While Barack Obama is busy formulating an Af-Pak policy, we are busy in melting-point informatics and "my brother Rahul will become PM one day"
kind of family employment schemes. The Prime Minister "revealed" to a group of journalists that he had decided to resign if the nuclear deal with the US was not passed in Parliament. To fulfil his "kasam" to Washington, he silently saw the lawmakers' highest body turn into a mandi.
For him, his "kasam" was more important than the "maryada" of his nation's parliament.
I wish he had honoured in the same way his "kasam" to the Indian people – the oath he took while taking the office of Prime Minister, that bound him to protecting the lives of his people and giving a government that treated all citizens equally.
Pota was removed to please Muslims. A special reservation scheme was implemented at Aligarh Muslim University to have seats for a particular religious group reserved.
The Planning Commission allocated Rs 3,000 crore for minority (read Muslim) development schemes and banks were directed to give loans to the minorities at a special consideration. To address Kashmiri Muslim "sentiments", Afzal's hanging was delayed till the next government is formed. Ram Sethu was brutally assaulted and Rama's existence was denied – all before the eyes of Mr Nice and Dr Decent. Not a single word was spoken to address the sentiments of Hindus.
He kept a studied silence seeing the butchers of 1984 being protected and promoted as party candidates for Lok Sabha elections till a shoe throw compelled the leader to delist them.
So much for his "kasam" to provide impartial governance.
The "kasam" to protect the people and safeguard the honour of soldiers was "fulfilled" in such a manner that soldiers returned their war decorations and had to demonstrate like pariahs at Jantar Mantar. The government was busy decorating the liars and voices of terrorists.
And now, there is a controversy regarding a story sourced to the Special Investigating Tribunal blaming certain NGOs for cooking up ghastly stories of barbarism, which, the report says, never occurred. The person who has been charged having helped file such "cooked up" stories became a darling of the secular media noises in Delhi who would present her stories like a constitutional tribunal's report.
There is a contradiction which is further confusing as SIT is still silent on it. For the sake of justice and fair play, the truth must be investigated and the honour of the people, whichever side they might belong to, be restored. If the Kausar Bi story was filed truthfully, the criminals must be hanged in public along with the perpetrators of Godhra. But if it was a fabrication, the "writer" must be punished because if a mind can cook up such ghastly scenes, what will be the difference between what Kasab and his gang did in Mumbai and what these pen-pushers of the secular chill club do to India and her people? A writer more known in London wrote a story as spine chilling as was the Godhra fire. It read, "A mob surrounded the house of former Congress MP Iqbal Ehsan Jaffri. His phone calls to the Director-General of Police, the Police Commissioner, the Chief Secretary, the Additional Chief Secretary (Home) were ignored. The mobile police vans around his house did not intervene. The mob broke into the house. They stripped his daughters and burned them alive. Then they beheaded Ehsan Jaffri and dismembered him. Of course it’s only a coincidence that Jaffri was a trenchant critic of Gujarat Chief Minister, Narendra Modi, during his campaign for the Rajkot Assembly by-election in February.'(Arundhati Roy’s article, Outlook, dated 6 May 2002).
Ehsaan was killed but the rest of the story was false for which Roy had to apologize. A people traumatized, painted black all over the globe, their character mutilated and just an apology?
And who were those killed in the Godhra train who never got a line from these "chroniclers of human tragedies"?
Just waste paper?
Read what the Union minister of state for home, Shriprakash Jaiswal, who belongs to the Congress, told Parliament on May 11, 2005: "790 Muslims and 254 Hindus were killed in the riots, 2,548 people were injured and 223 people were missing."
Who were those killed in Gujarat riots along with Muslims?
Just dirt?
The hate-Hindu cartel represents the hate of Ghaznis and Ghauris. They survive on the funds given to them by Congress-Communist groups and state powers controlled by them. Their social acceptability and glamour is enhanced by "praise for each other" societies. And Mr Nice and Dr Decent pats them with state awards.
Amid cacophony and intemperate language laced with shoe throws, criminals and convicted actors are having a field day canvassing for their parties and though a mature and stable democracy we pretend to be, the first casualty in this situation has been decency in public debate.
The poll scene has turned the nation into a war room. The last 62 years have witnessed our motherland's vivisection, a million people killed, 1.25 lakh sq km of land illegally occupied by aliens, massacres by Pakistani marauders in Mirpur and in Bihar by Maoist terror outfits, the jeep purchase scandal in 1948, a humiliation like 1962 when ordnance factories were ordered to make coffee machines instead on rifles, the Nagarwala mystery, the submarine scandal, wheat import commissions, farmers' suicides, forced exile of Kashmiri Hindus and desecration of more than 172 temples. The list is ever-growing amid inspiring stories of Indian people’s perseverance and achievements.
Isn't it time we rose above fault lines, gave a chance to an India that would make every Indian of every denomination, faith, colour and creed an equally proud partner? Can't we think and vote on issues that overpower religious, caste-based and parochial concerns? Will this war room kind of atmosphere result in a decisive mandate?
(The author is director of Dr Syama Prasad Mookerjee Research Foundation)
Falling standards
Pakistan Times:
Lahore 03 March 2009: In the worst ever performance by their home grown and trained terrorists, all the visiting Sri Lankan cricket team members left Pakistan shore alive. Govt officials expressed concerns about this as it would tarnish the image of Pakistan as a breeding ground of terrorism and their credibility to produce world class terrorists has taken a beating. Govt asked the PSU (Public Sector Units) terrorists groups to improve the training standards and urged the terrorists to take their training and careers seriously.
Prime Minister later during dinner with the participating terrorists chided them mildly that they cannot waste tax payers/US federal Aid money like this. He was particularly harsh on the terrorist who threw under the bus (carrying cricketers), the grenade which did not detonate. Prime Minister worried that this did not do any good to his plans of changing Pakistan National game from Cricket (which anyway is having its natural death) to Hand Grenade Throwing. He felt that this was the best bet for Pakistan's aspiration for an Olympic Gold Medal. He urged erstwhile Pakistan cricket bowlers – Shoaib Akhtar and others, who are famous for throwing instead of bowling, to take up coaching terrorists on grenade throwing as their cricket careers are finished now…
Lahore 03 March 2009: In the worst ever performance by their home grown and trained terrorists, all the visiting Sri Lankan cricket team members left Pakistan shore alive. Govt officials expressed concerns about this as it would tarnish the image of Pakistan as a breeding ground of terrorism and their credibility to produce world class terrorists has taken a beating. Govt asked the PSU (Public Sector Units) terrorists groups to improve the training standards and urged the terrorists to take their training and careers seriously.
Prime Minister later during dinner with the participating terrorists chided them mildly that they cannot waste tax payers/US federal Aid money like this. He was particularly harsh on the terrorist who threw under the bus (carrying cricketers), the grenade which did not detonate. Prime Minister worried that this did not do any good to his plans of changing Pakistan National game from Cricket (which anyway is having its natural death) to Hand Grenade Throwing. He felt that this was the best bet for Pakistan's aspiration for an Olympic Gold Medal. He urged erstwhile Pakistan cricket bowlers – Shoaib Akhtar and others, who are famous for throwing instead of bowling, to take up coaching terrorists on grenade throwing as their cricket careers are finished now…
Ignoring Tibet is dangerous for India
Tarini Mehta
In this exclusive article, Tarini Mehta of Friends of Tibet documents Chinese repression on the Roof of the World, and wonders whether New Delhi’s “quiet surrender” to China bodes well for the subcontinent. ‘Are we simply going to stand by and watch while a great nation is systematically plundered and destroyed?’ she asks.
Over the past few days over a hundred Tibetans protesting Chinese rule over their country have been killed. In the face of this crisis the world has once again woken up to the reality of the Tibet issue. Can we say that the age of colonialism has ended when there are nations still controlled against their will by another?
Tibet, once a sovereign state with a unique system of government, culture, language and religion was invaded in 1949 by 35,000 Chinese troops. What followed was a large-scale massacre of the Tibetan people and their traditions. Over 1.2 million Tibetans have been killed from 1949-79. And now while we watch more numbers will be added to the list. It is also important to note that the Fourth Geneva Convention, which China has ratified makes irrelevant China's claims to sovereignty over Tibet.
Perhaps only older generations of Indians can truly understand what it feels like to be ruled by a foreign nation. We also just recently won our freedom through a movement much like that of the Tibetans, and our nation has been built on the ideals of freedom and democracy. Yet, Tibetans are not allowed to protest against China in India.
Right now hundreds of Tibetans are held prisoner all over India. Their crime? Demanding human rights and freedom. Tibetans are here only because they are refugees, and their sole desire is naturally to return to their homeland. The Indian Government should for the sake of justice allow them to work to get their country back.
The case for the Tibetan movement becomes stronger when we see the kind of life they live under Chinese rule. There is no freedom of assembly, religion or speech. Tibetans cannot even carry pictures of their supreme spiritual leader the Dalai Lama, for a simple crime such as this or even just shouting ‘Free Tibet’ they are given long sentences in prison. Torture is still used in prisons and labour camps in Tibet, even though in 1988 China ratified the UN Convention against torture and other cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment.
In November 2005 the United Nations Special Reporter on torture visited China and Tibet and confirmed that torture was still very widespread, leading to a “culture of fear”. He vividly describes the kinds of torture that take place:
“beatings; use of electric shock batons; guard-instructed or permitted beatings by fellow prisoners; use of handcuffs or ankle fetters for extended periods…submersion in pits of water or sewage; exposure to…extreme heat or cold, being forced to maintain uncomfortable positions…for long, deprivation of sleep, food…water; prolonged solitary confinement; denial of medical treatment and medication; hard labour…suspension from overhead fixtures from handcuffs…”
Many Indians feel sympathetic about the suffering of the Tibetans, but ask why they should endanger themselves for another country. The fact is that by ignoring the situation in Tibet, India is putting itself in grave danger. China’s activities in Tibet since 1949 pose a grave threat as problems in Tibet have major trans-boundary effects.
