anti-Muslim arrogance.
She conveniently forgets that silence over Godhra was too deafening and the violent reaction to it resulting in the Gujarat riots was condemned by all, and hundreds of Hindus were also killed in it. Was their death ignorable and merit no mention just because they had the 'H' and not 'M' ? Why on earth must we distinguish between the death of an innocent Hindu and an innocent Muslim?
She quotes a book by Golwalkar to reinforce her hate agenda against a particular group. A book which was never written by him and was discarded by the RSS in the early sixties. The RSS condemned the Gandhi murder, we feel Godse did more harm to the Hindu cause by that heinous act. Gandhi was one of the highest adorable role models for us and millions of Hindus in the RSS chant his name first thing in the morning in a prescribed prayer.
But the facts are sacred to only those who would like to see them.
The biggest perpetrators of violence and hateful campaigns are the jihadis and the left wing extremist groups in India who have, with single-minded zeal, targeted the Hindus for the last five decades. The Indian government is spending billions of dollars to contain Islamic and Left-wing terrorism in six most populous states. The number of Hindus killed by these two groups exceeds the total number of Indian troops killed during the First and Second World Wars and the India-China and Indo-Pakistan wars put together.
Since India was partitioned and Independence declared, it's Hindus who have been losing their space and lives. They lost temples and universities teaching spiritual and religious practices in Pakistan and Bangladesh, they lost their numerical strength which is constantly on a decline in the entire subcontinent. The Hindus have been savaged, brutalized and annihilated in the most horrendous manner since 1947 - see the chronicles of Mujaffarabad, Rawalpindi and Dhaka. Facing jihadis in Kashmir and Maoists and NSCN (fighting a terrorist battle to create an independent Nagaland for Christ) in the heartland and north-east, Hindus may be the only people on this planet who are wounded yet blamed for the hurt themselves making the pain more excruciatingly intolerable.
The real fear for Indian democracy comes from the elite who refuse to see the anguish and hurt of the Hindus who have remained friendly and faithful to their Muslim and Christian fellows in spite of the barbarities in the name of their respective faiths. So Gujarat was not repeated elsewhere in India though Hindus were equally hurt after Godhra. Every Sohrabuddin or Kausar Bi, whatever their history, gets a strong rights group with Hindus leading, to defend them, though we have yet to find a single Muslim group standing up for Kashmiri Hindus or the victims of Godhra.
Shah Rukh, Amir, Azim Premji or Irfan get the same appreciation and respect in a Hindu home that the Ambanis, Mittals, Dravids or Bachchans get and a Shahnawaz is elected by Hindu right-wing voters from Bhagalpur.
Yet, a metro would be diverted to safeguard the Qutub Minar and a Taj Mahal corridor stopped for protecting the environment around the great marble wonder but the greatest memorial to the Hindu god of righteousness and noble virtues, the Ram Setu, which defines the most valuable heritage site mankind can have, is sought to be destroyed. A Hindu holy man of highest stature is arrested while worshipping in the thick of Diwali night but the same state power refuses to execute a non-bailable warrant against a Muslim cleric citing law and order problems.
Hindu schools are compelled to declare themselves a non-Hindu minority to protect their institutions, like the Ramakrishna Mission, the greatest-ever Hindu reformist movement had to do, but Muslims are given special rights, privileges, subsidies and reservations in jobs and educational institution . It pays to be a non-Hindu in this Hindu majority nation, yet Harvard hate centre's Martha loves to describe Hindus as the most violent threat to our democracy.
The best of the Hindu minds form the most respected and revered community globally - no matter what the flag of their adopted nation is. They prove as patriotic and faithful to their nation as any other indigenous group. And they are the most dynamic supporters of the Hindu right Martha fears so much.
They are unlike the hate support groups of the Martha hue, who are stubbornly opposed to a different view point and try to Stalinise their actions against them - through humiliation, isolation, delisting and blacklisting, all in the name of "protecting democracy, free speech and tolerance"! They support an artist's right to paint a nude Jesus showing some liquid from his penis dropping in the W.C. and a Hindu goddess killing a fully-grown man coming out of her womb, but refuse to give the right to say ' no' to people who find it too offending and filthy.
