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Hindu Feminism & Its Applicability In Indian Context

garima
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When I got active on twitter (sometime mid 2014, though the handle had been lying idle for a long time), I did not have the eyes to differentiate between ‘west driven elite NGO feminism’ and ‘India driven women empowerment’. I was already a staunch feminist (owing to whatever experiences) by the time I got active on twitter, even though I had never read about western feminism & its history. In fact, I only began following politics & current affairs in 2014, when I read about Narendra Modi being a PM candidate, and gradually also came to know who Dr. Swamy is.

As I began following news actively, I started noticing the hypocrisy & agendas of many feminist statements & causes. I realized that most international NGOs and celebrity endorsed feminist campaigns were primarily anti hindu while similar & more serious issues in other religions were hardly highlighted. Then I got to read on FCRA FCRR and a deep sense of alarm filled me up. The hypocritical selective attacks on mangalsutra, karwachauth, rakshabandhan, menstruation related discrimination in hinduism, racist remarks accompanied with Nirbhaya’s documentary etc. filled me with cognitive dissonance on typical feminism. I felt betrayed, as if no cause remained just anymore. Then occasionally, I would come across these ridiculous nude feminist protests in the west which filled my mind with apathy towards the totally gratification & materialism based freedom values of the west. There was a liberating sensation attached but without substance.

As I was struggling with my opinions and revisiting my stand on western feminism, I also felt fairly disgusted with the constant & quick judgement on women by many ‘hindu right’ handles on twitter. I came across many ‘right wing’ accounts who were very judgmental on women on serious issues like rape etc, with views always revolving around what could have made the women deserve rape. On countering those arguments with ‘nothing deserves rape’, the most common response would be that west has many more rapes as per statistics (which is true but obviously it does not absolve discussion on news/ issues at home front).

I also came across Mens Rights Activists (MRAs) on twitter and I did agree with them in principle, that fake cases need to be dealt with stringent punishments and laws must be made to give men a chance to put across their points without being arrested first, but I was shocked to see their denial & apathy towards real traditional distorted problems (specially in small towns and rural areas) like dowry, ghoonghat (veil), expectations of constant adjustment from women etc.

The most hurtful and bitter tweets of many internet hindu right handles that I observed were on Hindu Fertility Rate (TFR/AFR), blaming hindu women solely for the lower average fertility rate of a hindu woman vs a muslim woman. I don’t want to embarrass the handle owners by pasting those tweets here, because my primary grudge and fight is with the mindset. There were direct comparisons made with Israeli women, muslim women, how education is spoiling hindu women, judgements made that ‘hindu women have all become greedy’, and all this while ‘keeping all other factors constant’! Absolutely no tweet series out of these several blamed the entire society, our compromised education system, corrupt male politicians who have been allowing religious conversions, TV and bollywood narratives so controlled by men etc. As if now that men have moved on (because many urban men themselves do not want a second or third child), women must compensate and adjust for all the factors in isolation.

Is it not basic logic that women cannot take the decision of bearing more children in isolation as it depends a lot on support system available in the wake of the fact that most are nuclear families in urban india today? It is surely not possible for women in most cases to effect demographic changes on their own! There has been no satisfactory counter (that I have come across by the same handles) to my argument that Hindu TFR is just one of the strategic measures to counter impending demographic change, as history proves it that we have lost so much of population to genocides, persecutions and religious conversions. If our education system becomes pro hindu, within 2 decades of it hindu TFR should ideally automatically improve. And, modernity is a natural byproduct of passing time, we must evolve our civilizational survival strategies as per the changing times. Hence, I could not alienate myself from the concept of feminism in principle.

Out of ideological compulsion, I finally coined this term ‘Hindu Feminism’ more than 6 months back. A lot of people would ask this – ‘What was even the need for coining a parallel feminist term for empowerment of Indian women?’ The truthful reasons are this :

  1. It becomes easy to stand on the same / similar platform and beat the leftist opponents. There really is no problem with the literal definition of feminism, and every cause is corrupted today by some. Feminism is not owned by the western thought aligned saviors of women, that they can conveniently term everyone opposing them in india as ‘desi fringe’. The balance seems to be lost on both sides. There usually is a total denial /opposition of all kinds of feminist thoughts, or there is a total support of anything with the word ‘feminist’ in it. A huge gap exists in the middle, and I have tried to fill it by ‘Hindu Feminism’.
  2. When you call yourself a ‘hindu feminist’, a lot of right wing handles rightly assume that you have a mind of your own. After the initial ridicule and ‘gyan’ peddled to you to make you a conformist hindu woman on every issue under the sun, there usually is reduced number of conditioned gender based judgements (otherwise common). I know this is a politically incorrect reason, but this is my truthful observation.
  3. It gives a sense of identity. Yes, it does. I wanted to do away with stereotyping of feminist line of thought. When you relate to certain causes with intensity, you dont mind being identified with them. Everybody opines and behaves on the basis of experiences and knowledge, the challenge is to retain objectivity in self. I did not wish to be misunderstood but wanted identification, hence i coined this term.

As I continued reading in bits and pieces, I realized that if we go by the religious texts and stories of each religion, Hinduism comes across as the least misogynistic religion! Vedas, our oldest texts were very broad minded in dealing with women. Women could study, perform most rituals, hardly any concepts of veil, sati, jauhar etc. Many rigved hymns and shlokhas have been contributed by women, we have had likes of lopamudra, matreiyi etc.

Compare it with the allowances to women in bible and quran. The beginning of Christian era was extremely restrictive to women and even today you cannot expect Christian women to be priests and pope. Islam seems to be most regressive to women in the name of protecting their dignity, they haven’t been able to do away with apparent inequalities like burqa, polygamy etc. Looking at our religious tales, Kaikayi in Ramayan saved Dashrath once by becoming the sarathi of his rath. Hindu women knew how to ride horses! Sita had a mind of her own, she did not go back with hanuman from ashok vatika. She wanted the beautiful deer and was vocal in asking for it, even after dissuasion from Ram & Lakshman. Texts show Draupadi showed her anger explicitly in Mahabharat when brought forcibly by Dusshasan in chausar room. We have had Radha, Meera, Rukmani, all these women followed their own hearts and minds. In which other religion’s tales can we find so many bold women voicing their opinions (right or wrong is a different thing)?

However, the actual working of the Indian society did not remain as it was during vedic times. The domination of men was there even in the vedic times, but not so pronounced as in recent history. Having thought a lot about it, I believe that there are just 2 reasons for this male domination from beginning of the time :

  1. The fact that women have lesser physical strength as compared to men. Hence, needed protection traditionally and even today in many situations.
  2. That women can reproduce and hence considered slightly special and violable, may cause unconscious threat to male ego.

