By KK Shanmukhan
BHIMA who was the main pillar of support for the life of the Pandavas and Kunti was a voracious eater and a good cook too. He had hardly any match to his immense physical strength.
After escape form the wax palace, Kunit and her sons sought refuge in a Brahman’s house at Ekachakra in the guise of Brahmans.
Bakasura was the ruler of Ekachakra. He stayed in a cave many miles away. It was stipulated that each household should carry his food daily failing which he would consume the entire inhabitants. Quintals of rice, curd, side dishes, intoxicating wines, meat, two buffaloes that drive the cart and the cart driver were his lunch ingredients. One day the turn fell on the house where Kunti and her sons lived. Bhima took up the task of taking the food to Bakasura on behalf of the household.
Bhima carrying the eatables reached the cave on the face of which was impatiently waiting Bakasura with burning hunger. Seeing Bhima approach slowly, his anger rose. Ignoring his wrath, Bhima halted the cart and started consuming the food items himself. Bakasura unable to contain his anger plucked a tree and attacked him. Unmindful still, Bhima went on eating. He, having finished eating to his satisfaction responded to Bakasura in his fight. A terrible fight ensued between them. The rakshasa approached Bhima fiercely but the latter did not lose his cool. Finally, Bhima threw him down, pressed his knee on his back and broke his bones. Bakasura uttered a fightful haul with pain, vomited blood and died.
Bhima also killed Hidimba and many other rakshasas who posed threat to their life and the general public.
When Yudhishtira was ruling at Hastinapura, it was unanimously decided that the Pandavas should conduct a grand Rajasuya yajna and Yudhishtira be conferred with the little of Emperor. To become an Emperor, all other contemporary kings are to be subdued. Jarasandha was the only obstacle.
It was also resolved to kill Jarashandha in a single combat. Sri Krishna, Bhima and Arjuna proceeded to Magadha. They disguised themselves as religious pilgrims and entered the kingdom, unarmed. Nevertheless, Jarasandha could smell a rat in their behaviour and demanded them of the truth. Then they said: “We are actually your enemies and desire instant combat. You may choose any of us.”
Laughing heartily Jarasandha agreed and said: “Krishna, you are a cowherd and a coward. Arjuna is yet a boy. Bhima is famous for his physical strength. Let the fight be between us.”
They were so equally matched and the fight continued for twelve days—day and night. Finally, Bhima thrashed Jarasandha on the floor and tore him into two pieces and threw them away. To his utter surprise Bhima saw that the two pieces joined together and Jarasandha leapt up into life again.
Bhima looked at Sri Krishna helplessly who took a straw, tore it into two and cast the parts in opposite directions. Bhima took the hint. Once again he tore Jarasandha asunder and threw the two pieces in opposite directions. Jarasandha met with his end.
After twelve years of exile the Pandavas were living in King Virata’s kingdom for one year incognito; all under pseudonym. Bhima was Valala, the chief cook and Draupadi served queen Sudeshna as Sairandhri. Virata’s commander-in-chief was his mighty brother-in-law, Kichaka, who was the de facto king.
Kichaka, one of the mightiest of men on earth then, was infatuated at the beauty of Sairandhri, his sister’s servant-maid. He made overtures to her. It grew into intolerable extent. Once Kichaka in connivance with the queen bade her to his house and entreated to submit to his wills. Sairandhri violently reacted and warned him of the dire consequences. Thereuon Kichaka kicked and thrashed her. She somehow escaped and in the night went to Valala and told the whole incident . Valala advised her of a plan. Accordingly, on the next day Sairandhri approached Kichaka alone and told him that she was willing to fulfill his desires and only because of fear and same that she had been resisting his advances. She invited him to the dancing hall alone at the night. When Kichaka entered, there in the dim light he could see Sairandhri lying on the cot. He slowly approached her and embraced her. Alas! It was an iron clasp. It was Bhima. After a tough wrestle Bhima killed Kichaka.
Bhima slew several warriors and generals in the Mahabharata war. He single handed killed all the sons of Dhritarashtra as he had promised. In the single combat with Duryodhana, he broke his leg with his mace and killed him.
He tore the chest of Dussasana, drank his blood and gave a lion-roar which reverberated the entire Kurukshetra and struck terror in the hearts of the remaining Kaurava forces.
Such was the strength of Bhima.
Wednesday, August 24, 2011
India tops black money list
By VK Singh
INDIA tops the list of black money in the entire world. While there is no official estimate available for the magnitude of India’s black money, unofficial estimates put the figure at around $1.4 trillion (over Rs 70 lakh crore). This amount is more than one year’s GDP of India. Most of this money has been stashed away in banks in ‘tax havens’ abroad over the last 60 years by corrupt politicians, industrialists, bureaucrats and middlemen.
The bulk of India’s black money is stashed away in secret bank accounts in Switzerland, according to data provided by the Swiss Bankers Association. India has more black money than rest of the world combined. India tops the list with almost $1,456 billion in Swiss banks, followed by Russia $470 billion, the UK $390 billion, Ukraine $100 billion and China, with $96 billion. Indian Swiss bank account assets are worth 13 times the country’s national debt.
India is ranked 6th on the black money top-ten countdown for illicit outflows monitored during 2002-2006. The estimated average amount stashed away annually from India during 2002-2006 is $27.3 billion. Switzerland is the top destination for illegal funds because of its strict secrecy laws. Also, Swiss banks sell additional masks to hide the identity of their rich clients, like trusts in the Cayman islands, shell companies in Panama, or foundations in Liechtenstein, all run by nominees.
Political and bureaucratic corruptions in India are major concerns. Transparency International, an international organisation that ranks countries on a Corruption Perception Index (CPI), ranked India 86th out of the 180 countries ranked by it in 2009. The CPI rates countries on a scale of zero to 10, with zero indicating high levels of corruption and 10, low. India’s CPI score was a measly 3.4 out of 10, indicating fairly large levels of corruption. A 2005 study conducted by the organisation found that more than 15 per cent of Indians had first-hand experience of paying bribes or influence peddling to successfully complete jobs in public office. Taxes and bribes are a fact of daily life and common between state borders. Transparency International estimates that truckers pay US$5 billion in bribes annually. According to Transparency International, judicial corruption in India is attributable to factors such as “delays in the disposal of cases, shortage of judges and complex procedures, all of which are exacerbated by a preponderance of new laws”.
A 2009 survey of the leading economies of Asia, revealed Indian bureaucracy to be not just least efficient out of Singapore, Hong Kong, Thailand, South Korea, Japan, Malaysia, Taiwan, Vietnam, China, Philippines and Indonesia; further it was also found that working with India’s civil servants was a “slow and painful” process.
The total share in FDI of Mauritius is 55,203 million or Rs 2,47,092.30 crore. Indeed, they are believed to be the ones leading the boom in the stock markets. But the Mauritius angle does not end there. Reports in the financial media indicate that a substantial part of FII investment is believed to be coming from Non-resident Indians (NRIs) bringing back funds to participate in the ongoing speculative orgy in the Indian stock markets, much of which is said to be routed through Mauritius-based paper companies. Black money stashed by Indian abroad has found way in India through this route. The Capital Gains Tax exemption giving to this Tax Haven has given the national exchequer on account of lost capital gains tax in the decade ending 2003 would amount to a whopping Rs 28,139 crore. Even if it is an admitted policy of the state to woo foreign capital at any cost, the question is whether losses of this kind are acceptable to the polity at large.
In a most recent example of corruption, even as the Enforcement Directorate (ED) probes US$8 billion worth transactions allegedly involving suspected money launderer Hasan Ali Khan, evidence available with a news source in India shows that he had transactions of over Rs 112,000 crore (US$24.86 billion) between years 2005 and 2006. This amount is enough to fund the national drinking water project in all the six lakh villages in India for the next 10 years. Even as the Hasan Ali case has hit the headlines and the Enforcement Directorate claims that India’s biggest tax offender has as much as eight billion dollars stashed away abroad, he is only one of the big tax offenders and this stash is only a part of the huge illicit outflow from India. Documents seized by ED reveal that Hasan Ali transferred $700,000 from Sarasin Bank, Switzerland to the account of SK Financial services UK maintained with Barclays Bank, London through Citibank, New York.
If the estimates of Rs 70 lakh crore of Indian black money parked abroad are brought back this money can surely lift the 40 crore Indians living below poverty line out of poverty, or it can fund entire infrastructure building for the next 15-20 years. It can also educate all Indian children for next 50 years.
Fortified Havens For Plunder From India
European, American Museums: Fortified Havens For Plunder From India
By Radha Rajan
SHOULD the people of India, Greece, Egypt and Africa, and Native American peoples succeed in getting American and European museums and libraries to return all objects which constitute the tangible roots of ancient civilisations, and thousands of years of history pre-dating the cults of Jesus and Mohammed, then the Louvre, British Museum, Smithsonian, Vatican and the Kunsthistoriches Museum to mention just five, would be emptied of all their prized possessions.
European and American museums and libraries are no more than fortified thieves’ dens and state-sponsored and supported safe havens for Abrahamic plunder; they house the spoils of Christian war and genocide against African peoples, against the nations of now extinct and almost extinct Native American peoples, colonial loot from Asia, and from archaeological and anthropological pseudo-science expeditions, which European marauders undertook across continents.
To the list of permanent exhibits and possessions officially declared by these museums and libraries must be added—objects which are never exhibited for public viewing, objects which are now in private collections of the rich and infamous, and objects which even people in the countries of their origin may not know about in some private collection and in the dark interiors of museums and libraries
The only history to be spared the depredations of Christian vandals, which they could not uproot and cart away to Europe and America, and those which successive jihadi hordes could not destroy and reduce to rubble are the petroglyphs and pictograms in the caves of India.
India should demand that all such objects including the priceless Saraswati-Indus seals, temple pediments and colonnades and every murti of our gods and goddesses once worshipped in our temples and homes be returned to India where they belong.
In the British Museum alone the writer saw objects inscribed with Saraswati-Indus script. There are currently around 4200 such inscribed objects of which over 2500 are seals and sealings. According to Dr Subhash Kak, most of the sites of what is called the Indus civilisation are in the Saraswati valleys and some of the biggest sites in vivisected India are yet to be excavated.
Several among the 4200 objects are scattered across major museums of the world and libraries. According to Dr Kak besides the 14 in the British Museum, there is one in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and one in the Berkeley Museum, University of California.
The Saraswati-Indus script has not been deciphered conclusively and all work including that of some Hindu scholars and amateurs continues to remain at best in the domain of conjecture. All objects bearing the Saraswati-Indus script, currently located in foreign museums and libraries must therefore come back to India to enable future scholars to access them at one place without having to travel around the world; what belongs to the Indian people must be returned to India.
Besides the 14 objects with the Saraswati-Indus script, the writer saw in the collection of colonial loot, a portion of the Mathura Lion Capital, the base of an exquisitely carved temple column from Dwarka, breathtakingly beautiful murtis from every corner of our country—of Vishnu, Shiva, Surya, Parvati, Rukmani, Vaishnavi, Kartikeya and Narthana (Dancing) Ganesha.
The defilement of temples and sacred places was not confined to India. A magnificent wall torn down from the Memorial Temple of Rameses II in Abydos, Egypt, built of limestone and sandstone around 1250 BC, bearing precious hieroglyphs giving a detailed list of names of the kings and gods of Egypt in exquisitely carved cartouches also stands in the British Museum.
The memorial temple to Rameses II also had seven shrines dedicated to seven gods including Osiris, God of Death and the netherworld. Auguste Mariette was to Abydos what Lord Elgin was to the Acropolis. If Elgin vandalised the sacred Acropolis and brought home the plunder for the British Museum, Mariette vandalised the sacred city of Abydos and brought home the loot for the Egyptian Museum in the Louvre.
Temples which were plundered and destroyed by pre-Christian and pre-Islam kings and soldiers were always re-built and the gods were re-installed and worshipped again. Oftentimes some future king from the victor country would re-build the temple which had been destroyed earlier by his predecessor; but that which was destroyed by Christian crusaders, colonisers and archaeologists and Muslim jihadi armies remain to this day only as ruins.
White Christian countries built museums as truimphant monuments of this destruction and vandalism. Pre-Christian and pre-Islam kings destroyed temples as an asuric act of victory but even they did not vandalise graves and tombs. Vandalising tombs and pyramids, digging up graves and mutilating the bodies of the dead is an Abrahamic trait and Native Americans are still fighting to get back the mortal remains of their forefathers displayed in American museums so that they can be respectfully laid back to rest.
If India, Greece and Egypt bore the brunt of western archaeologists, Native Americans suffered anthropologists.