Nearly half of the global population depends on the rivers of Tibet for survival and one of the most concerning projects being undertaken now is the diversion of the Brahmaputra, which could cause major water shortage in India and Bangladesh. China is also reported to have stationed approximately 90 nuclear warheads in Tibet, and the Ninth Academy, China’s academy for nuclear research located in Amdo, Tibet, has dumped a large quantity of radio active waste in a haphazard, dangerous manner.
The potential for devastation will increase as China continues such hazardous activities. One can only imagine the future crisis this will create. Tibet acted as a buffer zone between India and China and now that this is gone we are open to many dangers. It is in India’s interest if Tibet is returned to the Tibetans and becomes a ‘zone of peace’ as the Dalai Lama wishes.
Are we simply going to stand by and watch while a great nation is systematically plundered and destroyed? Has our government ‘quietly surrendered’ to China as George Fernandes points out in his press statement released today. This issue is not merely a domestic matter between China and Tibet, but as the International Commission of Jurists point out “What is at stake is the very existence of Tibet as a member of the family of nations, and this matter concerns the whole family of nations.”
Before it is too late let us take a stand on this issue, put pressure on governments and support the Tibetan movement for freedom and justice.
Tibet is not China's 'internal affair'
Bhaskar Roy
Bhaskar Roy, who retired recently as a senior government official with decades of national and international experience, is an expert on international relations and Indian strategic interests.
Bhaskar Roy, who retired recently as a senior government official with decades of national and international experience, is an expert on international relations and Indian strategic interests.
Talking to Tibetan delegates at the recently concluded first session of the 11th National People’s Congress (NPC) in Beijing, President Hu Jintao cautioned “the stability in Tibet concerns the stability of the country, and the safety in Tibet concerns the safety of the country”.
Hu Jintao also urged the deputies from Tibet to look after the welfare of the Tibetans, improve work related to religious and ethnic groups, and maintain “social harmony” and stability in the region.
In the context of China’s usual response to a perceived threat, Hu Jintao was restrained. But his message was sharp and clear: no opposition will be tolerated.
Tibet Special: Blood on the roof of the world | Images: Trouble in Tibet
The Tibetan demonstrations in the run up to the Beijing Olympic games this August was not unexpected. But, perhaps, Beijing underestimated the scale of it. The Tibetan diaspora has long been calling for the boycott of the Beijing Olympics. Obviously, they did not expect that the games would be boycotted by any country, unlike the Moscow Olympics of 1980. What they really wanted was to highlight the issue of Tibetan situation on a wide scale and specifically draw international attention to human rights violations in Tibet, the Sinicisation of Tibet, and the “genocide” of Tibetan history and culture.
Independence for Tibet has now gone beyond realistic expectations, despite the abundance of proof that mainland China gradually through political machinations and military power, usurped the country Tibet once was.
That is the main reason that the 14th Dalai Lama abandoned in the mid-1980s the struggle for independence and opted for “real autonomy.”
The main backer for Tibet’s independence, the US, also changed tracks in the 1970s and 1980s following the normalisation of diplomatic relations between Washington and Beijing. Late Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping’s “reform and opening up” policy in 1978-79 opened up a market which the world could hardly ignore. In return, these friends of the Tibetan people and the Dalai Lama diluted support for them.
Taking all this into consideration, the demand for “independence” was brought down to “autonomy”.
But while the “independence” script has been wiped off the slate, much else remains to be addressed by the Chinese, the Tibetans and the international community.
Both the pro-independence Tibetans and the Chinese government are going through extended difficult times. For the two, time is of essence. The protests that started in the Tibetan capital Lhasa on and around March 10, 2008 can be described as unprecedented since the 1959 uprising against the Chinese occupation, which eventually forced the Dalai Lama to flee to India with a group of his followers.
Then followed the exodus of Tibetan refugees from Tibet mainly to India. The Chinese crackdown of the Tibetans in 1959 was far stronger than what is being seen now. The Chinese security forces are still restraining themselves because of the upcoming Olympic games and the scrutiny of the international community.
In 1959, China was a closed country. Today, it is greatly interwoven with the world, at least economically. Nevertheless, Beijing is most likely to stifle the Tibetans in Tibet through overwhelming force. Interdependence brings compromise. But when its perceived interests are infringed upon, Beijing does not pull its punches.
The reason why the Tibetans are becoming anxious and restive is that unless something is done, they feel they would be obliterated in the Tibet Autonomous Region (AR) and the Tibetan autonomous prefectures in neighbouring provinces of China.
Over the years there have been increasing influx of Han settlers in Tibet, mainly in Lhasa. Tibetan businesses are being taken over by Han traders, who get special incentives from the government to settle in Tibet.
Education is getting increasingly Sinicised, with Chinese language pushing out the Tibetan language. Without Chinese language there are no jobs to be had. Tibetans do not rise to high positions in government jobs even in Tibet. Even those who enter government services are required to denounce the Dalai Lama and swear total allegiance to the Chinese government.
Tibetans should not have any quarrel with swearing their commitment to the Chinese government. This prevails in most countries in the world. But denouncing the Dalai Lama is another issue altogether.
The Chinese must, and do, understand that the Dalai Lama is not only the undisputed spiritual mentor of millions of Tibetans, but he lives in their breath and soul. Swayed by their own propaganda, the leaders in Beijing may think that they have won over a large number of Tibetans. But that is hardly the reality. Tibetan officials and deputies secretly worship the Dalai Lama in the confines of their homes.
China claims that its Constitution allows freedom of religion. This is far from true in reality. Practice of religion is strictly controlled by the state and the Party. Practice of religion, that is prayers, can be done in designated places. No one can preach religion. It is against the law.
Prohibition against even keeping a photograph of the Dalai Lama gives lie to the Chinese claim of freedom of religion. To the Tibetans, the Dalai Lama is Living God. The Chinese seen him politically as a separatist or “splittist”.
The Chinese authorities generally feel that after the death of the current Dalai Lama, the Tibetan problem would gradually fade away. From 2002 till now, the Dalai Lama’s delegation held six rounds of talks with the Chinese authorities on the issue of autonomy to Tibet and Tibetan areas outside the Autonomous Region. This shows the second compromise by the Dalai Lama. The original Tibet, known as the Greater Tibet, was sliced by the Chinese and amalgamated with neighbouring states like Gansu and Sichuan. The Dalai Lama does not claim Greater Tibet any longer.
But the talks did not yield any results. Suddenly, from around 2005, the Chinese authorities reverted to the hardline position, especially after the posting of the new Tibet Autonomous Region Party chairman Zhang Qinling. Zhang comes from the Communist Youth League (CYL), President Hu Jintao’s main constituency. He was supposed have subdued the Tibetans.
The Chinese have now accused the Dalai Lama of fomenting the riots in Lhasa. The Chinese fix a target and launch a relentless propaganda against him or her. India’s first Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, still remains a favourite whipping boy of the Chinese official media on the Sino-Indian border issue.
The Dalai Lama is similarly targeted as “evil”, a man whose sole aim is break up China. In the 1980s, the Dalai Lama was projected as a “serpent,” and the official propaganda called for “crushing the serpent’s head.”
But the Chinese may be missing the woods for the trees. The Dalai Lama is the sobering factor of the Tibet issue. No one, not even the Chinese authorities, can deny that the Tibet issue is real and may be snowballing.
With the Chinese army and security personnel coming down heavily in Lhasa after the deadline for surrender to the so-called miscreants ended on Sunday-Monday midnight, the Dalai Lama put up his hands. He could not control the Tibetan-monks, nuns, laymen any longer.
For quite a few years now the Tibetan diaspora, especially the youth, have expressing disillusionment with the Dalai Lama’s “middle path” approach. They found that there was concession from one side only and the Tibetan people and culture was gradually being decimated by the Chinese.
The Tibetan youth have just formed a new organisation, the “Tibet Youth Uprising”. What this organisation would do or not do is not the issue, It only shows disenchantment of the Tibetan diaspora with the Dalai Lama’s approach of conceding to the Chinese step by step. This, however, does not mean these Tibetans are resorting to militancy.
The Chinese should take note of these developments. They can squash this uprising in Lhasa with the force of massive armed power. But they cannot ensure that they will be able to permanently do away with this problem.
On the other hand, the Chinese leaders have a problem. They naturally want that the Beijing Olympics in August goes through without untoward incidents. This is the Chinese Communist Party’s biggest show of pride, prestige, development and power. It is also a political issue internally.
The Committee for preparing for the Olympics was headed by Hu Jintao. He is the President, the Party Chief and Head of the Military. He has just handed over this responsibility at the NPC Session to Xi Jinping, hisselected successor. This shows how important is the success of the Olympics to the Chinese leadership.
How the game is conducted will have profound impact on the careers of both these men.
India, meanwhile, is caught in a difficult situation. It has the largest population of Tibetan refugees, and of course, the Dalai Lama. Groups of Tibetans are trying to march into Tibet from India. At the same time, the Chinese have not exactly decorated themselves with honour while dealing with the Tibetans.
Forced to take a stand, New Delhi diplomatically called for dialogue and peace. The Chinese pressure is mounting on the Indian government to restrain the Tibetans and close the borders to Tibet. There was no need for this. India’s policy is not to involve itself in Tibetan politics, and this has been demonstrated adequately.
Premier Wan Jiabao’s open message of March 18, 2008 to the government of India on the Tibetan demonstrators in India was decisively stern, and appropriately rejected by the people of India. Wen told a press conference in Beijing that he hoped that the government of India would follow agreements between the two countries and “handle the issue in a correct way”.