Martha has written what she loved to write and not what can also be described as an objective intellectual discourse. It's too one-sided and outweighs the ground realities. Hindu groups, of various right hues are the only section describing the oneness of the supreme god and have given best of their ambassadors like Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, Mata Amritanandmayi, Pramukh Swami (Swaminarayan ), Pranav Pandya of Gayatri Pariwar and Swami Ramdev, who have addressed the European parliament, Karachi audiences, British knights, Manhattan and Silicon Valley wizards and Iraqi citizens with a message of love and amity.
And they are the ones who have not minced words in their full support to a temple at Ram's birth place in Ayodhya. We are the same Hindu right flock Martha paints in bad colours for reasons known to her.
Positioning falsely to kill is a bad intellectual habit. So if Hindu leaders like K S Sudarshan hold a large congregation of Muslims in Ajmer and get applause, should it be ignored? If Hindu groups, the "right wing" RSS of course, celebrate the 150th anniversary of 1857 in the Mecca Mosque in Fatehpuri, Delhi has it to be pooh-poohed as a sham exercise? If Hindu and Muslim groups start a dialogue and come closer, should it be welcomed or its spirit condemned? It's for Martha Nussbaum to think about it.
Being a Hindu means having respect for a different faith and not just tolerance. Hindus never believed in conversions and "harvesting seasons" for the heathens and pagans. One had to be born in a Hindu family to be a Hindu. It's only in the early last century when Swami Dayananda saw the threat from Christian proselytizers acting under the protection of the British, that he allowed re-conversions or the shuddhi movement (purification act to bring back the faithful back home).
A pain is a pain no matter what signatures of the God the body bears. The worst kind of communalism is that which segregates the responses on the basis of the victims' faith or colour. And the worse violence is through words based on untruths. Martha has succeeded in excelling in the art of hurting Hindus more than the jihadis could achieve.
We are not like Americans or the Europeans who have made the lives of Muslims a hell post-9/11.One has to see how a Muslim is treated in Martha's land at the airport, offices and in public places. They can't even dream to climb up the ladder in any sphere.
We are different, or accommodating and respectful to a different viewpoint. A Muslim head of the state was supported and made possible by the same Hindu right groups whom Martha describes as the threat to democracy. And while selecting an appropriate candidate in that period, another strong contender that emerged with the Hindu right support was a Christian, who lost the race because a Christian political leader refused to support him for fear of losing the claim to the Prime Ministership.
This happened not because of any act of benevolence, but we earnestly believe that every Indian no matter what his or her faith, is one of us; we share the same ancestors, language, race, culture and future.
Unfortunately the kind of writings that Martha and her friends have produced make Hindus feel more threatened and many of them feel compelled to Islamise their responses. That's the threat we face today from the false gods of Harvard. Left to ourselves we are quite capable of defending democracy and civil values so painstakingly preserved and practiced over the last 5,000 years.
Readers Opinion
In Martha's maryland - false gods flower
1
Comment:Great ... I had read your other article in Panchjanya also. Infact We are really very proud of you that there is one person in Negative English Media who fevour Hindu Theory , Understand it.
Name:kalpana
Location:rajkot
31 May, 2007 1438hrs IST
The Times of India
In Martha's maryland - false gods flower
30 May, 2007 l 0919 hrs ISTlTarun Vijay
SMS NEWS to 8888 for latest updates
In Jammu, a centre in the memory of Barrister Narendrajit Singh of Kashmir houses a small hostel for girls of the Valley who have lost their parents in terrorist violence. Last month I met a little girl, with a twinkle in her eye, who had seen her brothers and parents getting slaughtered before she fell unconscious. The killers came shouting the name of Allah and glory to Islam.
She was reading the life of Buddha under her teacher Pankaja didi and showed no resolve for a violent revenge against those who killed her world when she was just six. But she remembered everything and just before we sat for supper, she asked, “Uncle, why did they kill my papa and mummy and bhaiya ?”
Officially, more than 60,000 Hindus have been killed in the bloody jihad waged more vigorously since 1990 in Jammu and Kashmir. Seventy temples destroyed and five lakh Pundits forced to leave their homes, orchards and schools in the Valley because they were served notices that either they leave behind their women and property or be ready to get killed.
