Jo Yuddh Se Darte Hain- Jansatta column

Warriors and that savage country

The Times of India.com

http://blogs.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/indus-calling/entry/warriors-and-that-savage-country

Tarun Vijay

15 January 2013, 03:39 PM IST

The Army Day being celebrated today gives an extraordinary message in the prevailing circumstances. Surrounded by unfriendly countries, app  7 thousand kms of undecided border, two hostile nuclear powers and a savage army on our western front that keeps India bleeding in a cowardly, jackal like fashion.
 
Bravo to Gen Bikram Singh, who took up the cudgels and at last spoke the language India wanted to hear.
 
While the ministers remained mired in a myth of fake peace making, letting the soldier and the patriotic people down, Gen. Bikram Singh made it clear that the warriors are in no mood to take the barbarism of Pakistan lying down.

It was shocking for a nation to see that immediately Minister of External Affairs contradicted the army chief, in fact admonished him publicly. A report says -‘Despite Indian Army chief General Bikram Singh 's tough talk on Pakistan over ceasefire violations on the Line of Control (LoC) the government looks in no mood to indulge in confrontation with Islamabad. Downplaying Army chief's warning to Pakistan, External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid said on Monday that the government did not want the peace process to get derailed.’
 


The peace process of the pusillanimous rulers has become another threat to the national security apart from what Pakistan poses to us. What peace process? With whom? And at what cost?
 
Isn’t the soldier’s dignity and Izaat foremost for us?
 
Who were the two soldiers, beheaded by the savage Pakistani army and whom did they belong to? Does this government feel any affinity with those who die for the nation? This political state apparatus shows feelings for or fears only the media reports and their impact on its public image. Those leaders who run to pay homage to even an octogenarian politician, who might have been thoroughly corrupt and died due to illness, never found time to pay homage to the martyred soldiers at the time of their last rites.  It was only when the media reported their absence with scathingly harsh comments and the family members of Lance Naik Hemraj sat on hunger strike, the chief minister of the state rushed to the spot and met the bereaved family. And well, the union govt. announced bravery awards to be given on the Republic Day.
 


So phony it all looked, so insincere.
 


Another worthy minister from UP ‘Ram Karan Arya said that the demand of the family for the severed head of martyr Lance Naik Hemraj Singh was petty.
 
Such politicians would have received harshest possible reprimand from the people in any country, but alas, we have been tolerating such small people at top positions far too long.  When we see how President Obama salutes and pays homage to the dead soldiers, often reproducing finest words from Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address, and saying the martyrdom of the soldiers would give "A New Birth of Freedom", the Indian leaders talk to the media in a lackadaisical, ‘matter of fact’ manner that lacks commitment.
 


We have leaders who lead us in just pettiness and failures often demoralizing the warriors. They don’t find just the right words to boost the morale of the soldiers because they never speak from their hearts when they are speaking to the warriors. For them they are just another class of employees, who serve for a salary.
 
Then why do we observe Army Day every year with such fanfare, gaiety and somberness?
 
Isn’t this is the day to remind the warriors that the entire nation stands with them, they are our most honoured defenders of Motherland and their honour and dignity is the foremost in the eyes of the people and the State? This day in 1948 Lieutenant General K. M. Cariappa became the first Indian Commander-in-Chief. Hence the observance of 15th January every year to salute the valiant soldiers. 
 


Is this the way we should be doing it?



The soldiers who have shown extraordinary courage and perseverance in the oddest of all situations, who stand guard at -80 degree Celsius at Siachin, who have fought to the last bullet and the last man, in 1962, 1965, 1971 and the Kargil wars, who have a family tradition preserved for the last many generations, in some cases 10 to 15 generations, to join the forces and fight for the Matribhumi, the holy Motherland, deserve much better.
 
They live as a soldier and die as a soldier. Still they, the warriors of the nation, the protectors of our lives and land, do not find a voice from the government who would swear to the nation to take revenge on the unrepentant wicked and the savage.

Surely a government that oscillates to build a war Memorial to the martyrs even after six decades of a great legacy of the warriors,  is capable of showing such a defeatist attitude. And to rub salt on the wound, when the army chief says something that he should be saying, the minister contradicts him publicly and issues a self-defeating statement on the day when soldiers celebrate Army Day.
 
Nobody in India wants a war or provokes the neighbor to get wild. It is the sham secular Anglicized brown sahibs who use insultingly the word’ jingoistic’ for the voices of patriotism. 

