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Combatting Christian Missionaries in Germany: Thank you for strengthening my faith into Sanatan Dharma

Rajani Choudhary
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Combatting Christian Missionaries in Germany: Thank you for strengthening my faith into Sanatan Dharma

I live in the German city of Stuttgart. A few weeks back, I had unexpected visitors at my doorstep. I wondered if it was by chance or I had been spotted and singled out for the honor. On second thoughts, I am pretty sure, they came specifically for me.

My doorbell rang; two somewhat old gentlemen stood at my door when I opened the door. They introduced themselves (gave their names) and started talking to me in Hindi. It was such a delight to hear a German in Germany speaking your mother tongue, but it was all very confusing. More confusing were the questions they asked me.

‘Kya aapko lagta hai ki haalat behtar hone waale hai?,’ they asked in Hindi.
Translated it means ‘Do you think that things are going to get better?’

I was too confused to answer. They repeated. I came out of stupor and said ‘yes’. After that I understood the purport of their question. They took out a pamphlet about Christianity and started to explain me how I could be saved and which was the one way the world could be saved.

They explained how becoming a Christian is the right way to make things better, while I stood stupefied and looked at the pamphlet only wondering how they knew enough about me to send Hindi speaking evangelists to my home. Did they notice me and singled me out as a soft target? They could very easily make out that I was Indian. How did they find my address, my mother tongue and other details? Some friends informed me that they had also been approached in similar manner a couple of times. The church seemed to be privy to their data as well.

Is this not a breach of privacy?

“Is there a nexus between the Church and the state for them to be able to have such information in a country obsessed with individual data privacy?’ I thought.

He explained about how Jesus was going to make things better for us and save us. He was reading from the pamphlet in Hindi.

Back home in India, a close relative has two friends who are newly converted Christians, both of them being converted in different churches. Whenever, my relative discusses stress at work or at home with them as one does with friends, they get into a contest for taking her to their very own church. As it turns out, both these wonderful people have converted when they had been under extreme stress and the Church provided as some kind of a moral support for them. That is a fair enough reason; but moral support can also be provided without being induced to convert.

The men at my doorstep promised to come visit me again with their wives, probably hoping I would be more open with and receptive to talks with other women. I smiled and they took their leave.

After this unexpected visit, I started to take cognizance of some of the overt conversion activities. In the marketplace, I had been stopped by a group who wanted me to experience extreme joy by becoming a Christian. I have seen young people standing in the center and shouting their lungs out. Their scripts are always the same. ‘Jesus is the only one who could save us. He died for us’. There are other faiths also being peddled looking for distressed souls to increase their head count. There is Quran being given out to interested candidates. One can also sometimes, albeit rarely, see the ‘Krishna Mission’ group dancing through the marketplace.

I remember having marked myself as non-Christian in my tax data form, which meant I will not pay Church tax. Digging a little deep after this incident, I found that Churches in Germany enjoy quite some privileges, in spite of the fact that Germany in principle has a separation of the Church and state. “Church Tax”, which could be anywhere between 8% to 9% of an individual’s income, is not the only entitlement churches enjoy. The state pays, out of the budget that pays civil servants (not out of the church tax), salaries of bishops and religious teachers who incidentally are not allowed to teach without the consent of their respective churches. The maintenance of buildings owned by the church costing about 450 million euro a year is financed by all taxpayers, in excess of church tax.

Churches do not have a say in state matters in Germany, but the devotion of the State to support and strengthen the Church is obvious. Can this devotion go to the extent of exposing specific personal data of the residents to facilitate efficient conversion activities of the Church? I have noticed, in daily interactions, that people in Germany in general are somewhat cautious about their personal data. Involvement of the state seemed a precarious idea.

The questions still remained, how did the Church have access to my personal data? Dipping membership had raised concerns and instigated churches to employ varied aggressive and soft tactics to attract new members. It is a possibility that the church itself employ private analytics companies, which provide such data to the church. Social media analytics has made such basic information about people quite easy to obtain and deduce. This seemed a more plausible explanation.

What is the exact truth? There is no way of knowing that without rubbing the authorities in the wrong way.

A friend involved actively in Church activities once asked me- ‘how else can you save a faith unless you convert other people to your faith or breed enough? The faith would die if you did not do these two things’. He gave examples of dwindling number of people following Jewish faith. He was statistically correct. The largest faiths, in terms of number of affiliated members, do have a history of forceful, violent, organized, treacherous and incentivized conversions.

He also subconsciously exposed the simple fact that the Church indulges in conversion to save the idea of Jesus and the power it can wield on people thereby; but this number game is no big secret anyway.

As much as I was surprised at having been a targeted customer at soul shop, I was also thankful. Since that day, my awareness and appreciation of my own faith has increased. I am more cognizant of the depth of the faith and philosophy I was born into; and now consciously choose to be a part of. I have become a more aware Sanatani.

Menace of “Cyber Terrorism”, India among top hosting nations targeted for “Cyber Attacks”

Trilok Singh
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Menace of “Cyber Terrorism”, India among top hosting nations targeted for “Cyber Attacks”

A new report, adding that the country is also among the top hosting countries for such online frauds, second only to the US. The other three countries most targeted by phishing are Canada, the US and the Netherlands, showed research from RSA Security, a Dell Technologies business that offers business-driven security solutions.

More recently, Over 90 Indian government websites and critical systems were targeted by alleged Pakistani hackers within hours of the Pulwama suicide strike on February 14. The ‘website’ of India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) (http://www.bjp.org/) went into maintenance mode after an alleged hacking attempt.

The Website, at the moment, remains down but the “error 522” message has recently been replaced with, “We’ll be back soon! Sorry for the inconvenience but we’re performing some maintenance at the moment. We’ll be back online shortly”! A Pakistan-based cyber hacker group allegedly hacked the official website of BJP Chhattisgarh — cgstate.bjp.org on February 21.

Following the trend, Imagine the website of United State president Donald Trump’s Republican Party in the “maintenance mode” for over four days after some sort of “transgression” or a full-fledged hacking. If that appears impossible, imagine this: The portal of India’s ruling BJP that was allegedly hacked, and it was still down after going into the “maintenance mode”.

The fact is that you can’t remain in the “maintenance mode” for so long, unless you are redesigning the whole portal from scratch after the data bases have been compromised, says many cyber experts. According to ethical cyber hackers, a portal that is “down” for four-five days can only be in that mode if the entire coding is being done and content being generated.

Meanwhile, IT minister Ravi Shankar Prasad did admit that the website was indeed hacked.. Prasad said that the site was hacked for a few minutes but the party was able to get control back “very soon.” He also said that there are rogue elements in the society who were behind such attacks.

While, Manan Shah, Founder and CEO, Avalance Global Solutions. “Looks like BJP is redesigning the whole website as not only the data base but the entire backup is also gone – only if the daily backups were being done in the first place – hence it is taking so long for them to up the website again”.

“Normally, the security audit in case of hacking or some sort of transgression takes two-three hours and portal is normally up within a day. This looks like serious hacking as it has wiped out everything from static and dynamic content,” he mentioned. The Congress Gujarat website was also hacked on march 06 but it was up soon.

“Some Indian hacker or group may also be behind the hacking. It appears hackers are getting active as elections are near and cyber warfare will only get intense,” mentioned Manan, who is an ethical hacker. Manan and his expertise in cyber forensics has helped Gujarat and Rajasthan police, Ministry of Defence and CBI Gandhinagar in safeguarding their platform against cyber attacks.

On March 06, Gujarat Congress website was hacked with an inappropriate content posted on it. The Chhattisgarh BJP website was also hacked on February 21.