China’s way of dealing “correctly” with peaceful demonstrators is to kill them. No one has forgotten the 1989 Tiananmen Square incident.
India’s “correct” way is to deal with protestors with utmost restraint and humanely. China’s Premier must note the difference in dealing with such issues between China and the rest of the democratic world.
Whether China admits it or not, the Tibetan issue has never been, and still isn’t, an internal affair of China, simply because they are trying to bury a live civilisation.
The 1959 Tibetan Uprising: Rebels with a Cause
Claude Arpi
Born in Angoulame, France, Claude Arpi's real quest began 36 years ago with a journey to the Himalayas. Since then he has been an enthusiastic student of the history of Tibet, China and the subcontinent. He is the author of numerous English and French books including. His book, ‘Tibet: the lost Frontier’ (Lancers Publishers) was released recently.
Fifty years is long in the life of a man. It is long also for a nation.
Fifty years ago, on March 10, 1959, the population of Lhasa, the Tibetan capital revolted against the Chinese Communist invaders. A few days later, the Dalai Lama, the temporal and spiritual leader of the Tibetan people fled his country. Since then, he lives as a refugee in India.
Ironically, it was a Chinese communiqué issued in Beijing on March 28, 1959 by the New China News Agency which gave a stunned world the first details of the uprising ('rebellion' in Communist jargon). “Violating the will of the Tibetan people and betraying the motherland, the Tibetan Local Government and the upper-strata reactionary clique colluded with imperialism-assembled rebellious bandits and launched armed attacks against the People's Liberation Army (PLA) garrison in Lhasa during the night of March 19. Acting on orders to put the rebellion down, the valiant units of the PLA stationed in Tibet completely smashed the rebellious bandits in the city of Lhasa on the 22nd. Now, the units of the PLA, assisted by patriotic people of ail sections, both monks and lay, are mopping up the rebellious bandits in other places in Tibet,” the communiqué said.
50 years in exile: View slideshow
The 'rebellious bandits' had attempted to defend their culture against the onslaught of an atheist power and save the life of their revered leader.
But let us return to a few days before this date.
Tibet had already been under occupation for nine years when in early 1959, the situation begun to deteriorate.
The watershed was when General Tan Guansan, commandant of the Chinese forces in Lhasa, invited the Dalai Lama to attend a theatrical performance inside the Chinese headquarters. A strange condition had been added: he should come without his bodyguards.
Also read: Tibet is not China's 'internal affair'
Speaking in third person, the Dalai Lama later explained: "The Dalai Lama had agreed a month in advance to attend a cultural show in the Chinese headquarters and the date was suddenly fixed for the 10th of March. The people of Lhasa became apprehensive that some harm might be done to the Dalai Lama and as a result about 10,000 people gathered round the Dalai Lama's summer palace, Norbulingka, and physically prevented the Dalai Lama from attending the function. …In spite of this demonstration from the people, the Dalai Lama and his government endeavoured to maintain friendly relations with the Chinese and tried to carry out negotiations with the Chinese representatives on how best to bring about peace in Tibet and assuage the people's anxiety.”
Also read: ‘Ignoring Tibet is dangerous for India’
But the situation was quickly getting out of control. At a loss, the young Dalai Lama tried for a few days to keep a channel of communication open with both sides. His heart was with his people, but he knew the ruthlessness of the Chinese. He wanted at any cost to avoid a bloodbath. Was it still possible?
He gained some time by writing a series of letters to General Tan. He thought that this could perhaps temporally pacify the Chinese official and his bosses in Beijing, though he also knew that he would have to soon take a plunge.
For many years, the Dalai Lama had to bend backward to avoid repressive acts from the Communist officials; his scope to maneuver was limited. The Tibetans were in a no-win situation; the pressure mounted; people were increasingly resentful and anguished at the ruthless occupation of their country.
On March 17, during a trance, the Nechung State Oracle ordered the Dalai Lama to immediately leave his country. At the same time, two or three mortar shells which were fired in the direction of the Norbulingka palace, fell in a nearby pond. For the Dalai Lama, the mortar shells were the Gods' confirmation that he should follow the Oracle's advice. The time had come for him to leave Tibet.
The young Tibetan leader had thought that he could establish a government in South Tibet and negotiate with the Chinese. The Gods however decided otherwise. Still in trance, the Nechung drew the road to be followed by the Dalai Lama's party on a piece of paper. He had to cross the Indian border near Tawang (in today's Arunachal Pradesh).
The Great Escape
At night, under disguise, the Dalai Lama managed to sneak out of the Norbulingka Palace without being seen. He was later joined on the opposite side of the Kyi Chu river by several members of his family and his Khampa bodyguards. They crossed the river without being noticed by the Chinese troops stationed in a camp nearby and began their flight southward. While the news of the Dalai Lama's departure was still a well-guarded secret, fighting broke out in Lhasa; it lasted for two days.
On March 21 at 2.00 am, the Chinese fired more than 800 shells at the Norbulingka Palace. Thousands of men, women and children camping in the vicinity were slaughtered and the residences of hundreds of officials living in the complex destroyed. The Dalai Lama's bodyguard regiment was disarmed and publicly machine-gunned; according to the Tibetan government in exile, over 86,000 Tibetans in Central Tibet were killed by the Chinese during this period.The 'bandits' had been smashed.
One of the greatest tragedies of the 20th century unfolded while the world remained blissfully unaware. The information would take some more time to cross the mighty Himalayas.
The First Statements
It was only a few days later that the Chinese discovered that the Dalai Lama had made good his escape. They reacted violently. As the Chinese communiqué explained: “In order to wipe out the rebel bandits thoroughly, the State Council has ordered the units of the Chinese PLA stationed in Tibet to assume military control in various places in Tibet. The tasks of the Military Control Committees are: to suppress the rebellion; to protect the people and the foreign nationals who observe the laws of China; …to organise self-defence armed forces of patriotic Tibetans to replace the old Tibetan Army of only a little more than 3,000 men who are rotten to the core, utterly useless in fighting and who have turned rebel.”
Also read: Tibet: A road to nowhere
For the first time since the Liberation Army had entered Tibet in 1950, the Chinese government had admitted to disturbances and widespread revolts against the Chinese occupiers in Tibet.
It was something new for Mao. During the days of the Long March, he had always been welcomed as a hero by the masses. Wherever the Liberation Army went, common people received them as liberators and provided food and logistic support. In Tibet, for the first the time, the masses did not accept Mao’s 'liberation' forces.
The Communist propaganda continued to explain that it was only a serfs' rebellion against the 'upper strata Dalai's clique', but the 10 March incident was actually a movement of the masses to protect their religious leader and save their culture.
Sadly, 50 years later, the Chinese authorities still attribute the deep resentment of the Tibetan population against the Han presence in Tibet to the 'Dalai clique.'
In India, The uprising was mentioned for the first time in the Lok Sabha on March 23, 1959, when Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru made a statement. At that time, news was sparse as the only channel of communication was from the Indian Mission in Lhasa, through wireless.
Major L S Chhibber, the Indian Consul had rightly decided not to interfere, said Nehru. This sentence represents the dichotomy of the Indian Government: on one hand, no interference, but 10 days later, tens of thousands of Tibetans were offered asylum by India (a gesture which China even today considers to be a gross interference in its 'internal affairs').
The Dalai Lama's flight, reported in his two biographies, is too well known a tale to be recounted here.
It is however worth mentioning the last moments of his incredible journey. After a few days rest at Lhuntse Dzong, near the Indian border, he sent two of his officials to contact the Government of India and seek asylum for himself and his party. Asylum was immediately granted.
Also read: As Dalai Lama gains, Tibetans lose
He later stated: "The Dalai Lama is deeply touched by the kind greeting extended to him on his safe arrival in India by the Prime Minister Shri Jawaharlal Nehru, and his colleagues in the Government of India."
A new life started. A few days later, hundreds of journalists waited for him at his arrival in Tezpur, Assam. He was officially received by a senior MEA official, P N Menon, father of the present Foreign Secretary Shiv Shankar Menon.
Next steps for Kashmir
Colonel Anil Athale
Col. (retd) Anil A Athale is a Fellow at the Centre for Armed Forces Historical Research. A former Joint Director (History Division) and infantryman, he has been running an NGO, Peace and Disarmament, based in Pune for the past 10 years. As a military historian he specialises in insurgency and peace process. Colonel (Dr.) Anil Athale is the author of ‘Nuclear Menace: the Sataygraha Approach’, published May 1997.
The Kashmir issue originated from the accident that the first Prime Minister of India, Jawaharlal Nehru, belonged to Kashmir and was attached to it.
Otherwise, following the illogic of partition, J&K ought to have gone to Pakistan. The division or partition of J&K has become inevitable as contrary to the vision of Jinnah, Pakistan is now an Islamic state and all Hindus and Sikhs have been thrown out from there ( from 20% of population in 1947, the Hindu/Sikhs are less than 1 % today).
India continues to claim Kashmir on two counts, first, in the initial stage in 1947, the Kashmiris did show inclination to be with Pakistan under the influence of Sheikh Abdullah and secondly unlike Pakistan, India did NOT become a Hindu state but remained a secular state. The proportion of Muslims in India has actually gone up from 10% in 1947 to close to 17% today. Unstated Indian argument is that retention of Kashmir in India is necessary for survival of secularism in India.
India lost the Kashmir valley in 1989/90 when in wake of ethnic cleansing; close to 300,000 Hindus (called Pandits) were thrown out of the valley. What the country is facing today is the tragic consequence of that appeasement. The world at large, the Human Rights crusaders and Secularists in India (of all stripes), have been callously blind to the plight of these hapless refugees.
