Here is a wonderful site where you can lodge any grievance related with govt. departments.
site address: http://www.pgportal.gov.in/
Thursday, April 9, 2009
Monday, March 30, 2009
Family legacy and the Varun effect
Those who opposed the Ayodhya temple movement, wore silence over the plight of Kashmiri Hindus, damaged the Ram Sethu and denied Lord Rama ever existed, denied the violence at the Godhra railway station, and embraced the butchers of 1984, are collectively gunning at Varun Gandhi's political life।
Column after column by Padma Shris in the media have created an atmosphere where supporting Varun has become a sin. Why? The simple reason is that the farmhouse of Gandhi-Nehru politics has been broken and a scion of the family chose to speak out as his conscience directed.
More than what Varun said or didn't say, it is the hurt and bewilderment over the loss of a Gandhi to the saffron brigade that has made the media and anti-Hindutva politicos react with such venom and acid. He was not heard, not given a chance to present his case, nor did forensic experts examine the so-called proof in the form of a CD containing his speech.
Varun has suddenly dwarfed the media-supported Rahul।
Column after column by Padma Shris in the media have created an atmosphere where supporting Varun has become a sin. Why? The simple reason is that the farmhouse of Gandhi-Nehru politics has been broken and a scion of the family chose to speak out as his conscience directed.
More than what Varun said or didn't say, it is the hurt and bewilderment over the loss of a Gandhi to the saffron brigade that has made the media and anti-Hindutva politicos react with such venom and acid. He was not heard, not given a chance to present his case, nor did forensic experts examine the so-called proof in the form of a CD containing his speech.
Varun has suddenly dwarfed the media-supported Rahul।
Monday, March 16, 2009
Advani, Manmohan lead race for India's PM
General Elections 2009 are still to be notified but the race for the top job has already hotted up. Who will be the next prime minister of India is perhaps now an even bigger question than which alliance will emerge victorious these elections. The re-emergence of the Third Front this week means that there are now several contenders for the top post. CNN-IBN takes a look at the prime minister aspirants.Will Manmohan Singh be the king again or will L K Advani's dream come true at last? Will Mayawati get to move into 7 Race Course Road or will Sharad Pawar from Maharashtra materialise? What are the chances of Rahul Gandhi or Sangh Parivar poster boy Narendra Modi? Will they have to wait till 2014? Will a dark horse emerge this time - Bihar strongmen Nitish Kumar and Lalu Prasad? Or is there someone else waiting in line?
To try and answer these questions on the panel of experts were political commentator Inder Malhotra; Editor-in-Chief Outlook Vinod Mehta; former editor Panchajanya and Director of the Shyama Prasad Mukherjee Research Foundation Tarun Vijay; and Political Editor Telegraph Manini Chatterjee; Editor Thuglak Cho Ramaswamy (L to R) Manini Chatterjee, Tarun Vijay, Rajdeep Sardesai, Vinod Mehta, Inder Malhotra.For complete coverage-see-http://ibnlive.in.com/news/advani-manmohan-lead-race-for-indias-pm/87709-37-single.html
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
Aspire and Assert
The Times of India
6 Mar 2009, 1115 hrs IST,
Tarun Vijay
Let the people take over the spirit of the Red Fort and declare from its ramparts: "Honourable leaders, having cheated us for the last six decades and made politics a business of scoundrels, for once give India her due in the form of a nation-centric polity beyond family lords and stinking mafiosi of castiests, extortionists and murderers."
India certainly deserves a better lot to be elected members of a parliament which saw shameful scenes last time when a nuclear deal was being pushed to win the vote.
It’s meaningless to boast of our most ancient civilization, culture and values if we see what we have today. Bragging about a past that has no bearing on our behaviour today is worse than running after a mirage. Only the insecure get into it. Even if you forget all the great leaders of the past and stop reading their memoirs and prescriptions for the nation’s ills but keep a straight spine to live for India’s better future with honesty and transparency that would suffice. We will surely build new leaders but for once please strive to free your beloved nation of those who have survived far too long on peoples' lethargy and inaction.
A Hindu nation never cared who wrote the Vedas, how they were revealed or conceived and who authored the Upanishads. The only element that made us survive the vicissitudes of history was the strength to live the ideals and values that were worth living for this nation called Bharat Varsha.
We have been electing representatives who hardly have an idea of the nation they are tasked to protect and help flower. They have no sense of history, a history of our people and civilization, and do not any idea why we had to go through too many assaults by foreigners and how we were able to resist them so valiantly for centuries. Yet why has speaking about it has become a matter of hesitation for the neo-scholarship? We insult retired decorated soldiers when they are forced to agitate for a mere uniformity in pensions and scales though the lawmakers increase their salaries astronomically at the fag end of the session. That’s our patriotism.
Elect India this time. People who would try sincerely to make for the lost years of development and raise the value of our citizenship. It must be a matter of great confidence and pride to be an Indian citizen. Leaders and the administration must look at our people with respect and love, which we lack completely today as the nation is still run on British laws and the colonial attitude. No police reforms, no electoral corrections, no administrative changes in the environment of governance. The same hateful arrogance is seen in the bureaucrats and ministers who get a chance to find a seat of power. The way an officer of Emergency fame and thoroughly partisan was chosen, and supported by a section of the media and politicians, to handle elections, ignoring the advice of a man of integrity, speaks volumes of the depths we have fallen to.
Bribing is a matter of routine, piling of files is a thumb rule, small measures of publicity like increasing Haj subsidy or providing Ganga Jal on Shivratri become great milestones of political achievements while primary schools, village health centres and energy and water resources management are left to the mercy of sidelined ministers. The "profitable" departments are coal, mining and rural development, which are less checked and monitored but have enough meat to enjoy. We have a media whose brilliance comes to the fore in trivialities like the Mangalore pub incidence and which is completely hooked to Washington-London mania. We forget that for India the Middle East, Asia and especially East Asia with China taking a natural prominence are the regions that weigh more than anything else.