Those who see women as a property to be "owned" and "used" and have unleashed a reign of terror across the globe have suddenly found a friend and a sympathiser from surprisingly unexpected quarters - Harvard. Martha C Nussbaum, who is best described in a line that contains the word Harvard University, has used all her skills and brilliance to attack Hindus of India in her recently-published, though yet-to-be-released book, The Clash Within : Democracy, Religious Violence, and India's Future.
Right from the first paragraph she has packed lies, utter lies and convenient half-truths to help her predetermined position and to hide the fact that she was unable to find time to study relevant and original source material except those churned out by the extreme hate groups of the Left and jihadi variety.
The Hindus on Sabarmati Express -- 58 women, children and men -- were pilgrims in their own right, and even an illiterate would know that Hindus do not go to Ayodhya for a singular mission to build a temple at the birth place of Rama, but that Ayodhya has been a great holy city since time immemorial even to those who opposed rebuilding a temple where the Babari mosque was erected.
In a paragraph describing Godhra, she has ended up virtually supporting the charring of the living Hindus in the compartment for their unsubstantiated "sin" of getting into "arguments with Muslims passengers and vendors" at a previous station. It's the same arguments one listens to in Pakistan justifying Osama's act of 9/11 citing America's aggressive anti-Muslim arrogance.
She conveniently forgets that silence over Godhra was too deafening and the violent reaction to it resulting in the Gujarat riots was condemned by all, and hundreds of Hindus were also killed in it. Was their death ignorable and merit no mention just because they had the 'H' and not 'M' ? Why on earth must we distinguish between the death of an innocent Hindu and an innocent Muslim?
She quotes a book by Golwalkar to reinforce her hate agenda against a particular group. A book which was never written by him and was discarded by the RSS in the early sixties. The RSS condemned the Gandhi murder, we feel Godse did more harm to the Hindu cause by that heinous act. Gandhi was one of the highest adorable role models for us and millions of Hindus in the RSS chant his name first thing in the morning in a prescribed prayer.
But the facts are sacred to only those who would like to see them.
The biggest perpetrators of violence and hateful campaigns are the jihadis and the left wing extremist groups in India who have, with single-minded zeal, targeted the Hindus for the last five decades. The Indian government is spending billions of dollars to contain Islamic and Left-wing terrorism in six most populous states. The number of Hindus killed by these two groups exceeds the total number of Indian troops killed during the First and Second World Wars and the India-China and Indo-Pakistan wars put together.
Since India was partitioned and Independence declared, it's Hindus who have been losing their space and lives. They lost temples and universities teaching spiritual and religious practices in Pakistan and Bangladesh, they lost their numerical strength which is constantly on a decline in the entire subcontinent. The Hindus have been savaged, brutalized and annihilated in the most horrendous manner since 1947 - see the chronicles of Mujaffarabad, Rawalpindi and Dhaka. Facing jihadis in Kashmir and Maoists and NSCN (fighting a terrorist battle to create an independent Nagaland for Christ) in the heartland and north-east, Hindus may be the only people on this planet who are wounded yet blamed for the hurt themselves making the pain more excruciatingly intolerable.
The real fear for Indian democracy comes from the elite who refuse to see the anguish and hurt of the Hindus who have remained friendly and faithful to their Muslim and Christian fellows in spite of the barbarities in the name of their respective faiths. So Gujarat was not repeated elsewhere in India though Hindus were equally hurt after Godhra. Every Sohrabuddin or Kausar Bi, whatever their history, gets a strong rights group with Hindus leading, to defend them, though we have yet to find a single Muslim group standing up for Kashmiri Hindus or the victims of Godhra.
Shah Rukh, Amir, Azim Premji or Irfan get the same appreciation and respect in a Hindu home that the Ambanis, Mittals, Dravids or Bachchans get and a Shahnawaz is elected by Hindu right-wing voters from Bhagalpur.
Yet, a metro would be diverted to safeguard the Qutub Minar and a Taj Mahal corridor stopped for protecting the environment around the great marble wonder but the greatest memorial to the Hindu god of righteousness and noble virtues, the Ram Setu, which defines the most valuable heritage site mankind can have, is sought to be destroyed. A Hindu holy man of highest stature is arrested while worshipping in the thick of Diwali night but the same state power refuses to execute a non-bailable warrant against a Muslim cleric citing law and order problems.