On March 06, BJP’s IT cell head Amit Malviya has mentioned that the portal was likely to be up “by tonight or tomorrow”. While admitting that the site had experienced some sort of “transgression”, he argued that the site was down due to a “technical glitch”, not hacking.

Congress’ Twitter manager, Divya Spandana, was among the first to tweet about the malfunction of the BJP website. She shared a screenshot of a meme featuring Prime Minister Narendra Modi and German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

On March 7, Pratik Sinha who is co-founder of AltNews says “BJP website has been down for three days after being hacked. Were they not doing daily back-ups of their website/database? It would have taken only hours to come back online, if they had a recent back-up.

Did BJP fail to follow the standard practices followed by most websites?” French security researcher who goes by the name of Elliot Alderson and who published Aadhaar data leaks in the past, also tweeted: “The official website of @BJP4India has been hacked. I guess they stole the database too”.

Defining Cyberterrorism

It may relating to deployment by known terrorist organizations of disruption attacks against information systems for the primary purpose of creating alarm, panic, or physical disruption. Participating in a cyberattack affects the terror threat perception, even if it isn’t done with a violent approach.. Eugene Kaspersky, founder of Kaspersky Lab, now feels that “cyberterrorism” is a more accurate term than “cyberwar”.

There is much concern from government and media sources about potential damage that could be caused by cyberterrorism, and this has prompted efforts by government agencies such as the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to put an end to cyber attacks and cyberterrorism.

It can be also defined as the intentional use of computers, networks, and public internet to cause destruction and harm for personal objectives. Experienced cyberterrorists, who are very skilled in terms of hacking can cause massive damage to government systems, hospital records, and national security programs, which might leave a country, community or organization in turmoil and in fear of further attacks.

Thus, you can say that the recent cyber attacks at BJP-Led official web including government agencies web is a great example of ‘cyberterrorism’ in the wake of Pulwama suicide strike on February 14.

In India, Over 100 government websites, including some managed by the National Informatics Centre (NIC), were hacked in 2018, Parliament was informed in December. The websites of at least 10 ministries including those of defence, home affairs, labour and law went down for around six hours in April 2018. Also, Union Home Ministry informed Parliament last year that at least one website run by the Indian government was hacked every alternate day in 2016.

Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh said that, “commandos should also train to stamp out threats from the cyber space, apart from conventional threats emanating on the land, emerging from the seas and in the air. Hacking websites and data leaks also indirectly imperil national security”.

Despite all of this, Many academics and researchers who specialize in terrorism studies suggest that cyberterrorism does not exist and is really a matter of hacking or information warfare. They disagree with labeling it as terrorism because of the unlikelihood of the creation of fear, significant physical harm, or death in a population using electronic means, considering current attack and protective technologies.

A study by Cybercrime Ventures reveals that the cost of cybercrime damage could reach $6 trillion annually by 2021. This rapid increase in damage is due to the fact that more and more agencies – companies are shifting towards digital assets for their businesses. Hackers now have more reason to attack companies including government agencies.. To battle the growing threat, world could rely on identity management software that uses top-notch authentication methods to secure the accounts of all registered users.

Significantly, Ministry of External Affairs said India conveyed its support for the priority set out by Brazil, particularly to take forward BRICS cooperation on countering terrorism in a meaningful and concrete manner with the member countries of the group, which represents billions of people.

“India also underlined the need to take forward inter-alia people-to-people cooperation, cooperation in science and technology and innovation, and also in health and traditional medicine,” said during the first BRICS Sherpa meeting, under the presidency of Brazil, has identified countering terrorism as one of its priority areas, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said on 16 March 2019.

Jai Hind!

Exposing the misogyny in Tamil Nadu’s mainstream media

andal
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Exposing the misogyny in Tamil Nadu’s mainstream media

A dangerous trend seems to have gripped the mainstream media in Tamil Nadu. In a shocking tale of sexual abuse, more than 200 college girls are believed to have been gang-raped, filmed and coerced into high-level prostitution in the small, well-to-do town of Pollachi. Among the 1,000 odd videos that the state police have uncovered as evidence, one video has made its way to social media. The brutal rape of a young girl is being widely shared on social media platforms to ‘expose’ the criminals. But then, regulation of content on social media has always been unimpressive, hasn’t it? This isn’t the first time we’ve seen rape or porn videos being circulated widely on the internet. But what if this video was broadcast by news channels and YouTube channels of renowned media houses and personalities?

Yes, this happened. In Tamil Nadu. While prominent news channels such as News 18 and Polimer News (You can watch these videos here and here) aired bits of the video along with the audio, Nakkeeran TV was the first to release the complete video online. The one consolation here is that the video has been blurred down to not reveal the victims. However, the audio of the victim begging the rascals to leave her alone makes up for the lack of detail in the video. Is this what journalism has come down to?

As a woman and as a citizen, I certainly don’t buy the argument that the videos had to be aired for public awareness. A balanced reporting of events so as to inform and educate people doesn’t require you to telecast rape. On the contrary, it only creates a sense of paranoia among the masses and a desire to experience the video in real time in sexual deviants. It is precisely this negative pulse of its audience that these media houses seek to scavenge upon through airing these videos. In the process, they throw the woman and her rights under the wheel without the slightest hesitation.

They don’t pause to consider the fact that the victim may have a family or a social circle that is all too aware of the events. That by telecasting these videos, they make life difficult for her by pressurizing her social group. Or that she herself may not be able to move on while being constantly hoarded by these videos. And this isn’t the first time that the mainstream media in Tamil Nadu has behaved in this manner.

Most of the mainstream media in Tamil Nadu pledge their allegiance to leftist Dravidian ideology. While each political party in Tamil Nadu may have a different founder, their ideology remains the same – anti-Brahmanism, Dalit activism, caste abolition, self-respect, rationalism, etc. Each channel serves as the mouthpiece for these political parties as they spin Dravidian narratives, openly and subliminally, in all their communications. However, a core principle of Dravidianism as envisioned by one of its leaders, Periyar, is conveniently left out altogether by several mainstream media houses in Tamil Nadu – equal rights for women and social upliftment of women.

Consider this. In 2015, the popular Tamil magazine Kumudam ran a story on how leggings are indecent and are an invitation for men to ogle. The story was published with creepshots of women wearing leggings. A journalist started a petition to make the magazine apologize for its behaviour.

Other magazines have frequently recommended in the past that women must stop using Facebook to avoid trouble. (Anyone reminded of Taliban?)

Still, the front and middle pages of some of these magazines invariably feature attractive images of actresses. As actor Vivek hilariously pointed out in the Tamil movie ‘Udaya’, the front page is reserved for the woman with a ‘homely’ smile, while the middle page ought to carry a skimpily clad woman. Actress or not, these magazines see nothing wrong in reducing a woman to her body parts. Though a lot more can be read into presentations of content of this sort, the double standards of these media houses are quite glaring.

Similarly, stories that blame the victim for rape have often featured on Tamil news channels at prime time. When Tamil Nadu had its #MeToo movement through singer Chinmayi Sripada, the behaviour of male journalists in Tamil Nadu was a case in point. During her press meet, a tearful Chinmayi was publicly pounded on all sides by male journalists who questioned her on everything from her intentions, her character, to the timing of her allegations. A senior journalist, Rangaraj Pandey, badgered her on her side of the story on a prime time interview, not showing the slightest sign of remorse or shame in doing so. Rather, he seemed boastful of being able to cast aspersions on her allegations, subtly intimidating her at one point asking, ‘How dare you retweet?’.

