The Great Indian Political Debate - 3

Bodhi · 08-27-2008, 08:18 PM

QUOTE(Husky @ Aug 27 2008, 08:11 PM)And Dharma in Samskritam is NOT NOT NOT religion. I don't know why in Hindi today Dharma has been equated with religion.
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Husky I agree with everything you said in the above post. But this one, dharma = mata/sampradAya/religion does apparently go back in some ancient and classical saMskR^ita itself. I have seen the usage of the term 'dharma' in nIti-shAstra-s to mean religion (using that term losely here). Especially viShNugupta uses that word in that sense.

Bodhi · (This post was last modified: 08-28-2008, 08:31 AM by Bodhi.)

Husky, for example, here is one aphorism from chANakya-nIti-darpaNa:

tyajet dharmaM-dayA-hInaM vidyA-hInaM-guruM tyajet |
tyajet krodha-mukhIm bhAryAM niHsnehAn bAndhavAMsa tyajet ||
(CND 4.16)

should abandon a merciless religion, and a guru lacking in vidyA
should abandon the anger-face wives, and friends lacking in affection

In above, 'dharma' might probably not mean dharma of old sense. Since it is said in conjunction with Guru, it here means a sect or mata, sampradAya.

Now that I am trying to recall, I have also seen the word 'Dharma' used in pa~nchatantra/hitopadesha in that sense as well (a particular way of religious practice).

{Now, something to ponder about... which one does chANakya refer to by a 'merciless religion'! We are talking about early maurya period, when buddhism and jainism were making an impact all around, and main blame from these two on Astika mata-s was that of being cruel}

ramana · (This post was last modified: 08-28-2008, 01:33 AM by ramana.)

I debated if this should be in BJP thread but decided it should be here.

Editorial page Pioneer, 28 Aug, 2008

QUOTEBHU, not AMU, to blame for partition

Second opinion: N Jamal Ansari 

I was dismayed by the article, "From Sir Syed to Abdul Rashid" (Second Opinion, August 25) by Mr KR Phanda, which has grossly misreported pre-independence events of our country. I would, therefore, like to set the record straight.

Mr Phanda's analysis is that because Sir Syed founded the Muhammadan Anglo Oriental College in 1875 and the All India Muslim Educational Conference in 1886, suspected terrorists today are by-products of the events of the late 19th century. What a fantastic flight of imagination. Few educational institutions have had such an important role in the socio-political life of a country as MAO College, which became Aligarh Muslim University in 1920. Unfortunately, no educational institution has also been the object of so much of ill-informed criticism as this seat of secular learning. AMU has produced all types of leaders -- Rightists, Leftists, Congressites, Leaguers, etc -- reflecting all shades of public opinion in those days. Why has Mr Phanda centered his arguments only on the Muslim League? Why has he not mentioned Maulana Mohammad Ali, Shoukat Ali or Zakir Hussain? It is because he wears saffron glasses and wants to defame AMU.

Let me discuss the role of Banaras Hindu University in formenting communalism, much in the same vein as Mr Phanda has done for AMU. Before independence it was the British that helped Hindus to strengthen their identity. In the 20th century, when Indians began to politically organise themselves, the new-found political identity of Hindus became a roadblock in the unity of the nation. And BHU became the main centre for Hindu politics.

The key figure of this process was Madan Moham Malviya. He was associated with the Bharat Dharm Mahamandal right from its establishment in Haridwar in 1887. Malviya had also been involved with the Prayag Hindu Samaj, which had an even more militant character. He conceived the idea of a Hindu University and its establishment in Banaras transformed the city from a centre of Hindu culture to a centre of political Hinduism. He began organising Hindu society and participated in the 'shuddi movement' which further divided Indians on communal lines. Malviya's BHU played a key role in the rise of Hindutva politics, which today is tearing apart the country's secular fabric.



Wow>MMM was truly far sighted. The seculars killed his ideas. How can shuddi movement divide Indians on communal lines?

original article from 25 Aug., 2008

QUOTEFrom Sir Syed to Abdul Rashid 
Second opinion: KR Phanda

Only those unfamiliar with the history of Uttar Pradesh Muslims will be surprised at the arrest of Abdul Rashid from Azamgarh in connection with the serial bombings in Ahmedabad. Since the advent of British rule in India, the Muslims of Uttar Pradesh have played a vital role in promoting and organising separatist movements. They have been at the heart of Muslim separatism and have also been responsible for the establishment of organisations which represent Muslim interests in Indian politics today.
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In 1875, Syed Ahmed Khan founded the Muhammadan Anglo-Oriental College in Aligarh, which directed early Muslim political activities and nurtured many Muslim League politicians. He followed this up with the establishment of the All-India Muslim Educational Conference in 1886, which helped him to impress his political will on Indian Muslims.

