MEDIA'S CONSPIRACY OF SILENCE

Media considers itself to be the watchdog of public interest. No issues. The role is legitimate. But, the issue is does it exclude itself? Does it mean that the watchdog cannot look within and has capacity and tenacity only to look around at the cost of ignoring the thief inside? The transparency that the media talks about is only for the government, corporate world and bureaucracy and not for itself, it seems.

“Conspiracy of silence” is the word that we often hear in the television talk shows and read in newspaper articles pointing to the inaction and indifference of the establishment in pursuing the corruption to its logical end in the recently unearthed scams like CWG swindling or the 2G spectrum scam with its historical notoriety. What about media’s “conspiracy of silence” on the Neera Radia’s tapes involving celebrity journalists, lobbyists, corporate honchos, and bureaucrats.

For the uninitiated, because there is a deliberate black-out in the mainstream media, Neera Radia is a celebrity lobbyist working for the top two industrial firms in the country and the comfort zone she has with a number of media stars, politicians and bureaucrats, as revealed in her telephonic conversation with them, is mind boggling.

The role Radia played in collusion with top mediamen and celebrity anchors in getting the Telecom portfolio for the DMK’s Andimuthu Raja in May 2009, has exposed the underbelly of these “watchdogs” of public interest and bringing out their real image as “lap dogs”. The conversations between Radia and the media stars were recorded by the Income Tax department when it was keeping a tab on the foreign exchange violations. So far, the authenticity of the tapes has not been questioned and they are also part of the material placed before the apex court.

Frankly speaking, you may ask what is new in this. Journos have been doing this for decades. Have we not heard about mediamen (mis)using their access to policy makers in the establishment for getting transfers/promotions for a price. I am sure, some of them must be lobbying for the politicians right now for a berth in the Kiran Kumar Reddy’s cabinet.
I also know of a senior journalist who is no more, who was a double agent. He was passing on info to the late Nizam and also to the Custodian K M Munshi at the time of Police Action. In a way he was impartial!! If I may use the Hyderabadi expression, some of the journos are “Pairavikars” and the appointment letter for them from the establishment or the I-card is only a password for accessing the right source for “Pairavi”. In many cases, they would only ask for letter/I card without any insistence on monetary benefits because they are made up elsewhere.

To be fair to them, they are at the very junior level and they don’t preach journalistic morality or ethics to others. They can always be pulled up or removed if the management is serious about morality.

When I talk about the managements, how can I ignore the role they played in the “Paid News” scam. Some of these managements themselves were guilty of selling their news space for a price. The entire issue was put under wraps by the very same people who were giving sermons on journalistic ethics and were donning the role of king-makers. What is more shocking and horrendous is that the Press Council of India, which is to ensure a healthy media, colluded with these media houses to whitewash the entire issue of “Paid News”. The Election Commission made some feeble attempt and nothing came out of it.

Therefore, what makes the Radia tapes something very disturbing is that the “fixers” were not lesser mortals in the profession, but people who were considered to be “icons” and most respected for their versatility and journalistic excellence on the screen or in the news columns. They are expected to set an example for the juniors in the profession and when they are found without clothes, there is alround shock and distress. What is worse is that they are defending their intimate acquaintance with the lobbyist as something part of their legitimate journalistic activity in gathering news.

The 2-G scam did not break out just yesterday. Details of the scam were known to these worthies even in 2008. When Radia was making frantic efforts to ensure that Raja got the same portfolio in 2009, did they ask a question as to why there was an attempt to push in Raja to the same slot and what was the interest of the lobbyist or her bosses. The answer would have led to a juicy news story and could have pre-empted the induction of Raja. On the contrary, they were only misusing their access to the powers-that-be for a job which had nothing to do with their profession. Is it the job of a journalist to ensure the composition of the cabinet and who gets what portfolio. Is it the legitimate function of the mediamen to act as advisers to politicians/lobbyists which many of them do even today? How ethical it is for the journos to act as “go-between” for political parties and politicians.

What is more shocking and disturbing is the cover-up. Have you noticed any independent television channel or mainstream newspaper exposing this shameful episode? Does the media have a moral leg to stand on to question the “conspiracy of silence” of the government or the Prime Minister in not taking effective and tangible action against the corrupt ministers and bureaucrats when the media itself is guilty of “conspiracy of silence”? Of course, you can’t expect the management of these channels and newspapers to crack the whip against those who violated journalistic ethics. They might use the very same journalists to lobby for their business interests. As far as I know, only an English daily from the South dropped the column of a top ranking journalist who was too willing to write what the lobbyist dictated and was ready to palm it off as his column which is the “must, must read” according to him.

We are talking about the “double standards” of political parties in fighting corruption. What about the double standards of the media? Who will expose them?

PROBITY AT THE ALTAR OF DYNASTY

What the entire nation has totally missed out while debating the unprecedented corruption on the 2-G spectrum scandal is that probity has been sacrificed for the sake of perpetuating a dynasty. Corruption is not a new phenomenon for Indians or for that matter in any society in the world. This is not to suggest that corruption, because of its prevalence for decades with complete immunity to the bribe takers and givers, has to be condoned. The point is that the 2-G scandal throws open a new angle to the scourge of corruption.

What is that? No one in his senses would attribute mala fides to the Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh. It is not that as a seasoned economist he does not understand the implications of the fraud committed on the nation and the enormity of presumptive loss to the exchequer.
Why then did he keep quiet for nearly three years? One cannot say that the officials did not bring to his notice the massive scam that was unfolding under his very nose. He himself wrote to the scamstor Raja that he should think of auction option rather than first-come-first serve criterion. He knew that Raja, emboldened by the support of “Maharaja” ignored any sane counsel from Finance and Law ministries.

Besides, four Members of Parliament wrote to him pointing out the lapses on the part of Telecom Minister which brought unimaginable losses to the nation. Arun Shourie who was the Telecom Minister in the NDA regime had concrete inside information by virtue of his past association and contacts in the ministry and promptly alerted the government. Likewise, CPM leader Sitaram Yechury, independent member of the Rajya Sabha Rajiv Chandrasekhar, and even the NDA chairperson L K Advani wrote to the Prime Minister. But deafening silence was the response.

Is the Prime Minister so uncivilized to ignore communications from people who matter? Far from it. Everyone who knows him vouches for his decent and civilized behaviour as a person and as the top executive of the nation. Why then, did he ignore all the whistle blowers?
As regards the petition of Dr Subramanian Swamy, the Supreme Court has already made its mind known to the people of this country over the PM’s inaction and the very fact that the court asked for an affidavit from the Prime Minister himself speaks volumes about the mess that the government finds itself in. We will only know next Tuesday whether there was any obfuscation of facts on the part of PMO over the Prime ministerial “inaction” when the Attorney General Goolam Vahanavati, instead of Solicitor General Gopal Subramanium, defends the Prime Minister in the apex court.

But, what cannot be denied, based on the documents in public domain so far, is that the Prime Minister did not act on the petition of Swamy for eleven months and did not apply his mind based on the evidences placed before him by Swamy. Instead, he replied to Swamy 11 months later, after the CBI started a bogus investigation filing an FIR against “unknown persons”, stating that it was “premature” for any sanction since the investigation was not over.
It cannot be said that he was unaware of the provisions of Prevention of Corruption Act, nor can it be imagined that the officials did not brief him correctly. Congress apologists may take to posturing and confuse the public that when the investigation was still on, how could the PM accord sanction for prosecution of Raja. The Supreme Court itself has called this bluff.

Let’s also not forget that the very same Prime Minister was prepared to risk his government when he could not have his way on the issue of Civil Nuclear Deal. Ultimately, bunch of political crooks had to enter the scene to salvage the government. When such was the uprightness of Dr Singh, why did he succumb to pressure in the case of Andimuthu Raja. Party men may go round and say that the PM did indeed take action when he sacked Raja. No one is so naive in this country to buy this argument. The leaked CAG report, impending Parliament session and the obiter dicta of the apex court left no other option for the PM.

But the 1.76 lakh crore question remains. What were the compelling reasons that restrained the hands of the Prime Minister, known for his high personal integrity and honesty, for two years to act against the most despicable character in public life A Raja who brazened out his heinous crime. There was only one reason. He did not get the “nod” from his boss who, as someone suggested, had “outsourced” the job of Prime Minister to Dr Singh.

Why was the UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi, the real power behind the throne without any accountability, was scared of action against Raja, the blue-eyed boy of DMK supremo M Karunanidhi and a household member of his family. As insiders put it, Dr Singh was quite reluctant to take Raja into his cabinet in 2009 and because of the relentless pressure, he had to oblige. Obviously, Karunanidhi could not bring direct pressure on the PM, but the pressure was routed through the chairperson of the UPA, whose only mission has been to preserve the gaddi for the perpetuation of Nehru-Gandhi dynasty. To accomplish this political mission of her life, she was prepared to devalue all standards in public life, and cause any amount of losses to the nation’s exchequer. This selfish compulsion was euphemistically called “Coalition Dharma” by her minions. Why should we use a sanctified phrase like “Dharma” with far reaching nuances for an act that is full of “Adharma”?

Congress party is coming out with all sorts of explanations and counter charges pretending to occupy a high moral ground citing the example of Ashok Chavan and Suresh Kalmadi. The fact that a person like Kalmadi was allowed to lead India at the Asian Games in Guangho (China) when a litany of corruption charges are pending against him, bares the sheer hypocrisy of the party.The bottomline of the spectrum corruption saga of the UPA is this. DMK has proved to be an albatross on the neck of the Union government. Dayanidhi Maran “wanted the policy to be framed exactly the way he wanted”. Another minister in UPA-I T R Baalu had to be kept out because of the mess he created in his ministry. And now, it is Raja, father of all scandals.

Therefore, the Congress party, if it is to be perceived as honest, has to make it clear whether it still supports Raja and stands by the DMK inspite of the damning disclosures that are surfacing linking the DMK to the 2-G scandal. If it sticks to the alliance with the DMK, because the UPA has to be kept in tact for the princeling to succeed, one can safely conclude that both the Congress and the DMK will sink together in the deep waters of Kaveri or in the stinking Koovam river.