While their historical precedent is uncertain, anthropologists can be readily identified on the Reservations. Go into any crowd of people. Pick out a tall gaunt white man wearing Bermuda shorts, a World war II Army Air Force flying jacket, an Australian bush hat, tennis shoes, and packing a large knapsack incorrectly strapped on his back. He will invariably have a thin wife with stringy hair, an IQ of 191, and a vocabulary in which even the prepositions have eleven syllables. This creature is an anthropologist. (Vine Deloria, JR., Custer Died For Your Sins, University of Oklahoma Press, Norman, 1988, page 79)
While native American writer Vine Deloria’s biting satire may have reduced the anthropologist and Christian missionary to caricatures, the destruction wreaked on ancient civilisations and peoples is real; very real. The extent of destruction, vandalism, brazen appropriation of the wealth of other nations which these museums and libraries continue to hold on to and exhibit with scant regard for morality and justice, and the sensibilities of the nations to which this wealth belongs, has to be seen to be really understood.
A museum, as conceived by what goes in the name of western civilisation is primarily a victory monument displaying the remains of dead and extinct or once conquered and elslaved civilisations; and they are dead because of the rise and expansion of the Abrahamic religions. One such museum was the Baghdad museum which housed the remains of the Mesopotamian civilisation. In an act of Abrahamic atavism, the Baghdad museum was made a precision target during the American invasion and occupation of Iraq in 2003.
American tanks fired at the Baghdad museum leaving a gaping hole on the forehead; the attack on Baghdad museum facilitated the pre-planned vandalism and plunder of the magnificent wealth of the Mesopotamian civilisation. The world will never know how much was destroyed, how much was looted and where these precious objects are now.
By ordering the vaults of Sree Padmanabhaswamy Temple to be opened, the judges of the Supreme Court have only facilitated the possible destruction and loot of Hindu temple wealth which is the priceless wealth of the Hindu civilisation. Christian fundamentalism vandalised the Acropolis, Abydos and now the Baghdad museum; while Islamic jihadi fundamentalism vandalised Belur, Halebid and now the Bamiyan Buddhas.
India’s Hindus must begin to think long and hard about how best to preserve and protect our history besides resisting all efforts to display parts of our living temples, including the wealth of our gods in museums. In the meanwhile we must begin to make serious and unrelenting efforts to bring back the civilisational wealth now flaunted in American and European museums and libraries.
This is the invaluable and priceless wealth, our history and heritage, objects which define national self-identity, which we must bring back. This is wealth which cannot be replicated, regenerated or renewed; black money, however big in monetary terms, is only a very small and negligible aspect of our national wealth.
India has to take the lead in this direction as only India can because India’s Hindu civilisation is still alive and vibrant. More importantly, India has the moral authority as a non-aggressive and non-acquisitive civilisation to make the demand for the return of all objects of history and national self-identity to the nations of their origin.
By Radha Rajan
SHOULD the people of India, Greece, Egypt and Africa, and Native American peoples succeed in getting American and European museums and libraries to return all objects which constitute the tangible roots of ancient civilisations, and thousands of years of history pre-dating the cults of Jesus and Mohammed, then the Louvre, British Museum, Smithsonian, Vatican and the Kunsthistoriches Museum to mention just five, would be emptied of all their prized possessions.
European and American museums and libraries are no more than fortified thieves’ dens and state-sponsored and supported safe havens for Abrahamic plunder; they house the spoils of Christian war and genocide against African peoples, against the nations of now extinct and almost extinct Native American peoples, colonial loot from Asia, and from archaeological and anthropological pseudo-science expeditions, which European marauders undertook across continents.
To the list of permanent exhibits and possessions officially declared by these museums and libraries must be added—objects which are never exhibited for public viewing, objects which are now in private collections of the rich and infamous, and objects which even people in the countries of their origin may not know about in some private collection and in the dark interiors of museums and libraries
The only history to be spared the depredations of Christian vandals, which they could not uproot and cart away to Europe and America, and those which successive jihadi hordes could not destroy and reduce to rubble are the petroglyphs and pictograms in the caves of India.
India should demand that all such objects including the priceless Saraswati-Indus seals, temple pediments and colonnades and every murti of our gods and goddesses once worshipped in our temples and homes be returned to India where they belong.
In the British Museum alone the writer saw objects inscribed with Saraswati-Indus script. There are currently around 4200 such inscribed objects of which over 2500 are seals and sealings. According to Dr Subhash Kak, most of the sites of what is called the Indus civilisation are in the Saraswati valleys and some of the biggest sites in vivisected India are yet to be excavated.
Several among the 4200 objects are scattered across major museums of the world and libraries. According to Dr Kak besides the 14 in the British Museum, there is one in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and one in the Berkeley Museum, University of California.
The Saraswati-Indus script has not been deciphered conclusively and all work including that of some Hindu scholars and amateurs continues to remain at best in the domain of conjecture. All objects bearing the Saraswati-Indus script, currently located in foreign museums and libraries must therefore come back to India to enable future scholars to access them at one place without having to travel around the world; what belongs to the Indian people must be returned to India.
Besides the 14 objects with the Saraswati-Indus script, the writer saw in the collection of colonial loot, a portion of the Mathura Lion Capital, the base of an exquisitely carved temple column from Dwarka, breathtakingly beautiful murtis from every corner of our country—of Vishnu, Shiva, Surya, Parvati, Rukmani, Vaishnavi, Kartikeya and Narthana (Dancing) Ganesha.
The defilement of temples and sacred places was not confined to India. A magnificent wall torn down from the Memorial Temple of Rameses II in Abydos, Egypt, built of limestone and sandstone around 1250 BC, bearing precious hieroglyphs giving a detailed list of names of the kings and gods of Egypt in exquisitely carved cartouches also stands in the British Museum.
The memorial temple to Rameses II also had seven shrines dedicated to seven gods including Osiris, God of Death and the netherworld. Auguste Mariette was to Abydos what Lord Elgin was to the Acropolis. If Elgin vandalised the sacred Acropolis and brought home the plunder for the British Museum, Mariette vandalised the sacred city of Abydos and brought home the loot for the Egyptian Museum in the Louvre.
Temples which were plundered and destroyed by pre-Christian and pre-Islam kings and soldiers were always re-built and the gods were re-installed and worshipped again. Oftentimes some future king from the victor country would re-build the temple which had been destroyed earlier by his predecessor; but that which was destroyed by Christian crusaders, colonisers and archaeologists and Muslim jihadi armies remain to this day only as ruins.
White Christian countries built museums as truimphant monuments of this destruction and vandalism. Pre-Christian and pre-Islam kings destroyed temples as an asuric act of victory but even they did not vandalise graves and tombs. Vandalising tombs and pyramids, digging up graves and mutilating the bodies of the dead is an Abrahamic trait and Native Americans are still fighting to get back the mortal remains of their forefathers displayed in American museums so that they can be respectfully laid back to rest.
If India, Greece and Egypt bore the brunt of western archaeologists, Native Americans suffered anthropologists.
While their historical precedent is uncertain, anthropologists can be readily identified on the Reservations. Go into any crowd of people. Pick out a tall gaunt white man wearing Bermuda shorts, a World war II Army Air Force flying jacket, an Australian bush hat, tennis shoes, and packing a large knapsack incorrectly strapped on his back. He will invariably have a thin wife with stringy hair, an IQ of 191, and a vocabulary in which even the prepositions have eleven syllables. This creature is an anthropologist. (Vine Deloria, JR., Custer Died For Your Sins, University of Oklahoma Press, Norman, 1988, page 79)
While native American writer Vine Deloria’s biting satire may have reduced the anthropologist and Christian missionary to caricatures, the destruction wreaked on ancient civilisations and peoples is real; very real. The extent of destruction, vandalism, brazen appropriation of the wealth of other nations which these museums and libraries continue to hold on to and exhibit with scant regard for morality and justice, and the sensibilities of the nations to which this wealth belongs, has to be seen to be really understood.
A museum, as conceived by what goes in the name of western civilisation is primarily a victory monument displaying the remains of dead and extinct or once conquered and elslaved civilisations; and they are dead because of the rise and expansion of the Abrahamic religions. One such museum was the Baghdad museum which housed the remains of the Mesopotamian civilisation. In an act of Abrahamic atavism, the Baghdad museum was made a precision target during the American invasion and occupation of Iraq in 2003.
American tanks fired at the Baghdad museum leaving a gaping hole on the forehead; the attack on Baghdad museum facilitated the pre-planned vandalism and plunder of the magnificent wealth of the Mesopotamian civilisation. The world will never know how much was destroyed, how much was looted and where these precious objects are now.
By ordering the vaults of Sree Padmanabhaswamy Temple to be opened, the judges of the Supreme Court have only facilitated the possible destruction and loot of Hindu temple wealth which is the priceless wealth of the Hindu civilisation. Christian fundamentalism vandalised the Acropolis, Abydos and now the Baghdad museum; while Islamic jihadi fundamentalism vandalised Belur, Halebid and now the Bamiyan Buddhas.
India’s Hindus must begin to think long and hard about how best to preserve and protect our history besides resisting all efforts to display parts of our living temples, including the wealth of our gods in museums. In the meanwhile we must begin to make serious and unrelenting efforts to bring back the civilisational wealth now flaunted in American and European museums and libraries.
This is the invaluable and priceless wealth, our history and heritage, objects which define national self-identity, which we must bring back. This is wealth which cannot be replicated, regenerated or renewed; black money, however big in monetary terms, is only a very small and negligible aspect of our national wealth.
India has to take the lead in this direction as only India can because India’s Hindu civilisation is still alive and vibrant. More importantly, India has the moral authority as a non-aggressive and non-acquisitive civilisation to make the demand for the return of all objects of history and national self-identity to the nations of their origin.
Hindutva is the Cure
If Corruption is India’s Disease then Hindutva is the Cure
By Dr Subramanian Swamy
CORRUPTION in India is now a major concern for all patriotic citizens because of scams galore such as Satyam, IPL, CWG, and 2G Spectrum etc, etc. By all objective criteria, India today has by far one of the most corrupt governance. It is fuelled by greed and single-minded adherence to materialism.
Corruption generally is any inducement, or bribe, to do or not to do anything that the bribe giver wants from the bribe taker who otherwise will not do or will do. By this broad definition even dowry payments is corruption. We are, however, concerned here with misuse of public office for private gain either for oneself, family or friend. This represents a governance failure and hence of primary national concern.
Corruption is, therefore, inherently bad for the efficient functioning of any economic system. It blurs the incentive to perform and discourages relying on merit as a means to success.
It is prosecutable in India under the Prevention of Corruption Act which was re-casted in 1988, or Money Laundering (Prevention) Act, which any citizen can set into motion subject to some safeguards such as Sanction. A more drastic law sought by the civil society at large, to be known Lok Pal Act obviates the requirement of Sanction, and institutes an independent prosecutor who can order a CBI inquiry without government permission.
Corruption under the case laws of the Supreme Court is also sue-able such as under the Doctrine of Public Trust, for malfeasance in office.Hence, attach or confiscate the properties public officials once they are convicted of the crime.
However, India although is a signatory to the UN Convention Against Corrupt adopted by the General Assembly in October 2003, it has not yet ratified the Convention. The Convention, however, came into force on December 14, 2005 when the 38 countries ratified it. Its asset recovery provision is very appealing, and yet the Indian government is not yet moved to ratify the Convention. Switzerland was, therefore, compelled to enact a law called Restitution of Illicit Assets Act(2010) especially of “Politically Exposed Persons”. It was by this Act that Egypt’s Mubarak’s and Libya’s Gaddafi’s accounts in Swiss Banks were frozen.
An international watchdog committee conducted a study on the illicit flight of money from India, perhaps the first ever attempt at shedding light on a subject steeped in secrecy, and concluded that India has been drained of $462 billion (over Rs 20 lakh crore) between 1948 and 2008. The amount is nearly 40 per cent of India’s gross domestic product.
One of the worst problems with corruption in India is the creation of “black money,” i.e., money that is used in such transactions which is neither taxed nor is spent openly. It travels to and from secret bank accounts abroad, or, worse, is used by the corrupt to indulge in gross luxurious consumption and bribery.
Black money also funds elections and there is no proper accounting. It tempts the receiver to stash and salt away part of the campaign funds. Since elections leads to political power of those thus funded and enriched, future governments become bribe-compliant and therefore protect the crooked.
This money enables politicians and business persons to carry cash around the world for pleasure, and sometimes even be caught with it. For example, on September 27, 2001, Rahul Gandhi and his live-in girlfriend were arrested by the FBI at Boston’s Logan airport with $ 160,000 in cash, for declaring it to the US Customs. US law requires cash at hand of more than $10,000 to be so declared. But he was let off after nine hours in FBI custody at the intervention of the then BJP- led government, which for some mysterious reason had played guardian to Ms Sonia Gandhi and her family throughout their tenure.
2 Impact of Corruption
Corruption impacts on economic development of a nation in five dimensions:
(1) Decisions taken for corrupt motive sub-optimises the allocation of scarce national resources and hence in the long run lowers the rate of growth in GDP. It also encourages buccaneers and robber barons to flourish instead of innovative entrepreneurs.
(2) By the use of bribe money which escapes the tax net and is mostly stashed away in banks abroad or in trunks in safe houses, is deployed in luxury goods purchase, ostentatious life, splurging in five star hotels, real estate, and on partying. This raises demand for luxury production and services, and in turn distorts investment priorities. In India 70 per cent of the investment goes directly or indirectly to sustain the luxury sector.