In 1906 a large number of Muslims from the State flocked to Dhaka to establish the All-India Muslim League. For the first 20 years, that is, between 1906-1926, the secretaryship of the League was held by Muslims from Uttar Pradesh only. It is they who had played an important role in the Central Khilafat Committee in the 1920s. These and other interesting facts have been brought out in detail in the book Separatism Among Indian Muslims by Francis Robinson (Cambridge University Press, London, 1974).

The Muslims of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Bombay provinces were also at the forefront of the Pakistan movement. According to Justice MC Chagia, there would have been no partition of India had the Muslims of Uttar Pradesh not insisted on it. The Students Islamic Movement of India was also born in this State in 1977. No doubt, the Muslim seminary at Deoband has always provided intellectual and spiritual inspiration to Muslim fundamentalism in India. 

Given the track record of Muslims of Uttar Pradesh, the Union Government and the State Government should take precaution that separatist movements do not flourish in the State again. Uttar Pradesh has now become the crucible of jihad in India and other States are paying the price for this. It is ominous that the State Government was reluctant to co-operate with the Gujarat Police in apprehending the terrorists behind the Ahmedabad terror strike. 



Which part of what he said is untrue? I think the rebuttal is not based on logic.

G.Subramaniam · 08-28-2008, 04:42 AM

The muslims and xtians can do conversion and it is secular but if hindus do the same it is communal

Bodhi · 08-28-2008, 07:01 AM

Phanda is eating Ansari for breakfast, lunch and dinner, too often on Pioneer these days.

09-28-2008, 06:03 PM

Indian secularism: Innocent Simi, but a communal VHP
By Balbir K. Punj (Deccan Chronicle, 26 Sept. 2008)

The recent serial bomb blasts across the country have got the "secularists" busy in building smoke screens, raising red herrings and finding scapegoats â all to save the real culprits. The terror machine in India has two faces: The "underground" one which plans and executes the violent operations, while the "over ground" face hides behind masks of human rights, social activists and NGOs and operates under a common brand name of "secularism". Together, they provide an atmosphere conducive to the germination and growth of terrorism in the country.

How does the "secular" cabal provide covert and overt support to terror in the country? It does so by discouraging the rational and forward-looking elements in the Muslim community and promotes only renegades. Remember how Rajiv Gandhi dumped his progressive minister Arif Mohammad Khan and instead courted bigots and reversed the Supreme Court judgment in the Shah Bano case? Or how V.P. Singh wooed the Shahi Imam?

Not in the too distant past, the Kerala Assembly had passed a unanimous resolution seeking Madhani's release, a man then behind bars for his alleged role in the 1998 Coimbatore blasts which had left 33 dead and 153 injured. A couple of weeks ago, leaders of three "secular" parties (the Congress, the BSP and the SP) were vying with each other in expressing their support for Abu Basher in Azamgarh, Uttar Pradesh, after he was arrested for his involvement in the Ahmedabad blasts. What is the message being sent here?

While subsidy running into hundreds of crores of rupees is given for Haj, nothing tangible is done to wean away the Muslim youth from madrasas and motivate them to join the mainstream. In fact, the reverse is being done. Madrasas are being promoted and computers are being made available in a bid to "modernise" them.

Equipment is not the issue; it is the mindset. Modern tools are being used to add to the lethal capacity of a medieval mindset. Right from the young men involved in flying planes into the Twin Towers in New York, to the ones involved in Delhi blasts, all are computer savvy and come from comparatively well-off backgrounds.

The 14-page email of the Indian Mujahideen, sent minutes before the Delhi blasts, started with a quotation from the Holy Quran. It said, "When you encounter (in fight) those who disbelieve, strike their necks first, till when you have completely massacred and wounded many of them. Then bind them firmly (taking them as captives). Thereafter is the time, either for generosity or a ransom, until the war lays down its burden (Quran 47:4)."

In the public outrage following the Delhi blasts, the "secularists" have been careful in not mentioning the fact that the terrorists quoted the Quran.

However, they have repeatedly recounted from the same email message the demolition of the Babri structure and the riots in Gujarat as the cause for jihadi anger. If the presumed injustice to the Muslim community is the cause of strike on India's capital and other cities, why are their fellow jihadis attacking the national capital of the Islamic state of Pakistan? The continuing jihadi violence against Muslim-majority countries like Pakistan, Indonesia, Malaysia, Egypt and Saudi Arabia and the large number of Al Qaeda-inspired terror modules functioning in many European countries can only lead to one conclusion: This is radicalisation calling for a throwback to strict Islamic laws that deny education to women, discourage all entertainment, insist on strict implementation of purdah and carry out summary executions.

And what about 9/11? The US did not have any history of either Gujarat or Babri. The truth is that a section of the Muslim community is now ideologically motivated to impose its will on the rest of the world.

The demolition of the Babri structure, Gujarat riots or Muslim grievances are just smoke screens which "secularists" build to camouflage the real intention of terrorists. Then there is a well-practiced effort on the part of the "secularists" to blame the police of targeting "innocent Muslims" and of staging "false encounters".

The obvious attempt is to obfuscate issues and prevent security agencies from getting to the conspirators.