OBAMA'S 3-Ds - DANCE, DELIVER AND DART

We, as a country, suffer from a chronic disease which makes us “genuflect” at the slightest provocation that too when it concerned a foreign dignitary. This was well on display when the US President Barack Obama came to India on a three-day “business trip” accompanied by his wife Michelle Obama.

Take the case of Michelle Obama’s dance session with school children. Top intellectuals of the country including celebrated anchors of television channels went berserk with their unsuppressable admiration and awe over the US First Lady’s feat. Shaking a leg by Michelle was the “defining moment” for many channels and the video clips were shown repeatedly for three days. What do you expect from the First Lady of any country when their husbands are busy on endless discussions? Sitting in the hotel room and watching soaps? Some said there was no jet lag for the First Couple of the US as if they travelled in “cattle class” on a scheduled flight!
Of course, these are trivial issues. What was hailed as the “high ticket” programme of the US President was his address to the joint session of Indian Parliament. Politicians, bureaucrats, political analysts and think tanks went hysterical over the address saying it was “historic”, “fantastic” “fabulous” and all the superlatives in their vocabulary were freely in use. No doubt, Obama made politically correct noises to please his hosts. But they were all like good smelling onions. The moment you start peeling them, what remains is nothing.

Three announcements in his address pleased the Indian establishment and the public at large. One was America’s support for India’s bid to get a permanent berth in the UN Security Council. What does this really mean? Obama himself answered this question before he left for his Asian tour in search of jobs for his guys and gals. He said that the issue (UNSC seat for India) was “difficult and complicated”.

India’s bid for entry into the UNSC is atleast 20 years old. When there was talk of UNSC reforms keeping in view the changing geo-political scenario in the aftermath of World War II, India filed its caveat. No tangible action was in evidence even after the then Prime Minister PV Narasimha Rao made a forceful plea for India’s inclusion in the Council. Germany, Japan, Brazil and South Africa are also on the queue. US has already promised its support for Japan besides India.

The pertinent question is will China, a permanent member of the UNSC with veto power, fall in line. Further, nothing will be more disconcerting for Pakistan than its hostile neighbour sitting on the high table at the UNSC. No wonder, Pakistan President Zardari is leaving for China to prevail upon its benefactor not to bite the US bait. Obama is well aware of these imponderables. Well, he does not lose anything by extending US support to India knowing full well that nothing will come out of it. He has succeeded in pleasing his hosts in India when he was on the Indian soil. That is it.

The second announcement is about Pakistan which the entire nation was eagerly waiting to listen. He paraphrased the 3Ds of his generals at the Pentagon, i.e. disrupt, dismantle and destroy terrorist camps of Al Queda and Taliban in Pakistan soil. Indian establishment and people were elated.

What is the ground reality? US military personnel themselves are clueless as to how they could rein in Pakistan. Recently published book by Bob Woodward “Obama’s wars” bears enough evidence for the helplessness, or if I may use a stronger expression, impotence of the military strategists of the surviving super power of the world.

Woodward is an associate editor of the Washington Post. He shared two Pulitzer prizes for his coverage of the Watergate scandal and 9/11 terrorist attack. In this latest book, based on internal memos, classified documents, hundreds of hours of interviews, Woodward gives an inside story of how the White House works and seamless conflicts between White House and Pentagon. It also exposes how the White House officials and generals are unable to act against Pakistan though they know very well about the double game played by Pakistan.

Here are a few quotes to illustrate clueless America:

Mike McConnell is the director of National Intelligence (DNI) In his briefing to the newly elected President, he says: “It (Pakistan) was a dishonest partner of the US in the Afghanistan war. They’re living a lie...Pakistani ISI had helped the Haqqani network attack the Indian embassy in Kabul.

The book also reveals that US Vice President Joe Biden told Pakistani President that US taxpayers would not support assistance to Pakistan if the Taliban and al Qaeda continued to operate from Pakistani sanctuaries to kill US soldiers and plot attacks. Pakistan has got to stop providing safe haven. Biden also told Zardari “You can’t keep playing one side against the other. We got briefed by the CIA. The CIA thought that a lot of our intelligence was compromised by the ISI alerting the terrorist camps we were targeting for drone strikes” “Segments of the Afghan Taliban insurgency such as the Haqqani network had virtual immunity in Pakistan and al Qaeda was free to set up and run training camps”.

Bruce Riedel, a trusted confidante of Obama writes in his book, “The Search for al Qaeda” (as quoted by Woodward) that the true national security threat is Pakistan which he calls “the most dangerous country in the world today, where every nightmare of the 2lst century converges – terrorism, government instability, corruption and nuclear weapons”.

All these conversations took place immediately after Obama’s election in 2008. Two years into his Presidency, he stays where he stood at the beginning of his term. There are doubts whether he would be able to pull out of Afghanistan, as promised, by May next year without facing a virtual defeat and that is what Pakistan, US’s frontline partner in war against terror, is looking forward to. Ironically, while Obama is unable to enlist Pak support for his war in Afghanistan how is he going to help India in dismantling terrorist training camps operating against India?
The third point he made in his address was that the perpetrators of 26/11 would be brought to book. First, let his agencies share with India the full text of James Headley’s interrogation and come out with convincing reasons for not sharing intelligence with India about Headley.

The basic point is that any visiting head of state is expected to make certain friendly gestures. It is not Obama’s fault if we read too much into his statements and delude ourselves.

CONGRESS SHOULD NOT FORGET THE PEOPLE'S VERDICT ON BOFORS

The Indian National Congress may be 125 years old. But in terms of mental development, character, integrity and personality of its leaders which reached its finest form in the mid 20th century has degenerated to that of a 10-year old spoilt child today with a penchant for pointing fingers at others whenever it is found at fault rather than doing any introspection. The deliberations of the one-day session of the Congress party held recently in Delhi, which formalised the return of its President for the fourth term, is a beautiful example for this mindset.

That the party lost its moral right to talk about democracy or rule of law after the imposition of Emergency in 1975 is well known. But what the present dispensation has done is that it tried to dig deep into such a shaky foundation to ensure that inner-party democracy is buried and to morph the party into a disguised mafia gang which is looting the nation. What is the disguise over this gang? It is “aam admi”, “secularism”, “rule of law” etc. Otherwise, how do you explain that just one person nominates herself for the fourth term as the President of the party? It happens only in dictatorial regimes. Is there none in the party who can fit the bill? Nor the party has any capacity to elect members of the Congress Working Committee, which is at least notionally the highest decision making body?

The party has closed its eyes to the stinking corruption, price rise, terrorism and threats to internal and external security, as if they do not exist. What appears as reality to the party- with- blinkers is the threat of RSS with its “terror links” and its “communalism”. Perhaps, Sigmund Freud might be able to explain this psychological problem of the party. All the problems are with others, but not with itself.

The party has the audacity to say that Bofors scam has been cleared by every court in the country and in fact, the party wants to believe that it never existed in the first place. If at all, it only goes to prove that rule of law need not always triumph and it can be twisted out of shape by a government which is hell-bent on turning it on its head. But, there is a consolation for the present generation. The amount involved in Bofors was a pittance when compared with the corrupt deals of the day which will be thousand times more than that of Bofors. But what the Congress party cannot afford to forget is that those who were charged with Bofors bribe might have got away from the rule of law, but the party and its leader were given a drubbing by the people when they defeated Rajiv Gandhi at the hustings.

Whenever any wrong doing on the part of the party government is pointed out, the standard reply to brazen out such charges leaves no one to hazard a guess. “We have ordered enquiry”, “Look at the BJP’s track record” “Those who are found guilty will not be spared” “Law will take its own course”. These are the excuses.

Yes, in the case of Telecom Minister A Raja who inflicted a loss of more than one lakh crore on the nation, a CBI enquiry was ordered, no doubt. What did this puppet agency do for one year? Nothing. It registered an FIR against unnamed persons, though it had the benefit of CAG report pointing out the persons involved in the unimaginable loot of the nation. Even the apex court of the country was appalled at the dubious role played by the investigating agency at the instance of the people in power who were more interested in retaining power rather than ensuring probity in public life.

Former CVC Shanglu enquiry into the Commonwealth Games will produce a report for the record and to enable the government to deflect criticism that it has done nothing. What prevented the leadership to suspend him from the party for shaming the nation at the international level. The so-called enquiry will only help the Treasury benches in Parliament to blunt the criticism of the Opposition stating that “we ordered an enquiry, wait for its report”. For the next Parliament session, yet another scandal will break out and the CWG will be forgotten. In the meantime, you can talk about RSS terror links, Ayodhya demolition, threat of communalism to the integrity of the nation, etc.

Further, how did we deal with the people who were found to be inadequate for the job? Take the case of Vilassrao Deshmukh. His casual approach to 26/11 incurred the wrath of the nation. Was he made accountable? Yes, by shifting him to the Union government! He is in the dock today. H R Bharadwaj, permanent retainer of 10 Janpath was rejected by the people of his constituency in UP. What did we do to him. We made him the governor of Karnataka. True to his DNA, he wanted to pay his obeisance to his boss. The only way to do it, in his reckoning, is to ensure a non-BJP government in Karnataka. Unsuccessfully he engineered a crisis for the BJP government and as nemesis would have it, a Congress government in the neighbouring state was thrown into turmoil. The infamous home minister of the UPA, Shivraj Patil, was rejected by the people and he was made the Union Home Minister as if to care a damn for the people’s verdict. Where is he today is not the question, but what did he do to the nation with his gross incompetence.

Now, it is the turn of Ashok Chavan. Enquiries are ordered and we know what would be the outcome. It will only serve the party as a tool of deflection when it faces the heat in Parliament. In due course of time, he will also be given a cosy chair.