Only because Chinmayi had made allegations against lyricist Vairamuthu who enjoys massive support from the Dravidian political community. It didn’t matter that the National Commission For Women and the National Human Rights Commission were showing special interest in looking into the #MeToo allegations emanating from the southern film industry. Or that the media fraternity’s behaviour was completely out of line with the progressive, pro-women wave sweeping across the rest of the country.  Chinmayi ended up losing her livelihood while no one batted an eyelid.

More recently, on March 4th this year, when Mahashivaratri celebrations were at its peak at Isha Foundation, Coimbatore, the mainstream media in Tamil Nadu had nothing to report about the massive event that saw lakhs of people from all walks of life celebrating the idea of Shiva. Nothing, except a fake story of a liplock between actress Kajal Agarwal and Yogi Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev. The fake news which was subsequently pulled down was published by none other than Tamil Samayam (TOI Tamil Nadu), NDTV Tamil and the likes.

No verification was done prior to publishing the story and no apology was issued after taking it down. In their hatred towards a popular Hindu spiritual Guru, they had no qualms about spreading falsehoods about the character of a woman. Rather, they used the woman to taint and tarnish a person they perceive as associated with their ideological ‘enemy’ clan.

Long story told short, the approach of several mainstream media houses in Tamil Nadu when it comes to women’s issues seems to be two-fold. One, to sensationalize, as in the case of Pollachi and Kajal Agarwal. Two, to take the moral high ground and treat women as chattel that ought to stick to a strict code of conduct. These media entities are neither professional, nor do they conform to the ethos laid out by their ideological forefathers, or learn positively from the national scene.

The only thing that seems to drive them is an insane desperation for audience engagement that would further the hidden agenda dictated by their political bosses. And nothing can be more disastrous for a state that is deeply entrenched in gender discrimination, agricultural crisis, climate change, unemployment and a serious crisis for strong leadership.

Will things ever change?

An open letter to peace-loving Pakistanis

Devi Prasad Rao
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An open letter to peace-loving Pakistanis

Dear Friends across the border,

I am an ordinary Indian, fed-up with the daily news of bomb blasts, calls for jihad, breaking-up of my country and the support for all this, from across the border in your country. What riles me the most is being told that Pakistan, the perpetrator, hosts to so many terror organizations, is actually the victim.

Statistics of terror incidents and the dead is reeled off and they are heart-rending but as Hillary Clinton said “You can’t keep snakes in your backyard and expect them to only bite your neighbours. You know, eventually, those snakes are going to turn on whoever has them in their backyard”.

Trust does not come easily when one is dealing with a repeat offender, individually or as a country. At some stage of their lives, every generation of Indians has experienced a violation of their trust by Pakistan.

Starting from 1947, Pakistan first violated its own Standstill Agreement with the princely state of Jammu & Kashmir by sending troops.

Then came the UN resolutions, where the first step is for Pakistan to withdraw, handover Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (or Azad Kashmir, as you like to call it) before we reduce troop levels and conduct a plebiscite.

The Tashkent Agreement, the Shimla Accord, the Lahore Declaration over the next decades, each specifically state that we will sort all our problems bilaterally but Pakistan then raises Kashmir at every international forum. You repeatedly violate these agreements and then you expect us to trust you for peace? Kargil happened because Vajpayee trusted Pakistan.

It is not a coincidence that Pakistan has so many UN-proscribed terror organisations, keeps hovering between grey and blacklists of FATF, so many of India’s most-wanted, gangsters, hijackers, drug-dealers find a safe haven in your country.

As per the Global Passport Index, the Pakistani passport is third from the bottom of the pile of passports, above the Afghan and Iraqi passport but below the Syrian, Iranian, Yemeni passports. Even the North Korean passport opens more doors. Have you ever introspected about these aspects?

The average Pakistani citizen is all for peace, we are told. It’s all the Pakistani Army’s fault, they control the country. The Pakistani deep-state, the ISI who cause these problems; that the Pakistani citizen wants peace but has no choice. Give peace a chance, we are told. “Non-state actors” are to be blamed, we are told. Well, a state that cannot act against “non-state actors” is a dysfunctional state. Only a nation-state that does not have investigative talent or self-respect would depend on other countries for evidence.

I would trust the average Pakistani citizen and believe them to be sincerely peace-loving if they could change these first four things:

1. Celebrate Pakistan’s Independence Day on 15th Aug instead of 14th Aug: 

“As from the fifteenth day of August, nineteen hundred and forty-seven, two independent Dominions shall be set up in India, to be known respectively as India and Pakistan.” These are the exact words of the India Independence Act 1947, by which India and Pakistan got their independence. This came into effect on the midnight of 14th to 15th August.

Mountbatten administered the oath of office to Jinnah on the 14th as he needed to be in New Delhi on the midnight hour to administer the oath to Nehru. It was an administrative convenience, as he couldn’t be at two places at the same time and so for the next few hours, Jinnah was a Prime Minister without a country, till the midnight hours.

Till 15th Sept 1951, the entire sub-continent was on a single time-zone, so India and Pakistan got their independence from the British at the exact same moment. Celebrating independence on the 14th is chicanery to ensure that Pakistan does not share an independence day with India, even if that meant celebrating it on a day when you were still a colony. I can understand jealous, immature teenagers doing such a thing out of spite, but an entire nation? For generations? Forget India, be true to the facts of your own independence and celebrate it on the 15th of August every year.

2. Celebrate Pakistan Day on 24th March instead of 23rd March:

Celebrated on 23rd March, Pakistan Day commemorates the passing of the resolution for a separate homeland for the sub-continent Muslims at the Muslim League’s annual convention at Lahore. The session was conducted between 22nd and 24th March 1940. The resolution was tabled on the 23rd and approved the next day, on the 24th.

Pakistan’s 1956 constitution was adopted on the 23rd March but it was abrogated in 1958 and the 1962 constitution, the Legal Framework Order 1970 and the 1973 constitutions were adopted on different days. This raises the question: What is being celebrated on 23rd March, a draft resolution or an abrogated constitution? If you want to celebrate the passing of the Lahore Resolution (the resolution that states that Hindus and Muslims can never live peacefully together should actually be junked to the dustbin of history but that’s a different argument), please be true to the facts of history and celebrate it on the 24th March.

3. Honour your heroes:

The word Pakistan was coined by Choudhary Rahmat Ali who, in 1948, moved from England to live in the country whose name he coined. Due to differences with the then Prime Minister Liaquat Ali Khan, his assets were seized and he moved back to Cambridge where he died in 1951, “destitute, forlorn and lonely”. His funeral was paid for by Emmanuel College, Cambridge and it took repeated follow-up for 2 years with the Pakistani High Commissioner for them to be reimbursed.

Similarly, injustice was meted out to 1979 Nobel prize winner for Physics, Dr Abdus Salam because he was an Ahmadi. His tombstone remains a joke to the bigotry he had to face. During the Kargil conflict, your country refused to take back your dead soldiers. It was left to the Indian Army to bury those who attacked them. There are many more but nothing can be more shameful that these three examples. Serving ignominy to your heroes seems to be a continuing Pakistani tradition. After all, the family of Shahaz Ud Din, the missing F16 pilot, is yet to get closure. Change this, talk about these heroes and celebrate them.

4. Make your consumer Rupees count:

The military complex in your country runs all manner of businesses, being present in shipping, bakery, cement, construction, travel, apparels, bus services and what not. You seriously don’t need military precision or discipline to run a bakery or a bus service. Every time you eat a croissant, you silently endorse the status quo.