To divert attention from the real issues, "secularists" frequently raise red herrings.

For them, the Simi is an innocent organisation of Muslim youth fighting for justice, and a little bit of violence on the side is a minor indiscretion on the part of some misguided among them. So the ban on Simi is wrong. Shift the focus instead to the Bajrang Dal and the VHP, term them dangerous and ask for a ban on them. To "secularists", Simi's call for "Nizam-e-Mustafa" is probably only an expression of Muslim aspirations and "Bharat Mata ki Jai" is a provocative slogan endangering communal harmony!

There is no end to this sort of perverse logic. The other day, in a television studio, a Congress leader sought to redefine terror. To him, Hindu-Christian clashes in Orissa and Karnataka and the demolition of a mosque or church were in the same category as the serial bomb blasts. This logic has only one aim: Dilute the severity of the crime of the terrorists and find scapegoats.

If at all the definition of terrorism has to be enlarged, then logically it should include the Congress consenting to Partition, reversal of the Shah Bano judgment, demolition of temples and the forced eviction of Kashmiri pandits, revocation of land allotted to the Amarnath shrine board, the move to demolish Ram Sethu, allowing religious conversions through fraud and bribes, permitting hate literature against Hindu deities, displaying vulgar paintings of Hindu gods and Bharat Mata by M.F. Husain etc... the list is endless. Will "secularists" still insist on enlarging the scope of "terror-related" activities?

"Secularists" won't allow laws which can help security agencies combat terror. Such laws already exist in most western countries. In most European countries a terror suspect could be detained for up to 30 days before being produced in the court. In the US, the anti-terror provisions are even stricter. Besides, as recent events in our own country have revealed, the trail often goes cold if even one cell is alive.

Muslim alienation and economic distress is leading some of the community's youngsters to look to terror as an instrument of action â this is another "secular" argument. This is an absolute lie. Every other group that feels alienated or discriminated against is using democratic means of organised protest, political clout and intervention in the political process to get its demands accepted. Why is it that only one community is keeping away and sympathising with the merchants of terror? Why is it that Osama bin Laden is an icon within one community? Is there an theological underpinning to this macabre drama? Will "secularists" have the intellectual honesty to discuss this aspect of the problem?

Balbir K. Punj can be contacted at punjbk@gmail.com
http://deccan.com/Columnists/Columnists.asp?#Indian secularism: Innocent Simi, but a communal VHP

Shambhu · 10-04-2008, 01:24 AM

http://www.politicsparty.com/hindu_voter_analysis.php
Analysis of Hindus' political leanings.

http://www.politicsparty.com is a good site to browse through. Opinions, analyses, predictions on indian politics (state, center).

12-10-2008, 02:16 AM

The eliteâs naÃ¯vetÃ©QUOTEShailaja Chandra
It is not enough to berate politicians and blame them for all our problems. The solution lies in engaging senior leaders in serious debates and force them to take a public stand on a slew of reforms. Then hold them to their commitment and make them accountable

A spate of editorials and articles has been warning us against spearheading hate campaigns against politicians. Mr S Gurumurthy writing for the New Indian Express admonished channels for championing âPage 3â protesters as representatives of public reaction. He cautioned against targeting politicians as a class thereby shifting accountability from those directly answerable for the 26/11 intelligence and security failures. Second, by demanding Army rule the very foundation on which democracy rests is being questioned â a dangerous trend indeed.

In a similar vein Mr Shekhar Gupta ran a leader in which he cautioned the upper crust (of which he admits being a part) that only because it has successfully managed its own private health care, schooling, electricity, water and what not, to think carefully before attempting to manage law and order which is an altogether different story. He harks back to South Africa where the Whites despite being armed with automatic weapons and the authority to shoot (Blacks) at sight, only ended up becoming detainees in their own homes.

Mr Vir Sanghvi was more direct when he said that he was appalled by the emerging rubbish from the âFrangipani-Vetro setâ â âdonât pay taxes; give up democracy; hand the country over to the Army; refuse to voteâ. 

There is near universal unhappiness with the âPage 3â chatteratti having been given an outsized platform to expose their naÃ¯vetÃ© and elitist solidarity. Until the shootout of 26/11 this mollycoddled set had enjoyed charmed lives which they constantly remind the world they had earned or inherited and are now free to enjoy. They had pretty much escaped contact with human bodies in smelly polyester glued together in suburban trains â the obvious targets for terror attacks. It was inconceivable that pristine Taj and Oberoi snuggling next to the Arabian Sea would ever become targets, leave alone harbour terrorist desperados. Butchery inside those aristocratic interiors that had hosted the most memorable weddings, celebrations and rendezvous was unthinkable. Therefore, when the attacks did occur in those seemingly impregnable social fortresses, the rich and famous sprang back like injured leopards using the idiot box to bare their teeth.

