India eclipsed

The Times of India
Friday July 24, 2009

Tarun Vijay

The biggest victim of terrorism on earth is being accused of fomenting terror. That's no mean achievement of a state power that is busy making friendship with a terror state whose boy is pleading in our court to hang him for killing 166 people last year. Hundreds of thousands of patriotic Indians killed, raped, uprooted and turned refugees, maimed and humiliated on their own soil by a bloody jihad that has been directly sponsored by Pakistan. See the tones of papers and factual data sheets printed by the XP division of the ministry of external affairs. But the government that pays for printing such fact sheets accepted a joint communiqué sharing the concerns of the state that it has been accusing of sponsoring bloodbath in India, in such a way that the accuser is now accusing us. Firing on Sri Lankan cricketers in Lahore was sponsored by India - that's the latest one. From the days of Indira Gandhi to Rao and Vajpayee, all governments were engaging Pakistan in a dialogue but never did such a fiasco occur - the murderous state raising an accusing finger at us and us nodding.

Banana spines can never make a rock, even if collected in millions. A forgetful people and a condescending state can never make a nation nor protect it. Pakistan was created after the massacre of a million innocent people, who had to leave their home and hearth because some leaders had accepted the partition. It was preceded by horrendous killings of Hindus in Kolkata, Punjab and Delhi. Immediately after that, in September 1947, it attacked us and forcibly occupied a part of Kashmir, Gilgit and Skardu that saw the heart-wrenching killings of Mirpur. Still, it wanted its share of Rs 55 crore to be given. And we gave. Noted historian Y D Phadke has described the episode thus, "a sum of Rs 55 crore was the money that was Pakistan's share, from the cash of Rs 375 crore in the vaults of the Reserve Bank of India before partition. On December 1 and 2, 1947, representatives of both countries had discussed the issue and decided that of the cash balance of Rs 375 crore, Pakistan's share was Rs 75 crore. Out of this sum of Rs 75 crore, Rs 20 crore had been given to Pakistan to temporarily take care of its financial needs when Pakistan was just coming into existence on August 14, 1947, and it was decided in the agreement of December 2, 1947, that the balance amount of Rs 55 crore should be handed over later by the Indian Government to the Pakistan Government. Pakistan had a right to this cash of Rs 55 crore and the Indian Government recognized this right. In order to satisfy Pakistan's financial need, the Indian Reserve Bank had indicated its readiness to approve a temporary loan of Rs 10 crore and Deshmukh had been told that the Reserve Bank had to take a final decision and that the Government of India would not interfere. That is why in the meeting at Lahore on January 11, 1948, Prime Minister Nehru had indicated that he was favourably disposed to give Pakistan Rs 10 crore as a temporary loan. Thereupon, Liaquat Ali asked Nehru: "Then why don't you give Pakistan the 55 crore rupees you owe us and put an end to the matter?"

Nehru didn't agree but Gandhi forced him through a fast and finally, after all that Mirpur massacre and losing Gilgit, India gave Pakistan 55 crore.

After that Pakistan "gifted" a part of our land to China. (Govt of India says Pakistan is in illegal and forcible occupation of about 78,000 sq km in Jammu and Kashmir and has illegally ceded 5,180 sq km of Indian territory to China.)

We had 1971, still didn't resolve Kashmir. We had Punjab's Khalistan terrorism, directly sponsored by Gen Zia Ul Haq's Pakistan. Then had to fight the Kargil war. Still gave a red-carpeted welcome to the man in khaki who was responsible for the death of our 600 soldiers.

And now we are foolishly looking at Islamabad, blood-soaked, yet finding ourselves in a question box.

That's Pakistan. And we are bending over backwards to get a certificate of good conduct from it. And expecting it will change for the good.

Isn't it a shame that a country doesn't feel hurt at the loss of 1.25 lakh sq km to the enemy, didn't feel angry, didn't resolve to take revenge for the loss of our 600 soldiers in Kargil and teach a lesson to a mischievously unrepentant neighbour? So much so that the discredited Musharraf still gets honourable platforms to big-mouth in Delhi. Who felt hurt that the anniversary of Kargil victory was completely ignored by the government, no one paid tributes to the soldiers, there were no special shows on TV channels? Who felt hurt to read stories of the Kargil heroes who lost their limbs and are forced to live at a paltry pension of Rs 5,000? In a country where insulting, humiliating and shamefully ignoring the heroes of war is a politically beneficial practice to garner minority votes, a Kalam honour outcry looks nothing more than a media shamanism. A self-defeating secularism allows a pro-terrorist Jamia crowd clubbed with the apologists to Azamgarh-Batla house syndrome who collected funds for the accused through a vice-chancellor, speak against the Human Rights Commission's clean chit to the police and restoring the honour of Inspector M C Sharma, who was humiliated by Congress and SP leaders even after his heroic death.

This is us and that is Pakistan. Those who bask only in a reflected glory eclipse India's truth.

The eclipse is secular in its darkness that has affected the Indian soul and we ignore the core issue to run after cosmetics. Just have a relook at Kalam saheb's episode.

Agreed Abdul Kalam shouldn't have been frisked. He represents not just his individual persona, but also our country's honour. They know what the Americans do in security matters and Kalam might be a great hero to us, but safety-conscious Americans must be apprised much before to have a proper, honourable safe passage to our ex-head of the state. Was that done? Secondly, those who are agitated over the frisking of Kalam are silent on Rahul Gandhi and Robert Vadra being given the privilege of passing through airport security without a check. Why and on what grounds?

At the end of the day, Kalam remains a great sermoniser who hardly had any action to his credit, except writing morally right good books and attending inaugural functions while fully enjoying all the fruits of a presidency post-retirement. From Kashmir's exiled patriots to Kohima's anti-national insurgency, what did he do to restore faith in the tricolour and protect the honour of those who swear by India? When he is frisked, the starved media makes it an issue and everyone jumps on to the bandwagon. Is this "insult" greater than the hurt our soldiers get from the sultans of Raisina Hill?

