Sunday, October 20, 2024
Home Blog Page 865

Ayodhya and JNU Historians – A Case Of Ultimate Disruption

0
Ayodhya Excavation Graphic
Ayodhya Excavation Graphic

It has been a misfortune for JNU having become an establishment that is involved in perhaps all such activities those raise questions on its very need of  existence as an academic institution when it comes to contribution to the education field in Indian society. JNU possess a peculiar character full of anti-Hindu and anti-India vibes surprisingly amidst the universities of Delhi and India.

Though of course not all students or professors would be supporting anti-India activities or even indulge in any political games or agendas; sadly the leftist design since JNU inception has produced so great a following in press, media and in various positions across society that the dominant trait of being a bastion of communism becomes visible.

When it is quite embarrassing to discuss about where our Indian Technology and Business Management institutes and universities stand worldwide, it would be next to impossible to find out what  contribution in terms of research and development or innovation has been from JNU. How many scholarly, nationally or internationally, acclaimed research papers or anything that can be put forward does exist as comprehensive reference for studies in political science, social science acknowledging all counter view scholars, ideologies and trends.

The pro-Afzal sloganeering in February 2016 put a limelight on the JNU and related machinery who have been running a vicious propaganda of instilling and sustaining JNU air with anti-India and anti-Hindu sentiments and ideology. The devastation that the JNU based communists have done is multi-faceted.

 

KK Muhammed,who has recently revealed role of JNU historians in Ayodhya case
KK Muhammed,who has recently revealed deplorable role of JNU historians in Ayodhya case

Take the case of Ayodhya. In his autobiography in Malayalam, Njan Enna Bhartiyan (I an Indian), former regional director of ASI, Dr. KK Muhammed says that had JNU based and left historians not involved in Ayodhya case, Hindus and Muslims could have reached amicable solutions quite earlier. There were greater chances of peaceful resolution of this long disputed case till left historians meddled in this episode.

He mentions in his book that historians such as Romila Thapar, Irfan Habib and many historians came with a theory that there was no mention of the dismantling of the temple before 19th century.There are plenty of indications suggesting that left historians did  almost everything for keeping the fire of dispute of Ayodhya forever burning. There has hardly been any archaeological, academic, historical evidences to support the whims presented by left historians. Seeing the illustrious career of KK Muhammed, the claims in this book must be discussed at large by the mainstream media, but there have hardly been any discussion on this till date quite surprisingly. The reason is obvious. Majority of mainstream media and universities have inculcated left oriented, anti-Hindu mindset that is extremely uncomfortable in speaking truth. The leftist historians being supremely allergic to Hinduism have been the proponents of mess created w.r.t. Ayodhya case.

 

Renowned Indologist Koenraad Elst throwing light on history and political scenario with Ayodhya on focal point
Renowned Indologist Koenraad Elst throwing light on history and political scenario with Ayodhya as focal point

In his 1998 research papers regarding Ayodhya case, prepared for World Archaeological Congress, renowned indologist Koenraad Elst also  mentions that non temple sides especially represented by left historians were devoid of any evidence. The Ayodhya case around 1989 was about to reach on conclusion.

Without a substantial ground, a pamphlet by JNU ‘The Political Abuse of History (Delhi 1989) was put forward. The anti–India and anti-Hindu DNA of Left historians did no help to strengthen secular fabric of this country. Rather, many of the events that could lead to Hindu-Muslim conflicts post 1989 can be attributed to this disastrous intervention with a complete political mal-intention of JNU-led historians.

The whole Left establishment ignored the evidences by ASI and also never taken into account the work done by renowned writers, historians and scholars such as  Dr. Harsh Narain, Dr. AK Chatterjee, Prof. AR Khan, Sitaram Goel and many.

The 1989 JNU pamphlet was an example of intellectual bankruptcy and deceit to history and the people of this nation especially to Hindus and Muslims. The secular corrupts were again in a full swing throwing certificates about the views of these ‘eminent’ historians. What could have  been  expected from the historians who were keen enough to save an invader Gazni by saying that he was interested in wealth of the inhabitants and not in demolishing and insulting religious feelings of the people he invaded upon.

The deliberate lies presented by historians such as Romila Thapar and many  in the pamphlet published was an utter disregard for basic sensibility and scientific dating. The name of the pamphlet was perhaps greatly justifying the actions of JNU co-incidentally, it was indeed a political abuse of history.

Prof. Raman from Madras University Archaeological Dept. had also supported the findings and observations by Dr. Lal regarding mandir remains found in excavated site. Indologist Iravatham Mahadevan also opposed the JNU historians’ lack of regard for Prof. Lal’s findings about temple remains found and suggested that the distorted versions were in real an abuse of what is found in reality. Dr.Mahadevan was supported by KK Muhammed.