Since we got our truncated freedom, we have been relentlessly trying to be more than reasonable and make peace with the neighbors. But immediately after we saw the day of ,‘tryst with destiny’, Pakistan attacked in September 1947. Then the Kutch skirmish, followed by 1965, 1971, Kargil, supporting and encouraging Khalistani terrorism under their ‘thousand cut’ policy, Kashmir separatism and terrorism infiltration into our territory, continuing with terrorist training camps, ISI’s operations in South and the NE, fake currency attacks, inviting Chinese PLA to POK, a territory claimed by us… what is left anymore that needs us to say- come what may we shall continue with our peace initiative?
 


Pakistan government has proved hundreds of times that it is dishonest, liar, and a unreliable dialogue partner. India gave them Most Favored Nation status way back, 16 years before. They are still mulling to return the favor. We took bus to Lahore, welcomed the butcher of Kargil at Agra, give invitations enveloped in fat packets of dollars to them to come and participate in our conclaves in Delhi, still they refuse to help in our probe against terror, remain blind to our substantial evidences, keep the terror kingpins safe in their lap and behead our soldiers.
 


Carry on Mr Minister. May be next time you may think to hold a Qawwali programme in Islamabad to please them and change their heart!!
 
Ram is celebrated and revered not because he left Sita with Ravana saying freeing her would mean war and I am a peacenik, hence returning Ayodhya, sacrificing my consort for the sake of a higher goal, the peace.
 
We do not celebrate Dusshera for the last thousands of years because Ram didn’t punish an unrepentant wicked Ravana. Each of our gods has punished the bad, the ugly and the savage. Each of our heroes, whether Vikramaditya,  Guru Govind Singh, or Shivaji or the Chola kings have shown that they can fight and annihilate the agents of barbarism.
 
If our peace initiative receives beheaded bodies of our sons, it’s a sin not to swear and say, we shall avenge it.

My Gairsain Declaration released at the sacred place of Uttarakhand struggle, Gairsain on 13th January 2013

Our beheaded soldiers: What would Swami Vivekananda have done?

http://www.rediff.com/news/column/our-beheaded-troops-what-would-vivekananda-have-done/20130114.htm

Our beheaded soldiers: What would Swami Vivekananda have done?

Tarun Vijay

January 14, 2013 17:46 IST

To me, admiring Vivekananda also means being aggressive against those who have wronged us, especially those who are unrepentant like Pakistan, says Tarun Vijay.

While celebrating the 150th birth anniversary of the rebel monk Swami Vivekananda on January 12, 2013, shouldn't those who claim to be his followers and those who say they admire him, think what that 'cyclonic Hindoo monk' would have done to Pakistan if he were alive today?

He was the ochre-robed Sanyasi, a monk, who never delineated nation from Dharma. For him the nation was the embodiment of the living deity, Durga.

Like Sri Aurobindo, who conceptualised Mother India as Bhawani Bharati, Vivekananda stood for the rejuvenation of India and hence he represented the greatest heroes of our nation in Guru Gobind Singh and Shivaji.

With a razor-sharp intellect, he hit hard at those who derided India and her community. He challenged them, admonished them, used hard language against them, but kept the honour and dignity of India And Indians high.

He never yielded, never compromised on such issues. For him, it was a sin for a sanyasi seeking his own moksha, salvation, and remaining aloof from his environment. And so was for other civilians who took shelter under a discriminating ritualistic Dharma that was ruthless and inhuman to other humans on the basis of caste, creed or province.

He must be looked at now after what is happening today.

A martyr's body, a soldier of the Indian army [ Images ], who was barbarically beheaded, is brought to his hometown and none from the political echelons attends his last rites. The mother of the martyred soldiers wails in vain.

None from the higher circles is there to console her, wipe her tears and say, 'O mother, your son sacrificed his life for the motherland, the entire nation shares your grief, please be proud of your brave son.'

Why do we live?

We live to find people who can be a part of our joys and sorrows. A mother who has lost her son needs consolation.

None was available.

Maybe because she was not a celebrity, or the political rulers felt that it wouldn't bring them votes or media projection.

Fie on them! They are better dead than to be controlling our destinies.

Even when a politician, however corrupt or wrong he might have been in his active life, dies because of a prolonged illness in his cozy bed at home, everyone rushes to pay tribute to him; lying through their teeth as they attribute the best virtues to his departed soul.

But we don't show even an iota of respect for our dead soldiers.