What the Congress party should remember is this. It may divert, deflect, and point finger at its political rivals in its attempt to put on a brave face. Ultimately, people will teach the party a bitter lesson when they get the chance. They have done it before for Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi and the BJP.

NO POINT IN RECITING SARKARIA MANTRA EVERY TIME

When we listen to the public discourse on television talk shows or when we flip through the newspapers, we wonder whether “rape” has become the national pastime. Gone are the days when it was considered that the use of this word would be an “uncivil” or “unprintable” expression. “Outraging the modesty of woman” was considered to be the appropriate phrase to report cases of rape. Of course, we are living in different times. Foreign tourists are subjected to this inhuman act quite often, policemen commit such atrocities on their own female colleagues, i.e if they don’t get other victims, father does it on daughter or daughter-in-law and so on and so forth.

Even as we are disgusted with this obnoxious social crime, what do the politicians do? When they don’t get gullible women, they “rape” democracy. This is the precise expression we hear these days – Rape and murder of democracy. Is this something new?

Quarter century ago, the late NTR made the same charge against the then Governor Ram Lal and the Opposition in Karnataka has fine -tuned the same theme song today. Prior to the Ram Lal episode, which humbled the all-powerful Indira Gandhi, and after Ram Lal, there were a number of such outrages on the modesty of democracy and our Constitution. In 90% of the cases, the rapist was none other than the Congress appointed Governors who invariably acted as the agents of the ruling party at the Centre. Exceptions can be counted on your fingers.
Hansraj Bharadwaj, considered to be the retainer of 10 Janpath, is only the latest manifestation of this malaise afflicting the nation. When he was the Union Law Minister, he was only acting as the personal legal adviser of Madam to help her wriggle out of crises. He must have thought God has sent him to this planet only to serve the cause of the Congress party.

But to be fair to the “Panditji”, Karnataka chief minister BS Yeddiyurappa also seduced him to commit the “offence”. There were a slew of corruption charges, his MLAs were a greedy lot and paraded themselves for “sale” with a price tag ranging from 20 crores of rupees to 40 crores. Yeddy’s administration was a good example for “bad governance”. HD Kumaraswamy had only acted as an efficient “pimp” when he lured the rebel MLAs, paraded them before the Governor and took them on a pleasure trip to resorts. There was no discipline in the ruling party, a point on which none can disagree with the Governor. It was just a year ago, BSY came out of the crisis engineered by Reddy Brothers who are now behind the beleaguered chief minister. BSY convincingly proved that he is clueless and tactless in political management.

Does this make the act of Governor legal and constitutional when he originally wanted President’s rule? Is there a state government in the country which cannot be accused of corruption? If unproved corruption and indiscipline in the party are the only criteria for constitutional remedy, President Pratibha Patil should have advised Prime Minister ManMohan Singh to step down as he has been shielding notoriously corrupt ministers in his cabinet. Can we have a better example than A Raja who was instrumental in making the government to lose one lakh crore of rupees by bending and twisting every prescribed procedure to benefit his accomplices? Now that the Commonwealth Games are over, Suresh Kalmadi will walk free with no accountability.

What is the state of Congress party in Andhra Pradesh? There are ‘n’ number of scams. A Congress MP wants the CM to quit if he can’t remove the corrupt ministers. Another MP suggests that the Congress cannot win any election in future. APCC is merely a conglomeration of disparate groups representing various regions and interests in the state each one cutting the throat of the other.

Everyone who has some air time in the channels and column space in the newspapers are saying that democracy was trampled in the Karnataka Legislative Assembly and the entire proceedings were vitiated on 11th Oct. Blame is apportioned on the Speaker for not maintaining the decorum in the House. Look at the scenario. Both the Congress and JD(S) members of the House acted as hoodlums assaulting the Police Commissioner and the Marshals and the disqualified members of the BJP and Independents forcing their way into the House, and some other members creating ruckus on the floor. Was it possible to have a division of votes in a proper manner? Chaos in the House was not in the interest of the ruling party. But it is the Opposition that wanted to disable the Speaker from conducting the proceedings of the House and he resorted to voice vote.
That apart, the charge against the Speaker is that he violated the provisions of the Anti-defection law. Yes, he failed to follow the letter of the Law, but not the spirit. Rebels’ intentions are no secret. They wanted to overthrow their own elected government with the help of the “political lepers” in the state ably assisted by the Congress and the Governor, party’s political manager in the state. When you know a person is going to commit a murder, should the policeman watch and wait until he commits murder or should he prevent a dastardly crime? Rebels had nothing to lose were they to be disqualified after the voting, except for the remaining term of 2 and-a-half years. But they have been adequately compensated for the loss. But what would have been the damage to democracy when a handful of greedy legislators could succeed in dislodging a democratically elected government? Obviously, there is a big loophole in the law which encourages the kind of defection that was witnessed in Karnataka.

Even if the anti-defection law is made foolproof there is no guarantee that the office of the Governor will not be misused and there will be no political rehabilitation for those who are defeated by the people. Whenever we find a situation where the politically rehabilitated governors misuse their office, we extensively quote from the report of the Sarkaria Commission on the appointment of governors which has only archival value. After the dust is settled the report is forgotten.

Irrespective of the party at the Centre, there is temptation for the government to use the office of the Governor for political agenda. It started in 1950s when the “great democract” Jawaharlal Nehru invoked Art 356 in Kerala. The unholy and anti-democratic tradition continues. Karnataka is just a recent example. Only compulsions of numbers in Parliament forced the Centre to retreat from imposition of President’s rule. Therefore, instead of reciting Sarkaria mantra every time depending on which side of the fence you are placed, there must be a serious attempt by all concerned to make some of the suggestions of Sarkaria Commission on the appointment of governors as law. Constitution should be amended in such a manner that there is a clear disqualification for those who held political office in the last 5 or 10 years or those held active party positions to be appointed as governors. Unless this is done, Karnatakas are bound to recur and Bharadwajes will continue to “rape” democracy.

GOD AND GRAVITY

Stephen Hawking is a world-renowned cosmologist and theoretical physicist. He is the recipient of innumerable awards and honours for his seminal contribution in the field of science and the latest he received was the United States’ highest civilian honour – The Medal of Freedom – last year. He vehemently denies the existence of God and fervently feels that it is unnecessary to explain the origin of the Universe. He believes that since there is a law such as gravity, the Universe can and will create itself from nothing. In sum, God did not create the Universe. For Hawking, law of gravity is the omnipotent and omniscient force if I have to put it in the language of the faithful.

Now, this goes against the very belief system of all religions of the world. The very foundation of any religion – Abrahamic, Sanatanic or its offshoots – is that God created this world and all are answerable to him on the D-day. Well, Sanatanis may say what they call by three letters – G O D – Hawking gives a different name – GRAVITY. It can be 1001st name of God whom they believe to be the origin, sustenance and destruction of the Universe. But the admirable side of Hawking is that he never questions the belief of the faithful nor decries them as unscientific or irrational.

Take for instance the official motto of the US. “In God We Trust”. The US law allowed the motto to be used on coins and currencies. The US Supreme Court upheld the motto because it has “lost through repetition any significant religious context” as Ram is not merely a religious symbol, but national identity. Otherwise, Gandhiji would not have dreamt of Ram Rajya.

Likewise, “God Save the Queen (King) is the sole national anthem of the United Kingdom and some of its territories. Hawking does not advocate that these motto and anthem should be removed since he has proved that God does not exist. “Faith” in God has become an accepted reality even in modern democracies governed by rule of law. In fact, Sri Krishna laid the foundation for such a belief system when he said in the Gita “A man is made up of his faith, he verily is what his faith is” (Ch 17 – 3)

Let’s contrast this with the secular fundamentalists in our country who are disguised as “eminent historians”, archaeologists, liberals, atheists and legal luminaries. Because they are the authors or abettors of distorted version of Indian history and as they have no love or respect for India’s civilizational values and culture, they would like every Hindu to believe that Lord Ram is just a mythical figure or may be an artefact. Everything has to be explained in terms of what they believe to be the scientific basis. There is no place for the word “faith” in their parlance.
Well, this is again selective and applies to only Hindu faith. In Shah Bano case, the very same secular fanatics wanted to uphold faith as enshrined in Sharait as against the law of the land. Law was changed to uphold faith. Now, after September 30th, when faith was upheld by law, (to borrow LK Advani’s phrase) there is cacophony.

According to these “seculars”, judiciary is at fault for recognising the faith of the people, and Archeological Survey of India for coming out with some “stupid findings” because the latter exposes the “seculars” decades long false campaign that was deliberately unleashed on the people. One such secular writer has listed out instances where ASI had favoured Hindutva forces as against the interests of the Muslim community. He has included Tourism sector also as an accomplice of Hindutva because it has been promoting places of religious significance. His attempt is only to reinforce the vilification campaign that is going on today against the ASI just because its report has shaken the very basis of the arguments of Sunny wakf board and the “secular pretenders”.

If you recall, Syed Shahabuddin, the key architect of the Babri Masjid Action Committee, said in the nineties that if ever it was proved that there was a temple beneath the mosque, he himself would take a hammer and pull down the mosque. Where will he and men of his ilk hide their faces today after the ASI conclusively nailed their oft-repeated lie. So, let’s call the dog mad before we kill it. That seems to be the spirit behind the campaign against the ASI.

“Eminent historians” and their cohorts would like the people of this country to believe that India was never subjugated by Muslim invaders, they did not destroy temples in order to humiliate the vanquished, they did not impose tax on non-believers and that rulers like Aurangazeb, Alauddin Khilji, Thuglak were highly benevolent towards their subjects. For example, the same author feels Chittor Rani Padmini’s self-immolation is a myth and it was invented to highlight Khilji’s atrocities. What did the ASI do? It just put a signpost at the location where Rani Padmini committed self-immolation.