When there was an attempt by JNU historians to suppress the evidences of mandir pillars during the excavation site, KK Muhammed , deputy superintendent archaeologist (who was mentioned earlier in this article for his book) had written that  he was the only Muslim present during Ayodhya excavation in 1976-77 under professor Lal  and had seen the excavated pillar portions. He also further states that Ayodhya to Hindus is as holy as Mecca is to Muslims and Muslims should respect feelings of their Hindu brethren and voluntarily handover Ayodhya structure for Ram temple.

Many a left leaning historian also came up with highly imaginative fabrication of Buddhist sites in Ayodhya and absence of any such mandir present. The fantasies stoop so low that it was also written in the English newspapers that Brahminical orders had destroyed Buddhist sites and there could be a Buddhist site remain before mosque!

Leftist Historian R.S Sharma who had his book ‘Communal history and Rama’ s Ayodhya’ published in 1990 was criticized by Dutch indologist in a response saying ‘….Sharma’s work are in fact so thin that one wonders why, for so long, Sharma’s colleagues have called his work ‘pioneering’!

Perhaps all leftist historians had shown a tendency of vehemently disregarding not only different arguments and point of view, but also not accepting evidences. It was a systematic hype and loud outcry that they succeeded in presenting facts and evidences as just myths. The press and media were all at their feet to serve the best in making the rift between Hindu and Muslim community even wider.

The blatant lies also resorted to the rhetoric compounded by ultimate ignorance and arrogance. It has been India’s misfortune that since independence hold of Nehruvian scholars and leftist ideology on history has taken heavy toll of healthy versions of history. The leftists have been intolerant of accepting any differing viewpoint or even respecting the right to dissent.

India perhaps would be the only country where her own history has been twisted the most by strong political motives till date. Secularism has become the most radical ideology with a chief goal to defame Hinduism and India at large. The academic institutions those thrive on the Indian govt’s funding must be put under scrutiny and regular periodic audit mechanism that how the institutions are performing. It is high time to scrutinize whether academic bodies are doing and delivering what they are meant for. The ‘non-performing units ‘ those indulge in political abuse and even in anti-national actions should be barred from all govt. assistance and should be exposed enough.The hard earned money from the sweat and toil of Indian people are not meant to  be wasted upon something that behaves itself as a country inside an Indian nation and is keen enough to make India socially and politically unstable.

References:

Writings in ‘Ayodhya and After’ by Koenraad Elst and from ‘I, an Indian’ by KK Muhammed. Image sources: Bharatbharati

Minimum Government, Maximum Governance – Execution Critical

0

“Minimum Government,Maximum Governance” this is not only a slogan but it is a mechanism for a successful democratic government to operate. It means the delivery of people oriented schemes to the ground level with maximum efficiency and transparency coupled with minimum hurdles and roadblocks.The BJP led NDA aka “intolerant saffron government” has been quite successful in putting a transparent mechanism in providing people-friendly governance so far.

Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, a revamped version of Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan has been able to bring a behavioural change in the mindset of people and society. They have understood the importance of clean environment and society and have become very active in ensuring the cleansing of the places where they reside. To put the onus on municipalities and to secure their friendly attitude towards waste management,the government has introduced a “Swachh Bharat Ranking” to rank the individual cities on the basis of their waste management. It acts as an incentive to push the state government and municipalities to do better in waste management in order to achieve a good rank.

Make In India,the programme that seeks to increase the share of GDP through manufacturing up to 25 percent by 2022 could be a real game-changer in the context of Indian Economy. It will generate employment, boost export and most importantly will lead to industrial development which is the traditional pre-requisite for any successful economic transition to happen. The dashboards recently unveiled to monitor the progress of Make In India and the ranking of states on basis of EODB will further fuel the development of transparent conducive environment for doing business.

One of the very important policy agenda of this government has been the rural electrification programme via Deen Dayal Updhyaya Gram Jyoti Yojana.The basic motto of DDUGJY is the feeder separation of agriculture and non-agriculture feeders and strengthening of transmission and distribution network. Rural Electrification has the potential of transforming village economy and society and will be the main tool in ensuring the success of Shyama Prasad Mukherjee Rurban Mission (Smart Village Concept). The creation of GVA (Grameen Vidyutikaran Abhiyan) app gives the data about the amount of electrification done and lists the villages yet unelectrified. This constantly acts as a pressure for the concerned agencies to yield result in a time bounded manner.

