भारत के प्रधानमंत्री को कैसा होना चाहिए ?

“जो हिमालय सा ऊंचा, गंगा सा विनम्र हो”- तरुण विजय

War Room

24 Apr 2009
Tarun Vijay

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/4443402.cms

While Barack Obama is busy formulating an Af-Pak policy, we are busy in melting-point informatics and "my brother Rahul will become PM one day" kind
of family employment schemes. The Prime Minister "revealed" to a group of journalists that he had decided to resign if the nuclear deal with the US was not passed in Parliament. To fulfil his "kasam" to Washington, he silently saw the lawmakers' highest body turn into a mandi.

For him, his "kasam" was more important than the "maryada" of his nation's parliament.

I wish he had honoured in the same way his "kasam" to the Indian people – the oath he took while taking the office of Prime Minister, that bound him to protecting the lives of his people and giving a government that treated all citizens equally.

Pota was removed to please Muslims. A special reservation scheme was implemented at Aligarh Muslim University to have seats for a particular religious group reserved.
The Planning Commission allocated Rs 3,000 crore for minority (read Muslim) development schemes and banks were directed to give loans to the minorities at a special consideration. To address Kashmiri Muslim "sentiments", Afzal's hanging was delayed till the next government is formed. Ram Sethu was brutally assaulted and Rama's existence was denied – all before the eyes of Mr Nice and Dr Decent. Not a single word was spoken to address the sentiments of Hindus.

He kept a studied silence seeing the butchers of 1984 being protected and promoted as party candidates for Lok Sabha elections till a shoe throw compelled the leader to delist them.

So much for his "kasam" to provide impartial governance.

The "kasam" to protect the people and safeguard the honour of soldiers was "fulfilled" in such a manner that soldiers returned their war decorations and had to demonstrate like pariahs at Jantar Mantar. The government was busy decorating the liars and voices of terrorists.

And now, there is a controversy regarding a story sourced to the Special Investigating Tribunal blaming certain NGOs for cooking up ghastly stories of barbarism, which, the report says, never occurred. The person who has been charged having helped file such "cooked up" stories became a darling of the secular media noises in Delhi who would present her stories like a constitutional tribunal's report.

There is a contradiction which is further confusing as SIT is still silent on it. For the sake of justice and fair play, the truth must be investigated and the honour of the people, whichever side they might belong to, be restored. If the Kausar Bi story was filed truthfully, the criminals must be hanged in public along with the perpetrators of Godhra. But if it was a fabrication, the "writer" must be punished because if a mind can cook up such ghastly scenes, what will be the difference between what Kasab and his gang did in Mumbai and what these pen-pushers of the secular chill club do to India and her people? {NGOs, Teesta spiced up Gujarat riot incidents: SIT} A writer more known in London wrote a story as spine chilling as was the Godhra fire. It read, "A mob surrounded the house of former Congress MP Iqbal Ehsan Jaffri. His phone calls to the Director-General of Police, the Police Commissioner, the Chief Secretary, the Additional Chief Secretary (Home) were ignored. The mobile police vans around his house did not intervene. The mob broke into the house. They stripped his daughters and burned them alive. Then they beheaded Ehsan Jaffri and dismembered him. Of course it’s only a coincidence that Jaffri was a trenchant critic of Gujarat Chief Minister, Narendra Modi, during his campaign for the Rajkot Assembly by-election in February.'(Arundhati Roy’s article, Outlook, dated 6 May 2002).

Ehsaan was killed but the rest of the story was false for which Roy had to apologize. A people traumatized, painted black all over the globe, their character mutilated and just an apology?

And who were those killed in the Godhra train who never got a line from these "chroniclers of human tragedies"?

Just waste paper?

Read what the Union minister of state for home, Shriprakash Jaiswal, who belongs to the Congress, told Parliament on May 11, 2005: "790 Muslims and 254 Hindus were killed in the riots, 2,548 people were injured and 223 people were missing."

Who were those killed in Gujarat riots along with Muslims?

Just dirt?

The hate-Hindu cartel represents the hate of Ghaznis and Ghauris. They survive on the funds given to them by Congress-Communist groups and state powers controlled by them. Their social acceptability and glamour is enhanced by "praise for each other" societies. And Mr Nice and Dr Decent pats them with state awards.

