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Beep Song Vs Beef Ban – How the Left groups decide our Freedom to do anything

Manithan
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Few days back, a song sung by Tamil actor Silambarasan (also called Simbu) and allegedly composed by music director Anirudh who is famous for composing ‘Why This Kolaveri Di?’ which went viral worldwide, has landed them both in soup. The song titled ‘Beep Song’ now, starts with a censored cuss word and then goes on to advice men to stop falling in love with women. At one point, a censored portion allegedly suggests men to have an one-night stand with girls instead of love. With no denial, this song has misogynism written all over it. Since few women had taken offense of this song, section 509 of the Indian Penal Code applies here which might land the actor and the composer in jail. Since there are a good amount of obscene words, section 292 of the IPC applies here. So, this song is now a legal issue apart from being a sexist.

The point of this article is not to condemn the duo and I’m not supporting them at any point, but to look at who had protested against the duo on this issue and their contradictory points when it comes to ‘freedom of expression’. Two hardcore Left organisations had staged protest and one of them had filed case against the duo. This article is not meant to divert from the issue, but to look at how Left groups decide our ‘freedom to do anything’.

Beep song issue vs Beef Ban issue – Freedom to do things

When Maharashtra and Haryana governments made some amendments in the already existing cow slaughter laws, Leftist Intellectuals across the country outraged like it is the end of our freedom. Their bone of contention was ‘what an individual does within their home or in private should not be the interest of State’. They cried that ‘State should not be poking its nose into eating habits and there must be freedom’. A group of Hindus were offended by the ongoing cow slaughter and the response of Left to it was ‘no matter who feel offended and no matter if cow slaughter is illegal, freedom to eat must be upheld at any cost’.

By applying the stand Left took on Beef Ban, it might sound like ‘no matter who gets offended and no matter if obscene words are illegal, freedom to sing must be upheld at any cost’ in case of Beep song. Now I wonder, if BJP government at Centre had arrested Simbu for this Beep song, will the same Left groups publicly sing the same Beep song, like how they held Beef fest?

According to Simbu’s side, the ‘Beep Song’ was recorded two years back at a private location for their personal entertainment and it was leaked recently by some unknown person. While the method of leaking is still dubious, this song stayed as a private recording for almost two years. Simbu had clarified that this song was composed for purely personal purpose and was meant only for a particular private audience. Without the leak, this was purely a private matter and without surveillance, chances of the State penalising Simbu is very negligible. Even plots to create tension or perform assassination happen within closed doors, but that does not fall under ‘freedom to do anything behind closed doors’. Similarly, both cow slaughter and beep songs are illegal and needs to be viewed from the prism of law, rather than from the prism of ‘freedom of expression’. People who are uncomfortable with such laws must challenge them in court and channelize their energy in performing amendments to it, rather than shouting about ‘freedom’ from their rooftops.

Beep song has offended a large group of women and Cow slaughter has offended a large group of Hindus, which also include women. Both are offensive acts and both must be solved legally.

Left Misogynism vs Right Misogynism

Not only Beef Ban, Left groups supported a Tamil folk singer called Kovan when he called Tamilnadu Chief Minister Jayalalitha in a derogatory manner in his song ‘Shut down the Tasmac‘ and called for protesters to demolish government run liquor outlets. In the case of Kovan, making obscene statements at a woman falls under freedom of expression, as long as the person belongs to their ideology. If Simbu becomes a Leftist, will the Left support Simbu?

Sunni Muslim leader Aboobacker Musliyar mocked ‘gender equality’ and made misogynistic remarks labeling women as ‘baby making machines’. Of course, he had not used any abuse words, but did ‘only fit for delivering babies’ statement not outrage modesty of any woman in the country? There were just words of condemnation from a Left leader from other state but none of the Left groups protested or burnt effigies. Maybe, Simbu should look out for converting?

When Congress leader EVKS Elangovan made sexist joke after Modi met Jayalalitha in her residence, none of the Left group protested against him. On the contrary, many supported the Congress leader and called Jayalalitha’s action on him as stifling the freedom of expression.

When writer Perumal Murugan wrote about an alleged extra-marital ritual in a Tiruchengodu festival, Left groups supported the writer and claimed that ‘Freedom of Expression’ is absolute, while locals of Tiruchengodu claimed that ‘the book outraged the modesty of their women’.

Leftist Intellectuals protested against Censor of obscene words and Porn Ban

Our progressive Leftist Intellectuals have issues when Censor board puts a list of obscene words to be banned. And they want cuss words to be banned in a song even after it is replaced with beep. Do they want abuses to be censored or not to be censored? So, if a song with vulgar words becomes viral without censors, should we be holding the Leftist Intellectuals responsible for such behavior from young celebrities?

Our Left-leaned intellectuals wants porn to be freely available and protests against ban on porn. But does porn glorify women? Porn movies demean women and forms the foundation for rampant sexism and misogynism among youth. We are confused. What does our Indian Left really want? Does it want to fight against misogynism by fight against a particular cuss word while calling for free flow of porn among our youth? So, if two young celebrities watch porn at their homes and that video goes viral without their knowledge, does that becomes an act that warrants arrest? Is that an intrusion of their privacy or does that act abuse women? So, by protesting against porn ban, can the Leftist Intellectuals be held responsible for such a future incident?

Sexism on the Silver screen

This Beep song is not the only song with misogynism propped up in Tamil cine industry. There were more strongly sexist lyrics with no obscene words though, that had occupied the tongue and mind of so many Tamil youth. A song sung by Raanjhanaa fame Dhanush in one of his Tamil movie called ‘Mayakkam Enna’ raps women for not accepting love and at one point suggests the lead character to beat, kick or leave the woman. I do not remember an outrage by women groups then. However, the concern now raised by women groups might prove fruitful when it can help prevent such ideas taking root among youth. Most of the recent Tamil movies featured a bar song where drunk hero and his friends blame women for their love failure. Given the storyline that they force women with their repeated torture and the weak heroine gives in, her rejection seems to be not her fault alone. But since most of young men are indoctrinated with such ideas by movies or by fellow men circles, directors might have urging to keep such songs to attract that huge audience. Let the outrage generated by this Beep song serve as a tool to end such misogynistic ideas being spread among the populace via movies.

To conclude, this article is not to support the actor-musician accused of an obscene and sexist song. The sole intention of this article was to pen down the oscillations of the Leftist groups when it comes to events surrounding ‘Freedom to do anything’. Such incidents prove that Left groups takes the side of ‘Freedom of Expression’ or ‘Women modesty outraged’ depending on their political agenda and not to support the real victim at any case.