झूठ और चरित्र हनन से सुलगता कश्मीर

अमर उजाला
July 31, 2009

तरुण विजय

असहिष्णु हिंदुओं का पाखंड

जड़तामूलक जातिवाद और अस्वस्थ रूढियों के जारी रहने पर निराशा जाहिर कर रहे हैं- तरुण विजय

दैनिक जागरण
27 July, 2009

तरुण विजय

पिछले दिनों हरियाणा में जींद के एक गाव में सैकड़ों ग्रामीणों ने बड़ी वीरता का प्रदर्शन किया। वहशियों की तरह उन्होंने अपने ही गाव के एक निहत्थे युवक को दौड़ा-दौड़ा कर इतना पीटा कि उसकी मृत्यु हो गई। वह युवक अपनी पत्नी को घर लिवा लाने के लिए पुलिसकर्मियों व अदालती अफसरों के साथ ससुराल पहुंचा था। राजनेताओं और भ्रष्ट पुलिस की साठगाठ के चलते इस मामले में किसी के प्रति न्याय होगा, इसका कोई भरोसा नहीं। जिस युवती से युवक का प्रेम विवाह हुआ था, उसके मा-बाप और गाव वाले शायद अपने गाव, घर और खानदान की इज्जत बचाने के नाम पर अब खुश भी होंगे और मामले को दबा भी देंगे। इस कोलाहल में क्या किसी का ध्यान उस बेचारी युवती की व्यथा पर जाएगा, जिसे घर में कैद कर उसके पति को बर्बरता से मार डाला गया।

व्यापक हिंदू समाज के भीतर विभिन्न जातियों और संप्रदायों में शादी करने पर अक्सर उत्तर प्रदेश, हरियाणा, पंजाब व राजस्थान में नवविवाहित दंपति की उनके ही परिजनों व धर्मरक्षकों द्वारा हत्या किए जाने के समाचार मिलते हैं। कोई हिंदू सामाजिक, धार्मिक नेता इसकी कभी निंदा नहीं करता। वास्तव में विवेकानंद, सावरकर और लोहिया के बाद हिंदुओं के भीतर पनप रहे पाखंड, जड़तामूलक जातिवाद और अस्वस्थ रूढि़यों के विरुद्ध कोई विशेष स्वर नहीं उठा। केवल राष्ट्रीय स्वयंसेवक संघ और गायत्री परिवार जैसे आध्यात्मिक आंदोलन सुधारवादी हिंदू मान्यताओं को जीवन में उतारने का प्रयास कर रहे हैं, लेकिन इसके बावजूद जातिगत क्षुद्रता का अहंकार बड़े-बड़े दिग्गजों के व्यवहार में दिखता है। यह राजनीति में जातिवाद की प्रतिष्ठा का विष फल है। बहुत कम लोग हानि-लाभ की चिंता किए बिना जाति भेद के विरुद्ध खड़े होते हैं। मा.स. गोलवलकर, बाला साहब देवरस, रज्जू भैया सदृश चिंतकों ने समरसता का व्यवहार प्रतिपादित किया, पर राजनीति में तो नाम से पहले जाति पूछने और फिर उसी आधार पर पद बाटने का चलन है।

सबसे ज्यादा दु:ख हिंदू तीर्थस्थानों और मंदिरों की दुर्दशा देखकर होता है। संस्कृत के सम्यक ज्ञान से शून्य केवल जाति के आधार पर पौरोहित्य कर्म करने वाले पंडों को राजनीति के वोटभक्षी नेताओं का जो तर्कहीन समर्थन मिलता है, उसी कारण मंदिर अस्वच्छ, पूजापाठ विधिविहीन, श्लोकों के गलत उच्चारण, देवपूजन में लापरवाही और श्रद्धालुओं को लूटने के केंद्र में बदल गए हैं। बहुत समय पहले रज्जू भैया से चर्चा हुई थी कि क्यों नहीं अखिल भारतीय स्तर पर पुरोहित कार्य के विधिवत प्रशिक्षण की ऐसी केंद्रीय व्यवस्था की जाए जो बहुमान्य शकराचार्यो एवं संत परंपरा के श्रेष्ठ धर्मगुरुओं के संरक्षण में चले। फिर जैसे आईएएस, आईपीएस अधिकारियों की नियुक्ति होती है, उसी प्रकार मंदिरों की देखरेख और वहां पूजा-पाठ के निमित्त भली प्रकार प्रशिक्षित पुरोहित ही नियुक्त किए जाएं। बदलते समय और जीवन की आवश्यकताओं को देखते हुए उनकी सम्मानजनक न्यूनतम आजीविका भी सुनिश्चित की जानी चाहिए। समाज में जो पवित्र कार्य जीवन, मृत्यु तथा अन्य अवसरों के लिए आवश्यक माने जाते हैं, उनके प्रति युगानुकूल चैतन्य व तदनुरूप उचित व्यवस्था हिंदू समाज के अग्रणी संतों और महापुरुषों की चिंता का विषय होना चाहिए। यदि राजनेता भी आपसी दलगत दूरिया भुलाकर हिंदू नव चैतन्य के लिए एकजुट होते हैं तो इससे उनकी प्रतिष्ठा और लोकमान्यता बढ़ेगी, साथ ही हिंदू समाज का भी हित होगा।

क्या हर की पैड़ी या चार धामों की पूजा व्यवस्था में अप्रशिक्षित और संस्कृत का कम ज्ञान रखने वाले ब्राह्मणों से सुप्रशिक्षित एवं पाडित्यपूर्ण अनुसूचित जाति के युवाओं को बेहतर मानना अधर्म होगा? क्या भगवान किसी वंचित (दलित) वर्ग के पुरोहित द्वारा अर्पित अर्चना अस्वीकार कर देंगे? देश के मंदिरों को एक अखिल भारतीय धार्मिक व्यवस्था के अंतर्गत अधिक स्वच्छ, विनम्रतापूर्ण श्रद्धालु-केंद्रित, पैसे के वर्चस्व से परे, भावना-आधारित हिंदू जागरण तथा संगठन का केंद्र बनाने के लिए हिंदू-संगठनों को ही आगे आना होगा। आज हिंदुओं की नई पीढ़ी में आधुनिकता और नवीन प्रयोगों के प्रति स्वाकारोक्ति दिखती है, जैसे गुजरात में पिता की मृत्यु पर बेटी द्वारा मुखाग्नि देना, अंतर्जातीय, अंतप्र्रातीय विवाहों का चलन, कुछ मंदिरों में पूजा व दर्शन की सुचारू व्यवस्था, लेकिन इसके बावजूद गंगा, यमुना के तीर्थ-घाटों पर गंदगी, गोमुख तक के पास कचरा, यात्रियों की पूजा व आवासीय व्यवस्थाओं में पंडों की लूटखसोट के कारण अराजकता जैसे दृश्य भी दिखते हैं। जातिभेद और अस्पृश्यता आज भी जिंदा है। क्या यह सब उस देश के लिए शोभा देता है जो आज दुनिया में सबसे युवा जनसंख्या वाला सभ्यतामूलक समाज है? क्या मंदिर देवता और श्रद्धालु के बीच केवल व्यक्तिगत लेन-देन तक सीमित रहना चाहिए या देवताओं के गुण श्रद्धालुओं तक पहुंचाने का सशक्त केंद्र बनना चाहिए? पूजा करेंगे महिषासुरमर्दिनी दुर्गा की, रावणहंता राम की, बलशाली हनुमान की और व्यवहार में दिखाएंगे कायरता, स्त्री-दमन तथा जातीय शोषण के लक्षण। ऐसे मंदिरों और पूजा का क्या अर्थ? मंदिर हिंदू सशक्तिकरण, भाव प्रबोधन, नूतन युग की माग के अनुसार जातिभेद, कन्या भ्रूण हत्या, दहेज आदि के विरुद्ध जागरण के लिए कायाकल्प करें।