Amid cacophony and intemperate language laced with shoe throws, criminals and convicted actors are having a field day canvassing for their parties and though a mature and stable democracy we pretend to be, the first casualty in this situation has been decency in public debate.

The poll scene has turned the nation into a war room. The last 62 years have witnessed our motherland's vivisection, a million people killed, 1.25 lakh sq km of land illegally occupied by aliens, massacres by Pakistani marauders in Mirpur and in Bihar by Maoist terror outfits, the jeep purchase scandal in 1948, a humiliation like 1962 when ordnance factories were ordered to make coffee machines instead on rifles, the Nagarwala mystery, the submarine scandal, wheat import commissions, farmers' suicides, forced exile of Kashmiri Hindus and desecration of more than 172 temples. The list is ever-growing amid inspiring stories of Indian people’s perseverance and achievements.

Isn't it time we rose above fault lines, gave a chance to an India that would make every Indian of every denomination, faith, colour and creed an equally proud partner? Can't we think and vote on issues that overpower religious, caste-based and parochial concerns? Will this war room kind of atmosphere result in a decisive mandate?

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http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/opinions/4443402.cms

सेकुलर राजनीति की सच्चाई

गुजरात दंगों के संदर्भ में विशेष जांच दल की रपट से कथित सेकुलर वर्ग का झूठ उजागर होता देख रहे हैं तरुण विजय

20 April 2009

जिस समय प्राय: हर रोज सैनिकों और नागरिकों की आतंकवादियों द्वारा बर्बर हत्याओं के समाचार छप रहे हों उस समय यह देखकर लज्जा होती है कि भारतीय राजनेता परिवारवाद तथा मजहबी तुष्टीकरण के दलदल में फंसे हास्यास्पद बयान देने में व्यस्त है। गीता में भगवान श्रीकृष्ण ने कहा है कि 'स्वधर्मे निधनं श्रेय: परधर्मो भयावह' अर्थात् अपने धर्म पर अडिग रहते हुए मृत्यु भी प्राप्त हो तो वह श्रेयस्कर है। आज सत्ता का भोग करने वाले यदि अपने मूल राजधर्म के पथ से अलग रहते है तो एक दिन ऐसा आता है जब न तो उनका यश शेष रहता है और न ही पाप कर्म से अर्जित संपदा। लोकसभा चुनावों में अनर्गल आरोप-प्रत्यारोप, मिथ्या भाषण तथा गाली-गलौज का जो वातावरण बना है वह राजनीतिक कलुश का अस्थाई परिचय ही कराता है।

आजादी के बाद से अब तक देश में ऐसे अनेक मंत्री, मुख्यमंत्री और प्रधानमंत्री हुए जिन्होंने अपने-अपने कार्यकाल में विवादों, चर्चाओं और अकूत संपत्तिका आनंद लिया, परंतु उन सब में हम ऐसे किन्हीं दो-चार व्यक्तियों का स्मरण करते है जो अपनी संपत्तिनहीं, बल्कि कर्तव्य के कारण जनप्रिय हुए। पैसा कभी वास्तविक सम्मान नहीं दिलाता, इस बात को वे राजनेता भूल जाते है जो भारत की मूल हिंदू परंपरा सभ्यता और संस्कृति के प्रवाह पर चोट करना अपनी सेकुलर राजनीति का आधार बना बैठे है कि इस देश को हमेशा धर्म ने बचाया है सेकुलर सत्ता ने नहीं। अब तक कई हजार सांसद और विधायक बन गए है, परंतु उनमें से ऐसे कितने होंगे जिन्होंने पैसा नहीं, यश कमाया है? क्या वजह है कि सरदार पटेल और लाल बहादुर शास्त्री कांग्रेस नेता होते हुए भी शेष दलों में भी आदर और सम्मान पाते है और भाजपा के हिंदुत्वनिष्ठ राजनीति के पुरोधा डा. श्यामा प्रसाद मुखर्जी हों अथवा दीनदयाल उपाध्याय, उनके प्रति कभी कोई आघात नहीं कर पाया। वे संपदा और राजनीतिक प्रभुता न होते हुए भी दायरों से परे सम्मान के पात्र हुए।