Modi’s Visit to Pakistan

samirkumar
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So, India has two options with Pakistan. Go to War or Initiate Dialogue. War is not an option as both are nuclear states so diplomacy is the only way forward. And this visit needs to be seen in that context only.
The visit was indeed surprising but it was not unplanned or undertaken at short notice. It was planned well in advance but not announced to avoid media speculation and creation of unnecessary hype which has ruined the past initiatives taken by the Modi Government on the Pakistan front.
This is the plane on which the Prime Minister traveled to Moscow.
And this is the plane on which he came back and went to Kabul and Lahore.
The difference between the two planes is that the latter is operated by Indian Air Force and has advanced security measures which is unavailable in the first. So, they knew they were going to travel to troubled lands. Apart from that, the Pakistan High Commissioner to India went to Pakistan a week back to prepare the ground for the meet. Also, the Air Traffic Control in Lahore was told about this trip on thursday itself.
Now the visit:
After the failure of bilateral talks at Foreign Secretary level and the proposed NSA meet after Ufa talks due to pressure created as a result of intense media speculation, PM had understood that discreet is the only way forward.
A pull aside impromptu meeting in Paris, followed by NSAs meeting in Bangkok and then EAM Swaraj visiting Pakistan on the pretext of Heart of Asia Conference culminated into the resumption of comprehensive bilateral dialogue. A visit by the Indian Prime Minister clearly shows diplomatic offensive and the intent with which Modi has pursued his Pakistan policy recently. The Indian PM trusted Nawaz Sharif with his security and traveled in a Pakistani chopper. That’s for me the biggest confidence building measure India has undertaken with respect to Pakistan till date.
When PM had visited INS Vikramaditya for the Commander’s Conference, he had remarked that we are engaging with Pakistan to try and turn the course of history. That was the boldest statement by Modi on Pakistan till date. And it had been followed with the visit now.
The way ahead:
Have our concerns been addressed? Clearly NO.
So what should be the way forward: India should restart the Comprehensive Bilateral Dialogue with Pakistan with a positive note but at the same time we shouldn’t be complacent and must prepare ourselves for any Pakistan misadventure. The need is to increase Intelligence and Army Strength at the border to prevent any terrorist attacks and subsequent derailment of talks.
The civilian Government in Pakistan is facing same legitimacy issues like the Ghani Government in Afghanistan. Taliban is the culprit in Afghanistan and the Pakistan Army in Pakistan. India can do little to alter the situation. But this gesture by the PM has been appreciated by everyone except, of course, the Congress Party.
Has Modi ignored national concerns: A day back Prime Minister was in Russia negotiating S-400 air defence missile systems and submarines and frigates. Soon, these agreements will see the light of the day. After that Modi visited Afghanistan where India has offered 4 Mi-25 attack helicopters to Afghanistan to fight Taliban. So. clearly national security and strategic issues remain his top priorities. And the Pakistan visit should be seen in that context only.
A hectic day for the Prime Minister but very fruitful for India-Pakistan relations. Let’s be optimistic and alert. We need to anticipate how Pakistan will reciprocate the gesture. But Prime Minister Modi has surely made serious efforts to re-initiate the dialogue process and needs to be complimented for that.
A smart move by the Prime Minister to keep out the media and make a surprise visit to Pakistan which was otherwise unthinkable.
So, is it a masterstroke?
Politically, YES. He did not have to waste any political capital as he was spared of unwanted media and opposition scrutiny prior  to the visit.
Diplomatically, well lets wait for sometime to know the true outcome.

How the common man wielded its power and turned tables on intolerance debate

NR Nigam
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Rising intolerance has claimed 2 more victims in last 2 weeks. This time victims are well known personalities of showbiz Barkha Dutt and Shahrukh Khan. While Barkha had to face the wrath of online community which kept giving negative ratings to her newly launched book, Shahrukh faced boycott of his movie ‘Dilwale’ for saying that India is extremely intolerant.

It has been more than 3 nauseating months since media started running a vicious Rising Intolerance campaign based on cherry picked incidents to paint Hindu/upper caste as intolerant lot and blame NDA government for this. Dadri incident became the face of the campaign and Kalburgi/Pansare/Dabholkar murders played the supporting roles. While you may say that such incidents indeed happened, so what’s wrong if media is talking about them. Let me explain this by an analogy.

Most of us are familiar with Cadbury GEMS, the sweet chocolate candies coated with attractive edible colors. India is like a packet of GEMS. Every person is different from other. People of so many different religions, caste, language and color are living together in one packet (India). We look different from outside, but from inside we all are same. Despite being different at many levels, we are together. We all are Indians. That’s our strength.

But what if I deliberately take out only green color tablets from the packet? An unsuspecting person may believe that GEMS comes in green only.  India’s intolerance debate is also built by carefully picking the GEMS of only one color and trying to create a perception that people belonging to a certain section are being targeted.

So while the majority feels cheated for being labeled as intolerant for the crime they did not commit, they also have a feeling of hopelessness that media never picks the issues where people from majority community was victim. Countless brutalities in radically charged Kerala and western UP were conveniently ignored by the media because it will contradict the Hindu intolerance narrative. With such sentiments simmering already, Intolerance debate got another shot in arm when leading stars of Bollywood also became pawns in the big game. While SRK was seen saying, ‘There is extreme intolerance in the country’, Aamir expressed his wife’s apprehensions of raising kids in India. The way media has raised this topic at every possible platform be it foreign soil or Chennai flood, it is clear that the intent behind it was motivated. Just listen to the clapping by audience when Aamir mentioned about despondency. As if they were waiting for this topic to be touched. It has striking similarity with Prannoy Roy’s giggle and clapping when that NDTV girl asked IMF chief if only male Hindus will benefit from India’s growth rate. Only the pawn is changed. In first example, it was Aamir Khan while in second it was that girl.

I am not among those who would start calling names to SRK or Aamir because they said something I don’t agree with or dislike. But I feel that despite their honest intentions, Khans let themselves become the tool in this propaganda, knowingly or unknowingly. Whether it was a calculated smartness that backfired or an innocent ignorance, we will never know. It’s very ironic that Aamir Khan’s controversy happened, on the platform of Ramnath Goenka Award for Excellence in journalism. Our MSM found the perfect stage to showcase what it does best – selectively quote and sensationalize.

Rest as they say is browser history. Netizens went crazy uninstalling Snapdeal app, writing negative reviews to Dilwale and Barkha’s book. People who were frustrated watching media houses hijack India’s growth story and positive image to peddle their own agendas found a potent weapon and used it to hurt Khans and Barkha where it hurts the most, commercial interests. One can argue that celebs are unfairly targeted, but how far can a common man remain reasonable and fair if his interests are being hit using proxies. Both sides have to face some amount of collateral damage if boundaries are not maintained while fighting.