SAGY is another scheme oriented towards development of villages through augmentation of fund at the village level itself. The thrust is on making the model villages in a way that the development mechanism could be copied by other villages as well. “Samanvay” web portal has been developed for effective monitoring of the scheme. Steering committees at state and central level have been created as well, for assessment of the scheme. SAGY,DUGJY,SPMRB,PKSY are some of the schemes that can perpetually transform the fate of rural India, if implemented extensively.

We strictly need to move beyond “Scheme Raj” and try to implement the schemes effectively at the ground level rather than announcing new schemes every other day. The government should merge the schemes and policies that deal with similar developmental prospects to ensure abandoning of resource wastage through multiple channels. The government should work out every possible way to reach out with opposition parties to push forward the pending development legislations in the Rajya Sabha. If the “intolerant saffron” government is successful in bringing about reforms through legislations as well, it could be an unprecedented development transformation in the 7 decades of free India.

Girls under Boko Haram’s captivity are volunteering to die as suicide bomber instead of living as sex slaves

0

According to CNN’s report, Boko Haram gives two options to kidnapped girls. They can either work as a sex slave and sustain all kinds of atrocities, or, choose to become a martyr (suicide bomber).

UNICEF, United Nations Children’s Fund recently released report focusing on the use of children in terror attacks. This study clearly indicates that Boko Haram mostly used girls as suicide bombers in West Africa during the last two years. Initially, experts believed that young girls were brainwashed to become weapons. However, truth seems to be much more horrific. Careful investigation has revealed that girls are willing to become bombers instead of allowing terrorists to use them as a sex toy.

BOG

Boko Haram militants abduct young boys and girls from Cameroon and neighboring Nigeria. Young male children are forced to work as domestic workers and are even trained to use explosives, guns. Young girls are forced to work as sex slaves (after forcefully converting them to the peaceful religion) and cooks for Boko Haram’s fighters.

Surprisingly, they are targeting Muslims as well as Christians. This seems completely different from what their counterparts do in Nigeria, as they target mostly Christians in Muhammadu Buhari’s country.

World’s super power has preferred to ignore them

A young girl, who cannot be named, recently interacted with journalists at North Cameroon’s Minawao refugee camp.

“They came to our village with guns and told us they wanted to marry us. We said no, we are too small. So, they married us by force,”-said the 14-year-old girl who recently interacted with reporters. Boko Haram terrorists had kidnapped her and she was kept in Sambisa forest area.

“All of the kidnapped girls were frightened, they were constantly crying. Men raped us all the time. Boko Haram leaders would ask us if anyone would like to be a suicide bomber, and girls would start shouting, me, me, me. Girls were even fighting to become a suicide bomber. Just because they wanted to run away from Boko Haram,”- said the girl while interacting with reporters.

cmg

She also pointed out that captive kids thought they would become a suicide bomber and get their bombs removed from soldiers after running away from Boko Haram. Some of them were successful in doing so.

One of the refugees at this camp, Falmata Ibrahim highlighted the point that people who manage to free themselves from clutches of Boko Haram also face a lot of difficulties as others look at them with suspicion.

Life remains difficult for these kids even after getting out of Boko Haram’s clutches as they fail to get proper rehabilitation and counseling to deal with the psychological impact.

Libtards offer cover-up instead of highlighting Boko Haram victims’ plight

Boko Haram forces children to sustain all kinds of atrocities. Lack of media coverage and United Nation’s ignorant attitude towards terror groups operating in various parts of Africa are factors that are indirectly helping Boko Haram. The terror outfit aims to take over entire African region and establish Sharia law. But Americans are not even willing to accept the reality so that they can win few votes.

HC

Authorities from the United States and World Human Rights Commission are probably busy reading crappy stories about what clock-boy Ahmed Mohamed is doing in Qatar. They cannot see Islamic terrorists burning kids alive in African nations.

BH

Boko Haram also made it in headlines recently after releasing video featuring some of the girls that the group had kidnapped from Chibok town, Nigeria in 2014. Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari took over office after defeating Goodluck Jonathan. Buhari has taken impressive steps to control corruption, but his plan to fight Boko Haram still lacks the required momentum.

Would progressive liberal intellectuals like Leslee Udwin, Indian journalists like Barkha Dutt, Mitali Saran, Anish Kapoor, and Karan Thapar write columns about atrocities that these girls are facing? Will Kabir Khan ever make another Bajrangi Bhaijaan that shows Bajrangi entering Cameroon and Nigeria to help those girls get back home?  The latter might happen, but libtard journalists from India and around the world would never criticize Islamic terror outfits.