(3) Unaccounted bribe money is lent to hoarders and speculators who then cause artificial shortages and thus inflation and property bubbles.
(4) Since the most in corrupt activities would be in public office, they enact laws to not only to safeguard the booty by lax criminal investigations and prosecutions, but to enable earning interest or return on the bribe money. The invention of Participatory Notes (PNs) and the Mauritius Tax and Capital Gains exemption treaties is aimed at that sordid objective (see below).
(5) Corruption enables beneficiaries to involve foreign governments seeking influence and criminal gangs resident abroad to launder money and provide protection.
‘Hence, as a country becomes industrialised, its governance and corruption challenges do not disappear. They simply morph and become more sophisticated: It becomes a complex phenomenon than just transfer of a briefcase stashed with cash in a Swiss bank. The formation of shell companies in tax haven islands, for example, makes the tracing of the money trail very difficult.
Now subtler forms of “legal corruption” also exist eg, an expectation of a future job for a regulator in a lobbying firm, or a campaign contribution with strings attached. In many countries this may be legal, even if unethical. In industrialised nations undue influence is often legally exercised by powerful private interests, which in turn influence the nation’s regulations, policies and laws.
2. Subversion of the Indian Financial System by Corruption
As I have pointed out in my earlier writings, the Participatory Notes (PN) which account for 55 per cent of the foreign funds into the Stock Market in India have no requirement to comply with even the SEBI disclosure rules, and are obviously meant for laundering black money of politicians, industrialists and even including those of terrorists. Even after Tarapore Committee ridiculed the PNs, the SEBI had to keep silent because the then Finance Minister P Chidambaram favoured P-Notes to launder ill-gotten money of his own and of his political masters. The lack of ethics and patriotism thus appears maximum inside the government today.
Investments through the P-notes route are believed to be largely responsible for sudden, unexplained fluctuations in the stock-market indices, including the huge falls which have even resulted in suicides in Dalal Street. The Finance Ministry however has failed to answer why this special exemption to P-Notes is being provided. The Ministry has refused to publish the list of P-note holders, along with their details and the amount of investment, on its website, or on the website of SEBI, or anywhere else. The Finance Ministry does not track the names of the owners/promoters of beneficiaries of that company. Hence company using P-notes in the BSE could well be promoted or funded by an Osama bin-Laden, a Dawood Ibrahim or the late Velupillai Prabhakaran?
Corruption as a Grave National Security Threat
In his address to the 43rd Munich Conference on Security Policy on February 11, 2007, MK Narayanan, the National Security Advisor to the Government of India, listed out the various ways by which terrorists in India were funded. He admitted: “Instances of terrorist outfits manipulating the stock markets to raise funds for their operations have been reported. Stock exchanges in Mumbai and Chennai have, on occasion, reported that fictitious or notional companies were engaging in stock market operations. Some of these companies were later traced to terrorist outfits”. This is a truly shocking admission.
Thus, the Government of India is well aware that terrorists are parking funds in Indian ventures. Yet the Finance Ministry has done nothing about the system of P-notes, which gives terrorists the additional benefit of anonymity while making hefty investments in the Indian market, which could later be used to fund terrorist activities against the Indian people in India!
According to conservative estimates, there are over Rs 2,50,000 crore rupees worth of P-notes issued abroad by FIIs and brokers being actively traded in the Indian market! At present P-Notes fuels about 53 per cent of all foreign investments in the stock markets of India.
While an Indian citizen in India has to provide his/her address proof, photo ID proof, PAN details, etc to open even an ordinary savings bank account in a local bank, foreign investors can hide their identity under a sub-account by making use of Participatory Notes to route their investments, often running into hundreds of crores in a single transaction. In one transaction about the time the 2G spectrum licences were given, Ms Sonia Gandhi had issued a single certified cheque of Rs 18,000 crores to Ketan Parikh at his London Office to buy P-Notes! The main reason thus for the popularity of a P-note is in fact the anonymity it provides to crooks and terrorists.
Indians have about $ 0.5 trillion to $ 1.5 trillion in Swiss banks alone, not to mention Liechtenstien, Isle of Man, Cayman Islands, Macao etc, etc.. They are the largest deposit holders in Swiss Banks! In 1991 the respected Swiss magazine Schweitzer Illustrate published the by-product revelations of the Marcos investigation from which, Sonia Gandhi, it can be seen had been a legatee of Rajiv Gandhi’s assassination to Rs10,000 crores (in 1991 exchange rate) in illegal Swiss bank deposits. Earlier, this money used lie in the Swiss Bank vaults, but now thanks to Participatory Notes(PNs) and the Mauritius route, this money is returning to India and in the BSE to earn windfall profits.
All this money can be brought back by legal methods within two months, but the UPA government has shown its brazen determination to block that by dragging its feet in the Supreme Court or by brutally beating the satyagrahis at the Swami Ramdev gathering in Ramlila grounds.
Then what is the cure ? In the short run of course, prosecuting and convicting the corrupt big fish of society is the way of curbing the greed by setting these crooks and traitors as examples. But the cure for the long run is that we must imbibe Hindutva by a national movement and political churning, and without hesitation or obfuscation.
Long years ago, Deendayal Upadhyaya had in his seminal work: Integral Humanism had warned the nation of this greed driven materialistic society. He said that our cultural values are based on Sanatana Dharma, thus embodied as Hinduness or Hindutva. This means that while we pursue material growth it has to be harmonised with our spiritual values to prevent it lapsing into greed. Greed legitimises corruption because then acquisition of wealth becomes an end objective of life.
Such a life can never assure happiness as now many rich Americans converting to Hindu faith are declaring openly. The richest and famous Oscar winning Hollywood actress Julia Roberts recently converted with her husband and children to Hinduism, and declared that in seeking personal contentment, Hindu values showed her the way. This why our Swamijis are attracting so many rich Westerners to their ashrams.
In a society based on Hindutva, wealth cannot determine a person’s social status. It is vidya and tyaga leading to vairagya that merits the highest social status. Even wealthy persons by philanthrophy can get social status. Rishis Bhrigu and Bharadwaja thus devised the Varna system of society which regrettably now has degenerated into a birth-based vested interest of communities. Thus, Hindutva renaissance culled from Vedanta is the cure for greed and of corruption in the long run. This should be every patriotic Hindu’s battle cry for the coming war against corruption.
By Dr Subramanian Swamy
CORRUPTION in India is now a major concern for all patriotic citizens because of scams galore such as Satyam, IPL, CWG, and 2G Spectrum etc, etc. By all objective criteria, India today has by far one of the most corrupt governance. It is fuelled by greed and single-minded adherence to materialism.
Corruption generally is any inducement, or bribe, to do or not to do anything that the bribe giver wants from the bribe taker who otherwise will not do or will do. By this broad definition even dowry payments is corruption. We are, however, concerned here with misuse of public office for private gain either for oneself, family or friend. This represents a governance failure and hence of primary national concern.
Corruption is, therefore, inherently bad for the efficient functioning of any economic system. It blurs the incentive to perform and discourages relying on merit as a means to success.
It is prosecutable in India under the Prevention of Corruption Act which was re-casted in 1988, or Money Laundering (Prevention) Act, which any citizen can set into motion subject to some safeguards such as Sanction. A more drastic law sought by the civil society at large, to be known Lok Pal Act obviates the requirement of Sanction, and institutes an independent prosecutor who can order a CBI inquiry without government permission.
Corruption under the case laws of the Supreme Court is also sue-able such as under the Doctrine of Public Trust, for malfeasance in office.Hence, attach or confiscate the properties public officials once they are convicted of the crime.
However, India although is a signatory to the UN Convention Against Corrupt adopted by the General Assembly in October 2003, it has not yet ratified the Convention. The Convention, however, came into force on December 14, 2005 when the 38 countries ratified it. Its asset recovery provision is very appealing, and yet the Indian government is not yet moved to ratify the Convention. Switzerland was, therefore, compelled to enact a law called Restitution of Illicit Assets Act(2010) especially of “Politically Exposed Persons”. It was by this Act that Egypt’s Mubarak’s and Libya’s Gaddafi’s accounts in Swiss Banks were frozen.
An international watchdog committee conducted a study on the illicit flight of money from India, perhaps the first ever attempt at shedding light on a subject steeped in secrecy, and concluded that India has been drained of $462 billion (over Rs 20 lakh crore) between 1948 and 2008. The amount is nearly 40 per cent of India’s gross domestic product.
One of the worst problems with corruption in India is the creation of “black money,” i.e., money that is used in such transactions which is neither taxed nor is spent openly. It travels to and from secret bank accounts abroad, or, worse, is used by the corrupt to indulge in gross luxurious consumption and bribery.
Black money also funds elections and there is no proper accounting. It tempts the receiver to stash and salt away part of the campaign funds. Since elections leads to political power of those thus funded and enriched, future governments become bribe-compliant and therefore protect the crooked.
This money enables politicians and business persons to carry cash around the world for pleasure, and sometimes even be caught with it. For example, on September 27, 2001, Rahul Gandhi and his live-in girlfriend were arrested by the FBI at Boston’s Logan airport with $ 160,000 in cash, for declaring it to the US Customs. US law requires cash at hand of more than $10,000 to be so declared. But he was let off after nine hours in FBI custody at the intervention of the then BJP- led government, which for some mysterious reason had played guardian to Ms Sonia Gandhi and her family throughout their tenure.
2 Impact of Corruption
Corruption impacts on economic development of a nation in five dimensions:
(1) Decisions taken for corrupt motive sub-optimises the allocation of scarce national resources and hence in the long run lowers the rate of growth in GDP. It also encourages buccaneers and robber barons to flourish instead of innovative entrepreneurs.
(2) By the use of bribe money which escapes the tax net and is mostly stashed away in banks abroad or in trunks in safe houses, is deployed in luxury goods purchase, ostentatious life, splurging in five star hotels, real estate, and on partying. This raises demand for luxury production and services, and in turn distorts investment priorities. In India 70 per cent of the investment goes directly or indirectly to sustain the luxury sector.
(3) Unaccounted bribe money is lent to hoarders and speculators who then cause artificial shortages and thus inflation and property bubbles.
(4) Since the most in corrupt activities would be in public office, they enact laws to not only to safeguard the booty by lax criminal investigations and prosecutions, but to enable earning interest or return on the bribe money. The invention of Participatory Notes (PNs) and the Mauritius Tax and Capital Gains exemption treaties is aimed at that sordid objective (see below).
(5) Corruption enables beneficiaries to involve foreign governments seeking influence and criminal gangs resident abroad to launder money and provide protection.
‘Hence, as a country becomes industrialised, its governance and corruption challenges do not disappear. They simply morph and become more sophisticated: It becomes a complex phenomenon than just transfer of a briefcase stashed with cash in a Swiss bank. The formation of shell companies in tax haven islands, for example, makes the tracing of the money trail very difficult.
Now subtler forms of “legal corruption” also exist eg, an expectation of a future job for a regulator in a lobbying firm, or a campaign contribution with strings attached. In many countries this may be legal, even if unethical. In industrialised nations undue influence is often legally exercised by powerful private interests, which in turn influence the nation’s regulations, policies and laws.
2. Subversion of the Indian Financial System by Corruption
As I have pointed out in my earlier writings, the Participatory Notes (PN) which account for 55 per cent of the foreign funds into the Stock Market in India have no requirement to comply with even the SEBI disclosure rules, and are obviously meant for laundering black money of politicians, industrialists and even including those of terrorists. Even after Tarapore Committee ridiculed the PNs, the SEBI had to keep silent because the then Finance Minister P Chidambaram favoured P-Notes to launder ill-gotten money of his own and of his political masters. The lack of ethics and patriotism thus appears maximum inside the government today.
Investments through the P-notes route are believed to be largely responsible for sudden, unexplained fluctuations in the stock-market indices, including the huge falls which have even resulted in suicides in Dalal Street. The Finance Ministry however has failed to answer why this special exemption to P-Notes is being provided. The Ministry has refused to publish the list of P-note holders, along with their details and the amount of investment, on its website, or on the website of SEBI, or anywhere else. The Finance Ministry does not track the names of the owners/promoters of beneficiaries of that company. Hence company using P-notes in the BSE could well be promoted or funded by an Osama bin-Laden, a Dawood Ibrahim or the late Velupillai Prabhakaran?
Corruption as a Grave National Security Threat
In his address to the 43rd Munich Conference on Security Policy on February 11, 2007, MK Narayanan, the National Security Advisor to the Government of India, listed out the various ways by which terrorists in India were funded. He admitted: “Instances of terrorist outfits manipulating the stock markets to raise funds for their operations have been reported. Stock exchanges in Mumbai and Chennai have, on occasion, reported that fictitious or notional companies were engaging in stock market operations. Some of these companies were later traced to terrorist outfits”. This is a truly shocking admission.
Thus, the Government of India is well aware that terrorists are parking funds in Indian ventures. Yet the Finance Ministry has done nothing about the system of P-notes, which gives terrorists the additional benefit of anonymity while making hefty investments in the Indian market, which could later be used to fund terrorist activities against the Indian people in India!