At the time of writing this article, Barkha was going full crazy on her Twitter TL calling names to people and engaging with people she would otherwise dismiss as trolls while I am listening to this beautiful song from 1982 blockbuster Namak Halal –

Jawaani jaan-e-man haseen dilruba
Milein do dil jawaan nisaar ho gaya
Shikaar khud yahaan shikaar ho gaya
Yeh kya sitam hua, Yeh kya zulam hua
Yeh kya ghazab hua, Yeh kaise kab hua
Na jaanu main na jaane woh…….oho

Could Indian Islam be the Solution to the problems created by Global Jihad?

rajatsharma
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These days it has almost become fashionable for famous personalities to stir a debate. Blame it on the parade based self promotion which seems to be working well in politics, business and even in the creative space.

Before saying anything for or against communities, I am not sure if attention is paid to the lasting damage which is done as a result. This is what one of my Muslim friend told me recently:

The talk of intolerance is doing more damage to inter-community relations than the actual intolerance, if such a thing is true.

Of course, this may be a very urban view given that we both live in New Delhi.

What Amir Khan said a few days back was as much an over-reaction as the intolerant demonstrations that followed. Frankly I have no problem with Amir’s views, no matter how bizarre they may sound. Tomorrow, if I were to say that I live in a locality where I feel threatened by a certain group of people why should I be blamed for expressing such a view.

What’s important is to realise that all these statements, whoever makes them; all these demonstrations, irrespective of motives, do only one thing – create a little more tension in everyday lives of totally rational and educated people who must work together to earn their livelihoods.

The more I think about it, the more I feel that in this crazy self promotion many of us are finding problems in a solution. Let me explain as I try to answer an over-asked question, is India really becoming intolerant towards Muslims?

As a matter of fact people around the world are a little intolerant towards people from another community or religion. Sure the degree of intolerance varies. In particular, these days the perception of Islam around the world is becoming a matter of concern. I am not sure if it is radical Islamic thinking which is fueling this perception or if it is the negative perception which is alienating Muslims around the world. I guess the two promote each other. That global policy in this regard has failed is evident from the fact that what was a relatively smaller problem two decades ago has become so big that its proponents have now claimed an entire nation, almost!

I am not a Muslim so I cannot talk about how isolated Indian Muslims feel. What I am 100% certain about is the fact that it’s not nearly as bad as it is in most countries which are not predominantly Islamic. Without a doubt the credit for this goes to Indian Muslims who over the years have made as much contribution to nation building as people of any other faith. They have renounced all efforts at radicalization often imported from across our borders.

In-fact, Indian’s have practiced Islam very well for the past 1000 + years. We have produced poets like the great Amir Khusro and scientists like Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam. The ethos of our nation has been put together by contribution made by many such great thinkers who came from the Islamic faith. Some of our best singers and composers practiced Islam even though the Quran and the hadith condemn the use of musical instruments. Clearly then, the version of Indian Islam is one of liberalism and open-thinking.

Should this not be what India must teach the world? Instead of fighting the intolerance battle, should the patriotic Muslim of India not go out to the world with this version of Islam?

If as a nation we can achieve this, we would have gifted the world what it needs the most right now – peace. That I believe has a far brighter chance of making India the superpower we aspire to be. Perhaps the solution to the growing intolerance around the world could come from the liberalism and open thinking of Indian Muslims; and here we are, making a mess of our advantages by isolating communities and making them think about intolerance instead of leadership.

I remain mightily surprised why no efforts have been made to advertise Indian Islam to the world, particularly by scholars of the Muslim religion.

About the Author:
Rajat Sharma – Dreamer, Optimist, Entrepreneur. Founder of a financial advisory firm  in New Delhi.

Juvenile justice debate: reducing the age won’t solve the problem as the rot is deeper

lalitsharma
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What can be furious than fact that a person, who has committed a serious crime, can walk free only on the basis of his date of birth? 1 day on either side of a cutoff age limit can be matter of death and life. If one is 17 years 364 year old when he committed the crime, he can be kept for maximum of 3 year in juvenile reform centre, while if he committed the crime on very next day he will be treated as adult and can be hanged. What if he commits crime at 12:00 midnight? Will he be tried as adult or as juvenile?

These questions show absurdity of following technical rules. Outraged by recent incidents and with public pressure of demand of lowering age, the Juvenile Justice Bill 2014 proposed that juvenile from age 16-18 can be treated as adult for heinous crimes if the juvenile justice board thinks that crime was committed not in innocence but with adult mentality.

This bill is based on fact that 64% of all juvenile crimes were by this age group. But problem is that India has shortage of psychologists and chances are that cases will be decided not on basis of mental condition of convict, but on basis of public pressure. And question still remains, what if he has committed crime at 15 years 364 days? Still he can’t be given harsh sentence just because of 1 day difference.

Some people propose removal of age limit altogether as in case of many Arab nations. But Arab nations are following middle age inhuman practices like stoning to death. Can we, who take pride in calling themselves civilized society, take pride of hanging a 10 years old child?

Problem is that we have misunderstood the concept of punishment and mixed the idea of reform with revenge. With the invention of concept of state, the state had taken away all the right of violence from citizens and established its monopoly over violence, and it distributed limited power among its various organs.

It was a necessary deviation from previous personal revenge system based on ‘might is right’ and only the powerful could have been the winner. Idea was to establish rule based system to protect the weak and prevent the chaos in society and create the framework for “survival and growth” of society.

With the passage of time, justice, humanity and reform took the central stage in judicial system. Gandhi ji had said “eye for eye will make whole world blind”. In this world, where perception of right and wrong vary so much that few individuals demand blasphemy punishable with death penalty and on other hand we have activists demanding that death penalties should be stopped for all cases, revenge can’t be driving force for punishment. Only reform-reform of individual and society should be the main idea.

A question is often raised against idea of reforming a “criminal” that it will amount to injustice to victims. They say that he must certainly be penalized for his crime and then only true “justice” will be served. Again this idea of justice has been wrongly misinterpreted.

Justice is not how much harm can be caused to criminal but how much loss caused to “victim” can be reversed or compensated. Taking away what we can’t give is not justice at all. But punishing the criminal doesn’t help the victim, or may be it does. Emotion is basic attribute of human. Revenge will always be part of one’s sub-consciousness. In absence of strict punishment a “victim” will feel that he has not been punished in accordance to his scale of crime. And if this idea is resonated by large section of society, they will lose faith in judicial system and mob justice will start.

State should always keep tracking the mentality of society to see how much society has been evolved and accordingly modify laws to make it coherent with idea of reform and moving away from idea of revenge. In medieval time, death by torture was norm but the society today has been evolved enough to discard this inhuman practice.

This leaves us to our second idea behind the punishment and i.e. reform.

Deterrence is essential component of reform-reforming society towards less crime. A reformed individual will be asset not liability to society. But our current judicial and prison system lead to his dissociation from civilized society and put him back in trap into “criminal society”.

