Dear Kanti Bajpai,
It is with great anguish that I am writing this piece. I am not a scholar who has studied and taught in the élite institutions but an, ordinary Indian, who has earned his success thru hard work and simple living . You wax eloquently on every subject under the sun affecting India & Indians as if there is only one view, you talk perched as you are on top of the world, and I quote “Quality of good debate is essential for good & strong Democracy” but your column smacks of lies, rhetoric, intolerance & pejorative.
Your blog in Times of India titled ‘Cultural Jihad’ and dated 27th Feb 2016 abounds with a viewpoint that the élite like you have – India must be ruled as per your point of view or there will be disaster. So let us check on the two most misused words in India today – “Cultural Jihad” and their meaning how you have twisted them to serve your purpose.
- Culture – relating to the ideas, customs, and social behaviour of a society or the arts and other manifestations of human intellectual achievement regarded collectively.
Your article does not have any semblance of narrative on the rich culture of India but spews hatred towards Modi and his government, presented in the cover of Culture, Customs or Mores. It is this mindset that clearly comes out in your diatribe against Modi. You cleverly use the word Culture but unfortunately your insidious mindset is revealed.
For me, an ordinary citizen, my upbringing or culture (Sanskrit) has been developed and nurtured by my parents, gurus, institutions where I studied and worked and society at large and I am sure, this would apply, to most ordinary citizens of this country.
You wade thru almost all the topics and events used and dumped by the élite and the opposition once their use is over. Violence in Delhi/UP, churches, killings, legacy of Patel & Ambedkar, beef, verbal attacks & trolling by right-wing, so-called interference in IIT / Delhi University, appointments in institutes and now it is, Afzal Guru, Rohit Vemula, JNU and what not. To me an ordinary citizen, it is downright low-level spewing of Political venom by the so-called intellectual who cannot see anything good in the country now.
- Jihad- 1 : a holy war waged on behalf of Islam as a religious duty; also : a personal struggle in devotion to Islam especially involving spiritual discipline. 2 : a crusade for a principle or belief.
Again your blog resorts to sensationalism to showcase the acts and policies of this Government to represent a Crusade against minorities. How many times are you going to use this propaganda of false attacks – yes you are lying as the attacks on churches have been proved beyond doubt to be “quarrels or robbery or short-circuit”. Surely you will still blame the RSS for the West Bengal Nun rape, deplorable act though.
Sorry my esteemed Sir an ordinary citizen like me does not see any Holy War in the streets of India or crusade for a belief. Yes I see a Holy War in the streets of Malda or in the murder of a young man by Communists in Kerala recently or Communist propaganda in the textbooks of W Bengal or Kerala for years and by the Congress in the central textbooks.
Let us now analyse your Political Jihad thru the pen on the ordinary Citizens of this country only because they completely rejected & threw away a regime you so very well patronized albeit surreptitiously. Your élite ecosystem is being slowly dismantled and you are alarmed.
First you talk of the “Ordinary Indians”, how clever Sir, you do not represent us the common citizens of this great country, who toil hard day in & day out, who look to get decent education, find employment & lead a decent life. However, you represent only the Elite Intellectual who are far fetched from the current ground realities of Modern aspiring young Indians. You have no right to speak on our behalf, so stop your condescension and do not patronize us.
You state Sir & I quote “The comic and tragic interventions of the government in JNU hide a deeper issue – the governing party’s primary aim of ideological confrontation.”
Yes sir this is ideological confrontation – not between the governing party and the ultra-Left (Marxists & Naxalites) but between the ordinary Indian citizens and the ultra Left (Marxists & Naxalites) and the Anti India forces (the real Jihadists) who want to wage war against India. You may feel this is “comic and tragic” but to us and our children who have to earn our entry into any college or institution this war is serious. Institutions where students come to learn, are being brainwashed into hating India.
Institutes like JNU have become hubs of anti-India rhetoric and slandering. They talk of “Destruction of India” “Breaking India into Pieces” “Nation without Postoffice”. They are not 20 years old kids shouting slogans but 30 years old men and women tutored heavily to create chaos & war between its citizens. Otherwise why would they defile and besmirch Goddess Durga venerated by Hindus. Whose great secular ideology are they representing if not of the group I mentioned earlier? So this is not the governing party that is in confrontation, it is doing what every citizen expects it should do, that is, keep up the Sovereignty and Integrity of India .
Let me further explain why this government is duty bound to act. Have you even bothered to check what is being taught in our schools. Students are taught that Bhagat Singh is a terrorist, Lokmanya Tilak is an Extremist, 2nd standard students are told about the miracles, lessons on Gujarat riots show how Hindus massacred Muslims in Godhra. This by the previous UPA government and one can go on and on. You never spoke of this nor did you raise your voice when the Leftist historians distorted our history. We as kids never knew about Sulaba Sutras 400 years before Pythagorus, nothing about Aryabhata, Brahmagupta, or Bhaskara or about Shushruta Samhita, no mention about this anywhere in our history. Again I can go on and on. You did not shout Cultural Jihad then, but now you find India “polarized and pulverized”, how farcical can you be.
You have raised some issues about appointments and mentioned Anil Kakodkar resigning but you do n mention how this great scientist pushed a name for an appointment without the person applying for it or being interviewed and felt slighted when questioned by the HRD minister. Did you bother do check with the HRD Minister as you are Professor and Dean yourself? No you did not, because Truth was not what you wanted but only lies to beat and criticize Smiriti Irani and to prove that a right-wing lowly educated woman cannot occupy the position of HRD Minister. Shame on you professor, you stoop too low.
I have only picked some of the points you have raised and can counter every statement or event with facts to show the lies and innuendos you state, without any proof.
Finally I can only say please come down and meet the ordinary citizens of this country. You are insulting the ordinary citizens of this country, so stop using us as a cover for your élite propaganda. The facts will tumble out and sooner or later you will be exposed.
Satyamev Jayate – Truth alone Triumphs