According to conservative estimates, there are over Rs 2,50,000 crore rupees worth of P-notes issued abroad by FIIs and brokers being actively traded in the Indian market! At present P-Notes fuels about 53 per cent of all foreign investments in the stock markets of India.
While an Indian citizen in India has to provide his/her address proof, photo ID proof, PAN details, etc to open even an ordinary savings bank account in a local bank, foreign investors can hide their identity under a sub-account by making use of Participatory Notes to route their investments, often running into hundreds of crores in a single transaction. In one transaction about the time the 2G spectrum licences were given, Ms Sonia Gandhi had issued a single certified cheque of Rs 18,000 crores to Ketan Parikh at his London Office to buy P-Notes! The main reason thus for the popularity of a P-note is in fact the anonymity it provides to crooks and terrorists.
Indians have about $ 0.5 trillion to $ 1.5 trillion in Swiss banks alone, not to mention Liechtenstien, Isle of Man, Cayman Islands, Macao etc, etc.. They are the largest deposit holders in Swiss Banks! In 1991 the respected Swiss magazine Schweitzer Illustrate published the by-product revelations of the Marcos investigation from which, Sonia Gandhi, it can be seen had been a legatee of Rajiv Gandhi’s assassination to Rs10,000 crores (in 1991 exchange rate) in illegal Swiss bank deposits. Earlier, this money used lie in the Swiss Bank vaults, but now thanks to Participatory Notes(PNs) and the Mauritius route, this money is returning to India and in the BSE to earn windfall profits.
All this money can be brought back by legal methods within two months, but the UPA government has shown its brazen determination to block that by dragging its feet in the Supreme Court or by brutally beating the satyagrahis at the Swami Ramdev gathering in Ramlila grounds.
Then what is the cure ? In the short run of course, prosecuting and convicting the corrupt big fish of society is the way of curbing the greed by setting these crooks and traitors as examples. But the cure for the long run is that we must imbibe Hindutva by a national movement and political churning, and without hesitation or obfuscation.
Long years ago, Deendayal Upadhyaya had in his seminal work: Integral Humanism had warned the nation of this greed driven materialistic society. He said that our cultural values are based on Sanatana Dharma, thus embodied as Hinduness or Hindutva. This means that while we pursue material growth it has to be harmonised with our spiritual values to prevent it lapsing into greed. Greed legitimises corruption because then acquisition of wealth becomes an end objective of life.
Such a life can never assure happiness as now many rich Americans converting to Hindu faith are declaring openly. The richest and famous Oscar winning Hollywood actress Julia Roberts recently converted with her husband and children to Hinduism, and declared that in seeking personal contentment, Hindu values showed her the way. This why our Swamijis are attracting so many rich Westerners to their ashrams.
In a society based on Hindutva, wealth cannot determine a person’s social status. It is vidya and tyaga leading to vairagya that merits the highest social status. Even wealthy persons by philanthrophy can get social status. Rishis Bhrigu and Bharadwaja thus devised the Varna system of society which regrettably now has degenerated into a birth-based vested interest of communities. Thus, Hindutva renaissance culled from Vedanta is the cure for greed and of corruption in the long run. This should be every patriotic Hindu’s battle cry for the coming war against corruption.
Secularists: The enemies of logic & truth
Goebel’s proud descendants
Secularists: The enemies of logic & truth
By Amba Charan Vashishth
TWO latest disclosures by people of eminence, whose integrity and credibility is unquestionable, have given a knock-out punch to the stubborn die-hard ‘secularists’ who preach the Goebel’s “big lie” doctrine to some too credulous folks to promote their sectarian political objectives. These revelations have been reiterated by none other than Mahatma’s great grandson Sreekrishna Kulkarni and former Supreme Court judge Justice KT Thomas.
Shri Kulkarni on August 7, asserted that it was not right to link the RSS name with Mahatma’s murder. “In 63 years’ time the Government of India has instituted many judicial commissions and committees to investigate the assassination. None could establish the RSS connection,” he said.
Shri Kulkarni said it was time people learnt to respect the judicial findings in the matter and rested the issue. As for the RSS, he said it is also an organisation of national stature which had contributed immensely to the nation’s development.
“It’s incorrect to drag the RSS name again and again. So, it’s my considered view that the matter shouldn’t be raked up again and again for petty political reasons,” he appealed.
After Bapu’s assassination, Shri Kulkarni disclosed, his grandfather Ramdas Gandhi had written to Pandit Nehru requesting him not to hang Godse. “But, his request was turned down,” he asserted. In contrast, the ‘secularists’ are very soft on Afzal who has been sentenced to death for attack on the temple of democracy, the Parliament, by the Supreme Court.
A day earlier on August 4, former Supreme Court judge Justice KT Thomas, a devout Christian, reiterated that there was no evidence to suggest that the RSS had anything to do with the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi. He said that no inquiry at any point of time had found any role of the RSS in the assassination. That Nathuram Godse had identified himself as an RSS volunteer was mere propaganda, he said. Godse had left the RSS much before Gandhiji’s assassination, he added.
“As arguments grew, Indira Gandhi had asked Justice JL Kapur of the Supreme Court to carry out an inquiry. After a long and detailed probe, the judge concluded that there was no proof against the RSS,” he said, adding that the rest was only false campaign.
Interestingly, the ‘secular’ Congress Kerala state president Ramesh Chennithala castigated Justice Thomas for ‘distorting history’ and demanded to withdraw the statement, which Justice Thomas refused.
Yet, for our priggish self-proclaimed ‘secularists’, overlooking the reality continues to be a paying profession. They won’t hark even what their god, Allah or Ishwar says, only because they are ‘secular’.
The British left India 64 years back but the ‘secular’ Congress continues to thrive on the alien legacy whose essential leadership secret, it is said, does not depend on particular intelligence. Rather, it depends on a remarkably stupid thick-headedness. They follow the principle that when one lies, one should lie big, and stick to it. They keep up their lies, even at the risk of looking ridiculous.
And this is what our ‘secularists’ are doing in India.
Secularists: The enemies of logic & truth
By Amba Charan Vashishth
TWO latest disclosures by people of eminence, whose integrity and credibility is unquestionable, have given a knock-out punch to the stubborn die-hard ‘secularists’ who preach the Goebel’s “big lie” doctrine to some too credulous folks to promote their sectarian political objectives. These revelations have been reiterated by none other than Mahatma’s great grandson Sreekrishna Kulkarni and former Supreme Court judge Justice KT Thomas.
Shri Kulkarni on August 7, asserted that it was not right to link the RSS name with Mahatma’s murder. “In 63 years’ time the Government of India has instituted many judicial commissions and committees to investigate the assassination. None could establish the RSS connection,” he said.
Shri Kulkarni said it was time people learnt to respect the judicial findings in the matter and rested the issue. As for the RSS, he said it is also an organisation of national stature which had contributed immensely to the nation’s development.
“It’s incorrect to drag the RSS name again and again. So, it’s my considered view that the matter shouldn’t be raked up again and again for petty political reasons,” he appealed.
After Bapu’s assassination, Shri Kulkarni disclosed, his grandfather Ramdas Gandhi had written to Pandit Nehru requesting him not to hang Godse. “But, his request was turned down,” he asserted. In contrast, the ‘secularists’ are very soft on Afzal who has been sentenced to death for attack on the temple of democracy, the Parliament, by the Supreme Court.
A day earlier on August 4, former Supreme Court judge Justice KT Thomas, a devout Christian, reiterated that there was no evidence to suggest that the RSS had anything to do with the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi. He said that no inquiry at any point of time had found any role of the RSS in the assassination. That Nathuram Godse had identified himself as an RSS volunteer was mere propaganda, he said. Godse had left the RSS much before Gandhiji’s assassination, he added.
“As arguments grew, Indira Gandhi had asked Justice JL Kapur of the Supreme Court to carry out an inquiry. After a long and detailed probe, the judge concluded that there was no proof against the RSS,” he said, adding that the rest was only false campaign.
Interestingly, the ‘secular’ Congress Kerala state president Ramesh Chennithala castigated Justice Thomas for ‘distorting history’ and demanded to withdraw the statement, which Justice Thomas refused.
Yet, for our priggish self-proclaimed ‘secularists’, overlooking the reality continues to be a paying profession. They won’t hark even what their god, Allah or Ishwar says, only because they are ‘secular’.
The British left India 64 years back but the ‘secular’ Congress continues to thrive on the alien legacy whose essential leadership secret, it is said, does not depend on particular intelligence. Rather, it depends on a remarkably stupid thick-headedness. They follow the principle that when one lies, one should lie big, and stick to it. They keep up their lies, even at the risk of looking ridiculous.
And this is what our ‘secularists’ are doing in India.
Death and rebirth
AFTER the Mahabharata war and following Bhishma’s death, all the kings from all corners of the country attended his cremation ceremony. It was a sad occasion because he was not only the elder of the Kuru clan but also the last representative of the old order. For the Pandavas, Bhishma’s death was a personal tragedy as he was the only father they had known.
A few days after the cremation, Abhimanyu’s widow, Uttari, gave birth to a son but the midwife who helped in the delivery, cried out, “This boy is not crying or moving. I think he is stillborn.”
On hearing this, all the Kuru women began to weep and wail, “This is a curse on us. Now the Kauravas will not have any descendant.”
On hearing them cry, Sri Krishna came to them and said, “Don’t be worried. The child is alive.” He then turned to the stillborn child and tired to revive him by saying, “Do not worry, the world is not such a bad place to live in.”
On hearing his comforting words, the child opened his eyes and smiled. Sri Krishna reciprocated the smile and gave him to Uttari, saying, “This is Parikshit, the first of the next generation.”
There was rejoicing all around and the Kuru women began to dance and sing.
ISI friends in the media
Media Watch
THE busting of a Pakistani Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) ring in the United States fronted by one Ghulam Nabi Fai, a Kashmiri of Indian extraction and now an American citizen, has raised many issues that are now demanding attention. Fai was running an outfit in Washington called Kashmir American Council(KAC). It was being secretly financed by the ISI, of which nobody seems to have been aware. It was presumed to be an American organisation, run by an American, and so did not have to be registered. It regularly held international conferences and seminars on the Kashmir issue and among other invitees, it invited distinguished Indians, including well-known politicians and journalists they were, of course, well-paid and all their expenses were taken care of.
They now claim that they were not aware of either Fai’s or the Council’s links with the ISI. This is now being challenged. The point is that, as The Asian Age (July 22) has now made plain, the presence of distinguished Indians raised the stock of the Council (KAC) and gave it respectability, on which Fai cleverly cashed in. As the paper put it, it made it easier for KAC to seem like an even-handed organisation “interested solely in the merits of the case and helped it to launder the ISI stain” and that, in turn, made it easier for KAC “to establish contacts with US Senators and Congressmen …. to put their weight behind America’s Kashmir policy”.
In effect what this suggests is that Indians of high reputation were helping Fai and his KAC, unknowingly, as they claim, to corner Senators, Congressmen and other public citizens in his campaign against India on the Kashmir issue! As Asian Age sees it, Fai is a “sleeper ISI mole”; the FBI has now found that out. But can one take it for granted that well-known Indians were unaware of Fai’s background? S. Gurumurthy is very skeptical in this regard. Writing in The Indian Express (July 26) Gurumurthy has made the point that “a look at the facts publicly known about Fai, as far back as 2001, which the well-informed liberals cannot feign not to know, clearly rules out their claim to innocence”.
And what are the facts? The Institute of Conflict Management, with excellent faculty, led by the legend are KPS Gill, had clearly stated in a paper dated June 1, 2001 that “the HM (Hizbul Mujahideen) is closely linked to the Jamaat-e-Islami and is allegedly backed by Ghulam Nabi Fai’s Kashmiri American Council”. Praveen Swami, a well known expert on terror and also a correspondent of The Hindu had written in February 2003, thus: “The Hizb also regularly received funds gathered in the United States and United Kingdom by activists like Ayub Thakur and Ghulam Nabi Fai”. In his comments on our liberal intellectuals Gurumurthy is sharp as a nail. According to him “The leading lights of liberal India cannot feign that they did not know about Fai’s antecedents; Their claim to innocence is a post-facto alibi”.
Adds Gurumurthy “Fai invited them (Indian liberals) not as neutrals to add credibility to his show, but as accomplices to push his anti-India propaganda. Fai has finally exposed the real face of the Indian liberals to Indians”. Pakistan is increasingly becoming a sickening state. According to the Sikh community in the eastern city of Lahore, it has been barred from organising a religious celebration at a disputed gurudwara. This year they have been barred. Shouldn’t there be some protest? Pakistan can get away with anything. The Indian media – with the FPJ’s exception – has not reported it. It is interesting to go back to history as Jan Sangh Today (March 2011) did in recounting the conversation between the Cabinet Mission that came to India in 1944 and part of the discussion it had with Mohammad Ali Jinnah. It went like this:
Cabinet Mission: Do you realise that the Pakistan you are demanding will leave substantial Hindus under Muslim domination?
