Quote:In his first comments on the police action at Ramdev's protest congregation, [size="4"][color="#FF0000"]Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today termed it as "unfortunate"but justified it saying there was "no alternative".

[/color][/size]He asserted that his government was "concerned" and "serious" about fighting corruption but maintained that there was "no magic wand" to do so.



"It is unfortunate that operation had to be conducted but quite honestly, there was no alternative," Singh told reporters here when asked to comment on the much-criticised midnight police action to disrupt Ramdev's anti-corruption protest at Ramlila Maidan.



On the issue of corruption being flagged by civil society activists and parties, the Prime Minister said, "the government is serious and we are concerned about corruption and blackmoney. There is no doubt. But there is no magic wand."



With regard to demands that the Prime Minister should be brought under the purview of Lokpal, Singh refused to comment saying the issue was before the joint drafting committee comprising ministers and members from civil society.

Quote:Many of the events of the past — Emergency, Operation Bluestar, Indira Gandhi’s assassination, Kashmir insurgency, Rajiv Gandhi’s assassination, the crowning of Sonia Gandhi — were unfortunate. Some were avoidable. For instance, Indira Gandhi imposing the Emergency showed that democracy was fragile and could easily be hijacked.



But what happened on Sunday, June 5, 2011, in the early morning at the Ramlila grounds tops even the imposition of Emergency. The police, armed with teargas and lathis, swooped down on women, children, and old men, all led by a yoga guru who had never harmed anybody in his life but, on the contrary, brought happiness to hundreds of thousands of people.



There is no doubt that nobody in the Congress, not even the prime minister, would have dared to take such a drastic decision, without the express consent of Sonia Gandhi. In fact, only she would have been capable of taking that decision. Thus, she will have to bear the consequences, the karma, of her hostile act against the very core of this country: the millions of peaceful, tolerant Hindus, who were represented at the Ramlila grounds by a hundred thousand of them.



This act demonstrates the utter cynicism of the Congress and its desire to stay in power at all costs and by all means. What is frightening is that Indians indirectly support the Congress by their silence and sometimes by their overt approval of the government’s action. They keep quiet when Indian imams mourn the death of Osama bin Laden. And they lend credence to the lies of the Congress against a man who did no wrong except demand an end to the cancer of corruption that is eating away at the entrails of this ancient and sacred country.



[color="#FF0000"]What is also sad is the disunity of gurus at this time of great danger. We know that Hindu gurus and Hindus are under threat in Sonia’s India. Many of them have already been hit: the shankaracharya was arrested and thrown in jail, the late Sathya Sai Baba suffered accusations of paedophilia, Amrita Anandamayi lives under the shadow of hostile communists in Kerala, and Sri Sri Ravi Shankar is targeted as the ‘guru of the rich’, etc...[/color]



Accusations against Hinduism of superstition, brainwashing, ritualistic ignorance, as have been thrown at Ramdev, date back from the British missionaries and have been taken up today by the communists, sections of the Congress, and the media. Yet, Hinduism, at least the Hinduism that goes beyond the rituals and becomes universal spirituality, as Swami Ramdev or Sri Sri Ravi Shankar teach it, has nothing to do with superstition and conning people; it is all about science, knowledge, and light. Look at pranayama, a science that has known for thousands of years how to harness breath and use it for controlling the mind, for a better and more spititualised life.



[size="5"]The greatest curse of Hinduism through the ages has been its disunity and betraying one and another. The British did not conquer India; it was given to them by its warring Hindu princes, jealous of each other. The same is true of Islamic conquest. Today, if the combined forces of communist, Muslim, and Christian fundamentalists and the Congress win, it will not be because of their strength and valour but rather because of the disunity of Hindu leaders.[/size]



Will the people of India allow it? I hope not, for we have entered now an area of semi-dictatorship, where hundreds of thousands of phones are tapped, emails are read, letters opened, gurus arrested, journalists scared to speak aloud.



Wake up, O ancient people of India! Your very culture and ancient spirituality are in danger at the hands of a lady of a foreign origin like me, a Christian like me, but who not only has no understanding of your ancient spirituality that people call Hinduism, but is also basically hostile to it and will not hesitate to strike it as she did on Sunday, June 5, 2011, at the Ramlila grounds, New Delhi.



The author, who writes under a pseudonym,is a foreign journalist who covered South Asia for a European radio for three decades.

Quote:[url="http://www.dailypioneer.com/344316/Jaitley-counters-Cong-diatribe.html"] link[/url]

Jaitley counters Cong diatribe

June 08, 2011 7:28:15 AM

Staff Reporter | New Delhi

Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley on Tuesday said that the Congress-led UPA Government will not survive its full five-year term. Holding that the Government was suffering from severe ‘structural contradictions’, Jaitley said the Government lacked statecraft and the Prime Minister was getting invisible.