Everything seems to be revolving around these 2 factors. Even the question of libido. I am not sure and still need to do more research on libido difference between men and women. But even if its true that men have higher libido, it cannot directly effect male domination. It could have lead to female domination if women were not lesser in physical strength. Infact, I personally believe that women might have same level of libido or just marginally less, but they display it less and consequently, start feeling it less. The main reason is of course, the social conditioning relating to virginity and the thought that ‘enjoyment of sex is mainly a man thing’.  It works sub consciously in many ways even with the most modern of indian women. The second is, women are difficult to satisfy in bed, they take longer, and orgasm may not be directly related to ejaculation. Hence, women might lose interest in the long run as it can be difficult for an average indian woman to tell her partner to also focus on entirety of her pleasure on every sexual experience.

Since most of the world was almost the same at the onset of medieval period regarding freedom of women, what really made india adopt so many customs and traditions that restricted women to such an extent and lead to widespread misogynistic mindset. The truth is that we have always been struggling to gain or retain national freedom and unity. We have been battling invaders for hundreds of years. We hardly got a chance to sit at peace and find our vedic roots and practice our real culture. We have only been doing crisis management at societal level and suffering constant onslaught on our culture. Earlier it was overt, today the onslaught is subtle, covert and sociopolitical in nature. Somewhere, the society regressed to protect itself may be. Sati and jauhar became more common, gender ratio took a beating, purdah /ghoonghat became a norm, etc.

However, we have tried to move ahead with gender equality post independence. But it has not been balanced. While rural women and the women at lower socio economic levels are still struggling to balance their ambitions & desires with expectations from them, urban families (both men & women) are becoming extremely pro-west in terms of lifestyle and personal expectations. Results are very obviously low hindu TFR,  fake cases, no understanding of real history etc.

With passing time, men have moved on. Men too used to wear a lot of jewellery, cover their heads, wear dhoti / pajamas, remain brahmachari till 25 years of age, respect all conditions of janeu (the ones who wore it, many used to wear it), used to do a lot of physical labor etc. While most men have become technologically advanced and moved on, many expect women to remain the same in appearance and follow the same routines of total household work, even in the nuclear families. While the support systems have reduced, the pressure on many women ( specially small towns and middle class) has increased in a way. Either the woman is expected to juggle it all up, or sacrifice her ‘not so important’ ambitions/desires. I do see a lot of men among urban younger couples helping their wives/ fiancees in domestic work and careers wholeheartedly and this is a positive change. The times have changed from supremacy of physical strength to intellectual supremacy and hence expectations from women should also level out in certain situations.

The biggest problem with western feminism is, it is based on what i call ‘competition’. I do respect the first few sets of women who had fought for things like, higher education for women, voting rights for them, freedom to pursue hobbies etc. But today, both western feminism and western mens rights activism are busy trying to prove which gender is superior and/or substitute the other almost in totality. And it is just not possible to do so. Both genders have overlapping yet different but equal roles! Western feminism is constantly beefing up the idea ‘Men don’t sacrifice enough, so why should we’.

This is where Hindu Feminism comes in. It is totally applicable in indian context. It says ‘If I sacrifice, you should sacrifice and empathize too’! With family system & duty being the foundations of Indian culture, hindu feminism requests the family & society to empathize and respect the feminine values while ensuring freedom and support system to women of India. Hindu feminism (HF) requests the men of India to not ‘misuse’ our traditional values to dominate over women and control narratives. HF does not support western agendas aiming at breaking india. HF understands there is a natural role playing, because when the pursuit of equality begins interfering with natural role playing, family system starts breaking down. But women cannot keep on ‘adjusting’ to expectations. They are already snapping like rubber bands, fake cases are an example of a retaliatory societal measure.

For example, men cannot birth babies and nurture them the way women can in their initial years. Imagine if all school teachers, day care attendants, psychologists were men! Similarly, how difficult it will become if all civil engineers, defense soldiers, rickshaw pullers etc were women! I am not saying these are totally exclusive roles, i just mean they are naturally suited to a particular gender, there must be exceptions or special training required for the other to play them.

Hindu Feminism is the feminism suited to India, it simply wants indian men to – become more aware of the emotional needs and ambitions of their women thereby making it easier for women to feel happy & less burdened; more sensitive and aggressive towards issues of child abuse, rape, eve teasing, gender ratio etc; contribute little bit to work at home; do not dissuade family women to pursue hobbies and passionate career choices; converse with empathy and be more vocal towards problem solving; encourage the partner to be sexually confident resulting in mutual happiness; do not justify rapes of ‘bad women’ etc. Every woman in her heart wishes to rise above the ‘ aanchal mein dhoodh, aankh mein paani’ role, and it can be done without embracing western elite NGO feminism. HF need not pick up or support frivolous issues like why do toys have gender roles, why men are not wearing pink, why women are happy to bleed etc.

The word ‘Hindu’ in HF does not stand strictly for religion. It stands more or less for the definition of ‘hindu’ given by savarkar. It has a two-fold meaning :

  1. Feminism that is followed by Indian people who respect their motherland, ancestors and therefore are all Hindus by culture;
  2. And feminism that is for (fits into) the values of indian culture and respects it.

(However, I personally do not feel that all Indians who are not Hindu by religion automatically fit into this definition, one must prove one’s love for India and its real culture by his/her behavior and actions. And upon proving, he/she can be called a cultural hindu, plus whatever religion he/she belongs to).

I personally feel that being born as a human of particular gender is karmic, a summation of best suited lessons to be learnt in a particular lifetime. But as humans, we must strive to treat all humans equal.

From A Hindu Feminist.

Upgrading urban infrastructure

sushrutbidwai
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Bus is and will be one of the main transit solutions for most of Indians. Especially when it comes to short (1-8 hours) intercity transit. Connecting to major cities nearby and also to smaller cities and rural areas near a big city. And yet today bus infrastructure is crumbling. Buses are dirty, depots are a stinking mess. It will be impossible to provide this service sustainably to rural population if people with higher incomes refuse to use it. Bus depots and not just buses play an important role in this. Modernizing them will help in reaching the population which currently finds it unattractive solution to their needs.

We need to make bus depots literal and metaphorical connection between urban and rural India.

I live in Nasik, a city of over 1 million people. A city which is twice in size to Dublin Ireland even (slightly) bigger than Austin. And yet bus transit systems is in sorry state.