आज विश्व में हिंदू समाज, धर्म और हिंदू प्रतिभाओं की प्रशसा इसलिए होती है, क्योंकि ये हजारों वर्ष पुरानी सनातन परंपराओं का अनुगमन करते हुए भी बदलते वक्त के साथ खुद को ढालने की अपूर्व क्षमता दिखाते हैं। सुधारों का अधुनातन प्रभाव गावों तथा शहरों के रूढिबद्ध अंधकार से घिरे लोगों तक भी पहुंचे तभी हिंदू जाति के उत्कर्ष पर लगा ग्रहण हटेगा।

Hillary Mission

Tarun Vijay
The Times of India.com/Indus Calling

Saturday July 18, 2009

It's not just business. Secretary Clinton, getting a presidential security in Delhi, is seeking much more in India. The global power situation is in a flux. Hence the giants are following a hedging strategy - not to be seen siding with any camp but to feel the waters before the final polarization. At present, the currents are fast moving from G8 into the direction of a G2 situation, the two giants being the US and China. We are left behind and in Obama's strategic calculations; our role comes after Pakistan and China in this region. Immediately after her India visit, Clinton would be co-hosting on July 27 and 28 an inaugural meeting of an official strategic and economic dialogue with China.

Still, warmth between the two democracies is age-old and Obama has found a people here naturally inclined to his persona. This must come as the biggest asset for Hillary Rodham Clinton, who was born just two months after India got her truncated independence. A Yale grad, she is a family-oriented person who showed great resilience and a deep commitment to save family during her most turbulent White House days. Once she said: "Our lives are a mixture of different roles. Most of us are doing the best we can to find whatever the right balance is . . . For me, that balance is family, work, and service." And truly her writings did reflect that depth, winning her worldwide laurels for her book "Other lessons children teach us".

Hillary Clinton is visiting India when the hopes are high and the roads are rough. She will have to show her best diplomatic skills better powered and confident than what we saw in her presidential campaign. Her visit is in the backdrop of India-Pakistan twitting in Sharm el-Sheikh, and the sound bites emerging from the Arab comfort zone have only confirmed Pakistan two-timing on taking Indian call on terror war. In spite of age and agility on his side, Pakistan's Gilani looked confusingly clever and our PM, though mild and soft, emerged as firmly speaking for Pakistan's cause. Quite strange and shocking indeed that we allowed Islamabad to include Balochistan without realizing that by a single 'B' insertion Pakistan will now always try to justify its bloody terrorism in Kashmir. No Indian government, whatever colour or party, ever conceded this kind of a severe self-goal which Manmohan Singh has done. Is there any explanation for this? And is there an American angle to it? What was the hurry to issue a controversial statement just on the eve of Secretary Clinton's India visit?

Before Hillary left for Mumbai, she said that her mission is to strengthen strategic ties with India. Good to hear that. It's in the interest of regional balance and to counter Islamic terror that a US-India friendship gets serious.

That she is not reaching Delhi first and would spend half her India visit at the Taj is a significant emotional statement to the people of India, deeply hurt with the 26/11 assault. It's also a bold support to those who fought the barbarians from Pakistan, boosting the morale of the Taj and its controllers capped with a lunch with Ratan Tata and other top Indian CEOs at an India-US CEOs forum. Once a rival to the presidential candidate Obama, she now represents his administration and there couldn't have been a better face.

The west has kept its region free from all strife while trying to control and guide the destinies of the other hemisphere for various reasons - oil, weapons market, energy and a geo-political hegemony. Ninety per cent of the contemporary tensions lie in our region, which has emerged as most volatile. Ethnic unrest, terrorism and separatist movements have engulfed millions from Iran to Xinjiang and Kabul to Mumbai and beyond. And with all that the US is at the centre blamed for flaming the fires or for not doing enough to extinguish them. Already trying to disentangle from Iraq, the US is keen to pursue a different strategy in Afghanistan and its commander Stanley is talking like a peace corps volunteer rather than an armed forces leader.

Most of our problems are a result of direct western intervention or its exploitative policies with a colonial mindset. Even carbon emissions, global warming and related ills are the results of the west's ruthless industrialization and annihilation of natural resources. Now they want us to share their burden and be an environmental-coolie for them.

Hillary and her bosses know well that India is different. There is a strong opposition, a vibrant democracy and a powerful presence of youth with high skills and ambitious dreams. A large section is suspicious of the nuke deal and the scenes created last summer while passing it in Parliament are reminders of a manipulative 'cash for vote' polity occurred, in common perception, under Washington's pressure. As Democrats, the Clintons were opposing the deal, though for a different reason, yet helped pass it with a hope that India will sign NPT. The US thinks nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty and the Fissile Material Cutoff Treaty are important. We just can't take this piece of advice. Even the treasury benches and the opposition will unanimously reject any such suggestion.

It will be a tricky issue this time if Hillary chooses to touch it. None, in his senses will agree to it, whether in governance or in the opposition.

So she must concentrate on the mandate alone she has been given: bring business to the cash-starved US industry. Reactors, weapons and climate control programmes, all must fetch money to the US industry. Bringing buoyancy to the recession-hit American business community selling US nuclear reactors and weapons is the main course she would love to enjoy in Delhi. American lobbyists expect that the business for US industry may fetch export orders to India to the tune of $10 billion during this visit. At present US reactors are producing energy costing $4,000 per kilowatt, while India has been producing it at Tarapur and Kalpakkam at $2,000 per kilowatt. Still we need a huge amount of plutonium and hence the need for buying reactors. The other two anxieties include ensuring India accepts and makes a law for civil liabilities in reference to any nuke mishap and have a fool-proof arrangement for safeguarding nuclear fuel's end use in the civil sector.

Besides, she must assure Indians that dollars to Pakistan do not get used up against India and focused engagement with China doesn't mean India appears less importantly on the US radar. We remain important to the US for our money and mind power. Pakistan and China are strategic necessities. Dollars to Pakistan are a "useful" investment for the US that secures it a foothold in an Asian Muslim land to oversee central Asian Islamic countries and contain Chinese aspirations. India emerges important strategically only to block Chinese expansion eating away US influence in the region. It's for the Indian leadership not to become a pawn between the two rivals but assert its legitimately bigger role in the region. What Pakistan is doing to Taliban in Swat is just to please Washington and grease the dollar-path. It's for India to make Pakistan take firmer actions against terrorists using Pakistan as a safe house against us.