“The Government does not know the art of ruling. This Government is going to fall before 2014,” Jaitley said. Taking a dig at Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, the BJP leader said, “In any democratic country, the Prime Minister is the leader of the country. Here you (Prime Minister) are running the show on the structure of a private company. You have a professional CEO and the owner is somebody else.” Jaitley was on Tuesday addressing a gathering of Delhi BJP at the Constitution Club in the Capital. He criticised the Prime Minister saying whenever there was any controversy, he tried to hush up the matter saying he was not aware.



In an apparent reference to UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi, he said the powers of the Government lie with a particular family, which does not have any accountability. “There is no power with the leadership of the Government. There is office but no authority. There is another leadership who has power but no accountability. And that is why this leadership keeps itself away from the responsibilities as per convenience. A Government cannot run like this. The Prime Minister is getting invisible,” he lamented. Arguing his point, Jaitley said in the event of a mistake, blame is always put on others and it is said the family was very angry.



Terming the Government as a ‘headless chicken’, the former Union Minister said there were two views in the Government on how to deal with Ramdev’s agitation. “One view was that there should be a political settlement of Ramdev’s agitation through talks. That is why four Cabinet Ministers went to the airport. The other view was to handle it through police and by use of force. There was a ‘fight among the FM and the HM’,” he said referring to Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee and Home Minister P Chidambaram. “On one hand the government was holding talks with Ramdev and on the other hand, Digvijay kept levelling charges against Baba,” he added.



Jaitley claimed Mukherjee had favoured a political settlement of the issue while Home Minister P Chidambaram wanted use of force. “The Finance Minister was of one view while the Home Minister had a different view. That is why I termed the Government as a headless chicken,” he said. Slamming the Government for the crackdown on Ramdev and his followers, Jaitley said he never saw any incident where shelling of tear gas was resorted to on a crowd in a closed enclosure. “The Prime Minister’s statement following the police atrocity was the most unfortunate. How can he justify bursting tear gas shells to a crowd in a closed enclosure. The official or the Minister who had decided about it does not have authority to remain in office,” he maintained.



Jaitley also criticised the government for not giving permission to Anna Hazare to protest at Jantar Mantar, saying the people’s right to protest is being undermined. He, however, insisted the more the voice of protest is suppressed in a democracy, the stronger it becomes.

Quote:Vulgar display of power

June 08, 2011 7:37:01 AM



Congress descends to foul-mouthed abuse



The Congress showed its fascist streak last Sunday night when it ordered Delhi Police to brutalise thousands of men, women and children who had gathered at Ramlila Ground to peacefully protest against the most venal cash-and-carry Government India has ever had and which is led by the party. Since then, the Congress has also demonstrated how low it can stoop by taking recourse to coarse bazaar language while defending the morally and legally indefensible police crackdown it ordered on sleeping protesters and then attacking the Opposition for taking up cudgels on behalf of the victims of Sunday night’s atrocity. High on the conviction that nothing or nobody can stop it from abusing power and misusing authority, the Congress has sought to tar the reputation of the RSS and the BJP, launching a scurrilous attack on both organisations and their leaders. The tone and tenor of those speaking on behalf of the party are not dissimilar to that of hoodlums who seek to scare people into submission; their loutish language makes the most scurrilous reportage of cheap yellow rags that made Page 3 popular among the under-classes appear sanitised and clean. The lexicon of political discourse, it would appear, in the case of the Congress has suddenly shrunk to terms of abuse as foul-mouthed spokespersons compete with each other, with more than a little help from ‘friendly’ media, to prove who is more boorish. Is this the new loyalty test set by the party president? For nothing else explains why Ms Sonia Gandhi has chosen to remain silent as her foot soldiers unleash volley after volley of uncouth verbal assault on the Congress’s political opponents. The political commentary, if at all this expression can be used given the low level of discourse, that emanated from the Congress on Tuesday when party leaders made shockingly disparaging remarks that can be construed to be repulsively sexist against the Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Ms Sushma Swaraj, has left many people wondering whether Ms Gandhi endorses such vulgarity. It is a sad reflection of the state of affairs that prevails in India’s Grand Old Party that its president should maintain a stunning silence as her colleagues betray their true character and class.



Political debate can be acrimonious, but it should never descend to abuse and character assassination. Nor should parties seek to score political points by directing their ire at individuals, unless the issue merits such attack. The issue that agitates India at the moment is not about individuals but an institution, namely the Congress and the rampant corruption it has spawned in high places. Linked to this is the Congress’s arrogance, its criminally callous indifference to popular disquiet simply because it wields power and believes it can ride roughshod over the people of this country. The Congress forgets that it has been humbled by the people on more than one occasion in the past, that too when the party was led by stalwarts. Tragically, its current leaders have not learned any lessons from the party’s post-1975 history; worse, they have elected to become one with the hooligans who populate the Congress’s ranks. It’s a shame and a pity. The shame is entirely that of the Congress; it’s a pity that India should be saddled with a Government that has to depend on goons masquerading as Gandhi’s political heirs.

Quote:The Ramlila Maidan massacre raised some questions in my mind about the responsibility of the Indian State. If the State causes harm to citizens through its action -- or through its inaction -- how can the citizen get redress? What is the due process of law? If there is such, why isn't anyone using it to claim compensation from the State?