The problem of civic unrest in Kashmir is basically rooted in the lack of economic development. It is true that one does not come across the kind of grinding poverty that one sees in some of the other Indian states, yet the fact is that despite the natural resources, a vast number of Kashmiris are poor.
Unchecked population growth, currently running at 5% per annum with declining death rate has tremendously increased the population pressure on land. Article 370 and in the internal isolationist policy that it engenders, xenophobia instigated by the petty leaders and ineffective administration has resulted in a situation wherein there is a total lack of industrial development. The combined result of these two factors has been that average Kashmiri has seen his standard of living declining over the last two generations.
It is in this situation that some politicians sold the dream of an 'independent ' Kashmir while some claimed Islamization as the solution. With help from across the border the armed struggle began. As a result of visits to the state of Jammu and Kashmir, parts of which are currently witnessing unrest, one realizes that the roots of this unrest lie in the economic underdevelopment of the area. While there is certainly no visible poverty in J&K, of the kind one can witness in many urban areas of India, yet it will be not far from the truth to say that economic development has left J&K virtually untouched. The insular geography, restrictive constitutional provisions, lowering death rate while the birth rate is at 5% and total absence of industry has brought about this situation in J&K. In this atmosphere of stagnation, political leaders and countries across the border sold the dream of better life only if the region attains 'azadi' freedom or merges with Pakistan. World at large is quite content to let India remain in quagmire of internal troubles so that it does not develop its true potential.
On the positive side, in India today we have the technology in agriculture, horticulture and genetic engineering that can revolutionize the agriculture and bring in undreamt of prosperity to the region. It is impossible to undertake this exercise in all of Kashmir as some of the area is in grip of violence. But there are areas of J&K that are currently peaceful and have vast scope for development. The prime candidate being the Jammu division, Kargil and Ladakh. Implementation of projects of this nature will develop the economy and pre-empt any internal trouble. This is a proactive method of dealing with the Kashmir problem.
In whole of J&K army is extensively deployed and virtually the only administrative organ of the Indian State that has a presence. As a part of civic action programme , the Indian Army has been helping the civil population by providing health care, some developmental work like building schools/playgrounds/places of worship et. (Operation Sadbhavana). There are no funds earmarked for this activity and the scale and extent of these operations, an adjunct of the main function of the army, is necessarily limited. Only if the right inputs in terms of technology could be provided, this very action of the Army could become much more meaningful, the role of soldier being more of a catalyst.
The aim is to reward the population of areas that have remained peaceful and loyal to the country, with 'visible' economic development for not having taken to active insurgency operations. This would clearly demonstrate to the people in the Srinagar Valley the loss they have suffered due to joining anti Indian forces, as well as Indian superiority in the field of high technology vis a vis Pakistan, to the people of J & K.
Medium term objectives (2-5 years)
a) Together with the population of Ladakh and the Jammu division to create a pro Indian majority in the state of Jammu and Kashmir.
b) To evolve a technology package for duplicating in the rest of the Himalayan border zones to
i) Improve the living conditions of Infantry soldiers on the border posts.
ii) Preserve fragile Himalayan ecology.
iii) To win over the population by economic development.
c) Spread the various agro-bio-eco technologies to rest of the countryside through Army jawans.
I am aware that this approach will immediately invite howls of protest from the ‘Secularists ‘ as a communal agenda or worse. It needs to be pointed out the 70% Muslim majority districts of Rajouri and Poonch as well as Kargil would also be rewarded under this plan. It is time the Indian state spend the tax payer’s money for pro-India people and not for those who hoist Pakistani flags.
Once the people of valley see the effect of economic development in their neighbourhood, the message would go home. After all Communism collapsed in Eastern Europe not on the issue of so called ‘freedom’ but the visible difference in economic development between Eastern and Western Europe- it is the washing machines and colour TVs or lack of it that made the difference!
The Kashmiri slogan of Azadi is fake, for a Kashmiri enjoys far more religious, economic and freedom of expression than his counterpart in virtually any Islamic country, including Pakistan.
Col. (retd) Anil A Athale is a Fellow at the Centre for Armed Forces Historical Research. A former Joint Director (History Division) and infantryman, he has been running an NGO, Peace and Disarmament, based in Pune for the past 10 years. As a military historian he specialises in insurgency and peace process. Colonel (Dr.) Anil Athale is the author of ‘Nuclear Menace: the Sataygraha Approach’, published May 1997.
The Kashmir issue originated from the accident that the first Prime Minister of India, Jawaharlal Nehru, belonged to Kashmir and was attached to it.
Otherwise, following the illogic of partition, J&K ought to have gone to Pakistan. The division or partition of J&K has become inevitable as contrary to the vision of Jinnah, Pakistan is now an Islamic state and all Hindus and Sikhs have been thrown out from there ( from 20% of population in 1947, the Hindu/Sikhs are less than 1 % today).
India continues to claim Kashmir on two counts, first, in the initial stage in 1947, the Kashmiris did show inclination to be with Pakistan under the influence of Sheikh Abdullah and secondly unlike Pakistan, India did NOT become a Hindu state but remained a secular state. The proportion of Muslims in India has actually gone up from 10% in 1947 to close to 17% today. Unstated Indian argument is that retention of Kashmir in India is necessary for survival of secularism in India.
India lost the Kashmir valley in 1989/90 when in wake of ethnic cleansing; close to 300,000 Hindus (called Pandits) were thrown out of the valley. What the country is facing today is the tragic consequence of that appeasement. The world at large, the Human Rights crusaders and Secularists in India (of all stripes), have been callously blind to the plight of these hapless refugees.
The problem of civic unrest in Kashmir is basically rooted in the lack of economic development. It is true that one does not come across the kind of grinding poverty that one sees in some of the other Indian states, yet the fact is that despite the natural resources, a vast number of Kashmiris are poor.
Unchecked population growth, currently running at 5% per annum with declining death rate has tremendously increased the population pressure on land. Article 370 and in the internal isolationist policy that it engenders, xenophobia instigated by the petty leaders and ineffective administration has resulted in a situation wherein there is a total lack of industrial development. The combined result of these two factors has been that average Kashmiri has seen his standard of living declining over the last two generations.
It is in this situation that some politicians sold the dream of an 'independent ' Kashmir while some claimed Islamization as the solution. With help from across the border the armed struggle began. As a result of visits to the state of Jammu and Kashmir, parts of which are currently witnessing unrest, one realizes that the roots of this unrest lie in the economic underdevelopment of the area. While there is certainly no visible poverty in J&K, of the kind one can witness in many urban areas of India, yet it will be not far from the truth to say that economic development has left J&K virtually untouched. The insular geography, restrictive constitutional provisions, lowering death rate while the birth rate is at 5% and total absence of industry has brought about this situation in J&K. In this atmosphere of stagnation, political leaders and countries across the border sold the dream of better life only if the region attains 'azadi' freedom or merges with Pakistan. World at large is quite content to let India remain in quagmire of internal troubles so that it does not develop its true potential.
On the positive side, in India today we have the technology in agriculture, horticulture and genetic engineering that can revolutionize the agriculture and bring in undreamt of prosperity to the region. It is impossible to undertake this exercise in all of Kashmir as some of the area is in grip of violence. But there are areas of J&K that are currently peaceful and have vast scope for development. The prime candidate being the Jammu division, Kargil and Ladakh. Implementation of projects of this nature will develop the economy and pre-empt any internal trouble. This is a proactive method of dealing with the Kashmir problem.
In whole of J&K army is extensively deployed and virtually the only administrative organ of the Indian State that has a presence. As a part of civic action programme , the Indian Army has been helping the civil population by providing health care, some developmental work like building schools/playgrounds/places of worship et. (Operation Sadbhavana). There are no funds earmarked for this activity and the scale and extent of these operations, an adjunct of the main function of the army, is necessarily limited. Only if the right inputs in terms of technology could be provided, this very action of the Army could become much more meaningful, the role of soldier being more of a catalyst.
The aim is to reward the population of areas that have remained peaceful and loyal to the country, with 'visible' economic development for not having taken to active insurgency operations. This would clearly demonstrate to the people in the Srinagar Valley the loss they have suffered due to joining anti Indian forces, as well as Indian superiority in the field of high technology vis a vis Pakistan, to the people of J & K.
Medium term objectives (2-5 years)
a) Together with the population of Ladakh and the Jammu division to create a pro Indian majority in the state of Jammu and Kashmir.
b) To evolve a technology package for duplicating in the rest of the Himalayan border zones to
i) Improve the living conditions of Infantry soldiers on the border posts.
ii) Preserve fragile Himalayan ecology.
iii) To win over the population by economic development.
c) Spread the various agro-bio-eco technologies to rest of the countryside through Army jawans.
I am aware that this approach will immediately invite howls of protest from the ‘Secularists ‘ as a communal agenda or worse. It needs to be pointed out the 70% Muslim majority districts of Rajouri and Poonch as well as Kargil would also be rewarded under this plan. It is time the Indian state spend the tax payer’s money for pro-India people and not for those who hoist Pakistani flags.
Once the people of valley see the effect of economic development in their neighbourhood, the message would go home. After all Communism collapsed in Eastern Europe not on the issue of so called ‘freedom’ but the visible difference in economic development between Eastern and Western Europe- it is the washing machines and colour TVs or lack of it that made the difference!
The Kashmiri slogan of Azadi is fake, for a Kashmiri enjoys far more religious, economic and freedom of expression than his counterpart in virtually any Islamic country, including Pakistan.
An England in India goes to the polls
Tarun Vijay
After six decades of independence, India is virtually ruled by a lady who is originally a westerner and doesn’t have a command of any
Indian language unless supported by a written text in Roman. And she has become the only hope to bring back the remnants of what was once a grand old Congress party led by Mahatma Gandhi back to power through her speeches in broken Hindi addressed to India’s predominant rural voters.