Let’s be clear about one thing. It is the present government that wanted the ASI to take up the job of excavation at Ayodhya site when the (in)famous Liberhan Commission wanted a national commission of experts. Turning down this suggestion, the UPA government said that it was not necessary to appoint another national commission and that the ASI could do the job. Of course, the Allahabad High Court ordered such an excavation monitored by two judges and employing workers from both the communities.

Let’s accept for a moment that the ASI was wrong to conclude that there was a temple-like structure beneath the demolished mosque. What about the tell-tale evidence in Mathura and Kashi. Even a hard –boiled secular has to accept that the mosques were raised in the temple premises. You don’t need any expert nor the services of ASI. Will the “seculars” lobby with the Muslims and convince them to give up those two places?

You don’t need to be an “eminent historian” to understand the mindset of Moghal invaders. What their descendents, who operate under the tag “Taliban” did to the two colossal statues of Buddhas carved into the sandstone cliffs in Bhamiyan. They were destroyed unmindful of the world outcry and outrage. Mullah Omar said he wanted to get rid the land of all un-Islamic graven images. What did Osama bin Laden do? As a manifestation of the “clash of civilizations” he wanted to teach the US a lesson and humiliated the country by razing to the ground the imposing World Trade Centre. And now there is a proposal to have an Islamic Centre which in due course will be known to the posterity as “victory monument”.

What Taliban or al Quaeda did or is doing was done by the Moghal rulers some centuries ago. History is this, my dear eminent historians! Despots destroyed what their ideologies could not accept – Stalin’s destruction of churches, Mao’s cultural revolution that removed Confucius from the collective conscience of the Chinese, Hitler’s destruction of synagogues, Pol Pot’s destruction of schools and cities are all examples. Babar, Aurangazeb, Ghazni and invaders of their reputation should share this hall of shame, no matter to what extent you twist history to suit your agenda. Why make ASI a scapegoat?

CIVILISATIONAL REVIVAL

If there is one section which was greatly disappointed over the verdict of the Lucknow Bench of the Allahabd High Court on the vexed issue of the ownership of the disputed land in Ayodhya, it is not the contending parties to the dispute, nor the general public but the secular fanatics of the vocal minority who were, in a way, responsible even in the eighties and nineties to push the faithfuls in the majority community to the wall.

Yes, Sunni wakf board is not happy over the partition of the land and so is the case of the Hindu Mahasabha. But their displeasure is basically confined to the issues related to the ownership and they are not trying to pick holes in the judgement. They said that they would respect the verdict of the High Court before the delivery of the judgement and they are sticking to that stand. But, as the law provides for an appeal to the apex court, they would like to exercise that right. Fair enough.

Even the Communist parties which do not spare any occasion to deride the majority community in the country were more restrained in their reaction. Of course, there were one or two discordant notes from the lawyer community whose allegiance to the ruling Congress is well known.

However, that is not the case with the secular pretenders in the media and a miniscule section of the so-called intellectuals. And that is where the danger lies because they succeeded in the past in ridiculing the aspiration of the majority. They are in a position, once again, to mislead the public at large with their warped thinking and borrowed concepts of secularism.

This section can be broadly divided into three groups. One is plain non-believers and according to them talking about religion in public discourse by itself is anti-secular exercise. Second group is anti-Hindu historians whose business is to distort Indian history and to lampoon Indian civilisational ethos, beliefs and culture. And the third group is those in the media who would like to compete with each other about their “secular” credentials.

Let’s take a few examples of these groups which are bent upon thwarting any negotiated settlement. They were appealing to the people, pre-verdict, that every one should respect the judicial verdict because they were hopeful that the judiciary cannot oblivious to the fact that a mosque did exist at the disputed site and hence the outcome of the judicial process could be in favour of the Muslims at least in parts. But when the Allahabad High Court felt that one should respect the faith and belief of the majority community on the issue of Janmasthan, they are unable to digest it.

That is the reason one could hear statements, immediately after the verdict was delivered and even before one could lay his hands on the full text of the three judgements, that the judiciary has exceeded its brief and has treaded on an area that belonged to faith. In a way, the secular lobby wanted the judgements in terms of their definition of secularism and faith. It was said that “secular” court tried its hands on “non-secular” areas. The very same section might not find anything wrong in shariah courts. Had the verdict been wholly in favour of the Wakf board, the “secular” lobby would have been in its orgasmic best.

A national television channel said that the verdict is an “assertion of Hindu majoritarianism”. The majority judgement said that the land should be divided into three parts and one part should go to the Muslims. On one hand the media was crying hoarse that there should be no attempt to wrongly interpret the verdict or make any statements that could be provocative, but on the other, what they were doing in practice was just the opposite.

Yet another “intellectual” who once edited the “most powerful daily in the world”, reacting to the statement of RSS sarsangchalak, said “how can we accept Ram as a symbol of national identity in a secular democracy?” According to him, it was quite “disturbing”. These are the people who vitiated the atmosphere two decades ago with their statements that “Lord Ram” was only a myth and there was no historical evidence for his existence. In fact, they should be taken around the countryside to know what exactly is the soul of India. Lord Ram is not just an idol worshipped in temples, but part and parcel of social, and spiritual life of the population even centuries before they were enslaved by invaders.

Strangely, people were also trying to find a difference between Gandhiji’s “Ram” and “Lord Ram” worshipped by others. A secular fanatic also suggested that there should be a multi-faith centre in the disputed area. Remember? In those days, there was a suggestion from the same lobby that we should construct a “urinal” in the Janmasthan. It is not the reluctance or absence of “generosity” on the part of Muslims alone that drove the majority to go to the extreme. What frustrated them was the public discourse of these secular fundamentalists questioning the existence of Ram.

And now there is action re-play. A political analyst says in a national daily that “force of faith has triumphed over law and reason in Ayodhya case”. He also suggests that “if left unamended by the Supreme Court, the legal, social and political repercussions of the judgement are likely to be extremely damaging”.

Historians of Aligarh Muslim University and Jawaharlal Nehru University - I don’t have to be explicit about their mindset - are rubbishing the Archeological Survey of India report on the existence of the temple prior to the mosque. They attributed motives to the ASI since the excavation was done during the NDA regime. For them, ASI report was not foolproof and inscriptions found in debris might have been planted.

Biased historians and secular fundamentalists can go on arguing whether Tulasidas talked about Ramjanmasthan or whether the central dome of the mosque was the exact place where Ram was born or whether faith can be the basis for judicial resolution of disputes. But civilisational issues cannot be settled by such inane discussions by those who have no respect for India’s civilisational values.

As Girilal Jain wrote some twenty years ago, “Civilisational revival is a gradual, complex and many sided affair...The heart of the matter is that if India’s vast spiritual energies, largely dormant for centuries, had to be tapped, Hindus had to be aroused, they could be aroused only by the use of a powerful symbol; and that symbol could only be Ram, as was evident when Mahathma moved millions by his talk of Ramrajya” To quote Jain again, “it is natural that Indiana culture should seek to recover its genuine self. Surely this is neither an anti-Islamic nor anti-Western activity”

TALE OF TWO STATES

It was not something that was unexpected. I mean, the differences among the all party delegation that went to Jammu and Kashmir over the meeting with the avowed separatists and those who owe their allegiance to Pakistan and those who do not want to work within the framework of the Indian Constitution. Expectedly, the communists, for whom patriotism and nationalism are dirty words, took the lead to reach out to the separatists.

The condescending attitude of these interlocutors, as reflected in their body language while meeting the pro-Pakistanis, was too obvious. In fact, Ram Vilas Paswan made no bones of it when he said that he was feeling more comfortable with hawks like Syed Ali Shah Geelani than any other leader in his own country.

But what these self-styled optimists, without exception, said after the meeting with the hardliners was quite candid. The hawks are reported to have said something before the cameras for the consumption of the world at large, particularly their mentors and pay masters in Pakistan, and just the opposite in closed door meetings.

This double speak inspired this columnist to imagine a meeting between Geelani and our own Asaduddin Owaisi of Majlis Ittehadul Muslimeen who had something in common with the pro-Pak hawks, though history and geography placed Owaisi on a different platform. Had there been an one-on-one meeting with Geelani and Owaisi,a la Ram Vilas Paswan, the conversation would have been like this.

Here is an imaginary chat:

Owaisi: Salaam ale ghum

Geelani: Wale ghum salaam

Owaisi: How I wish I could have lent my support openly to your pro-Pakistani stand on Kashmir had our Nizam succeeded either in securing Dominion Status for Hyderabad state or merged with Pakistan.

Geelani: But I believe even now people feel that you still have soft corner for the Land of Purity.

Owaisi: I can’t be so explicit, Jenab. But, you are so fortunate. Inspite of your strong pro-Pak sentiments and refusal to work within the framework of Indian Constitution, the Indian government is scared of touching you and political leaders knock at your door even though you show them the boot. And what is more, they pay obeisance to you in the full gaze of television cameras. However, that is not the case with me.

Geelani: Well, you also turned history on its head when you opposed the celebration of “Telangana Liberation Day”. The Andhra Pradesh government and other mainstream political parties were shitting in their pants because of your numbers and they conveniently called it “Merger Day”. You could rewrite history and it is not a mean achievement.

Owaisi: I don’t consider it an achievement, Geelani sahib. I would have been happy if the Razaakar movement that Jenab Qasim Razvi led with the blessings of the Nizam VII, Osman Ali Khan had succeeded and the then trouble-makers were thrown out of the state to ensure the continuance of Nizam rule. Nizam had contributed so much for the Hyderabad state.

Geelani: Well, we did it with regard to the Pundits here. They have become refugees in their own land. Your Nizam also did his best. It was not an easy job to raise a private army of 200,000 militants to do his bidding, whereas we had to rely on Pakistan to capture Kashmir after the Hindu ruler here signed the accession treaty with India. Of course Pakistan could not complete the job. And, Insha Allah, we are trying to complete the unfinished agenda by creating Intifada like situation here in the Valley.

Owaisi: But we have lost that chance for ever thanks to Sardar Patel and that is why I was so angry when I said it was not correct to celebrate “Telangana Liberation Day”. Indian Army killed so many “Muslims of Qasim Razvi’s militia” in September 1948 in the name of “Police Action” code-named “Operation Polo”.