1.5 lakh undertrails are imprisoned in various jails in country, some for charges of petty crime due to lack of judicial help. Many may be innocent among them. These individuals after serving sentence or even after proving to be innocent are not accepted back in society. With very little chances to get employed in our society, they are pushed again into criminal trap. There is very little or no work done in field of reforming the prisoners and keeping their unoccupied mind busy.

In prisons, small thieves come in contact with members of criminal gangs and become part of organized crime. To reduce crime in society, we need reforms in prison and re-rehabilitation of prisoners so that their chances of re-offence can be minimized.

Going back to question that after what age a person should be tried as adult, Psychologists argue that teenage is the most important phase that have long lasting impact on person’s thinking. Child is learning to differentiate between right and wrong and brain is still under-developed. Legal community says that juveniles are often unable to understand the adult judicial system and they are not in position to defend themselves.

It is true that some people mature earlier and some take more time. On average, 18 is considered to be age when one enters adulthood. That’s why nearly every country has kept this age to be enrolled as a voter or to get driving license. As stated by standing committee on Juvenile justice bill, reduction in age from 18 to 16 is not backed by a strong data to support the move. Until we have a data to back the move of reduction of age it is better that current age limit remain unaltered.

A bigger question that needs to be discussed is that if by not punishing juvenile and even providing him assistance for rehabilitation aren’t we incentivizing crime? Will it lead to increase in rate of crime by juveniles after knowing that they can’t be given harsh punishment?

Unless a person has developed a criminal mind, no one want to spend time in jail (and in reform centre) even for a month. Lack of fear among criminals isn’t because of lack of harsh punishment, but because of lack of punishment. We have a very weak judicial system and ineffective Investigation methods and agencies that leads to very low conviction rates and that too take very long judicial time.

Conviction rate under IPC in 2013 was only 40% and there were total of 80 lakh pending cases. It’s high time for us to improve our judicial systems for speedy trials and improve the efficiency of our police force so that conviction rate can be increased. And as far as juvenile crimes are concerned, we need to keep our faith in society and believe that he hasn’t yet developed criminal mentality. And that’s why it is more important to not to try him as adult and put in adult prison.

Putting juvenile with other prisoners will decrease his chance to reform and chance is there that his “immature” mind after contact with other criminals will be attracted to criminal world.

But at the same time we need to do away with black and white idea of juvenile and adult, and should widen the “time period” for which juvenile will be kept in reform centre in exceptional cases, if doubt exist that he hasn’t been reformed and can be proved to be threat to society, especially if he is re-offender, so that extended period can be utilized for his “re-rehabilitation”.

But this should be done without any prejudice or public pressure and under strict advice of psychologists, on case to case basis. Basic idea of reform shouldn’t be forgotten in this and it must be kept in mind that longer the period of its isolation from society lesser the chances of his re-rehabilitation.

Along with it data should be collected to know about the effectiveness of juvenile centres by tracking how many of convicted juveniles are again tried/ punished after release. It is true that there has been substantial increase in number of criminal act by juveniles but it still remain at 1-1.2% of total criminal acts, and most of these around 52% were either illiterate or only primary educated while 78% of those belonged to the families with less than 50,000 per capita income.

Only in 0.6% cases family annual income was above 3 lakh. This data show the vulnerability of socially and economically backward children to be involved in criminal acts and this raises hope that with proper rehabilitation and guidance they can be again inducted in society.

From Zenith to Nadir – The Journey of Congress

sbc17
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National Herald case has been making the headlines for last few weeks. Congress has charged BJP with political vendetta and all its leaders are trying to hoodwink the public into believing that since no financial gain has been made (so far) either by Mrs Sonia Gandhi or Mr Rahul Gandhi, therefore there is no case at all. What they do not tell the nation is that the court has not talked of any direct financial gain as of now. All that the court has stated, in no uncertain terms, is about the intent of the transaction which points towards fraud and conspiracy to acquire the assets of Associated Journals Limited (AJL) in a clandestine manner. Mr Chidambaram, Mr Kapil Sibbal and others from Congress are once again misleading the public when they claim that apart from CBI, the ED directorate is being misused by the BJP government in this case. Such claims indeed speak volumes about the dubious quality of key government agencies left behind by Congress after a decade of being in power continuously. If such agencies are loyal only to the political party or politicians in power and have no inherent character of their own then Congress has to take full blame for nurturing such agencies during its rule whose loyalty is like the proverbial chameleon. For the record, as of now there is no case registered by the ED in the National Herald episode, the current case in court is  based on the complaint of Mr Swamy and only related to fraudulent transfer of assets and the criminal intent thereof.

There is no doubt that since the completion of Bihar elections, the much hyped issue of intolerance has suddenly lost steam. Realising that the issue of intolerance had lived its short life, Congress was looking for a fresh issue to rework its obstructionist strategy in the parliament. Congress tried to zero down on Political Vendetta based on the National Herald case, however it realised very soon that they were on a weak wicket and therefore reverted to flogging the ‘Vyapam Scam’ and ‘Lalit Gate’ all over again. Without a doubt at the heart of the matter is the Congress master plan of not allowing the NDA Government to go ahead with its development agenda by scuttling key bills in the upper house.

Having been reduced to anonymity of being just the largest opposition party in the Lok Sabha, without even the tag of ‘leader of opposition’, it is still smarting from its defeat in the national elections. To add to its woes it does not see any light at the end of the tunnel – all it can see is further erosion in its status with no hope of regaining its past glory in foreseeable future. Its ten years of scam ridden governance, political sycophancy based internal culture, lack of effective leadership and above all the ever present dilemma of what to do with Rahul Gandhi are taking their toll on the health of the party.

Mr Rahul Gandhi has been shouting hoarse for past few months on anything and everything mostly without understanding or focussing on any issue. It appears he needs a new issue every few days about which he can make some noise. As far as he is concerned anything and everything wrong that happens in this nation is because of Mr Narendra Modi and the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO). He seems to be giving the PMO an overtly large presence, bordering to being ‘Omni Present’, in all parts of the country at the same time. Surely as the sibling of a family that boasts of three Prime Ministers and one shadow Prime Minister, he should know better than that. These days his pet statement seems to be “I will continue to ask questions. They cannot stop me from doing that. I am not afraid of anyone.”

If one were to really dig deep into the Lok Sabha archives for last ten years, it is unlikely that one will find a single pertinent question asked by Rahul Gandhi on any issue that may have been discussed in the Parliament. One really wonders which questions he is referring to. But then for Rahul Gandhi clarity of expression has never been a strong point. His first interview on national TV on Times Now was a disaster. A few days ago in his speech in the parliament on intolerance, he substituted the two words -discussion and debate- with conversation. According to him democracy is all about conversation and it is for the ruling party to ensure that there is conversation in the parliament and that there is conversation with opposition. May be his use of the word ‘question’ too is in the same vein and one will never know what he really means.