She is credited with having helped the Congress win 145 Lok Sabha seats and 26.21% votes in elections held in 2000, became the head of a 219-member coalition drawn from 16 parties and ruled India from her home with Manmohan Singh acting as her nominee Prime Minister. So much so that an American embassy publication spread out her picture on one full page and Manmohan Singh was relegated to a corner passport size. It created embarrassment and corrections were made in later editions.
The flexibility of Indian voters, if one can describe this attribute modestly, is amazing. The west’s overpowering influence in recent times can be said to have begun in 1615, with a visit of Sir Thomas Roe, England's first official ambassador to India, who secured privileges for the East India Company from Jehangir, son of Akbar.
India would never be the same again.
The east, the far-east and the immediate neighbourhood, once such a hub of Indian cultural influence that it became known as Indochina, was turned to lesser importance and faded away from Indian priorities. It was only after five decades of independence that a look-east policy was devised but it still remains feeble compared with our western fixations.
The presence of a colonial power that set the cultural agenda too and gave new westward dreams of an upwardly mobile life to a common Indian drove the Indian journey and fixed our dreams to Vilayat.
It seriously affected the status of our languages. Once a nation that had the most scientific and ancient language, Sanskrit, perfect on parameters of grammar, vocabulary and phonetics, and had preserved the age-old reservoir of Hindu wisdom and scholarship – India was 80% literate before the British rule, with astounding contributions in astronomy, mathematics, life sciences, arts and theatre, literature, sea warfare, and mind-boggling wonders in architectural superiority, all attained in languages common Indians knew and spoke – India is run on a language that was never hers, was in fact imposed through coercion shutting the old and time-tested centres of Indian learning calling them as “dead, useless centres of obscurantism”.
The new contemporary rulers of any variety or colour or ideology, look at Sanskrit and other Indian languages with disdain and would never prescribe books of ancient wisdom like Vedas or the Upanishads to be taught in Indian schools under a heritage programme fearing loss of Muslim votes.
Bharat, the glorified “golden bird” famous in Arabic and Greek fables, has become a poor translation of Romanized western elitist ideas. An India, that’s what it is known as.
Though the world over our ancient books are highly respected as the gift of India, India and her politicians take them as merely Hindu scriptures, that may invite the wrath of the minorities if promoted through state apparatus and patronage. Though Sanskrit remains the language of solemnizing birth, marriage and ensuring a heaven-bound journey after death, an upwardly mobile elite of Gurgaon-Bangalore variety won’t have time or inclination to understand it. It’s of no use – no employment, no social status, no political benefit is gained through it.
In any elite circle of decision making, whether it is governance, media, arts and culture or literature, it’s simply elevating and profitable too, to shun speaking an Indian language and use English with a foreign accent to register a powerful presence and of course facilitate success. And more the American slang, the more “awfully impressive” it becomes.
After six decades of independence, India is virtually ruled by a lady who is originally a westerner and doesn’t have a command of any
Indian language unless supported by a written text in Roman. And she has become the only hope to bring back the remnants of what was once a grand old Congress party led by Mahatma Gandhi back to power through her speeches in broken Hindi addressed to India’s predominant rural voters.
She is credited with having helped the Congress win 145 Lok Sabha seats and 26.21% votes in elections held in 2000, became the head of a 219-member coalition drawn from 16 parties and ruled India from her home with Manmohan Singh acting as her nominee Prime Minister. So much so that an American embassy publication spread out her picture on one full page and Manmohan Singh was relegated to a corner passport size. It created embarrassment and corrections were made in later editions.
The flexibility of Indian voters, if one can describe this attribute modestly, is amazing. The west’s overpowering influence in recent times can be said to have begun in 1615, with a visit of Sir Thomas Roe, England's first official ambassador to India, who secured privileges for the East India Company from Jehangir, son of Akbar.
India would never be the same again.
The east, the far-east and the immediate neighbourhood, once such a hub of Indian cultural influence that it became known as Indochina, was turned to lesser importance and faded away from Indian priorities. It was only after five decades of independence that a look-east policy was devised but it still remains feeble compared with our western fixations.
The presence of a colonial power that set the cultural agenda too and gave new westward dreams of an upwardly mobile life to a common Indian drove the Indian journey and fixed our dreams to Vilayat.
It seriously affected the status of our languages. Once a nation that had the most scientific and ancient language, Sanskrit, perfect on parameters of grammar, vocabulary and phonetics, and had preserved the age-old reservoir of Hindu wisdom and scholarship – India was 80% literate before the British rule, with astounding contributions in astronomy, mathematics, life sciences, arts and theatre, literature, sea warfare, and mind-boggling wonders in architectural superiority, all attained in languages common Indians knew and spoke – India is run on a language that was never hers, was in fact imposed through coercion shutting the old and time-tested centres of Indian learning calling them as “dead, useless centres of obscurantism”.
The new contemporary rulers of any variety or colour or ideology, look at Sanskrit and other Indian languages with disdain and would never prescribe books of ancient wisdom like Vedas or the Upanishads to be taught in Indian schools under a heritage programme fearing loss of Muslim votes.
Bharat, the glorified “golden bird” famous in Arabic and Greek fables, has become a poor translation of Romanized western elitist ideas. An India, that’s what it is known as.
Though the world over our ancient books are highly respected as the gift of India, India and her politicians take them as merely Hindu scriptures, that may invite the wrath of the minorities if promoted through state apparatus and patronage. Though Sanskrit remains the language of solemnizing birth, marriage and ensuring a heaven-bound journey after death, an upwardly mobile elite of Gurgaon-Bangalore variety won’t have time or inclination to understand it. It’s of no use – no employment, no social status, no political benefit is gained through it.
In any elite circle of decision making, whether it is governance, media, arts and culture or literature, it’s simply elevating and profitable too, to shun speaking an Indian language and use English with a foreign accent to register a powerful presence and of course facilitate success. And more the American slang, the more “awfully impressive” it becomes.
Family legacy and the Varun effect
Tarun Vijay
Those who opposed the Ayodhya temple movement, wore silence over the plight of Kashmiri Hindus, damaged the Ram Sethu and denied Lord Rama ever existed, denied the violence at the Godhra railway station, and embraced the butchers of 1984, are collectively gunning at Varun Gandhi's political life.
Column after column by Padma Shris in the media have created an atmosphere where supporting Varun has become a sin. Why? The simple reason is that the farmhouse of Gandhi-Nehru politics has been broken and a scion of the family chose to speak out as his conscience directed.
More than what Varun said or didn't say, it is the hurt and bewilderment over the loss of a Gandhi to the saffron brigade that has made the media and anti-Hindutva politicos react with such venom and acid. He was not heard, not given a chance to present his case, nor did forensic experts examine the so-called proof in the form of a CD containing his speech.
Varun has suddenly dwarfed the media-supported Rahul.
Nobody has ever heard a dynasty member to say with understandable assertion that he or she is a Hindu. Rather, they have always tried to look differently at things. They banned Hindu organisations, imposed the Emergency, removed basic human rights, never willingly facilitated the Sikh massacre probe, rewarded hardened criminals, made alliance with those who were convicted for murder or were facing scandalous charges, had the Muslim League join the government after Partition. Yet, they are nice, decent, peace-loving, patriotic democrats who love to tell others: 'Go read the Gita.'
When Indian soldiers were fighting Pakistani marauders in 1947, we didn't have enough jeeps. So orders were placed with the British company and supply demanded immediately. Our high commissioner in London V K Krishna Menon, Pandit Nehru's blue-eyed boy, messed it up. The jeeps reached a year late.
That was the first scandal in independent India.
We lost Gilgit, Baltistan and Skardu. We lost Aksai Chin because the government in New Delhi didn't know the exact boundaries and so no patrolling was being done there.
In all we have lost 125,000 square km to the Pakistanis and Chinese during Congress rule.
Plus we had a bad dream called 1962.
At that time our ordnance factories were making coffee machines as Pandit Nehru openly argued against having a well-equipped large army for defence. 'Who is going to attack us?' he would ask.
And people still remember the mysterious death of Dr Syama Prasad Mookerjee, who simply wanted Kashmir to be a part of India like Bihar or Bengal and the permit system to enter the valley be abolished. Kashmir had two rulers then, its ruler was called Sadr e Riyasat or 'head of state', and it had a prime minister. Mookerjee's martyrdom compelled the Nehru government to remove the permit system and the two heads of state.
Then we had the Mundhra scandal, the Nagarwala case, the L N Mishra murder. The Jana Sangh's fast-emerging leader Deendayal Upadhyaya was murdered. A Congress leader canvassed openly against the official Presidential candidate and supported her own choice as independent nominee. The original Congress symbol was a pair of oxen. After the official Congress broke up, they got the hand as a temporary symbol till the case is finally settled. It would never be.
Those who opposed the Ayodhya temple movement, wore silence over the plight of Kashmiri Hindus, damaged the Ram Sethu and denied Lord Rama ever existed, denied the violence at the Godhra railway station, and embraced the butchers of 1984, are collectively gunning at Varun Gandhi's political life.
Column after column by Padma Shris in the media have created an atmosphere where supporting Varun has become a sin. Why? The simple reason is that the farmhouse of Gandhi-Nehru politics has been broken and a scion of the family chose to speak out as his conscience directed.
More than what Varun said or didn't say, it is the hurt and bewilderment over the loss of a Gandhi to the saffron brigade that has made the media and anti-Hindutva politicos react with such venom and acid. He was not heard, not given a chance to present his case, nor did forensic experts examine the so-called proof in the form of a CD containing his speech.
Varun has suddenly dwarfed the media-supported Rahul.