Geelani: I know. But it is said that on one day Razakars killed 22 persons in cold blood in some village near Warangal because they protested against the Nizam.

Owaisi: No Saab, it was just a “reaction” to the armed struggle by the Communists.

Geelani: But the very same Communists are coming to me uninvited with a deep bow and warm embrace and talk about peace.

Owaisi: Why Communists? Did not obsequious Ram Vilas Paswan come and wait at your doorsteps to be called in. Did you notice his body language? He was cringing. Do you know? He was the one who served as Union Minister in the “communal” BJP led NDA government! After the defeat of NDA, he went around with a look-alike of Osama bin Laden seeking Muslim votes for his one-man party.

Geelani: That apart, did you notice one major difference between the two situations. Here in Kashmir we are making a section of the people (atleast) to revolt against the establishment though the Indian state has granted a special status under Art 370 and pumping funds which no other state in India gets. Whereas people of Hyderabad state, despite Razakar’s action - the locals may brand it “genocide” - and Nizam’s despotic rule, did not revolt and create a difficult situation for the Nizam if you ignore that saffron-robed Sadhu (referring to Swami Ramanand Tirtha). But for “Police Action” you could have asserted your independence or merged with Pakistan. Despite lack of development, poverty, illiteracy, subjugation, the locals were docile (In a hushed tone) Do you know the reason? Kashmir was a Musliam-majority state with a Hindu ruler. It was easy for us to mobilise the extreme elements in the society to revolt and sustain our struggle for 60 years. Your state had Hindu majority under Muslim ruler. You know how Moghuls kept the Hindus subjugated for centuries. They could not rise in revolt and without local support you just can’t do anything. So, the Nizam caved in. That explains everything and especially the role of religion. By the way, do you still have the spirit of Razakars in your party?

Owaisi: Kya Saab! What MIM stands for? It is Majlis Ittehadul Muslimeen. Do you know what Qasim Razvi”s militia known as? It was Ittehadul Muslimeen. We just added some prefixes like All India Majlis. In fact our detractors blame us that our forefathers inherited the legacy of Qasim Razvi when they formed MIM.

Geelani: Lot of these “byte” soldiers are waiting outside and they may even eavesdrop.Let’s stop here. Khuda fiz

Owaisi: Khuda fiz

CAN THERE BE A GREATER POLITICAL PACKAGE FOR J&K THAN ART 370?

One does not know whether the PM-in-waiting Rahul Gandhi is a “migratory bird” or not, what is clear is that he is certainly an insensitive and immature bird trying to fly faster than its wings can support. Otherwise, he would not have rushed to the support of the beleaguered chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir Omar Abdullah when the entire nation is disappointed with his inept performance and even the government sources were making it known that there is governance deficit in the troubled state.

Well, it is a different matter that Farooq Abdullah may claim that his son was given a certificate of merit and commended by the Prime Minister for his best performance at the all-party meeting. In the absence of a denial from the PM, we have to believe Farooq. Whether it is “double-speak” or “cohesion”, it is for the PM to assert at yet another briefing for the select editors.

Anyway, the princeling wants to give Omar “time” since he is handling a “tough job”. He wants to give more time even as the state is on the boil for three months after having taken the lives of 89 people and injuring hundreds. What is the time limit that Rahul wants to give to his buddy? Does he want another hundred lives to be sacrificed for the sake of keeping the third generation leader of the Kashmir’s political family in power?

Yes, Omar is an elected leader of a duly constituted government reflecting the collective wisdom of the people of the state. He cannot be ousted on account of any political conspiracy or by any unfair and un-Constitutional means. If he fails to perform and spends his weekends in Delhi and exhibits extreme insensitivity to the grievances of his electors pushing the state into a state of turmoil, should the electorate suffer his incompetence? Interestingly, it is a case of like father like son. When the state was on the edge, father was watching T-20 matches in South Africa and even when Farooq was the chief minister of J&K, in the eighties, he was known to be playing Golf in London when his home state was encountering terror acts from across the border.

J&K is not like any other state in the country. Our neighbour, on the verge of collapse, has been instigating the people and stoking violence with the help of its stooges across the border who style themselves as “separatists” “azadis”, not to speak of LeT operatives who have been let loose on the soil of the Paradise on earth under the guidance of ISI. In a turbulent scenario like this which has been troubling the state for nearly six decades, can we afford to have a chief minister who does not care to reach out to his own people, but prefers to reach out to 10 Janpath for support? If he does not show political maturity to opt out, or sensitive enough to establish rapport with his own people, should there not be a demand for his ouster.

Well, there is a catch. If Omar throws in the towel, what is the alternative, especially when the Centre is clueless and has been pandering to the pro-Pakistani elements? After all, keeping aside his non-performance for a moment, he raised a bogey of the misuse of Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) to deflect the blame on the Indian Army and thus to the Centre for the mess he has created after squandering the massive mandate he got from the people just 18 months ago. While our heavily-accented Home Minister, after having made an ass of himself in dealing with Maoists, is trying to play a different game. The man who wanted the Indian Army to come to his rescue in crushing the Maoist violence, is lobbying for diluting the powers of the Army in a most sensitive region of the country just to placate the separatists. The Union cabinet is vertically divided on this issue and the Army, as is an open secret, is totally opposed to any tinkering with the AFSPA.

In a hapless situation like this, the Central government talks of “political package” “autonomy”, “meeting the aspirations of the youth” etc. Congress high priestess has posed a question to all us. “Why the youth of Kashmir are so angry”. Her party was part of the alliance government both with the PDP and the NC for the last six years and she should tell us why her party or the alliance government has failed to understand the reasons for the youth anger and their failure to assuage the anger in the valley? Moreover, she did not ask a single question when lakhs of Pundits were driven out of the Valley which, Madam must know, included Kashmiri youth? Was there a difference between the Kashmiri youth like Muslim youth and Pundit youth? Had the political parties cutting across ideologies intervened at that time, the state would not have come to this pass.

When we talk of “political package”, we have to pose a question to ourselves. Can there be a greater political package to the people of Kashmir than Art 370. If that has not addressed the issue, what else could? Economically, so far, the Centre has pumped in more than one lakh crore rupees on the state. Still, if the people appear to be dissatisfied, it could only be because of the Pak infiltrators and separatists who are doing their best to create a wedge between the people and the state by various means. It will be foolhardy on the part of the Centre to think that they can solve the problem by dialogue. With whom will you open the dialogue? With separatists? When the separatists’ agenda is known what will the govt achieve by opening a dialogue. There is no special problem for the youth of Kashmir, distinctly different from the rest of the country. Case in point is the agitation by Telangana youth for the cancellation of Gr-I exams and the violent demonstrations of advocates in the state. How are they different from Kashmiri youth? Because of the instigation from Pakistan, overt support by the separatists and the geography of the state makes it appear that the grievances of the Kashmiri youth are more genuine than the rest. Isolating the separatists and azadis from the rest of the people with an iron hand and relocating the youth in different parts of the country with suitable employment coupled with the rehabilitation of Pundits in the Valley would solve the problem to a great extent. The Army should have no fetters in protecting our borders and in preventing infiltration from Pakistan which has a vicious agenda. Rest of the noise generated by political parties like “autonomy” will only pave the way for greater anarchy and confusion serving the territorial ambitions of Pakistan.

VANA PRASTHA ASHRAM

BHARADWAJAR VANA PRASTHA ASHRAMAM AT VELAMUR

Velamur, a little known hamlet to the rest of the world, has a hallowed place in the history of Sri Vaishnavism. Velamur is the birth place of Sri Ranga Ramanuja Maha Desikan, whose importance to Sri Vaishnavites is next only to Yethirajar and Sri Vedanta Desikar. Sri Ranga Ramanuja Maha Desikan is also revered as the second Ramanuja. His commentaries on ten important Upanishads are hailed as his greatest contribution to Hindu philosophy in general and Sri Vaishnavism in particular. He has therefore come to be known as “DASOPANISHAD BASHYAKARAR”

After the collapse of Vijayanagar empire, whose kings were esteemed patrons of Vaishnavism, there was a great threat to Vaishnavism and it is the undaunted efforts of saints like Sri Ranga Ramanuja Maha Desikan that helped Vaishnavism to flourish again with great aplomb.
There is a grand temple dedicated to Sundara Varadar and Lakshmi Narayanan in Velamur with a separate shrine for Dasopanishad Bashyakarar, the second one after Sri Rangam.

With the grace and blessings of the present Andavan Swami His Holiness Sri Ranga Ramanuja Maha Desikan, works for the Raja Gopuram and Vasantha Mandapam in Velamur are in progress.

To keep up with the spiritual tempo generated in the village by HH Andavan, descendents of Rishi Bharadwajar and people of Velamur origin have formed a Trust in the name of the presiding deity of Velamur temple known as SUNDARAVARADHAR CHARITABLE TRUST (Regd No.50/2007).

One of the main objectives of the Trust is to run a Vana Prastha Ashramam in honour of Rishi Bharadwajar. It is NOT yet another Home for the aged to be run on commercial lines nor an orphanage. It is designed to be a centre for those devout individuals who would like to pursue spiritual life after they had fulfilled all their family/parental responsibilities and ripe enough to enter the third Ashram (Vana Prastham) as ordained by our scriptures.

Velamur village with its spiritual history and the presence of a grand temple nearby provide the right ambience who long for solitude and serene atmosphere away from the hustle and bustle of highly polluted Metros.

The Ashram has a capacity for 14 sadhaks at present and there are plans for expansion. It has only a dormitory –type accommodation and a spacious kitchen with the necessary modern kitchenware. The inmates have to have respect and belief in the concept of “self-help” and they will be encouraged to keep themselves busy with some activity like watering flower plants, preparing garlands for the temple, singing bhajans, dhyanams, yoga etc.