East is our natural constituency of diplomacy which is nurtured by age-old affinities. Similarly, at home we ignore the northeast. More than English, we must emphasize on learning Japanese and Chinese. That’s the future, not the US. It’s no use saying Hindus were ever a proselytizing religion. Declare with a truly Indian confidence that this world would be a better place to live if it follows the Hindu way of life and send missionaries of Hinduism to make people appreciate the Vedic way of a happy and mutually respectful society. Be a proud missionary yourself and take some inspiration from the times when Asoka the great, who has given us our national motif, sent his son to spread the message of Dharma. Why hesitate now? But we have learnt to live with all wrongs like we lived calmly during the British colonial period. Only a handful, less than 5%, participated in the freedom struggle. That’s the bare bitter truth. Should we not wake up even now?
Should our personal egos and likings be a deciding factor, or in a critical time like this can we rise above them and decide?
I was at Allahabad University sometime ago to address a students’ convention and have a Q&A session that ran for more than two hours in the Deligacy campus. They all wanted change. Give us clean rivers, easily available drinking water (since the advent of the mineral-water bottle culture, which is neither mineral water nor safe ones, one quipped), get rid of illiterate priests and a mindset that feels ashamed at just and rightful Hindu assertions that teaching Vedas is considered a Hindu, and hence, a communal and discardable act. They were enamoured with the youth chant but wanted a leadership that has a spine. In the evening the octogenarian leader of Vishwa Hindu Parishad Shri Ashok Singhal invited me to join a discussion on the agenda for Arundhati-Vashishtha Trust he has created to disseminate the scientific and Indic civilisational knowledge among the people. When we were leaving he said: "It’s time to forget our internal differences for the sake of greater unity among Hindu nationalists." We will be sinning if driven by personal egos, we work to defeat our own ilk. An India led by an Indian nationalist whom we know would be preferable to one led by a lady of a foreign origin.
If that happens we will finally have a post-Nehruvian raj that is more connected with the soil and people's aspirations. Is it too much to ask to have cleaner and honest members of Parliament who would ensure better roads, bridges, primary schools, women’s empowerment and a scheduled caste-scheduled tribe upsurge that will take our nation miles ahead and unshackle us from the redundant ritualism and caste-based differences and atrocities.
Why can’t we have, unhesitatingly the best models of pilgrim centres and temple management that cater to the needs of the young and mobile and do not resist any new reform? Let us have a leadership with spine that will make India the strongest military power on earth without any apologies.
After all, we have a burden on our shoulders to keep India free from traitors and terrorists and defend borders with a few unfinished vows to be completed as directed by the unanimous resolutions of Parliament. The platform people, with one leg abroad and one in the stinking wealth in Swiss accounts can’t do that. Let a new Chanakya create a Chandra Gupta to uproot the denationalized politicians and give us hope.
चुनाव भारत-भाग्य बदलने का दुर्लभ अवसर
चुनाव भारत-भाग्य बदलने का दुर्लभ अवसर हैं -
पूरी तरह राष्ट्रीय हितों के प्रति समर्पित राजनीतिक नेतृत्व की जरूरत हैं
पार्टी और विचारधारा को तिलांजलि देकर राजनेता चुनाव की इस तरह तैयारियां कर रहे दिखते हैं मानो भारत की संसद में प्रवेश राष्ट्र पर छाए संकटों के समाधान के लिए नहीं, बल्कि व्यक्तिगत ऐश्वर्य और सत्ता सुख में हिस्सेदारी के लिए हो। जिस प्रकार टिकटों की बिक्री और चुनाव खर्च के लिए इकट्ठा किए जा रहे धन का ब्यौरा सामने आ रहा है उससे तो यही अंदाजा लगता है कि देश अभी भी उन राजनेताओं की प्रतीक्षा में है जो चुनावी अखाड़े को पूंजी निवेश का लाभप्रद क्षेत्र मानने के बजाय अपने हितों को दांव पर लगाते हुए राष्ट्रीय हितों को आंखों में धारण कर सत्ता के सूत्र संभालेंगे। भारत विभाजन के बाद से आज तक राजनीति दुराचरण के धब्बों से कलंकित रही है। 1947 में जब भारतीय सैनिक कश्मीर पर अचानक धोखे से हुए पाकिस्तानी हमले झेल रहे थे तो लंदन में तत्कालीन उच्चायुक्त कृष्णामेनन से जुड़ा जीप घोटाला हुआ। फिर मूंदड़ा कांड, नागरवाला और बोफोर्स कांड, सुखराम मामला, चारा घोटाला, तहलका, पनडुब्बी खरीद, गेहूं आयात घोटाला जैसे प्रकरण राजनेताओं की साख पर आंच डालते रहे।
एक ओर सामान्य नागरिक दुनिया भर में अपनी व्यक्तिगत मेधा और निपुणता के बल पर भारतीय पहचान को श्रेष्ठता का सर्वोच्च स्थान दिला रहे थे और भारतीय कंपनियां विश्वविख्यात ब्रांड अधिग्रहीत कर रही थीं तो दूसरी ओर राजनेता बोरियां भर-भर कर नोट इकट्ठा कर अपनी आत्मा के बजाय तिजोरी के निर्देश पर भारतीय संसद में सांसद धर्म निभाने का परिदृश्य उपस्थित कर रहे थे। क्या ऐसे टिकाऊ और बाजारू लोगों के सौदों पर टिकी सरकार चुनना राष्ट्रहित में होगा? जिस देश की प्रजा अपने शासक को चुनने में लापरवाही बरते या उसका चुनाव जाति, भाषा और धनबल के प्रभाव की कसौटी पर करे, क्या उसका कभी अच्छा परिणाम निकल सकता है?