History suggests that it is ‘time over’ for Congress. Pandit Nehru was fortunate to have the legacy of pre-independence Congress and largesse of Sardar Patel that helped him to be at the helm of the government for over a decade without any challenge to his leadership. In the absence of any sizeable opposition at that point of time there was no viable political option in front of the voter other than Congress. Shri Lal Bahadur Shastri, his successor and an astute leader, would have given the party more maturity and sustainability that possibly would have shifted the focus away from the Gandhi – Nehru name or family. Unfortunately that was not to be since he suffered an untimely death under mysterious circumstances. Shri Gulzari Lal Nanda occupied the PM’s chair for hardly a few weeks as a stop gap arrangement. Mrs Indira Gandhi, who succeeded him, consigned the original Congress to the dustbin and gave birth to a new breakaway Congress Party in 1969 that thrived on political sycophancy, cult leadership and mediocrity rather than merit. Most Congress leaders gave their willing support to allow Mrs Gandhi to impose ‘emergency’ on the nation, something that continues to remain a blot on the democratic traditions of the nation even today. The split in Congress party also signalled the death of the original Congress and its core values as inherited from the founding fathers. Therefore any claims by today’s Congress party to original Congress legacy can only be wishful thinking.

Rajeev Gandhi won a historic mandate mainly on the sympathy vote after the assassination of his mother and assumed leadership role of the new Congress because of his Gandhi name and the spineless second rung leadership that Indira Gandhi left behind. Mr Narasimhan Rao, who came to power in 1991, did give the Congress party a bit of character and solidity during his time but the rot was so deep that after he vacated office, it was once again Sonia Gandhi (another Gandhi) who came to the fore as there was none in the Congress who could take on the mantle to keep the party together. With a victory in 2004, Dr Manmohan Singh was elevated to lead the government as a shadow Prime Minister but it was Sonia Gandhi who called all the shots as is well known. Several senior Congressmen made merry and amassed huge gains for themselves at the cost of the nation in the ten years that Dr Singh occupied the PM’s chair. Non accountability became the order of the day and every Congressman worth his salt followed but one mantra – keep Congress Party President happy for survival. Devoid of leaders with mass appeal and courage to challenge such political machinations within the party, the Congress party culture eroded further and it suffered its most humiliating defeat in 2014 when it won just 45 seats in the Lok Sabha.

Any political organisation that suffered such a crushing defeat would have done some serious and genuine introspection. But not so the Congress Party. Who could bell the cat by blaming the Congress President or her son Rahul Gandhi for the defeat? Many senior Congressmen were of the nominated variety who became Members of Parliament in Rajya Sabha because of the largesse of Mrs Sonia Gandhi. Most were content to be there and no one was ready to take on the mantle of going to the public and revamping the party at the grass root level. Grass root workers continued to stay at the lower rungs of party hierarchy with no hopes for any upward movement. Merit was shelved, sycophancy rewarded, closeness to the first family became a prerequisite and last but not the least accepting Rahul Gandhi as their leader became the norm for being successful.

Post the last elections and the humiliating defeat, hardly any known Congress leader can claim to be working seriously towards reviving the party cadres. Dr Manmohan Singh was never a political leader and remains so even today despite being the PM for ten long years. Mr Kamal Nath, a comparatively young veteran and winner of nine Lok Sabha elections is neither heard nor seen. Chidambaram, who hardly has any mass base, has more or less retired despite not being in that age bracket as on date. Mr Digvijay Singh’s role is only confined to making controversial statements that Congress invariably disowns. Mr AK Antony, a known Gandhi family follower, seems to be without any responsibility within and outside the party. Mr Mani Shankar Aiyar is a motor mouth who refuses to reign in his tongue that invariably lands the party in trouble. Mr Salman Khurshid is rarely heard but when he speaks he invariably tends to say things out of context that embarrass the party and it does appear that he seems to have suddenly found some long lost love for the Pakistani establishment. Mr Kapil Sibal is busy catching up with his legal profession and now has the added responsibility of fighting the National Herald case on behalf of the Gandhis. Mr Veerapa Moily is seen once in a while whenever there is a need to sing some paeans for the Congress President.

Mr Mallikarjun Kharge, leader of the party in Lok Sabha, is more noise and less substance who is possibly shivering in his boots as his real estate empire is now under scrutiny in the media and public. Barring Mrs Ambika Soni, most women leaders in the party seem to be hibernating since there is nothing much to do. The much touted young brigade of Sachin Pilot, Jyotiraditya Scindia, Randeep Surjewala, Manish Tiwari and the like seem to be still roaming on the periphery and not really part of the inner core of the party presided over by Mrs Sonia Gandhi. Their role as party spokesmen is limited to either running down Mr Modi or BJP bashing without really contributing in any significant manner to revive the party. Nearly all the above names are Delhi based barring a few since the fear of being ‘out of sight and out of mind’ always looms large on all Congress leaders. Given this history, is it any wonder that the party is moving towards further anonymity? It is now becoming an issue for survival and therefore the party seems to be practicing the age old trick of ‘if I have to go down, why should I allow you to swim’. This possibly explains the deliberate effort to stall the parliament, cost to the nation notwithstanding.

The question is what does the future hold for the Congress Party? Politics can be very unpredictable as we all know. But as things stand today, the future for Congress certainly looks rather bleak and for the Gandhi family – even bleaker. If the party hopes for some kind of revival so as to be counted at the national level, then first and foremost it needs to grow up. In principle that means overcoming the self imposed limitations and breaking the shackles that bind it to the Gandhi family so that new leadership can emerge. The party has to understand that independence struggle, sacrifices of past leaders, party legacy, Nehru or Gandhi name are all passé now. For today’s young voter it is the present that counts and not history. Time for Congress is running out fast unless it can come up with some innovative measures and a liberated leadership that is far removed from the Gandhi family. That, within Congress of today, may be easier said than done. In absence of such a scenario all one can predict for Congress is further erosion of its position, particularly since its numbers in Rajya Sabha too will dwindle in the next few months resulting in a reduced clout in the upper house and therefore in the parliament as a whole. That will also mean a reduced stature within the opposition ranks since it will be no better than most other opposition parties.

It may do the BJP a lot of good if they stay away from a continual conflict with Congress for the time being and instead concentrate on their development agenda. If BJP plays the development card in the right manner, at the right levels and at the right pace, the chasm between the two parties will be so huge in the years to come that even a rejuvenated Congress will not be able to bridge it for years if not decades. That should give BJP more than a head start to consolidate its position for the next decade as the foremost political party in the country. As far as the Hindutwa card is concerned, BJP should make a deliberate effort to shelve the same at least in its current tenure. Development of second rung leadership and developing party cadres will pay the party rich dividends in the long run. Finally, it must first establishes a reputation for not only being bankable for the nation’s growth but also for an inclusive growth where there is a synergy between merit and meeting the needs of the backward citizens in an ever increasing manner.