Nobody has ever heard a dynasty member to say with understandable assertion that he or she is a Hindu. Rather, they have always tried to look differently at things. They banned Hindu organisations, imposed the Emergency, removed basic human rights, never willingly facilitated the Sikh massacre probe, rewarded hardened criminals, made alliance with those who were convicted for murder or were facing scandalous charges, had the Muslim League join the government after Partition. Yet, they are nice, decent, peace-loving, patriotic democrats who love to tell others: 'Go read the Gita.'
When Indian soldiers were fighting Pakistani marauders in 1947, we didn't have enough jeeps. So orders were placed with the British company and supply demanded immediately. Our high commissioner in London V K Krishna Menon, Pandit Nehru's blue-eyed boy, messed it up. The jeeps reached a year late.
That was the first scandal in independent India.
We lost Gilgit, Baltistan and Skardu. We lost Aksai Chin because the government in New Delhi didn't know the exact boundaries and so no patrolling was being done there.
In all we have lost 125,000 square km to the Pakistanis and Chinese during Congress rule.
Plus we had a bad dream called 1962.
At that time our ordnance factories were making coffee machines as Pandit Nehru openly argued against having a well-equipped large army for defence. 'Who is going to attack us?' he would ask.
And people still remember the mysterious death of Dr Syama Prasad Mookerjee, who simply wanted Kashmir to be a part of India like Bihar or Bengal and the permit system to enter the valley be abolished. Kashmir had two rulers then, its ruler was called Sadr e Riyasat or 'head of state', and it had a prime minister. Mookerjee's martyrdom compelled the Nehru government to remove the permit system and the two heads of state.
Then we had the Mundhra scandal, the Nagarwala case, the L N Mishra murder. The Jana Sangh's fast-emerging leader Deendayal Upadhyaya was murdered. A Congress leader canvassed openly against the official Presidential candidate and supported her own choice as independent nominee. The original Congress symbol was a pair of oxen. After the official Congress broke up, they got the hand as a temporary symbol till the case is finally settled. It would never be.
Provoked to write…
I am provoked to write this
-M.S.N. Menon , Organiser
Yes. When I’m told that Hindus “live in darkness” I’m provoked.
I’m a Hindu, not the usual one, for I took the trouble to make a special study of human civilisations and religious atrocities. Naturally, I see religions in a different light. Not the way the “faithful” see them.
Religions are full of lies and false claims.
The Jews claimed they were “the chosen people of God.” Where did this delusion take them? To the worst persecution known to man! They remain the object of the longest hate in human history.
Take Christianity. What is its claim and what is the reality? It claims to have civilised Europe. In fact, it destroyed one of the greatest civilisations of man—the Greek civilisation.
Vassili Vassilevsky, one of the most stimulating authors of Greece, says: “It took us inheritors of a joyous paganistic culture, a long time to internalise the notion of ‘guilt’.
Even today we do not wholly accept the idea that the body is the source of evil.” And yet Jesus had said that the “Kingdom of God is within you.” Then, who put the Devil inside the Christian to torment them? The Organised Church.
And it also destroyed the Roman empire. One of the first acts of the Christians (that of Emperor Theodisius), when they came to power in Rome, was to order the destruction of the most splendid library in the temple of Serapis.
Obviously, the Church had no desire for enlightenment. The Hindus pray for light daily.
The Church converted the pagan temples into tombs, says W.E.H. Lecky, “for the adoration of the bones of the basest and most depraved of men among the Christian monks.” (History of the Rise and Influence of the Spirit of Rationalism in Europe”, Vol.II)
And a Christian mob stripped and cut into pieces a gifted, virtuous and beautiful lady in Alexandria. What was her crime? That she was the leader of the Neo-Platonists!
The Roman empire had produced some of the great men in history like poets Horace and Virgil, historians like Livy and Polybius, philosophers like Epictetus and Plotinus, orators like Cicero, lawgivers like Cato. What did Christianity produce in the 1500 years of its dominance over Europe? Not one man of greatness! And almost every great man who was born in Europe after the Renaissance was outside the Church.
And the Roman empire spread the Hellenistic civilisation in half the world. What has the Christian empire to show?
It is the claim of the church that it made a major contribution to the growth of morality in Europe. In fact, it made little contribution. It called Descartes, father of moral philosophy, an atheist!
The Church gave its blessings to both capitalism and imperialism. And later to colonialism. Secretary of State Amery (UK) says that an active empire and an inactive Church cannot go together.
The Church had a big hand in slave trade. If there was a conscience problem, it helped to ease it by saying that the black man was the son of the Devil.
Denouncing the trade in black men, Lord Palmerston says: “If all crimes committed from creation down to the present day were added together, they would not exceed, I am sure, the guilt of the diabolic slave trade.” In America Lincoln had to fight a civil war to outlaw the trade. The Church was behind the rebel southern States.
According to the Church, the dark races were not required in God’s scheme of things.
The genocide of the Incas, Mayas and others has no parallel in human history. They were more civilised than the Europeans. “By millions upon millions” says Draper “whole races and nations were remorselessly cut off.
The Bishop of Chiape affirmed that more than 15 million were terminated in his time. From Mexico and Peru, a civilisation that might have educated Europe, was crushed out.” (Intellectual Development of Europe, Vol. II)
On Galileo’s incarceration, Draper writes: “What a spectacle! This venerable man, the most illustrious of his age, forced by the threat of death to deny the facts…treated with remorseless severity during the remaining ten years of his life….” In the dungeon.
There is nothing in human history as diabolic as the Inquisition. It was created by the Popes to perfect the “art” of torture of the apostates. I can only think of the gas chambers of the Nazis, which did away with six million Jews.
“What strikes me most in considering medieval torture is not so much this diabolic barbarity, which is impossible to exaggerate, as the extraordinary variety and what may be termed the artistic skills they displayed”. (Lecky)
What else can one expect from a religion which had thought of eternal hell fire as a punishment for even small wrongs of men!
What about Islam? Space compels me to make it a short review. In his book “In the path of Mahatma Gandhi”, George Catlin, the American philosopher, asks: “What has Islam to offer to compare with the philosophy of Vedanta and the Upanishads?” So much for its “Superiority” claim!
Be that as it may, what is the record of Islam’s atrocities? “The Islamic conquest of India is probably the bloodiest story in history,” says Will Durant, the American historian.
The Muslims do not want to be reminded of their past. But it is necessary, says S.Bashiruddin, former Vice Chancellor of Dr. Ambedkar Open University. (See his ‘Deen and Dharma”).
He says: “Through the present generation of Muslims is not responsible for what has been done centuries ago, an awareness of such a legacy can sensitize the Muslim opinion leaders…”
With such a record of their past, I would like to know from Christian and Muslim brothers, in which way they are “superior” to the Hindus.
Do not tell me that your religious texts do not permit these things. This is an easy explanation. I don’t take it.
Men are judged by what they do, not by what they believe or by what is written in their scripture.
The Secular Road to Hell
Ramananda Sengupta
Secularism.
I have always wondered how such a seemingly innocuous word has turned into such a politically loaded noun in India.
By definition, the word essentially means separating religion from matters of state.
‘WE, THE PEOPLE OF INDIA, having solemnly resolved to constitute India into a SOVEREIGN SOCIALIST SECULAR DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC and to secure to all its citizens,’ goes the first line of the Preamble to our Constitution.
But hold on a second.
The original framers of our constitution did not put the word Secular there.
It was added by the Indira Gandhi government during the Emergency, through the Constitution (42nd Amendment) Act, 1976, along with 58 other changes. The word ‘Socialist’ too was added, while ‘Unity of the nation’ was changed to ‘unity and integrity of the nation.’
Perhaps, just perhaps, it was well intentioned. But the road to Hell, they say, is paved with good intentions.
Also read: 'Secular' Muslims want Taslima back in Kolkata | Temple demolitions: Why is our govt mum?
After having inserted the word, however, the ‘secular’ Congress Party blocked all subsequent attempts to officially define it. And that has been the bane of our polity - and our nation - since then.
Because without a clear definition, secularism means nothing. Or rather, it means different things to different people.
For politicians, it means liberty to play vote bank games based on religion. In the same way that VP Singh, the 10th Prime Minister of India, brutally and callously divided the nation along caste lines for political mileage in 1990.
For religious leaders, it means liberty to exploit politicians for their own petty gains, in return for assuring them the vote of ‘their people.’
For the common man, it means confusion, chaos and often violence spawned by the viciously divisive ‘Us and Them’ philosophy promoted by our religious and political leaders.
Attempts were even made recently – on the basis of something called the High Level Committee for Preparation of Report on Social, Economic and Educational Status of the Muslim Community of India, better known as Rajinder Sachar Commission Report -- to introduce this division among the most secular institutions in the country, the Indian Army. Thankfully, the Army would have none of it.
But we haven’t heard the last of that yet; because reservation for minorities is seen as a sure way to get their vote.
This divide and rule policy that our politicians practice ensures that We the People of India, as the framers of our constitution so grandly described us, cannot agree even on things that are obviously good for us all. Like secularism as the dictionary defines it.
Instead, even as we proudly tout our so-called secular credentials, successive governments have clearly used religion for political gain.
But how can we be a secular state when we have separate laws based on religion?
How can we be a secular state when the government selectively funds pilgrimages and religious institutions?
How can we be a secular state when the government allows schools and colleges to have quotas based on religion, and actually tries to extend that to the corporate sector and even to the armed forces?
How can we be a secular state when politicians campaign on purely religious platforms, and win?
And most importantly, how can we be a secular state without clearly defining what it means?
Yes, we are certainly better off than some of our neighbours, like Pakistan and Bangladesh, and perhaps even Nepal, till recently known as the only Hindu kingdom.
Pakistan and Bangladesh (and a host of nations in the Persian Gulf and Africa) proudly declare Islam as their state religion, and make no pretence about being secular.