Hindu schools are compelled to declare themselves a non-Hindu minority to protect their institutions, like the Ramakrishna Mission, the greatest-ever Hindu reformist movement had to do, but Muslims are given special rights, privileges, subsidies and reservations in jobs and educational institution . It pays to be a non-Hindu in this Hindu majority nation, yet Harvard hate centre's Martha loves to describe Hindus as the most violent threat to our democracy.
The best of the Hindu minds form the most respected and revered community globally - no matter what the flag of their adopted nation is. They prove as patriotic and faithful to their nation as any other indigenous group. And they are the most dynamic supporters of the Hindu right Martha fears so much.
They are unlike the hate support groups of the Martha hue, who are stubbornly opposed to a different view point and try to Stalinise their actions against them - through humiliation, isolation, delisting and blacklisting, all in the name of "protecting democracy, free speech and tolerance"! They support an artist's right to paint a nude Jesus showing some liquid from his penis dropping in the W.C. and a Hindu goddess killing a fully-grown man coming out of her womb, but refuse to give the right to say ' no' to people who find it too offending and filthy.
Martha has written what she loved to write and not what can also be described as an objective intellectual discourse. It's too one-sided and outweighs the ground realities. Hindu groups, of various right hues are the only section describing the oneness of the supreme god and have given best of their ambassadors like Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, Mata Amritanandmayi, Pramukh Swami (Swaminarayan ), Pranav Pandya of Gayatri Pariwar and Swami Ramdev, who have addressed the European parliament, Karachi audiences, British knights, Manhattan and Silicon Valley wizards and Iraqi citizens with a message of love and amity.
And they are the ones who have not minced words in their full support to a temple at Ram's birth place in Ayodhya. We are the same Hindu right flock Martha paints in bad colours for reasons known to her.
Positioning falsely to kill is a bad intellectual habit. So if Hindu leaders like K S Sudarshan hold a large congregation of Muslims in Ajmer and get applause, should it be ignored? If Hindu groups, the "right wing" RSS of course, celebrate the 150th anniversary of 1857 in the Mecca Mosque in Fatehpuri, Delhi has it to be pooh-poohed as a sham exercise? If Hindu and Muslim groups start a dialogue and come closer, should it be welcomed or its spirit condemned? It's for Martha Nussbaum to think about it.
Being a Hindu means having respect for a different faith and not just tolerance. Hindus never believed in conversions and "harvesting seasons" for the heathens and pagans. One had to be born in a Hindu family to be a Hindu. It's only in the early last century when Swami Dayananda saw the threat from Christian proselytizers acting under the protection of the British, that he allowed re-conversions or the shuddhi movement (purification act to bring back the faithful back home).
A pain is a pain no matter what signatures of the God the body bears. The worst kind of communalism is that which segregates the responses on the basis of the victims' faith or colour. And the worse violence is through words based on untruths. Martha has succeeded in excelling in the art of hurting Hindus more than the jihadis could achieve.
We are not like Americans or the Europeans who have made the lives of Muslims a hell post-9/11.One has to see how a Muslim is treated in Martha's land at the airport, offices and in public places. They can't even dream to climb up the ladder in any sphere.
We are different, or accommodating and respectful to a different viewpoint. A Muslim head of the state was supported and made possible by the same Hindu right groups whom Martha describes as the threat to democracy. And while selecting an appropriate candidate in that period, another strong contender that emerged with the Hindu right support was a Christian, who lost the race because a Christian political leader refused to support him for fear of losing the claim to the Prime Ministership.
This happened not because of any act of benevolence, but we earnestly believe that every Indian no matter what his or her faith, is one of us; we share the same ancestors, language, race, culture and future.
Unfortunately the kind of writings that Martha and her friends have produced make Hindus feel more threatened and many of them feel compelled to Islamise their responses. That's the threat we face today from the false gods of Harvard. Left to ourselves we are quite capable of defending democracy and civil values so painstakingly preserved and practiced over the last 5,000 years.
Readers Opinion
In Martha's maryland - false gods flower
1
Comment:Great ... I had read your other article in Panchjanya also. Infact We are really very proud of you that there is one person in Negative English Media who fevour Hindu Theory , Understand it.
Name:kalpana
Location:rajkot
31 May, 2007 1438hrs IST
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