Jinnah: That will be so, but I will leave many more Muslims under Hindu domination in Hindustan.
Cabinet. M: How does it then resolve Hindu-Muslim discord? It will only perpetuate the hostilities.
Jinnah: It will free at least two thirds Muslims from Hindu domination.
Cabinet. M: And you will put more than that number of Hindus under Muslim domination. That is so solution.
Jinnah: That is the only solution if you do not want civil war.
Cabinet. M: But should you adopt such a callous attitude towards the minorities in the two states, they will be in worse condition than the Muslims in united India…
Jinnah: Their best protection will be the establishment of two strong states neither of which will dare to misbehave towards each other’s minorities.
Cabinet. M: You mean to say that these minorities will be hostages?
Jinnah: Exactly. If one state mistreats its minorities the other state will retaliate against its minorities. It will be tit for tat.
Has India mistreated the Muslims? How many Muslims have migrated to Pakistan in recent times? But a recent report noted that some 15,000 Hindus have come to India and have been seeking India citizenship. The media ignores the story. In Gujarat, the much-maligned Narendra Modi is even offering Muslims a university. For acknowledging the good work that is being done in Gujarat, Maulana Ghulam Mohammad Vastanvi, Vice Chancellor of Darul Uloom Deoband is sacked. One wonders what Jinnah would be saying were he to be born again, not in India, but in his dream state, Pakistan. For all their faults, Indians do not believe in tit for tat. And they are paying dearly for their decency in public life. Islamists can bomb Mumbai half a dozen times in as many years, but not a single Muslim shop was attacked all down Mohammad Ali Road. Are you listening, General Kayani?
THE busting of a Pakistani Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) ring in the United States fronted by one Ghulam Nabi Fai, a Kashmiri of Indian extraction and now an American citizen, has raised many issues that are now demanding attention. Fai was running an outfit in Washington called Kashmir American Council(KAC). It was being secretly financed by the ISI, of which nobody seems to have been aware. It was presumed to be an American organisation, run by an American, and so did not have to be registered. It regularly held international conferences and seminars on the Kashmir issue and among other invitees, it invited distinguished Indians, including well-known politicians and journalists they were, of course, well-paid and all their expenses were taken care of.
They now claim that they were not aware of either Fai’s or the Council’s links with the ISI. This is now being challenged. The point is that, as The Asian Age (July 22) has now made plain, the presence of distinguished Indians raised the stock of the Council (KAC) and gave it respectability, on which Fai cleverly cashed in. As the paper put it, it made it easier for KAC to seem like an even-handed organisation “interested solely in the merits of the case and helped it to launder the ISI stain” and that, in turn, made it easier for KAC “to establish contacts with US Senators and Congressmen …. to put their weight behind America’s Kashmir policy”.
In effect what this suggests is that Indians of high reputation were helping Fai and his KAC, unknowingly, as they claim, to corner Senators, Congressmen and other public citizens in his campaign against India on the Kashmir issue! As Asian Age sees it, Fai is a “sleeper ISI mole”; the FBI has now found that out. But can one take it for granted that well-known Indians were unaware of Fai’s background? S. Gurumurthy is very skeptical in this regard. Writing in The Indian Express (July 26) Gurumurthy has made the point that “a look at the facts publicly known about Fai, as far back as 2001, which the well-informed liberals cannot feign not to know, clearly rules out their claim to innocence”.
And what are the facts? The Institute of Conflict Management, with excellent faculty, led by the legend are KPS Gill, had clearly stated in a paper dated June 1, 2001 that “the HM (Hizbul Mujahideen) is closely linked to the Jamaat-e-Islami and is allegedly backed by Ghulam Nabi Fai’s Kashmiri American Council”. Praveen Swami, a well known expert on terror and also a correspondent of The Hindu had written in February 2003, thus: “The Hizb also regularly received funds gathered in the United States and United Kingdom by activists like Ayub Thakur and Ghulam Nabi Fai”. In his comments on our liberal intellectuals Gurumurthy is sharp as a nail. According to him “The leading lights of liberal India cannot feign that they did not know about Fai’s antecedents; Their claim to innocence is a post-facto alibi”.
Adds Gurumurthy “Fai invited them (Indian liberals) not as neutrals to add credibility to his show, but as accomplices to push his anti-India propaganda. Fai has finally exposed the real face of the Indian liberals to Indians”. Pakistan is increasingly becoming a sickening state. According to the Sikh community in the eastern city of Lahore, it has been barred from organising a religious celebration at a disputed gurudwara. This year they have been barred. Shouldn’t there be some protest? Pakistan can get away with anything. The Indian media – with the FPJ’s exception – has not reported it. It is interesting to go back to history as Jan Sangh Today (March 2011) did in recounting the conversation between the Cabinet Mission that came to India in 1944 and part of the discussion it had with Mohammad Ali Jinnah. It went like this:
Cabinet Mission: Do you realise that the Pakistan you are demanding will leave substantial Hindus under Muslim domination?
Jinnah: That will be so, but I will leave many more Muslims under Hindu domination in Hindustan.
Cabinet. M: How does it then resolve Hindu-Muslim discord? It will only perpetuate the hostilities.
Jinnah: It will free at least two thirds Muslims from Hindu domination.
Cabinet. M: And you will put more than that number of Hindus under Muslim domination. That is so solution.
Jinnah: That is the only solution if you do not want civil war.
Cabinet. M: But should you adopt such a callous attitude towards the minorities in the two states, they will be in worse condition than the Muslims in united India…
Jinnah: Their best protection will be the establishment of two strong states neither of which will dare to misbehave towards each other’s minorities.
Cabinet. M: You mean to say that these minorities will be hostages?
Jinnah: Exactly. If one state mistreats its minorities the other state will retaliate against its minorities. It will be tit for tat.
Has India mistreated the Muslims? How many Muslims have migrated to Pakistan in recent times? But a recent report noted that some 15,000 Hindus have come to India and have been seeking India citizenship. The media ignores the story. In Gujarat, the much-maligned Narendra Modi is even offering Muslims a university. For acknowledging the good work that is being done in Gujarat, Maulana Ghulam Mohammad Vastanvi, Vice Chancellor of Darul Uloom Deoband is sacked. One wonders what Jinnah would be saying were he to be born again, not in India, but in his dream state, Pakistan. For all their faults, Indians do not believe in tit for tat. And they are paying dearly for their decency in public life. Islamists can bomb Mumbai half a dozen times in as many years, but not a single Muslim shop was attacked all down Mohammad Ali Road. Are you listening, General Kayani?
Secrecy, sycophancy and coterie
Like Communist dictatorship Congress democracy
By Ravi
THE news that Congress president Sonia Gandhi had gone abroad for surgery—for cancer, as was reported later—not only caught the nation unawares but also highlighted the awe that has been built around her personality. The Economic Times (August 5) rightly summed up the situation in its headline, ‘The woman who runs India is unwell & India does not know’ (Surprisingly, though, the headline and the story are not on the Internet).
This brings us to the big tragedy of contemporary India: there is an undeclared Emergency, an insidious tyranny that stops the truth from surfacing; if it somehow does, it is effaced like the ET story. The assertion seems nonsensical, for aren’t there countless news channels, newspapers, and magazines which are scarcely ever troubled by state coercion? Apparently, there is so much freedom—to mouth platitudes, to play to the gallery, to indulge in political correctness, to trivialise—that one may get the impression that individual liberty is real. The reality, however, is quite different—and disturbing.
Details are analysed and commented upon in the right earnest, the details like whether security and intelligence failure was responsible for Mumbai blasts, why Shivraj Patil could not check terrorism, what will make food security legislation a success, why MS Dhoni is not doing well in England, is Katrina Kaif going around with Salman Khan. On the other hand, the real issues are rarely touched upon by the media and the political class. Few talk about how Sonia Gandhi’s appeasement of the most retrograde sections of Muslims is imperiling security, how her National Advisory Council (NAC) is laying landmines in the economy by draining the exchequer, why did she allow the corrupt to hold high offices. Everybody knows that she is the real ruler—who runs the Central government if not the country—and yet nobody even talks about her responsibility. A Raja, Suresh Kalmadi, Shivraj Patil, SM Krishna, even Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and the PMO take the blame, but few dare to take her name. The Code of Omerta is seldom breached.
Sea of irrelevance
Opinion makers get so engrossed in the inconsequential things and marginal issues that they tend to miss the real thing—the diarchy which ensures two sets of people: those who have power but not the responsibility (Sonia and her cronies) and those who have responsibility but little power (Singh and his office). I suspect that the intellectual grandees concentrate on the marginal because discussing the reality would mean speaking the truth, and the truth is troublesome to those who matter in the ruling United Progressive Alliance (UPA).
This reminds me of American media theorist and cultural critic Neil Postman’s comparison and contrasting between the worlds of George Orwell’s 1984 and Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World. Postman wrote: “What Orwell feared were those who would ban books. What Huxley feared was that there would be no reason to ban a book, for there would be no one who wanted to read one. Orwell feared those who would deprive us of information. Huxley feared those who would give us so much that we would be reduced to passivity and egoism. Orwell feared that the truth would be concealed from us. Huxley feared the truth would be drowned in a sea of irrelevance. Orwell feared we would become a captive culture. Huxley feared we would become a trivial culture…”
In India, truth indeed is being “drowned in a sea of irrelevance.” We see it happens everyday, everywhere. It is unprecedented in the history of Independent India that a large number of representatives of India Inc have castigated the incumbent government in no uncertain terms. Ratan Tata, Deepak Parekh, NR Narayana Murthy, YC Deveshwar, Azim Premji—long is the list of business magnates who have expressed their disgust with the state of affairs.
Similarly, many serving military chiefs have made public their dismay at the state of preparedness, especially vis-Ã -vis China. Our foreign policy, too, has been a disaster in the last seven years. On the economic front, the less said the better: inflation is rising; the business environment is getting polluted, thanks to the mischief of econuts; rent-seeking is spreading like cancer; public finance is in a mess because of the NAC’s unending populism; and the aam aadmi is groaning because of economic mismanagement and corrupt governance.
The signature of Sonia and her buddies is unmistakable wherever there is a problem, but she never gets the blame. We shall see why.
Treachery of intellectuals
No politician in recent understood the minds and hearts of intellectuals better than Sonia Gandhi did. She knows that while for normal human beings seeing is believing, for intellectuals it is the other way around. Lesser mortals like us believe in commonsense, empirical evidence, and reason. When we see, read, or find anything unacceptable or egregious, we disapprove of it. So, communism which was responsible for the killing of 80 to 100 million people in the world in the last century has been repudiated by the people. Its milder cognate, Nehruvian socialism, arrested growth and development, bloated the bureaucracy, drained the exchequer, and spawned corruption. It was rejected by none other than a Congress Prime Minister, PV Narasimha Rao. The consequences were salutary for the nation: faster growth, bigger investment (domestic as well as foreign), galvanisation of Indian business (as evident from domestic groups acquiring companies overseas), and reduction in poverty.
But for our intellectuals dogmas are more important than facts. They cannot give up an ideology even if it has been universally discredited. They still claim to be the custodians of all that is true, good, noble, and beneficial in the world, howsoever flimsy their claims may be. At any rate, the ivory towers they live in are not hurt by the reality; but the fear is always there. So, the tenured and the sinecured always love to gang up with anybody who can secure their quixotic realm. Sonia saw natural allies in them. She sympathised with their various causes; she lionised them; she allowed them to peddle their retrograde ideas; she even accepted some of the ideas and forced a supine government to implement them. An unholy nexus was established between the the self-appointed guardians of mankind and the hard-nosed politicians led by She-who-must-be-obeyed.
History in reverse gear
The arrangement has worked very well so far. The socialism-loving lords of ivory towers charted out a course that the Congress leaders loved to take. It needs to be remembered that when the Congress-led government assumed office in 2004, it had spent eight years out of power—the longest such stretch since Independence. Worse, in that period the role of government in economy had considerably reduced, thanks to the reforms agenda carried out by various regimes since 1991. Till 2004, most liberalisers said that reforms were “irreversible” in India; nobody says that today because the Sonia Gandhi-led UPA managed to reverse many of reforms.
The result was that the role and intervention of state functionaries increased tremendously, much to the delight of the venal. It also made intellectuals happy because many of their harebrained ideas were put into practice. Socialist claptrap is a perfect mask to cover rent-seeking. In short, Sonia managed to keep the idealist and the cynic in good humor.
And since pinkish intellectuals infest the opinion-making apparatus, we find that Sonia is kept out of the sphere of culpability. Nothing negative about her personality—not even health concerns—is allowed to appear in the public domain. Our opinion makers choose to drown us in a sea of irrelevance instead.
By Ravi
THE news that Congress president Sonia Gandhi had gone abroad for surgery—for cancer, as was reported later—not only caught the nation unawares but also highlighted the awe that has been built around her personality. The Economic Times (August 5) rightly summed up the situation in its headline, ‘The woman who runs India is unwell & India does not know’ (Surprisingly, though, the headline and the story are not on the Internet).