Why Barkha’s limitation of journalistic skills to moderate a debate was exposed at Women in the world program?

0
  1. People don’t want anchor to give sermons and lecture but they expect moderator to facilitate the debate.
  2. People don’t want moderator to take sides but expect them to be neutral and equi distance.
  3. People in US when talks about Islam, Hinduism is not its opposite. So if you want to balance a debate and want to counter Islamic liberals, and talk about Hinduism evil, people in US can’t relate it. Because Barkha didn’t realize Hindu-Muslim is talked only in India and not in other parts of the world, she was looking fool. There it is Muslim v/s. Christian or Jews or so on.
  4. She fails to focus on subject and forgotten she was not on NDTV where she can spin. She was rightly snubbed by Ayaan to remind her to focus on subject and don’t spin. Barkha kept on talking irrelevant things about India which had nothing to do with the subject being debated.
  5. She lost the plot and became laughing stock by giving an example of Indian child marriage. The panel, Ayaan was talking of legality of child marriage in Islam like Saudi whereas Barkha was talking about illegal child marriages in India to balance. The other panellist was smart and she gave a correct reply by citing laws in various Islamic countries where minimum age of marriage is fixed.

In their fight, have BJP and AAP forgotten who the real enemy is?

0

In 1980, members of the erstwhile Jana Sangh reconvened to form the BJP – the predecessor Jana Sangh was merged with several parties to form the Janata Party to defeat the incumbent Congress party in the 1977 general election after the state of emergency imposed by Indira Gandhi in 1975.

32 years later, in 2012 another party was formed out of a popular India Against Corruption movement and with an aim to defeat incumbent Congress Party in 2014 state election led by 3 times Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit.

While it took BJP 19 years to give a first non Congress government at the Centre that completed its full term, AAP targeted just Delhi and was successful in its first attempt.

Both the parties, BJP and AAP, caught the imagination of people and offered an alternative to Congress. Both the parties currently have a charismatic leader in the form of our Prime Minister and Delhi’s Chief Minister who appeals to a set of people/electorate. One leader got applauded for campaigns like Make in India and Stand up India and other got applauded for odd even scheme to decongest Delhi roads. Both leaders connect well with the middle class and people have found their idols in them.

Even after 69 years since our independence, we still have not been able to provide drinking water and electricity to our people, thanks to the Congress led rule of almost 60 years. Now, BJP at the Centre aims for 100% rural electrification by 2018 (http://powermin.nic.in/) and PM’s special interest in renewable/clean energy looks promising to achieve that goal. On the other hand, Delhi’s CM aim of providing water to Delhi’s residents looks like a poll promise being fulfilled. Despite their respective efforts, there are detractors and critiques for both these parties and their leaders but yet no one can question their genuineness and intention to work undeterred.

There is a significant middle class population which is fed up and are against Congress and other regional parties, but still do not align themselves with either BJP or AAP due to various reasons. Therefore, most of the ‘Anti- Congress’ people have become either ‘Pro-BJP or Pro AAP’ but not both and thus the support gets divided.

BJP need to realize that Congress doesn’t need to win 273 seats in next general election, they just need to stop BJP from winning 273 seats. After all, there are not many strong allies left in NDA, and Shiv Sena might also leave them anytime soon. And AAP needs to be clear if they want to form a second, third, or fourth front with Congress at the core and their next litmus test would be Punjab assembly elections where a fractured mandate could make their position clear.

Therefore, some questions will have to be answered from both sides – Why BJP is ready to enter into any alliance or wants to induct rebel MLAs or tainted politicians and why AAP have to support Mamta in Bengal, convicted politician like Lalu in Bihar who is even barred from contesting elections and Kanhaiya Kumar in JNU.

Both BJP and AAP should ask a real question to themselves on who is the real enemy? Is it AAP and BJP respectively who have some genuine intention to develop this nation or Congress who after 60 years in power could not even provide basic amenities and have divided people in the name of appeasement politics. After all, even NDA -1 from 1999-2004 took India to the path of development, the benefits of which were reaped by UPA-1 for a long time.

Due to this animosity between BJP and AAP, it has now become the compulsion to oppose each other. Both BJP and AAP are doing some great work but spending more energy and efforts in mudslinging and to malign each other.

Have both these parties forgotten the very reason they were formed and how people have trusted them to deliver growth and development for this nation. Is it AAP Vs BJP or is it corruption Vs Anti corruption, Development Vs Non development, Nationalism Vs Anti Nationalism, Non appeasement Vs Appeasement?

Why can’t both parties work together to fight common enemy in the form of corruption and poverty and form a formidable partnership like Tendulkar and Sehwag, who set numerous records together and took Indian team to glory and were obviously a delight to watch.