Mumbai-Nasik bus depot

mela stand nasik

Above images are depots which connect Nasik to three big cities – Mumbai, Pune and Aurangabad. Nandur Madhyameshwar is near by bird sanctuary which  attracts thousands of tourists and still there is no direct bus connectivity to Nasik!

So how can we change all this?

nasik bus depots

Above image shows three major bus depots in Nasik and their heart-of-the-city location. Both depots dont have decent approach roads and often cause traffic problems when high number of buses arrive or depart. All the structures are single floor, except a small bazaar complex, which is 3 floor and mostly empty. There is no depot for private bus operators in Nasik. Private buses basically park on streets. We can not expect to build decent cities if prime land, in the heart of the city remains under utilizes and starts becoming a liability. If you look at pictures above, notice how the land is dusty. This means entire area becomes dusty which adds to pollution and in monsoon becomes a breeding ground for diseases.

Government needs to bring in private players or invest tax payers money into changing this. Government also needs to extend all support to private bus operators as it will lead to less traffic, lower fuel bills, pollution and so on.

Here is my vision for bus depots and there is enough land to make this happen.

Create one multi storey structure which has following features

  • Under ground parking bays with (semi automated) cleaning and fueling facilities. Opened to private buses at cost.
  • Ground floor is bus dispatch bays for public and private buses. Instead of assigned platform, use airport terminal like system. Buses and their dispatch locations displayed on giant screens. This will enable optimizations to avoid traffic issues often seen inside a bus depot.
  • Create gardens on all sides of this depot. Also create small raised stages to enable artists to come and perform. Or to stage public awareness campaigns and so on.
  • Food courts, toilets, entertainment hubs focused on educational and social content.
  • Shops which cater to lower end of the market.
  • Government aided pathology lab and free doctor/nurse consultations, addiction recovery clinics. On an average a lower income passenger spends 1.5-2 hours waiting for transit. Use this time to reach to him/her on health issues.
  • Government awareness booths – use the space to create awareness on government facilities and schemes and how they can leverage it.
  • Farmers corner – any government services catering to farmers, consolidate them under one roof with in this infrastructure.
  • Move government services and offices which cater to rural population to this area. Passport services, Zilla Parishad and so on.
  • Arts and crafts displays.

Funding for this will come from selling some of the government assets. In case of Nasik, above infrastructure can fit into one of the black boxes, so rest of the land can be sold to raise funds. Also some of the government services will relocate, so there will some more assets than can be liquified. A thriving bus transit will become a revenue generation infrastructure rather than a “dole”.

Elections, Prashant Kishore & Political Strategy to be adopted by BJP in state elections

akhils
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Narendra Modi’s successful presidential style political campaign for the General Elections of 2014 has in my view, had a lasting impact on how elections will likely be fought in India in the foreseeable future.

Modi’s effective utilization of social media communication platforms to promote his ‘Acche Din’ and ‘Sabka Saath Sabka Vikas’ slogans, together with unique initiatives as part of his 2014 poll campaign, like the Chai pe Charcha campaign and his 3D Hologram speeches, to mobilize support for the BJP under his leadership, were game changers which his unprepared political opponents, in the General elections of 2014, had absolutely no clue how to counter.

If I could borrow a phrase from common business parlance, Narendra Modi’s Social Media heavy political campaign, benefited immensely from what one could describe as a ‘First mover’s advantage’ on the optimum utilization of Social Media for electoral gain. The sort of First Mover’s advantage, that proved to be much too strong and overwhelming, even for a section of the Traditional Indian Mainstream Media, both electronic and print (despite all their crony connections to the old political establishment) to ignore.

This is not to suggest that the BJP under Narendra Modi’s leadership could not have come to power, had they not adopted such initiatives in their political campaign. The sentiment of anti-incumbency, towards ten years of a patchy and scam ridden UPA Government, coupled with Narendra Modi’s formidable record as Chief Minister of Gujarat, were in my opinion, the major contributing factors towards influencing the electorate of India, into viewing a Narendra Modi led BJP, as a viable political alternative to the Congress. But all the same, the importance of the role played by Social Media and linked political initiatives in Modi’s successful campaign in 2014 is something which in my view, cannot possibly be written off as insignificant.

Fast forward to the present, and there is bound to be a drastic shift in this Social Media Political paradigm. BJP is no longer the sole vestige of social media political maneuvering in election campaigns. Political parties across the board will likely adopt and have already adopted, in the few state elections that have been fought post 2014, social media platforms as part of their strategy in political campaigning for elections; the most successful case in point being Nitish Kumar’s political campaign for the Bihar State Assembly elections of 2015.

Newspaper Reports and Op-Eds analyzing the results of the Bihar Assembly elections have already documented at length, the efforts of a professional political strategy and consulting group of professionals known as the Indian Political Action Committee (IPAC) in helping Nitish Kumar achieve his political victory in Bihar, by adopting a combination of low cost social media initiatives, as well as traditional campaign methods, to outdo a strategically flawed yet purportedly cash heavy (if mainstream media reports are to be believed) BJP political campaign that relied heavily on Narendra Modi’s popularity; and admittedly lacked the presence of a charismatic local face, in the presence of a receding Modi Wave.

As most political savvy readers may already know, there is a reason for this apparently striking similarity in the approaches adopted in Narendra Modi’s 2014 General election campaign and Nitish Kumar’s 2015 Bihar State Assembly campaign; both of which were tremendously successful; and this reason can be attributed to the fact that both these election campaigns benefited immensely from the efforts of teams of diverse professionals, which were led by a man named Prashant Kishor.

Now I haven’t necessarily been swayed by those many mainstream media editorials  after the Bihar election results, that have in effect portrayed the political strategist, Prashant Kishor as a genius of sorts, who single handedly trounced Amit Shah and Modi in Bihar; but all the same, one would have to acknowledge that Prashant Kishor, as it stands now, is certainly a force to reckon with in Indian politics.

For why else would a seasoned politician like Nitish Kumar consider a relatively young man in his late 30’s, worthy of being assigned the position of adviser to the Bihar Chief Minister on policy implementation in Bihar of developmental programmes and resolutions ; a designation equivalent to that of a State Cabinet Minister; and a decision of Nitish Kumar’s that has apparently also riled some really old hands in Bihar’s bureaucracy.

Perhaps Nitish Kumar wants to keep in good spirits, someone like Prashant Kishor, who would likely help him further his own personal ‘sky high’ political ambitions (if you know what I mean); which would perhaps shed light on why Nitish Kumar has given Mr. Kishor such an important position in his Government.