It's in our interest to stop sending applications to the US to contain Pakistan-sponsored terrorism on our land and devise an independent and strong policy to make Islamabad behave. In any case the Clinton era was less helpful in realistic terms than the Bush period and we will be deceiving ourselves to think that the Obama regime will help us out of the way Obama's Bangalore to Buffalo statements, lavish grants to Pakistan and first diplomatic gestures to China have been noted here. The Obama administration has made it clear that it would to see to it that India signs the NPT. Obama' Af-Pak policy doesn't envisage any significant role for India, though the region logically belongs to us and we have a stake in every development taking place here. Obama has also kept a studied silence over jihadi terrorism in Kashmir that has killed more than 60,000 Indians, mostly Hindus so far.

Winner is the one who thinks in terms of a victory and can take risks. This government of ours is capable of doing just the opposite.

The India visit must have also made Hillary realize that this is also a great reservoir of human wisdom, leading today's planet in knowledge sector and representing the highest density of world's youth power, having the dreams to realize them too. This India, as the largest population of the youth under 40 on earth today has responded warmly to Obama's elevation to US presidentship and it's perhaps for the first time since the Kennedy days that common people look to America as a friendly, warm and cordial power, quite different from the Bush era. That brings the dangers inherent in the high expectations mode - even a small negative gesture may ruin the atmosphere.

Return to Ayodhya

Tarun Vijay
5 July 2009
Organiser

Ayodhya belongs to us all, like Ram. Having made the nation wait for 17 long years, the Liberhan Commission report hasn’t made even an iota of difference. The only course left for the government now is to approach the Guinness Book of Records to get an award for the longest procrastination to the commission and carry on with the national business. If the Congress, in its zeal to encash on its value for Muslim appeasement, wants to create a scene after it, it will be in for a shock. Ayodhya is a difficult issue for it - its hands are everywhere from opening the locks to laying the foundation stone and later the Rao era.

The fact is no power can now shift the temple built on Ram Janma Bhumi. Daily puja is going on uninterruptedly, notwithstanding a terrorist attack on it. The chargesheets and the case etc. have lost their relevance. Those who took up the cause politically are a divided house, some converting to the neo-‘secularism’ and have lost all credibility in the public eye. Even if the temple was a long-distance call, they could have at least taken care of the Ayodhya city, its protectors and the carriers of an invaluable flow of traditions - the sadhus and mathadhipatis. They didn’t do anything.

Take care of Ayodhya.

It’s a city of Ram and India would be less than a nation if Ram is taken away or left isolated like a post-Columbus American-Indian village.

Turn Ayodhya into an international city of grandeur like Thailand has done to its own Ayutthaya. It’s a city defining India, the heritage, the immortal literature woven around it, the dreams and aspirations of people sung keeping it in the centre, the river Sarayu and the dust turned holier because Ram had played in it. It’s incredibly Indian and unbelievably divine. It will earn spiritual solace. Those who think in terms of euros and dollars won’t be disappointed. That would come with a political mileage for all times without ruffling any feathers or denting a vote bank.

After all, Rajiv Gandhi had started his election campaign from there, promising Ram Rajya. For a devout Sikh Manmohan Singh, Guru Granth Saheb has most adorable references to Ram. And for others, Ram is India, which has given them so much of respect and power without bothering about their religion or origin. Mohammad Iqbal, the famous poet had said: Ram is Imame Hind - the greatest icon of India. They all owe a great deal to repay a debt to this land’s civilisational power that has been soothing and compassionate to all coming from diverse backgrounds and having different ideas.

Don’t deny Ayodhya this time. Die unsung but be honest once to your conscience. Ayodhya has been ditched immeasurably by her own small-time courtiers.

Ayodhya deserves to be developed as an international city of Ram, the Prince of Ayodhya, who fought the devils and gave us reason to celebrate Diwali, now the global festival of lights. And his return to Ayodhya makes us enact Ram Lilas and burn effigies of an unrepentant wicked demon. That’s why we have a Vijaya Dashami, the Dushehra. Ayodhya is unquestioningly intertwined into the lives of billions of Hindus who would prefer a Ram Ram or Jai Siyaram as a salutation than a Namaste. The joys and sorrows of Sita, the Janaki, the Van-gaman, exile to the forest, the Luv and Kush episodes. And the ultimate JalSamadhi, self-immersion by Ram in Sarayu. It's all Ayodhya. Later Luv established Lahore and even the Pakistan government feels proud about this fact in its travel literature and Kush established Bedi clan, to which belonged Guru Goovind Singh Saheb as per his Bani, the holy words.

That's us put together. That’s Ayodhya’s legacy.

Make Ayodhya a union territory. A city extraordinaire must be maintained under extraordinary dispensation - central government. Let NRIs design and fund it. Reward the pujaris and sadhus who had been keeping the flame of dharma and city’s sanctity alive, living in penury, ignored and isolated. They deserve warmth of belongingness and we owe it to them. The bungalow owners of metros and those who raise decibels in parliament for nothing never help in protecting the heritage. Those who do it must be recognized. Ayodhya is more than Ang Kor Wat, because from Korean princes to the builders of Ang Kor, they all took inspiration from this city on the banks of the Sarayu. It’s not just a parliamentary or assembly seat.

An International Rama University, a Janaki International airport, a Shabari University for Women, a Hanuman Academy for warfare, a think Valmiki thinktank to study invasions on India and the resultant socio-political changes, Luv-Kush panoramic garden of Indian culture and history on Sarayu bank, with a Pakistani contribution too, the city must resonate with elements that define and sustain Bharat that is India.

Think about it. Liberhan reminds you of smallness. Ayodhya is universal.

No Lalgarh in red China

The Times of India--2 Jul 2009,
The Chinese hunger to gain more knowledge, more military power, more prosperity and definitely a decisive say in global matters has become one of the most significant stories of our times.


Tarun Vijay



The Chinese are patriotic people. They don't allow any Lalgarhs to emerge with Maoists of some sort championing the cause of the poor by killing security personnel.

They have a portrait of Mao at the Tiananmen square but have reduced his biographies in textbooks to almost a formal mention. It's nationalism everywhere, staunch, undiluted and single-minded "China first".

I am writing this column from Kolkata, once known as the red bastion. The home to Naxalbari, a fertile ground for violent Maoism and a hotbed of Bangladeshi infiltrators who have been sheltered by the Left Front leaders to get their votes. Can we, anyway, compare the Indian communists to the communists of China in their patriotism?

The Chinese hunger to gain more knowledge, more military power, more prosperity and definitely a decisive say in global matters has become one of the most significant stories of our times. Chinese cities are bubbling with unprecedented activities of resurgence, economy is booming, new city centres and SEZs are being created, students are finding new universities focused on special niche subjects, everyone from everywhere is invited to invest in China, make money and at the same time transfer technology, their entrepreneurs are set to take over even the US car industry replacing the Japanese. From African countries to the Indian region, their presence is increasing each day if not overshadowing others completely.