Accommodation and food will be free to the inmates. However, inmates are expected to offer a nominal sum for the hygienic upkeep of the Ashram and to organise events every month like Sudarshana homam, Laksha Deepam, Laksharchana, Go Rakshana, Grama Seva etc, so that the village reverberates with spiritual fervour.

We appeal to all the Sri Vaishnavites to help us find the right people for the Ashram by spreading this message.

Issued by:

TRUSTEES OF SUNDARA VARADHAR CHARITABLE TRUST

Contact: Ranga Ramanujan
Tel: 09848023289
Email: srramanujan@gmail.com
S_ramanujan9@yahoo.co.in

WAS EVR ANY DIFFERENT FROM TERRY JONES?

There is universal condemnation, and rightly so, of the call given by the Pastor of Florida church, Terry Jones to burn copies of the Koran on the anniversary of September 11 attacks at the World Trade Centre. Jones has been variously decried as “lunatic fringe”, “insane” and the Secretary of State Ms Hillary Clinton lost no time in condemning Jones outburst as “disgraceful” and “disrespectful”, citing George Washington to say that the US would not give any sanction to bigotry. But the pastor of a small time church in Gainesville seems to be defiant. He finds a rationale for his threat: “we should address radical Islam and send a very clear warning that they are not to retaliate in any form”.

This may be pastor’s wishful thinking. If his threat is executed, it would only pave the way for more radical Islam than the world is witnessing today. It will be a God-sent opportunity for the masterminds of Jihadi or Wahabi movement to recruit more and more “soldiers of God” for the “holy war”. Already, Afghan militants have said that they would kill every American citizen they come across and they have a track record in executing their threats.

The condemnation for the pastor’s threat is not only from the US Christians and the Arab world, needless to say from India for it considers itself more secular than any other country in this planet, but also from Europe and the Vatican. The Vatican official daily talks of protests around the world against the burning of Koran as it is “contrary to the respect owed to all religions and against our doctrine and faith”.

The buzz word today is Islamophobi a. Europe is worried that “Islam would sooner rather than later conquer Europe”. Ban on veil in France, Belgium and ban on minarets in Sweden and Switzerland reflect this fear. A Vatican official exhorts Christians in Europe to produce more children to counter the huge growth in Muslim immigrants to most of the European countries.
Therefore, the protest against the Florida Pastor is not mainly out of concern for increasing bigotry, but out of fear of Islamists and their intolerance. Take for example Pakistan. The country has banned cartoon networks which telecast Hindu mythology. Can this not be termed as “religious bigotry”. Like good Talibans and bad Talibans, bigotry also seems to be of two kinds. If the bigotry is of non-Muslim variety, it is bad, but not Islamic bigotry.

Be that as it may, one cannot resist drawing a parallel to what happened in our own country a few decades ago. Florida pastor is a small fry and he does not represent all the Christians except for 50 or so group in a small church. His threat to burn Koran could have been dismissed as the misguided act of an immature person. But it received world wide attention and condemnation.
Well, public memory is very short. What happened when the so-called “social revolutionary” EV Ramaswamy Naickar, the face of Dravidian movement in Tamil Nadu, led a procession of Hindu gods and goddesses garlanded with chappals, while his cronies were pouring excreta on the idols and beating them up with chappals on the main arterial road of the then Madras city. Forget the Hindu society which lost its verve and nerve after 1000 years of slavery, how did the nation react or the non Hindus. Was there a whimper from Christians and Muslims? Contrast this with the sound and fury against Jones from every religious group or for that matter against the Danish cartoonist.

On the contrary, EV Ramaswamy Naickar, who is no more than an uncivilized man of venom and hatred towards the Hindus, is hailed by his blind followers as great “social reformer”. All his acts to offend Hindu sentiments were eulogised as “social reform” intended to put an end to the superstitious beliefs of the Hindu masses.

The present government in Tamil Nadu has put up statues of this phoney reformer in every nook and corner of the state. To add insult to the injury one such statue was put up just infront of the famous Sri Rangam temple which is the most sacred place for the Vaishnava sect of Hindus. It is like putting up a statue of Godse in front of Gandhi Samadhi or near the Sabarmati Ashram or the statue of Veer Savarkar in front of Jama Masjid in Delhi.

Did any of those who make noise against Jones raise a little finger against Karunanidhi when he defended the statue of EVR in front of Sri Rangam temple? Will he put up the statue of bogus reformer in Velankanni or Nagore facing Christian and Muslim religious shrines. It is not the suggestion of this writer that he should. But why this discrimination. What superstition has EVR removed from Hindu society? You must ask this question to the family of Karunanidhi.

Look at the superstition when it comes to Karunanidhi himself. Did EVR ask him to sport a yellow shawl as against the black shawl, the dress code of Dravidian movement? Can Karuna’s followers or partymen call him by his name. He can be called only by his titles and not by name, so he will be referred to as “Muththamiz Arignar, Tamilaga Mudalvar, Doctor, Kalaignar” and his name “Karunanidhi” will be omitted. What sort of self-respect movement he has inherited from his mentor – EVR? Though EVR said there was no God and God is the creation barbarians and led a movement on that premise, what we witness today in the state is oozing religious fervour with no let up on superstitious rituals

TERROR HAS NO RELIGION, BUT COLOUR!!

If there is a synonym for “double standards”, it is this much abused expression “secularism”. All these days our secular pretenders have been dinning into the heads of Indian masses that terror has no religion. That is, so long as terrorists and terrorism were identified with people professing faith to Islam. They drew inspiration, right or wrong, from their holy book. The names these terror groups coined for their militant outfits were in one way or the other related to the army of their God. They sincerely believed that their God ordained them to kill those “kafirs” or non-believers and the name that was given to such an adventure or agenda was “jihad” (holy war) and the jihadis had their berths reserved in heaven.

The jihad was not confined to India and thanks to the financial and manpower support provided by some of the Islamic nations, and Al Queda, they spread far and wide wreaking havoc in Europe, Chehenya, Egypt, Afghanistan, Pakistan and as a climax to their acts of terror in New York city on the fateful day of 9/11. There were many recruitment and training centres to brainwash the young minds to assume the role of soldiers of God and there was no dearth of petro funds for the sponsors of terrorism. The masterminds of this pogram could not have succeeded but for the silent support of the non-violent Muslims. Though many apologists tried to find a rationale for terrorism stating that poverty, illiteracy and alienation led to perversion of young minds, developments subsequent to 9/11 proved that such an alibi is nothing but a myth because highly educated and rich youth from the community were attracted to the concept of Jihad.

Therefore, this brand of terrorism had come to be known as “Islamic terrorism” and interestingly, the perpetrators of this terrorism had no objection to the phrase. But the objection came from the secular pretenders of India who felt that terror has no religion. For the political class and the media, this came as a politically correct stand. In fact, I recall a leading journalist, and author lamenting over the fact that why LTTE terror was not branded as “Hindu terror” or for that matter the ULFA. A highly knowledgeable man that he is, how come he missed the point that LTTE or ULFA had not drawn inspiration from any Hindu holy book or scriptures. It is a different matter that LTTE’s architect Velupillai Pirabhakaran was a Christian and not a Hindu. Moreover, it was a territorial war and not a holy war as the jihadis claim theirs to be.

But those secular pretenders who objected to the phrase “Islamic terrorism” though the entire world accepted it as such, they did not have a second thought when they coined the phrase “Hindu terror”, just a few groups were SUSPECTED to be involved in the blasts in the recent past. That is what our great Home Minister who has been pilloried by his own party for the use of phrase “Saffron terror” says in defence: “The message is right wing fundamentalist groups are SUSPECTED to be behind some bomb blasts and that message should not be lost in the furore over the phrase”. Can a responsible minister make a statement and condemn particular group of people based on ‘SUSPICION’? The cases of blasts that he refers to have not even come up for trial and in some cases there was not even a charge sheet. Even those fringe groups did not draw inspiration from Vedic texts or atleast they did not say so. Possibly, yes, possibly, some could have acted as a retaliatory measure and to generalise it on behalf of its religion or its chosen colour, is nothing but extreme form of perversion.

The National Socialist Council of Nagaland is a Christian terror group operating in Nagaland. Its proclaimed objective is to establish a separate nation under the slogan “Nagaland for Christ”. In the neighbouring Tripura, there is another group, banned though, operating under the name “National Liberation Front of Tripura and it wants “Kingdom of God and Christ” for Tripura. No one in his senses would coin a phrase “Christian terror” citing such misguided movements.

But you can always take liberties with Hindus because they don’t constitute a tactical vote bank as they are divided into hundreds of castes and sub-castes. The Muslims in the country have been on the defensive because of Jihadi terrorism and the fact that many Muslim youth had training in Bangladesh, Pakistan and other Arab countries for terror mechanism. If you have to make them feel comfortable and pleased with the establishment what else would be effective other than parity. So invent Hindu terror and lock up some Hindu activists behind bars on “suspicion”. It comes very handy when the right wing forces accuse the Congress of going soft on Jihadi terrorism in order to placate a particular community.

Do you notice yet another double standard here? When it comes to serial blasts in Mumbai local trains, or Godhra violence or attack on Swami Narain temple, it was a reaction to Ayodhya and therefore have to be understood as such. When hundreds of Indians were killed and lakhs maimed as a result of Islamic terrorism, there should not be reaction or retaliation from right wing groups assuming that Chidambaram’s suspicion had some basis. Even before credible evidence surfaces and produced before the trial courts, the Home Minister is in a hurry to use the phrase “Saffron terror” demonstrating his ignorance and insensitivity to the word “saffron” in the Indian culture, tradition and civilization. Indian tradition is such that even an octogenarian will fall at the feet of one who wears saffron attire even if the latter is in his twenties or thirties. That is the respect saffron colour enjoys, as a symbol of sacrifice, in Indian tradition. Style and accent are not enough Mr Chidambaram, you must have respect for the tradition of this ancient nation. If you really want to be effective and go in history as a capable home minister, instead of passing the buck to the state chief ministers when confronted with the Left wing extremism such as the one in Bihar hostage crisis, take the bull by its horn. Don’t try to divert the attention by imagining something on suspicion which does not exist. I mean your pet phrase “Saffron terror”. Hope you know other colours as well – like green, white and red!

