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Re: Sangh Parivar Pageant: Sid Harth

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chhotemianinshallah

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Oct 6, 2009, 8:24:03 AM10/6/09
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http://www.ptinews.com/news/316769_SC-notice-to-Guj-Govt--Centre-in-Ishrat-murder-case

SC notice to Guj Govt, Centre in Ishrat murder case
STAFF WRITER 16:34 HRS IST

New Delhi, Oct 6 (PTI) The Supreme Court today sought response from
the Gujarat Government on a petition filed by mother of Ishrat Jahan,
who was killed in an alleged encounter, challenging the High Court's
order staying a judicial probe report which had described the incident
as a "cold blooded" murder.

The apex court also issued notice to the Centre on Jahan's mother,
Shamima Kaushar's plea seeking vacation of the Gujarat High Court
order granting stay on the report of judicial magistrate S P Tamang.

A Bench comprising Justices B N Agrawal and Aftab Alam sought the
reply within four weeks on the contention that the High Court had
wrongly entertained the petition of the Gujarat government in the
pending matter in which Kaushar had sought transfer of the
investigation of the case to CBI.

...and I am Sid Harth

bademiyansubhanallah

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Oct 6, 2009, 3:46:23 PM10/6/09
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http://www.expressbuzz.com/edition/story.aspx?Title=%E2%80%98Im+open+to+the+honour+of+becoming+party+chief&artid=bdSz2q7BS14=&SectionID=XVSZ2Fy6Gzo=&MainSectionID=XVSZ2Fy6Gzo=&SEO=Manohar+Parrikar,+Goa,+L+K+Advani&SectionName=m3GntEw72ik=

‘I'm open to the honour of becoming party chief'
Vrindha Gopinath

First Published : 07 Oct 2009 11:37:00 PM IST
Last Updated : 07 Oct 2009 12:27:30 AM IST

Why is the BJP’s former Goa chief minister Manohar Parrikar relevant,
you may well ask? He is, after all, only a party leader of a small
state like Goa. But Parrikar has all the qualifications to counter the
youth brigade of the Congress, which the latter unabashedly projects
through Rahul Gandhi.

Fifty-four-year-old Parrikar could be the perfect foil for Rahul and
his boys. He is an IIT graduate from Mumbai, and the first to become
CM; he brought the BJP to power for the first time in Goa; he was a hi-
tech CM bringing the Cyberage Scheme to school students where every
student would be given a computer; he famously brought the
International Film Festival to the state and built the requisite
infrastructure in record time.

Naturally, when Parrikar’s name was floated as possible party
president, after Rajnath Singh finishes his term in December, it sent
tremors among other party hopefuls, even among the powerful clutch of
leaders in Delhi. So, did Parrikar commit hara-kiri when he compared
BJP’s venerable L K Advani to a ‘rancid pickle’? Excerpts from an
exclusive interview to Vrindha Gopinath in Panaji, Goa:

Q. Did you make a fatal error with the ‘rancid pickle’ remark?

A. Let me quote what the edit of O Heraldo, a Goa newspaper says on
the matter: “It was when he (Parrikar) was asked what he thought of
the ongoing debate over the party leadership that Parrikar said the
fateful words. First, he categorically said that he thought Advani’s
‘innings’ in politics was coming to an end. “Advaniji’s period is more
or less over. Another couple of years more, maybe. Afterwards, he
should be like a guardian or mentor for the party. He said it was like
Sachin Tendulkar, however mature an innings he may play, he has to
stop playing some day. Elaborating on the process of maturation, he
said it was like a pickle, which tastes good only after it matures for
about a year, but, if kept for too long, say, two years, gets
spoiled.”

Q. So, you are comparing Advani to a ‘rancid pickle’?

A. I was talking about the maturation process, and if the next word
begins with Advani, doesn’t mean that I am referring to him. In fact,
when the interviewer asked me who was the leader I respected most in
the BJP, I said L K Advani was the tallest leader in the party.

Q. Do you believe you have blown your chances of becoming BJP
president with the pickle remark by taking on Advani?

A. First of all, there is no media interest or fuss in Goa. I had
given an interview to a local Konkani channel, and funnily, the pickle
remark was picked up by two national agencies and it drowned out the
rest of interview.

Q. Are you suggesting that the party leadership in Delhi has anything
to do with it?

A. I have not been told about the party presidentship by anyone, not
even a sounding by the Sangh or BJP leadership, so it is only a media
creation. The BJP is a different party, it has no high command and
state leaders work independently, without any interference from the
central leadership in Delhi. I have not been interested in central
issues if they do not concern Goa, and I am not interested in them
either.

Q. Will you consider if an offer for party president is made to you?

A. My priority is not Delhi, but Goa. There is a Marathi proverb: ‘Why
go into something which is not in my interest, not of my taste?’ I
love state politics.

Q. But you could be the face of a new BJP?

A. There are several doctors and engineers in the BJP, I am not the
only one.

Q. You have said the new party president should be between 45 and 55
years of age?

A. Yes, I have.

Q. Do you believe the crisis with Jaswant Singh, and party infighting,
have made a dent in party image?

A. There is no adverse impact in Goa, but if I have any comments on
the incident, I will speak at the party forum.

Q. You were seen as a tourism-friendly CM, unlike the present Congress-
led government that has a ban on nightlife, etc?

A. The government has to first decide if Goa is a tourist destination,
and then look into various aspects of tourism and its impact on the
state. Tourism should not hurt local economy, industry and
environment. It should not be a nuisance to local people, but it is up
to the state government to decide if nightlife is acceptable in a
tourist destination, and its limits on nightlife hours.

Beach shack owners complain of extortion from politicians and law
agencies. Beach shacks licences are given on lottery basis, but the
Congress government changes the terms and conditions. For instance,
the government has said only those with experience can apply, so that
many of their friends qualify. I would say, keep a reservation of 25
per cent for old-timers instead.

Q. The police are busting parties rather than big narcotics-dealers in
the fight against drugs?

A. The police are the first to be involved in narcotics trade. They
are part of the drug cartel. I will say not all of them, but many are
in the ring.

Q. You are seen close to the RSS?

A. I have been associated with the RSS since I was a child.

Q. You carried out the Sangh’s agenda of changing history when you
were CM?

A. You are referring to the government-sponsored film CD on Goa’s
freedom struggle, which was a non-issue. The contentious part was the
105 seconds where locals were seen to be forcibly and violently
converted to Christianity by the Portuguese. However, no one disputes
the historical context because the CD was based on a book written in
2002. The Church did not condemn the book, the censor board also
passed the CD and gave it a ‘U’ certificate. I even set up a committee
to look into the controversial parts.

Q. Are you ready to move to Delhi?

A. I don’t deny I am open to the honour of becoming party president,
but I am happy being Leader of Opposition in Goa. There are five
Congress ministers out on bail. I have a lot to do here.

bademiyansubhanallah

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Oct 6, 2009, 4:01:35 PM10/6/09
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http://www.expressbuzz.com/edition/story.aspx?Title=SC+refuses+to+revive+report+on+Ishrat+killing&artid=dj5EiBBq5mE=&SectionID=b7ziAYMenjw=&MainSectionID=b7ziAYMenjw=&SectionName=pWehHe7IsSU=&SEO=

SC refuses to revive report on Ishrat killing
IANS

First Published : 06 Oct 2009 04:54:35 PM IST

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court Tuesday refused to revive an Ahmedabad
judicial magistrate's report which had termed the killing of Thane
girl Ishrat Jahan by a Gujarat police team as a staged gun battle.

A bench of Justice B.N. Agrawal and Justice Aftab Alam, however,
issued notice to the Gujarat government seeking its stand as to why
the Gujarat High Court order which had earlier suspended Judicial
Magistrate M.P. Tamang's report on Isharat Jahan killing should not be
stayed.

Notices were also issued to the union government and Central Bureau of
Investigation (CBI) on a law suit filed by Ishrat Jahan's mother
seeking revival of the Tamang report to get her daughter's name
cleared.

A Gujarat police team had shot dead four people, including 19-year-old
Ishrat, a resident of Maharashtra's Thane town, June 15, 2004 on the
outskirts of Ahmedabad, claiming that she had been a terror operative
who had reached the city to eliminate Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra
Modi.

The three other persons, who too had been shot dead by the police team
were identified as Javed Ghulam Sheikh alias Pranesh Kumar Pillai,
Amjad Ali alias Rajkumar Akbar Ali Rana and Jisan Johar Abdul Gani.

But Tamang, who conducted the mandatory magisterial probe under the
provisions of the Criminal Procedure Code, concluded that Ishrat Jahan
and the three others were murdered by police in cold blood in a staged
gun battle.

However, the Gujarat High Court had Sep 9, acting on a lawsuit by the
Gujarat government, suspended Tamang's report, saying that it was
beyond the jurisdiction of the judicial magistrate.

Now what is the position of Palaniappan Chidambaram regarding this
issue. His ministry gave an affidavit confirming that the people who
were killed in the encounter belonged to a terror group and when the
State Government acted at the best interest of the State, he said that
Gujarat Government should not have interpreted the information the way
it did. What political advantage did he derive from this flip flop
action. It proves that he is a confused man in delirium and it is too
risky to entrust security of the nation in his hands. He is fit to be
a domestic security guard of the Dynasty. Have his Pakistani friends
brainwashed him ? The anti-Modi english media barons who promote this
liar as an intellectual, should now suck its thumb. What a shame !!!

By Hey Ram
10/6/2009 7:53:00 PM

bademiyansubhanallah

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Oct 7, 2009, 5:09:44 AM10/7/09
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http://www.ptinews.com/news/318384_Vajpayee-appeals-for-votes-in-Maharashtra--Haryana

Vajpayee appeals for votes in Maharashtra, Haryana
STAFF WRITER 13:49 HRS IST

New Delhi, Oct 7 (PTI) Hoping to sway the electorate with the charisma
of former Prime Minister and senior party leader Atal Bihari Vajpayee,
BJP today issued an appeal from the ailing leader to the voters of
Maharashtra and Haryana to vote for the party.

In the statement, Vajpayee expressed regret that he cannot campaign
due to ill-health.

He had issued similar appeals to voters during the Lok Sabha and
earlier assembly elections.

"Unfortunately, in the last ten years, life is unsafe in Maharashtra.
Law and order is in disarray. There is all-round corruption. Farmers
are committing suicide. Back-breaking price rise has affected the
common man. Unemployment is increasing. The Congress-led government
has been unsuccessful in dealing with crisis in water, power, drought
and floods," he said in his appeal.

Vajpayee urged the voters to back the BJP-Shiv Sena alliance, which
has ruled Maharashtra in the past.

Sid Harth

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Oct 7, 2009, 10:00:50 AM10/7/09
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http://worldsikhnews.com/7%20October%202009/Look%20what%20RSS%20is%20up%20to!%20You%20want%20to%20wait.htm

Look what RSS is up to! You want to wait?
RSS chief plans to make India Sanghmayi, here’s how he is going about
it
Sach Kanwal Singh

Journalism has many constraints, but perhaps the biggest is its
frequent failure to see trends and developments that happen just
beneath the surface and remain outside the pale of headlines and a
sharp public focus till something explodes in full view as an
“incident”, a “statement”, a “controversy”.