President Hu represents a major policy shift in China since Jiang Zemin's regime. He changed the earlier "city first" policy into rural area-focused planning, pumping millions of RNBs into the rural sector. If the "China first" policy and the undiluted dynamism to make China No. 1 in the world is their side of an unbelievable story, India's emergence on the world stage showing strength of knowledge and technology, prosperity and stability with an excellent record of multiparty democracy, secular pluralism and a living civilisation dating back 5,000 years is an amazing tale of mystery and curiosity for the dragon land.

India too has moved far ahead and with a strong China policy, which has not lost its continuity since Rajiv Ghandhi's days, China certainly looks at us with a bit of disbelief -- capable of springing a surprise any time.

With a shift in the global power centres imminent, China is yet to make up its mind for a new global strategy post-Deng era. Hence it is adopting a hedging strategy without siding clearly with any power centre and keeping its options open.

The only factor that China thinks will help it is a strong urge to remain nationalist. It was quite evident wherever I went in Beijing and around it.

Beijing has always looked shrouded in mystery. Yet, the misty afternoon looked a bit out of place in this new age of reforms sweeping China. It was 3 in the afternoon and the Beijing airport was enveloped in the winter haze.

Our Toyota took about 25 minutes to reach the hotel, not very far from Tiananmen Square. These minutes give a foreigner an elegant introduction to the brave new world of progress and power.

China is changing fast and with a great sense of patriotism. There is simply no trace of the old Communism here. The will to succeed and emerge a superpower has driven Chinese leadership to go full steam for reforms and market economy. It’s a real Laksmi Pujan going on there. The new path has been named "Socialism with Chinese characteristics". How does the name matter if it brings prosperity to the millions of people the most populated nation. The new policies have changed the face of this nation but have also brought new problems.

Though unlike India, China began opening up and implemented reforms only after having its agriculture and the manufacturing sector strengthened. Then it aimed to quadruple its GNP of 1980 by the end of 2000, which it achieved in 1995, five years ahead of the schedule. Now it has set an objective to double the GNP of 2000 by 2010 and reach the level of a fully developed nation by 2050.

It has controlled the population growth, increased the defence budget to $22.4 billion, has taken the industrial growth to 12.6% , remains as hard as ever on Tibet and other such issues, taken control of Hong Kong and Macao, doesn’t care about Taiwan’s gestures and indications to come back, in fact the biggest investors to China come from that land.

How real is this new incarnation of the old Maoist totalitarian regime?

China is facing challenges on two major fronts. First, finding a position geopolitically commensurate with its newly gained status on the diplomatic front and cultural and administrative reforms domestically.

On the cultural front China is encountering a vacuum created by the Cultural Revolution. There is no visible cultural inspiration left to the younger generation, which is fast getting Americanised. Mr. Jin Jianfan, chairman of the Chinese Academy to protect and promote national Culture told me that they are very concerned about the growing Americanization of the Chinese youth. Sudden prosperity has brought the youngsters to pubs, night clubs, and has made them discard old Chinese values. Money alone makes a society wayward and prone to the alien effects which may not be good for the country. So, the Chinese are devoting a great deal of time to make the new generation proud of their national heritage.

Civilisational and cultural pride in their national history and heritage has become so visible and underlined at every monument of the historical importance that one wonders whether one is in a land of believers or atheist communists. In this context it would be interesting to know that Buddha, though more in a political and a strategic way, is returning to China in a big way.

In the field of administrative reforms, corruption is rampant in the party, in the administration, in the entire state-run machinery. Several important functionaries, industrialists, party office bearers including a vice governor of Anhui province Wang Huaizhong were executed for taking bribes. Whether the anti-corruption would succeed or not is yet to be seen.

Indian communist should certainly take a lesson from their former ideological masters about how to love your nation. One must concede that China does not have a multiparty system of democracy and neither has it had freedom of the press that we enjoy here. There may be a few who attribute the astonishing progress of China to its totalitarian system of decision making, Yet, a democratic India guaranteeing freedom of speech and the right to exercise democratic privileges, remains a "mystifying threat" to the Chinese hagemonistic ambitions. Log on to : http://www.timesofindia.com

Maoists & Writers' Marxists are ideological comrades

The Times of India, Kolkata print edition, 1 July 2009

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Cities/Kolkata-/Maoists--Writers-Marxists-are-ideological-comrades/articleshow/4722318.cms

Tarun Vijay

It does not matter whether Lalgarh is 170 km from Writers' Buildings or just 17 feet away. The attitude and the apologetic defence of the central forces show it all.

First, Marxist rulers resisted banning the Maoists. Then, the ruling front is at pains to issue daily statements that the central forces will not be allowed to commit excesses on the tribals (read CPM workers). Does the chief minister think that the security forces love to commit excesses on tribals that he had to state in public about being vigilant on them? Was he vigilant against the excesses of the Maoists in the last 10 years? Did he ever issue any statement against their violence and reign of terror? Did he ever think of banning the organization before the Centre exerted pressure on him? Has he issued any one-liner appreciating security jawans for the excellent work they have done risking their lives?

The fact of the matter is, there is hardly any difference between the Maoists and the Marxists ruling from Writers'. Both are invariably ideological comrades one operating from the jungles and the other enjoying urban amenities. Both have alien heroes and adore Lenin, Stalin and Mao, who were responsible for the killings of millions of people. They all have an extra amount of love and loyalty for the alien powers and have no qualms accepting their support. They have never condemned China for 1962 and still have no clear policy on its claim over Arunachal Pradesh and Aksai Chin. And the poor tribals remain cannon fodder for demonstrations, with half-clad villagers wielding indigenous weapons and singing international for a CPM magazine.

One has to go and see the abject poverty and nothingness in areas adjoining Lalgarh. Jungle, soil, leaves, small huts completely synchronizing with the nature and tribal men and women, semi-clad, working day and night to eke out an existence. You will be amazed, what meticulous design it takes to keep your own people so low? It becomes a vested interest for the Red revolutionaries and their art-paper magazine producers to keep people poor, backward, so that they are always ready to provide the crowd and the boys for mass struggle and revolutionaries zeal while the leaders enjoy Padma's Ilish. And then the usual page 3 clique in metros, would say with an oomph: "Oh, these Marxists are fighting for the poor, like Buddha ji, a very nice man'." If votes were not diverted in this Lok Sabha election to other non-CPM parties, the CPM tally would have come down from 30 MPs to just one under Mr Nice.

Trinamool, Congress and BJP kept Kolkata Corporation out of CPM's reach by a clever strategy in 1995 and with a Congress mayor; BJP had its deputy mayor. One must revive that spirit in national interest and make sure that CPM is ousted in the next Assembly election. Only then will Bengal begin to regain pride, ending the era of goli and garibi.