Of course there is no calling into question the credentials of Prashant Kishor for the job he has been assigned by Nitish Kumar. Prashant Kishor after all, did start off his career as a public health activist in India, who then went on to work for the World Health Organisation and UNICEF, before finally being hired by Narendra Modi as a Social Sector Policy Advisor in Gujarat.

However as fate would have it; it is Prashant Kishor’s skills as a Political Strategist that have brought him into mainstream focus, particularly after the Bihar Assembly elections. Although it was said to be his involvement in Narendra Modi’s 2014 campaign, during which he was apparently working out of Narendra Modi’s official residence; and leading the efforts of a Citizen’s Volunteer group known as the Citizens for Accountable Governance (CAG) which was widely credited as being significant to the campaign’s success.

The reason for the politically agnostic Prashant Kishor, to thereafter abandon the (CAG) and switch sides to support Nitish Kumar by forming (IPAC) is not exactly known; but there was some suggestion that Prashant Kishor may have been sidelined by BJP President Amit Shah after the General Elections of 2014.

Whatever be the reason for Prashant Kishor’s decision to switch loyalties, the fact remains that he is on the opposite side to the BJP now; and if he really is half as effective at structuring political campaigns and devising political strategy, as the media is making him out to be; then he might just end up becoming a thorn in the side of a Narendra Modi led BJP’s future, keeping in mind the 2019 General Elections, which are really not that far away.

In fact, Mr. Prashant Kishor has already begun pursuing (Apart from his official endeavors with the Bihar State Government) what would seem like a freelance career in Political Consulting by rendering his professional expertise to the political campaigns of Non-BJP State leaders like Congress’s Captain Amarinder Singh in Punjab ; with another possible professional mandate of helping Mamata Banerjee’s campaign in West Bengal. Campaigns which if they prove to be successful, will each be viewed and reported with that standard rhetoric of ‘another nail in BJP’s Coffin’ by a presently resentful ‘secular elite’ and biased media that avails of any and every opportunity to discredit Narendra Modi.

Maybe one could dismiss such apprehensions by a suggestion that I am attaching way too much importance to a single individual, who may just be a media creation.

But there is no reason why the BJP should not take note of this possible ‘political challenge’ and also start adopting its 2014 election political strategy in the several upcoming state elections, by announcing in advance, Chief Ministerial Candidates for each of the State elections; and allowing these candidates to independently canvass and lead State level political campaigns, without relying too heavily on widespread campaigning by Narendra Modi in the run up to these state elections.

The BJP President has perhaps already taken a step in this direction, by choosing to announce Union Minister for Sports and Youth Affairs, Sarbananda Sonowal as its Chief Ministerial candidate for the Assam elections to be fought in June 2016.

But simply announcing a candidate to represent the BJP may not always be sufficient, as we know from the BJP’s experience with the Delhi State Elections of 2015; because the selected candidate must also be a mass leader with a vision that is specific to the practical needs and wants of the electorate in a particular state.

Maybe that’s one reason why it would be a good idea for the BJP President to consider seeking professional counsel in these matters (if he isn’t already doing so), by comprehensively reviving the (CAG); and involving professional political consultants and strategists who could offer an outside and non-political perspective on election matters; and also build a campaign around the selected candidates. Something that Prashant Kishor is likely going to start doing soon for individual leaders in Punjab and West Bengal; and perhaps even in future state elections for various candidates.

Obviously it is most important for the BJP led NDA Government at the Centre to deliver on the mandate that it has received from the people of India in 2014, and thereby cite its good performance as a platform to seek the mandate of electorates in various State Assembly elections; and ultimately in the 2019 General Elections.

But there are also important battles of a political nature that need to be fought hard, in order for the BJP to sustain itself politically in the long run; and these battles I refer to are the battles of perception that require a person’s undivided attention; something Narendra Modi, whose job it is to run the Government at the Centre is perhaps not best suited to be fighting single handedly.

These are Battles of Perception, which professionals like Prashant Kishor appear to be rather effective; and presently perhaps even better than the BJP at winning; battles that Amit Shah would have to win for the BJP; if the BJP wants to eventually win another war in 2019.

Yellow Journalism: Hitjob against Gujarat Government

Ashutosh Muglikar
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Recently an attempt was made through so called ‘investigative’ journalism to attack Gujarat govt  by establishing a non-existent ‘scam’  linking  Smt. Anar Patel , daughter of Gujarat CM Smt. Anandiben Patel. The excitement to somehow pin responsibility on Gujarat Govt  for this non-existent ‘scam’ was so much that the Journo conveniently forgot the basic tenets of Journalism while coming up with this gibberish. The way facts have been ignored clearly exposes the malafide intentions to target Modi Govt & derail the upcoming budget  session of the Parliament on flimsy grounds. When you are out there with an agenda why allow facts to get in the way of your conspiracy theories. When you have nothing against Modi Govt simply manufacture a ‘scam ‘ in order to extract political mileage.

A study conducted by M/s Accenture for DIPP under UPA Govt had found that the Gujarat Government follows “best practices” for acquiring lands in India.

Since the time industrialization has picked up pace in Gujarat there has always been a coterie of NGO’s and vested interest groups who have tried their best to derail the development process. For reasons best known to them, Gujarat Government and Industrialists have been constantly dragged to courts with wild and baseless allegations like “Land at cost of toffee allotted” “Land Allotment without fair and transparent manner allotted” so on and so forth.

It is pertinent to note that the Justice M.B Shah Report has given a clean chit and has found no irregularity in land allotments. Naturally the NGOs and Politician mafia called the Commission “Modi Bachao Commission”. Further in various rulings delivered by the Gujarat High Court, various allotments of lands have been found to be fair, equitable and transparent.

The state of Gujarat follows a well laid down policy for land acquisition and land allotment. Little homework would tell you that the method of valuation adopted by the State is unique and has set benchmark which many states are following.

With so much of literature available and so many judgements finding nothing wrong in land allotment cases by Gujarat Government, I wonder what prompted The Economic Times to publish this article (read hit job ) with such an outrageous headline ?

pic4pic3pic2

Vide these tweets the Journalist tries her best to put forth the fact that her attempt was to only show facts. Then the next question is why such a judgmental headline?

A single word without any proof or a baseless allegation is enough for Congress & AAP cheerleaders to “trend” hashtags on twitter. Based on this article the Congress Party went on to demand the immediate resignation of Gujarat CM Smt. Anandiben Patel and further SIT probe into these baseless allegations.