This might be a contrarian view but definitely worth giving a serious thought about it!!!

जय भीम

0

मैं कोई ब्लॉगर या लेखक नहीं हूँ लेकिन अंबेडकर जयंती है और सब कुछ ना कुछ लिख बोल रहे हैं तो मैने सोचा मैं भी हाथ पाँव मार लूँ, कोई शीर्षक नहीं सूझा तो ‘जय भीम’ लिख के काम चला दिया। लिखने के लिए कलम उठाई तो ध्यान आया फ़ोन में टाईप करना है कलम नहीं की-पैड उठाना चाहिए। उठने-उठाने की बात से याद आया कि आज मैं ज़ल्दी उठ गया था, आदरणीय राहुल के शब्दों में कहूँ ‘this morning i got up at night’ क्योंकि कन्याभोज करवाना था माँ सुबह सुबह ही दहाड़ने लग गई थी।

चलो मुद्दे पर आते हैं, अंबेडकर को सामान्य जनमानस ने कभी समझा ही नहीं या यूँ कहे कि समझने दिया ही नहीं गया। दलित-गैर दलित, नीला झंडा लाल झंडा आदि में ही उलझाए रखा। हमें पूरी ज़िंदगी स्कूल में नेहरू का समाजवाद, गाँधी का समाजवाद, लोहिया का समाजवाद और साम्यवाद ही पढ़ाया जाता रहा कभी किसी ने अंबेडकर का पूँजीवाद नहीं पढ़ाया। जब गाँधी ने कहा ‘भारत गाँवों का देश है’ तो अंबेडकर ने जवाब दिया ‘तो क्या हमेशा गाँवों का ही रहना चाहिए कभी अमेरिका या युरोप नहीं बनना चाहिए’। ज़बरदस्ती स्कूलों में हमें समाजवादी बनाया जाता रहा, अंबेडकर का उतना ही हिस्सा पढ़ाया जितने में समाजवादी विचार था। हमें कभी नहीं बताया गया कि उनकी पार्टी RPI पूँजीवादी थी। यहाँ तक कि USSR की गोद में बैठी तत्कालीन नेहरू सरकार उनके पूँजीवादी विचारों की वजह से उनको अमेरिका का एजेंट बता रही थी।

अंबेडकर ने कहा पूँजीवाद के बिना हमारी कई पीढ़ियों के जीवनकाल में दलितों का उत्थान नहीं हो सकता, जबतक उद्योग नहीं आएंगे तबतक दलित भूस्वामियों का दास रहेगा। जिसदिन उद्योग होंगे तो वह उन ज़मीनदारों की दासता से अाज़ाद होगा वह पैसे कमाएगा, वह माँगने वाले से खरीदने वाला बन जाएगा।

बहुत कुछ है कहने को लेकिन फ़ोन की स्क्रीन पर उंगली रगड़ रगड़कर और लिखने का मन नहीं है लेकिन अब इतना लिख ही दिया है तो अगले पहरा में बात का सार लिख दूँ। कम लिखुंगा ज़्यादा समझना

हमें देश को अमेरिका बनाना है या क्यूबा? हमें देश को उत्तर कोरिया बनाना है या दक्षिण कोरिया? हमें देश को 1978 से पहले का साम्यवादी चीन बनाना है या उसके बाद का पूँजीवादी विश्वशक्ति चीन? हमें देश को नेहरू का भारत बनाना है या PV नरसिंहा राव का भारत? यह आपके विवेक का फ़ैसला है और मैं आपके विवेक पर ही छोड़ता हूँ लेकिन एक बात ज़रूर कहुंगा अपनी मनपसंद पार्टी का संविधान नहीं तो कम से कम wikipedia पर ideology ज़रूर पढ़ना अगर वह आधिकारिक रूप से Left या center-left हो तो मान लेना वह अंबेडकर के विचारों से सहमत नहीं है और उनके नेताओं द्वारा अंबेडकर का ज़िक्र छद्म अंबेडकरवाद है।

धन्यवाद

It is not JNU vs NIT, but Kanhaiya Kumar vs Who?

0

After being denied entry in Srinagar, Anupam Kher lamented— rightfully so—why the media, which had eulogised Kanhaiya Kumar in the JNU issue, was silent on the attacks on non-Kashmiri students at NIT.

The answer is in his question itself.

Kanhaiya Kumar. The ‘5 ft. 7 inches, innocent faced’ Kanhaiya Kumar. That his family earned a meagre Rs. 3,000, his father was paralysed, his mother was an Anganwadi worker, etc., were useful add-ons, which would insulate him even from a murder.