Mainstream media reporting on Sikh, Punjab or India related issues
very often deliberately skirts such issues while keeping the sham of
objectivity. As a community newspaper representing and alive to Sikh
interests, the World Sikh News does not have the luxury to wait till
an “incident”, a “statement”, a “controversy” breaks through to give
us a peg to report on a phenomena which all know is happening but none
is daring to talk about except a few enlightened souls in civil
society.

At a time when the near centrist Congress party in India is making a
song and dance about standing like a bulwark against the forces of
communalism, it is maintaining a pregnant silence on the deep inroads
into the Indian psyche being made by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh
(RSS).

Mark our words. The RSS is in an aggressive, proactive mode in India
now. Its entire work culture is changing, it has launched a
countrywide movement and program to embrace the influential and
increasingly affluent middle class, it is hogging in many states and
domains the place usually reserved for regular political parties, and
it is preparing to shed its silent-worker, behind-the-scenes, nose-to-
the-grind image.

Leading the RSS-in-an-aggressive-expansionist-mode drive is none other
than its chief Mohan Bhagwat who publicly repeats at least twice a
week that India is a Hindu Rashtra, something he said within moments
after his anointment as the RSS head and significantly, something that
has gone unchallenged by the Congress as well as the many avatars of
the communist parties.

In Punjab, the Akali Dal and the SGPC remain blissfully untouched by
repeated statements of Mohan Bhagwat about entire India being a Hindu
Rashtra and all citizens of India being Hindus, even as the Akali Dal
continues to maintain a fraternal love-clasp with the political child
of the RSS, the BJP. Akali Dal patron and CM Prakash Singh Badal often
describes the alliance as much more than a political understanding.
“We are almost brothers,” he has repeated ad nauseum now.

As another story on Page 15 of this edition explains, RSS chief Mohan
Bhagwat landed at Delhi’s Dwarka suburb on October 2, the occasion
ostensibly meant to mark the day India dedicates to its near mock
exercise of committing itself to a self-styled apostle of peace.
Bhagwat did so by performing worship of AK 47 and other guns and
ammunition, and then delivered the RSS mumbo jumbo of worshipping
power to ensure non-violence.

But what is even more important is the other social trend being
actively promoted by the RSS under Bhagwat. Its leaders are out in the
open, RSS is making open political statements, it is explicitly
interfering and intervening in the affairs of the BJP, it is taking
overt political position on all kinds of matters including issues of
foreign policy, it is gathering forces under its own banner inviting
former army officers, sants and sadhs, intellectuals and
journalists.

In Punjab, the number of RSS shakhas has grown astonishingly huge in
the last three years. At a time when elections to Punjab’s colleges
are banned by law and students have remained deprived of meaningful
engagement with politics for almost a quarter century, the RSS has its
shakhas in hundreds of schools and colleges.

Bhagwat chose to make his traditional shastra puja (weapon worship)
address in Dwarka, a fast growing suburb in Delhi’s south-west, and
RSS is reaching across to the white collar migrants in many towns and
metros.

Delhi’s posh areas and highly congested suburbs witness RSS shakhas in
the park being sold to youngsters as health clubs cum spiritual
exercises. Sources in the RSS said they have instructions to expand in
all suburbs and focus on the well to do as well as the unemployed.

“We must have new image, a post-corporate image of a young, English
and Hindi speaking, modern yet spiritual, traditional yet wearing
branded jeans, quoting Proust and vedas in the same breath,” a young
RSS pracharak lectured in a Moga shakha last Sunday. This Sunday, he
was back, underlining and bringing about the significance of the fact
that an estimated 15,000 RSS cadres clad in their traditional khaki
short pants, white shirts and black caps had converged to listen to
“Bhagwat ji”.

In the decade that the suburb has come into being, the 84-year-old
Hindu nationalist organization has set up 200 shakhas (daily
assemblies) in just Dwarka. In Chandigarh alone, more than 20 shakhas
of the RSS are currently in operation.

The middle class Indian suburbs now represent not just the “new and
more flexible face of the RSS” but also its most pernicious. No more
will the RSS carry its explicit communal card; instead, like the age
old practice of Brahmanism, it is evolving and metamorphosing into an
entity that will make it hard to pin it down as the party of hate and
poisonous minds.

The RSS leaders are now clear that they to achieve such an objective,
they must recruit new potential cadres from professional ranks. So,
the lumpen youth in search of a purpose will not be asked to get up at
5 am to join the shakha. Instead, the well educated will be told the
shakha timings are to their advantage, and there is a gym next door
that will be available for free.

In many colonies in the metros as well as in Punjab’s cities, the RSS
has ensured that timings and the regimen are flexible. While
conventionally, the shakhas have operated in the morning and entailed
exercise drills, now you have night shakhas in areas such as Dwarka.
“We need to accommodate working professionals,” Bhagwat explained
helpfully.

And listen to his nuanced talk: “While our nation has the reputation,
it has utterly failed to secure supremacy in the world arena. Our
values of truth and non-violence cannot be asserted until we wield and
worship power, something which the RSS preaches and practices. The
country must become Sanghmayi.”

Sanghmayi means drenched in RSS ideology.

Clearly, the rebuilding efforts are designed to reposition the RSS as
an acceptable ideological faith to a rapidly evolving demography,
moving away from the traditional perception of being dominated by the
upper castes. It is on the time tested Hindutva road of an
assimilation drive and is making special efforts to attract the dalits
and the backward castes to its fold.

The operation is below the surface, subtle and slow, and RSS will wait
till it gets the results with time. And then the RSS will be a
formidable force for the minorities to engage with. Some, of course,
do think that the fundamentalist, religious and ideological slant
militates against its ability to reach out to a wider cross-section in
the country, but much harm would be done in a matter of a couple of
years itself.

Bhagwat is not saying, is not even alluding that the RSS has any
intention to change and become an inclusive force. His idea of
inclusiveness is limited to assimilation. The RSS has expanded its
presence steadily since 1990, growing its base of shakhas from 29,000
in 1990 to 40,000 at the end of March. Most of these expansions have
come about in Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Kerala, which have a
strong presence of the socially backward communities.

Officially, the RSS today has 800,000 cadres attending its daily
shakhas across the country. It operates almost like a secret
paramilitary organizationand efforts to re-invent itself are aimed not
at any soul searching but to win more souls for the devil.

The IT Milan, and Shakha on the Web!

Look at the bold new initiatives of the RSS. In Bangalore, Hyderabad,
Chennai, Mumbai and Chandigarh, it is running “IT Milan” gatherings
(information technology meetings) where it exhorts informal gatherings
of its supporters and sympathizers from the IT sector to imbibe the
RSS ideology if they want to counter the dragon of China and overpower
and sublimate Pakistan.

The obsolete rules are gone. No need for sporting the khaki knickers.
There is more acceptability of married members. Pracharaks will soon
not have to be celibate full-time members. It is coming up with plans
like Vishesh Sampark Yojana to reach out to bureaucrats and NRIs.
Members are being encouraged to use social networking to attract
youngsters. They are asked to use Yahoo Groups and Orkut.

“Many shakhas are called now ‘software shakhas’ to groom busy IT
professionals in the RSS way of thinking,” said Ram Madhav, RSS
spokesperson. The new age shakhas will be on the web too, and right
into your child’s laptop.

How prepared are we to counter such shrewdly thought out plans at
penetrating, assimilating, metamorphosing the societal agendas?
Remember, the RSS will leave no stone unturned in trying to
appropriate the Sikh Gurus, the Guru Granth Sahib, our religious
idiom. Why do you think it has set up the other RSS, the Rashtriya
Sikh Sangat? It is time to wake up, unless you want to wait for an
“incident”, a “statement”, a “controversy”.

Sid Harth

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Oct 7, 2009, 10:06:19 AM10/7/09
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http://worldsikhnews.com/2%20September%202009/The%20Lotus%20Eaters.htm

The Lotus Eaters
Sach Kanwal Singh

The BJP is a party imploding with a speed unmatched in the history
of modern Indian politics, but it has only itself to blame. The glue
that was binding many leaders together, the power, is gone. And hate
agendas can only be run by those with deeper and sinister ideologies.
The non-RSS entities in the BJP are feeling uneasy. Will RSS take over
completely? Well, has it not, already?

Everyone and anyone who had an access to a postcard and could write
was sending India's

right wing BJP into a deeper crisis. Anyone would write a letter, leak
it to the media and TV channels would scream by the evening with a 120
size font: Crisis in BJP deepens further!

Arun Shourie's corrective recipe did not seem to be working much as
RSS made a show of advising the BJP and not controlling it, and
actually said it, which basically meant that it indeed was controlling
it and will continue to do so.

The fact remained that the crisis in the BJP refused to blow away
because its origins lay in the internal contradictions of that party.
The BJP could get its support base because hardcore Hindutva was its
prime agenda, but the party had to put it on the backburner for
securing allies and forming government. Though this had an impact on
its support base, the party could not revert to Hindutva as it would
stand to lose allies and confine the role of the party. The party is
unable to come out of this crisis.

The crisis in the BJP had nothing to do with the issues confronting
the people and was in no way concerned with the day-to-day suffering
of people. As for the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh’s role in the
ongoing impasse, it became clear to anyone who cared to only read the
headlines of more than font size 100 that the BJP was nothing but a
political arm of the RSS.

BJP’s dissidents seem to be digging in for a long fight.

With his book selling and the media in India and all around the world
catering to Indian communities doing a lot of free publicity, Jaswant
Singh was not done. Expelled from the party, the former armyman turned
politician and self styled hanuman of Vajpayee and then detractor of
the party Jaswant Singh added another turn of phrase — to Arun
Shourie’s “humpty-dumpty” and “Alice in Blunderland” — in describing
his former outfit as an Indian version of the white supremacist Ku
Klux Klan.

As the RSS seems to be taking over in full public view, the entire
issue that triggered the row seems reversed. Jaswant Singh wanted the
umbilical cord between RSS and BJP to go. RSS made it even stronger.
Rashtriya Swamsevak Sangh now wants the party to change the way it's
run.

Jaswant Singh’s reference to the BJP, of which he was member for 30-
odd years, as a KKK-type outfit came in an interview to a news agency.
Apparently in reaction to a question on why he was sacked, the former
minister said, “Please don’t ask me. I am outside the magic circle of
advisers or thinkers. Because I am not from the RSS, is that why? So
are we a political party? Is the BJP becoming some kind of an Indian
version of Ku Klux Klan?”

The former minister refused to elaborate saying, “You know what the
Klan means. You don’t ask me about this.” His outburst seems to
suggest he now sees BJP as a secretive, violent sect that has no place
for leaders like him who may espouse a sense of independent inquiry.
His comment might also have to do with reports that Arun Shourie was
not likely to meet the same fate as Singh due to the former’s
proximity to the RSS.

He chose to skirt around a question about why BJP leader L K Advani
was rejected by people as a prime ministerial aspirant. He said it was
for the BJP veteran to reflect on this. “It would be impertinent and
perhaps, to a degree also, I would be commenting on my past 30 years
with him if I commented on his characteristics, political or
personal,” he said. Asked if Advani was surrounded by a coterie, Singh
suggested his former leader was more led than a leader. “Does he run a
coterie or does the coterie run him,” Singh asked. He said BJP should
reflect on its relationship with RSS and be “mature enough to cut the
umbilical cord”.