This brings us to the big tragedy of contemporary India: there is an undeclared Emergency, an insidious tyranny that stops the truth from surfacing; if it somehow does, it is effaced like the ET story. The assertion seems nonsensical, for aren’t there countless news channels, newspapers, and magazines which are scarcely ever troubled by state coercion? Apparently, there is so much freedom—to mouth platitudes, to play to the gallery, to indulge in political correctness, to trivialise—that one may get the impression that individual liberty is real. The reality, however, is quite different—and disturbing.
Details are analysed and commented upon in the right earnest, the details like whether security and intelligence failure was responsible for Mumbai blasts, why Shivraj Patil could not check terrorism, what will make food security legislation a success, why MS Dhoni is not doing well in England, is Katrina Kaif going around with Salman Khan. On the other hand, the real issues are rarely touched upon by the media and the political class. Few talk about how Sonia Gandhi’s appeasement of the most retrograde sections of Muslims is imperiling security, how her National Advisory Council (NAC) is laying landmines in the economy by draining the exchequer, why did she allow the corrupt to hold high offices. Everybody knows that she is the real ruler—who runs the Central government if not the country—and yet nobody even talks about her responsibility. A Raja, Suresh Kalmadi, Shivraj Patil, SM Krishna, even Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and the PMO take the blame, but few dare to take her name. The Code of Omerta is seldom breached.
Sea of irrelevance
Opinion makers get so engrossed in the inconsequential things and marginal issues that they tend to miss the real thing—the diarchy which ensures two sets of people: those who have power but not the responsibility (Sonia and her cronies) and those who have responsibility but little power (Singh and his office). I suspect that the intellectual grandees concentrate on the marginal because discussing the reality would mean speaking the truth, and the truth is troublesome to those who matter in the ruling United Progressive Alliance (UPA).
This reminds me of American media theorist and cultural critic Neil Postman’s comparison and contrasting between the worlds of George Orwell’s 1984 and Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World. Postman wrote: “What Orwell feared were those who would ban books. What Huxley feared was that there would be no reason to ban a book, for there would be no one who wanted to read one. Orwell feared those who would deprive us of information. Huxley feared those who would give us so much that we would be reduced to passivity and egoism. Orwell feared that the truth would be concealed from us. Huxley feared the truth would be drowned in a sea of irrelevance. Orwell feared we would become a captive culture. Huxley feared we would become a trivial culture…”
In India, truth indeed is being “drowned in a sea of irrelevance.” We see it happens everyday, everywhere. It is unprecedented in the history of Independent India that a large number of representatives of India Inc have castigated the incumbent government in no uncertain terms. Ratan Tata, Deepak Parekh, NR Narayana Murthy, YC Deveshwar, Azim Premji—long is the list of business magnates who have expressed their disgust with the state of affairs.
Similarly, many serving military chiefs have made public their dismay at the state of preparedness, especially vis-Ã -vis China. Our foreign policy, too, has been a disaster in the last seven years. On the economic front, the less said the better: inflation is rising; the business environment is getting polluted, thanks to the mischief of econuts; rent-seeking is spreading like cancer; public finance is in a mess because of the NAC’s unending populism; and the aam aadmi is groaning because of economic mismanagement and corrupt governance.
The signature of Sonia and her buddies is unmistakable wherever there is a problem, but she never gets the blame. We shall see why.
Treachery of intellectuals
No politician in recent understood the minds and hearts of intellectuals better than Sonia Gandhi did. She knows that while for normal human beings seeing is believing, for intellectuals it is the other way around. Lesser mortals like us believe in commonsense, empirical evidence, and reason. When we see, read, or find anything unacceptable or egregious, we disapprove of it. So, communism which was responsible for the killing of 80 to 100 million people in the world in the last century has been repudiated by the people. Its milder cognate, Nehruvian socialism, arrested growth and development, bloated the bureaucracy, drained the exchequer, and spawned corruption. It was rejected by none other than a Congress Prime Minister, PV Narasimha Rao. The consequences were salutary for the nation: faster growth, bigger investment (domestic as well as foreign), galvanisation of Indian business (as evident from domestic groups acquiring companies overseas), and reduction in poverty.
But for our intellectuals dogmas are more important than facts. They cannot give up an ideology even if it has been universally discredited. They still claim to be the custodians of all that is true, good, noble, and beneficial in the world, howsoever flimsy their claims may be. At any rate, the ivory towers they live in are not hurt by the reality; but the fear is always there. So, the tenured and the sinecured always love to gang up with anybody who can secure their quixotic realm. Sonia saw natural allies in them. She sympathised with their various causes; she lionised them; she allowed them to peddle their retrograde ideas; she even accepted some of the ideas and forced a supine government to implement them. An unholy nexus was established between the the self-appointed guardians of mankind and the hard-nosed politicians led by She-who-must-be-obeyed.
History in reverse gear
The arrangement has worked very well so far. The socialism-loving lords of ivory towers charted out a course that the Congress leaders loved to take. It needs to be remembered that when the Congress-led government assumed office in 2004, it had spent eight years out of power—the longest such stretch since Independence. Worse, in that period the role of government in economy had considerably reduced, thanks to the reforms agenda carried out by various regimes since 1991. Till 2004, most liberalisers said that reforms were “irreversible” in India; nobody says that today because the Sonia Gandhi-led UPA managed to reverse many of reforms.
The result was that the role and intervention of state functionaries increased tremendously, much to the delight of the venal. It also made intellectuals happy because many of their harebrained ideas were put into practice. Socialist claptrap is a perfect mask to cover rent-seeking. In short, Sonia managed to keep the idealist and the cynic in good humor.
And since pinkish intellectuals infest the opinion-making apparatus, we find that Sonia is kept out of the sphere of culpability. Nothing negative about her personality—not even health concerns—is allowed to appear in the public domain. Our opinion makers choose to drown us in a sea of irrelevance instead.
Tuesday, August 2, 2011
Renovation of a historic temple
Lord Narasimha Moorthi roars again in Malappuram, Kerala
By R Venugopal, Cochin
DEAR readers, read this story with your heart and if you feel anything at all, be a part of this divine venture, which will help all of us to hold our head high. During the campaign of Tipu Sultan in Malabar region of Kerala, hundreds of temples were destroyed and plundered by the Muslims. Prominent among them were Tali Shiva Temple and Shri Narasimha Moorthi Temple at Malaparamba, both in Malappuram district. The former was reconstructed after a massive struggle with the Communist Government under EMS Namboodiripad.
The second temple came to existence nearly 350 years ago. But it got destroyed due to neglect by the family members who owned it. Afterwords, it was one Kundrakkal Nair who took up the reconstruction work. With Tipu Sultan’s entry into Malabar region in 1779, this temple also got destroyed along with others. Then, one Unnian Saheb got a lease of 100 acres of land around this temple for rubber plantation.
Now begins the present story. One night in 1947, Unnian Saheb had a dream of a fearful face shouting and screaming at him. He got very much afraid. The dream continued for several nights. His Hindu friends advised him to consult an astrologer. The astrologer found out that it was Lord Narasimha who had appeared before him in his sleep. He was demanding Unnian Saheb to resettle Him in his old temple. The astrologers told to resettle the Lord in His old temple. Unnian Saheb agreed to the proposal to reconstruct the temple in all its glory. Wonderfully enough, his bad dreams stopped worrying him!. He was wonder struck. He began to visit the temple site. He saw a number of Namboodiri pujaris, granite stone cutters, the Narasimha idol being brought by the architects. It became a very busy centre of people from deferent professions. The mantras being recited influenced him very much. Finally, he declared to the Hindu priests his intention to get converted into Hinduism! The Hindu society leaders were only very happy to grant his wishes. He also asked his two small sons and his brother to get converted. They were taken to Calicut town, (45 miles away) to the Arya Samaj centre, which was headed by one Buddha Singh. Singh converted them after performing due rites and named the brothers Rama Simhan and Daya Simhan and the children were named Fateh Singh and Zoravar Singh (after Guru Govind Singh’s sons!). They returned to their house. After the temple construction was almost over, he expressed his wish to get his younger brother converted into a Namboodiri Brahmin! The Namboodiri society readily agreed to do so. After the due process was over, he was also married to a Brahmin girl! The two children were sent to Delhi Arya Samaj school for education.
The whole family was murdered
The temple was to be duly consecrated in August 1947. All these events angered the Muslims of Malappuram district. On the night of August 3, 1947, a large force of Muslims came in two trucks with all types of arms, demolised the house of Rama Simhan and brutally murdered the whole family including one Hindu servant. The children escaped murder since they were in Delhi. The Brahmin cook escaped with serious injuries in his leg.
How far the demonic Islamic fanaticism can go to obey the Koranic verses! But then, the Hindus of the whole locality got afraid and hid themselves in their houses! How far can the timidity of Hindus go by this act of theirs? Nobody was there to claim the dead bodies of Rama Simhan and his family. RSS was not a mature organisation then. The bodies were unceremoniously buried by the police on the hill lock.
Days and years passed by, for 60 years. By then the RSS got stronger. The young bala swayam-sevaks of 1947, now grown very much elderly, had not forgotten the incident in Malaparamba and their own helplessness at that time. They prepared themselves to redeem what they could not do in 1947. With great difficulty the Mattummal Narasimha Moorthi Temple Trust went to the court to get an order for handing over the temple lands to the remaining dependents of Rama Simhan. His two children who were in Delhi, were brought back and grown up as Muslim again. The Court allowed the Trust to reconstruct the temple. The happy members of the Trust began the reconstruction joyously with very strong black granite stones. It took 5 years for the temple work to be finished. After an elaborate religious Vedic rites, the temple complex (consisting of the main Lord Narasimha Moorthy, Lord Ganesha, Devi Durga, Lord Ayyappa and Lord Subramania) has been opened to the devotees again. The Hindus of Malappuram are practically roaring like Narasimha. They are now putting fears in the hearts of the enemies of Hindutva.
This is for the fifth time that this temple has been constructed at the same place. One is strongly reminded of Somnath temple in Gujarat, which was destroyed 17 times by Muslim marauders and how Sardar Vallabhabhai Patel, Home Minister of the first ministry of Independent India, Dr Rajendra Prasad, the President, and KM Munshi, president of the Trust, reconstructed the temple. It is to be mentioned here that the then Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru with his typical pseudo secular mind tried to dissuade Rajendra Babu from partaking in the kumbhabhishekam of Somnath temple. But Babuji refused to surrender to Nehru’s wish!
Hindus of Malappuram have received enthusiastically the Moorthy, when it visited many temples around its original home before returning, to be ceremoniously consecrated with Vedic rites. A new sense of self-confidence seems to have been felt by the Hindus of Malappuram. It must be mentioned that there is not a single Hindu house within four kilometers of this temple. Still hundreds and hundreds of people are coming to worship the Lord. Bharat has lived long and strong and be the protector of all the weak countries of this world too.
By R Venugopal, Cochin
DEAR readers, read this story with your heart and if you feel anything at all, be a part of this divine venture, which will help all of us to hold our head high. During the campaign of Tipu Sultan in Malabar region of Kerala, hundreds of temples were destroyed and plundered by the Muslims. Prominent among them were Tali Shiva Temple and Shri Narasimha Moorthi Temple at Malaparamba, both in Malappuram district. The former was reconstructed after a massive struggle with the Communist Government under EMS Namboodiripad.
The second temple came to existence nearly 350 years ago. But it got destroyed due to neglect by the family members who owned it. Afterwords, it was one Kundrakkal Nair who took up the reconstruction work. With Tipu Sultan’s entry into Malabar region in 1779, this temple also got destroyed along with others. Then, one Unnian Saheb got a lease of 100 acres of land around this temple for rubber plantation.
Now begins the present story. One night in 1947, Unnian Saheb had a dream of a fearful face shouting and screaming at him. He got very much afraid. The dream continued for several nights. His Hindu friends advised him to consult an astrologer. The astrologer found out that it was Lord Narasimha who had appeared before him in his sleep. He was demanding Unnian Saheb to resettle Him in his old temple. The astrologers told to resettle the Lord in His old temple. Unnian Saheb agreed to the proposal to reconstruct the temple in all its glory. Wonderfully enough, his bad dreams stopped worrying him!. He was wonder struck. He began to visit the temple site. He saw a number of Namboodiri pujaris, granite stone cutters, the Narasimha idol being brought by the architects. It became a very busy centre of people from deferent professions. The mantras being recited influenced him very much. Finally, he declared to the Hindu priests his intention to get converted into Hinduism! The Hindu society leaders were only very happy to grant his wishes. He also asked his two small sons and his brother to get converted. They were taken to Calicut town, (45 miles away) to the Arya Samaj centre, which was headed by one Buddha Singh. Singh converted them after performing due rites and named the brothers Rama Simhan and Daya Simhan and the children were named Fateh Singh and Zoravar Singh (after Guru Govind Singh’s sons!). They returned to their house. After the temple construction was almost over, he expressed his wish to get his younger brother converted into a Namboodiri Brahmin! The Namboodiri society readily agreed to do so. After the due process was over, he was also married to a Brahmin girl! The two children were sent to Delhi Arya Samaj school for education.