गुजरात में दंगों की जांच के लिए गठित विशेष जांच टीम के प्रमुख एवं पूर्व सीबीआई निदेशक ने पिछले सप्ताह अपनी रिपोर्ट सर्वोच्च न्यायालय में दाखिल की, जिसमें कहा गया कि गुजरात दंगों के बारे में कुछ स्वयंसेवी संगठनों ने अपने कुछ नेताओं के कहने पर एक जैसे प्रारूप पर रौंगटे खड़े करने वाले जो आरोप लगाए थे वे सरासर झूठ और मनगढ़ंत थे। इसमें तीस्ता जावेद सीतलवाड़ का नाम सामने आया, जिन्होंने इस प्रकार के आरोप उछाले थे कि गर्भवती मुस्लिम महिला से हिंदुओं ने दुष्कर्म के बाद बर्बरतापूर्वक उसकी हत्या कर दी। विशेष जांच टीम ने स्पष्ट रूप से ऐसे चार उदाहरण प्रस्तुत किए है जिनमें एक कौसर बी की हत्या, दूसरा नरौडा पाटिया में कुएं में मुस्लिमों की लाशें फेंकने, तीसरा एक ब्रिटिश दंपत्तिकी हत्या का था। ये तीनों घटनाएं सैकड़ों मुसलमानों द्वारा एक जैसी भाषा और एक जैसे प्रारूप पर जांच टीम को दी गई थीं और तीनों ही झूठी साबित हुईं। हालांकि तीस्ता ने इस खबर का तीव्र खंडन किया है, लेकिन इस पर विशेष जांच टीम ने कोई टिप्पणी नहीं की है। अत: खंडन के दावों की भी जांच जरूरी है। ध्यान रहे, इसी प्रकार अरुंधती राय ने भी गुजरात दंगों के एक पक्ष का झूठा चित्रण किया था। यह कैसा सेकुलरवाद है जो अपने ही देश और समाज को बदनाम करने के लिए झूठ का सहारा लेने से भी नहीं हिचकता? यह कैसे प्रधानमंत्री हैं जो परमाणु संधि न होने की स्थिति में इस्तीफा देने के लिए तैयार रहते है, लेकिन नागरिकों को सुरक्षा देने में असमर्थ रहते हुए भी पद पर बने रहते हैं।

इस देश में एक ऐसा सेकुलर वर्ग खड़ा हो गया है जिसने हिंदुओं की संवेदना तथा प्रतीकों पर चोट करना अपना मकसद मान लिया है। इन दिनों विशेषकर जिस प्रकार उर्दू के कुछ अखबारों में जहर उगला जा रहा है वह 1947 से पहले के जहरीले माहौल की याद दिलाता है। ऐसी किसी संस्था या नेता पर कोई कार्रवाई नहीं होती। इस स्थिति में केवल देशभक्ति और राष्ट्रीयता के आधार पर एकजुटता ही अराष्ट्रीय तत्वों को परास्त कर सकती है। दुर्भाग्य से इस देश में हिंदुओं का पहला शत्रु हिंदू ही होता है। इसी स्थिति को बदलने के लिए डा. हेडगेवार ने राष्ट्रीय स्वयंसेवक संघ की स्थापना की थी, ताकि हिंदू एकजुटता स्थापित हो और इस देश का सांस्कृतिक प्रवाह सुरक्षित रह सके। भारत में हिंदू बहुलता संविधान सम्मत लोकतंत्र और बहुलवाद की गारंटी है। जिस दिन हिंदू अल्पसंख्यक होंगे या उनका मनोबल सेकुलर आघातों से तोड़ दिया जाएगा उस दिन भारत न सिर्फ अपनी पहचान खो देगा, बल्कि यहां भी अफगानिस्तान, पाकिस्तान और बांग्लादेश जैसी मजहबी मतांधता छा जाएगी। पानी, बिजली, सड़क, रोजगार, गरीबी उन्मूलन, विज्ञान और प्रौद्योगिकी का विकास, ग्रामीण सम्मान की पुनस्र्थापना राजधर्म के अंतर्गत अनिवार्य कर्तव्य है, लेकिन यही सब स्वयं में कभी भी राष्ट्र की पहचान नहीं बन सकते। अगर भौतिकता राष्ट्र की पहचान होती तो तिरंगे झंडे और यूनियन जैक में फर्क ही नहीं रहता।