Before the start of the Commonwealth Games in New Delhi, a footbridge collapsed and was rebuilt by the Army is six days. Just six days! In Bangalore, the army cleaned up a lake in 8 hours and achieved what the civic authorities couldn’t in years. While we were appreciative of the efficiency and dedication of our men in uniform, both these examples were a stinging indictment of the ineptness and corruption of our civil society which is for us, citizens, to correct.

The man behind the corruption of the Commonwealth Games, a former IAF pilot, a three-term Parliamentarian, an international sports administrator, is serving jail time. It is possible to make civil authorities answerable for their actions, but not military men. Interacting with your army may certainly inspire patriotism, a sense of pride. We understand that, but an Army confined to the barracks and under civilian control means the country is safe, strong and stable. Such a civilian administration is respected across the world. Want peace with India? Boycott Army-run businesses.

Building confidence is a two-way street and an ongoing process. This is a new India, we are not going to get this process restarted. The above four things by a sincere, peace-loving Pakistani citizen are a good first step that would win my support. If you can’t, then you are as complicit as the military-mullah nexus and carry no credibility in my eyes.

Elections have been announced in our country and we have better things to do than pick a quarrel with you guys.

As we say in India, Satyamev Jayate!

From a common Indian citizen.

Population Explosion 2 – The missing ‘Aadhar’

Anant Chetan
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Population Explosion 2 – The missing ‘Aadhar’

Every sixth human being alive is of Indian origin. Every third Asian is Indian. Every year India produces more human beings than the entire population of certain European countries.

We are a billion more than the current US population and almost equal to China and catching up fast.

Population in India increased from 330 million in 1947 to 1,330 million in less than seventy years.

It looks like no matter what we do we fail at solving this problem. We thought over-population is a problem for every one. At least I did. But is it really a problem for every one? Is there anybody who benefits by the population explosion?

Before we move towards the answer to this question, I had one more question to raise.

Are you sure that the population figures that we are made aware of every ten years, correct and not manipulated? Is the census reliable?

How is the census data in India collected? What is the veracity of the data collected by mere asking? Do you seriously think people are so honest that they give correct information? There are localities where people throw utensils from their roofs when the electricity  guys goes to install meters or take readings to bill them. Do you think they would tell anybody about how many kids are there in the house? These people who don’t let the medical institutions provide free vaccinations in their localities. Do you think they would tell how many people are there in the their houses?

You must be naive, if you think everyone is honest. If it was like this, we would not have a need for  lawyers. Any body who would break a law would confess by himself/herself.

Yes, there are some ways of validating the number using the electoral data, ration cards etc. Verifying births from the hospitals so on and so forth. But how many kids in India take birth in hospitals? And how many hospitals are genuine?

The genuine errors are not what I am worried about. I am worried about the intentional manipulation of the census data. I have my doubts at the census data. However, neither me nor you can prove that the data is manipulated. Simply because neither me nor you have the resources to count the population.

But there are several instances which indicate the census numbers can be and are fudged for various gains.

As an example Nagaland during 1981-91 and 1991-2001 was growing at 56.09 and 64.53 percent respectively. However the population dramatically shrunk by .47 percent as per 2011 census. According to these figures, Nagaland’s population declined in absolute terms in the absence of war, famine, natural calamities, political disturbance and dramatic changes in the socio-economic correlates of fertility. This was unprecedented in the history of independent India. The actual reason was that the numbers were inflated so as to seek greater political representation in 2001.

Different categories in Census is another motivation for data manipulation.

Did you know that in the 1871 census, the caste data was available for Hindus, Muslims and Christians? However later, English rulers along with the Christian Missionaries did not want to divide the Christians as they considered them a part of “them” and Hindus and Muslims as “others”. Later Muslim league also refused for the caste census in Muslims. Now only Hindus were left. Sardar Patel did announce that caste would not be a prominent feature in the census 1951 and onward. You should go and ask Mr. Gandhi what did his ancestors do to side line that input of a deputy prime minister.

From 1970s onward, the religious data from census started getting delayed, however more and more categories were added in the census on the lines of different castes. It is the same time when there was heavy influx of Bangladeshis. Assamese did not ask for NRC just for fun, they actually were witnessing or rather fighting the heavy overlooked illegal immigration. The government conducted mass forced sterilization in states like UP, Rajastan, MP or HP, reducing population in the name of population control whereas let the refugees settle in Bengal and other northeastern states. The government for its own vote bank tried to change the demographics of the country. Please have a look at my previous blog : Population Explosion part 1.

A recent example, how did Hardik Patel know Patidars need his help? What Gujarat witnessed last year was a result of 2011 census data where the Patidar numbers looked big enough to be treated as a vote bank. If not Hardik Patel, someone else could have exploited this, it could have been Akhilesh Yadav or Mayawati fighting for them. Now the big question: How do you know that the Patidars are 12.3% of Gujarat’s population and this number is not inflated just to create a regional imbalance so as to destabilize state government or to say BJP’s stronghold? 

You don’t!!

Since Hardik Patel is now joining or have joined Congress, you could imagine who is who in the process and who benefits the most.

Also read: Protests: Boon Or Bane For 21st Century India

In short, the congress government in last seven decades did what British did i.e. divide. I am telling you Congress ran an occupation in India exactly like the British did. The British tried to divide Hindus and Muslims on the basis of castes (Brits did not divide us as Hindus and Muslims, we were already divided, however, they did divide us on caste lines giving it an official status in the census). Congress continued dividing Hindus in castes as it helped their vote bank politics. Add more castes in the census then divide the states and constituencies based on the caste stats (officially – delimitation commission or boundary commission), inflate the numbers and rule.

When you increase the numbers in several castes and in turn an entire community, you by default reduce the percentages in other communities keeping the total number unaltered (high school ratio proportion exercise: How much water should be added to keep the concentration of salt in the solution below 15%?). This census manipulation is the only reason why Muslims in India are still not 15%. The moment they go past 15% the minority status goes away. The minority rhetoric would cease to exist. Indian National Congress always had only one agenda, minority appeasement. In the worst case scenario, a fatwa (a formal advice) could have also been issued to the community members to tell incorrect (of course less) number of kids in the house. That is undercounting achieved without even data fudging. If I could think this, somebody already did this.

Now the elephant in the room: Do you know the correct population of different communities in India?

No you don’t. Neither do I. But I am 100% sure that they are way way more than 15%.

How can we control the population if we don’t even know how much the population is? Can we do something about it?

Yes we can!

We need a system that does not include asking the questions and reduce human intervention. We need a Unique ID based census, i.e. we need Aadhar and that too with bio-matrics. Millions and millions of ghost accounts, gas connections and ration cards are already exposed by Aadhar. How? Simply because bio-matrics enabled Aadhar needs actual living person. You just can’t keep the dead alive or create imaginary people so as to achieve your political objective. Data fudging will be extremely difficult with automatic systems. Census has become one of the biggest scams in India history.

I think some people who managed aadhar cards “somehow” thought it to be just a number printed on a glossy paper. Of course fingerprints won’t match and authentication would fail. Blaming technology is easy. Aadhar is hack-able, EVM is hack-able. These are the narratives created to hide something. This is fear mongering. It works because it is a human nature to be scared of things which he does not understand. Ghosts, darkness, aliens, death are some examples of which people are scared until they start understanding them.

Now you know why a lot of Indian political leaders are crying foul for Aadhar. They know if it gets linked to ration cards, or schools or jobs, it would become next to impossible to manipulate the data and they would be exposed. Did you think it was about privacy? What privacy? Google and Facebook even know what you think. And you yourself gave your IDs, DLs and what not to a zillion people in the course of your life, the photocopy guy on the corner, knows everything about you, if he had your IDs with him.