It's interesting to know how the Marxists reacted to Lalgarh. Was it in consonance with the way they had reacted to other such incidents of violence? It was a sort of a battle to recapture the lost ground by the CPM from local tribals, who had formed a committee against police repression aided by Marxist workers. Hence the ghost of Maoists helped. The newspapers writing fearlessly against Buddha's partisan regime were stopped ads and the other Bangla paper had to proclaim it feared none but god and hence it will continue to expose Buddha's helping hand to the Lalgarh's red Stalins. The historical truth is Marxism has always been rude to its own people and deceit and doublespeak have been ingrained in it since the early formations of the Bolsheviks when bread and dictatorship of the proletariat were assured.

Now, what will happen to the tribals when the security forces leave Lalgarh? Someone needs to ask what has been the contribution of the government in West Bengal swearing by an ideology that binds it into a psychological camaraderie with Maoists both promising the rule of the proletariat? What the poor got except bullets and backwardness?

In Kolkata

Kolkata looked good this afternoon with a little shower and the resultant temp reduction. Its always a great feeling to be here the old world charm existing with the ultra modern buildings,traditions and the path breakers, trams and Mercs,Mashi Ma, mishti doi,podder's Ilish,Nomashkar and Aami aaschi...the days I spent at Belur learning Aik Pothe cholibo, aik kotha bolibo...
A well attended programme by Friends of Tribal Society in GD Birla hall, today 28th June, a real no-dream sleep after a sumptous meals at Bhowani Pur and a visit to Bhola Da, capped with an invigorating chat with Shreyansh-the wonder boy. The meeting we had for 6th programme made me more nervous. Lets see.Tomarrow will be much much busier..

Krishna 'Raag'

17 Jun 2009
Tarun Vijay
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Opinion/Columnists/Tarun-Vijay/Krishna-Raag/articleshow/4666687.cms


With India scoring a diplomatic victory over China at the Asian Development Bank (ADB) board meeting by having a grant approval for the $2.9 billion India plan just a day before Prime Minister Manmohan Singh met Chinese President Hu, new foreign minister SM Krishna has began making a mark in his new office. It’s global news that China had blocked a consensus in ADB because the grant to India included watershed development projects worth $60 million in Arunachal Pradesh.

Finally, the US helped win the grant for us with its majority votes. But the home work to have the member nations understand India’s position was a meticulously handled operation by foreign secretary Menon and his team. Before that, just having been sworn in, SM Krishna had impressed all by his cool and deft handling of Pakistan and China’s abrasiveness while Manmohan went on a cool trip to China and Russia. Significant developments on our strategic front were overshadowed by domestic no-events.

A new entrant into the realm of diplomacy and foreign affairs, Krishna has certainly a long innings to play and with a mature and old China hand in foreign secretary Shiv Shankar Menon, he won’t have much problem in dealing with tougher issues. The first major challenge he faces in the form of bringing about a paradigm shift in foreign policy’s vision for the next 20 years. India 2010 to 2030 will be a completely changed land in terms of military strength, economic parameters and domestic political equations. So will be China, our immediate neighbour and a major strategic concern which never leaves a chance to offend Indian sensitivities at the most inopportune time.

With such neighbourly compulsions, the next decade would see India engaging with China more than any other nation, notwithstanding the democratic cooperation with the US. China has travelled a long way outsmarting India in manufacturing, economic growth, infrastructure building and military strength. While India has shrunk to almost half in the last 100 years, China has doubled geographically too. Recently in a poll conducted by the government-controlled Global Times, 90% of the Chinese people have been reported as thinking India as the biggest threat to China and a majority of them didn’t approve of strong friendly ties with us. It's quite strange. First it's India and not China that’s the aggrieved party, China has taken a large chunk of our land in Kashmir illegally and also accepted unashamedly a "gift" of the "theft" by Pakistan. It attacked us in 1962 and still lays claim to Arunachal Pradesh. Logically, it’s Indians who must feel aggrieved and oppose any friendly ties with the offending neighbour, which has been making unfriendly noises hurting Indian sentiments that includes opposing an India grant at ADB, voicing disapproval of President Pratibha Patil’s visit to Arunachal Pradesh and keeping a studied silence over fake Chinese drugs marketed in Africa as "made in India".

But the level of ignorance about China in India is simply baffling. More than Pakistan, it should have been China on our radar of engagement knowing it more than any other nation. The naiveties of India’s so-called Sinologists is best expressed in projecting it in the fossilized terminology of the 60s and refusing to recognize that both countries have travelled hundreds of miles in different directions since then. China is no more a Mao-land, it has converted into a resurgent market economy where youngsters are yearning to learn American slang and speak English with a New York school’s pronunciation. India doesn’t appear with any recognizable significance on their radar — theirs is a westward journey with a determination to conquer the west. Their poverty-struck villages, simmering unrest in certain quarters and a rising urge for democracy and more liberal policies are here but they are feeble graphs and the strong streak of nationalism overpowers weaknesses of a totalitarian state apparatus.

India too is not the Nehruvian model of a fake socialism but a fast-moving economy determined to become a super power. The next 20 years are too important for both of us. China would like to move ahead of the US in economic and military strength and India must revitalize its core sectors with democratic values and supremacy in hardware. Our principal rival remains China and not the US. China would like these years to be peaceful, without any military adventurism to gain time for consolidating its economic and fire power. But definitely the rising power levels have added to its arrogance which India must watch cautiously.

This is exactly the transition period for India’s foreign policy, especially in its outlook to Pakistan, Afghanistan and China. India must not become a partner in the US game in this region which is, at present more Pakistan-centric and has ignored Indian concerns. Every US dollar given to Pakistan under the cover of "controlling Taliban", is turned into a missile on Indian interests. Though India is a major player in the Af-Pak region, the perception is that it is playing second fiddle to the US. This has to be corrected with direct links with Afghan tribal leaders and an operational policy for Pakistan held Kashmir and NWFP. Krishna will also have to revitalize and make assertive policy towards Chinese links with Pakistan’s extremist organizations like Jammat-e-Islami and tribal leaders of Gilgit and Baltistan.

If there is a new China and a new India emerging on the world horizon, let there be a new approach towards each other — and that requires more understanding and information exchanges. Not only that Indians must get Chinese reports from Indian correspondents but there has to be a methodical approach towards Track II citizens diplomacy towards China. Already Indian companies are finding it lucrative to have their work stations and factories established in remote townships of China and Indian students get easy access to Chinese medical and engineering colleges. Learning Chinese and visiting China on vacations, instead of Malaysia or London and Europe must be encouraged and Chinese youth should be invited by Indian organizations for interaction and dialogue.

With changing economic poles and Asian giants withstanding recession, China is waiting for the opportune time through following hedging strategy without a clear mandate for any global player. It must continue to resist American presence in the region, as the strong US ties with Thailand and Singapore and a fear of its ability to block gateways to China’s trade route. Through Southeast Asia makes it uneasy. Growing Indian presence in this Mekong region, often symbolized by the phrase Ganga-Mekong cooperation is also looked with suspicion by Beijing, taking it as a part of Tokyo-Washington-Delhi arc of democratic cooperation.