INDIAN MEDIA'S REVERENCE TO 10 JANPATH

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London-based and most respected financial daily, The Financal Times, referring to the ‘disappearing act’ of Congress chief and UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi and her heir apparent son and daughter from India, said that the Indian media is quite respctful to the Nehru dynasty. How true it is. The context for the daily to make such a reference to the Indian media was the abrupt cancellation of British Prime Minister David Cameron's appointment with the Chairperson of UPA and Congress chief Sonia Gandhi and the Indian media's respect for her right to privacy. For more than a week (as I write this column) Sonia was not to be seen in public or in the stormy session of the Lok Sabha.

For a flippant media which reports about the wedding sari of junior NTR’s would -be wife, or the suicide of some model in Mumbai or what a defunct Russian portal reports, the secrecy behind the whereabouts of one of the most powerful women in the world is NOT news!! Do you remember? When Atal Behari Vajpayee was the Prime Minister, even his routine visit to hospital for a check-up would create grave doubts in the media about his "failing health". So was the case with regard to PV Narasimha Rao as well. But Sonia Gandhi stands on a different pedestal for the media.

There were sketchy reports in one or two dailies that Sonia’s mother might be seriously ill and that must have prompted the Italian-born Indian National Congress chief to rush to be with her. A perfectly understandable and quite natural sentiment for any human being irrespective of the nationality or the position one holds. But should it be kept a secret unless you are flustered about your roots. People of India have accepted Sonia as a naturalised Indian citizen. Then, why should she be reticent? That is her personality. Except for election meetings, have you ever seen her interacting with the media on a regular basis espcially when she heads a party that has been ruling the nation for most part of the six decades, and especially so when she is also the chairperson of the ruling UPA.

The other charitable explanation that was given for the “missing act” , especially when the Parliament is in session and the country is in a state of turmoil on various fronts, is that she might be busy with “match-making” for her most eligible bachelor son. Assuming that this could be nearer to truth, why should it be under wraps, unless there was a fear that his former girl friend whom he was dating for years, might create hurdles.

Yet another excuse for the “unspecified emergency”, as reported by the UK daily, was that Sonia herself could be ill. If this can be given any credence, it is all the more reason there should be no veil of secrecy. She is not just the daughter of a soldier in Mussolini’s army taken captive by Russian army. She is the prima donna of contemporary Indian politics wielding extra-ordinary powers and slavish adulation by her partymen. People of this country should know what exactly is her problem.

You may wonder why the British daily took pains to report her “missing act” in detail. It is because just a day before her scheduled appointment with the British Premier Cameron, the meeting was cancelled citing “unspecified emergency”.

Anyway, for Indian media it is no NEWS. Television channels notorious for trivialisation of news did not go anywhere near this story.

Though media failed to take note of Sonia’s “missing act”, the wily Congress party was not perhaps sure whether the people (atleast the vocal minority) will have the same respectful attitude to the occupants of 10 Janpath, especially when three or four major issues are confronting the nation – Price rise and its fall out in Parliament, burning of Kashmir, internal disarray in the Congress party and Indo-Pak relations.

How to ensure that Sonia’s views on these issues are conveyed to the people of this country so that they don’t notice her “absence from the scene of action”? The party’s PR managers and spin masters came out with a brilliant idea. They caught hold of the July issue of party’s mouthpiece – SANDESH – and excerpted different pieces for circulation among the national media as fresh news items as though Sonia made those statements a day earlier. The Hindu carried a story headlined “Focus on J&K Development: Sonia”, (Source: Sonia’s letter to her fellow Congress workers in SANDESH. ) So, an impression was sought to be given that Sonia did not neglect the serious issue in J&K. Times of India addressed her concern on the internal bickerings among ministers while carrying a story :”Curb ego, Cong tells mantris”. Source? SANDESH again!

What about fuel price hike and the resultant inflation? How can the Congress chief be silent on this whether she is physically present in Delhi or visible in the corridors of Parliament or not? The New Indian Express came to the rescue of the party. The daily carried a story “Fuel price hike to fund Centre’s social sector schemes”. Source? What else? SANDESH!

The only sinner seems to be Deccan Chronicle which somehow missed out the story to register Sonia’s presence in India through her contributions to the party magazine.

Interestingly, there was no reference to the Commonwealth Games scandal in Sonia’s statements for the simple reason that the issue of SANDESH from where excerpts were circulated belonged to the month of July and the CWG scam broke out only last week.

TALIBAN IN GOD'S OWN COUNTRY

“There are plans to Islamise Kerala in 20 years using money and marriages. Popular Front of India (PFI) is trying to multiply Muslim numbers in the state by influencing youth of other religions and converting them by giving money, marrying them to Muslim women and thus producing kids of the community”.

Who uttered this unspeakable communal gibberish? I won’t be surprised if you think that this “rabidly communal” statement is either from Nitin Gadkari or Parveen Tokadia or some hard-core Hindu fundamentalists. But the surprise is that this was the statement of a chief minister whose party has always been a great benefactor of the minorities and whose cause they always upheld while deriding the majority community in the country in one sweeping statement as “communal”. How can we forget that it was the CPM chief minister EMS Namboodiripad was who responsible for the creation of a separate Muslim majority district, Malappuram, which has now become the hotbed of Islamic terrorism.

Yes, the statement was from Kerala chief minister VS Achutanandan. He also said that the radical Muslim outfit –Popular Front of India (PFI) was aiming to convert Kerala into a “Muslim Country”. Let us not mistake him that he was trying to score political points over his home minister Kodiyeri Balakrishnan. CPM general secretary Prakash Karat did not differ from his CM either. A day earlier Karat also warned the state against the threat of Muslim terrorism in the context of the PFI activities.

Achutaanandan being the head of the government was probably concerned about the terrorist activities in the state. He says the PFI in its earlier avatar as National Development Front had given training, money and weapons to youngsters to eliminate opponents. Now they were trying to create a clean image by organising freedom parades on the Independence Day. Several district administrations had already banned the parade, he said.

It is no secret that Kerala which has around 25% Muslim population with lot of Gulf connections has become the hotbed of terrorism in the South. Even as early as in 2008, Kerala’s links with global terrorism came to light when three Keralites were killed in an encounter in Kashmir. It is now the CPM has woken up from its deep slumber.
What triggered the wrath of the Communists in the state was the attack on a college professor T J Joseph whose hand was chopped off in Taliban style. What was his crime? He was reported to have set a question paper for internal examination in the college which allegedly hurt Muslim sentiments.

Since the PFI role was suspected in the case, Police raided its offices and “it exposed PFI’s pan-Islamist network fed by a heady mix of Wahhabism and hawala”. The raid also brought to light al-Qaueda training, tapes,Taliban style courts that dispense justice according to Shariat law, literature on conversion, explosives enough to kill dozens and documents indicating unusual interest in the Indian Navy. It was also reported that it was one of the PFI’s Taliban-style courts in Kottayam district that drove them to sever the limbs of Joseph.

Interestingly, however, the state home minister K Balakrishnan does not subscribe to the view that Taliban style courts are functioning in his state though his own Police were aghast while viewing the CDs seized from PFI. According to the police, the CDs showed brutal punishment like severing of limbs of the enemies of Faith. Activists were also made to slaughter animals so as prepare them for human slaughter.

Well, the question is whether it is genuine transformation for the Kerala communists to realise the true colours of Muslim extremists and contours of jihadi extremism, especially after they passed a resolution in the Kerala Assembly for the release of Abdul Nasser Madani from Coimbatore jail where he was incarcerated as an accused in the Coimbatore Bomb blast case in which 58 were killed and hundreds injured. After his release, he formed a political party which supported the Left Democratic Front in 2007 elections. After Madani’s Islamic Sevak Sangh was banned, it was renamed as NDF in 1993. The strategy was not to have a name which will sound Islamic or Arabic, but national so as to hoodwink the people. Therefore, he latest avatar of NDF is Popular Front of India formed in 2006.

PFI’s activities include “Love Jihad”. The modus operandi is to finance Muslim youth for getting the latest gadgets and attire to lure non-Hindu girls with promises of marriage, convert them into Islam and drop them at terrorist training camps. According to crime record bureau of Kerala police, 8 girls are reported missing every day in the state. In 2007 alone, 2167 girls and 2530 girls in 2008 were reported missing. Kasargod tops the list of jihadi conversions with 568. But only 123 cases were registered with the Police. According to one estimate, 4000 girls have been converted under Love Jihad all over India. That is why Kerala CM apprehends that his state would become Muslim country in 20 years and points his finger at outfits like PFI.

PFI, however, says it is ironical that both the CPM and RSS which have a long history of being actively involved in all criminal activities are speaking against the PFI. It was a sort of poetic justice when PFI says in its website “CPM in spite of its tall claims of secularism is basically a Hindu party in Kerala. The CPM is trying to consolidate the Hindu and Christian communal votes”. CPM which considered itself “ultra secular” is paid back with its own coin.

The PFI does not spare the Christian missionaries as well. It says “evangelists financed by rightist groups in the US are behind the Church in Kerala. They are high pressure missionary groups who raise money on the number of people converted – a charge that is often levelled by the Sangh parivar against the missionaries.

It is also felt that since the Congress at the national level and UDF at state level are wooing the Muslim votes, the Left is trying to consolidate Hindu and Christian votes. The CPM, for a change, is likely to play Hindu card in the coming Assembly elections. After all, both the CPM and RSS are speaking the same language on “Love Jihad”.