कुछ ऐसी स्थिति पिछली शती के प्रारंभ में ब्रिटेन में थी, जब हाउस आफ लार्ड्स की सीटें नीलाम हुआ करती थीं। फिर भी वहां की जनता ने अपने देश, काल और परिस्थिति के अनुरूप स्वयं को बदला और एक ऐसे प्रजातंत्र का ढांचा मजबूत किया जो राज-वंश भी परंपरागत रूप से जीवित रखे हुए है और जहां प्रखर राष्ट्रवाद हर नीति को निर्देशित करता है। अमेरिका और चीन भी भले ही परस्पर अत्यंत भिन्न समाज हों, लेकिन अपने देश को दुनिया में सबसे श्रेष्ठ, समृद्ध और शक्तिशाली बनाना वहां की राजनीति का मुख्य धर्म परिलक्षित होता है। भारत के सामने आसन्न चुनावों ने यह चुनौती उपस्थित की है कि जनता ऐसे सांसदों को चुने जो राष्ट्र-धर्म के प्रति सजग और प्रतिबद्ध हों। दुर्भाग्य से वर्तमान चुनाव पद्धति में सिर्फ जीतना ही एकमात्र कसौटी है, चरित्र और गुण का स्थान यदि कभी आया भी तो बाद में आता है। फलत: ऐसे सांसद चुने जाते हैं जिन्हें न अपने देश के इतिहास का ज्ञान होता है, न भूगोल का और न ही राष्ट्रीय संघर्ष के विभिन्न सोपानों से वे परिचित होते हैं। वे भूल जाते हैं कि उनसे पहले भी अनेक मंत्री हो चुके हैं, जिनमें से कोई भी अपने धनबल और असीम ऐश्वर्य के कारण यशस्वी नहीं हुआ। केवल पैसा और पद कभी प्रतिष्ठा नहीं दिला सकते।
जिन लोगों को सत्ता के लिए ईस्ट इंडिया कंपनी के बाबू और रायबहादुर बनने में शर्म नहीं आई, वैसे ही लोग आज विदेशी हितों और विदेशी मूल के नेतृत्व के सामने झुककर राष्ट्रीयता दांव पर लगा रहे हैं। जिस देश में पांच लाख देशभक्त नागरिक निर्वासित कर दिए गए हों, जहां एक करोड़ से अधिक विदेशी अवैध घुसपैठिए वोट बैंक राजनीति का संरक्षण पा रहे हों, जहां शासक को पुलिस, प्रशासन और चुनाव पद्धति में सुधार की कोई आवश्यकता ही महसूस न हो, बल्कि ब्रिटिश काल के कानून आज भी देश में लागू हों, ऐसे देश में यथास्थिति के दब्बूपन के बजाय जन-विद्रोह के परिवर्तनकारी स्वर बुलंद होने चाहिए। देश को ऐसी राजनीति चाहिए जो शत्रु के प्रति निर्गम और प्रतिशोधी हो, जो देश को सैन्य दृष्टि से विश्व में सबसे सबल बनाने के लिए प्रतिबद्ध हो तथा नि:संकोच भाव से अपने अगल-बगल के क्षेत्र पर ऐसा प्रभुत्व स्थापित करे ताकि वहां की अराजकता और तालिबानी शरारतों का हम पर असर न पड़े। चारों ओर से पाकिस्तान, नेपाल, बांग्लादेश और श्रीलंका जैसे असफल और अराजकता ग्रस्त देशों से घिरे भारत को आंतरिक और सीमावर्ती शांति के लिए ऐसा सैन्य और कूटनीतिक प्रभुत्व स्थापित करना ही होगा जिसे देखकर विरोधी भयभीत रहें। आज तो पाकिस्तान और बांग्लादेश ही नहीं, श्रीलंका व नेपाल तक हमारी सुरक्षा और संवेदना की कद्र नहीं करते।
चीन के बढ़ते क्षेत्रीय विस्तार के प्रति राजनीतिक दलों में कोई दीर्घकालिक सर्वसम्मत चिंतन ही नहीं है। तीस करोड़ से अधिक भारतीय आज भी गरीबी रेखा से नीचे पशुवत जीवन बिताने पर विवश हैं। गत दस वर्षों में दो लाख किसान आत्महत्याएं कर चुके हैं। खेती में रासायनिक खाद और जीन अंतरित बीज के जहर फैल रहे हैं। देश की कृषि योग्य भूमि पर सिनेमा, होटल और कारखाने लगाने की अनुमति देकर अमीरों को और ज्यादा अमीर तथा भूमिपति किसानों को स्लमडाग बनाया जा रहा है। ऐसे ही सांसद फिर चुने जाएं तो किस प्रकार के भारत का वे निर्माण करेंगे? भारत एक ऐसे नेतृत्व की प्रतीक्षा में है जो सबसे बड़ा तीर्थत्व गुण और शक्ति संचय में माने, जिसके प्रेरणा केंद्र और मन भारत में हों, जो दरिद्रता निवारण और विज्ञान-प्रौद्योगिकी प्रसार को देवालय निर्माण जैसा महत्वपूर्ण माने, जिसके सर्वोच्च आराध्य भारत के नागरिक हों। वर्तमान चुनाव हमें भारत भाग्य बदलने का दुर्लभ अवसर दे रहे हैं-एक ऐसा भारत भाग्य विधाता चुनें जो सच में जन-गण-मन का अधिनायक बन सके।
क्या हम परिवर्तन के लिए तैयार हैं?
Monday, March 9, 2009
Elect those who choose India as life force
Elect those who at least know a little bit of India and love her people. A leader that wouldn't hesitate to serve from South Block even if it means incurring personal monetary loss, but inspiring newcomers to stand and live proudly on their earnings through labour and merit. Living on peoples' money must come to an end. Forget the temples, mosques and churches for a while and just concentrate on two basic factors, removing illiteracy and bringing every fellow Indian above the poverty line with a one-year period as deadline. It has to be on a real war footing to make up for the losses due to a lethargic, vision less and self-serving leadership.Turn Eastward, learn Japanese and Chinese. Explore India in Far East and South and make England in India an obscure,forgettable dream.Trust me, we can do it if we have the will. Have courses in science, mathematics, engineering and technology upgraded, spread out and quality marked. We terribly lack in the manufacturing sector because there is not enough engineering talent available.
The last 100 years has seen India shrinking to half and the Hindu population being overwhelmed by a demographic invasion that hates to see Hindu dominance in any sphere of life. And we fight over sackfuls of currency notes as we saw during trust vote on the nuke deal and are busy winning votes through dramas like a night's stay in a Dalit home.