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Pakistan was born because Indian Muslims -- egged on by the devious departing British -- demanded a separate state for themselves. And despite separating from Pakistan in 1971, Islam is the state religion of Bangladesh too. Which explains why the non-Muslim population in both these nations is rapidly dwindling.
Our politicians, however, in order to prove that we are secular, and of course, in order to garner our votes, have gone to the other extreme, taking steps which can easily -- and in most cases correctly -- be construed as “minority appeasement.”
Things have reached such a pass that whoever uses that last phrase is immediately branded as ‘anti-secular’ and a right wing bigot.
Things have reached such a pass that some years ago, some Muslim men prevented firemen from rescuing a woman from a burning Kolkata tenement, saying it would be against their religion to let an unknown male touch her. The woman burned to death.
Instead of booking the men for murder, as any ‘secular’ state would have, however, the West Bengal government grandly declared that they would induct women fire fighters to assist in such cases.
This peculiar brand of secularism trumped free speech, also enshrined in our Constitution, when it came to Taslima Nasreen, a rather insipid but feisty writer who invoked the wrath of the mighty Maulanas of our Islamic neighbour, Bangladesh.
Her crime? To attest that “If any religion allows the persecution of the people of different faiths, if any religion keeps women in slavery, if any religion keeps people in ignorance, then I can't accept that religion.”
Taslima fled, and finally landed on Secular India’s shores. But not to be outdone, our very own Maulanas too started baying for her head. And we all know what happened since: Goodbye free speech. Hello secularism.
Many many moons ago, I came across an old school friend of mine whose family owns a large, upmarket tailoring shop in Kolkata. He was going to get married, he told me; for the third time.
“My Maulana has told us that being a democracy, we can turn India into a Muslim country purely on the basis of votes. And we will. Perhaps not today. But someday, our children will rule, for sure. Nothing can stop us,” he said matter of factly, before going on to explain how that would be a wonderful thing, where the rule of God and the rule of the land would be synchronised. A land where everyone could live without fear, and so on.
At that time, I had laughed out loud, saying that he obviously had not paid attention during our classes on “civics”, where we had learnt all about “unity in diversity” and the unflinchingly Secular ethos of our nation.
Today, I flinch when the word is mentioned.
Secularism should be made of sterner stuff.
Why am I proud of India?
Ramananda Sengupta
Before my posture stiffens and my heart fills with martial pride, as it does every Republic Day when I watch the parade on Delhi’s Rajpath, I thought I would take a quick stock of what it means for me to be an Indian.
My grandfather, the first Indian civil surgeon of pre-independence Dhaka, fled with his family to what is now Assam in early 1946, a year before a partitioned India gained formal independence.
His crime? He was a Hindu. The British were clearly going to leave India, and the leaders of the freedom struggle were fighting over what form the new country would take. Instigated by Jinnah and company, Muslim-dominated Dhaka was restive.
In July 1946, massive communal riots broke out in Calcutta, sparked by the Muslim League which was demanding a separate state based on religious grounds, and the Congress, which was trying to resist this demand. The unrest spread, and in October came the massacre at Noakhali, now in Bangladesh .
"The horror of the Noakhali outrage is unique in modern history in that it was not a simple case of turbulent members of the majority community (Muslims) killing off helpless members of the minority Hindu community, but was one whose chief aim was mass conversion, accompanied by loot, arson and wholesale devastation... No section of the Hindu community has been spared, the wealthier classes being dealt with more drastically. Abduction and outrage of Hindu women and forcible marriages were also resorted. The slogans used and the methods employed indicate that it was all part of a plan for the simultaneous establishment of Pakistan."
Wikipedia, quoting S. L. Ghosh of the A. B. Patrika. (which is confusing, given that two major Bengali newspapers at the time were Ananda Bazar Patrika and Amrita Bazar Patrika)
These riots were meant to, and did, convince the departing British that Hindus and Muslims could not live together in the country, and that the Muslims needed their own homeland based on religion.
Independence finally came with the religious bloodbath of Partition, whose scars still mark the subcontinent. The Islamic Republic of Pakistan, the other new nation, was broken up again with the birth of Bangladesh in 1971.
By the same author: The Secular Road to Hell
Today, India is in the news as the most powerful player in the subcontinent, and perhaps the second most powerful in terms of economic and military might in Asia.
Today, Pakistan and Bangladesh are in the news for being almost-failed states, yo-yoing between military and civilian rule, and for being the breeding grounds of jihadi terrorists seeking to establish Sharia law across the world.
Both share long borders with India.
Relations with Pakistan have been hostile since independence. Bangladesh, which attained independence with Indian assistance, is now happily reviving linkages with its erstwhile oppressor, Pakistan.
The Pakistan high commission in Dhaka is described as the “largest outpost” of Pakistan’s Inter Services Intelligence, or ISI, by Indian diplomatic and strategic analysts. Over the past five years, an increasing number of terrorist strikes in India have been linked to Bangladesh, though Dhaka vehemently denies any such involvement.
Radical Islam and turbulent neighbours thus threaten India from the east and the west. (And, if you factor in the ISI’s increasing activity in Nepal and civil-war torn Sri Lanka, from the north and south as well.)
In essence, we are surrounded by tin-pot dictators and their ilk taking perpetual pot shots at us, sometimes with heavy weaponry, sometimes with policies of “a thousand cuts.”
Yet, despite having the third largest -- after Indonesia and Pakistan-- Muslim population in the world, very few Indian Muslims have been linked with the increasing number of terrorist acts being perpetuated in the name of Islam across the globe. Instead of examining the reasons for this, zealots on each side of the religious divide tend to marginalise it.
So it is no surprise that security agencies are nowadays increasingly warning about indigenous jihadi terrorist cells being activated. Poverty and perceived discrimination make it easier for the radical preachers to recruit suicide bombers and other killers in the name of religion, assert our social scientists. This in turn gives teeth to the government’s plans to grant further sops to the Muslim community, ignoring the fact that this can only widen and deepen the communal divide, not bridge it.
In my book, equality cannot be achieved on the basis of sops based on religious or ethnic grounds, simply because it fuels further expectations and dependency among those receiving it, and resentment among those being denied it. But obviously our government knows better.
As a nation, we are still high on the Corruption Index, and despite incredible progress in various spheres, a huge chunk of our population still goes to bed hungry. Naxals and radicals of all hues are increasingly capitalising on this immense disparity, so glaringly portrayed in the numerous pictures of the slums surrounding swank Mumbai high rises.
Yes, we have problems. Of poverty, of inequality. Of governance. Of pesky, unstable and jealous neighbours who fuel religious and ethnic strife in our land.
But we also have plenty to be proud of.
Unlike our neighbours, not once, and this includes the brief spell of Emergency Rule, did we ever have the military take over, or even try to, take over the nation. And at least on paper, We the People get a chance to elect our own leaders every five years or so.
Over the years, I have seen this nation grow in phenomenal leaps and bounds, particularly after the end of the Licence Raj.
I remember when people had to wait five or more years for a phone line. When those wanting an automobile were forced to choose between the Ambassador and the Fiat.
Today, I see vegetable sellers and even street sweepers with mobile handsets. Today, I see an Indian company bidding for, and buying iconic automobile brands like Jaguar and Land Rover.
Today, I see almost every nation in the world making a beeline for a resurgent and proud India, well on its way to take its place at the top table of world powers.
This despite all the seemingly insurmountable internal and external fault lines that permeate and plague the country. This despite all the cynical naysayers –some of them Indian-- who used to periodically write us off as a “basket case.”
Which is why it is important for us remember that our nation is far, far more than just its people, or its leaders.
Which is why each Republic Day, my chest swells with pride as I salute My India.
Jai Hind.
Why are Hindus angry?
Tarun Vijay
In Srinagar, a Muslim women’s organization – the Dukhtaran-e-Millat – vows to impose the strict Islamic code on women through violence and
declares that it is in the interests of women. The leader of this outfit, Asiyah Andrabi, was jailed several times for working against the nation and for being a conduit for money to jihadi groups who used that help to kill Hindus and create disaffection among people against India. The US State Department Report of 1995 held a Dukhtaran-e-Millat activist responsible for a parcel bomb blast at the BBC office in Srinagar in which one person was killed and two injured.
The DeM has recently been linked to certain money laundering cases. Andrabi was booked under POTA (Prevention of Terrorism Act) for receiving ISI money through hawala channels. Whenever she speaks against India, there is no emotion or any sense of regret.
She was never subjected to a narco test nor did the media feel anything bad about her. Instead, women's groups interviewed her, called her the “new face of Muslim feminism”, and glossy magazines splashed her interviews with a tinge of revolutionary romanticism.
For Indian seculars, the Srinagar crowd working against India brings added fizz, a thrill and a heroism that has to be “understood” rather than condemned. Serious academic columns are published saying that if they are so passionately and aggressively pursuing separatism, why shouldn't we give the Kashmir valley to them?
It’s only when a lady monk is killed in Kandhamal or arrested in Nashik and appears to be wearing saffron rather than green that expressions become stern, the law becomes the guiding force, narco tests are immediately ordered and before anything can be even remotely established, the person is pronounced guilty. No women’s organization comes out openly to say she is a woman and hence the police must protect her honour and religious obligations at all cost.
Her father says she is innocent. No one gives any importance to that statement.
She cooperates during the narco test and nothing incriminatory is proved. The police say she practices yoga, hence the narco test didn't work.
The bike, the RDX, the targets – nothing is proved. Yet, she is tortured in police custody.
The women's commission that swung into action when an item girl used it to get cheap publicity and hot assignments maintains a studied silence.
The Human Rights Commission remains unfazed and the red sirens of the Marxist class look the other way. They had been demanding a pardon for Afzal although the Supreme Court convicted him. But the issues involved were of secular nature; hence they had to speak.