“I feel for BJP to gain its full personality as a political
organisation, they have to stand on their own feet. Now they should be
mature enough to cut the umbilical cord,” he said. He disagreed with
Shourie’s suggestion that RSS should take over the party saying it
will not work. “I would like the BJP to reflect on what has happened
and try to be a party of the 21st Century. They (RSS) are exclusivist.
Besides, they are an organisation committed to social work,” he said.

If Jaswant Singh could not see the irony of a social organisation
being exclusivist, it was not his fault. Decades in a party that has
only hate agenda as its prime concern can make anyone blind to the 800
pound gorilla in the bedroom.

Asked if his expulsion was a message to other dissidents in the party,
he shot back: “Am I a dissident. I am sorry. Your question suggests I
am some kind of a dissident. I feel I am one of the original founding
members of the party. Who felt that I had raised queries or questions?
And is questioning or wondering or enquiring about the functioning of
the party dissidence? So are we moving into an era of thought control?

Well, when was the BJP not into the business of thought control?

As the media was full of reports of Advani going to meet RSS top boss
Mohan Bhagwat and Bhagwat meeting a string of leaders, speculation
remained on about the possible solutions to douse the fires. One thing
was increasingly becoming certain: L.K. Advani will step down as
Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha before the start of the next
session of Parliament in mid-November.

Also, it is clear that it will be the RSS that will decide who will be
BJP's next president. Rajnath Singh's tenure ends in December. Also
certain seemed to be the possibility that Sushma Swaraj would replace
Advani as Leader of the Opposition.

Since all eyes and ears in the deeply divided BJP remained tuned to
RSS sarsanghchalak Mohan Bhagwat at a time when the party is marred by
expulsions, desertions and factional feud, the fig leaf of RSS being
the social organisation is no more there. Clearly, RSS is drawing the
roadmap.

Advani, meanwhile, came under renewed attack from some former
colleagues of former PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee. Former National Security
Advisor Brajesh Mishra reiterated that Advani was, indeed, aware of
“Jaswant Singh going to Kandahar to secure the release of hostages in
the event of the hijack of the IC 814 aircraft”.

Since all eyes and ears in the deeply divided BJP remained tuned to
RSS sarsanghchalak Mohan Bhagwat at a time when the party is marred by
expulsions, desertions and factional feud, the fig leaf of RSS being
the social organisation is no more there. Clearly, RSS is drawing the
roadmap.

He had first made these revelations in June this year. “When that
decision was taken in the Cabinet Committee on Security, Jaswant Singh
said that he wanted to go and make sure that everything was all right
because he had received a message from the negotiators in Kandahar
that it would be good for somebody at a high level to come here,
because there could be some last-minute problems. None of us
visualised that he was going there with the three terrorists”.

Asked about Advani’s claim “that he was not aware that Jaswant was
going there,” Mishra had said: “I think it was George Fernandes who
said that perhaps Advani has forgotten that he was there... I have
already quoted George Fernandes. I think we should take a more
detached view of this. It wasn’t good that Jaswant Singh was
travelling in the same plane, but he wanted to get these hostages back
and we should concentrate on that”.

WIth such remarks, it increasingly became clear that Advani was not
telling the truth on a crucial issue. Considering that this man
wanted to be the leader of India, it did his reputation little good.

As the RSS seems to be taking over in full public view, the entire
issue that triggered the row seems reversed.

Jaswant wanted the umbilical cord between RSS and BJP to go. RSS made
it even stronger. Rashtriya Swamsevak Sangh now wants the party to
change the way it's run. Mohan Bhagwat delivered his message with
characteristic bluntness to the many BJP leaders ­ big and small ­ he
met over the last three days: Fix your house.

"Who's next BJP chief and when will Advani give up may be the media's
obsession but we, at the Sangh," said an RSS official, "are looking at
the patient's illness, which is longstanding and needs correctives."

The sangh believes the BJP lost the last Lok Sabha elections because
of rampant indiscipline, factionalism and bitter rivalries.

The sangh wants the BJP leaders to focus in the next three months on
their organisation for optimum results even as they put their head
together to arrive at a consensus on who will be their president

Here are the important takeaways from Bhagwat's meetings: Advani will
decide manner and timing of his exit, and oversee transition in the
party.

Rajnath will not complete his term as party president, but not second
term for him. Next BJP chief to be chosen from among a group of
younger leaders including Arun Jaitely (being the first option) or a
dark horse from states who will be appealing to voters.

Also on the cards could be a high-powered advisory mechanism with top
leaders including Advani and Murli Manohar Joshi to avoid
factionalism.

The Indian Express noted editorially that the Rashtriya Swayamsevak
Sangh’s supreme leader, Mohan Bhagwat, said all the right things — by
which it can be inferred he has said practically nothing, if at great
length.

The Sangh’s holier-than-thou attitude about BJP infighting may not be
as universally supportable as it would like. There have been enough
well-substantiated incidents of second-rung RSS functionaries taking
more than a neutral, observer’s stance in the BJP’s state-level
decision-making — the people expelled dissident Jaswant Singh called
“suvidhabhogis”, addicted to convenience. The RSS’ national-level
leadership does not wish to be a distanced one, it in fact wants to
meddle even more.

The BJP and the RSS have come to a fork in the road, and how the RSS
handles the BJP, and the BJP handles the RSS in this transition, will
decide what sort of relationship they enjoy going forward.

Will that be the one that Mohan Bhagwat has announced is the preferred
one? That the RSS, like the President of India, does not give orders,
but certainly retains the right to advise, counsel and warn? Will it
be closer, with the Sangh’s sanction, real or imagined, required for
the broad ideological thrusts of the party, even in economic and
foreign policy, and a quiet nod of approval expected for those filling
major party posts? Or will it be more distant still, perhaps merely as
a source of the intellectual heft of one strand of party thought?
These are the options facing the BJP’s leaders now; they must realise
that more will be settled in the next few days than their career paths
for the next couple of years. The RSS can only be the BJP’s umpire-in-
perpetuity at the cost of the party’s plan, if there is indeed any, to
make itself a modern centre-right political entity.

The Ideological Abyss
Sach Kanwal Singh

Most of the BJP's current problems have a history — internecine
quarrels, confusion over ideology, the see-saw nature of the BJP-RSS
relationship, all go back at least a decade. What is unprecedented
this time is the concerted attack on the leadership.


Tracking the developments in the BJP all of last week was quite a
hectic task; such has been the ability of the party to jump from one
problem to another. Every moment it seemed teh events were overtaking
your capacity to focus and understand. Watching the Bharatiya Janata
Party became a dizzying task and it was little fun watching a
mainstream political party turn into a fast paced TV program.

Barely did one disastrous development unfold when another upstaged
it : Vasundhara Raje's rebellion, Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh chief
Mohan Bhagwat's virtual quit notice to the BJP leadership, Jaswant
Singh's expulsion followed by his 24 into 7 TV interviews, Arun
Shourie's masterly lampooning of Rajnath Singh in blazing arc lights,
B.C. Khanduri following in Ms Raje's footsteps, RSS saying it will
advise, the leaders rushing to RSS chief's house the same night, the
RSS chief rushing to Murli Manohar Joshi, then Joshi rushing back to
RSS chief, then everyone meeting everyone else, and now Jaswant under
new pressure to resign from the Parliamentary Accounts Committee of
Indian Parliament.

The BJP since the second election defeat wallowed in destructive self
pity for long but instead of putting that inglorious chapter behind
it, became the victim of egos, huge aspirations, and unprinciples
positions of many of its key actors. It was nothing new for the BJP
except that this time the scale was bigger and scarier.

Rewind to the birth of the BJP in 1980. In times when images often
falsified reality, people had thought here was a youngish party with
an agenda to follow and new ideas to implement. But to the keen
students of Indian politics, it was clear that the party was only a
new form of communal Jana Sangh. In the nearly three decades since
then, the party has seen many lows: It was reduced to two Lok Sabha
seats in 1984, lost two confidence motions, in 1996 and 1999, and
suffered a shock defeat in 2004 and 2009. Intermittently through this
time the party was shunned as an untouchable. Yet the BJP remained
largely united, and it never lost its derring-do: its PR machinery was
the best in the business, able both to magnify the smallest gain and
spot the silver lining in the darkest cloud.

Most of the BJP's current problems have a history — internecine
quarrels, confusion over ideology, the see-saw nature of the BJP-RSS
relationship, all go back at least a decade. What is unprecedented
this time is the concerted attack on the leadership. When a Uma Bharti
or a Kalyan Singh or a Madan Lal Khurana rebelled, it was the rebel
who cut a sorry figure; the leader's stature and standing remained
undiminished by the mudslinging. By contrast today Jaswant Singh, Arun
Shourie, Brajesh Mishra and so many others who rebelled emerged bigger
and have reduced the BJP leadership to a laughing stock.

Shourie calls Mr. Rajnath Singh “Alice in blunderland” , and the party
chief does not even ask for a clarification which he said he will.
Perhaps he was afraid of some more colorful literary bombshells that
any clarification may have elicited.

Atal Behari Vajpayee was a mask for the BJP; his persona hid the hate
agenda that brought BJP to power. The mellowness made simple Indians
forget that the government was founded on the blood of innocents, the
reputation was built on demolition squads who went around bringing
down the House of the other people's god.

After Vajpayee's exit, the real character became more exposed. Those
who replaced him had no grassroots appeal. Lal Krishna Advani could
not pull off the transition from Hindutva ideologue to popular leader.

Rajnath Singh remained a courier for the RSS while Sushma Swaraj and
Arun Jaitley, though smart, competent and high on aspiration, suffered
from not having popular constituencies and not being committed to any
cause except themselves. In the end, it is the quality of leadership
that decides the future of the party, that shapes strategy, that
inspires the cadre, instilling hope even in adversity. That was
totally missing.

During the electioneering, the Congress was uncharacteristically
aggressive, returning fire for fire, while the BJP stumbled, unable to
tarnish a Prime Minister who unbeknown to the BJP seemed to have
gained in popularity. As the campaign wound down, the sound effects
were more around the Third Front with speculators placing it ahead of
the BJP. So where does the party go from here? The situation has been
compounded by the diverse nature of the mutinies. Shourie and
Sudheendra Kukarni rose in support of Jaswant Singh yet Shourie's call
to go back to the RSS and bomb out the headquarters and his rooting
for Narendra Modi shows the crisis will continue since there are
fundamental problems of ideology.

Yet the BJP is not quite the maze it appears. That there are two broad
currents in the party is evident enough. The Shourie school of thought
and Advani's more calibrated move for independence from the Sangh.
Advani's appreciation of Mohammad Ali Jinnah's 1947 secular vision was
a step in this direction. When he said the unthinkable in 2005, the
Sangh clobbered him with the party standing in respectful attention.
Today Jaswant Singh has made Jinnah legitimate, and there are many
more in the BJP who want the party to jettison its exclusivist
approach.

By saying 'Junk the H-word', Swapan Dasgupta has argued that Hindutva
had become “a millstone round the BJP's neck. He has argued that the
BJP should quietly shelve Hindutva in the same way as Nehru shelved
Gandhism and Narasimha Rao dispensed with socialism. But can the BJP
recast itself as a liberal, modern, right-wing-party – a Christian
Democratic framework adapted to Indian conditions?