There are those who still believe that Pakistan will, or it can, or it may become brotherly to us. Perhaps Uncle Sam, now Chacha Obama, will help.
Even Gods refuse to help such worms.
And they must have the sinews to expand militarily unabashedly. India must show a will and the power to control her region. State policy makers must be clear in their mind that sometimes revenge is the only word the enemy understands and why must we not avenge the brutal killings of our patriotic citizens?
Rediff.com
http://www.rediff.com///news/
Elect those who choose India as life force
Tarun Vijay
March 09, 2009 | 17:37 IST
Surrounded by failed States and terror dens, India needs a strong leadership that will not hesitate to take punitive action against the erring State or non-State 'player' and organise the strength to withstand a spillover. Wars and inner conflicts are not won with machines. You got to have a heart that's firm and courageous. The war machine's role is secondary.
India was never so vulnerable and foolishly spineless as it stands today. Not because we do not have the power to defend our people and land but because of a leadership that's a delight of the alien invaders and petty boat infiltrators. Our leaders join politics to earn money and sell conscience -- they have no credentials except to boast of a family name or caste and muscle power. We have a galaxy of non-political leadership but that too boot polishes the nincompoop rulers in search of reflected glory. These holy men and women are so detached from the realities of their nation's pains and agonies that they go on a six-month long world tour for establishing peace in Palestine and Iraq and show off their pictures in the galleries of the United Nations as proof of their expanding influence. And surely they get quite a number of gullible people to believe they are great.
And we are increasingly surrounded by a Nepal, once a Hindu nation and now a threat for Hindu survival. We have a Pakistan and Bangladesh that have bled us continuously for the last three decades of intermittent terror wars -- Khalistan, Operation Topac, the jihad in Kashmir and the ignominious forced exodus of Kashmiri Hindus.
We have lost more than 60,000 Indians in terror attacks directly sponsored and encouraged by Pakistan -- whether its army or Inter Services Intelligence or the sheepish conspiratorial silence of their leaders, only the naive would make a difference and absolve the culprits. The simple arithmetic is that Pakistan, a creation of intense hate against Hindus, has always felt a sadistic pleasure at our discomfiture. It's the very basic element of Pakistan that has not let us live in peace since August 14, 1947.
But we refuse to see history and continue to lose geography.
Post-1947, we have lost more than 1.25 lakh square kilometres of land to Pakistan and China and Indian Parliament had passed a unanimous resolution to take the lost land back.
But not a single political party would dare to mention in its election manifesto that if voted to power it would strive its hardest possible to implement Parliament's resolve.
Why?
Cats would remain cats unless they are born as tigers.
The last 100 years has seen India shrinking to half and the Hindu population being overwhelmed by a demographic invasion that hates to see Hindu dominance in any sphere of life. They have vanished from Kabul, Balochistan, Pakhtunistan, Multan and Dhaka, humiliated in Kathmandu, killed, converted and incapacitated in Sri Lanka, turned invisible in Sindh, Rawalpindi, Lahore and Chittagong, driven out of their last bastion in the saffron valley and increasingly reduced in Nagaland, Arunacahal, Mizoram and Jammu. And we fight over sackfuls of currency notes as we saw during trust vote on the nuke deal and are busy winning votes through dramas like a night's stay in a Dalit home.
That's India of today -- reduced to an Orwellian play by murderers and bribe-seekers who are again seeking an entry to Parliament by investing huge chunks of money.
There are those who still believe that Pakistan will, or it can, or it may become brotherly to us. Perhaps Uncle Sam, now Chacha Obama, will help.
Even Gods refuse to help such worms.
Elect those who at least know a little bit of India and love her people. A leader that wouldn't hesitate to serve from South Block even if it means incurring personal monetary loss, but inspiring newcomers to stand and live proudly on their earnings through labour and merit. Living on peoples' money must come to an end. Forget the temples, mosques and churches for a while and just concentrate on two basic factors, removing illiteracy and bringing every fellow Indian above the poverty line with a one-year period as deadline. It has to be on a real war footing to make up for the losses due to a lethargic, vision less and self-serving leadership.
Trust me, we can do it if we have the will. Have courses in science, mathematics, engineering and technology upgraded, spread out and quality marked. We terribly lack in the manufacturing sector because there is not enough engineering talent available. Even the best of engineering colleges are facing a serious dearth of proper faculty and it results in less than appropriately equipped students. It's good to see a number of technology and engineering colleges, institutes and private universities that have sprung up in most of the cities and metros that must be the envy of even a developed nation. But are they really providing what they announce and do they have the right kind of facilities and infrastructure to produce credible graduates confident enough to start a swadeshi enterprise of world class standards?
If a post-World War America, Japan and Europe can rebuild their ravaged countries into models of modern development and human endeavour, why can't we? Why can't we set our own goals and standards that must make the most developed nation too follow us? Swami Vivekananda said all expansion is life and all contraction is death. Barring politics, we have shown the world the extraordinary capabilities and the astounding acumen to achieve the impossible in recent years. It happened, as is said, in spite of bad politicians. Let a new crop of good politicians take over Parliament and change its fossilised and stinking contours to a vibrant new hope commensurate with the professionalism being exhibited by Indians elsewhere.
And this is not at all age related but only needs a mind and heart that works for the nation.
And they must have the sinews to expand militarily unabashedly. India must show a will and the power to control her region. We are bled because of a meaningless large-heartedness that makes jihad factories on both sides of our territory send mercenary self-destructionist lunatics who kill and maim and destroy our people and city life. Bangladesh and Pakistan have got to be brought to their senses through instilling fear in them, a genuine and serious one. They have to be made to think twice before being silent or encouraging an anti-India terror policy. State policy makers must be clear in their mind that sometimes revenge is the only word the enemy understands and why must we not avenge the brutal killings of our patriotic citizens?
Hence choose those who choose India as their life-force and not just a platform for money making and dying like dirt. The choice is yours to practice in the coming elections.