If Vivekananda were alive, would he have remained a silent spectator to this scenario saying he is a monk, and that his occupation is to do penance in the Himalayas?

The Kargil [ Images ] war saw such savagery. In an analysis, it is stated that 'Fidayeen attacks began after the Kargil war, which had its share of barbarity. Pakistani soldiers in the Kaksar sector captured a six-man patrol led by Captain Saurabh Kalia. Kalia and his men were tortured for 22 days, executed, and their mutilated bodies handed back to the Indian Army.'

Captain Kalia's father is fighting a lone battle for his dead son's honour in the international human rights body.

A report, published in the wake of the 'head-hunter' savages of the Islamic republic of Pakistan, says, 'In July 2011, the Indian Army hushed up the brutal killing of Havildar Jaipal Singh Adhikari and Lance Naik Devender Singh of the Rajput regiment [ Images ] in Kupwara district. Their bodies were sent to their families in Uttarakhand [ Images ] in sealed caskets as they were 'badly mutilated' and cremated as such. Their deaths were attributed to a firefight with militants along the border.'

What happened after that?

Absolutely nothing.

The news, the real story behind it, the wailings of the parents of these soldiers was all forgotten and the media too found new topics and moved ahead.

It's true that Pakistan has inherited the legacy of the barbarian savages, who talk sweetly at the table, but show their fangs once they are back in their homestead.

Backstabbing and lying, getting sold to the highest bidder in the dollar market, obeying serf-like to the powerful and becoming ruthless to the seemingly weak are their peculiar characteristics.

The Americans killed Osama bin Laden [ Images ], threw more dollars and kept them satisfied. During Pervez Musharraf's [ Images ] time, the Washington Post published a caricature showing him as a dog licking the shoes of his master Uncle Sam. Musharraf showed some anger, but again boot polished his masters at Capitol Hill once he was given more dollars.

One can deal with such mafiosi governance, where, like Somalian pirates, none knows who the real decision maker is.

But here is a government which has even shamed the word 'pusillanimous'.

On a television channel when I asked if there was one person in India who would not demand revenge against Pakistan and Lashkar-e-Tayiba [ Images ] founder Mohammad Saeed's head, the honourable minister, representing the Government of India said, 'This is not the way a nation is run.'

I said, 'Please tell us Sir, how is it run? If you feel this demand is a bad one, why did India want Saeed to be extradited? To give him a rousing welcome or to send him to the gallows? And if I am too harsh, would you go for a mushaira in Islamabad [ Images ] to further effect a change of heart?'

India is still not considering the withdrawal of the Most Favourable Nation status to Pakistan; neither is the government thinking about an economic blockade against Pakistan; and South Block is still not considering unleashing an international campaign to expose Pakistan's inhuman savage legacy since 1947.

Living in the land of Guru Gobind Singh and Shivaji and behaving like cowards will not help.

To me, admiring Vivekananda also means to be aggressive on the wrong doer, especially against those who are unrepentant like Pakistan.

A nation that cannot express its anger and swear revenge when their sons return mutilated; even the gods will refuse to save such a spineless Republic.

Tarun Vijay is a member of the Rajya Sabha; member, Parliamentary Standing Committee on External Affairs, national spokesperson for the Bharatiya Janata Party, and honorary director, Dr Syama Prasad Mookerjee Research Foundation, New Delhi

The world's greatest Hindu saint, Pujya Pramukh Swami blesses my Hindi book-Man Ka Tulsi Chaura

Pujya Pramukh Swami at Shahi Baugh, Amdavad, Swaminarayan Temple, with my book Man Ka Tulsi Chaura

Seeking blessings from Pujya Doctor Swami

Speaking to the devotees 

Pujya Mahant Swami blessing the book

Pujya Mahant Swami holding my book and showing to the devotees as a mark of release and blessings

Pujya Pramukh Swami of the Swaminarayan sect is revered the world over as the highest representative of the Hindu faith. at 92, he still moves around and blesses his folowers. Swaminarayan sect is today undoubtedly the greatest reformist and futuristic flow of Hinduism. On 6th january 2013, the youth wing of Swaminarayan BAPS celebrated its 60th anniversar. I had the honour of being invited for this great event and the global head of the Swaminarayan, Pujya Pramukh Swami, inspite of indisposition, came out , holding my book in his pious hands and blessing it. earlier Pujya Doctor swami and Mahant swami had blessed the book and i had that rarest of rare opportunity to speak to thousands of devotees who had gathered on that occasion. here are some pictures of that day.