आज देश की राजनीति को वह दृष्टि देने की जरूरत है जो भारतीयता की रक्षा कर सके। देश आज विदेशी विचारधाराओं और नव उपनिवेशवादी प्रहारों से लहूलुहान हो रहा है। जिहादी हमलों में साठ हजार से भी अधिक भारतीय मारे गए है। नक्सलवादी-माओवादी हमलों में 12 हजार से अधिक भारतीय मारे जा चुके है। इन आतंकवादियों के पास हमारे सैनिकों से बेहतर उपकरण और हथियार होते है। भारत सरकार पुलिस और अर्धसैनिक बलों को घटिया हथियार, सस्ती बुलेट प्रूफ जैकेट और अपर्याप्त प्रशिक्षण देकर अमानुषिक आतंकवादियों का सामना करने भेज देती है। राजधर्म का इससे बढ़कर और क्या पतन होगा? जिस राज में सैनिक अपने वीरता के अलंकरण वापस करने लगें और संत अपमानित व लांछित किए जाएं वहां के शासक अनाचार को ही प्रोत्साहित करने वाले कहे जाएंगे।

HSS celebrates Hindu New Year in Bangkok

http://www.organiser.org/dynamic/modules.php?name=Content&pa=showpage&pid=288&page=15



Unity and devotion to Dharma keys to Hindu rejuvenation
-Tarun Vijay

A history was created in Thailand last week when for the first time grand celebration of Hindu new year was organized under the banner of the Hindu Swayamsewak Sangh (HSS) in Bangkok on 3rd April 2009. Shri Tarun Vijay, Director, Dr. Syama Prasad Mookerjee Research Foundation and a veteran journalist was the chief guest. Shri Chintamani Tripathi, Sanghchalak, HSS, Thailand, and President, VHP, Thailand presided while Shri Ashok Bajaj, President of the largest Hindu temple Dev Mandir was guest of honour. Several senior leaders of Hindu community and organisations were present on the occasion with a special presence of the cultural secretary from the Indian Embassy Shri Subir Datta.
The programme began with hoisting of Bhagwa Dhwaj and offering flowers at the portraits of King Bhumibal Adulyatej Rama the ninth, Bharat Mata, Dr. Hedgewar and Shri Guruji. Shri Tarun Vijay was warmly welcomed by several leaders of the Hindu organisations and with a scintillating Sangha geet by Shri Suresh, he was requested to give the baudhik. In his baudhik Shri Tarun Vijay gave details of the significance of the Hindu New Year, which is also celebrated in Thailand as Songkrem (13th April to 15th April). He said that Hindus world over are respected for their intelligence, loyalty to the adopted country and peaceful nature.’ Hindus dont bomb the country they adopt' he said amidst the roaring applause.
He appealed the Hindu organisations to shun their differences and forge a unity based on Hindu culture and civilisational moors.’ We are not Biharis, Punjabis or Gujaratis in a foreign land- just emphasize your Hinduness and that alone shall win you a place of honour on a foreign soil. He said Hindus are passing through a most difficult phase in their age old journey when not only they are assaulted geographically but also their soul is bruised and brutalized by the followers of exclusivist ideologies breeding hate and violence. Hindus are the only community in the world which has been assaulted most barbarically just for its faith and colour and a belief in pluralistic principles of universal brotherhood. This South Asian region has become a nightmarish area of attacks on Hindus reducing their geographic presence in an unprecedented manner-from Afghanistan to Dhaka. Hindu presence has been shrinking drastically in this region, he emphasized. Hence its time we must forge unity on the basis of Hindu Dharma, which alone is the guarantee to safeguard pluralism and a respect for the different viewpoint.
He said that Thai King Bhumibal Adulyatej has set a glaring example of devotion to culture and Dharma by naming the Bangkok International airport as Suvarnabhumi, which is an old Sanskrit name of the region. At the aiport the first most gracious and inspiring sculpture of ocean –Churning (Sagar Manthan) by Devas and Asuras with Shri Vishnu in the middle symbolizes the deep cultural affinities of Thai people with Hindus. This spirit of an unapologetic devotion to one’s cultural heritage has to be strengthened and imbibed, he said. He also gave details of the Hindu organisations’ march ahead in Bharat and said that its extraordinary that the largest Hindu organization on this planet has elected 59 year old Mohan Rao Bhagwat, as its global chief with unprecedented changes at every level bringing the young to the forefront of action. This has given a new hope and strengthened the trust in Hindu power that stands for the universal peace, mutual understanding and a harmonious message based on acceptance of cultural pluralism, so essential to resist and defeat nefarious terrorism affecting global societies. He noted that amazingly Ganesh Puja is finding a new popularity in Thailand and almost every home and business establishment has a Ganesh Puja corner that shows a positive sign for the future of this highly modern and forward looking society. In the politically turbulent times in Thailand, we must pray for the stability and peace strengthening the democratic set up, he said. Pt. Lalit Mohan Vyas, Chief Priest of Dev Mandir, called upon all Hindus to adhere to the basic tenets of their dharma. Dharma alone protects he said citing several vedic references.
Shri Dinesh Mani Dubey, Budhik Pramukh (incharge intellectual activities ) said that it’s a great day for the Hindus in Thailand as all the major Hindu organizations have come together to participate the Hindu new year-so rare for the Indian community abroad. He assured that more such programmes shall be organized in future to forge unity and a feeling of togetherness. Shri Umesh Mishra, organizer HSS, Thailand welcomed the guests and said that Hindus must shun their petty differences of language, provincialism and sectarianism so that a unity of purpose is achieved.
Shri Vijay Sharma, a veteran swayasewak conducted the proceedings. Leading stalwarts of the Indian community from difeent sections of Thai society attended the function. Amongst them were Shri Sushil Sarraf, Shri Rajkumar Mahta, Shri Satish Pahwa, Shri Lalit Kishore, Shri Sushil Dhanuka,President of Hindu Dharma Sabha and Chairman Vishnu Mandir Shri Krishna Datta Upadhyaya, and its secretary Shri Om Prakash Mishra, President of Thailand International Gita Ashram Shri Mahesh Agarwal, Shri Tejasvi Shukla, Coordinator of Hindu Buddh Samanvaya Shri Rajkumar Dubey, Shri Parmatma Tripathi, Shri Suresh Dube, and Shri Pramod Dube were amongst the distinguished gathering. Shri Yash, a greatly admired singer of the Hindu Bhajans sang a scintillating song accompanied by Shri Chandrakant.