Tuesday, March 3, 2009
This planet needs Hindu ethos
CNN-IBN (ibnpolitics.com)
Tarun Vijay
The only place on this planet that the Hindus can rightfully claim they belong to is Hindustan or India. And the only people on this earth who feel hesitant to speak for their dharma or the basic identity too are Hindus. In Indian politics, run and financed by the Hindu majority, taking up Hindu issues means an extra effort to stand and face the charges too acidic. It pays to be a non-Hindu in a Hindu majority Hindustan, frankly.
That's the new order, which has to be exposed and dismantled if India has to survive.
There are hundreds of them. Mostly post-graduates, engineers, MBAs, fresh IITians and doctors of philosophy, who have left the lure of the lucre and chose to work in the remote regions of the Andamans, Changlang, Diphu, Aizawl and the Nilgiri hills. From Wynad to Wakho and Leh to Lalganj, there is not a single block or tehsil or district where various workers and organisations inspired by the RSS are not active. For the first time in the history of this nation, a non-monastic order of the socially dedicated young men and women has taken roots which puts the nation before everything else, work like a sanyaasi without an ochre robe. They run village development projects, water harvesting and production of bio-foods and hospitals and schools and slum-area service projects. One such organisation, Vidya Bharati, has become the largest academic institution without government help having more than one lakh teachers and twenty-four lakh students in literally every nook and corner of the nation. B.M.S has claimed a membership of 84 lakhs, to be the biggest labour organisation of the land. Amongst students, teachers, politicians, religious clergy, doctors, and even visually-challenged people, RSS-inspired organizations are active and moving fast to get the top slot.
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
Has the war on terror provoked a clash of civilisations?
Jaipur, Jan 26 (IANS) The war on terror has provoked a clash of civilisations, agreed a majority of the 600-odd people taking part in the closing debate of the five-day Jaipur Literature Festival on the sprawling lawns of the Diggy Palace here। The debate on the motion “The War on Terror Has Provoked a Clash of Civilisations” was anchored by television presenter and journalist Barkha Dutt Sunday night। The panellists included journalist-commentator M।J. Akbar, political analyst Swapan Dasgupta, Pakistan-based author Mohammed Hanif, commentator Ashish Nandy, historian-writer Simon Schama, journalist and political activist Tarun Vijay, Paris-based political commentator and India expert Christophe Jaffrelot and author Rajiv Chandrasekaran.
M।J. Akbar, while disagreeing with the motion, struck a patriotic note in keeping with the spirit of the Republic Day Monday।
“I will defend the human rights enshrined in the constitution till death, but those rights apply only to those citizens of the country who swear by the constitution and not to terrorists,” the columnist-political commentator and editor said, denouncing terrorism and its perpetrators।
According to Akbar, the war on terror or “rather war on terrorists”, as he corrected the house, could tie the Muslim world with one ribbon।
“But Islam is singular and Muslims are multiple। People have different dynamic intent and the war on terror, which was coined by former US president George W। Bush, is a clash against civilisation. One must remember that Islam, as a religion, is 1,400 years old, whereas Fascism, which came to the world with Mussolini, is only 90 years old. Why do you blame Islam for the sins of the Muslims?” he argued.
Emotions scaled a high when Tarun Vijay, former editor of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh mouthpiece Panchajanya and director of the Dr Shyama Prasad Mookerjee Research Foundation, switched to a rigid pro-Hindu mode to agree with the motion, saying the war on terror had opened up a clash of civilisations।
“I am and will remain a Hindu। A Hindu civilisation versus the barbarism of the Wahhabis is not a clash, but a defence of the civilisation by one country against fundamentalism. It is an internal clash of the other kind. The war on terror has provoked an introspection in the Hindu society on why we are being killed,” he said.
Wahhabism is a conservative form of Sunni Islam, attributed to Muhammed ibn Abd-al-Wahhab, an 18th century scholar from Saudi Arabia, who advocated that Muslims across the world return to the practices of the first three generations of Islamic practitioners।
Swapan Dasgupta said the war on terror needed to be modified and made more effective so that it does not become a self-fulfilling prophecy because “there is a civilisational schism that already exists”।
Noted historian and writer Simon Schama, the author of the book “The American Future: A History”, felt that the war on terror was a colluded war of convenience and “an empty sententious platitude” coined by Bush।
“It is like a crass B-grade movie that has its roots in the ancient western history which begins with accounts of hatred between the Persians and the Greeks - an irreconcilable detestation between one group of god believers against the other।”
The debate was hosted by Intelligence Squared, a Britain-based public debating society founded six years ago. It also operates in New York and Sydney.
The society attracts high-profile speakers to debates and discourses on current geopolitical and global issues, which are usually broadcast on the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC)। The motion on “War on Terror…” in Jaipur was filmed for NDTV.
The concept of the ‘Clash of Civilisations’ was propounded by American political scientist Samuel J. Hungtinton, whose work “Clash of Civilizations”, a thesis of the post-cold war geopolitical order, changed the way the world looked upon terror. He died Dec 24, 2008.
17th Basanta Milan Function of Rastradeep
'Rastradeep' celebrated its 17th Basanta Milan function on 1st February 2009 at Barabati Stadium Club House in a grand way. Eminent educationist of Orissa Prof. Rajat Kumar Kar and Director of Dr. Syama Prasad Mookerjee Research Foundation Shri Tarun Vijay graced the function as Chief-Guest and Chief-Speaker respectively.
Prof. Kar criticised Minority Appeasement being done in the name of Securism. He also castigated the homosexuality and Gay marriages. He expressed his opposition to modern materialistic life that makes society dehumanised.
Chief Speaker Tarun Vijay paid glowing tribute to the rich history and cultural life of Katak. But he wondered if this cultural and spiritual atmosphere can survive facing external conspiracies to reduce Hindus and the assaults of Jehad . He gave the example of Kabul, Kashmir and Sindhu Valley which were the cradle of Aryan civilization but now they have been turned into playing ground of Islamists. So he warned if Orissa doesnt stand up and spread awakening it will not be possible to safeguard the unique cultural and spiritual life of Orissa . He lauded the role of Rastradeep in making people aware and conscious of their cultural moorings.