The answer is no. And the reason is hidden in the very way it is being
suggested. The best friends of BJP are asking it to do such things
silently, in a hush hush manner. It is like calling the people at
large fools. The party must understand that such gear shifts in
ideology will be accompanied by deafening noise.

Ideologically too, even for us who are complete disagreement with the
pantheon of icons that the BJP has gathered, the party is increasingly
being found hollow. Former BJP ideologue, K. N. Govindacharya, said
not more than 35 MPs out of the BJP's current Lok Sabha strength of
116 can correctly identify Deen Dayal Upadhyaya. Even fewer are likely
to have read his seminal treatise, Integral Humanism. Worse, at the
core level and ground level, attitudes continue to be rooted in values
that form the Sangh's core beliefs. Saffronites form a large
contingent in the BJP's national council (working committee), and
close to 85 per cent of the rank and file identify with the Sangh.

This is not to say that the RSS is invincible. Far from it, the Sangh
is almost a spent force: the footfalls in the shakhas have decreased,
the organisation's once powerful affiliates, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad
and the Bajrang Dal, are in a disarray (not many in the Sangh can name
the VHP's current chief), and at 59, Bhagwat could be Advani's son.
Yet should Advani and others break away from the Sangh, they might
find themselves without the mass support needed to make the project a
success — for the simple reason that while they changed for reasons of
expediency —half-heartedly at that, considering their support to Varun
Gandhi — they didn't influence the cadre which remains virulently anti-
Minorities. Besides, with the Congress today occupying the 'left of
centre' (aam admi) and 'right of centre' (market economics) spaces,
the BJP would need to be really inventive to carve out a distinct
identity.

2 September 2009

Sid Harth

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Oct 7, 2009, 10:09:42 AM10/7/09
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RSS speaks Truth to BJP, Color is Deep Saffron
Sach Kanwal Singh

While being in a highly self-destructive mode, the BJP is hurtling
into a dark pit and there is no one whose writ can run.

When shame of defeat haunts, political parties start thinking of
shameless somersaults. Here are the ones that India's right wing ultra
nationalist brahmanical Hindutva inspired BJP went through in the last
one week:

* The RSS said the BJP can leave Hindutva agenda and go and befriend
its so-called demi-secular allies once again. Sarcasm dripped in the
article that RSS ideologue M G Vaidya wrote in the Marathi daily Tarun
Bharat.

* L K Advani's soulmate and mouthpiece Sudheendra Kulkarni said the
BJP lost because of excessive influence and interference of the RSS

* Everybody except Advani and Rajnath went to town saying Varun Gandhi
was responsible for loss of many seats to the BJP since his hate
speeches pushed away the middle class voters

* LK Advani made Arun Jaitley the Leader of the Opposition in Rajya
Sabha; the rest of the BJP leadership spent the week sharpening knives
for both Advani and Jaitley

* BJP vice president Yashwant Sinha resigned from all posts and said
now the load was off his chest. In his resignation, he said there was
a premium on failure.

* Jaswant Singh said there was no connectiion between results and
rewards

* And Jaswant Singh dropped a bombshell saying he has never understood
what the hell did Hindutva mean


* Arun Shourie said party leaders like Sudheendra Kulkarni and Arun
Jaitley have no business to go about writing articles in newspapers
about why the BJP lost when the party itself was yet to analyse the
reasons for defeat

* Jaswant Singh and Yashwant Sinha both said there was never any
analysis of why the party lost in 2004

* And Sushma Swaraj, just recently appointed by Advani as the Deputy
Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha, said the situation in the BJP
was now like a volcano which could erupt any time and anything anyone
says can become the proverbial spark

* Now party chief Rajnath Singh, who had tried to gag the leaders
behind closed doors, had to go public with his strategy and officially
issued the gag command. "Anyone saying anything in public against
party leadership will face action," he said. No one stopped. Rajnath
has stopped saying anything now.

See, who is silent!

At a time when even the most communal in the BJP are trying to unlearn
some lessons of Hindutva and BJP allies have dumped it one by one,
Punjab’s ruling Akali Dal led by the father-son duo of Parkash Singh-
Sukhbir Singh Badal remains ties to the apron strings of the saffron
party. Naveen Patnaik dumped the BJP before the elections, Nitish
Kumar kept his distance till he knew he was safely home and virtually
everyone tried a line more moderate, the Akali Dal has maintained
complete silence on the BJP’s humiliating defeat and there is no
murmur that the RSS and Hindutva ideology has done the BJP in. At one
stage, the SGPC President Avtar Singh Makkar had said that the RSS was
enemy number one of the Sikhs but after a gag order from the Badal Jr,
he has not opened his mouth. The Akali Dal takes no umbrage at the
BJP’s formulation that the Sikhs are part of the larger Hindu samaj,
the BJP in Punjab openly backs many self-styled godmen like the
Noormehlia Ashutosh baba and defends Gurmit Ram Rahim but the Akali
Dal pushes the entire issue under the carpet.

After all of this, if you are the strongest critic of the BJP, have
you been left with anything to say?

While being in a highly self-destructive mode, the BJP is hurtling
into a dark pit and there is no one whose writ can run. At the first
sign of the possibility of Advani quitting the office of Leader of the
Opposition, and politics, there was so much scramble among the top and
middle brass that it seemed the party will sink before sunset. Now, it
is going through a long dark night, and it seems to be a night of long
knives, and no knight around or emerging.

But its parent RSS has refused to blink. RSS ideologue M G Vaidya
chided the party publicly; in fact, he wrote an article virtually
daring the BJP to try and dump Hindutva and see how “its umbilical
cord with the RSS will automatically fall”. He maintained this would
not impact the RSS because “come what may, the Sangh isn’t going to
quit Hindutva”.

Well, who did not know? The Sangh has been the fountainhead of hatred
in India for so long that there is hardly a claimant to the crown in
sight. Vaidya wrote: “The BJP hasn’t been able to impress on peoples’
mind the comprehensive purport of Hindutva despite its rule at the
Centre and in many states perhaps because they found it narrow-minded
or did not find it useful in ascending the throne of power.”


But the RSS is clear about one thing: it is least bothered about large
scale rejection of the hate agenda and is confident that with the
brahamanical levers of power so entrenched, it can swing around the
country's politics once again givcen half a chance by fanning
communalism, anti-Muslim feelings or pushing anti-minority agenda.

“This will have no adverse effect on the RSS. I feel those honouring
the Hindutva ideology are in huge numbers. The only thing needed is to
touch hearts. The response will be such that it will act as a source
of strength and energy. But it should be done with honesty.” So, the
Babri Mosque demolition was an act of honesty, as were the attacks on
Christians in Orissa or the genocide of Muslims in Gujarat!

Referring to the BJP vacillation on Hindutva, Vaidya pointed out that
the “dilemma” has existed ever since Jana Sangh days. “In the 1980
elections, it was suggested that Bharatiya Jana Sangh be called
Bharatiya Janata Party. The flag was also changed. The saffron part
became two-third and the green part became one-third. Bharatiyatva and
integrated humanism lagged behind and socialism came to the fore.
Various formats of socialism, democratic and Gandhian, surfaced. The
BJP chose the Gandhian version. Did that absolve it of the communalism
charge? Did Muslims make a beeline to join it,” he wrote.

BJP’s deepening crisis

Nothing fails like failure, judging from the upheavals in the
Bharatiya Janata Party following its worst electoral performance in
two decades. A defeat on this scale was bound to lead to some discord
but the profound unrest points to an existential crisis in a party
whose claimed strengths have been its discipline and its rock-solid
faith in Hindutva. Today these ideals appear under serious challenge,
with dissidents rising in open rebellion against the leadership and
questioning the mobilisational utility of Hindutva. At the centre of
the storm are former External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh and
former Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha. Both have hit out at the
leadership quartet of Lal Krishna Advani, Rajnath Singh, Sushma
Swaraj, and Arun Jaitley. Significantly, the anger seems directed more
at the last three than at Mr. Advani who was re-elected party leader
in the Lok Sabha. The reason for this is twofold. Mr. Advani, who went
into the election as the party’s prime ministerial candidate, owned up
responsibility for the defeat, although he was quickly persuaded to
stay on. Secondly, the dissidents know that the 80-year-old leader’s
re-appointment is a holding operation and that the real jockeying for
power will start later this year when a successor will be chosen.

Naturally, last week’s key decisions — the appointment of Ms Swaraj as
deputy leader in the Lok Sabha and Mr. Jaitley as leader in the Rajya
Sabha, with Mr. Rajnath Singh continuing as party chief — have raised
hackles in some quarters. Mr. Jaswant Singh and Mr. Sinha, who lead
the BJP’s middle rung, feel outmanoeuvred by the ‘gang of three’ who
seem to have promoted the impression that one among them would lead
the party into the 16th general election. But there is more to this
churning than the personal ambitions of a handful of malcontents. The
BJP’s rout has brought home the brutal truth that Hindutva — and by
extension the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh — has little purchase among
today’s young voters. That the RSS has been pitching for a younger
leadership underscores the irony. The BJP’s biggest problem is the
stifling relationship in which it is trapped with its ideological and
‘social’ mentor. Sections of the party want a rethink on the
association — Mr. Jaswant Singh has gone so far as to claim that he
did not know what Hindutva meant — yet predictably the leadership has
squashed speculation through loud reiterations of loyalty to the
command centre. With the revolt gathering force, the party can take
one of two courses: take the RSS bull by its horns and move away from
the disruptive influence of Hindutva — or fall back on its Jana Sangh
pre-history of ideological obscurantism, isolation, and political
stagnation. (From the editorial in English daily, The Hindu, dated
June 16, 2009

Obduracy is something that comes easy with a hate agenda in one's back
pocket. Here is a defeated, trounced ideology but the first things the
man wants to fix is the color of the BJP flag. He wants it saffron, he
wants the agenda a straight "All For Hindu" style and he wants to go
for a completely anti-Muslim stance.

“After the 1984 poll stunner, the BJP again remembered Hindutva. The
BJP kept growing and power started getting closer to the party. But it
wasn’t close enough to propel it to power. The party could have gained
strength to win the elections on its own, but the party had no
patience — the temptation of power was too strong. The BJP fell for it
and left its core ideology again. In 2004, when it lost power, it was
once again reminded of Hindutva. It was included in the 2009
manifesto. This, however, failed to impress people,” he said.

At least the RSS is more honest than the BJP. It lives with the
communalism animal, and is proud to proclaim it. The BJP wants to keep
the communalism animal as a pet and tame it. The RSS is telling it no
point in trying. Live with the beast, and the best way is to live in
beastly ways. That is why the RSS is comfortable with Hindutva, while
Jaswant Singh says he does not understand what it means, and Brajesh
Mishra finds it an aberration.

“Now some intellectuals feel the BJP has lost because it went back to
Hindutva. Jaithirth Rao, Dhiraj Nayyar and Meghnad Desai have all
advised in The Indian Express over the past few days that BJP should
disengage itself from Hindutva. All these are neutral writers. But
Swapan Dasgupta and Sudheendra Kulkarni are not known to be like them.
They have also written that the BJP should look beyond Hindutva. My
advice is that the BJP should really quit the Hindutva agenda. Its
umbilical cord with the RSS will automatically fall.”