Dinesh Mani Dube from Bangkok.

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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।

http://www.rediff.com/news/2009/mar/27guest-column-tarun-vijay-on-dynasty-and-the-varun-effect.htm

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

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.

Merely ritualizing the "pub bharo" to "Parliament bharo" drills is nothing but further moisturizing the filthy dustbin.

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?

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/2009/mar/09guest-elect-those-who-choose-india-as-life-force.htm

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.

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.

 Hence it's time when the followers of the legacy that began with Dr. Hedgewar founding the nationalist school of thought known as the RSS must assert and justify their birth, first in the form of Jana Sangh and later re-incarnated as the Bharatiya Janata Party. I was there when the first-ever convention of the newly-formed BJP took place in Mumbai, in 1980, christened as Samata Nagar. And the star attraction in that meeting was none else other than Mohammad Karim Chagla, the octogenarian scholar and statesman. The BJP could have adopted a pure saffron flag as its new motif, like the old Jana Sangh, but it chose the green and saffron. Jana Sangh too, in early fifties could have been a Hindu Sangh, but the stalwarts in those times chose a name that would represent all --any one who is an Indian, no matter what his faith is, without compromising on the basic characteristics of the nation i.e. Hindu.

 A nation is defined not by the forex reserves or the military prowess but by the contours of her civilisational traditions and the collective struggles and sufferings. We are, unquestioningly and unapologetically Hindu in our national colours as much as the USA is Latin Christian and the UK works for all communities still adhering as a state to the spiritual umbrella of the Church of England. An Obama taking oath of the presidential office on the Bible doesn't become a communally hateful ruler for the other faiths. So is with us. A Hindu-majority India remains the only guarantee of a pluralistic and democratic nation. The moment we accept the de-Hinduisation process of the nation as a sign of secularism and an acceptable factor in polity, we are not only doomed as an Indian nation but also invite Talibanisation of the society.