In the ensuing public purging of emotion, the extent of ignorance about basic tenets of the Constitution of India became shockingly clear. Complex issues involved in fighting terrorism in a federal system of Government were ignored as the English-speaking glitterati ranted on. Without an iota of understanding about the nature of the Indian polity, the seeds of unrest were scattered over impressionable viewers. The result? Digression from the core concerns of fixing responsibility and extracting a commitment on drastic reforms that have long been overdue.

So what can now be done? To begin with hasten investigation, identify and punish those that despite having access to information (which could have made the difference between life and death) fiddled away. Today after more than a fortnight there is no news on that front. Apologising is just not enough. It is expected that security concerns must be placed above buddy rights and visible punishment meted out not just to vindicate those who need not have died but because this alone would ensure that things are better if this happens again.

At the same time democracy must be strengthened rather than scrapped. Unless we improve the quality of our leadership, lapses in governance such as those that marked the debacle in Mumbai will not end. At the same time, all politicians must not be clubbed with a handful of jerks whose conduct has been crass. By overplaying the misdeeds and individual shenanigans of a few, the electoral system should not be castigated unfairly. That is Indiaâs biggest USP and no one â least of all ignoramuses â should be allowed to belittle it. Maximum concentration should be placed on removing the root cause of bad governance not on dumping the political process itself.

With Lok Sabha elections upon us, this is also an opportunity for the voters to demand change. Should MPs that represent only 20 to 30 per cent of voter share and often half that be considered as having the mandate to represent over a million people in a constituency? Should coalition politics be allowed to hold governance to ransom? The existing provisions of the Constitution and election laws have catapulted most parliamentarians where they are today. As direct beneficiaries of such a system they will hardly be persuaded to bring change. Incumbent Governments can do it if political parties reach an understanding, but who is to motivate them? 
Since all political parties are bothered about how they look on television and get reported in print, instead of giving space to the enervated voices and predictable arguments of party spokesmen, why not engage senior party leaders in serious debates and force them to take a public stand on a slew of reforms? Let the public see what each party stands for on vital issues that impact negatively on elections, governance and security. Ask the leader of every important party to explain his partyâs stand on specific reforms. We need leaders of political parties, including regional ones to be publicly confronted with the urgency with which change is needed. On handling internal security, on financing elections, on letting party MPs vote on critical national issues by conscience, on prescribing minimum standards of education for candidates and a minimum threshold of voter representation to get elected.

The tipping point has come. Mondayâs assembly results have demolished all forecasts. There is evidence now that people want good governance. Sheila Dikshit has won not simply because of her personal warmth, but because the effect of what she was doing was visible with each passing day. Voters did not want progress to be disrupted. Uma Bharati, despite her formidable record as a vote-getter, lost because her ideas and passion for cows do not denote progress.

Both womenâs agendas were well-known. One won, another lost. In both cases the voter knew in advance what the aspirants intended to do on things that affected them. Today only TV channels have the power to extract commitments from political leaders on major issues displayed on millions of screens. The time to confront the leaders is now.

Capt M Kumar · 12-25-2008, 07:02 AM

<!--emo&

--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/sad.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='sad.gif' /> The CMS report states that the JD(S) beat all other parties in luring voters through cash in Doddaballapur in the May 2008 elections.

Former minister C Chennigappa, who defected and is contesting on a BJP ticket in Madhugiri bypolls, was the official JD(S) candidate then. JD(S) is closely followed by Congress and the BJP.

Even in Karwar, where the JD(S) has little presence, it overtook all others in bribing the voters. The study says BJP stood first in Arabhavi and Devadurga segments in giving cash for votes. However, the saffron party lost these constituencies in May elections. In Turuvekere and Madhugiri, Congress overtook BJP and JD(S) in luring voters through cash.

Kannada film actor Jaggesh was the official Congress candidate who won from Turuvekere in May last. "The study did not cover other inducements of freebies like liquor or in kind," the report said.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Vote_fo...how/3888477.cms

Capt M Kumar · 12-28-2008, 05:26 AM

<!--emo&

kull--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/aaskull.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='aaskull.gif' /> Business of elections
7 Dec 2008, 0010 hrs IST, Neelam Raaj & Amrita Singh, TNN

"Don't worry about terrorists coming by boat, they will end up dead. Worry more about those who come by your vote" - An SMS doing the rounds

his campaign flopped when workers deserted the party and joined the opposition. The money was a lot better there and there were perks such as mobile phones, a daily allowance of Rs 500 and unlimited liquor supplies. Raj, who quit as income-tax commissioner last year to make politics a full-time career, is now having second thoughts. "Elections have become a total farce. It is money that matters. Ideology alone cannot win you an election."