Thank you, RSS, for at least telling us that Swapan Dasgupta and his
ilk, often passing themselves off as journalists, are actually saffron
flag carriers.

But he also had a poser: “If acceptance of the Sachar report were to
attract Muslims, then why did Muslims reject Mulayam Singh and Lalu
Yadav?” The conclusion? Reject Sachar, do not think of poor Muslims'
welfare, dump the minority concerns and turn towards aggressive
Hindutva.

BJP president Rajnath Singh, brought up in a completely communal
culture of the RSS shakhas and ideology, was quick to respond that he
would remain wedded to the core ideology of Hindutva for all times to
come. “I want to put this bluntly that I still abide by the ideology
of Hindutva which I have followed ever since I commenced my political
career. And I will remain wedded to it for all times to come,” he
said.

So much for analysing the election results.

Brajesh Mishra finds culprit: It is Varun, not BJP
WSN Network

There are two ways of ducking responsibility. One is to refuse to
analyse the failure, the other is to make a deliberately far fetched
and wrong analysis and then project it as the divine truth. Top BJP
think tank Brijesh Mishra has gone for the latter. As the BJP grapples
with the growing internal chorus questioning its failed strategy in
the general elections, Mishra, former National Security Advisor and
one of the closest aides of former Prime Minister Atal Bihari
Vajpayee, has come out with the first categorical denunciation of
Varun Gandhi’s hate speech in Pilibhit saying it caused the “greatest
amount of damage” to the party’s electoral fortunes.

In a TV interview to The Indian Express' newspaper's Editor-in-Chief
Shekhar Gupta, Mishra, throwing to the winds the gag order issued by
BJP president Rajnath Singh, said the BJP committed a mistake by not
censuring Varun Gandhi’s “repugnant” statements.

The right course for the BJP would have been to “completely dissociate
itself from him and not give him a ticket,” he said. Asked how
Vajpayee would have handled the situation, he said, “He may have
called him and advised him. But I am sure he would not have liked
it.”

Although not formally associated with the BJP, Mishra was considered
extremely influential in the NDA government, mainly because of his
proximity to Vajpayee which he continues to enjoy to this day.
Underlining that the continuance of BJP as a major political party was
good for the nation, Mishra put his critique in context.

“I want the BJP to survive and thrive,” he said. “This country needs
the BJP. It needs two national parties. Otherwise if BJP were to, God
forbid, disappear, then within four to five years, regional forces
will once come to the fore and we will again be faced with very very
unstable situation,” he said, adding that not just the BJP but its
ideological parent, the RSS, too, needed to reassess its strategies
and bring moderation in the ranks.

"Top BJP leadership had not moved away from that moderate agenda but
in these elections, however, the impression went out through the
voices of Varun Gandhi and Narendra Modi that the party stood for a
very strident form of Hindutva which was exclusivist in nature."

Mishra said the BJP had come to power, with the help of allies, only
by moderating its agenda and people had accepted that. He said the top
leadership of the party had not moved away from that moderate agenda
but in these elections, however, the impression went out — “through
the voices of Varun Gandhi and Narendra Modi” — that the party stood
for a very strident form of Hindutva which was exclusivist in nature.

“I am absolutely clear that the Varun episode did the greatest amount
of damage to the BJP...his speech and his behaviour...The BJP should
have totally moved away from him,” he said, adding that such
statements did not go down well with the masses. “The kind of
statements Varun Gandhi made...people were completely taken aback.
They also thought that as soon as a BJP government came to power in
Karnataka, organizations like the Ram Sene came out in the open.”

“The Hindu ethos does not allow people to go beyond a limit,” said
Mishra. “The impression going out was that this was not Hindutva. This
was something else,” he said, adding that the inclusive nature of
Hindutva had affected other Indian religions as well. “That is why
today you cannot say that more than, say, 0.0001 per cent of Muslim
population would be jehadis.”

“Clearly, your (BJP’s) message of Hindutva, howsoever you may define
it, did not get across to the voters who voted for the Congress, and
for stability,” he said.

Mishra also faulted the BJP for unnecessarily attacking Prime Minister
Manmohan Singh, saying the strategy only helped in consolidating
support for Congress and the Prime Minister. “By calling the Prime
Minister weak, more publicity was given to him than he himself could
arrange. It also resulted, for the first time, in the Congress
announcing that so and so would be its Prime Ministerial candidate.
This benefited the Congress and gave strength to Manmohan Singh,” he
said.

Mishra said instead of running a highly negative campaign, the BJP
should have concentrated in telling people how it could have performed
better than the UPA government. “The negativeness was not liked. The
BJP could have run a positive campaign and concentrated on telling
people that it could have done much better on bijli, sadak, paani
issues,” he said.

17 June 2009

Sid Harth

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Oct 7, 2009, 10:16:04 AM10/7/09
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Modi's Gynaecologist Killer

Maya Kodnani, trained how to save lives and bring new ones into the
world, was retrained by the RSS agenda to extinguish lives and become
a genocidal killer. But is the saffron lobby ashamed at all?

Mansewak Singh

Crooks are the first to imbibe technology. It needs good engineers
and innovative minds to build gas chambers for millions of Jews.
Kodnani and her ilk used techonology to coordinate their killer
agenda. The cell phones that these worthies used left tell-tale
records of where they were during crucial hours and crucial days, who
called whom, who was in touch with whom and who spoke to whom for how
long exactly. After they had denied their presence in those areas,
enterprising journalists scanned thousands and thousands of phone
numbers, matched and re-matched details, and came up with mind-numbing
data detailing who was where and who was talking to whom.

At a time when various political parties in India and voices from the
larger civil society are all arguing to give women more space in
politics, get more women into politics and recognise the unaffordably
high male skew in the way the society is constructed, Gujarat's Maya
Kodnani was in a unique position to forward the debate. She was
already a prominent woman, she was educated, and as a doctor who was
wedded to the cause of saving lives. If such women were in politics,
surely the male skew could be handled, toned down and a better society
with more opportunities and challenges for women could be envisaged.

Instead, inspired by the hate agenda of India's right wing Hindutva
party, the BJP, Maya Kodnani went regressive and violently so. She is
now charged with leading and participating in bloody anti-Muslim
genocidal riots in Gujarat, and is known to have led from the front
the mobs that killed, as per the official estimates, 98 Muslims in
Naroda Patiya and 11 in Naroda Gam, in 2002.

Narendra Modi, the killer in chief of the 2002 genocide of Muslims,
made her a minister, and remained shameless in the face of arrest
warrants for Kodnani who then became a fugitive from law even as she
was a minister earlier this year.

Now, last Friday, Gujarat High Court struck down her anticipatory bail
that Kodnani had obtained from a lower court. Within minutes, Kodnani
became a new icon for hate-filled Hindutva as she became the first
minister to be arrested in connection with the Gujarat communal
carnage of 2002.

Ironically, the 53-year-old Kodnani was minister for women and child
development in the Narendra Modi cabinet, and is an Ahmedabad-based
gynaecologist -- someone whose job it is to bring new lives into the
world and save people. Alongwith Kodnani, VHP leader Jaideep Patel,
also accused in the Naroda Gam case, had to surrender before the
Supreme Court-appointed Special Investigative Team (SIT).

After their surrender, Mayaben Kodnani and Jaideep Patel were sent to
four days’ police remand by the Ahmedabad metropolitan court on
Saturday. It is still not clear or understandable why the court only
chose to send them into police custody for four days when the SIT had
sought 14 days’ police remand for both. After all, accused people in
India are being sent into 14 day police remands for much smaller
charges while Kodnani and Patel were wanted for major massacres in
the Naroda locality, Naroda-Patiya and Naroda Gaam.

"Communal harmony is the hallmark of democracy. If in the name of
religion people are killed, that is absolutely a slur and a blot on a
society governed by the rule of law.” The judge's words were as much a
condemnation of the Indian establishment as of Kodnani. After all, the
Sikhs in Delhi were killed in 1984 on similarly specious grounds of
extracting vengeance.

Incidentally, the SIT had so far sought their remand only for the
Naroda Gaam incident, in which 11 Muslims were killed. It is expected
that the police remand in connection with the Naroda-Patiya massacre,
in which at least 95 people were burnt alive, would be sought
separately.

“Religious fanatics do not belong to any religion, they are no better
than terrorists who kill innocent people for no rhyme or reason,”
Justice DH Waghela, who struck down the bail, said. “Communal harmony
is the hallmark of democracy. If in the name of religion people are
killed, that is absolutely a slur and a blot on a society governed by
the rule of law.”

The judge's words were as much a condemnation of the Indian
establishment as of Kodnani. After all, the Sikhs in Delhi were killed
in 1984 on similarly specious grounds of extracting vengeance.

But how was Kodnani found to be involved? After all, men like Jagdish
Tytler and Sajjan Kumar were also with the blood thirsty mobs and led
them from the front but till date Sikh organisations and lawyers are
making the efforts to even prove in a court of law that they were
indeed there. This despite the fact that witnesses have stood their
ground and have repeatedly told one court after the other, one
commission of inquiry after another, that they saw these worthies of
the Congress leading the killer mobs.

So, why was it so easy to prove that Kodnani and others were indeed
leading the riots?

Because India has made some progress on the technology front and was
undergoing an IT revolution. The killers and hate agents are the first
to imbibe technology. After all, one needs good engineers and
innovative minds to build gas chambers and kill millions of jews.

So Kodnani and her ilk used the techonology to coordinate their
activities, never a part of their medical training but surely a key
touchstone of their RSS-BJP hate agenda lessons. The cell phones that
these worthies used left tell-tale records of where they were during
crucial hours and crucial days, who called whom, who was in touch with
whom and who spoke to whom for how long exactly. After they had denied
their presence, their conversations and their contacts, enterprising
journalists, even though only a couple of them, scanned thousands and
thousands of phone numbers, matched and re-matched details, and came
up with mind-numbing data detailing who was where and who was talking
to whom.

Justice Waghela, referring to the call records of Kodnani’s cellphone
on February 28, 2002, said Kodnani could have been present in Naroda
area for at least 40 minutes in the morning and also in the afternoon.
In November 2004, the media had reported, based on cellphone records,
Kodnani and Patel’s movements and conversations on February 28.

The judgement said that the activities of Kodnani (who was then an
MLA) at the scene of offence where violent mobs with weapons had
gathered in an atmosphere surcharged with anger and hatred, showed
nothing to claim that she made a bid to quell or control the mobs.
“Nor is it believable that they visited the scenes of offences for any
personal or private purpose.”

“In such circumstances, prima facie, allegations of inciting or
encouraging the mobs into wanton display of hatred, destruction of
properties and killing of innocent men, women and children produce a
chilling picture of communal violence on an unprecedented scale,
leaving on the psyche of ordinary citizens scars which might take
decades to fade,” the judgement said. “Therefore, the offences which
are alleged to have been committed by faceless mobs of thousands of
persons led by a few have to be treated as very heinous and having far-
reaching implications,” Justice Waghela said.