 And then, who says to be a Hindu means looking backward or approving obscurantism? The only people on earth who virtually worship Lakshmi, the goddess of wealth, and have prosperity as an inseparable part of their life-cycle are Hindus. In fact to be Hindu means to be rich, brilliant and happy. The most important factors, however, as was explained by Prof. Rajendra Singh, the third RSS Chief, (who was Head and Reader, Dept. of Physics, University of Allahabady) remain wisdom and character. We forget that exactly for her power, happiness and wealth, Hindu India was the eye sore of the barbarians when they assaulted us calling this land as 'Sone ki Chidiya - the Golden Bird'. We have shown the world the best of Hindu architecture in our thousand-year-old temples in Ellora, Ajanta to Ang kor Wat, the Vedic poetry, the invention of numerals and zero, life sciences and geometry to trigonometry and the deep knowledge of cosmos and the most scientific grammar and script and language. We are those Hindu people who gave the world the concept of 'world is one family' (vasudhaiva kutumbakam) when the semitic races were launching Crusades and Jihads. And an inborn attitude to respect the different viewpoint so much so that an atheist Rishi, scholar monk, Charvak was given an honoured place in the highest exalted order of six philosophers. To be a Hindu means saying no to Gulags and accepting a Galileo with appreciation. Even today the best of the economic developmental models in the states are indisputably seen in states where BJP is ruling. Still seculars deny that showing a pathological hatred for the Hindu word and world view.

 Money, riches, industrialisation, military arrogance couldn't save the mighty Soviet empire. You need a little more to live as humans, which the Communists refused to accept. The IT power and the strength of brilliance coupled with loyalty to the adopted land (we do not bomb the land we adopt- a trait Hindus are known and respected for the world over) is making them use force to reckon with- as Thomas Freidman too discussed in his celebrated book The World is Flat. But that alone won't suffice to define the nation that has been known since millenniums world over as the land of the Hindus.

 It's the so-called secular flabbiness of the neo-rich and subjugated colonised English-speaking elite that has taken up the place left vacant by British sergeants and colonial masters. Hate Hindu- is their new professional slogan. Anything Hindu is despicable and arrogantly dismissible. Destroy Ram Sethu, arrest Kanchi Shankaracharya on Diwali night, ignore the brutal killing of an 80-year-old monk on Krishna Janmashtami night in Kandhamal, simply delete the memory of Godhra and never answer why 59 men, women and little kids were burnt to death in a steel compartment, on February 27 seven years ago, never ever mention the 290 Hindus murdered during what is known as Gujarat riots, never discuss the forced exodus of five lakh Kashmiri Hindus after their women were raped and children killed by 'brave' Nizam-e-Mustafa' Ghazis.

 

That's the new order, which has to be exposed and dismantled if India has to survive.

 They insult and demand the abolition of a language without which their birth can't be celebrated, marriage can't be solemnised and even in death, the same language is used. That's Sanskrit. Like they can denounce their motherland's fragrance, they also humiliate the language of their birth and death. That's their morality and honesty.

 Last week Al-Jazeera, a channel more known for putting on air Osama and Al Jawahiri statements took my interview, 'to present the true colours of Indian culture' as its Canadian correspondent requested. When the show was aired, it showed Hindu right activists as simple monsters and barbarians and dishonestly juxtaposed their prejudices to 'justify' their pre-decided views. That's what this small minority of money wielding de-culturised slave class of the dollar world does anywhere it gets a little dominance -a Gulag at every desk.

 Against such elements of hate, the Saffron is fighting a democratic battle through a new generation of IT-savvy saffronite youths. In the blog world, Facebook, internet battles, the Saffron is reigning high and the way we get their responses from California to Bangalore and Kolkata to Chennai via Santa Fe, it's simply bewildering and a great morale booster.

 

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.

 There is hardly a stream in the national life which is not touched and influenced by the ideology espoused by this Saffron movement which began just a year before almost the year Communist movement took shape in India. Though the Communist movement remained confined to a few corners and split in more than 24 various splinter groups, Sangh-inspired organisations are setting the agenda in their respective fields and one of their Swayam Sewak unfurled the Tricolor at the Red Fort six times in continuation. Can any hateful, divisive organisation get this kind of response from the people year after year? How can ill-feelings towards another community inspire young professionals continuously for the last eight decades to devote their life and forget the attractions of a glamorous career just for the cause of rebuilding the nation? Can any other organisation, specially the secular and the Left variety, show its positive and harmonious contribution for the development of the society in comparison to the RSS work?

 Against all odds, to oppose political families turning India into their personal fiefdom, to stop India becoming a dharamshala for foreign infiltrators and putting an end to the endless pusillanimity against Jihadi terrorism, a party has to come to power that has the guts to call a spade a spade and strengthen the sinews to provide security and ensure prosperity. Enough is enough.

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.