Based on public documents as filed with the Registrar of Companies the article lists business transactions between connected entities of Anar Patel and her business partners. First start the article with a wild allegation that cheap land was allotted and then give details of perfectly legal business transactions is clearly an attempt to paint these transactions as “shady”.

pic1

The clarification from Wildwood Resorts and Realtors Pvt Ltd clearly states that during that period, they had bought similar porperties from private parties at Rs 5-6 per sq metre. Under the extant policy the Gujarat Government allotted land to Wildwoods Resorts at INR 15 per sq.mtr which is 3 times the prevalent market rate at that time.

Moreover Anar Patel was nowhere connected to this Company when these land allotments were made to this Company.

Governance as demonstrated by Gujarat Government over the years has resulted in setting up of a robust and transparent system. The Govt of Gujarat has won several awards as well for their efforts. Such futile attempts via “Yellow Journalism” only exposes hidden agenda of these so called elite journalists.

The article also makes no mention of even a minor policy aberration or a policy being tailor made to benefit a particular party. There is no mention of rules being flouted. The only take-away from the entire post seems that someone connected with Gujarat CM’s daughter got a “good” land deal. And even the basis for calling this deal “good” has not been explained!

Every person has the  right to ask questions. My two cents is while you allege wrongdoings of a private citizen, place your questions on firm footings. Otherwise such gibberish under the garb of ‘investigative’ journalism will certainly expose the hidden agenda in the era of Social Media.

Arunachal crisis:congress have no one to blame but itself

lalitsharma
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Arunachal BJP may be accused of flaming the deflection in Congress but centre and governor played by the constitutional rule book both in spirit and letter. If Congress has to blame anyone it should blame itself for not being able to solve its factionalism. The crisis could had been easily solved by calling its legislature meeting to choose legislature leader but Congress avoided to call the same. Part of blame also rests with judiciary for delaying the matter to an extent that president rule was un-avoidable.

Arunachal Pradesh has 60 assembly seats of which INC won 42 but with merger of Arunachal People’s Party with all of its 5 MLA its strength rose to 47. BJP has 11 seats while 2 members are independent. Differences between CM Tuki and his finance minister Pul led to removal of Pul and many of his supporters from cabinet. Amidst all these 2 MLA resigned from their seats that were accepted by speaker thus reducing Congress strength to 45 in 58 member assembly. But a high drama followed afterwards, with both members writing letter to speaker to withdraw their resignation by saying that they were forced to resign by CM. When speaker refused to entertain their plea they approached the HC. HC stayed the speaker’s order of termination of their membership till the final decision on matter. On other hand Ex-finance minister approached governor with support of 20 other members and backed by BJP members requesting to convene a session to take impeachment motion against speaker and no confidence motion against Tuki government. Governor advanced the assembly session to 16 December with a direction to assembly to take impeachment motion against speaker before any other motion.

But before assembly session could have been convened, speaker Rebia who happened to be a cousin of the CM, disqualification 14 rebel members on 15th Dec and put the assembly hall under lock and key. Furious by action of speaker, 21 rebel Congress MLA, 11 BJP and 2 independent members assembled in hotel conference room and passed impeachment motion against speaker and no confidence motion against Tuki government that was presided by deputy speaker. Deputy speaker also revoked disqualification of 14 rebel MLA’s.

Speaker approached Gauhati HC against Governor alleging that Governor acted against constitution by advancing the assembly session without the advice of Council of Ministers. Gauhati HC firstly put on hold all decisions including the impeachment and no confidence motion till further orders but later on rejected speaker’s plea and upheld the Governor’s decision. Gauhati HC ruled that Governor has power to summon the session under article 174(1) and can send message to take specific item of legislature under article 175(2). Speaker had appealed against it in SC.

As it appeared that Tuki government was in minority, Governor used his discretion and asked the Tuki government to prove its majority as ruled by apex court in various judgements that majority can only be tested on floor of the house. In 1979 when Charan Singh was sworn as PM he lacked the majority so he didn’t advice president to summon the parliament session, thus effectively running minority government. After that it became precedence that president asks PM to prove majority as early as possible and summon the parliament. Same is followed by governor in state.

Also governor had rightly directed to take motion of impeachment against speaker first as when notice for impeachment motion against speaker is there he can’t be said to be acting in non partisan way. So disqualification of 14 rebel members was not in spirit of law by Rebia. As case is now pending in SC we have to wait for its decision whether it upholds speaker decision or quash it. Future of Arunachal government is dependent on that decision.

With the validity of Dec 16 session under question, Arunachal was headed towards constitutional crisis and centre had no other option but to impose president rule as 6 months have been passed since last sitting of assembly if Dec 16 session is considered invalid and if that session is declared valid by SC then also there was no other option than president rule as in that case Tuki government is in proven minority. Judiciary should share the blame of the crisis as it is more than a month but still no decision has been passed by court, when it was clear that it was a question of utmost importance. SC should had called regular hearing of the case instead of postponing it.

With regard to other reasons mentioned in report to impose 356 in state, some are naïve like that state fared badly in development and public services. These charges even if true is administrative breakdown and apex court has clearly ruled out that article 356 can be used only in case of constitutional breakdown. Governor has also mentioned in its report that congress legislature led by Tuki had blocked the Raj Bhawan and sacrificed Mithun in front of Raj Bhawan in protest and also tried to communalize the state by mentioning the Assamese root of governor. These may not be fit case to impose the article 356 but it shows that Tuki government has a little respect for constitutional authority. But some charges, that cabinet were not responding to letters of governor and had also directed officers not to respond to governor are serious and these if true amount to flouting of article 167(b) and another fit case for president rule.

Tough Test for BJP’s Chanakya Amit Shah ahead

shimadrish
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Amit Shah is back as president of Bharatiya Janata Party for a full term but faces a colossal test during the assembly elections in 2016. He is BJP’s “Chanakya” because of his game-changing electoral strategies which contributed to the back to back victories of Bharatiya Janata Party in Maharashtra, Haryana, Jharkhand and Jammu and Kashmir. But the second half of his first tenure observed successive defeat of the BJP in Delhi and Bihar. Now, BJP’s Chanakya faces his crucial test in his second term with assembly elections in West Bengal, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh , Puducherry , Kerala , Tamil Nadu and Assam where elections are scheduled in 2016 and 2017.