In a severe indictment of the role of the ruling party politicians,
Justice Waghela said: “A murder committed due to deep-seated mutual
and personal rivalry may not call for penalty of death. But an
organized crime for mass murders of innocent people would call for
imposition of death sentence as deterrence.”

Coming down heavily on the Ahmedabad Sessions court that granted
anticipatory bail to the minister, he said: “The exercise of judicial
discretion in favour of the minister ascribed a leadership role, on
irrelevant grounds of them not having tampered with the evidence or
being unlikely to commit other offences, was highly improper and
perverse, and calls for interference, particularly when the
investigation is still underway and the respondent still holds the
status from where (she) can influence the witnesses”.

“The distance in time from the date of the alleged offences to the
present stage of investigation is unfortunate and attributable to the
failure of law enforcement agencies, but it cannot derogate from the
requirements of bringing to book all the persons who might have had a
role in rudely disrupting the lives of millions of citizens eking out
their living in harmony,” he said.

After going through the arguments put by the defence and prosecution
counsels, Justice Waghela noted that there were no less that 40
statements of witnesses that directly named the minister in the Naroda
Patia and Naroda Gam mass murder cases. Kodnani is wanted by the SIT
in connection the twin massacres on the outskirts of Ahmedabad on
February 28, 2002 and March 1, 2002. Both the areas are parts of
Naroda assembly constituency represented by Kodnani.

“In fact, some of the statements of witnesses like that of Habib Mirza
indicated some prior planning and preparation for carrying out the
riots even as police force was approached by the victims for help and
it was present at the scene of the offence,” Justice Waghela said.

Stating that some of the police personnel on duty were now being
implicated in SIT investigation, he observed that “it puts the earlier
investigation by local officers in a shade and under the cloud of
serious doubt”.

1 April 2009

Sid Harth

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http://worldsikhnews.com/11%20February%202009/SAVING%20RAM%20S%20HONOUR.htm

Saving Ram's honour
Gian Inder Singh

Sri Ram Sena soldiers knew what was in their interest, and what was
not. Pubs were okay, liquor is okay. So they took no stand against
liquor consumption, broke not a single bottle. After all, where do you
come back to plan another attack after beating up young girls? And
they knew freedom of choice for women was not in their interest. But
then how should the women respond? Here is one piece of advice.

Saviours of Indian culture, particularly the Hindu culture, were out
in force on January 24, and the world watched them saving the culture.
Their efforts were much more energetic than those who want to save the
environment, whales, Olive Ridley turtles, giant pandas or Indian
tigers. They put their hearts and hands to maximum usage, and put the
fear of god into those girls who were doing untold unspeakable harm to
Hindu culture by visiting the pubs.

In order to amplify their message, they also took along the TV crews.
This, of course, is a double edged sword. It increased manifolds the
kind of publicity that Sri Ram Sena (Lord Rama's Army) wanted as it
beat up the girls, dragged them by the hair, slapped and pushed them
to the ground, and made them run terrified. It was this publicity
itself that made some sections of liberal opinion cry hoarse.

Without the TV cameras, the girls' insecurity even in urban India
hardly makes for priority TV or news, just as the Dalit issues never
make for top stories unless someone makes a Dalit drink cow urine with
24X7 news cameras rolling the footage for several days. (By the way,
the cameras weren't there, and hapless Dalits have refused to drink
urine, so that is still not much of an issue, as another story in this
edition explains in some detail.)

Sri Ram Sena knows what is good for it. So it did not break a single
beer bottle in the pub, it did not damage the neon signs inviting
people to come in drink, it did not harm any of the boys drinking
inside. Its problem is not with the impact of liquor culture on a
Hindu nation; its problem was the loosening control over women. Many
Hindu boys serve liquor in the pub to customers, but that does not
create any problem. Sri Ram Sena will be very peeved if Hindu girls
serve liquor.

Rape of women, assaults on Dalits, honor killings, dowry deaths and
caste is not harming Hindu culture. It gets harmed only when a girl is
seen in a pub. If her brothers go to the pub next door, get drunk, and
beat up a women, shouting Sri Ram Sena Ki Jai, they will be saving
Hindu culture. On their way back, they can bring a bottle along to
save more Hindu culture by hurling some choice abuses about their
mothers, sisters etc and beating up their wives.

It has not said so far if it is okay for girls of other religions to
go visit the pub.

Sri Rama Sene’s Karnataka convener, the 28-year-old Prasad Attavar
said the attack was against the destruction of Hindu culture.

Pravin Valke a 40-year-old, fifth-standard drop-out, who is a founding
member of the Sri Rama Sene, makes the agenda amply clear. It is about
controlling women. Here is what he had to say: “These girls come from
all over India, drink, smoke, and walk around in the night spoiling
the traditional girls of Mangalore. Why should girls go to pubs? Are
they going to serve their future husbands alcohol? Should they not be
learning to make chapattis? Bars and pubs should be for men only. We
wanted to ensure that all women in Mangalore are home by 7 pm.”

“You think the boys didn’t know what they were getting into. They did
it in broad daylight, before TV cameras. Don’t you think every girl
will now think twice before entering a pub? The strategy was a
success,” says Valke.

The worse that can happen now is for some liberal sections to get
together and start crowding the pubs, or rather start a "pub bharo
andolan". This will again make the entire debate lose its substance.

The issue is not pubs; the issue is the attempt to control women. The
issue is the commoditization of women.

Liberal politicians in India are also quaking at the turn of events,
and they cannot take a clear stand because they too fear the rise of
the RSS-BJP and the Hindutva. They are talking about Mangalore
incident as if it has to do with pubs. No one is recalling hundreds of
such incidents that happen in big and small cities all the time.
Hindutva elements armed with trishuls and lathis are known to beat up
boys and blacken the faces of girls sitting in parks in every town.

There is much debate about banning Lord Ram's Army but none about the
rest of the superstructure created in the name of Hindutva. The burden
of upholding tradition and cultural values is being put exclusively on
the shoulders of women, so that men can calmly enjoy their drink.

Hindu culture is not getting harmed due to rape of women, assault on
Dalits, honor killings, dowry deaths and caste panchayats banishing
people from villages if they marry outside their community. It gets
harmed only when a girl is seen in a pub. If her brothers go to the
pub next door, get drunk, and beat up a women, shouting Sri Ram Sena
Ki Jai, they will be saving Hindu culture. On their way back, they can
bring a bottle along to save more Hindu culture by hurling some choice
abuses about their mothers, sisters etc and beating up their wives.

Those who have any sense of religion should stand up for Lord Ram.
Otherwise Sri Ram Sena will keep recruiting the Lord into missions
that involve beating up women. It is time to move ahead; it was a long
time ago that Sita was asked to get out of the house because it was a
matter of honour. The honour now lies in resisting anyone telling Sita
to get out

Where in India did you see a concerted intellectual attack in the
popular media on elements who beat up young men and women and break
shop windows on St Valentine Day? On that day, no army of Sri Ram goes
attacking the liquor shops. Red balloons and chocolates and messages
of love threaten Hindu culture so much.

The primitive patriarchal mindset that advocates control over women is
at play here. It is this mindset that the Gurbani stands against. It
talks of women as equal. It talks of human beings as equal. It talks
against discrimination on the bases of caste or gender. It places
women on a higher pedestal than men, because it was necessary to send
such a message to mankind where men were perceived as superior beings
because of their gender.

But how could India's brahamanical forces gulp such an ideology that
could have unshackled vast sections of humanity and put it outside the
domain of brahamanical controls. Now that, thanks to liberal economic
progress, more women are getting educated, becoming economically
independent and gaining the confidence to make their own choices, a
process that has extended now to even smaller towns and cities, that
India's in-house centuries old version of the Taliban feels
emasculated. They have lost control.

So the Sri Ram Sena is out in the fields, in its many avataars. The
idea is to ensure continuous control.

The Sri Rama Sene is a fringe element. But lurking under the skin of
many men, irrespective of caste or community, is a similar view of
what women should and should not do. Men fear women’s autonomy, for,
it challenges their power. And they fear women’s sexuality even more.
Hence, the desire of fundamentalists of all types to control women’s
sexuality.

With the changes taking place in Indian society, both economic and
social, we are likely to see more such Senas claiming to speak in the
name of “culture” — Hindu, Indian or even regional, such as Raj
Thackeray’s grand plan to preserve “Marathi” culture. Their tactics
are identical — plan an attack on people who cannot hit back, take a
television camera crew with you, and use the media to amplify your
message.

Indian politicians are afraid of speaking out. They are demanding a
ban on Sri Ram Sena. But they are not speaking about this politics of
control. Their defence is that they don't want to offend anyone’s
cultural sensibilities. The reality is that they don’t want to lose
the conservative vote bank. This bank is huge because even though the
RSS does not rule all the states, its cultural agenda has succeeded in
most of India.

If women’s status is a litmus test of the maturity of a society, India
has failed it badly. There is a persistent agenda of pushing women
back to domesticity. It is time for them to declare that they shall
not be cowed down, that both men and women should be making chapatis,
and both can enjoy their evening stroll in the park. As for visiting
the pub, our suggestion to women is to hit back hard, much harder, by
choosing not to visit the pub. Visit the library instead, engage with
the debate on women’s issues. Form women’s groups that discuss the
rise of Hindutva. Stage street plays in front of the pubs about Sri
Ram Sena’s agenda. Participate in laughter championships with the joke
that ridicules the patriarchal notions most. Hit back with radio
talks, TV programs, village youth groups, discussions on the women’s
issues and notions of equality after path of Sukhmani Sahib, lectures
in gurdwaras about Gurbani’s message for those who want to see women
as a commodity, seminars on honor killings, and economics of liquor in
the country.


And of course we have some advice for the men also: go join the women
and listen to the seminar. Do not be found sitting in the pub when the
society moves ahead and leaves garbage like this Sena far behind.
Otherwise the pubs will reduce you into such vegetables which cannot
even react when just a couple of dozen youth beat up young girls.

Those who have any sense of religion should stand up for Lord Ram.
Otherwise Sri Ram Sena will keep recruiting the Lord into missions
that involve beating up women. It is time to move ahead; it was a long
time ago that Sita was asked to get out of the house because it was a
matter of honour. The honour now lies in resisting anyone telling Sita
to get out.

11 February 2009

Sid Harth

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Oct 7, 2009, 10:24:36 AM10/7/09
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http://www.google.com/url?sa=X&q=http://www.ptinews.com/news/318906_BJP-leader-Swami-Raghvanand-resigns&ct=ga&cd=jrosC4Aea2A&usg=AFQjCNF-jlnJDM4AnzGE_TJScAcitOGe3Q

BJP leader Swami Raghvanand resigns
STAFF WRITER 17:37 HRS IST

Jind, Oct 7 (PTI) BJP Vice President Swami Raghvanand, who is also
party's nominee from Jind, has resigned from the party and announced
his decision to quit politics "due to its low standard".

Associated with the BJP for the last 15 years, he made his
announcement to quit politics at Pandu Pandara village in the district
yesterday. "I have sent my resignation to the BJP President Rajnath
Singh," he said adding that he will not enter politics again.

He said that he was fed up with the low standard of politics because
"selfish politicians have made politics a business."

He would not pursue his poll campaign and now he will work for the
upliftment of the poor, he added.