In this journey of development there should be but one mantra for any political party in power: ‘India is for Indians and when it comes to applicability of fruits of development, all Indians are equal irrespective of caste or religion’. If India is predominantly Hindu in character, let the nation show to the world that a Hindu nation has the strength and capability to take all its citizens along in an equitable manner without any differentiation. In such a situation India’s Hindu character will emerge by itself and there will be no need to blow a trumpet to announce the same. Perhaps both BJP and Congress need to pay heed to what Steve Maraboli, famous author and philanthropist had once said “A lack of clarity could put the brakes on any journey to success”.

Master the art of propaganda by doing genuine work

luffy22
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India never runs out of things to outrage about. Whether it is the rising price of vegetables or whether it is the cricket team’s loss. Invention of Twitter has just added a new platform for angry people to find new ways to outrage at how the system is not working and how corrupt and liars thrive. It would be fine if these outrages lead to something positive but trouble is they get one nowhere. Indians especially Bhaktas need to learn a little about Propaganda.

Most people think ISIS is the most evil terror group out there today. But the truth of matter is ISIS is just a baby in front of Boko Haram. When Paris was under attack for the first time there was this #JeSuisCharlie tag meaning ‘We Are All Charlie’ for some eleven people who were killed. Nothing against those who were killed but Boko Haram had burned two thousand innocent Nigerians on the same day as Islamists carried out Charlie Hebdo Massacre. Did we see #JeSuisNigerians tag. No. Why? Cause Nigerians don’t know how to sell their agenda. Europeans and Americans on the other hand have successfully portrayed ISIS as the biggest threat to Freedom and Democracy.

Europeans understood the perils of multi-culturalism some 8-10 years back. What did they do? Outrage all the time. Nope… They started a propaganda to suit their narrative. They understood the Islamic Way of Life was not compatible with their Way Of Life. They also understood that they could never match progeny rate of Islam. So they started setting the propaganda of how Islam was ruining life in the West. To be fair to them they are under attack from uncivilized barbarians and they must stand by their ideals. I don’t have a problem with them but I do feel HDL’s, Sanatan Dharmi’s and VHS should raise awareness levels about repeated torture, rape, Love Jihad, Population Jihad and murder of innocent Hindus in Pakistan, Bangladesh, West Bengal and Kerala instead of outraging all the time. Sure Tommy Robinson would empathize with you but he can’t come to save your ass when the going gets tough. That’s cause he has to save Great Britain and I believe he is doing a wonderful job at raising awareness there. Time for some Hindu to walk in his footsteps and spread awareness about plight of Hindus in Bangladesh, Pakistan, West Bengal and Kerala.

Propaganda sells. It is just that Bhaktas are not aware how to go about it. I would definitely recommend two twitter profiles: @noconversion and @temsutulaimsong which sell their respective agendas without any fuzz and both of them are successful in raising awareness levels. Do they get abuse? Yes most likely. Do they feel anguished and helplessness when they fail to see results? Probably. But they have successfully gone about selling their agendas. Today Temsutula is the Face Of Swachch Bharat Abhiyan and the day Ganga is neat and clean she should be receiving equal accolades as Mr. Modi. It is due to her efforts and agenda that people are inclined towards Cleanliness Drive. Same with @noconversion. She is brilliantly going about doing her job with little or no fuzz and one day hopefully Hindus would start listening to her and take all possible steps to stop this Missionary farce.

But perhaps more importantly Bhaktas need to learn from their idol and the PM Of India Shree Narendra Modi. The abuse levelled at him is unparalleled in the history of Indian Politics. But he never cried victim, he never tried outrage and he was always trying to sell his Agenda of a Better India.

Bhaktas need to stop outraging and stop getting bogged down by failures of system. It took 60 years of failed socialist and secularists policy to get India to where we are today. Today also the socialist narrative controls most of the debates and opinions. Time for Bhaktas to sell their respective propaganda. Either Bhaktas can keep outraging on Twitter and Facebook or start selling their agenda and raise awareness among people. Sooner or later people would see their genuine efforts and help with the cause.

Are we Indians turning a blind eye towards threat of Islamic terrorism?

lalitsharma
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Let us consider 3 recent events in 3 different nations

1. In US, Donald Trump made certain remarks against a particular community creating much of controversy. But recent survey has shown that around 1/3rd of American support his view. This is significant in backdrop of San Bernadigo killings. Trump emerged out to be a favourite candidate among republicans.

2. French extreme right party Front National (FN) scored near to 30% votes in regional elections in first round and looked to win 4 or 5 regions out of total 11. It was only after tactical bonding b/w Centre Right and Centre Left parties there that kept FN at bay in the second round. But sudden rise in support for FN especially after Paris attacks was seen as alarming.

3. India’s ruling and centre-right party BJP lost a major election in Bihar amid rising voices in “intellectual circle” against “growing intolerance” in country and rise of extremist “right-fringe” groups. A month after this, an IOCL manager from Jaipur was arrested on charges of working for ISIS to form a network for its organisation.

US and France appear to be reacting to extremist Islamic forces in fashion opposite to India. This could be blamed on political correctness. Fear of backlash against a whole community, as was case of Jews, may be reason for the political correctness that denies the obvious links between terror and religion, but in this process safety appear to be being compromised.

In the western world, increasing security and capable intelligence agency was considered to be a solution along with destroying the base of Taliban in Afghanistan. Terrorism was considered as any other power hungry armed group and its ideological aspect was neglected. But recent attacks were not carried by citizens of radicalised middle east citizens but by educated western Muslims.

A well educated neighbour employed with a handsome salary may walk with a gun in a crowded place and start shooting, shouting slogan of ISIS (a gun is as easy to obtain in US as toothpaste in India). And you express shock that you were until now unaware of his radicalisation. Those supporting Trump or FN know that every Muslim is not a terrorist but they fear that “any Muslim can be terrorist”.

India still appears untouched from this global phenomena mainly because of 2 reasons:

1. India’s diverse society with its history of different sects in society living harmoniously (co-living at least) sharing common past acted as a barrier to outside influences. India is diverse not only because of diversity of Indian religions, but also because nowhere else in world you will find Islam as diverse as here, so much so that 80% of Muslims may qualify as kafirs according to ISIS and Saudi’s Wahhabi interpretation.

Pakistan born Canadian citizen who liked to be called as “Indian Muslim” Tarek Fateh says that For Muslims, there is no safer country than India in the world (Shia not safe in Pak-Saudi, Sunni face discrimination in Iran-Iraq, Ahmadiya’s are not considered Muslims in any of Muslim country).