Moreover, the Bhartiya Janata Party faces tough challenge in majority of the states because of its rare past relevance. Simultaneous victories of BJP led to a sense of egotism and pomposity among the top leadership leading to over confidence and the outcome was the setback in Delhi and Bihar. The strategy of the top leadership to rely on outsiders (Bahari) and completely marginalize the grass root karyakartas (workers) created a sense of resentment within the party leading to a humiliating defeat. Quoting Newton’s third law, for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. The sense of pomposity among the top leadership and moreover the humiliating defeats the unified internal party structure appeared to be hoax as the period witnessed dissent and creation of foe within due to act of power centralization at its peak.

No doubt as an appreciable manager he took an determined membership drive in his first tenure through which people could join the party through sms and missed calls. His ambitious drive professed to have registered more than ten crore karyakartas around the globe which led Bhartiya Janata Party to become largest political party in the world surpassing the Chinas Communist Party.

Amit Shah’s strength lies in his ability to mobilize grass root workers. He is often considered as a grass root level manager. Whether it is his strategy to meet the general karyakartas across the country every Monday without prior appointment at the BJP head quarter or his samvad programme. Such fresh policies under his leadership thus prove him to be a grassroots level manager and have made the party president much more accountable to his karyakartas which could in-fact prove to be a game changer as it has produce party workers with a missionary zeal.

But, at the same time BJP’s Chanakya has failed to balance with parties senior leaders and is often criticized for being inaccessible. BJP leader Subramanian Swamy and former party secretaries have failed to get an appointment with Amit Shah for years despite many attempts and they have publicly expressed their concern. Thus, it’s a challenge for Shah to maintain a balance to attain united goals.

Amit Shah’s close propinquity with Modi has been built over the last three decades and he understands Modi’s mind better than anyone else in the party. Shah’s biggest strength with the party is his close proximity to Modi. The two have worked together since late 1980’s , when Modi, an RSS pracharak, entered the party through RSS and Shah was a junior party worker. Thus, Shah also has the blessings of the mother organization RSS and its leaders believe that Shah is one of the most loyal to the sangh parivar because of his connect from the root.

No party president has been such an election strategist as Shah. His firmness during the 2014 general elections as UP in-charge is considered as the main factor behind the parties grand victory in the general elections. During the UP election as an electoral strategist it was a set rule that the tickets would be given only to those candidates residing in constituencies for which they sought a ticket. Even the senior leaders or there acolytes failed to get the ticket on Shah’s set rule.

Unlike In Uttar Pradesh, local leaders were sidelines in Delhi and Bihar. The campaign was run with the help of few outsiders and just two faces in the posters Prime Minister Modi and himself. Even their own union ministers who campaigned in Bihar were not happy with the dictatorial functioning of the top leadership. On the other hand negative campaign, war of words, RSS chief remarks, self-pride and over confidence contributed to a huge set back and a question mark on the top leadership.

If the party and its top leadership learn from their past , BJP’s Chanakya might turn the parties direction and lead it to victory in some key states in the upcoming assembly elections, though he faces his biggest test during the assembly elections in 2016.

Himadrish Suwan
-Writer is a Columnist and the Media President of Delhi University Students Union

On his death anniversary, Rahul Gandhi killed Mahatma Gandhi’s Congress

Real Liberal
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Let’s get it right. Mahatma Gandhi is a misfit in the idea of India that is all about imagining India from everyone’s eyes except those of Hindus. This “idea of India” is espoused by the “Adarsh Liberals” who waste no moment in supporting a Kashmiri separatist or a Naxalite – both having no respect to the actual idea of India – but would frown upon the idea of India where Hinduism lies in its civilization roots.

On this day i.e. 30th January, when Mahatma Gandhi was murdered by Nathuram Godse, this idea of India gang pretends to love him. And that’s the only reason why they love him – because Gandhi’s death is used as a political and ideological tool by the Adarsh Liberals to paint their adversaries as murderers.

And their dislike, almost hate, for Gandhi is betrayed on other occasions. Two years ago, Arundhati Roy, one of the torchbearers of Adarsh Liberalism, had called Mahatma Gandhi a casteist and racist person. She was being honest about her beliefs in public, a trait that is rare among Adarsh Liberals.

Incidentally, her open attack on Gandhi came after Narendra Modi announced his intentions of starting the Swachh Bharat campaign dedicated to Bapu. Just a few words of praise by Modi exposed the dislike Adarsh Liberals have for Gandhi, and had Godse not killed Bapu, Adarsh Liberals would have surely murdered his memories after Modi endorsed him.

The reason why Adarsh Liberals are uncomfortable with Gandhi is because of the fact that unlike them, he never declared Hinduism as the reason for everything that is wrong in this country – something that’s the most “intellectual” thing to do for the idea of India gang. Any article that can randomly link Hinduism is to any evil, is a guaranteed hit in this circle.

Mahatma Gandhi was not that type. Remember, even Godse, who murdered him, didn’t question the “Hinduness” of Bapu. To his last breath, Gandhi remained a religious Hindu, who was conservative about many Hindu customs and beliefs. However, Godse felt that Gandhi had made Hindus weak and neutered due to his overemphasis on non-violence, which resulted in Muslim aggression, mass murders of Hindus by hands of Islamists, and finally creation of Pakistan.

Not only that, Godse believed that Mahatma Gandhi had reached a position where it was no longer logical to debate with him, and that he had become the judge and executioner. Incidentally, even Dr. Ambedkar felt so. This is what he wrote about Gandhi’s death:

Mr Gandhi had become a positive danger to this country. He had choked all the thoughts. He was holding together the Congress which is a combination of all the bad and self-seeking elements in society who agreed on no social or moral principle governing the life of society except the one of praising and flattering Mr Gandhi. Such a body is unfit to govern a country. As the Bible says that sometimes good cometh out of evil, so also I think good will come out of the death of Mr Gandhi. It will release people from bondage to supermen, it will make them think for themselves and compel them to stand on their own merits.

Obviously, these concerns doesn’t justify the murder of Mahatma Gandhi, however the point to be noted here is that Godse was not the only one uncomfortable with Bapu’s beliefs. Adarsh Liberals have their own reasons too.

While Godse thought that Gandhi was not Hindu enough, the Adarsh Liberals believe that he was too much of a Hindu – the reason why they feel Gandhi’s beliefs and history should be questioned but beliefs of someone like Nehru has to be beyond criticism; the latest example being their paranoid reactions to the truths coming out of the declassified Netaji files.

With Congress moving more and more towards Adarsh Liberalism, one can safely say that the Congress under Sonia and Rahul Gandhi is no more Mahatma Gandhi’s Congress. But obviously, they will pretend so.