The only way to separate census from political manipulation is by letting Aadhar do the census instead of people who are and can be corrupted easily.

If there is no caste census, how will secular parties like BSP (Dalits and Muslims), SP (Yadavs and Muslims) Congress (Muslims and Dalits and OBCs) will find which castes in which states are being oppressed? They would go out of business. Wouldn’t they? They would never want the population of their vote banks to reduce, however they would want to keep the numbers on papers minimal or just enough that it does not get highlighted. Now you know if there is anybody who benefits by the population explosion.

Also read: Mahagathbandhan: A Cry for help!!! & When or How does a child become “caste-literate”?

Even though I believe that including the caste data in census is the reason of caste based politics and should be stopped right away. But first thing is first, we need a way to correctly count the people without any tempering. “hum 2 humare 2” or “chota parivar sukhi parivar” are not working because we are shooting in the dark. We have to first get our base numbers correct so as to seriously work on population control.

This is one of the biggest reasons why you need to vote for BJP.

They are the only party willing to take Aadhar further. If they don’t get the majority this time, the census in 2021 would be done in the exact way as it has always been done in the past and we would die without knowing our correct population. By the time 2031 comes, you might actually be a minority and then Aadhar or no Aadhar would make no difference. By the way, have you heard or followed Sharia Law ever? There might be surprise waiting for you in the near future.

Thank you for your time and patience!

Philosophy of Dr. Ambedkar | Dr. B. R. ambedkar biography

punitshukla
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Philosophy of Dr. Ambedkar | Dr. B. R. ambedkar biography

Dr. B. R. Ambedkar biography– For a common man, it is quite difficult to go through the entire literature and comprehend the philosophy to its full extent. One more reason is that most of his original literature is in the English language. A third most important reason is the neglect of this genius by successive governments, he is absent from the school and college curriculums.

This youtube channel attempts to overcome this difficulty through a series of topical videos, where his entire philosophy, his thoughts and teachings, and their relevance, not only to India but to the world, are put before the audience in a systematic manner.

His entire philosophy, thoughts can be summarized in a few points which I am narrating to you.

Dr. Ambedkar says that every man should have a philosophy of life. Why does he say so?

Because, according to him, everyone must have a standard by which to measure one’s conduct in life. Thus, an individual’s own philosophy is nothing but a parameter of his conduct in life. Because he further adds, philosophy is not a mere idea or theory. It has practical applications in problems and conflicts of life.

He is of the opinion that whatever theories and principles the philosophy propounds must return to society as an instrument of religion for constructing the society.

He himself while reconstructing and restructuring Buddha Dharma, has emphasized social ethics and righteous relations between man and man. His ideal society is based on values of Liberty-Equality-Fraternity and Justice.

He has not attained his philosophy by meditating and contemplating in some solitary place. But it is borne out of his relentless struggle for human rights of the oppressed. He is a great humanist.

Ambedkar’s battle

The main concern of his thought is the man, his welfare on this earth; and in this very life. He had clearly stated at Mahad Satyagraha, and I quote, “for ours is a battle not for wealth or for power. So It is a battle for freedom. It is a battle for reclamations of the human personality”.

He fought many battles on social, political and religious fronts. He organized social movements like Mahad Satyagraha, Kalaram temple. He gave evidence to Southborough franchise committee and Simon commission participated in all the three Round Table conferences in London. His work at Bombay legislative council, assembly, his historic fight with Gandhi on the separate electorate, his fight for enacting revolutionary Hindu code Bill for the rights of the women.

While fighting for all these battles his main objectives, his only concern was the restoration of human rights, the human dignity of oppressed and downtrodden.

Philosophy of Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar:

Most people know Dr. Bhimrao Ambedkar as a Masiha of Dalits, emancipator of oppressed and downtrodden. Some bestow upon him a title ‘Architect of Indian constitution. Therefore many call him social reformer of India. Some call him a social and political scientist. Amartya Sen said, he is my father in economics. While for some of his admirers, he is modern Buddha.

Highly controversial figure of his time, and even today, the very name Dr. Ambedkar evokes both, extreme passion and extreme hatred. There is a very lovely parable, so I am sure all of you must have read it sometime or the other; and the reference of which you get in the religious literature of three religions of India, that is Buddhism, Jainism, and Hinduism.

In this parable, there are six blind men who have never seen an elephant. They try to describe the elephant by touching it.

One blind man touches the leg of the elephant and says the elephant is like a pillar. And second touches the ear of the elephant and says the elephant is like a fan. Similarly, the third one touches the stomach the elephant and says an elephant is like a wall. And the fourth one touches the trunk and says an elephant is like a thick snake. And so on.

So they are describing a part of the whole.
This parable perfectly fits Dr. Ambedkar and his thoughts. He isn’t just the emancipator of Dalits or not just the maker of the Indian constitution. These are mere facets of his thoughts and his contribution. So He has radical thoughts on whatever touches human life and its welfare, which will remain relevant for many millennia.

His thoughts on history, economy, polity, society, democracy, nation, nationalism are illuminating and enlightening. Confining him to Dalits and downtrodden is belittling him and doing a great injustice.

Ambedkar’s literature

The main reason why common Indians or even scholars are unable to comprehend him fully is that the literature of Dr. Ambedkar is like an ocean, which not only is vast but it also has more depth than the ocean. His available literature is scattered in compilations which are given in this list.

  • 22 volumes of writings and speeches of Dr. Ambedkar published by Govt of Maharashtra.
  • 12 volumes of Constituent Assembly debates
  • 4 volumes of the committee on constitution making
  • The periodicals from Mooknayak to Prabuddha Bharat
  • And some important biographies

Fight against cast system

He fought against Varna and Caste system throughout his life. The first rebel against Varna and Caste system of India, that is, Lord Buddha and other equally rebellious two great men against this discriminatory caste system i.e. Sant Kabir and Jyotiba Fule was given the status his Gurus by Dr. Ambedkar

Dr. Ambedkar was an iconoclast without parallel. There is no place for god, soul, heaven, hell, rituals in his philosophy. Change is a law of life. Everything is changing. He said that nothing is infallible. Everything must be put under the scrutiny, everything must be open for examination, with reason, rationalism, and scientific spirit.

He accepts matter in nature as real. In this way, he was closer to Materialism but still, he says no to Marxism. He maintained that religion is necessary for man. He was a socialist, he held that the individual is an end in himself.

In the Indian constitution, he made an individual as a unit and not the society. In his opinion, the main aim of the society is the full development of the individual. He was an economist par excellence. His economic thoughts not only have political or social dimensions but also have religious and moral aspects. He firmly believed that the state does not exist only to maintain law and order; or to prevent injustice, but it has a duty to create such a social and economic environment that shall make people happy and prosperous.

Dr. Ambedkar was a Pragmatist. He was very much influenced by his teacher John Dewey at Columbia, who along with William James and Charles Pierces, was one of the pioneers of the ideology of pragmatism.
This ideology emphasizes that usefulness, workability, and practicality of ideas and proposals is more important.

Buddha and his Dharma

It stresses the priority of action over doctrine, the priority of experience over fixed principles. Pragmatic action is more important to Dr. Ambedkar than idea and theory. He called upon Dalits not to be fatalistic and gave a clarion call to Educate-Agitate-organize.