Good or bad, beautiful or ugly, genuine or fraud—does not really matter. All that media needs is a face. Consider the recent cases.

Intolerance debate could not sustain the momentum so long as it rested on ‘attacks’ on churches. Of course it served the limited purpose of helping Arvind Kejriwal win the assembly elections. But then, it fizzled out. Barkha Dutt’s desperate attempts to ‘connect the dots’ fell flat. Why? Because it did not have a face. People judged the issue on merits. Rupa Subramanya was able to counter the motivated media coverage with facts. Even hard-core secular journalists like Sagarika Ghose had to admit— of course, much later— that the media had ‘jumped the gun on church attacks’. But the moment intolerance debate got an Ahlaq as the face, facts took a back seat. Eyewitness account that the meat was found far away from Ahlaq’s house and that that the incident might have happened out of personal grudge did not deter Nayantara Sahgal et al from surrendering their awards.

Ghulam Ali and Sudheendra Kulkarni are other faces that etched the intolerance issue permanently in the collective memory of the nation.

Let us move to another issue: crime against women. Media’s frenzy for a face forced it to report Jasleen Kaur’s story and Rohtak sisters’ version as gospel truth. It is a different matter that these cases ended up embarrassing the media finally. But who cares about embarrassment these days in media? All that matters is ‘eyeballs’ which the media gets in plenty with a face. Suppose the media does a story on the crime against women by interviewing assorted women from faraway villages in UP and Bihar. Who would watch the documentary?

So, it is a face which makes a documentary into a story.

Consider the anti-Anti-corruption agitation of 2011. The agitation, by itself, would not have taken off if it had not been for the faces of Anna and Arvind Kejriwal. That the movement eventually fizzled out and burdened the country with a liability in the form of Arvind Kejriwal is a collateral damage. But the media got what it wanted—eyeballs.

Now come to the NIT issue. Kashmiri Muslim students celebrated India’s defeat in the ICC 20 World Cup tournament on March 31st. Non Kashmiri Hindu students objected to it and were promptly beaten up. What did the non Kashmiri students do next? ‘Undaunted by the physical hurt’ they hoisted the national flag and chanted ‘Bharat Mata ki Jai.’

Here is the problem in the whole episode. Who objected to the celebrations over India’s defeat? The faceless non Kashmiri Hindu students. Who hoisted the national flag and chanted ‘Bharat Mata ki Jai’? The same faceless non Kashmiri students. How do we expect the media to be interested?

The left liberals have been dominating media space since independence. They know how to find a face in the absence of one. Take the FTII students issue. The students objected to the appointment of Gajendra Chauhan as the Chairman of the Institute. In this story, there was no particular student leader whom the media could eulogise. Gajendra Chauhan, in spite of his ‘limited artistic abilities and dubious capabilities’ and questionable ‘creative credentials’, was not one the media would be happy making the ultimate villain of. It had to be someone better, someone more charismatic. Who else but Narendra Modi and his ‘right wing agenda.’

It is a fact that the secular, liberal journalists will have an upper hand in this game, but the right-wingers have to learn this fast. And what has been their performance so far? Pathetic. Even when they had a face like Prashant Poojary they could not generate enough outrage against the gruesome murder.

Right wing has to learn more. One Anupam Kher or Vivek Agnihotri is not enough. It needs more.

Why burn the Manusmriti?

0

Constantine the Great was a Roman emperor who ruled in the 3rd and 4th centuries. He was the first Roman emperor to embrace Christianity and his rule is widely considered epochal for the wide ranging financial, social and military reforms enacted by him. He is also credited for basing his administration over codified laws. Here is what he ordered as punishment for rape:

If the female had consented, she should be punished along with the male ‘adbuctor’ by being burnt alive. If she had not consented, she was still considered an accomplice, “on the ground that she could have saved herself by screaming for help.” As a participant to the rape, she was punished under law by being disinherited, regardless of the wishes of her family.

Based on current jurisprudence across the world, the rape law of Constantine I is beyond barbaric. Is it thus justified if his laws were used as a tool to denigrate modern day Christians and label them as regressive? Is it justified to destroy his edicts? The answer is clearly in the negative to such a puerile suggestion – How can we apply modern day notions of justice to the laws that are more than 1500 years old?