Nobody still knows what Pragya actually did or didn't do. She has to be severely dealt with just because the colour she wears is not registered as secular in the government's registry of protection where rapists, extortionists and scandalous criminals get a cabinet berth and a murder accused jailbird becomes a chief minister for being on the correct side politically.
First they said an army officer used 60 kg of RDX to blow up the Samjhauta Express. Then the denial comes; no RDX was used, it was ammonium nitrate, oh no perhaps IEDs. Then the Mecca Masjid blasts are linked with Malegaon, then the Hyderabad police issue an official statement that nothing has been found to link the two. The motorbike, the disfigured numbers on the chassis, the absconding person, the real mastermind, the saffron terror guru ... Remember when the Kanchi Shankaracharya was arrested, what kind of charges were levelled against him? Rape, murder, financial fraud and womanizing. And women came foreword to issue statements about how they were “lured”. What happened afterwards? Even “nothing” won’t convey the nothingness of the entire plot.
But the damage to the great seat of Hindu reverence had been done.
In Srinagar, a Muslim women’s organization – the Dukhtaran-e-Millat – vows to impose the strict Islamic code on women through violence and
declares that it is in the interests of women. The leader of this outfit, Asiyah Andrabi, was jailed several times for working against the nation and for being a conduit for money to jihadi groups who used that help to kill Hindus and create disaffection among people against India. The US State Department Report of 1995 held a Dukhtaran-e-Millat activist responsible for a parcel bomb blast at the BBC office in Srinagar in which one person was killed and two injured.
The DeM has recently been linked to certain money laundering cases. Andrabi was booked under POTA (Prevention of Terrorism Act) for receiving ISI money through hawala channels. Whenever she speaks against India, there is no emotion or any sense of regret.
She was never subjected to a narco test nor did the media feel anything bad about her. Instead, women's groups interviewed her, called her the “new face of Muslim feminism”, and glossy magazines splashed her interviews with a tinge of revolutionary romanticism.
For Indian seculars, the Srinagar crowd working against India brings added fizz, a thrill and a heroism that has to be “understood” rather than condemned. Serious academic columns are published saying that if they are so passionately and aggressively pursuing separatism, why shouldn't we give the Kashmir valley to them?
It’s only when a lady monk is killed in Kandhamal or arrested in Nashik and appears to be wearing saffron rather than green that expressions become stern, the law becomes the guiding force, narco tests are immediately ordered and before anything can be even remotely established, the person is pronounced guilty. No women’s organization comes out openly to say she is a woman and hence the police must protect her honour and religious obligations at all cost.
Her father says she is innocent. No one gives any importance to that statement.
She cooperates during the narco test and nothing incriminatory is proved. The police say she practices yoga, hence the narco test didn't work.
The bike, the RDX, the targets – nothing is proved. Yet, she is tortured in police custody.
The women's commission that swung into action when an item girl used it to get cheap publicity and hot assignments maintains a studied silence.
The Human Rights Commission remains unfazed and the red sirens of the Marxist class look the other way. They had been demanding a pardon for Afzal although the Supreme Court convicted him. But the issues involved were of secular nature; hence they had to speak.
Nobody still knows what Pragya actually did or didn't do. She has to be severely dealt with just because the colour she wears is not registered as secular in the government's registry of protection where rapists, extortionists and scandalous criminals get a cabinet berth and a murder accused jailbird becomes a chief minister for being on the correct side politically.
First they said an army officer used 60 kg of RDX to blow up the Samjhauta Express. Then the denial comes; no RDX was used, it was ammonium nitrate, oh no perhaps IEDs. Then the Mecca Masjid blasts are linked with Malegaon, then the Hyderabad police issue an official statement that nothing has been found to link the two. The motorbike, the disfigured numbers on the chassis, the absconding person, the real mastermind, the saffron terror guru ... Remember when the Kanchi Shankaracharya was arrested, what kind of charges were levelled against him? Rape, murder, financial fraud and womanizing. And women came foreword to issue statements about how they were “lured”. What happened afterwards? Even “nothing” won’t convey the nothingness of the entire plot.
But the damage to the great seat of Hindu reverence had been done.
Aspire and Assert
Tarun Vijay
Let the people take over the spirit of the Red Fort and declare from its ramparts: "Honourable leaders, having cheated us for the last six decades and made politics a business of scoundrels, for once give India her due in the form of a nation-centric polity beyond family lords and stinking mafiosi of castiests, extortionists and murderers."
India certainly deserves a better lot to be elected members of a parliament which saw shameful scenes last time when a nuclear deal was being pushed to win the vote.
It’s meaningless to boast of our most ancient civilization, culture and values if we see what we have today. Bragging about a past that has no bearing on our behaviour today is worse than running after a mirage. Only the insecure get into it. Even if you forget all the great leaders of the past and stop reading their memoirs and prescriptions for the nation’s ills but keep a straight spine to live for India’s better future with honesty and transparency that would suffice. We will surely build new leaders but for once please strive to free your beloved nation of those who have survived far too long on peoples' lethargy and inaction.
A Hindu nation never cared who wrote the Vedas, how they were revealed or conceived and who authored the Upanishads. The only element that made us survive the vicissitudes of history was the strength to live the ideals and values that were worth living for this nation called Bharat Varsha.
We have been electing representatives who hardly have an idea of the nation they are tasked to protect and help flower. They have no sense of history, a history of our people and civilization, and do not any idea why we had to go through too many assaults by foreigners and how we were able to resist them so valiantly for centuries. Yet why has speaking about it has become a matter of hesitation for the neo-scholarship? We insult retired decorated soldiers when they are forced to agitate for a mere uniformity in pensions and scales though the lawmakers increase their salaries astronomically at the fag end of the session. That’s our patriotism.
Elect India this time. People who would try sincerely to make for the lost years of development and raise the value of our citizenship. It must be a matter of great confidence and pride to be an Indian citizen. Leaders and the administration must look at our people with respect and love, which we lack completely today as the nation is still run on British laws and the colonial attitude. No police reforms, no electoral corrections, no administrative changes in the environment of governance. The same hateful arrogance is seen in the bureaucrats and ministers who get a chance to find a seat of power. The way an officer of Emergency fame and thoroughly partisan was chosen, and supported by a section of the media and politicians, to handle elections, ignoring the advice of a man of integrity, speaks volumes of the depths we have fallen to.
Bribing is a matter of routine, piling of files is a thumb rule, small measures of publicity like increasing Haj subsidy or providing Ganga Jal on Shivratri become great milestones of political achievements while primary schools, village health centres and energy and water resources management are left to the mercy of sidelined ministers. The "profitable" departments are coal, mining and rural development, which are less checked and monitored but have enough meat to enjoy. We have a media whose brilliance comes to the fore in trivialities like the Mangalore pub incidence and which is completely hooked to Washington-London mania. We forget that for India the Middle East, Asia and especially East Asia with China taking a natural prominence are the regions that weigh more than anything else.
East is our natural constituency of diplomacy which is nurtured by age-old affinities. Similarly, at home we ignore the northeast. More than English, we must emphasize on learning Japanese and Chinese. That’s the future, not the US. It’s no use saying Hindus were ever a proselytizing religion. Declare with a truly Indian confidence that this world would be a better place to live if it follows the Hindu way of life and send missionaries of Hinduism to make people appreciate the Vedic way of a happy and mutually respectful society. Be a proud missionary yourself and take some inspiration from the times when Asoka the great, who has given us our national motif, sent his son to spread the message of Dharma. Why hesitate now? But we have learnt to live with all wrongs like we lived calmly during the British colonial period. Only a handful, less than 5%, participated in the freedom struggle. That’s the bare bitter truth. Should we not wake up even now?
Should our personal egos and likings be a deciding factor, or in a critical time like this can we rise above them and decide?
I was at Allahabad University sometime ago to address a students’ convention and have a Q&A session that ran for more than two hours in the Deligacy campus. They all wanted change. Give us clean rivers, easily available drinking water (since the advent of the mineral-water bottle culture, which is neither mineral water nor safe ones, one quipped), get rid of illiterate priests and a mindset that feels ashamed at just and rightful Hindu assertions that teaching Vedas is considered a Hindu, and hence, a communal and discardable act. They were enamoured with the youth chant but wanted a leadership that has a spine. In the evening the octogenarian leader of Vishwa Hindu Parishad Shri Ashok Singhal invited me to join a discussion on the agenda for Arundhati-Vashishtha Trust he has created to disseminate the scientific and Indic civilisational knowledge among the people. When we were leaving he said: "It’s time to forget our internal differences for the sake of greater unity among Hindu nationalists." We will be sinning if driven by personal egos, we work to defeat our own ilk. An India led by an Indian nationalist whom we know would be preferable to one led by a lady of a foreign origin.
If that happens we will finally have a post-Nehruvian raj that is more connected with the soil and people's aspirations. Is it too much to ask to have cleaner and honest members of Parliament who would ensure better roads, bridges, primary schools, women’s empowerment and a scheduled caste-scheduled tribe upsurge that will take our nation miles ahead and unshackle us from the redundant ritualism and caste-based differences and atrocities.
Why can’t we have, unhesitatingly the best models of pilgrim centres and temple management that cater to the needs of the young and mobile and do not resist any new reform? Let us have a leadership with spine that will make India the strongest military power on earth without any apologies.
After all, we have a burden on our shoulders to keep India free from traitors and terrorists and defend borders with a few unfinished vows to be completed as directed by the unanimous resolutions of Parliament. The platform people, with one leg abroad and one in the stinking wealth in Swiss accounts can’t do that. Let a new Chanakya create a Chandra Gupta to uproot the denationalized politicians and give us hope.
(Tarun Vijay is director of Dr. Syama Prasad Mookerjee Research Foundation)
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