Former prime minister V P Singh tried to legislate to force election spending to be restricted to cheque-payment, but he didn't succeed. "What a third person spends on a candidate is not counted so one can actually spend as much as one wants on a campaign,"' says Anil Bairwal of Association of Democratic Reforms. ADR, an NGO, filed the request that resulted in the Central Information Commission order that all political parties should disclose their income-tax returns. The decision is significant, since, in 2006-07, only 14 of the 50 recognised and 900 unrecognized parties disclosed their accounts to the EC.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Opinion...how/3803133.cms

01-13-2009, 06:15 PM

Church, Muslims oppose law panel proposals
VR Jayaraj

Date: January 9, 2009
http://www.dailypioneer.com/148681/Church-...osals.htm\

Even as several of the recommendations of the Kerala Law Reforms Commission, appointed by the LDF Government, have already enraged different communities, those who support the recommendations are apprehending that the Government is likely to put the report of the commission, to be presented on January 24, in the freezer in the context of the coming Lok Sabha elections which would force the LDF not to antagonise the religious communities.

The report of the commission, headed by retired Justice VR Krishna Iyer, has made many proposals that could go against the interests of certain communities but at the same time some sections in these communities have been demanding these proposals for quite a long time. The proposals are to be included in a Bill after further examinations and passed in the Assembly.

The commission has proposed among reforms almost total abolition of polygamy (among Muslims) and begetting more than two children per couple and permission for euthanasia (suggestions that cause worry to the Catholic Church). The report also says that the wealth and assets of the Christian churches should be brought under three-tier trusts. Several sections of Muslims and the Catholic Church have already made it clear that they would not allow the reforms to be implemented.

Four groups of believers in the Catholic Church had earlier submitted a memorandum to the commission demanding steps to bring the assets of the Church under trusts. Trusts had been looking after the Church's assets till 1992 when the Canon laws governing this were approved by Rome.

Four Catholic laymen's groups - Catholic Laymen's Association, Kerala Latin Catholic Association (Pulloodan), All India Catholic Association and Kerala Knanaya Catholic Accociation - have formed a federation to press for their demand for bringing the church properties under trusts.

Federation chairman and Catholic Laymen's Association general secretary ML George said they would soon start a State-wide campaign demanding the passage of a Bill containing the provisions suggested by the Law Reforms Commission. He said public meetings, awareness campaigns and vehicle processions would be held all over the State for convincing the people and the Government about the need of such a Bill.

"Several denominations like the Jacobite and the Marthomite Christians have trusts to look after their property but the Catholic Church does not have such an arrangement. It alone does not have a democratic system on such matters," George said.

At the same time, several Muslim outfits and the Kerala Catholic Bishops' Conference (KCBC), the umbrella association of the bishops of all the 29 Catholic dioceses of Kerala, have opposed the recommendations made by the Justice Iyer commission. They said that these recommendations were in violation of the systems of their religions and hence could not be agreed to.

Kanthapuram AP Aboobacker Musliar, leader of the Sunni Muslim sect in Kerala which was a supporter of the LDF, said the recommendation to abolish polygamy was against Qur'an and Islam and was intended to ridicule Muslims. He said his outfit would oppose any move to implement the recommendation.

Kerala Nadvat'ul Mujahiddeen (KNM), the organisation of Mujahid Muslims known for their progressive outlook, also spoke against the recommendation on polygamy. KNM leader Hussein Madavoor said total abolition of polygamy could not be accepted. He said what was needed was not a ban but efforts to create awareness.

The KCBC has already made its objections formal through a statement which said that most of the recommendations in the report could not be accepted. Fr Stephen Alathara, spokesman for the KCBC, said in the statement that the Catholic Church would never accept the recommendations for refusing concessions to parents with more than two kids, to permit euthanasia and to do away with the provision making
suicide a crime.

The council would strongly oppose the Government through legal and other means if the Government went ahead with the plan to implement these recommendations, he said. Equally unacceptable were the recommendations for constituting trusts to manage the wealth of Christian churches and to appoint commissioners for them, he said.

The federation of the four Catholic laymen's association said they would put pressure on the Government to implement the recommendations by passing a Bill in the Assembly. They feared that the LDF Government might not want to take up the recommendations immediately as it would not want to antagonise the Church and the Muslims on the eve of a general election.

01-24-2009, 02:51 AM

QUOTEWhy Delhi can never be DC
pioneer.com
Ashok Malik
At the end of a remarkable and historic week in Washington, DC, it was difficult to not envy the character and traditions of transition in the worldâs power capital. Some attributes stood out on January 20, when President Barack Obama took office, and in the build-up to the date.

The sobriety, the dignity, the weight of hundreds of millions of hopes â Washingtonâs political elite acted as it felt decency demanded of it. The contrast with Delhi was too obvious to be missed.

At the outset, let it be stressed it is not the quality of democracy that is being measured. It is not as if American democracy is in any manner superior to Indian democracy. The complex matrix of individual freedom, group bargaining, transactional motivations and local factors that propels the average Americanâs vote is no different from that of an average Indian. In the Midwest and in Madhya Bharat, democracy marches to the same drummer.

Neither is this to suggest that Washington, DC, is somehow a shining metropolis far removed from Lutyensâ conspiratorial city. Both capitals have their dirty deals and deal-makers, lobbies and interest groups, entrenched bureaucracies, fixers and fixtures.