 Our quotes 

This energized millions of Dalit masses who were convinced by religiously sanctioned social structures and institutions that their animal-like condition was divinely ordained, and there was no scope of any way out in this life. In 1954 while delivering a lecture on All India Radio, he said and I quote,

“My social philosophy may say to be enshrined in three words, Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity. I have not borrowed this philosophy from French-Revolution. The root of my philosophy is in religion and not in political science. I have derived them from the teaching of my Master Buddha.”

After careful scrutiny of all the religions of the world, he took refuge in Buddha. He not only had revived Buddhism in India but also restructured and reconstructed it. In 1942, he put forth the idea of New India. He envisaged New India as a Prabuddha India i.e. enlightened India.

New India that is Prabuddha India, will be modern India which is free of caste, feudalism and patriarchy and exploitation and superstition and dogma. Prabuddha India which will cherish the values like Equality-Liberty-Fraternity and Justice.

The prabuddha India will be India with the inquiry, rational and scientific attitude and scientific spirit. In his book ‘Buddha and his Dhamma’, he envisioned a new world and a new world order; which is based on morality, that is, righteous relation between man and man. I conclude my first video here. This was a brief introduction to Dr. Ambedkar and his thoughts.

When people’s aspirations are not met – What’s the use of having voting rights?

TR Madhavan
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When people’s aspirations are not met – What’s the use of having voting rights?

Before and After announcement of election notification there is frequency appeal by all political parties “A Vote Gives Voice To People’s Aspirations – Do Cast Your Vote”. But, as a senior citizen and a registered voter am sorry to state “A Vote Suppresses Voice Of People’s Aspirations”. Booth wise results declaration give upper arm to the winner, all round development becomes mere slogan in those booth segments where the winner gets lesser percentage of votes and the voters are treated as OC.

Since more than a decade the governments in the under guise of liberalisation etc have become a commercial establishments as far as middle income group is concerned. They fill the pockets as well as squeeze the pockets by different means. The governments of the day are ready to change the policies and offer concessions to BPL and reserved categories as well as incentives to industries etc. But, when middle class seek any genuine waiver or relaxation, the government seldom remain non responsive ever after repeated pursuances.

Ours is a residential complex constructed and occupied in 2000. About 700 families belonging to low and middle income group and mostly come from a minority community. When inmate occupied the premises in 2000, there was no water supply in this locality. Water supply infrastructure was made available to locality in the year 2006 and that time itself the connection charges payable to the department were found to be unaffordable by the residents. The residents repeatedly requesting the successive governments to give relaxation on connection charges amounting to several lakhs and agreed to monthly consumption charges. Neither the elected representatives fought for the genuine cause nor government responded to the pleas.

After formation of new Telangana state the resident again wrote to the new government clearly stating our request as said to earlier governments. Without properly reading any representation the concerned Minister would inform the petitioner via email or letter about his/her instructions given to concerned department. Basing on his noting the water surveyed the locality and gave final feasibility report to their concerned committee for sanction of sanction. For this, they gave us an intimation letter amounts payable under various heads amounting to nearly ₹ 1.65 crores. We sought clarification and finally the board said relaxation sought needs the sanction of the government. The government till date has not told if relaxation can be given or it is under consideration.

From past 4 years we are facing water crisis for our day to day needs. Forced to buy bore water at a higher price from private suppliers like we are buying drinking water. Even after Member of Parliament writing to the government before 2018 assembly elections and present parliament election announcement government is silent on the issue. The summer is approaching and the private suppliers will shoot up their prices which will drain our pockets. When we are pursuing our case with the government the Model Code of Conduct has become a hurdle, like it happened last November.

The Consumer Protection Act, 1986, aims to promote and protect the rights and interests of consumers. Municipal services are currently not covered under this law. The parliamentary grouping 2007/2008 had recommended all mandatory municipal services, such as water supply, be included in the Act to ensure better services to consumers. Users have got different responses or no response to different sorts of complaints. Unlike deficiencies in goods, those aggrieved due to deficiencies in essential services don’t look for financial damages but redressal of the complaint, which they expect a court to deliver.

Politicians are held accountable for the decisions they make and policies they contribute. The fact is that you are electing a government to rule the country in a democracy. Since you too are a citizen of your country, you are actually electing your rulers/government by participating in the elections.

When a government/elected representative fails to consider the genuine plea for basic amenity like water or any other alternate arrangement for provision of it, what is use of having voting rights?

The fall of Singapore- A betrayal that started the end of an empire

shthaps
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The fall of Singapore- A betrayal that started the end of an empire

“The Fall of Singapore”. The greatest disaster of the British Armed forces including the British Indian army in military history, only matched by the fall of Dhaka 29 years later, an achievement which was carried out by our Indian army in 1971. Very little is know about how the disaster happened. What was shocking was that British citizens at high places were responsible for handing over information to the Japanese for the bombing of the Pacific fleet at Pearl Harbour and the capture of Malaya and eventually, Singapore. What’s more, the information was being passed into Japanese for two decades after they infiltrated the heart of the British Government through a mole known to Churchill Himself.

During the First World War Japan had been an ally of the British. At the end of the War, Britain developed a new technology, which would change the course of history and shape a new World. The British had built the World’s first aircraft carrier, HMS Argus, in 1918, after which came another carrier, HMS Eagle. Both the carriers had interested the Japanese and they asked to inspect the new ships. But their requests were denied not one or two, but ten times, the Admiralty was convinced of their potential, and wanted to put it as a secret. But the Air Ministry and the Foreign Office saw the prospects of lucrative arms contract with Japan, so a compromise was made between the two parties.

In 1920, they sent a civil delegation of aviation experts, led by William Forbes-Sempill, also known as the Lord Sempill. He with the “Sempill Mission” as it was known went to Japan to help Japanese airmen study the new naval aviation technology, and build their first aircraft carrier, the Hosho, in 1922, after which the Japanese turned to someone who could train their pilots on the new aircraft carriers. Luckily for them Frederick Joseph Rutland made himself available. Frederick had risen from the ranks to become the Squadron Leader of the Eagle.

He was also known as Rutland of Jutland, as he was the spotter who had spotted the German fleet, and had earned the Albert medal for his duty. After 1920, Rutland decided to leave the Royal Navy and work with the Japanese, where he would work for them in building aircraft carriers and training men in using these carriers. According to him on his confession to MI-5, it was revealed that his intentions to do this work were because he thought that there wouldn’t be any war again therefore he decided to go to Japan where his company Mitsubishi was the Japanese Government itself and his office at Tokyo was just a cover for his activities.

After coming back to England, Sempill did not lose touch with his Japanese counterparts and started feeding them with every kind of technical information about the aircraft carriers, the bombs and torpedoes used by the planes on these carriers, and much more. But he had attracted the attention of MI-5 who were now looking into every detail of his moves, his telegrams, his letters, his back payments, phone calls, everything, which were going to Tejiro Toyoda, preferably his handler from Japanese Intelligence. Sempill had tried to gain information through British carrier designer Sir Tennyson d’Eyncourt and Air Vice Marshall Sir Charles Vyan, but the attempt failed. It is said that Sempill was paid handsomely by the Japanese. Sempill was questioned by MI-5 in 1926. With Sempill not admitting to the evidences MI-5 had secretly collected, it left the MI-5 in a tricky position, just when a relief came. Luckily for them, they had information from a witness regarding Sempill openly speaking on the Classified Project, Iris. He had violated the Official Secrets Act. Despite this, Sempill was left of any charge and was not prosecuted.

Thanks to their technical expertise, Japan now developed its carrier fleet, which came to be equivalent to their Royal Navy counterparts, and planned for the future invasion of different targets in the Southeast, where they focused on planting agents mostly in Malaya, particularly Singapore, through Penang. According to a treaty in 1920, Penang could be used as a dock for Japanese ships in the Southeast. Using this, many Japanese businesses came up in Malaya, and Singapore. The Japanese, using these businesses, put a web of sleeper agents all across the colony.

