Ayodhya

[acharya]

[url="http://www.vigilonline.com/index.asp"]http://www.vigilonline.com/index.asp[/url]



[url="http://www.vigilonline.com/index2.asp"]http://www.vigilonline.com/index2.asp[/url]





PROFILE OF ‘VIGIL’ PUBLIC OPINION FORUM



‘Vigil’, public opinion forum came into being in Chennai, 18 years ago, in 1982, as a result of Shri Shivramji Joglekar’s visionary and persistent effort to bring together persons who wrote regularly to the ‘Letters to the Editor’ column in the English and the vernacular press. Shivramji’s life was committed to looking for and then bringing together people who were committed to public life and who gave their time to serve a social cause. One such effort was to bring together people who responded to issues by writing to the editors of magazines and newspapers. Shivramji had great respect for these persons because he thought they were concerned and responsible citizens of this country who responded to issues that they considered important to the well-being of the people or that which affected our national interests.



From this modest but significant beginning, ‘Vigil’ has evolved today into a vibrant and courageous public opinion forum, where the intelligentsia of Chennai gather together once every two months to listen to a lecture, debate or discussion on issues of national and topical import.







It has always been ‘Vigil’s’ endeavour to inform and influence public opinion on important national events, issues and policies, particularly on those issues, when it seemed that there had not been adequate national discussion or when vested interests in the media, academia and the bureaucracy have indulged in doublespeak and even misinformation, as it happened when India signed the WTO in 1994, with no national discussion on the implications of the agreement, and again when India conducted nuclear tests in May, 1998 .







In the last seven years alone, ‘Vigil’ has conducted meetings on issues as diverse as ‘The Hawala Scandal’, ‘Judicial Activism’, a day-long seminar on ‘The State of our nation’, ‘Death of ideology’ (in the context of the elections to the 11th Lok Sabha), ‘Annadaanam’, ‘Food and National Security’, ‘Roots of our Nationhood’, ‘Human Rights vs The War against Terrorism’, ‘The morality of religious conversions’, a one day inter-disciplinary meeting and a public meeting on Pokhran II, ‘What really happened in Kargil”, ‘The Civil War of Attrition in Srilanka’, a one day seminar and a public meeting on Jammu and Kashmir and on Ayodhya. Several other issues besides topical issues as on the national budget and a pre-election analysis of the manifestos of the major national political parties and formations were also discussed.







‘Vigil’ has presented from its forum to the intelligentsia of Chennai, only the very best of our experts, intellectuals and persons in public life. Reputed political commentators, persons from media, scientists, high ranking bureaucrats, police officers, noted members of the Bar, economists, retired army officers, intelligence officers and politicians have all been invited by ‘Vigil’ to speak from our forum in the last five years. Notable among our invitees were, Dr.B.Ramamurthi (neurosurgeon), Dr.M.S.Swaminathan, Shri Ram Jethmalani, Shri Habibullah Badsha (Senior Advocate), Shri S.Gurumurthy, Shri T.N.Seshan, Shri B.Raman (former Addl.Sec, Cabinet Secretariat), Dr. J.N. Dixit (former Foreign Secretary), Dr.Swapan Dasgupta (deputy editor, India Today, New Delhi), Ms.Arundhati Ghose (former Permanent Representative for India, U.N), Dr.Arun Shourie, Shri Cho Ramaswamy, and Shri.C.V.Narasimhan, IPS (former Director, C.B.I). We have also had Shri G.Parthasarathy, former Indian High Commissioner to Pakistan speak to us on the role of Pakistan and the international community in prolonging the tragedy of Jammu and Kashmir besides Shri I.D.Swamy, Minister of State for Home Affairs also speaking on the same issue.







‘Vigil’ believes that this nation’s social and political institutions are strengthened when organizations like ‘Vigil’ undertake the duty of informing the people on important national issues which impact upon our collective thinking and action. The present set of office-bearers would like to add a new dimensions to ‘Vigil’s’ role in national life as a reputed public opinion forum. In the last few years, the proceedings of very important meetings and debates have been forwarded to decision makers at the helm of affairs in New Delhi. We now plan to launch our own web site so that yet another dimension to ‘Vigil’s effort to inform and mobilize public opinion is added to its profile. This web site will not only provide our intellectuals with the invaluable material that we have preserved of our meetings and discussions over the years but will also provide them with important links on these issues which will enable them to garner more information. The web site is also intended to provide Indians at home and abroad with their own nationalist and patriotic forum to express their views on issues which they may want to discuss and which ‘Vigil’ may also raise. We also intend to make ‘Vigil’ an online discussion forum with experts moderating the discussions.







To achieve these ambitious objectives that we have set for ourselves, we solicit the active participation of the nationalist intelligentsia of India by way of their continued contribution through opinions, and suggestions for action, on the issues raised by ‘Vigil’; we also solicit financial help from corporate firms and industrial and business houses which may empathize with and endorse ‘Vigil’s' mission in the service of our country.







The profile of ‘Vigil’s members and office bearers are as follows:







G.R.Swaminathan, Secretary, ‘Vigil’, (Advocate, Madras High Court).



Radha Rajan, Joint Secretary,'Vigil'.



R.Ananthanarayan,Mangagement Graduate ,Director Vadyar boats private Limited.