Yet, a sense of renewal is almost institutionalised into the transition in Washingtonâs federal administration. The conclusion of the election process â with the new set taking charge â becomes what it should be: A celebration of democracy and of all that is good and great in a free society. In Delhi, so often, it only gives way to bitterness and recriminatory anger.

True, part of the reason is the nature of the parliamentary system. In the United States, voters elect a clear winner. When they donât, as in the contentious 2000 election, the ill-will extends for weeks. However, what is the exception there has become the rule here.

In India, the messy nature of coalition politics means that negotiations often begin after the votes are counted. Compromise drafts for a governance agenda are hammered out. Brinkmanship is resorted to in choices of Ministers and Ministries.

In 1998, Ms Jayalalithaa kept Mr Atal Bihari Vajpayee waiting and waiting before she furnished a letter of support from the AIADMK. Mr N Chandrababu Naidu agreed to a Telugu Desam MP becoming Lok Sabha Speaker under such stringent conditions and with such an impossible deadline that a control room in Delhi had to monitor flight timings and airport clearances. 

In 2004, even before the UPA could take office, the Left went ballistic on television and announced it was going to destroy the stock markets, economic reforms, Indian capitalism, whatever.

Elections are sacred moments. There is something solemn, spiritual and emotionally moving about a process in which the proverbial last woman in the last village helps shape the destiny of a nation, and humbles smug power practitioners in a distant capital city.

The swearing in of a new President or a new Government is the political classâs occasion for thanksgiving, to tell the electorate its voice has been heard and honoured. It sanctifies the transition and the election that preceded it as a new beginning. That is what Washington, DC, experienced this past week. In Delhi, however, politicians see elections as a rude interruption in the normal course of politics, which carries on in the same manner, regardless of what India thinks and how India votes.

As the Obama presidency began, three elements of Washingtonâs rite of passage stood out. First, the civility between winner and loser was remarkable. On January 19, the evening before he entered the Oval Office, Mr Obama spoke at a banquet honouring Mr John McCain. He embraced the man he had defeated and described him as âan American heroâ.

Later, and earlier, he praised President George W Bush for impeccable cooperation in the transition period, for ushering the new First Family into the White House. All along, though, Mr Obama determinedly but politely expressed his policy disagreements with his predecessor.

What would it cost Delhi to do business in this manner? Imagine the Congress-UPA loses the election in May 2009. Could the incoming Prime Minister host a dinner for Mr Manmohan Singh and thank him for his service to India? How difficult would it be for new Ministers to call on their immediate predecessors â for the new Railway Minister to visit Mr Lalu Prasad Yadav, for the new Foreign Minister to travel to Mr Pranab Mukherjeeâs residence â for words of advice, for conversation, for great atmospherics?

It would be a small gesture but it would make India feel awfully proud of itself. National unity, remember, is not just about getting together for a strong parliamentary resolution each time thereâs a terrorist attack and then going back to strife as usual. It is also about habitually reinforcing a collective commitment to India and its institutions.

The second feature was the quiet manner in which President and Mrs Bush boarded a plane as private citizens and left for Texas on January 20 itself. There was no question of hanging around in Washington, demanding a Government bungalow, hankering for some bauble or the other, consulting astrologers to find out if constitutional coups were possible.

This leads to the third point â the fact that the 50 United States eventually give Washington its legitimacy. In Delhi, the perennial politicos treat the Republic of India as an appendage. Mr Obama is from Illinois, Mr Bush from Texas; every four years a new incumbent, representing a new State, a new sensibility, a new idea â its efficacy or otherwise a matter for the future â arrives to run Washington. To some degree, he fashions the city in his own image.

In comparison, power shift in Delhi is a revolving door. One lot of tired minds replaces another. The permanent establishment, the familiar faces from the bureaucracy, peddle old ideas in new garbs, garnished with such empty clichÃ©s as âchange in continuityâ. The primal energies and the talents of the rest of India â of the States in this vast and spectacularly diverse society â are never allowed to be put to use.

As the Obama election established, Washington, for all its ivory tower existence, is periodically re-conquered by America. Delhi, however, increasingly becomes an insular entity, sequestered from the rest of the country. At the best of times, that is not a happy thought; in an election year, it is a tragedy.

Shambhu · 02-19-2009, 06:05 AM

Setting the Agenda for National Renewal
Through inter-weaving of basic social institutions
Follow the Six-Point Agenda