One of them, later revealed, was a barber at Singapore, who cut the hair of Commonwealth officials in Singapore. He turned out to be a Colonel in Japanese Intelligence. The problem faced now with the British was that they couldn’t differ between Japanese and the Chinese populace, both in Malaya and Singapore. If they did find about Japanese sleeper agents, they wouldn’t be able to trace them, as they would be interning thousands of Japanese for that. The Japs had struck at the very heart of Singapore, and the British Intelligence in the Southeast. Like MI-5 in London, British Intelligence in the Far-East was also an expert in the use of intercepts.

Earlier on the FESS or the Far Eastern Security Service had broken through the Japanese codes. But the code breakers were swamped. They had only seven people monitoring traffic for Asia, America and the Pacific, and there was no appetite in Whitehall for taking a hard line against Japan.

In 1931, Japan’s holy war had begun- they had invaded Chinese Manchuria. The British response to this worrying move was to fortify Singapore. A total of 50 million pounds turned Singapore into the largest fortified Naval Base in the world. Unfortunately, the Japs struck again, acquiring the plans of the new base, again a work of the sleeper agents, from a British serviceman, named Roberts, which could only be discovered a year later.

By 1936, British strategists believed any attack on Singapore would come by sea. However, a British Army Intelligence Officer Joe Vinden, working closely with the MI, thought that if Singapore were to be invaded, a land invasion of Malaya would be more logical, with the beach of Kotha Bharu bieng the landing zone, which was precisely what had happened on December 7th, 1941. He also adviced the British Government on spending the money more on buying new planes, but his advice was ignored. Instead, he retired.

In 1934, Sempill inherited the family title as the 19th Lord Sempill, and took his seat at the House Of Lords as a Conservative. He was also the President of the Royal Aeronautical Society. When war broke out, he joined Winston Churchill as a member of the admiralty. Although Sempill had said he would stop discussing secret matters with the Japanese,but his actions suggested otherwise, when in 1941, the Manager of Mitsubishi was arrested for spying, and Sempill assisted in his release, two days later. He was also now rumoured to be in the council of a Nazi Organisation, the ‘Link’, whose objective was to expose organised jury, and clear the conservative party off Jewish influence.

In 1941, the Placentia Bay Meeting took place, as the British Prime Minister Winston Churchill met face to face with the President of the United States of America Franklin Delano Roosevelt., on board HMS Prince of Wales. Churchill’s interest was to influence Roosevelt to join the war. Shortly after, a document classified for 60 years reveals that code breakers at Bletchley park had intercepted a wire from the Japanese Embassy at London to Tokyo, which gave a detailed account of the event. It was sent straight to the PM’s desk, where Churchill commented ‘pretty accurate stuff’ on the paper. It is still unknown about the spy behind this leak, but MI-5 came up with two names- Commander McGrath and Sempill. It was decided that Sempill was to leave his job, but Churchill decided to keep him in the admiralty.

During that time, Rutland was inspecting and photographing military installations at the American Naval Base at Pearl Harbour.He had now changed his services from technical services to espionage. He was also known among them, as a 60 millimetre moving camera. He too had come up on the FBI’s hit list, while the FBI was waiting for the opportune moment to catch him, but couldn’t, as two attacks happened on December 7th, in both the places on the same day.

Pearl Harbor

On December 7th, 1941, Pearl Harbor was attacked by the Imperial Japanese Navy. Just two hours earlier, an attack on Kotha Bharu took place, as predicted by Joe Vinden. Churchill believed that if the commonwealth forces could hold on temporarily, the Pacific Fleet would come to their rescue. But that hope was shattered when Pearl Harbor was bombed. The Japanese also bombed Singapore, destroying the British planes stationed there, shattering the hopes of any Air assistance. Soldiers all across the region were soon sent to rescue Singapore.

The British Empire sent whatever ships they had in a fleet known as Force Z, headed by HMS Prince of Wales & HMS Repulse. Both ships were bombed & sunk by the Japanese, when the tried to intercept the Japanese Fleet, due to lack of air support. On the same day, Sempill was caught on a telephone call to the Japanese Embassy. His office was searched and admiralty files were found which he was not supposed to have were found with him. Despite all this, he was never charged.

On the 15th of February, 1942, the unthinkable happened. Singapore had fallen, with over 100,000 Allied POW s. For the Japanese, it was a pleasant surprise. They didn’t know what to do with so many POW s. Back in the House of Commons, during a secret session, MPs demanded an inquiry to explain how this happened. Rutland was eventually deported to Britain, where he committed suicide, while Sempill ended up back in Scotland, still working for the admiralty. He died in 1965. Despite anything, he was never charged.

With this, men of the same cause had not only betrayed their nation, but had wounded a superpower, and crippled an empire. With this, Britain not only lost its dominance in the Southeast, but also never could become a dominant power again in the region since.

Sources:

To get China to ban Masood Azhar at UN, Vietnam is the key

Jayant Shilanjan Mundhra
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To get China to ban Masood Azhar at UN, Vietnam is the key

India needs to turn to Vietnam.

When it comes to arms exports, India, despite being the world’s largest arms importer, remains a country which has also developed some highly sophisticated defense products which have solicited tremendous demand from nations like UAE and Vietnam and several other South Eastern Tigers.

UAE has expressed a great deal of interest in procuring the Indian AKASH missiles, while several ASEAN nations, and especially Vietnam have lately been engaged in high-level discussions with Government of India for procuring BRAHMOS and AKASH missile defense systems to deploy them against the Chinese might in the South China Sea.

It’s important to them because China has been hegemonically usurping the maritime territory of the other South East Asian peers by pushing its warships, destroyers and jets farther and farther, taking over islands claimed by others, and also building artificial ones in the seas claimed by others.

Vietnam is one of the nations which have suffered the most because of these aggressive acts of China, and needs better defenses to defend what it claims to be its own land and sea. The problem is , firstly, not many nations have such advanced missile systems to defend against China, and second, not every nation with such sophisticated weaponry would be okay about going against China and selling weapons to its adversaries in today’s times.

Ergo, Vietnam and other ASEAN nations are ready buyers. However, despite so much of interest and demand for BRAHMOS and AKASH missiles, India has to this very day remained silent on those deals, taking no step forward.

Why?

Because India has always maintained its position to not engage in export of any weaponry which could escalate tensions in any region. Thus, when it comes to arms exports, India has always restricted itself to export of armaments which are very low value products and don’t provide any significant strength or deterrence in geopolitical sense to the buying nations. Missiles do.

When you read headlines like “India successfully inducts missiles with 5000 KM range which can hit Shanghai” you take notice, and you feel proud. And, if you are China or Pakistan, you straighten your back, sit up, flex your eyes and read that headline again.

Basically, you begin to pay attention.

That’s the impact a credible missile system can have on your enemy. It raises the costs of irritating someone who was until now weaker than you. It makes the enemy reassess your capabilities against theirs.

So far India has not been selling its high-grade missile systems to the adversaries of China, while China continues to be one of the biggest arms exporters to Pakistan, India’s pesky and belligerent neighbour. Also, many of these very weapons then end up being used to safeguard the terror bastions led by the likes of Masood Azhar and Hafiz Saeed in areas like Balakot and Chitkoli.