SM Krishna will have to talk tough with Pakistan a small nuclear irritant compared with China and make South Block focused more on Chinese front.

Hindutva without poverty alleviation is a temple without the deity.

rediff news
May 23, 2009
Tarun Vijay

In times like these when the nation is facing serious external and internal challenges, it is incumbent upon anyone who thinks he is a nationalist to help the new government run smoothly.
Initially, the young brigade of Rahul Gandhi's team makes a terrific impact and buoyed with an Indian electorate's spectacular support, they look pretty good. With a suave Manmohan Singh at the helm it must make India better its image and move ahead, and why one should criticise them just they are not members of our party and don't sing the same song?

Isn't India greater than us all and our parties put together?

Having said that, it's also necessary, to stay firm, like Casablanca, on what has sustained the other side so long. Even if the Bharatiya Janata Party got almost 40 million votes less than the Congress, I would want every single party which fought the election on different manifestos and programmes to remain firm on its fundamentals and speak out about the anomalies of this system while working together for a common greater good of the people.

Isn't it great to see many stalwarts from various parties being elected to the Lok Sabha, which is sure to enrich the debates and the art of governing India?

Arrogant moneybag criminals are less this time and the young brigade from different parties showcase the youngest nation on this planet quite gracefully.

A few points on the other side must also be pondered over.

Indian democracy has come a full circle. From Mahatma Gandhi's salt movement to a universal dynastic movement. No party can say it's not following the new thumb rule.

Almost half the voters didn't vote.
Money spent per constituency reached an all time high as per newspaper reports with exceptions of a few like the Loksatta Party's Jayaprakash Narayan. Just one or two seats? The rest are real crorepatis.
It's all mathematical jugglery. Somewhere Raj Thackeray's maneuverings and in another state the Praja Rajyam Party diverted the anti-incumbency votes and the consolidated Muslim vote bank helped.
More than half the votes polled went against them. The Congress got just 28 percent. The rest of the voters -- 72 percent -- didn't vote for it. The BJP's share came down to approximately 18 percent (in 1999 it got 25.3 percent). Still they say people voted for a stable and secular government and showed the door to the communalists who got nearly 18 percent votes.
What were the issues that the 'communalists' raised?

The issue of the Kashmiri Hindus. Was that wrong?

Or demanding revocation of the Prevention of Terrorism Act and stringent measures against terrorists?

Or the agitation for the Amarnath land and preservation of the unique world heritage and a symbol of faith like the Ram Sethu ?

The nationalists opposed the divisive politics of Raj Thackeray, who was propped up by the Congress to counter the Shiv Sena Was opposing Raj wrong?

They were responsible for Pokaran-II and were committed to preserve our rights for Pokaran-III if needed. Was that against the national interest?

On the eve of the polls they said forget 1984, but remember Gujarat. What mentality did it show?

The nationalists wanted Article 370 to go and Kashmir fully integrated with the rest of India. Was that against national integration?

Should India be governed on religious fragmentation and parochial chauvinism or on the basis of egalitarianism, equal rights and privileges to all rising above the communal lines?

Let everyone ponder -- Hindus have been continuously assaulted for the last 1,200 years. Do they have a right to preserve their heritage and way of life after a partitioned independence or not?

On the other hand the Congress, whatever they believed in, they delivered.

Removed POTA, faced opposition. Didn't relent.

Introduced reservations for the Muslims. Faced opposition. Didn't relent.

Constituted Sachar Committee. Its divisive attitude and faulty inferences were discussed and severely criticised. It didn't budge an inch and carried on.

Faced a barrage of criticism on the delay in hanging Parliament attack accused Afzal Guru. It stood sweetly firm.

It de-froze Octavio Quattrocchi's accounts in London ,unshackled him from the Central Bureau of Investigation. The media and the others cried foul. So what? It remained cool.

It kept silent over Nandigram , Singur. But had the prudence to tie up with the Trinamool Congress And succeeded in defeating the Left.

It gave huge amounts of plan allocation funds to the minorities ignoring the majority Hindu concerns. So what? It got Hindu middle-class votes plus Muslim ones.

It faced flak on its policy to combat terrorism, had to change its home minister and the chief minister of Maharashtra post the 26/11 attacks. Yet it won in Mumbai handsomely.

It got a nuke deal passed despite the entire Opposition and one of its key allies opposing it in one language. It saw silently that Parliament was turned into a bazaar. Yet it won the Muslims and a new mandate.

And the Hindutva group faced a powerfully hostile section of the media. Some of them became an instrument to oppose Hindu assertions maligning them with celebrative enthusiasm for irrelevant happenings like we saw at the Mangalore pub. Their ('fair, objective and independent torch bearers of freedom of expression') controllers, writing in newspaper columns and on their blogs, had nothing but a decisive opposition and acidic hate for a particular section of the Indians who asserted their dharma.

These Hindus were demonised for their civil assertions and all the media space was given to the one sided attacks on them like the Taliban did in Swat.

How the owners of the channels, writing politically partisan columns in newspapers that blatantly support a particular political party, would allow a debate that can be closer to objectivity and does justice to the other viewpoint?

Those who fought for the immediate gains must sulk.

Those who battle for ideology must stay firm.

It needs someone to say that only buildings and roads and good governance are not ideology but a partial manifestation of its programmes. Ideology distinguishes a Gandhi from a Hitler ,a Golwalkar from a Stalin.

If in this kind of a maneuvering polity, the chips are down for the BJP today, it doesn't show that the issues have been rejected or defeated. It must always remember the reason that the Jan Sangh was re-born as the BJP. People have supported it so far because it is perceived as the only party that doesn't feel embarrassed to protect the Hindu ethos of the nation.

That's what L K Advani admitted in the Mumbai executive meeting held after the 2004 defeat. The only factor that will reinvigorate and make the adherents of a movement fortified by the martyrdoms of hundreds of workers rise again is the power of ideology, a youthful solidarity and not just the blue prints of IT highway plans and NREGS allocations.

India rising must mean India civilisationally committed, militarily strong and economically sound. Hindutva without a strong poverty alleviation drive and guaranteeing employment and housing to all is as meaningless as a temple without the deity. And vice versa.

These were the elections that were contested by the rich to get richer at the expense of the poor and powerless, unorganised millions. Nowhere were the issues of empowering the poor and low-income groups, or earmarking housing as a fundamental right and increased facilities and ultramodern training to the police and security forces were considered a winnable election slogan or a charter to earn people's mandate.