By Dr Pravin Togadiya

1. No business or trade whatsoever with any Arab or Islamic Country even though they promise big FDIs. There is nothing vibrant in such promises or tom-tomming such FDIs because by this we would be bringing in our enemy and fooling Bharat showing fake dreams of Development without real National Progress.
2. All socio-economic structures supporting, teaching, preaching and practicing jehad should be banned and prosecuted for treason.
3. While progressing in new era business like IT, service industry, automobile, bio-Tech etc, every political party must ensure that the traditional businesses and industries of Bharat like textiles, agriculture, aquaculture, diamond/ jewellery, weaving, etc are not uprooted. There should not be any SEZs or any land deals or cash deals by any governments with any business house ignoring any of the traditional businesses employing millions of people.
4. All Infrastructural projects (roads, railways, sea-routes, power and other plants) must be done protecting agriculture land, heritage monuments, traditional sea businesses, jungles and any other such things.
5. In Democracy, candidate is declared won when he has more votes than any other candidate. Corollary of the same has to be, in Bharat, majority must have the final say in any national policy decision. Bharat has seen enough damage and risks due to many political parties minority vote bank politics. No more. Enough is enough.
6. All political parties must assure publicly that they are committed to give work for every Hindu hand and food for every Hindu family. Unless the parties and candidates individually give this in writing, voters must not vote for them if we want to save Bharat.
http://pseudosecularism.blogspot.com/2009/...al-renewal.html

Capt M Kumar · 02-26-2009, 10:00 PM

<!--emo&

--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile.gif' /> New Delhi:Older MPs were far more active than younger ones in the 14th Lok Sabha that drew to an end Thursday, suggest statistics prepared by an independent research body that aims to strengthen legislative debate.

"'Young' MPs (those aged less than 40) participated the least in the Lok Sabha proceedings. They accounted for 11 percent of seats but only around seven percent of debates. MPs over the age of 70 accounted for 10 percent of seats and nine percent of total debates," says the statistics by the PRS Legislative Research.

http://news.in.msn.com/business/article.as...umentid=1839931

04-08-2009, 03:57 AM

India ranks 35th among 'flawed democracies'QUOTEThe Economist Intelligence Unit's 2008 Democracy index ranks India 35th among "flawed democracies" of the world, five places short of the list of perfect specimens. Using 60 indicators such as civil liberties, political culture, public participation and government efficiency, the list classifies most western democracies as perfect along with a few from Asia and Central/South America.

Sri Lanka sits 22 places below us, while Pakistan and Bangladesh are ranked among hybrid regimes, one category above the authoritarian regimes.

Interestingly, Pakistan has managed to kick itself up thanks to the elections last year. Bangladesh, on the other hand, fell one level from being a flawed democracy.

All in all, said Manoj Vohra, director of research with the unit, India had not done badly. "While India's democracy, in technical terms, is flawed, it's close to joining the elite club of democracies... India is ahead of most emerging economies," he said.

Predictably, Indian politicians are not convinced by the span of the study. Congress spokesperson Manish Tiwari says: "Whoever is responsible for this report needs to see a shrink. India is one country which has a functioning and vibrant democracy from the grassroots to the top. This is a country where you have panchayati raj institutions at village level, legislative assemblies in states and a parliament at the national level, all of which are regularly elected. Anyone who calls this a flawed democracy should needs to get his head examined."

The problem is that it takes more than well-organised electoral logistics to impress the unit. The level of voter enthusiasm varies wildly between Indian states. And coalition chaos has managed to drag India further down.

Ravi Shankar Prasad, BJP spokesperson, said: "India does not need a lecture on democracy from biased western intellectuals. The people of this country have unfettered right to choose or unseat any party or leader whether at local, state or national level. We gave voting rights to all people regardless of educational level, and even to women in 1950 itself, when many countries of the world were still only thinking about it.

**acharya** · 04-13-2009, 03:04 AM

Many of us hold thoughts very similar to popular perception of secularism, whether it is due to not knowing the reality, or due to the need for toeing the popular line. Either way, as intellectuals, I think we have an opportunity to spend more time to understand how "secularism" is being changed and used for anti-India/anti-Hindu propaganda and political mileage. One simple mention of Narendra Modi can evoke strongest response from Hindus, who are genuine and "secular" without knowing more than popular beliefs and urban legends.

We can ask, why should we focus on problems. Don't we have enough already. Yes, we do. And we will have more as we move forward, unless we do something about removing and reducing them. We have to remember that whatever goes outside that impacts the country will impact all of us, our very soul at some point. Kashmiri Pandits remained passive all through the years before they got kicked out of the valley and there are very few people who shed tears for them right now. It could be the case with Hindus in Kerala, Goa, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, and not to mention West Bengal and nine north eastern states.

As a Hindu, you can afford be oblivious to what's going on at your own risk. Read the fascinating story of Aruna Roy, one of the eminent flag bearers of "secularism" and her devotion to stop Hindu hatredness against minorities at all costs. Also, read how AID supports those types of activities (knowingly or unknowingly) by hosting her and funding her.

http://sarvesamachar.com/click_frameset.ph...-our-human.html

Capt M Kumar · 04-23-2009, 06:50 AM

An additional advantage of this system would be the prescription of a minimum percentage of the national vote required for parties to send their representatives to Parliament according to the submitted list. They, of course, can be represented by individual candidates who may win. In a coalition era, this would be of immense relief to foil unreasonable pressures and demands.

As Indian democracy matures, such fine-tuning must be seriously undertaken by the government that follows these elections.