GEO-POLITICAL REALITIES

Who said that we forgot Mahatma Gandhi and his ideals and remember him ceremoniously only on Oct 2? It is not the whole truth. We can’t be untruthful to the apostle of Ahimsa and Satya. Yes, our government and politicians remember him whenever we go in for talks with Pakistan. What did Gandhiji preach us? He said if someone slaps you on one cheek, show him the other. That’s what we are doing very religiously whenever we get insulted by Pakistan. Go again across the border or invite them to our land and submit ourselves to have egg on our face again and again. There are some cheer leaders on our side who call themselves “incurable optimists” who want this to happen. For them, Pakistan is always right.

No, it is not just our External Affairs Minister SM Krishna’s smug performance and the “forbearance” he had to swallow whatever his counterpart Shah Mohd Qureshi hurled at him without any diplomatic decency that shows India in bad light. But Krishna did not show the same gesture to his own colleagues back in India. He started attacking Home Secretary GK Pillai for his “untimely” remark on Headley’s disclosures thus making him the scapegoat for the failure of talks. His tirade against Pillai also exposed the rift between MEA and Home Ministry. If at all there was any outcome on Indo-Pak talks, it was this. Exposing our own weaknesses rather than fixing Pakistan for its nefarious role in exporting terror. As a cartoonist put it, we need peace talks between our own MEA and Home Ministry before we think of peace talks or composite dialogue or whatever phrase we invent, with Pakistan. We not only showed the other cheek, but praised the one who slapped us when Krishna and Qureshi were on the same page on Pillai.

When Pak Foreign secretary came to India, he was no different from his minister. He termed the dossiers presented to him as “piece of literature”.

In fact, the first slap was when our Prime Minister had a summit meeting with his counterpart from Pakistan at Sharm-el-Sheikh. Our Prime Minister walked into Pak trap when he condescended to include Balochistan in the joint statement. At that time the scapegoat was, like Pillai this time, the one who drafted the joint statement and who now presides over our national security affairs.

It is no secret that it was our Prime Minister who was pushing for talks with Pakistan when he met Pakistani Prime Minister at Thimpu, undoubtedly under the pressure of the US whose strategic interests demand it. When Qureshi said that “India was not prepared”, he was only making a complaint to the US against India. Did you notice that even before Krishna could return to his country, the US started welcoming the talks? Now that the talks were botched up, why is Dr Man Mohan Singh adopting the message of Gandhiji’s three monkeys? Don’t speak evil, hear evil, and see evil. He should atleast sort out the turf war under his nose.

As if our discomfiture is not enough while dealing with Pakistan, especially over Headley’s disclosures, the US too is not happy over the use of Headley inputs on ISI’s active role on 26/11 tragedy. There was initial reluctance on the part of US to give access to Headley for Indian investigators. When the NIA succeeded in getting vital info on ISI, the US does not want to be the instrument for India to embarrass Pakistan and that is the reason the US wants India to act “responsibly”, whatever it means.

When we talk about Headley, we can’t ignore our own double standards. Krishna says Headley’s revelations can’t be ignored and Pakistan can’t be “selective” on fighting terror. Fair enough. What is our track record? When the same Headley says that Ishrat Jahan is an LeT operative, we say “we can’t take note of the statement of a person who is behind the bars in the US”. Why this “selective” approach when it comes to Gujrat or Modi? And how can you expect Pakistan to take Headley seriously?

When we analyse the Indo-Pak talks and the US pressure, we must realise one thing. It is not a sense of altruism to have peace in the sub-continent that the US wants India and Pakistan to bury the hatchet. It is guided by its own selfish interests. In a year’s time, the US will start its first phase of pull out from beleaguered Afghanistan where it finds itself in deep trouble. When it pulls out of Afghanistan completely, it does not want the country to be taken over by Taliban and al Queda and pose a threat to its interests once again. That is why the US wants Pakistan, its frontline partner in fighting terror, to engage Taliban who have entrenched themselves on the Pak-Afghan border. If Pakistan has to do that its eastern border with India should be free of tension.

But that is where Pakistan is playing a clever game. It wants US intervention to sort out all issues with India (read Kashmir issue) At the same time it wants to strike a deal with Taliban for dominance over Afghanistan. After all, ISI and Taliban have symbiotic relationship. At any rate, Pakistan wants to keep India out of Afghanistan so that it can have a proxy rule in Kabul. The recent donors meet in Kabul has confirmed this.

Afghan President Karzai too is a man in jitters. Once the US and Nato forces pull out, he will be made a mincemeat by Taliban and al Queda. That is the reason he is trying to have peace with Taliban categorising them into good Taliban and bad Taliban. “Inclusive government” in Afghanistan that India talks about is all hot air. Pakistan is going to recover its lost ground in Afghanistan and as an analyst put it, it will be a great reward for Pak army and ISI for their support to Islamic extremism and global terrorism. Since the entire tribal population of northern Afghanistan is not with Taliban, there is also a distinct possibility of civil war rearing its head once again in the country of rugged terrain.

WHAT SCIENTIFIC TEMPER? BULLSHIT!

There is no dearth of organisations that operate under camouflaged identities against the interests of the majority community in the country and to ridicule their faith. Pseudo-historians with unflinching loyalties to the ideology of the Left did it. Since the Left did not have faith in religion or God except the God they worshipped like Marx or Lenin or Stalin or Mao whose dubious record is extermination of sizeable section of the humanity in the name of their ideology, these historians also dubbed every faith and belief of the majority as mere “myth”. Therefore, Ram was a “myth”, Krishna was a “thief” or “womaniser.”They also endorsed the Raj’s “invention” of Aryn invasion which has now been conclusively proved to be unadulterated falsehood.

The second category of Hindu-baiters are the secular pretenders. Their only agenda has been to run down all those symbols of the majority community, their ethos and civilizational values. Hindus were mere pagans and they had no sense of history and their values do not go well with the modern civilization and scientific temper.

The third category is the so-called “civil society groups” or differently called “Human Rights Activists”. They won’t mind hobnobbing with the Left extremists or Jihadis and espousing their cause knowing full well that both these groups are anti-national and are working only to overthrow democracy. These groups, whatever their nomenclature, are the front organisations for the “destructive forces” that have been unleashed in this country.

If you have to list out such organisations this column is not adequate for me. But I can name only one organisation which has been in the news recently and which works against the faith and belief of the majority community in the name of science and spreading scientific temper among the people. If you scratch the surface what stands out is their anti-Hindu mindset. It is Jana Vignana Vedika (JVV).

JVV has been running a campaign against the “fish medicine” distributed free of cost by Bathini family to asthmatics for more than 160 years. First, the herbal paste that was given to lakhs of patients from all over the country and abroad every year was ridiculed saying that it was nothing but quackery or at worst, contained “steroids”. Lot of scientific tests were conducted and cases were filed in the courts to restrain the family from going ahead with the distribution of the herbal paste. Ultimately, the scientific tests proved that the paste did not contain “steroids” nor any harmful substance for human consumption. The cases were therefore disposed of.

But this organisation which swears by science could not stomach the clean chit given by scientific institutions. Therefore, this year they came with yet another excuse to stop the distribution of herbal paste. The outfit felt that administration of fish medicine in the manner it was done, could spread contagious diseases due to contamination of water and fish. It held a seminar in Hyderabad on the eve of the distribution of “fish medicine”. A dentist was drafted to endorse its “discovery” that mouth infections like oral herpes, ulcer and other communicable diseases could spread due to consumption of “fish medicine”. Therefore, the JVV wanted the government to take action against Bathina brothers for “exploiting gullible asthmatics”.
After all, you expect an organisation which operates in the name of science to be “scientific” in its approach. Since this practice of administering fish medicine with fish fingerlings as the medium has been going on for decades, do they have any well-documented case histories of patients who suffered contagious disease, oral herpes or other communicable diseases after the administration of medicine? Simply bringing in doctors to endorse the JVV’s prejudice or imagined fear is not science.

The JVV talks about “exploitation of the gullible”. However, media reports say that most of those who came to Hyderabad for fish medicine were not first-timers. Unless, they had reasons to believe that the medicine had some effect on them, they will not be “gullible” enough to come for the second time or third time from distant places. What right JVV has got to question their faith, assuming that it is just faith that may cure?

There are apostles in other religions who claim that they can make a dumb speak, deaf to hear, paraplegic to walk etc etc. They do it on public platforms in the name of “miracle cure”. What happened to the “Vignana” of JVV not to question such practices? Is it not exploitation of the gullible for “harvesting of souls”? Atleast the Bathini family does not have any such ulterior motive in the distribution of fish medicine. That is where the JVV stands exposed with regard to its real intentions. Will it undertake such a virulent campaign if the “fish medicine” were to be distributed either by a Moulvi or Maulana with the active support of MIM? No chance!

True, some of the allopaths also joined the campaign of the JVV. It is no surprise because they have not accepted any other system of medicine and they have been branding such non-allopathic system as “quackery”. If lakhs of people throng for cure in a different system, their branch of medicare is threatened. Some of them demand that the ingredients of the fish medicine to be made public. Well, will they get the Coke formula made public especially when it is consumed by millions of people all over the world and especially when it is proved to be harmful to human health?

Interestingly, some Jain organisations also joined the campaign for entirely different reasons. They were not against the medicine as such, but the fish that is used for administering the medicine. Their concern was for thousands of fish fingerlings that sacrificed themselves for the benefit of man. Understandable. But they can’t question the right of any individual to be a non-vegetarian just because Jains are vegetarians.

I have a suggestion for JVV. Will it take the trouble of spreading scientific awareness with regard to some minor day-to-day issues? One could see even the urban elites spitting on the roads, public places and parks. Is it a healthy habit for the society? There are umpteen road side tiffin centres which are run on most unhygienic conditions leading to gastro problems among the people. Dairy farms are run in thickly populated areas leading to mosquito menace. These are happening throughout the year and not just for one day in a year. These are the issues, among many others, on which the society has to create scientific awareness among the people rather than running after a family which has been doing some service with all good intentions. There is no documentary evidence to prove their intentions to be otherwise except that they sport religious marks which becomes unpalatable to outfits like JVV.