A particular nature of Sufi Islam which has been evolved in South Asia using music and singing as its instrument of prayer and emphasis on Love for God along with concept of Sufi dargah has helped in their assimilation in Indian culture. Sufi saints are revered as much by Hindus as by Muslims. Due to this reason any attempt to unify Hindus or Muslims under particular set of beliefs and code of conduct has been failed in past and that’s why cry of intolerance by intellectuals was perceived to be an over zealous attempt without any factual backing.

2. Second reason is low Islamic State penetration as ISIS has still not focused on eastern part of world (except Afghanistan). While the West have waged full scale war against ISIS, India has not yet entered a war against ISIS except for verbal condemning and call for unity against terrorism.

Despite its ideological nature, ISIS has more or less evolved as a nation state and it knows the importance of keeping its enemies low (Russian plane was attacked only after Russia entered war till then it was unscratched). ISIS has not dedicated its resources on recruitment from India except for some over-enthusiastic volunteers and focused on west especially when there is unsureity of its success due to competition it faces from other terrorist organisation like jamat ul dawa and Indian Mujaheedin.

But that doesn’t mean that problem is absent. It is true that communities in India are tolerant but tolerance itself is problem. Because tolerance have a limit and one is never sure when limit will be breached.

Instead of focusing on tolerance, need is to focus on acceptability. Tolerance itself signifies lack of acceptability. Whole debate of intolerance has been wrongly focused on tolerability instead of acceptability. Instead of focusing on all religion are equal focus should be on accepting that something may be wrong in every religion and definition of right and wrong need to be revisited on basis of new ideas of humanitarianism, universalism and equality.

Denial of fact by Indian liberals that “religious ideology” of only one religion to be true religion along with feeling of victimisation among Muslims have long fed Islamic radicalisation. Their silence on attack faced by Tasleema Nasreen, Salman Rushdie and recently on demand of beheading of Kamlesh Tiwari was deafening when they are known for showing their support for like of MF Hussain and Wendy dongier.

Loss caused by them is evident from the fact that on one hand “I stand with Kamlesh Tiwari” was trending on twitter and on other hand slogan in support of ISIS were raised in a rally. Their habit of protecting minority sentiments has only alienated Muslims from mainstream society and increased the hostility between them and rest of the society.

Lakhs of Muslims in funeral of Yakoob menon along with similar number in rally that demanded death for Kamlesh Tiwari is a fact that radicalism has only increased despite repeated denial. This along with Parikar indication that India can join UN led strike against ISIS has only raised fear of ISIS attacks in India. But fatwa against ISIS by 1000 Muslim leaders is silver lining

Why I lost faith in Indian media and Indian journalism

Smiran Bhandari
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In my younger days, I used to be fascinated with the field of journalism. It seemed like a very noble profession. The idea of pursuing truth with unbridled curiosity was very seductive to me. I was also under the impression that our Indian journalists were highly independent and objective. I would lap up their perspectives without any doubts and completely trust their point of views. Admittedly, I was very naive and gullible. Later on, I started understanding the hidden agendas and vested interests that would dictate how any piece of news would be distorted, manipulated and twisted to suit the requirement of news agencies. The experience of realizing that my opinions were not actually my own but were spoon-fed to me with ulterior motives was akin to an internal bubble getting busted with a pin.

Over the years, I saw the country deal with one scam after another like Commonwealth Games (CWG) scam, 2G spectrum scam and Coal-gate scam. It was mindboggling to see the humungous amounts that were being looted from the coffers of the country. Any citizen would have been seething with anger to see the tax-payers money be swindled by the powerful. Yet there were a handful of journalists who seemed rather flustered instead of angry. The topic of corruption by the then ruling party, Congress would make them uneasy and queasy. These were the same journalists and anchors whose opinions I used to hold in high esteem namely Barkha Dutt, Rajdeep Sardesai, Sagarika Ghose, Karan Thapar, Nidhi Razdan, Sonia Singh and Amrita Rai.

Suddenly, reputed and highly respected channels like NDTV would turn into Congress apologists and would instead target the then opposition party, BJP at every given opportunity. This behaviour led me to investigate the ownership details of NDTV which was publicly available as it was a listed entity. 61% stake was held by Prannoy Roy and his wife, Radhika Roy. Radhika would turn out to be the sister of Brinda Karat, the Vice President of CPI (M) and wife of Prakash Karat, the then General Secretary of CPI (M). That explained the anti-BJP stance of the channel but it still did not explain the open favouritism towards the Congress Party.

Digging deeper into the shareholding pattern, I noticed that 14% of the shares in NDTV were held by Oswal Greentech Ltd which was promoted by Abhey Kumar Oswal, the father-in-law of Congress MP and industrialist Naveen Jindal. Co-incidentally, Naveen Jindal is the same person who made the allegations that Zee News was trying to extort Rs. 100 Crore for not airing negative stories. After digesting these pieces of information, I looked at NDTV with new eyes. The nexus between media and politicians was getting more evident.

One of the most well known faces of NDTV is Barkha Dutt. Now whenever she appears on screen, I cannot help but smile. Taken at face value, she would appear to be the epitome of liberal values who espouses important ideals like secularism, tolerance and freedom of expression. But her true picture emerges once you go through the transcripts of the Radia tapes. It turns out she is a glorified wheeling dealing operator who acts as a middleperson between Corporate Lobbyists and Congress Party. In the tapes, she is caught actively participating in the haggling of ministerial berths for none other than A. Raja. The very A. Raja who as the Telecom Minister, freely distributed a valuable national resource like spectrum and caused a loss of Rs. 1,76,000 Crore to the exchequer. No wonder she was mighty uncomfortable when the 2G scam was uncovered.

NDTV is not the only media corporate with ties to political parties. Shobhana Bhartia who promotes Hindusthan Times Media was nominated to the Rajya Sabha on the recommendation of the Congress Party. The Times Group too has historical deep-rooted ties with Congress starting from the time of Jawarhal Lal Nehru and the “Times of Indira”.

There are numerous other examples of political ownership and connections in media. This insidious and incestuous relationship exists with the main objective of distorting public opinion and manipulating issues to suit the agenda of a political party. Since it is done under the guise of neutrality, there is a large element of deceit inbuilt into this kind of mechanism of providing news. A newspaper like Hindu does not hide its left leaning ideological inclinations so it cannot be accused of deceit. Likewise, the newspaper Pioneer openly states that its ideology is biased towards right-wing conservatism.

This brand of ideology based journalism is acceptable as what you see is what you get. The problem arises when mainstream media agencies like NDTV use their news platform to highlight hidden political agendas and motives under the garb of neutrality. This is tantamount to manipulation of public opinion and is a breach of responsibility that is entrusted upon the media.

This kind of underhand arrangement between mainstream media and political parties allows a certain amount of impunity towards the crimes of political parties. A recent example is the disruption of Rajya Sabha by Congress on frivolous and flimsy grounds. This kind of behaviour is highly objectionable and unacceptable.