Something very similar is being done in India by some political parties – Burning the Manusmriti as a symbol of condemnation of ‘Brahminical oppression of dalits and women’. Manusmriti is a set of laws that is widely believed to have come into existence more than two thousand years ago – much before Constantine I codified his laws. This article is not about a discussion about the laws of Manusmriti and their relevance in modern day India, but here is a line worth mentioning: ‘यत्र ना्यरस्तुपूज्यन्ते रमन्ते तत्र देवता:’ – The gods reside where a woman is worshipped. The punishment of rape was never for the victim – only for the perpetrator.

Take a random sample of Brahmins and ask them what they feel about the Manusmriti – a text that the Brahmins allegedly swear by and want to bring into existence in order to maintain their supremacy over the lower castes. An overwhelming majority would never have heard of it, or only heard of it due to news articles reporting somebody burned one of its copy. There is hardly anybody who views it as a sacred text.

The extremely few who have read it will probably also tell you that it is a Smriti – so it is not set in stone. Ask them to elaborate and they will tell you that Hindu scriptures have two broad divisions – Shrutis (divine revelations to saints) and Smritis (social laws). The Vedas form the Shrutis. The Hindus consider them to be cosmic/universal laws that cannot be changed. Smritis on the other hand, are laws that reflect the zeitgeist of the time they were composed in. As such, they are dynamic and amenable to change. Think of them like the Constitution of India. It can be amended any time.

Thus, trying to drive a wedge between the so called lower castes and the upper castes using the Manusmriti to denigrate any organization or individual is flogging a dead horse. The Manusmriti in its present form never really had any big emotional/cultural value to the followers of any sect of Hinduism. It rose to prominence mainly because it was one of the first ancient Indian scriptures to be translated during the British occupation of India – by the philologist William Jones. It was then used by the colonial government to enact the Hindu law. No doubt many of the laws of Manusmriti are antiquated and have no relevance today. It would indeed have been a big issue if there were an influential set of individuals actively demanding that it be made as the basis for governing the India of today. But the fact is there is simply no demand of that sort from any quarter.

One can extrapolate this churlish act of burning of the Manusmriti to the fields Science and Technology to expose the hollowness of doing so even further. Till Einstein’s theory of relativity and Quantum Physics, the worldview was believed to be governed by Newton’s laws. But his laws were proven to be insufficient to explain the dynamics of bodies traveling at high speeds as well as for explaining the behavior of atomic and subatomic particles. Do modern day physicists go about burning copies of Newton’s Principia? No! It was the gold standard when it was formulated – it changed the course of Physics at the time when it was written. Do Boeing engineers today cast a denigrating look at the first model of the airplane flown by the Wright Brothers because of its elementary design? This is exactly how imbecilic it is for somebody to burn a copy of Manusmriti today.

Satire: The Planet of the AAPs

0

As Arvind sauntered out of his house and into the courtyard, mulling over the day’s plan, thinking of speeches he was going to make, the funerals he was going to attend; pondering over which member of his flock would earn the motivating ‘proud of you’ statements from him, who would be the target of his choicest abuses, what non-achievement would he boast about without being caught, his reverie was interrupted by a noise overhead.

It was a helicopter; Narendra was going to work, as usual.

No one would know whether it was a sense of hopelessness of his position, anger at the unreachable height of the helicopter, jealousy due to vast schism in their status or simple pique that drove Arvind, but in a fraction of a second, his face darkened and with an expression of  willful primitiveness he removed the slipper from his right foot and hurled it towards the helicopter.

http://www.dreamstime.com/stock-photo-image37590490Unfortunately, the sleeve of his extra large sized shirt and loose end of the muffler suddenly decided to come in each other’s way, clashed with each other and what was intended to be a fast and vertical trajectory for the slipper turned out to be a stuttering, parabolic one, and it hurled towards a spot where, accidentally and unfortunately, his wife was standing, with a broom in hand, sweeping the floor and landed perilously close to her.

It was the turn of the other half, the better one as some would say, to experience the sudden change in visage, from a busy thoughtfulness to an enraged one. As a Nirupa Roy turned into a Lalita Panwar, or for those who were not born in those interesting times, as a Daya Gada turned into a Dolly Bindra, her diminutive, arched figure became ramrod straight and what was looking like a broom a few seconds ago began resembling a sword, Arvind felt his own outrage dissolve and morph into a mortal fear. Sheepishly, he tiptoed toward his slipper, picked it up while avoiding eye contact with his wife who was looking like Rani of Jhansi, and rushed out, rather escaped from the courtyard and started breathing again.

Ashu and Kapil, who were waiting for him outside the gate and admiring the brave action of throwing the slipper. It motivated them,  inspired them and showed them the path. They quickly searched for a suitable projectile to throw but unable to find anything around, used the biological output of humans and spat at the helicopter.