How did the parties connect or even tried to befriend and educate a rickshaw puller on issues that affect his life as a citizen? Did they feel the need for it? He would be required only in a rally of the poor to be addressed by a rich leader. He is the class, which is used for emotive issues as cannon fodder. He dies in greatly publicised agitations unsung with none of the red-eyed, angry leaders who led him to death caring how his family is continuing with a life that it didn't choose.

Issues of Hindu-Muslim, caste and provincialism are raised just for the limited gains of vote and then easily forgotten once the space in Lutyen's Delhi is assured.

The life of a hawker or labourer who gets his daily wages after a cut by his middleman contractor and the factory worker hasn't changed since last decade. Still in the remote villages water scarcity, famines, floods, 12-hour power cuts, bad roads and overloaded means of transportation are facts of life.

The mushrooming growth of the new educational malls providing half-baked degrees to aspiring youth and the huge number of increasing urban and rural unemployed semi-skilled work force can't get on to the agendas of any politician unless they form a usable vote bank.

The urban public amenities, buses, railway stations and localities of the low-income group working people show unbelievable depths of human misery, filth, anarchical systemic failure and life in sub-human conditions.

If those who won on the basis of factors quite differently than the real democracy is all about, should it mean the issues so dear to the ideological soldiers be shelved? Or should it make our battle more resolved?

And it also means asking questions like what's the use of religious chants if the followers of Ram go to sleep on empty stomachs? This is not what we have learnt from Vivekananda.

If we have to find a way for our identity protection, that can't only be through a society that is educated and free from want. Hence, this war is ideological and not for the singular aim of materialistic prosperity, roads, bridges and IT centres.

Indian wisdom and civilisational excellence has always reigned supreme defeating the sword wielders and the controllers of wealth.

If we win the war of ideas, we shall be richer with both Vidya (wisdom) and Vitta (wealth). But if riches come to us without ideological firmness, nothing would be saved -- neither wealth nor Dharma.

Talk tough to tackle terror

Hindustan TimesMay 21, 2009

Tarun Vijay

Pakistan was created because its leaders said they could not live with Hindus and they needed a separate State. This is the basic truth, but we seem to forget this all the time because we are under the spell of a mirage called secular diplomacy.

Since its birth, the country gave us the Mirpur massacre, a Kargil and an unstable and volatile Swat Valley. There is more: they ‘gifted’ our 4,853 sq km of land to China, waged Operation Topac in Punjab and fuelled separatism and terrorism in Kashmir. But when they were badly bruised by their homegrown ‘freedom fighters’, they began playing the victim card.

Even after all this, it’s quite amazing that they have the guts to call themselves victims of terrorism. But what about those people who buy this argument? Whenever Pakistan has been buoyed by the US’s financial and military support, they have attacked us. They have also manufactured the Islamic bomb. Every single missile they produced (Ghauri, Ghazni, Qasim) was named after people who were known for their hatred against Hindus. And yet we have people who tell us that Pakistan too is a victim of ‘non-State players’ and the two countries should fight terrorism together.

What the Swat Valley is facing today must be seen in its historical context. Swat was a great centre of learning and it sent Buddhist monks all over the world to spread the message of peace and compassion. The original name of this beautiful region was Udyan and this finds a mention in ancient Buddhist and Hindu scriptures. Chinese travellers have written about Swat’s majestic beauty and more than 1,400 Buddhist monasteries flourished there. The Kushans and Hindu Shahis ruled till 1001 CE when Mahmud of Ghazni invaded the area.

Swat’s neighbouring areas are the Gilgit, Chitral, Kafiristan and Hindukush mountain ranges. As the names suggest, all these regions have an indelible Hindu imprint but the conquerors renamed the areas with a vengeance. Hindukush is a mountain where Hindus were crushed and Kapish was called Kafiristan, because the inhabitants were non-Muslims.

When an Afghan ruler invaded the area in 1895, he forcibly converted all and then renamed the region as Nuristan — the land of light. So, what Swat’s Hindus and Sikhs are facing today is a continuation of what happened to Hindus since the Muslim invasions began.

Guru Nanak faced the same barbarians. In 1523, Babar attacked India and after crossing Sindhu entered Saiadpur (now Amnabad), 15 kilometre south east of Gujranwala. His soldiers killed and looted, turning a city of life into a ghost town of dead bodies. Guru Nanak saw this, and used the word ‘Zabar’ (ferocious) for Babar.

You could say forget it, bygones are bygones. But this Hindu attitude of forgetting the bitter past and beginning a new friendship has always remained unreciprocated. Various armed lords are controlling Pakistan. Islamabad’s authority has lost its relevance except for the army and the US. Washington is once again fattening the army coffers, repeating the historical blunder of General Zia’s period. The only way to strengthen peace and plurality in the region is India’s democracy. Whichever party rules India, they must not allow any kind of extremism like we see in our neighbourhood. Pakistan has become self-destructive.

However, Delhi can’t say that it will not do anything. We are affected by Islamabad’s follies more than the US. Therefore, it’s our responsibility to check religious fanaticism in that country.

Direction was right but failed to reach people

ET DEBATE
22 May, 2009
Tarun Vijay

The issues were just those the people wanted BJP to raise — harsh on terror; IT for the rural folks and commoners; five lakh Kashmiri Hindus be sent back; illegal Bangladeshi infiltration to be stopped; opposing Raj Thackeray’s divisive parochialism; bringing back black money from Swiss banks and de-communalising state schemes; making secularism mean seeing citizens as Indians and ending appeasement on religious grounds.

The best of the highway schemes, telecommunication revolution, roads, improved power supply and novel schemes for the girl child were essentially BJP initiatives earning laurels from bodies like planning Commission to the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation.

BJP’s direction was decided by nationalism and not by family fiefdoms or Afzal-Quattrocchi centric considerations of an extra-constitutional variety. It stood firmly against the bloody jihadis of Nizame-Mustafa and Nizame-Marx kind and was the first party in India’s history to introduce 30% reservation for women.

It was the only party that had a clear policy framed for youth and infrastructure building with an assured economic package for farmers. Anything wrong in that?

Those who blame Hindutva forget that if India was not a Hindu majority we would have gone the Pakistan way. The entire south Asia is facing a rapid marginalisation and decrease in Hindu population. State powers are blatantly bruising Hindu sentiments for vote banks — communal reservations and hurting the majority on issues like Ram Setu. Why it has become a ‘sin’ to speak for them who continue to be brutalised from Swat to Srinagar?

Never in post-Independence history have security forces felt so letdown; ex-army personnel even returned their well-earned war-decorations in frustration. BJP took up their anguish. The top industrialists and corporate giants publicly appreciating BJP policies was a rare phenomenon.

Was it prompted by BJP’s ‘wrong’ direction? With the bright young radiant faces of the rich and powerful families entering Parliament triumphantly, Indian democracy has come a full circle. From Gandhi’s salt movement to a dynastic movement. The BJP direction was just right. The fault lies somewhere in reaching out to the people.