Yet, due to the subservient and servile attitude of media agencies who found no fault with this kind of behaviour, Congress could get away with harming the country’s prospects in broad daylight. But as an eternal optimist, I do believe things will change for the better. I have faith in the words of Abraham Lincoln who stated “You can fool all the people some of the time, and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time”.

On the boycott of Barkha, the Adarsh Liberal cabal, and Morality

mikoti
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0

As an avid consumer of Twitter (though not prolific by any means as is evidenced by my tweets and followers count) for the past 7 years, I have seen the trials and tribulations of my RW (Right Wing) brethren. I have seen the struggle, the pain, the stupendous effort that went in to be heard, to be taken note of.

Ignored in the beginning by the twittering elite (Twitterati they called themselves, “Adarsh Liberals” are what we know them as), then reviled and mocked at and to where it is now – reviled, mocked still – but there is a change; they are wary of the RW. They feel that the scattered groups can coalesce and can be dangerous to whatever mishmash of leftist ideology they profess to.

However, this is an oft quoted line of thinking by RWs who are far more eloquent than I am and who have put it in words much better than what I have conjured here. There is good reason to recount this though, which I will get to shortly.

Somebody said sometime back that those who do not learn from history are condemned to repeat it. I will change that a bit – those who do not remember the past, will miss when chances spring up in the future. Learn from the past, so that the future won’t be a complete surprise. I have learnt a lot the past 7 years.

I have seen how the Adarsh Liberals work. How they tag team and make us follow their lead, how stories are whipped up and how it is always the same set of people who start and retweet and outrage. The pattern is unmistakable. This however is not the crux of this post. What we see on Twitter (or on Reddit) is the same modus operandi that our worthies follow in the real world. One person to innocuously report something, another to express concern and spur dissemination and a hundred other wannabes to outrage. And us, poor old us, we fall for it every time. But I digress.

I was pleasantly surprised however, when the SnapDeal boycott shaped up. We had evolved. From crudely formed insults to attacking their commercial interests (albeit in a non violent, perfectly civil way), we had come a long long way. Using the power of numbers is the one thing we can do, and we must continue to do. That is the biggest strength we have. This is something we must always remember. Snapdeal has backed off and I am sure Aamir’s celebrity net-worth is shaved off a significant amount. So it was sort of a victory.

Similarly, Dilwale and Dangal will have boycott movements. Which may or may not be productive, since not watcing a movie might be too much to ask of a majority of the RW (or indeed, any right leaning and thinking individual). But we must try. Success will come. I am also amused at what is happening to Barkha Dutt with respect to her new book. It is being panned by what I believe are both genuine readers and people who are just itching to get back at her (I sincerely hope Chaitanya Kunte took the time to do some dissing of his own – anonymously or otherwise).

This is good, although the Amazon review page for that book looks like a graveyard of insults for the ‘handsome’ author. She is predictably using the negative reviews for further publicity and is whining about Trolls or Bhakts or whatever. Which is good, because we can see that it is hurting, but are we hurting enough?

No, we aren’t. And panning it in the reviews is not going to make much of a difference to her (but the author of a similarly named book might be wondering which Hindu God he offended). The book will still sell. It may even be made compulsory reading in some ICSE or CBSE schools for all we know. That is how the cabal works. This is not good enough. Which brings me to the history aspect.

Some tweets of Barkha Dutt to Amazon India referred to David Davidar. The name seemed to be familiar. It brought back memories of something that happened a few years ago. In Canada. In a publishing house by the name of Penguin. David Davidar was a bigshot. He has three books to his name and has been in publishing for 25 years. He is currently the co founder of Aleph, which is publishing the book.

In 2010 or thereabouts, David Davidar was accused of sexual harassment by a female colleague (I presume, could have been male, not really sure). The details were scandalous. Alleged forced late night meetings, several propositions, inducements etc. the memory is hazy, details more so. I followed the case on and off. I remember the Adarsh Liberals standing up for David. “Why he could never!” they screeched.

The usual suspects (one currently a editor at yahoo, another a female author who owes a lot to Davidar and who [in]famously wrote and article about how The Ramayana and The Mahabharata were responsible for the Delhi Gang Rape). Take a moment to let that sink in. A woman, defending Davidar and calling the complainant a liar. But we’ve seen their depravity. So lets not go there. Anyhow, David was booted out of Penguin and the case was settled ‘out of court’. And left Canada as well. Which is basically an euphimism that somebody bought their way out of trouble. That is for the courts and their concience and what not. All this is a matter of record by the way, not something made up. I recount this to introduce a new angle to the entire boycott barkha’s book story.

The current boycott, downrating and so on, is purely out of spite for Barkha Dutt. Not on the merits of the book (although it is selling under the non fiction category, whilst we all know that Barkha is a specialist in fiction). That looks mean. It does more harm than good. What if it was made to be a case of morality? Barkha – the shrill feminist, protector of innocent mistreated women (never mind Bhanwari Devi), who led against and cheered as a YoYo Honey Singh concert was cancelled because of faux outrage by the feminazis; Barkha, whose moral lectures on TBSH and other panels are dripping with attitude borne out of sophistry.

Barkha, fearless journalist and Arun Jaitely interviewer par excellence – supports a person accused of sexual harassment, especially someone who settled out of court. She proudly writes a book published by a person of unclean hands. An alleged predator of women (since sexual harassment cases may not all be reported, the complainant may not be the only one). She thanks him profusely, he who is an alleged sexual predator.

Will Barkha do anything for fame and money? Will she even partner with an alleged sexual predator? Is this what Barkha has been reduced to? Yada Yada. You get the drift. This achieves better objectively than downrating out of spite. We boycott her, we show her up as a slimy character who is willing to partner with an alleged sexual predator, reduces the halo of morality that she wears and so on. This is the same Barkha who shrilly called for a boycott of Honey Singh, because she found him nasty and demeaning to women (although it was more of a ‘People Like Them’ thing). The same Barkha is proud to work with an alleged sexual predator?

Lead with this and the effects will be manifold. You’ll know why when you visit the website of Aleph and scroll through the authors section. Veritable treasure trove of Adarsh Liberal names. Some more known than others. That they lend their names to a Davidar backed publishing house even after knowing what his past may have been like, shows that these folks have not an iota of morality in them.

It’s not like there aren’t other publishing houses, but they went with Davidar’s. Somebody who has been accused of sexual harassment and never proven innocent. They choose to work with him. They who speak of woman empowerment and so on. They who espouse morals and other virtues. Strip them of their morality and show that our secular liberals aka Adarsh Liberals are nothing but opportunistic weasels who wouldn’t give two hoots about selling you – their ‘fans’ – to the highest bidder.

Do that and we’ll make a dent in the chink riddled armor of the Adarsh Liberals. This is a good opportunity to further expose Barkha, we shouldn’t let it go.

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