Raghvanand had unsuccessfully contested the Lok Sabha election in 2004
from the Hissar parliamentary seat as a BJP nominee.

Sid Harth

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Oct 7, 2009, 10:59:39 AM10/7/09
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Right watchman -

ANANTH KUMAR: Pluses: NCredited with the BJP's historic win in
Karnataka NRSS-ABVP background NLoyalty to ideology NStrong
articulation NIs an organisation man, Minuses: None / Photo: Bhanu
Prakash Chandra
BJP

The RSS has a short list to pick the next party president

By Vijaya Pushkarna

Who will succeed Rajnath Singh as BJP president? That is the hottest
question in the party and the Sangh parivar. RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat
said in August that there were more than 70 leaders to choose from. A
party leader in Delhi comments: “Finding a needle in a haystack will
be easier than finding the BJP’s next president. Our party is so rich
in talent.”

The walk to that office is not going to be easy, given the
contradictory requirements—national stature, Delhi experience and a
fresh face, under the age of 60. Says an RSS source: “Ideally, the new
president should come from outside Delhi. But the party urgently needs
to get back on track, and an outsider will take time to get his grip
over the party.”

The Sangh says there shall be no parallel power centres, as Rajnath
and L.K. Advani were. And the leader should be able to manoeuvre a
coalition, without diluting the BJP’s core agenda.

Sources rule out Arun Jaitley and Sushma Swaraj, as they are parallel
power centres. The Sangh wants them to focus on making the BJP a
strong opposition party.

Narendra Modi stood tall among the probables. He is a Hindutva
posterboy with strong articulation and organisational abilities. But
his larger-than-party stature and the anti-Modi sentiments of
coalition partners seem to have knocked him out.

Currently, the top contenders are Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister
Shivraj Singh Chouhan, party general secretaries Ananth Kumar and
Gopinath Munde, Maharashtra party president Nitin Gadkari, former
party president Venkaiah Naidu and former Goa CM Manohar Parrikar.

Chouhan’s image skyrocketed after his government was re-elected in
2008. His down to earth image and the fact that he has few foes within
the party are his main strengths. Other pluses: he is loyal to
ideology and has worked his way up from the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi
Parishad.

As chief minister, Chouhan has obliged many top BJP leaders. Sources
say those leaders have financial interests in Madhya Pradesh. People
close to them own mining leases in the state, and some are indirectly
patronising big contractors of irrigation and other projects. They
would not trouble Chouhan the way they did Rajnath.

Chouhan, 50, who has kept a mile away from controversy, has shied away
from taking decisions. He is not ambitious, and not confident on the
national scene. Like Rajnath, his spoken English skills are limited,
and he is not exactly charismatic.

Sources, however, say the low-profile Chouhan can be a president “who
can focus on the party without throwing his weight around, and
communicate with the Sangh”.

But won’t shifting Chouhan to Delhi affect the party’s government in
Madhya Pradesh? Sources say it will help the party instal a dynamic
chief minister who can rein in the bureaucracy, something Chouhan
could not do.

Munde’s Sangharsh Yatra across Vidarbha before the Lok Sabha polls
showed that he was the most loved BJP leader in Maharashtra today. All
his rallies drew massive crowds.

The 59-year-old OBC leader has tremendous stamina and can work and
travel tirelessly, says a party source. Munde was national vice-
president earlier and is national general secretary now, but lacks
national appeal. Rajnath’s profile was no better when he became
president. Many believed he had the “cow-belt appeal”.

But Munde’s equation with the RSS is just cordial. And it is to be
seen whether the BJP and the Sangh would overlook his outbursts and
subsequent resignation from party posts in 2008, citing the
“undemocratic functioning” of the BJP state unit.
Gadkari, 52, is an RSS-ABVP product. He is the BJP’s urban face in
Maharashtra, and is known for his relentless attacks on the ruling
Congress-NCP combine.

Gadkari believes in developmental politics. As PWD minister in the
Sena-BJP government, he implemented the Mumbai-Pune expressway
project, the first of its kind in India.

Says a party leader: “Gadkari has an amazing grasp of infrastructure
issues. He had conceived the idea of a third Mumbai (Mumbai, Navi
Mumbai and the Metropolitan Region that comprises parts of Thane and
Raigad). The Bandra-Worli sea link, too, was his brainchild. He also
has a grasp of globalisation and its effects and can articulate well
in Hindi and English.”

Gadkari has a fine rapport with the RSS. And he is a loyal worker who
does not believe in personality cults.

On the flipside, Gadkari lacks mass base. He has always been a member
of the Legislative Council; he has never contested a direct election.

“Moreover, Gadkari is inexperienced in national politics. His caste,
too, can be an issue. He is a Brahmin, and the BJP is no more a
Brahmin-Bania party,” says a BJP leader. Also, some people feel
Gadkari lacks stamina, as he is obese and diabetic.

Goa opposition leader Parrikar, 54, is known as Mr Clean. He led the
BJP’s growth in the multicultural state. “He is a Sangh man, yet he
steered well through Goa’s modern and vibrant culture, and the diverse
society. It is that kind of leadership the BJP needs now,” says a
party worker.

His IIT degree adds to Parrikar’s charm. With his ability to
articulate the Sangh’s ideology and reach out to the youth, he is seen
as a leader who can rejuvenate the BJP. However, his recent ‘rancid’
comments about Advani can harm his chances.

He reportedly said in an interview that Advani’s period was “more or
less over”, and he would be like a rancid pickle if he stays in active
politics.

Naidu, 60, is a tried and tested man for all seasons. He is admired
for his flair for articulating and stopping just in time. He has been
able to strike the fine balance between loyalty to Advani and not
ruffling feathers in the Rajnath camp.

Naidu is not a man of the masses. However, he scores with his ability
to smoothly carry a team of leaders as diverse as Jaitley and Sushma.
As president, he did not undertake many yatras, but tirelessly
travelled for party work.
Ananth Kumar, 50, seems to be sitting pretty. He played a vital role
in the BJP’s historic victory in the Karnataka Assembly elections last
year. The five-time MP started out on the RSS-ABVP path, and arrived
in the BJP. He became a national secretary 10 years ago.

Ananth was a cabinet minister in the Vajpayee government, and held
several portfolios. He demonstrated his ability to articulate the
BJP’s ideology recently, when he led the chorus for Jaswant Singh’s
expulsion.

Sources say Ananth will be able to hold the BJP’s national and
regional flocks together. Says a BJP leader: “After the Karnataka win,
his name came up as a rival for B.S. Yeddyurappa for the CM’s post.
But Ananth was content to be made the national general secretary.

"So, it is quite likely that he will lead the party without hankering
for other posts. That is the kind of leader who can ensure there are
no parallel power centres.”

RSS spokesperson Ram Madhav says the next BJP president should “have
ideological commitment and the ability to articulate it, the ability
to make the BJP a party with a difference and good communication with
the Sangh parivar, and be an out and out organisation man, under the
age of 60”. Ananth gets 10 on 10.
with Dnyanesh Jathar & Deepak Tiwari

chhotemianinshallah

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Oct 7, 2009, 6:17:16 PM10/7/09
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http://www.telegraphindia.com/1091008/jsp/nation/story_11587394.jsp

RSS noose tightens around BJP
NALIN VERMA

Patna, Oct. 7: The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh’s (RSS) decision to
choose Bihar as the venue for its first karyakari mandal (working
committee) conclave, to start from October 9, has raised eyebrows in
state’s political circles.

RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat and the top brass of the right-wing Hindu
outfit have already reached Rajgir, the venue for what the Sangh
Parivar mandarins describe as a “historic conclave”. The three-day
conclave will conclude on October 11 and will be attended by over 350
members, including general secretary Bahiyaji Joshi, said RSS
spokesman Manmohan Vaidya. The meeting agenda, Vaidya said, would be
internal security, terrorism, Naxalite threat and border disputes with
China and Pakistan.

However, Sangh Parivar sources said that the RSS had “chosen” Bihar as
it also had “Bihar-centric” agenda. It seems that the outfit’s top
brass believe that the “RSS ideology had weakened in Bihar despite the
BJP sharing power with Nitish Kumar-led JD(U) in the state”.

Sources add that the RSS was anxious, as the BJP had allegedly
forgotten issues such as infiltration of Bangladeshi nationals into
Kishenganj, Katihar, Purnea and Araria despite staying in power with
the Nitish government. The infiltration issue, ISI and cow slaughter
in seemanchal areas were topics close to BJP heart, before it joined
the Nitish-led government.

RSS ideologues are apparently not happy with Bihar BJP “toeing the
line of Nitish” and appeasing minorities and escalated ISI activities
on the India-Nepal and India-Bangladesh borders.

The Rajgir conclave is also being described as a fundamental shift in
RSS strategy. “RSS’s top decision-making body had granted autonomy to
the BJP to carrying forward its agenda. The RSS no longer finds the
BJP, dogged by indiscipline and infighting, capable to pursue the
Sangh’s policies,” said a source.

“Bal Apte, Ramlal, V. Satish and Saudan Singh will represent BJP in
the conclave,” said Vaidya. The RSS has not invited any senior BJP
leader from Bihar to participate in the proceedings.

“The RSS will have separate meetings with the Bihar BJP,” said Vaidya,
defending the action. He refused to comment on the issue further. RSS
sources said the outfit will evolve a formula to tighten the noose
around the Bihar BJP.

However, a section of BJP ministers and senior party leaders are
expected to attend the inaugural session on October 9.

“But, they will not be a part of the deliberations which will be a
close-door affair confined among the RSS top brass, besides Bal Apte,
Ramlal and Satish,” said the source.

Though the Nitish government provided security to the RSS chief on his
journey from Patna to Rajgir, the chief minister is believed to be
less enthusiastic about RSS choosing Bihar for its conclave.

Nitish apparently apprehends that the conclave might prove to be a
weapon in the hands of rivals Lalu Prasad and Ram Vilas Paswan to
pillory the NDA government for allowing the anti-minority outfit to
spread its tentacles here, a state that has seldom been a comfortable
with the right-wing philosophy.

chhotemianinshallah

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Oct 7, 2009, 6:43:50 PM10/7/09
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http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/07/world/asia/07india.html?_r=1

Memo From New Delhi
Politicians in India Turn Against One Another

Published: October 6, 2009
NEW DELHI — It is an all-too-familiar political story.

Mustafa Quraishi/Associated Press

Jaswant Singh, shown attending a book fair in New Delhi in August, was
expelled from the Bharatiya Janata Party of India after writing a book
that was complimentary toward the founder of Pakistan, Muhammad Ali
Jinnah.
First there was the electoral drubbing at the hands of a center-left
juggernaut. Next came the recriminations, with party leaders taking
nasty, public swipes at one another in dueling magazine articles, op-
ed articles and talk show appearances. Then came the agonizing debate:
should the party lurch rightward to consolidate its base, or rush
toward the center to attract moderate voters? And finally, the purge:
party members who do not make the ideological cut are cast out or
pushed aside.

If the script sounds familiar to those who have followed American
politics in the last year, this one is playing out in the majestic,
colonial-era halls of power in India’s capital, where the Bharatiya
Janata Party, or B.J.P., which seemed almost unstoppable when it swept
into power a decade ago, is at risk of slipping into irrelevance.