The Function was presided over by Dr. Shyam Sundar Mishra. Editor Jagabandhu Mishra introduced the guests and Sub-Editor Shiva Narayan Singh proposed the vote of thanks. On this occasion Director of All India Radio, Joranda Centre Dr. Krutibas Nayak and Editor of 'Samay' Sri Chandrabhanu Pattnaik were felicitated for their contribution in the field of literature and journalism. Various Columinists, best reporter and agents of Rastradeep were also given awards.Sri Tarun Vijay also addressed a meeting at Bhubaneswar on 2nd February, where, readers of Rastradeep had assembled. It was presided over by Sri Jagabandhu Mishra, Eminent journalist Sri Barendra Krushna Dhal speaking as Chief Guest castigated the yellow journalism by a section of media for misrepresenting the Kandhamal episode and tarnishing the image of Orissa. Sri Tarun Vijay said that the Indian cultural, religious places and religious leaders are facing treat. It is a duty of every Indian to save them from the onslaught.He urged for the creation of powerful and proud India.
Prof. Kar criticised Minority Appeasement being done in the name of Securism. He also castigated the homosexuality and Gay marriages. He expressed his opposition to modern materialistic life that makes society dehumanised.
Chief Speaker Tarun Vijay paid glowing tribute to the rich history and cultural life of Katak. But he wondered if this cultural and spiritual atmosphere can survive facing external conspiracies to reduce Hindus and the assaults of Jehad . He gave the example of Kabul, Kashmir and Sindhu Valley which were the cradle of Aryan civilization but now they have been turned into playing ground of Islamists. So he warned if Orissa doesnt stand up and spread awakening it will not be possible to safeguard the unique cultural and spiritual life of Orissa . He lauded the role of Rastradeep in making people aware and conscious of their cultural moorings.
The Function was presided over by Dr. Shyam Sundar Mishra. Editor Jagabandhu Mishra introduced the guests and Sub-Editor Shiva Narayan Singh proposed the vote of thanks. On this occasion Director of All India Radio, Joranda Centre Dr. Krutibas Nayak and Editor of 'Samay' Sri Chandrabhanu Pattnaik were felicitated for their contribution in the field of literature and journalism. Various Columinists, best reporter and agents of Rastradeep were also given awards.Sri Tarun Vijay also addressed a meeting at Bhubaneswar on 2nd February, where, readers of Rastradeep had assembled. It was presided over by Sri Jagabandhu Mishra, Eminent journalist Sri Barendra Krushna Dhal speaking as Chief Guest castigated the yellow journalism by a section of media for misrepresenting the Kandhamal episode and tarnishing the image of Orissa. Sri Tarun Vijay said that the Indian cultural, religious places and religious leaders are facing treat. It is a duty of every Indian to save them from the onslaught.He urged for the creation of powerful and proud India.
Monday, February 23, 2009
Ammi- Jansatta-22 February 2009
vEeh
r:.k fot;
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Friday, February 13, 2009
The new proselytisers
Tarun Vijay
Nandita Das created a stir by scripting and directing Firaaq. It's a soul-stirring movie. The director and the scriptwriter, Nandita has tried to be as honest and candid with the celluloid as her deep-rooted commitment to her political ideology. Terrifyingly impressive was the way she used the silence as a tool to etch her message on the spectators' minds disturbing the perceptional status quo. The actors lived the characters they were explained to represent. And she admits frankly, 'it's a political movie'.
As a filmmaker and a journalist, I would give her full marks for a political statement that has been registered so strongly that this film is going to have better effect than a hundred thousand peoples' gathering.
Surely, more than a movie it's a political statement. She is a person, with strong colours of ideology and she has done what she thought she must do. Firaaq will certainly get rave reviews in the Indian media. Already she has received quite a few international awards, and like Slum dog Millionaire, it has passed the test through firang eyes and hence must be all the more acceptable to the 'progressive secular, peace loving' people here who have a large, global heart and express their feelings in English.
Apart from its technical qualities of cinematography, editing, direction and script it almost convinced me that barbarism begins with Hindus.
There would be a couple of critical articles or comments, if any of the secular press tsar cares to publish them, criticizing the movie on ideological points or for the depiction of the events, which they may find completely wrong and devastatingly hateful. They will forget that this is a political movie that would sell, as the west firang lands needs a Jamal or a Mohsin to be rewarded to help them cover the feelings emerged post nine eleven in the Bush era. Having heard Nandita on the movie and seeing the clips, I too would have converted to her views if the Godhra incident was not vividly clear in my mind.
I would have turned to take Nandita's autographs with a sense of admiration if I had not heard the cries of Seema, whose father, mother and brother were slaughtered with butcher's knife in Doda, before her eyes, when she was barely seven, in the name of a Jihad, my secular friends interpret differently। I tried to ask a question- who were those Hindus killed and brutalized barbarically during Gujarat riots? Its impossible for me to keep mum or justify what happened post Godhra, which saw innocent Muslims being killed so ghastly that no words are enough to express that hurt. The colour of the tears of a mother, whether Hindu or a Muslim are alike. But dividing dead bodies and deciding levels of mourning on the basis of their faith should be as unacceptable as the killings of the innocent citizens. Killing truth and colouring facts must also be called as a pogrom of civility. Nandita has done exactly that. Pray , why? So If I can admire her qualities of script writing and her directorial debut, shouldn't I be expected to appreciate, on the same level of objectivity, the organisational capabilities, commitment to the ideology and the power to motivate-even well educated- as exhibited in the personae of Osama bin Laden? Or should the motive and the message should also be a factor to print our appreciative hymns? And shouldnt the timing she has chosen to release the movie-just before the elections be also noticed and underlined? In fact the secular messengers of new gospel of hate have turned into the aggressive proselytisers setting their worldview as a prerequisite to enter any socio-political or literary regime. They have successfully monopolized the world of various media establishing English as the only vehicle of intellectual discourse thus keeping the doors to higher echelons of elite and decision makers shut to those who belong to the Indian language groups and represent the real ethos of the land. Though to make profits, these very secular groups would sell Bhajans and show religious serials while attacking the very spirit and the protective shields to such a tradition in the very next programme. They can't imagine winning votes with speeches in English or going to the common voter with a wine glass or a beer bottle in their hands. Yet, in their social circuit, they would raise the flag of pub-culture and look at Indian language speaker with the contempt of a British sergeant. Just have a look at the loan forms of the banks. The last paragraph says-those blind, illiterate or signing in a vernacular language must get their signatures attested by someone who knows English. Can this kind of an instruction be tolerated in UK or US for their national languages? Even using the word 'vernacular' for the national languages is a colonial and a derogatory one. But who cares? They look at Indians as slum dogs, are alien to the threads that weave a fabric called India and treat the 'natives' like Kipling's Ramu. So when a Diana came or any other western royalty comes, they are made to cuddle a slum dweller child with a running nose or taken to an orphanage for a photo op-showing western compassion for the underprivileged. Indian Prime Minister would be never asked to give alms to the homeless sleeping on the stairs of St. James in London or offer grants to an NGO in NY working for the victims of child abuse or the teenaged mothers. Compassion must remain virtue of the rich and powerful, you know.