Sitaram Yechury is CPI(M) Politburo member and MP.

http://www.hindustantimes.com/election09/s...Page-TopStories

**acharya** · 05-06-2009, 02:05 AM

X post - Rudradev

QUOTEThe amount of semantic confusion that threatens to cripple discussions like this one is intense.

When we Macaulayputra think of "secularism", "democracy", "egalitarianism", "liberty" etc. etc. we are invoking ideas that are basically Western solutions to Western problems... or more appropriately, Western-designed ameliorants to the sins of Western civilization. The very notional biases that shape our concepts of "equal", "just" and "fair", are exactly the ones induced in us by our erstwhile Western masters (who designed our educational curricula) in order to make us feel inferior.

See, it's this simple. Western nations never had democracy and egalitarianism... they had slavery and wars and massacres. Then in 1648 they came up with this great cure of "secularism" to stop what was essentially a Western disease derived from Judeo-Christian revealed religion; and with the Glorious Revolution forty years later the British came up with "parliamentary democracy" so that a small oligarchy of white slave-owning landowners could wield more authority than the king over the destiny of their nation.

At the same time they expanded and subjugated nations like ours via colonialism. An honest appraisal of our Dharm and its values was, of course, anathema to them. So they forcibly superimposed their Western context over our Indian reality, by creating a class of Macaulayputra who assumed the supremacy of Western context as an axiom. Thus we could be browbeaten and intimidated intellectually, by the idea that Hindu Dharm was superstitious (therefore inferior to Western rationalism), casteist (therefore inferior to Western egalitarianism) etc.

Finally when leaving India to the Indians in 1947 they browbeat us once more, with the idea that Hindu majoritarianism would inevitably punish the Muslims and Christians (and was therefore inferior to Western secularism). It was their Last "You Farted" Laugh... and the defensiveness it engendered among us, is still being used to mock us with the travesty of "Conversions" as noted in the title of this thread.

Here we are debating the fairness or equity or this or that rule of the game... but it's a useless exercise unless we first alter the playing field itself.

In this respect, it is possible that the Chinese may even be ahead of us. Maoism in China came at a great apparent cost to native cultural and normative institutions... but the fact remains that these institutions had been pervaded to a large (if not quite as large as India) extent by Western influences upto and including the advent of the KMT government. Maoism's Cultural Revolution was like a very, very severe detergent... it inundated the prevailing situation with brute force, scouring away all that had gone before.

However, it may yet turn out that native civilizational norms (being deeply ingrained in China over the millenia) have survived Maoism in one form or the other, and may constitute the nucleus of a new Chinese nationalism to replace Communist ideology. Meanwhile, the Western influences that existed only in the few centuries since the Portuguese arrived at Macau, and have been well and truly flushed away.

New Western influences coming from the exposure to American capitalism are not as much of a threat to China as to India, exactly because any trace of Macaulayism and Western contextual supremacism that could have served as ideological beachheads for the new Western cultural invasion were wiped out during the Cultural Revolution.

For all the panic here about avoiding conflict and finding peaceful solutions at any cost, it may be time to realize that the things we want may never materialize without our paying a significant price in blood, "liberty" and more. Whether the price is worth it, is another matter.



India has been under massive psy ops and social engineering using the Indian constitution

Capt M Kumar · 05-23-2009, 07:37 AM

<img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/argue.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='argue.gif' /> In our own era of globalisation, is it possible that we, the electoral sultans of our times, can draw a link between global economic, cultural and social forces and the kind of leaders we choose? The most visible and favourably remarked-upon of our politicians since the late 1980s have been men and women like Rajiv Gandhi, Atal Behari Vajpayee, P Chidambaram, Madhavrao Scindia, Kamal Nath, Jaswant Singh, Naveen Patnaik, Rajesh Pilot, Sheila Dikshit, and so on â who won elections often from rural constituencies yet appealed to urban citizens and delivered reasonably effective administration while in ministerial office.

http://www.business-standard.com/india/new...ticians/358895/

ravish · 05-23-2009, 09:54 AM

All those who saw the swering in ceremony at Rastrapati Bhawan last evening on the TV or on being present may not have missed the sad face of our Leader of Opposition- as if it was the end of the world.It is perhaps the reflection of the state of affairs within the BJP after its defeat in the elections.

The spanner in the wheel by the DMK took away the smile in the face of the Ruling Party to some extent. It is the direct result of the Prime Ministerâs effort to prevent the arm twisting by the DMK. How long the Congress will be able to resist the pressure and to what extent , it is only the time that will tell us. The Congressâs move to keep the key development oriented portfolios with itself is a very correct move. It may result in speedy implementation of the developmental programmes aimed to improve the lot of the poorer section of the society. The only exception has been the expected induction of Tirnomool Congress members as MOS in various key Ministries that can directly intervene in West Bengal to contain the Communists.
Let us hope lots of younger blood is inducted in the next round of Ministry making on Tuesday. Hopefully by that time the DMK will take a decision and we may see Shri Maran once again as IT Minister.

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