The whole family was murdered
The temple was to be duly consecrated in August 1947. All these events angered the Muslims of Malappuram district. On the night of August 3, 1947, a large force of Muslims came in two trucks with all types of arms, demolised the house of Rama Simhan and brutally murdered the whole family including one Hindu servant. The children escaped murder since they were in Delhi. The Brahmin cook escaped with serious injuries in his leg.
How far the demonic Islamic fanaticism can go to obey the Koranic verses! But then, the Hindus of the whole locality got afraid and hid themselves in their houses! How far can the timidity of Hindus go by this act of theirs? Nobody was there to claim the dead bodies of Rama Simhan and his family. RSS was not a mature organisation then. The bodies were unceremoniously buried by the police on the hill lock.
Days and years passed by, for 60 years. By then the RSS got stronger. The young bala swayam-sevaks of 1947, now grown very much elderly, had not forgotten the incident in Malaparamba and their own helplessness at that time. They prepared themselves to redeem what they could not do in 1947. With great difficulty the Mattummal Narasimha Moorthi Temple Trust went to the court to get an order for handing over the temple lands to the remaining dependents of Rama Simhan. His two children who were in Delhi, were brought back and grown up as Muslim again. The Court allowed the Trust to reconstruct the temple. The happy members of the Trust began the reconstruction joyously with very strong black granite stones. It took 5 years for the temple work to be finished. After an elaborate religious Vedic rites, the temple complex (consisting of the main Lord Narasimha Moorthy, Lord Ganesha, Devi Durga, Lord Ayyappa and Lord Subramania) has been opened to the devotees again. The Hindus of Malappuram are practically roaring like Narasimha. They are now putting fears in the hearts of the enemies of Hindutva.
This is for the fifth time that this temple has been constructed at the same place. One is strongly reminded of Somnath temple in Gujarat, which was destroyed 17 times by Muslim marauders and how Sardar Vallabhabhai Patel, Home Minister of the first ministry of Independent India, Dr Rajendra Prasad, the President, and KM Munshi, president of the Trust, reconstructed the temple. It is to be mentioned here that the then Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru with his typical pseudo secular mind tried to dissuade Rajendra Babu from partaking in the kumbhabhishekam of Somnath temple. But Babuji refused to surrender to Nehru’s wish!
Hindus of Malappuram have received enthusiastically the Moorthy, when it visited many temples around its original home before returning, to be ceremoniously consecrated with Vedic rites. A new sense of self-confidence seems to have been felt by the Hindus of Malappuram. It must be mentioned that there is not a single Hindu house within four kilometers of this temple. Still hundreds and hundreds of people are coming to worship the Lord. Bharat has lived long and strong and be the protector of all the weak countries of this world too.
Mani Shankar Aiyer’s moment of glory
By Dr Vijaya Rajiva
FOLLOWING the infamous night of June 4, when Swami Ramdev and his gathering of peaceful non-violent followers were attacked reportedly on orders of Congress president and her two henchmen, Mani Shankar Aiyer covered himself in a moment of glory when he said publicly that this was an unnecessary event. He went on to say that the crowed was peaceful, showed no sign of violence, and people were actually asleep when the attack occurred.
Mani Shankar Aiyer spoke as any Hindu would do. Attacking a sannyasi is simply not done and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh (normally submissive to the high command) seemed to have had no hand in the infamous act initiated by an Italian Catholic with no respect to the sentiments of Hindu India. Mani Shankar was not being a ‘democrat’ or a ‘secularist’ whatever those words mean in contemporary India. He was simply being a Hindu.
Regrettably, he has since then eyed the new opportunities opening up by supporting the Congress action, by referring to it as a ‘transient’ episode. An attack on a Hindu guru and his followers and one which left many seriously wounded, especially the elderly lady whose spine was broken and whose four limbs had been paralysed was now described by our bland hero as a transient episode. This occurred in his television debate on NDTV with Swapan Dasgupta on the question of whether Digvijay Singh is a loose cannon or a secret weapon for the Congress Party. He dismissed the episode and has now entered into the political game of whitewashing Digvijay Singh’s actions.
He did this primarily by fulsome praise of the staunch secular principles of Digvijay Singh and by engaging in a brazen attack on the RSS, which would put to shame even Signh’s own antics in that direction. The nation knows Digvijay Singh’s many pronouncements: Swami Ramdev is a thug, a fraud; the RSS is a bomb factory and so on and so forth.
Mani Shankar tried to pedal the old shibboleths, so shop worn that even a high school student in India would pronounce him to be a liar. The outstanding one was his reference to the RSS being associated with the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi, which even as he said it he must have known it to be a blantant lie. Neverthless he said it, so eager was he to hang on to the coat tails of his new patron. But, as we see now, he went from one blunder to another. His customary sang froid can now be shown to conceal a multitude of sins! That programme was a public relations disaster, its outstanding feature being his dismissal of the Ramdev event as a transient episode. This has been recorded for posterity in the studios of a national televison station, NDTV!
There was more to come as he narrated his baiting of Shri Advani about whether the latter considered himself to be a Hindu- Hindu, whereas the minorities were Hindu-Muslims or Hindu Christians since they were converts and so on. He also falsely accused Dhananjaya Kumar from Karnataka of having said that anyone who did not want to read the Bhagavad Gita should leave India. Shri Dhananjaya Kumar had already clarified that he did not say that (on a previous programme with NDTV’s Barkha Dutt). What he said was a well-known incontrovertible historical truth namely that the Gita is a native Indian product whereas the Bible and the Quran came from outside India. Recommending teaching of Bhagavad Gita in Indian schools (as Dhananjaya Kumar did) cannot surely be unwelcome!
The point that Dhananjaya Kumar was labouring to make was that in a colonised country the schools did not hesitate to teach the lessons of the Bible, but had not started the teaching of the native classic, the Bhagavad Gita (a point incidentally that the anchor Barkha Dutt herself made during the programme while referring to her own schooling).
But Mani droned on caught in the coils of his new found mission: to save his patron from condemnation by Hindu India for his crime of attacking a Hindu sannyasi and buy himself some political clout. He went from one blunder to the next. First, that the infamous attack on a Hindu sannyasi and his followers was a transient episode and then that his patron was a man of the highest principles!
None of this will work since Hindu India is not likely to forget that Digvijay Singh called a Hindu guru (Swami Ramdev) a thug and a fraud even while he called Osama bin Laden, Osamaji! Nor will Hindu India forget (or forgive) that he sanctioned an attack on a Hindu guru. He has tried recently to tone down his abusive speech, but no one is buying it.
Nor will Mani Shankar Aiyer be forgotten, but not exactly in the way he fondly imagines he will be remembered. And in the end, he may not even get that political reward, the mess of pottage he is hoping for.
FOLLOWING the infamous night of June 4, when Swami Ramdev and his gathering of peaceful non-violent followers were attacked reportedly on orders of Congress president and her two henchmen, Mani Shankar Aiyer covered himself in a moment of glory when he said publicly that this was an unnecessary event. He went on to say that the crowed was peaceful, showed no sign of violence, and people were actually asleep when the attack occurred.
Mani Shankar Aiyer spoke as any Hindu would do. Attacking a sannyasi is simply not done and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh (normally submissive to the high command) seemed to have had no hand in the infamous act initiated by an Italian Catholic with no respect to the sentiments of Hindu India. Mani Shankar was not being a ‘democrat’ or a ‘secularist’ whatever those words mean in contemporary India. He was simply being a Hindu.
Regrettably, he has since then eyed the new opportunities opening up by supporting the Congress action, by referring to it as a ‘transient’ episode. An attack on a Hindu guru and his followers and one which left many seriously wounded, especially the elderly lady whose spine was broken and whose four limbs had been paralysed was now described by our bland hero as a transient episode. This occurred in his television debate on NDTV with Swapan Dasgupta on the question of whether Digvijay Singh is a loose cannon or a secret weapon for the Congress Party. He dismissed the episode and has now entered into the political game of whitewashing Digvijay Singh’s actions.
He did this primarily by fulsome praise of the staunch secular principles of Digvijay Singh and by engaging in a brazen attack on the RSS, which would put to shame even Signh’s own antics in that direction. The nation knows Digvijay Singh’s many pronouncements: Swami Ramdev is a thug, a fraud; the RSS is a bomb factory and so on and so forth.
Mani Shankar tried to pedal the old shibboleths, so shop worn that even a high school student in India would pronounce him to be a liar. The outstanding one was his reference to the RSS being associated with the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi, which even as he said it he must have known it to be a blantant lie. Neverthless he said it, so eager was he to hang on to the coat tails of his new patron. But, as we see now, he went from one blunder to another. His customary sang froid can now be shown to conceal a multitude of sins! That programme was a public relations disaster, its outstanding feature being his dismissal of the Ramdev event as a transient episode. This has been recorded for posterity in the studios of a national televison station, NDTV!
There was more to come as he narrated his baiting of Shri Advani about whether the latter considered himself to be a Hindu- Hindu, whereas the minorities were Hindu-Muslims or Hindu Christians since they were converts and so on. He also falsely accused Dhananjaya Kumar from Karnataka of having said that anyone who did not want to read the Bhagavad Gita should leave India. Shri Dhananjaya Kumar had already clarified that he did not say that (on a previous programme with NDTV’s Barkha Dutt). What he said was a well-known incontrovertible historical truth namely that the Gita is a native Indian product whereas the Bible and the Quran came from outside India. Recommending teaching of Bhagavad Gita in Indian schools (as Dhananjaya Kumar did) cannot surely be unwelcome!
The point that Dhananjaya Kumar was labouring to make was that in a colonised country the schools did not hesitate to teach the lessons of the Bible, but had not started the teaching of the native classic, the Bhagavad Gita (a point incidentally that the anchor Barkha Dutt herself made during the programme while referring to her own schooling).
But Mani droned on caught in the coils of his new found mission: to save his patron from condemnation by Hindu India for his crime of attacking a Hindu sannyasi and buy himself some political clout. He went from one blunder to the next. First, that the infamous attack on a Hindu sannyasi and his followers was a transient episode and then that his patron was a man of the highest principles!
None of this will work since Hindu India is not likely to forget that Digvijay Singh called a Hindu guru (Swami Ramdev) a thug and a fraud even while he called Osama bin Laden, Osamaji! Nor will Hindu India forget (or forgive) that he sanctioned an attack on a Hindu guru. He has tried recently to tone down his abusive speech, but no one is buying it.
Nor will Mani Shankar Aiyer be forgotten, but not exactly in the way he fondly imagines he will be remembered. And in the end, he may not even get that political reward, the mess of pottage he is hoping for.
Anger brewing against Muziris project
Left bid to rewrite Kerala history
—SC
MUZIRI Patanam or Muziris also known as ‘Pazhnam’ is an ancient port of Kerala near Kodungallur, in present Kochi-Thrissur districts. It is linked to Thiruvanchikulam, an ancient Shiva Temple, also near Kodungallur. Patanam is closely related with the seat of Chera Kings and finds mention in Manimekalai, Silapadikaram of Sangam Tamil literature.
Excavations, done few years ago at Kodungallur, revealed the rich Hindu culture and traditions of Muziri Patanam and as a capital of Chera Kings.
Informations now emerging, point to a deep-rooted conspiracy hatched by the earlier CPM regime and the left historians of Kerala Council of Historic Research (KCHR) like Dr KN Panicker and Dr Cherian, to rewrite the history of Kerala, denying any role to the Hindus.
The excavations at Kodungallu which clearly showcased the Hindu way of life during Sangam period have been buried and the Muziris port town have been shifted to nearby Paravur.
Crores from Kerala and Rs 60 crores from central government are being planned with Paravur as the focal area. The left game plan is to convert it into a centre of multi culturalism where Romans, Jews, Christians, Muslims and Babylonians settled. There is no role for Hindus. Only Vanvasis have been included.
Angered by these developments, the Hindus have formed a Muziris Heritage Protection Council and have called a meeting at Kochi on August 4, which will discuss the dangerous developments in length.
Shri Nagaswamy (Retd Director-ASI-Kerala), Dr Rajendran (UGC Prof of Archaeology, Kerala University), Shri Sundara Adiga (Renowned Archaeologist of Mysore), Shri Velayudhan Panikasseri (writer on Maritime Trade), Shri MG Sasibhooshan (historian) and Shri Aravindan Neelakandan (historian of Tamil Nadu) will present papers on the issue.
The Protection Council says this is a calculated conspiracy to alter the Hindu history of Kerala. Despite excavations going on in Kodungullur, since 1940, the KN Panicker led KCHR buried the finds. The excavations are now being done in a hush-hush manner by handpicked left fellow-travellers, who are non-profession.
—SC
MUZIRI Patanam or Muziris also known as ‘Pazhnam’ is an ancient port of Kerala near Kodungallur, in present Kochi-Thrissur districts. It is linked to Thiruvanchikulam, an ancient Shiva Temple, also near Kodungallur. Patanam is closely related with the seat of Chera Kings and finds mention in Manimekalai, Silapadikaram of Sangam Tamil literature.