Today, Rahul Gandhi is joining a hunger strike by some students in Hyderabad, who share the same beliefs about Mahatma Gandhi that were echoed by Arundhati Roy a couple of years ago (mentioned above in this article). Many of the ideological leaders and mentors of these students, such as Hyderabad based Kancha Ilaiah, have openly called Mahatma Gandhi casteist and someone who held back progress of dalits.

By showing solidarity with them time and again – earlier he reached IIT Madras campus to support a similar group called Ambedkar-Periyar Study Circle – Rahul Gandhi has virtually declared that the present Congress has disowned Mahatma Gandhi.

Mahatma Gandhi had wished the Congress party to be dissolved after Independence. Today, on his death anniversary, Rahul Gandhi surely has dissolved the Congress of Mahatma Gandhi.

RIP Mahatma Gandhi. RIP Gandhi’s Congress. Om Shanti.

Gender and Religious Politics at Shani Shingnapur

R Narayan
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In terms of devotees, Hinduism is the third largest religion of the world. In terms of scriptures, Hinduism is the largest religion of the world. That in some way should convince those people whose conscience is woken up at selective times for reforming the religion. The latest debate of reformation has fallen upon the Shani Shingnapur temple and the Sabarimala temple. The victims are now women; I would rather say a section of women, who have become thekedaars of women equaliy in the country.

Culture is what binds millions together. The traditions and cultures of these temples are now threatened. Their own sovereignty is purely under threat. There are various issues regarding gender inequality in the country such as, amending muslim personal laws for betterment of muslim women from grave religious patriarchy, a fair right to education, girl child sex ratio and else, but they have taken back seat.

Shani Shingnapur is a village in Maharashtra, nearly 60 Kms away from Shirdi. The village is famous for its people, apart from the allegedly misogynist temple, the doors are never locked, either of homes or shops or even banks. Well there is a UCO and a SBI branch whose doors aren’t locked either, reportedly. Sabarimala is a town in Kerala famous for the legendary God Ayyappan, who killed the demon Mahishi and went into meditation at the same place. Religions have their existence through traditions. If there are traditional stories which ban entry of women, in a temple and then for women equality the traditions are challenged, then what is the purpose of even asking for equal right to pray? Well, rightly shani shingnapur doesn’t actually ban the entry. The challenges have their own good sides. It is obviously right to fight for women’s equality in this male dominated society but there are various methods of worships which if challenged will surely dismantle the whole purpose of worship.

The traditions of the temples basically are based upon the arguments that the gods of the temples mentioned above live lives of celibacy and they are male gods so it is in good health of devotees and chastity of gods that women rather not touch them. One may consider this as truth or myth; this is a matter of belief. One is free to challenge these stories but not the sovereignty of the institutions. Believers will rather accept the tradition but the ones who call these myth, are precisely moving away from beliefs or to say the scriptures of the faith. Even questioning the scriptures is fine, but then the fact is that the traditions are basically created over a period of time, with various beliefs and scriptures. These are not any sudden decisions taken then and cannot solve the problem now on a simple court decision. Moreover, when you are considering scriptures to lead to misogyny then it is scriptures to be challenged. Why challenge the sovereignty of temples?

Well, then challenging the temples will fulfill their criterions of misogyny by men in society, which can be supported by other women. But challenging the scriptures will not garner them much support from women and moreover will put them in pretty bad light in society and they can be tagged as hypocrites, as well. Noticeable point is that they haven’t questioned the tradition, in public, which the temples merely follow, but straight forward pointed the temples which are rather bound to follow the traditions.

With about 330 million gods, Hinduism is that one religion which diversifies itself in various manifestations of worships, in various regional languages and even more local traditions, for every other highly reputed god. It is that one religion which divides its gods in every gender, and based upon characteristics and designations, various methods of worship have born, in various traditions. Everything cannot be misogyny. There are various villages in northern India, which doesn’t allow male devotees to perform various rituals while worshipping goddesses, like they cannot assist in ritual of the bathing of goddesses. Moreover some festivals are meant only for female devotees. If these are all considered to be misogynism in some way or the other, it is going to do very much harm to our cultures and traditions.

It though becomes pointless to consider that grand old hinduism is the only followed religion today which numerates various female goddesses, with various powers. But in faiths of genderless God, we basically imagine that genderless God in male form with long white beard! Is there any misogynism? Well it is imaginative only!

Let alone imagination, it is totally useless to notice that they actually end up mentioning that God as him or he in scriptures which is not even allowed to be interpreted, forget about deleting or adding verses. Well, outdated Hinduism needs reformation, but modern Semitic, does not, you know. It is totally fine to keep women under a black cloak, which looks something like umbrella! or not even allowing them to visit mosques and women right activists don’t find misogyny here ofcourse!

Simply, Hinduism with both male and female gods has various methods of worship putting certain restrictions upon both female and male devotees. Since Hinduism is less about genderless god it can allow some sexist restrictions in the owned temples of respective gods, which is basically the house of concerned god, in this case Shanidev and Ayyappan, but how the semitic religions which proudly calls for a genderless god, whose method of being worshipped is same everywhere, at every place with no second way of worship, can be sexist towards women? Moreover the mosque is only a place of worship, not even god’s house.

Whereas if the activists who are concerned with women equality so very much in Shingnapur, why just they don’t call for donations from across the nation and build a new shani temple? Why kill the sovereignty of other?

Villages around the nation have certain traditions followed for decades or centuries and they become an another way of life for them, their faith & belief of existence. One has to understand that it is actually the faith of the villagers, which is really now under threat. The tradition which has been carried for over 400 years is now under threat. And they have full right to their sovereignty.

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This village has become victim of being known for this temple and the Congress’ losing ground in politics.

The timing of the challenge is suspicious. The temple trust has banned entry of both men and women around 4 years back. The time when congress was in power both in centre and state. Now all of a sudden this issue has been given fire by the Bhoomata brigade. The leader of the brigade, Trupti Desai has apparently even been a candidate for the Congress in a municipal poll in 2012 & then for State Assembly elections. It is very much in mind that how much really these activists worship Shanidev.

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In the name of religious politics and to say even gender politics or mechanically correct gender equality, they can destroy the beauty of the diversity of Hinduism by narrowing everything to the size of semitic religions’ mentality of no diversity, which will leave our religion with no colors.

A ‘cruel joke’ – the photo hit-job on Modi by The Hindu

kuvalayamala
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Presstitutes at The Hindu have done it again. The scheming jackals have proved once more to what extent they can go to fan their visceral hatred for Modi and Hindus. Their hit jobs were exposed a zillion times, but the propagandists will not rest. Such is the stink from this Chennai-based Communist National Newspaper that even yellow journals look better.