So how about India giving China a taste of its own medicine? How about India arming and strengthening Vietnam, Philippines and Malaysia, with top-notch missile systems that they don’t have today, greatly need and want, and India has readily available? Now that would surely attract China’s attention and interest, unnerve it a little and bother it a bit more, maybe enough for President Xi Jinping to dial PM Modi and ask what what would India take to stop partaking in such deals with China’s adversaries!

That is a solid move India can pursue to make China either consider allowing the UN ban on Masood Azhar, or to make China covertly push Pakistani Army and its proxy Government to crackdown on the activities of Masood Azhar and other monsters it is harbouring.

Its time India played the geopolitical game the way other players are playing it. Its time to up the ante. Its time to raise the cost for China, if it chooses to not heed to the Indian call to unleash a cumulative effort in defeating terror in all its forms. The cost of choosing condemnation over cooperation. Period.

Two-bit historians and their displays of stellar ‘scholarship’

othisaivu
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Two-bit historians and their displays of stellar ‘scholarship’

Current example: Sri Ashish Joshi, Indian Civil Servant – who operates the twitter handle @acjoshi. (it is kind of hard to imagine that the gent alleges that he has actually ‘studied’ History ages back and claims that he continues to do history. His Story, that is! But then, he likely follows the illustrious schools of fishy/’curated’ history propagated by the erudite RS Sharmas, Romila Thapars, Irfan Habibs, Harbans Mukhiyas, Athar Alis, Suraj Bhans and DN Jhas… …kind of Twistorians)

Current victims: Shivaji Maharaj & Afzal Khan.

Constant behaviors: Outright plagiarism, presenting fabricated information, spreading fake news, passing of his febrile imagination as ‘history’ and, piously sanctimonious moralizing.

Possible excuse: ‘My webpage Admin did that copy-paste’ – it is his act, not mine; so, I cannot be blamed! (if you continue to blame me, then I will use Section 295A and foist a case on you, mind you, I am powerfool!)

Current crisis: ‘TrueIndology’ has already confronted the duplicity of Sri Ashish Joshi, with fine aplomb, based on concrete evidence/sources and sane/balanced interpretation of facts. And, Sir Ashish Joshi responded with stellar balance (*gasp*). Thanks. Opindia has the details here.

Additional crisis: *this post details that*

Possible excuse for the crimes (yet again): ‘YOU are a hindutva hate monger and have a divisive mentality!’ (oh my!)

Thanks, Mr Joshi!

Now this is what the gent wrote on 16th April, 2018 on his blog, a fantastic piece of scholarship and pointing-out of facts, I agree. (Screenshot below)

Ashish ji’s pious comparison of Shivaji and Afzal Guru

And this was what was written by one Sanjana Ray (based on a talk given by Ram Punyani) on 29th November, 2017. (screenshot below – this is from the thequint.in, a web tabloid)

When you desultorily compare the above two screen shots, something of a beautiful ‘surprise coincidence‘ appears, or looms large rather, yeah?

Or is it a surprise? The scholarly liberal civil servant, the bureaucratic upholder of ‘Satyameva Jayate,’ by virtue of his cushy babudom, namely Sri Ashish Joshi has taken the matter from thequint very liberally, word-for-word and has published it as his OWN. No citations or references whatsoever.

Brilliant, I must admit. No surgical strike that anyone can dream of, can come anywhere close to this, of course!

That, this illustrious halfbaker Ram Punyani’s ideas are all cutely bunkum is another matter, which is also dealt with in detail, in the context of the Babu’s fine ‘facts’ further down this post.

FACT #1: Sri Ashish Joshi is an unrepentant plagiarist and is a habitual/repeat/serial offender. And, he displays no signs of expressing remorse or even correcting himself. (But then, why should he? Aren’t they the noble qualities of a liberal intellectual?)

Now let us look at a few specifics (am not handling all misinformation in the aforesaid articles, mind you! I have other things to do than spend my efforts wasting them on wastrel historians like Sri Ashish Joshi) of what he has coolly plagiarized & regurgitated.

“Shivaji’s mighty defeat of the giant pathan Afzal Khan is interesting. Shivaji was going to meet Khan without any weapons, but his bodyguard persuaded him to carry the famous ‘iron claws’ which came in handy when Khan attacked. The bodyguard in question? Rustam Zawan – a Muslim man. “

WHAT?

At the time of Afzal Khan affair, Shivaji had ten bodyguards. The original source ‘Sri Shivbharat’ that was composed in Sanskrit by ‘Kavindra’ Parmanand Nevaskar (a biography commissioned by Shivaji himself and later verified by him, for correctness) of Poladpur, who was a court poet of Shivaji enumerates all the names of the ten body guards at that time.

(‘yathe dhasha mahaaveerah‘ – Source page of Sri Shivbharat, with Marathi commentary by venerable SM Divekar – available off archive.org)

Of the ten, there was only one mussalman bodyguard – Siddhi Ibrahim Khan ‘Barbar.’ There was NO ONE by name ‘Rustam Zawan!’ The plagiarist Babu and his source have a nice imagination, what else!

Again, NOBODY ‘persuaded’ Shivaji to take his ‘bagh nakh’ or tiger claws – but he wore it along with a steel helmet inside his turban and a body armour inside his shirt. (but it was true that he received enough hints about the real intentions of Afzal Khan – evidence for this source, points actually to Krishnaji Bhaskar Kulkarni)

“Shivaji killed Khan, the latter’s assistant, Krishnaji Bhaskar Kulkarni, a Hindu, tried to kill Shivaji to avenge his masters death.”

Shivaji responded to Afzal Khan. He did NOT kill him. Of course he inflicted grievous injuries on the Khan.

Both Shivaji and Khan (they were supposed to be unarmed, but both were armed) had brought ten bodyguards each – and two of each group were stationed closer to the tent in which the talks were supposed to take place.

Subsequent to the bloody scuffle initiated by the Khan and responded to suitably by Shivaji with his bagh nakh and bichchwa, wounded Afzal Khan’s bearers tried to take him away – and a bodyguard (Sayyid Banda) of the Khan attacked Shivaji. Then one of the nearer two bodyguards of Shivaji – Jiva Mahala made a short work of Banda and dispatched him.

Again – the bearers and Afzal Khan were engaged by the other nearer bodyguard Sambhaji Kavji, who promptly dispatched Afzal Khan too. Good riddance.

And, Krishnaji Bhaskar Kulkarni, was ONLY a SECRETARY/CLERK to Afzal Khan and the latter used the former to talk to and negotiate with his Hindu foes. Krishnaji was NOT a soldier; also he was the one who first hinted at the possibility of Afzal Khan’s intentions, when he was negotiating with Shivaji on behalf of Afzal Khan.

Now from where does the illustrious faker of knowledge (Ram Punyani in this case) and his plagiarist cousin Sri Ashish Joshi get the idea that “Krishnaji Bhaskar Kulkarni, a Hindu, tried to kill Shivaji to avenge his masters death” –  one really wonders about the intellectual caliber of these classy entertainers and writers of hysterical whodunits, oh what to do…

Surely, the weed that they continue to smoke must be damn powerful.

FACT #2: ‘History’ as peddled by the fakers and the plagiarists are at best, pure FICTION.

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In any case, I challenge the Brave Babu Sri Ashish Joshi and the Twistory Peddler Ram Punyani to give even ONE primary source evidence that establishes their dastardly and matlabi spin.

I have this nagging question, almost always, when I encounter these kinds of dishonesty and unethical behavior by public intellectuals and prominent figures: How can any self-respecting person peddle dastardly lies, and then strut about like a virile peacock and posture – and to top it, ‘virtue signal?’

Oh well. Time to get back to my Gita.

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