Excavations, done few years ago at Kodungallur, revealed the rich Hindu culture and traditions of Muziri Patanam and as a capital of Chera Kings.
Informations now emerging, point to a deep-rooted conspiracy hatched by the earlier CPM regime and the left historians of Kerala Council of Historic Research (KCHR) like Dr KN Panicker and Dr Cherian, to rewrite the history of Kerala, denying any role to the Hindus.
The excavations at Kodungallu which clearly showcased the Hindu way of life during Sangam period have been buried and the Muziris port town have been shifted to nearby Paravur.
Crores from Kerala and Rs 60 crores from central government are being planned with Paravur as the focal area. The left game plan is to convert it into a centre of multi culturalism where Romans, Jews, Christians, Muslims and Babylonians settled. There is no role for Hindus. Only Vanvasis have been included.
Angered by these developments, the Hindus have formed a Muziris Heritage Protection Council and have called a meeting at Kochi on August 4, which will discuss the dangerous developments in length.
Shri Nagaswamy (Retd Director-ASI-Kerala), Dr Rajendran (UGC Prof of Archaeology, Kerala University), Shri Sundara Adiga (Renowned Archaeologist of Mysore), Shri Velayudhan Panikasseri (writer on Maritime Trade), Shri MG Sasibhooshan (historian) and Shri Aravindan Neelakandan (historian of Tamil Nadu) will present papers on the issue.
The Protection Council says this is a calculated conspiracy to alter the Hindu history of Kerala. Despite excavations going on in Kodungullur, since 1940, the KN Panicker led KCHR buried the finds. The excavations are now being done in a hush-hush manner by handpicked left fellow-travellers, who are non-profession.
Pak official visits Sri Padmanabha Swami temple
VHP, RSS protest secret trip
Pak official visits Sri Padmanabha Swami temple
By S Chandrasekhar
A secret visit of Pakistan High Commission official Abid Syed and his wife Nagmena to Sri Padmanabha Swami Temple in Thiruvananthapuram on the early hours of April 21 sparked a major controversy in Kerala.
As per media reports the official reached Thiruvananthapuram from Delhi on April 21, straight went to the temple, was inside for a long time and immediately rushed back to Delhi.
Already the temple is under world cynosure and threat due to the huge treasures recently discovered. This visit has also angered Hindus, since non-Hindus are not allowed inside to the temple.
As per diplomatic and visa rules High Commission official cannot leave New Delhi without informing External Affairs Ministry, Home Ministry and Home Department of the visiting state and District Collector. The Kerala Home Department had no intimation of his arrival and departure, which is a grave offence.
The RSS, BJP and VHP have strongly protested against it. VHP leader Kummanam Rajasekharan and RSS have urged the Government of India, External Affairs Ministry and Home Ministry to prosecute the official and demanded Kerala Chief Minister to ask for his reporting for questioning.
The sudden appearance of a Pak official at the treasure laden temple has created fear, anger and confusion among Hindus of Kerala, regarding safety and security.
Pak official visits Sri Padmanabha Swami temple
By S Chandrasekhar
A secret visit of Pakistan High Commission official Abid Syed and his wife Nagmena to Sri Padmanabha Swami Temple in Thiruvananthapuram on the early hours of April 21 sparked a major controversy in Kerala.
As per media reports the official reached Thiruvananthapuram from Delhi on April 21, straight went to the temple, was inside for a long time and immediately rushed back to Delhi.
Already the temple is under world cynosure and threat due to the huge treasures recently discovered. This visit has also angered Hindus, since non-Hindus are not allowed inside to the temple.
As per diplomatic and visa rules High Commission official cannot leave New Delhi without informing External Affairs Ministry, Home Ministry and Home Department of the visiting state and District Collector. The Kerala Home Department had no intimation of his arrival and departure, which is a grave offence.
The RSS, BJP and VHP have strongly protested against it. VHP leader Kummanam Rajasekharan and RSS have urged the Government of India, External Affairs Ministry and Home Ministry to prosecute the official and demanded Kerala Chief Minister to ask for his reporting for questioning.
The sudden appearance of a Pak official at the treasure laden temple has created fear, anger and confusion among Hindus of Kerala, regarding safety and security.
Narendra Modi shows what India can do
By Dr Jay Dubashi
DURING the Cold War, an American was haranguing a crowd of Russians in Moscow, but taking care not to criticise the Kremlin.
“You don’t know what is happening outside in the world, because you are not permitted to leave the country. America is now the richest country in the world and also the most powerful. The Americans are not short of any-thing. etc. etc.” he told the audience.
A hand shot up.
“Yes,” asked the American.
“What about the Blacks in America?” asked a timid little Russian.
This is what we used to call the Black syndrome. The Russians knew the Americans were surging ahead, despite what their leaders told them. But they could always embarrass the Americans by mentioning Blacks.
We have a similar syndrome in India – let us call it the Narendra Modi syndrome. Modi has done in Gujarat what no other Chief Minister has managed to do anywhere else in the country. The secularists don’t like this, so whenever Modi is praised for his achievements in Gujarat, they ask, what about the riots of 2002?
This is what the foreigners used to ask, because that is what they were told. But not anymore. They—have now suddenly realised that men like Narendra Modi cannot be stopped and must be given their due.
The Economist of London has a full page story on Gujarat in its latest issue. “So many things work properly in Gujarat,” the story begins, “that it hardly feels like India.” Sandeep Bhatia, a manager for CEAT, a tyre company, says it took only 24 months to complete the factory, including the normally fraught process of buying land. There is constant electricity, gas and abundant water. The state government, he says, kept the red tape to a minimum, did not ask for bribes, and does not interfere much now.
Gujarat accounts for five per cent of India’s population but 16 per cent of its industrial output and 22 per cent of its exports. Its growth has outpaced India’s and there is a lot of talk about exporters switching from China to India. Gujarat might play the role of industrial locomotive for the country, as Guangdong province did for China in the 1990s.
Against the charge that some people have been left behind – particularly farmers and Muslims— Gujarat can point to reasonable growth in agriculture, helped by irrigation schemes. Against this, there are the riots of 2002 in which as many as 2,000 people were killed, most of them Muslims. But Muslims have not done too badly either, as the economy has grown.
Narendra Modi has done well to invite The Economist to Gujarat and help him see things for himself. Now the secularists, who are intellectual slaves of western culture and media, will have to think twice before running down Modi as a monster. Had the piece appeared in an Indian paper or magazine, these secularists would have turned their noses at it. But it is The Economist which carries the piece, and for secularists of India, it is almost like the Bible.
I have never read Arundhati Roy because I do not like what she writes. Instead of Booker, if she had received some local prize, nobody would have looked at her book twice. But the Booker made all the difference. Sixty years after Independence, we continue to be slaves of westerners and lap up everything they do and write, particularly about us, because we always look at ourselves through the Western prism as Nehru did, long before he became Prime Minister.
Everything about Nehru was western. He studied in the West, though he never was a brilliant student. His wife died in the West. His daughter also studied in London, though she never took a degree or diploma. Nehru used to go to London and Europe every year and mix with the glitterati there, and they lapped him up, as you lap up a dog. His autobiography was published in London first, and then only in India. The rising middle class in India believed he was a Westerner, and so did he. I am a product of the East and the West, he wrote, and they all clapped. Actually, he was not a product of the East at all. He was an intellectual slave of the West, and looked at the world through their eyes. When the Britishers handed over power to him, they were handing it over to one of their own men. Nehru himself said he was the last Englishman in India.
I think we should play the same game, because the intellectual slaves of the West are still very much active in India. They run the universities, they run the media, they write the books we all read, and they contribute to foreign newspapers we all lap up. Once you get a Booker, it means you are accepted by the West, and are therefore a certified Westerner. So whatever muck you write goes, just as whatever anybody says in London or New York goes.
Narendra Modi and his government did well to invite the correspondent of The Economist and show him around. He should also invite others – if he has not done so already – and take them around. Let them meet not only businessmen but Muslim families and let them see for themselves what has happened and what is happening.
Modi should open offices in London and New York and have a dialogue with people there. This is what everybody does, why not Gujarat? Tatas had an office in London and also one in Switzerland even before the war, which explains why they have such a good image in the West. Narendra Modi has done more in Gujarat in ten years than Tatas in their entire business career. He should have a representative – an ambassador in fact or a brand ambassador – in key Western cities, not just to attract investment but to spread the word. If the secularists can do so, why not Modi & Co?
We are now operating in a globalised world, and we should be a part of this world, instead of shunning it in the name of ideology. As I have said again and again, this century is going to be a Hindu century, just as the last century belonged to the West. So why not make a beginning with a saffron flag planted right in Trafalgar Square!
DURING the Cold War, an American was haranguing a crowd of Russians in Moscow, but taking care not to criticise the Kremlin.
“You don’t know what is happening outside in the world, because you are not permitted to leave the country. America is now the richest country in the world and also the most powerful. The Americans are not short of any-thing. etc. etc.” he told the audience.
A hand shot up.
“Yes,” asked the American.
“What about the Blacks in America?” asked a timid little Russian.
This is what we used to call the Black syndrome. The Russians knew the Americans were surging ahead, despite what their leaders told them. But they could always embarrass the Americans by mentioning Blacks.
We have a similar syndrome in India – let us call it the Narendra Modi syndrome. Modi has done in Gujarat what no other Chief Minister has managed to do anywhere else in the country. The secularists don’t like this, so whenever Modi is praised for his achievements in Gujarat, they ask, what about the riots of 2002?
This is what the foreigners used to ask, because that is what they were told. But not anymore. They—have now suddenly realised that men like Narendra Modi cannot be stopped and must be given their due.
The Economist of London has a full page story on Gujarat in its latest issue. “So many things work properly in Gujarat,” the story begins, “that it hardly feels like India.” Sandeep Bhatia, a manager for CEAT, a tyre company, says it took only 24 months to complete the factory, including the normally fraught process of buying land. There is constant electricity, gas and abundant water. The state government, he says, kept the red tape to a minimum, did not ask for bribes, and does not interfere much now.
Gujarat accounts for five per cent of India’s population but 16 per cent of its industrial output and 22 per cent of its exports. Its growth has outpaced India’s and there is a lot of talk about exporters switching from China to India. Gujarat might play the role of industrial locomotive for the country, as Guangdong province did for China in the 1990s.
Against the charge that some people have been left behind – particularly farmers and Muslims— Gujarat can point to reasonable growth in agriculture, helped by irrigation schemes. Against this, there are the riots of 2002 in which as many as 2,000 people were killed, most of them Muslims. But Muslims have not done too badly either, as the economy has grown.
Narendra Modi has done well to invite The Economist to Gujarat and help him see things for himself. Now the secularists, who are intellectual slaves of western culture and media, will have to think twice before running down Modi as a monster. Had the piece appeared in an Indian paper or magazine, these secularists would have turned their noses at it. But it is The Economist which carries the piece, and for secularists of India, it is almost like the Bible.
I have never read Arundhati Roy because I do not like what she writes. Instead of Booker, if she had received some local prize, nobody would have looked at her book twice. But the Booker made all the difference. Sixty years after Independence, we continue to be slaves of westerners and lap up everything they do and write, particularly about us, because we always look at ourselves through the Western prism as Nehru did, long before he became Prime Minister.
Everything about Nehru was western. He studied in the West, though he never was a brilliant student. His wife died in the West. His daughter also studied in London, though she never took a degree or diploma. Nehru used to go to London and Europe every year and mix with the glitterati there, and they lapped him up, as you lap up a dog. His autobiography was published in London first, and then only in India. The rising middle class in India believed he was a Westerner, and so did he. I am a product of the East and the West, he wrote, and they all clapped. Actually, he was not a product of the East at all. He was an intellectual slave of the West, and looked at the world through their eyes. When the Britishers handed over power to him, they were handing it over to one of their own men. Nehru himself said he was the last Englishman in India.
I think we should play the same game, because the intellectual slaves of the West are still very much active in India. They run the universities, they run the media, they write the books we all read, and they contribute to foreign newspapers we all lap up. Once you get a Booker, it means you are accepted by the West, and are therefore a certified Westerner. So whatever muck you write goes, just as whatever anybody says in London or New York goes.
Narendra Modi and his government did well to invite the correspondent of The Economist and show him around. He should also invite others – if he has not done so already – and take them around. Let them meet not only businessmen but Muslim families and let them see for themselves what has happened and what is happening.
Modi should open offices in London and New York and have a dialogue with people there. This is what everybody does, why not Gujarat? Tatas had an office in London and also one in Switzerland even before the war, which explains why they have such a good image in the West. Narendra Modi has done more in Gujarat in ten years than Tatas in their entire business career. He should have a representative – an ambassador in fact or a brand ambassador – in key Western cities, not just to attract investment but to spread the word. If the secularists can do so, why not Modi & Co?
We are now operating in a globalised world, and we should be a part of this world, instead of shunning it in the name of ideology. As I have said again and again, this century is going to be a Hindu century, just as the last century belonged to the West. So why not make a beginning with a saffron flag planted right in Trafalgar Square!
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