It is this English speaking elite that determines what India must be reading or thinking or how Hindus must be behaving. They read about Hindus through Oxford or Cambridge publishers and show the temerity to sermonize those Hindus who have imbibed their Dharma in their genes and lived every bit of it, making Kumbh melas possible and taking dips in Ganga on the chilling mornings of Kartik and Magh. The secular proselytiser visits Kumbh, not as a devotee but as a photographer to take pictures of bathing Hindu women and sadhus using mobile phones, as if being sadhus they ought to live as cave men. The pictures they wire to press agencies are essentially depict the weird, intoxicated, obscene and the unacceptable face of uncivilized Hindus to the west.
They don't know a bit about our faith, or what Magh, Amavasya or Saptami means. They take Sanskrit degrees in English and tell us, what's the use of such knowledge in today's modern world? To be futuristic means denouncing all that you have preserved since ages. That's an alienated crowd of people with an accent, detached from Indian realities.
They tell us, you bad guys, you demolished our Babri. Yet, not a single political party can dare to promise in its election manifesto that if they are voted to power, they would re-construct Babri over the make shift temple of Ram in Ayodhya. Their influence on the Indian masses is hardly worth noticing, yet their control on media and political power centres make them important and be counted. Their intellectual terror is so overpowering that today most of the national parties in India work execute their proceedings in English. Poor and often unauthorized translations are dished out in Hindi or any other Indian language. The language, idioms and the attitude of this secular English speaking elite, controlling all the control boxes of media, advertisement and governance remains alien to the indigenous fragrances which they dismiss as folk or ethnic contours, only to be enjoyed in a Suraj Kund melas.
The secular code is-abuse and misrepresent the facts about the opponents, use a pub incident in Mangalore more importantly than the anguish and pains of the soldiers demonstrating at Jantar Mantar, turn every news desk and edit control station into Godhra-throttling the other view point, take salaries from those who provide huge donations to cow sheds in Rajasthan yet write columns on the most enjoyable beef in Mumbai. Lynching the other voice and launching pogrom of truth is the hallmark of the Anglicized secular power centers. Unless you convert to their view point and be ready to say 'build a toilet on Ramjanma Bhumi', delete Kashmiri Hindu woes from official list of concerns, forget Godhra victims treating them as expendable waste, ask questions about the motherhood of a Muthalik and front page it giving respectability to the Hon'ble Minister for Shopping and Cosmetics.These are the essentials one must have to get baptized in the brave new secular order.
One isolated incident of the Hindu right would become a globally circulated representative of the Hindu intolerance and terrorism. In fact these seculars are the most intolerant groups who would like to impose their worldview on others and the unyielding would find them charcoaled o their pages.
None of us accepted the way Mangalore happened. Who cares whether Valentine day is celebrated or not. If someone says to me 'happyValentine day', I will just smile and say-same to you. That's it. Those who find it a nice way to feel joy must be free to do so. But why I must say-'yes, the Valentine day is the biggest symbol of love, amity and happiness', and feel elated seeing obscenities on the streets to prove I am an educated modern person? To each one, his one. I must be ready to accept every happy occasion of any colour or faith or stream to smile and send compliments, but should it become as mandatory as a fatwa? If you have a freedom to celebrate a day, don't I have a freedom to express my opinion about it if I find it completely unacceptable to my values? But the secular fundamentalist wont let you have that freedom with his kind of moral policing.
Wait for the day they have turned into a day of Hindu-baiting, and any small time headline seeker would burn a card, or even intimate the media in advance, 'sir, I am burning a card to protect Indian culture, (like they protected our civilisation by beating girls in Mangalore), pl. mera picture lena'. And the entire media would oblige. It is this farce that has to be countered.
But my questions to those who use incidents like Gujarat riots for awards and rubbing salt on Hindu wounds, was -why forget Godhra and Doda and Anantnag and Kishtwar. And the way Maoists' kill commoners and the security persons in Maharashtra and Chattisgarh and 'use' their women cadre. They will never do that. In the case of Kashmiri Hindus, they wont like to earn displeasure of the Jihadi Muslims. And why should they portray Communists, their ideological friends in bad light?
I think it's self-defeating to react to such situations as a complainant. If you feel injustice has been done, prepare to counter the wrongs through legitimate instruments.
Nandita did what she felt was right and did it quite courageously without bothering what the other side would feel. What did you do to present Doda or Godhra to the world? Who stopped any other Indian to make a movie on the pains and sorrows of Seema or to document the desecration of temples in Kashmir and record the woes of Hindus who had to pass through weird massacres like the one we saw at Wandhama?
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Columnists/Tarun-Vijay-The-new-proselytizers/articleshow/4107647.cms
Sunday, February 8, 2009
Why are women always the target ?
Why are women always the target of these social disciplinarians?
Tarun Vijay February 02, 2009
If bra burning was the slogan of feminism in the sixties, should the neo-avatars of Simone de Beauvoir make 'I wanna pub honey,' the slogan of 2009? That too unlicensed, illegal pubs, entertaining under age youngsters to get a better 'high'?