These may well be obvious questions with obvious answers, but I get the feeling that there is a distinct difference between the way the Indian State and, say, the United States, deals with these issues. My conjecture is that the US (by and large) has a government that is intended to look after its citizen's interests, whereas the Indian State was designed by imperialists to loot and pillage citizens: it continues as a predatory State.



There is also the concept of tort, which I don't understand very well, but I think it means that injury suffered by someone based on the negligence (not malice or breach of direct contract) of someone else is also cause for reparations. If I am not mistaken, the American State takes pains to ensure, for instance, that its public civil works -- such highway construction -- are as idiot-proof as possible. You have to go to great lengths, and be a determined idiot (of the Darwin Award class), to fall into a ditch left unprotected by road builders in the US. Not so in India, obviously.



In any case, there was not only negligence, but also actual malice aforethought in the Indian State's 'police action' (what a come-down for that dignified term!) against Baba Ramdev's [ Images ] 50,000 yoga practitioners -- including women and children -- sleeping peacefully in tents in a maidan, which they had a permit to access.



The incident is pregnant with ironies, of course. It happened on the anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre. It was also a repeat of a similar tear-gassing of sleeping, peaceful demonstrators in Bahrain recently during the Arab Spring. There was also the analogy with the Jallianwallah Bagh massacre in 1919, that seminal incident that showed the Indian public that the imperialists simply despised them as untermenschen (sub-human): here too, I am told that all entrances but one to the maidan were sealed off as the police baton-charged the sleeping protestors, who incidentally hadn't protested anything so far.



I once wrote in these columns how singular events were tipping points in history that molded the views of generations: I mentioned Jallianwallah Bagh; also Gallipoli for Australians; and I thought the Fall of Saigon would have been one such for Americans. (I was wrong on the last, as they have now graduated to the fall, any day, of Kabul). It is possible that the Ramlila Maidan assault may be seen in days to come as one such event, or it may not, but the question remains: who pays for human suffering?



This is not an idle thought, as every day hundreds of Indian citizens die from what is evident government negligence. Just to pick a few random examples of people I had some direct relationship to:



* Two days ago, a young couple I knew drove their car off a bridge into a monsoon-swollen river near Alappuzha. Her body was found fifteen miles downstream; his was still in the car stuck in the mud just below the bridge. There were no railings on the approach road to the bridge.

* Two years ago, a kind and well-respected old teacher I knew since childhood was out for his regular morning walk on the sidewalk of a broad avenue. A government milk truck, backing up and going the wrong way, climbed the sidewalk, hit him from behind, and killed him on the spot

* A few weeks ago, several 6-year old children in a school bus drowned in Trivandrum when the bus toppled into a stagnant canal which had no railings to prevent such a fall



Whose fault is this? Who gets punished so that such tragedies do not befall families and individuals again? The answer, so far as I can see, is that it is nobody's fault, and that nobody gets punished. Those who have lost life or limb, or their kin, are simply supposed to grin and bear it and chalk it up to fate.



This is no way to run a civilised nation. The Indian State is increasingly ingenious in its attempts to extract taxes from citizens -- but along with that comes a reciprocal obligation to ensure that it protects the same citizens from harm, provides them with basic infrastructure, and so on. But that part of the bargain does not seem to occur to the predatory State, not surprisingly because it was designed simply to squeeze the most taxes out of the public. Why do you think the chief bureaucrat in a district is called a Collector? What do you think his job was to collect?



The way the State recompenses citizens is whimsical and cavalier. The State failed to protect 170 citizens from being killed in Mumbai in 2008. I am not sure what the compensation was that was paid to those killed. But this I know: when several drinkers of illegal hooch in Kerala died of methyl alcohol poisoning, the generous State gave them Rs 5 lakh; whereas Major Sandeep Unnkrishnan who died fighting the terrorists on 26/11 got Rs 3 lakh.



Is there someone whose desk the buck stops at? Who is in charge? Is it possible to file a class-action suit against the Prime Minister's Office, the home ministry, and the Delhi [ Images ] Police, charging them with numerous malfeasances in the Ramlila maidan assault: a) inadequate notice to disperse, <img src='http://www.india-forum.com/forums/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/cool.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt='B)' /> assault and battery without warning, c) wanton destruction of private property, d) injuring the religious sentiments of a group, and so on?



Even though the colluding media has virtually caused an Iron Curtain to descend on the details of the aggravated assault -- as it happens always when a 'certain community' is at the receiving end -- I hear via twitter that at least one middle-aged woman, Rajbala, 51, has a spinal injury, and has slipped into a coma.



Who made the decision so quickly to send in storm troopers? Did they consider other alternatives, such as whisking Swami Ramdev away and putting him under house arrest? Why were such hair-trigger decisions not made on 26/11 so that further deterioration in the situation could have been avoided?



In other words, who is to pay for the State's negligence or malice? Until the day comes that every bureaucrat and every politician weighs the personal cost to themselves of hurting citizens' rights, India cannot call itself a civilized nation. It remains a colonial predatory State, meant for the benefit of the few at the cost of the many.