While Kapil, having studied the projectile motion under the influence of gravity knew maximum achievable height could be obtained by a precise vertical throw, Ashu, having come from a profession where one was supposed to be ‘Jack of no trade but still claim to be master of all’, launched his biological missile at an angle of 65 degrees.

A couple of seconds later, Kapil’s projectile returned to land where it had begun its journey, stunning him and he began running towards the direction helicopter was proceeding, shouting abuses, just as Ashu’s projectile landed on the face of little Alka, playing marbles alongside. A second later, Alka was chasing him with almost similar abuses and he was running away to escape.

Arvind was relieved to see that his cronies had not witnessed the scene in the courtyard but there was another one, named Prashant, lurking at the corner of the alley, had seen it,.

As Prashant caught up with Arvind and patronizingly, said, “Whenever you see Narendra going to work, you try to throw your slipper, despite knowing that your slipper can’t even reach 30 feet while he is at around 5000 feet. He would not even notice that you are doing this. Why do you do it?

Arvind, with his bottled up rage, shouted back, “You forgot the kick I gave you last year? Do you want a repeat of that?”

Prashant, a bit subdued but persistent, tried again, “Curiosity gets the better of me. If you don’t know the reason, it is okay.”

Arvind could not let this challenge to his ignorance, especially about his own actions and reasons thereof, pass without a fight. He said, “My people like me doing that. And you know that very well.” The twinkle in his eye was a reminder to Prashant that he was referring a year old incident.

“But they also know the hopelessness of a slipper against a helicopter and on a daily basis, they are witness to you not being noticed, forget being acknowledged, as I saw today.”  Retorted Prashant again.

“Okay. You are too insignificant to be a threat to me, so I will tell you.” Arvind began.

“It is very simple, almost elementary when you think of it.

One day, the helicopter would develop a snag, on its own, due to some part failure, due to adulterated fuel or due to pilot’s error, when the law of averages will catch up or Murphy’s law will kick in, and that moment, when people ask, who brought the helicopter down & grounded Narendra, there would be only one obvious answer. My slippers!

So, till then, I have to be keep on this act even if I am spectacularly useless, otherwise.” Explained Arvind.

“And if that doesn’t happen, ever?” Persisted Prashant.

“Then we would request him, beg him to land here for the benefit of people and the city, for the country, for the love of humanity, whatever. And when he does, we will tell people that it was the slipper that hit it and made it land.” Pat was the response.

Stunned into speechlessness, Prashant stopped and stared at the receding figure of Arvind.

And as Ashu returned after bribing Alka with a lollipop, followed by Kapil who had lost his race with helicopter, the group began walking towards the community centre or the place where they assembled together every day.

Another day had begun, in Delhi.

Disclaimer: All characters in this article are fictional. Any resemblance to any being, living, dead or in coma, is purely coincidental & unintentional.

Are All Religions Same?

0

Many Hindus like to say – All religions are same. In particular when they are in company of Non-Hindus, and the discussion revolves around respective religions, a Hindu normally avoids conflict and escapes by making this statement.

In fact, some Hindus also believe that this is indeed true. The important point to note is that we will never find a Muslim or Christian saying this.

In this article we try to explain that all religions are NOT same. We would like to ask well-meaning Hindus, whether before using this sentence, they have studied other religions? So our point is that by making this statement, a Hindu gains nothing and loses respect. It only showcases that they have no idea of the belief systems of other religions.

For example, if a Hindu says that Ram and Mohammad are same – this statement would never be liked by a Muslim? Such a statement is infact an insult to Islam because Ram is an avatar in Hinduism but in Islam there is no concept of avatar. In Islam, Allah does not take birth in the form of human being. So calling Mohammad as God or God’s Avatar is blasphemy (kufr) in Islam.

So by being obsequious and saying that everything is same, a Hindu can feel-good but actually he/she is insulting other faiths.

First a Hindu has to understand the outlook and conceptual frameworks of other religions. One cannot worship Mohammad in Islam. It would be idol worship – blasphemy. No Muslim will ever tell you that Mohammad should be worshipped, they believe that only Allah is to be worshipped. That is why many Muslim oppose the use of the word Mohammadan and prefer the term Muslims.

You can ask Muslims whether they believe Mohammad was a son of God? They will reply that there was never such a son. Of course Christians believe that Jesus Christ was son of God. So there can be some similarity with the Avatar concept. However please note that Christians clearly believe that God had only one son – Jesus. They are very clear that Ram and Krishna cannot be son of God.

Our next write-up will explain the reason, why Christians believe that only Jesus can be son of God.

(This article is based on a speech by Rajiv Malhotra)