The absurdity of blowing up the Mangalore pub incident can be understood only in one context -- it gave secularists another handle to portray the Hindu right in a light that is so dear to them.
Every media channel and magazine turned a Navin Chawla against ideological adversaries, passionately discussing the Mangalore pub incident and the rights of women, completely ignoring the significant protest rally of retired soldiers in Delhi that demanded equal pensions.
It is the same crowd that eulogised the martyrdom of Hemant Karkare, not because of their respect for soldiers, but because it again gave them a chance to pounce upon the Hindu right.
Mangalore should have got a stern warning by those who govern. If pubs are bad and sinful, legislate and stop them legally. Bad things can't be stopped through petty methods like pickpocketing. Be brave and forthright and stand tall on whatever you think is good for all. Face the criticism with aplomb and respond if you have to. But that needs commitment.
A clear, transparent force that lights and shows a path that is free from a pathologically hypocritical high moral ground. At least politicians of the contemporary variety shouldn't venture in a place that's just not meant for them -- public morality.
But while everyone would like to condemn the incident, the media's attitude must also be analysed. The media blew the incident as if a national calamity had occurred, instigated by the Hindu right and related its thread to Malegaon. The columns and comments on the 'grave threats posed by Hindu extremism' must also be analysed and the real motives exposed.
I am strongly opposed to those who create a meaningless fuss over Valentine's Day or create a nuisance like they did in Mangalore. But the selective memory loss of the secular moral preachers is intriguing when anything of the same variety involves Muslims.
Last month, some zealots in a Mumbai mall beat up a Pakistani Muslim girl. A news report read: 'A Pakistani national, Saba Najam, 22, was roughed up at Hypercity Mall in Malad last Monday after some people spotted a tattoo in Urdu on her back. Some women suddenly approached her and assaulted her over the tattoo, which read 'Shukr Alham Du Lillah' meaning 'Thank you, God.'
'Riyaz Ahmed Talukdar, a member of Jan Seva Sangh, a local NGO, had first spotted the tattoo on Saba's back and informed his mother, Shabana Talukdar. Riyaz said, "When I saw the tattoo I was furious as holy words from the Quran were on her back." Shabana, along with a few other women, then came to the mall in the next 15 minutes and slapped the girl several times before the mall management intervened. The incident scared the girl so much that she left for Pakistan on Friday.'
Did you read anything about it in your newspaper? Or a discussion on television channels? Were any of the Muslim clerics or the so-called liberal voices who came to Delhi in a trainload complaining why they were being labeled as 'terrorists', interviewed on the treatment meted out to a girl from a neighbouring Islamic republic by Mumbai's 'moral police'?
It is this attitude that also encourages some fringe elements like those whom we saw at Mangalore.
Surely nothing must defend one wrong by citing another wrong as an example. But politicians must govern and not preach. And pray, who do they think they are? Can they be entrusted the job of preparing a charter for citizen dharma? Should we accept an organisation like the Ram Sene to take it upon itself to impose its own variety of decency by beating girls?
So now, Hindu Dharma, which was defined and elaborated once upon a time by the likes of Swami Vivekananda and Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan will have to be understood through the Mangalore beatings of girls by brave young exponents of some kind of a conduct they call 'culture'?
What are we up to and what do we want to achieve? Why are women always the target of these social disciplinarians? They beat them up, abuse them, tell them what to wear or not, be a nice housewife because that's what the 'religious ideal' is, be a mother and an obedient wife, go to places of worship and read the holy scriptures.
There is nothing wrong with that, but do these worthies have a right and a moral authority to tell women all these codes of conduct while they flounder and abuse every bit of simple, civil behaviour in their life?
But the media certainly loves such 'shows'. It had advance information about the pub-attack, still found it prudent to wait till the news was 'matured' through a well-orchestrated attack. If the media had informed authorities those hapless girls would have been saved from humiliation.
Some time back a protestor informed the media about his self-immolation bid in Chandigarh and the media faithfully recorded the event without even once trying to save the guy, who died within minutes before cameramen and correspondents. This is an issue involving media ethics, if they have any or believe they should have them. News or the call of human values?
The use of the word 'culture' for the habit of frequenting pubs is also intriguing. But the whole issue boils down to one point, if one dislikes a certain social behaviour, how should a protest for it be registered? The vegetarians protested when fried chicken ads were aired on television channels and even when the 'eat eggs daily' campaign was launched. If some like non-vegetarian food, those who find it disgusting and against their ethics, do have a right to show their displeasure, but the matter must take a civil course.
Surely going to pubs is a different matter altogether and a large number of people find it nauseatingly unacceptable as some opinion polls by leading newspapers have shown. So what is the solution? The state wants revenue by selling alcohol and licensing for pubs, but at the same time it frowns upon them to get space in newspapers. This duality won't work.
The best that can be done is to propagate alternative ideas of healthy drink. Encourage milk consumption and dairy products and establish more and more dairies like Gujarat has shown. There is complete prohibition in Gujarat and though there may be some breaches, it has certainly helped to bring down the consumption of alcohol to a great extent.
Those who claim they are the followers of Mahtama Gandhi or Deen Dayal Upadhyaya, must respect the law and Constitution of the nation. They have an obligation to lead by example.
I must quote an inspiring story from the life of Pandit Deen Dayal Upadhyaya, who once refused to turn on a transistor to listen to the news while travelling in a train -- and he travelled third class most of the time -- because the license fee for using it was yet to be deposited. It was obligatory in those days to have a license for using a radio.
Yes, times have changed; yet, religious bigotry must not be accepted in any circumstances.
How many of these moral preachers understand the reality that the place of a woman can't be different than that of a man? Please give us clean drinking water, good primary schools, functional and caring public hospitals, a corruption free administration and enforce the law to save genuine cultural moors. That will be more than what a citizen would need under any party's pronouncedly benign and heavenly noble governance.
URL for this article:
http://www.rediff.com///news/2009/feb/02-why-are-women-always-the-target.htm
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