Wonder why this outrage? Read on and you might say I’m being stingy with criticism.

The whole story is here and is about how a `cruel joke’ exposed Prime Minister Narendra Modi to international ridicule, only to end in an `anti-climax.’

The report raises some very serious questions – answers to which will make us comprehend what is wrong with journalism and journalists today.

The report tells us that though The Hindu photographer Akhilesh Kumar clicked a series of photographs, he chose to release only this particular one.

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And he wants the world to believe that he thought it was “comical.’’

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Really? Misleading people with a deceptive photograph is fun? Exposing somebody, let alone a Prime Minister, to utter ridicule for no fault of his by suppressing facts is funny? People who were waiting for an opportunity to deride Modi called him all sorts of names after the photo was carried. They even went to the extent of doubting his sexual priorities. We never knew you were having fun while all this was happening. How funny!  Facts be damned is what they teach at The Hindu these days? You can be funny, but you had to do it responsibly – by backing up the snap with a disclaimer that the image is not what it conveys, that it was part of a series of pictures Or maybe ask one of your reporters to carry a story explaining the scene to the readers? No, you will not do that because that won’t serve your nauseating agenda.

But if that was not all, we had Adam Taylor, a `learned’ journalist from the Washington Post (which leaves no opportunity to scoff at Modi and India) coming out with even more ridiculous stuff. What makes his act, even more, serious is that the dolt had access to the video of the event (as is evident in his report ) but he still chose to go along with an absolutely derogatory headline and report. And his sources –  some `jobless’ fools on twitter. Pity such retards survive in newsrooms of `prestigious’ newspapers.

There can only be one way to explain the behavior of these anti-Modi and anti-Hindu cabal. Unfortunately for this, we will have to borrow the words of another Modi-baiter Tunku Varadarajan who in an article criticising Culture Minister Mahesh Sharma wrote “Even if it were a slip of the tongue, let’s not forget that a man’s tongue often slips in a direction where a man’s mind has gone already.’’

For the sake of a debate, let’s assume for a moment that Modi was hugging Hollande. What is wrong with it? Should the west decide our etiquette now? Why should we see everything through the American prism, according to which two men even holding hands in public is homosexual behavior? Isn’t this a case of the jaundiced eye? Part of the colonial fixation to see indigenous cultures and mannerisms as regressive? One can understand the ignorance of the WP writer who is trained in western milieus. But what about the desi dimwit’s who shared it in wild abandon? Believe me, if there was a custom in the west of kicking the guest’s ass as a mark of respect, our `more English than the English’ brethren would have done even that.

Anyway, condolences to all those who were salivating over the snap for the last two days. Sorry to say you have been busted again. And congrats to The Hindu for proving that it will keep up the supply of presstitutes.

And Mr. Kumar, the next time you want to tickle the readers’ funny bones, why not a snap of N Ram perched on Malini Parthasarathy’s shoulder?

Much Ado About Shani

luffy22
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I was browsing through my twitter timeline and popular news blogs when I came across this article: Right to Worship. I have seen various other debates on news channels and am well aware that the issue is related to Women’s Entry and whether it is valid or invalid in present times.

My point though is why is there a fixation to worship a black idol that is supposedly of planet Saturn. Saturn is a planet which is located some 746 Million Miles away from Earth. For the record I have been to the Shani Shingnapur Temple and have offered prayers to that black stone out of fear and superstition. But as time passed I became more mature and more importantly started asking tough questions about my beliefs and my faith. At present I run a small website related to Astrology for close to 3 years now. When I started the website I thought it would be easy money and only wanted some extra bucks. But as time passed I realized the rot in Astrology was deep and I would be doing a great disservice to great sages like Maharishi Bhrigu, Maharishi Parashar, Maharishi Varamihir and other notable personalities like B. V Raman if I kept following the traditional school of thought in Astrology which was and is based on superstition and fear mongering. For an Astrologer there are a few golden words namely: Shani/Saturn, Mangal/Mars, Vivah/Marriage, Naukri/Jobs and Kaal Sarpa Dosha which can be used to milk money from gullible clients.

Shani is the one planet which scares the living daylights out of believers of Astrology. So it is given that Astrologers and Priests use it to milk money. I tried a few articles like: Shani and Superstition as well as Shani: Teacher or Tormentor to undo the fear. But I guess people are more interested in easy shortcut of offering Oil to the Black Idol instead of working their way out of troubles. While I cannot change the opinion of majority I just hope a few rational souls do the important soul searching part after reading this article.

Popular belief is Shani or Saturn is Judge appointed by Lord Shiva to look over the karma of individuals. It is the duty of the judge to punish the wrong doers. Most normal people wouldn’t dare think of bribing their way out of troubles. But these same set of people have no hesitation in offering Oil to the Black Idol as a sort of bribe so that Grandpa Shani would go easy on them. Well most of them fail and I guess they are as much at fault as the Astrologers and Priest who suggest such remedies to them.

The actual importance of Oil for Shani is Scientific and not related to Superstition. Shani according to Astrology increases diseases related to Vayu Tatva. In simpler terms diseases like Indigestion, Flatulence, Severe Headache and Pains in Knee Caps could be a result due to bad Shani in a horoscope. Oil  or more importantly Castor Oil is a home remedy to cure diseases of the stomach. Also applying castor oil on head and knee caps keeps headache and knee pain in check. This oil is meant to be consumed by person with weak Shani in horoscope and not to be poured on black idols and wasted unnecessarily. Similarly Oil is not meant to be poured on Lord Hanuman either. Lord Hanuman never poured Oil on himself. It was Ravana who poured Oil on Lord Hanuman’s tail according to Sunderkand. What happened to Lanka afterwards can be read in next Chapter of Sunderkand.

This whole debate around Shani Singnapur is along wrong subject to begin with. Instead of asking why Women are not allowed to visit Shani Temple it should be more along the lines of: Why is anyone allowed to visit Shani Singnapur Temple when all it does is promote superstitious beliefs.

I understand a lot of people could be offended by this article. I apologize to them and ascertain them that I have no intention of mocking their beliefs. All I wish is for Hindus to stop fearing a noble planet like Shani. The only point of this article is to raise awareness about the right issue on hand. Instead of pouring oil on the black idol it would be better if that oil is given to the poor and needy. This is perhaps the debate about reform which should be happening instead of the fake outrage that is currently presiding over Shani Temple.

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