The descent of the B.J.P., India’s second-largest political party, has
once again raised a question that has pricked at the world’s most
populous democracy since its independence from Britain in 1947: Will
the country ever produce a true rival to the Congress Party, which has
governed for most of the last 62 years? And if it does not, what does
that mean for India’s democracy?

Its onetime winning formula, combining a muscular nationalism with pro-
market reforms and pledges of good government, fell flat in the face
of a revitalized Congress Party in parliamentary elections in May.

The bad news did not stop there, keeping India’s lively political
press gleefully busy with one scandal after another. The squabbling
reached its peak two months ago when the party expelled one of its
stalwarts, Jaswant Singh, for writing a book that lionized the founder
of Pakistan, Muhammad Ali Jinnah.

Since its release in August, Mr. Singh’s book, “Jinnah: India —
Partition — Independence,” has shaken the B.J.P. Mr. Singh was
summarily expelled from the party, and Gujarat, one of India’s
wealthiest states and a bastion of B.J.P. support, tried to ban his
book. Its main offense is that it does not blame Mr. Jinnah, the
founder of Pakistan, for the partition of British India in 1947, but
Jawaharlal Nehru, India’s first prime minister.

The battle over Mr. Singh’s book is merely the latest development in
what has been a grim political struggle for the soul of the party. The
party was once so successful that it seemed that the Hindu nationalist
fervor that brought it to the fore might transform the secular,
diverse nation that is modern India into one guided and dominated by a
single faith.

In the 1980s and ’90s the defiant pose of Hindu nationalism fit well
with the mood in India, which was tired of being seen as an
impoverished nation forever hobbled by experiments with socialism and
inept public administration. Hindutva, as the ideology was known,
cultivated a tougher image that matched India’s global aspirations.

If the Congress Party, which has governed India for much of its
history, gave India freedom, then the B.J.P. gave it self-respect in a
world accustomed to thinking of it in terms of human suffering.

But in the 21st century, India has become an emerging power whose
voice rumbles with growing authority. The old insecurities that drove
middle-class Hindus toward the B.J.P. seem to have melted away.

To many political observers, the B.J.P. got precisely the defeat it
deserved. It failed, the argument goes, to present a coherent
alternative to the Congress Party, which had governed in a shaky
coalition with decidedly underwhelming results for five years.

In this context, what seems like an intramural squabble in a party
still nursing its wounds from a nasty whipping has much broader
consequences.

“We are going back into a period of Congress dominance,” said Prem
Shankar Jha, an analyst who writes frequently on politics. “But it is
an insecure dominance, which always leads to very bad governance.”

Ramachandra Guha, an Indian historian, said the B.J.P.’s implosion
made it nearly impossible for the party to play the much-needed role
of loyal opposition, keeping the governing party in line.

“Clearly we need some kind of robust alternative to the Congress,” Mr.
Guha said. “One does not want the Congress to acquire a sense of
invincibility.”

But if recent events are any guide, the B.J.P. is too busy with its
internal tussles to take on the governing party. Such battles have
served only to remind voters of the kinds of narrow causes the party
has championed in the past, often with tragic results.

One is its support for the reconstruction of a temple at the site in
the state of Uttar Pradesh that Hindu nationalists believe to be the
birthplace of Ram. In 1992, rampaging Hindu mobs destroyed a mosque
that had been built there, and spasms of religious violence
reverberated in India for years afterward, culminating a decade later
in riots in Gujarat that killed more than 1,000 people, most of them
Muslims.

While such issues fire up the party’s base of militant, upper-caste
Hindus, they have over the years alienated many voters from the
party.

“Middle-class voters seemed embarrassed that in the 21st century they
should be asked to debate India’s future on the basis of a dispute
over a medieval mosque,” Vir Sanghvi, a columnist for The Hindustan
Times, wrote this summer.

The Congress Party’s huge victory in parliamentary elections in May
was celebrated as a chance to end the fractious era of messy coalition
politics that had held back major reforms.

But in the past, long periods of virtually unchallenged Congress rule
have not been particularly kind to India. It is no coincidence,
analysts say, that India’s rise as a global economic powerhouse really
took off as the B.J.P. became a viable national alternative to
Congress.

In a speech to the party faithful after the electoral defeat, the
Bharatiya Janata Party’s candidate for prime minister, the
octogenarian L.K. Advani, was almost valedictory, saying that his
party, whatever its failures, had broken the Congress’s lock on
national power.

“In the last two decades the B.J.P. has succeeded in transforming this
single dominant party polity into a bipolar polity,” he said.

Sudheendra Kulkarni, a senior party member who quit the B.J.P. after
the flap over the Jinnah book, said the party had fallen flat because
it misread voters. It is less clear where the party goes now.

“We focused on negatives when the people wanted a positive, superior
agenda for governance and development,” he said. “People want India to
grow steadily on this path, with no disturbances and no turmoil.”

bademiyansubhanallah

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Oct 8, 2009, 5:20:21 AM10/8/09
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http://www.ptinews.com/news/319994_Advani-will-not-be-BJP-leader-in-2014-polls--Naidu

Advani will not be BJP leader in 2014 polls: Naidu
STAFF WRITER 11:0 HRS IST

New Delhi, Oct 8 (PTI) Former BJP President M Venkaiah Naidu has said
the party will not contest the next Lok Sabha elections under the
leadership of L K Advani and agreed that it would be logical for the
party to get a new leadership at that juncture.

"Advani is not going to contest the next elections. We are not going
to fight the next elections under his leadership. Next general
elections are going to happen when...

you know (2014)," Naidu told Karan Thapar's Devil Advocate programme
on CNN-IBN.

He was replying to a question on whether BJP would contest the next
general elections under Advani's leadership, who would be 87 years old
in 2014.

He agreed it sounded logical that in such a scenario BJP would need a
new leader and for this the change of guard would have to take place
couple of years before the polls.

chhotemianinshallah

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Oct 8, 2009, 6:19:35 PM10/8/09
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http://www.telegraphindia.com/1091009/jsp/nation/story_11594706.jsp

‘Loyalist’ Venkaiah thickens Advani quit plot
OUR SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

Advani at Faridabad. (PTI)

New Delhi, Oct. 8: L.K. Advani “loyalist” M. Venkaiah Naidu has
indicated that Advani will quit as leader of the Opposition at a time
of his choosing, and will also select his successor.

Nobody was sure if Naidu, a former BJP president, had spoken on his
own or had been “put up” to the job. Naidu is part of the quartet of
Advani “loyalists” that includes Arun Jaitley, Sushma Swaraj and
Ananth Kumar.

Sources said the four were “pragmatic” in their own way. They had been
critical of Advani in the past, especially when they felt the tide
turning against him on a particular issue, such as his praise of
Mohammed Ali Jinnah in 2005.

In an interview with Karan Thapar on Devil’s Advocate, to be telecast
over the weekend, Naidu was quoted as saying Advani would not contest
the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, nor would he lead the BJP into that
election. Parts of the interview were put out on the CNN-IBN TV
website.

Outlining a road map for the BJP that departed a bit from the one
unveiled by RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat, Naidu said it was “logical” that
the party would need a new leader by 2014, and a change of guard would
therefore take place a couple of years before that.

Bhagwat, in a recent TV interview, had made two points on Advani.

One, the RSS had not asked him to quit as leader of the Opposition
after the BJP’s election defeat, nor had it told him to withdraw his
resignation. Both were Advani’s own decisions. Two, the BJP should
bring about a generation change at all levels; it was up to the party
itself to decide when and how.

The BJP’s understanding was that the RSS would want Advani to step
down simultaneously with Rajnath Singh. Rajnath is to make way for a
new party president in December this year.

Venkaiah Naidu

Naidu’s assertions, however, have again confused the party. Some
believe that Advani will continue till the end of this Lok Sabha’s
term unless the RSS intervenes.

Many expect Advani to still have the last laugh, given the perception
that the Sangh won’t push its wishes beyond a point. Definitely not
beyond getting BJP leaders to make barbed comments that were withdrawn
almost immediately, such as Manohar Parrikar’s apparent comparison of
Advani to a pickle gone bad.

Naidu said: “Whenever he (Advani) wants to make way for others, it is
his choice. Nobody has given him any deadline.”

He also claimed that Advani did not want to continue as leader of the
Opposition but had been persuaded by the party to remain.

“When you lose an election and that too for the second time, there
will be a certain amount of demoralisation, so we wanted him to guide
(us). The process of leadership change is a normal process. So when he
wants to choose a new leader, it will be announced by Advani.”

Naidu also hinted that action might be taken against Arun Shourie for
his remarks against Advani and Rajnath.

bademiyansubhanallah

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Oct 9, 2009, 4:06:53 AM10/9/09
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http://www.hindustantimes.com/RSS-national-executive-begins-at-Rajgir/H1-Article1-462987.aspx

RSS national executive begins at Rajgir

Press Trust Of India
Patna, October 09, 2009

First Published: 12:18 IST(9/10/2009)
Last Updated: 12:20 IST(9/10/2009)

BJP's debacle in the recent Lok Sabha elections and its internal
problems are expected to figure at a three-day executive committee
meet of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh beginning from Friday at
Rajgir.

RSS media in-charge Manmohan Vaidya said Leader of Opposition in Lok
Sabha LK Advani and BJP president Rajnath Singh would not attend the
meet, the first ever in Bihar.

The BJP would be represented by Bal Apte, Ramlal, V Satish and Saudan
Singh, he said. Asked whether RSS would have a separate meeting with
BJP leaders, he said no such meeting was scheduled.

The meeting would be attended by its chief Mohan Bhagwat and general
secretary Bahiyaji Joshi.

The executive committee would discuss terrorism, naxalism, border
dispute with Pakistan and China and drought, he said.

The RSS leader said the proposals related to internal security and
environment could be taken up during the meet. All organisations of
RSS' Vichar Parivar (ideological family) like BJP and Akhil Bharatiya
Vidyarthy Parishad (BJP's student wing) will discuss the year's
progress and plans, a senior RSS functionary said.

The meeting would review the expansion of the 'Shakhas' of RSS,
besides apolitical agenda on the ongoing 'Gau Gram Yatra' (campaign to
save the cows).

bademiyansubhanallah

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Oct 9, 2009, 4:34:09 PM10/9/09
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http://www.hindustantimes.com/RSS-sees-merit-in-Rahul-s-village-agenda/H1-Article1-463366.aspx

RSS sees merit in Rahul’s village agenda
Vikas Pathak, Hindustan Times
Rajgir, October 10, 2009

First Published: 00:36 IST(10/10/2009)
Last Updated: 00:39 IST(10/10/2009)

The BJP may have maintained that Rahul Gandhi’s visits to villagers’
homes are a just a farce, but the the party’s ideological mentor
Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) does not seem to think so.

While responding to a question on Rahul Gandhi’s village visits, RSS’
Akhil Bharatiya Prachar Pramukh Manmohan Vaidya said in Rajgir on
Friday: “Jo bhi gaaon ki baat kare, achhi baat hai (Whoever talks
about villages, it is a good thing).”

Vaidya was addressing media persons on the first day of the three-day
Akhil Bharatiya Karyakari Mandal (national working committee) meet of
the RSS. Contrast this with the BJP’s take on Rahul’s visits to Dalit
homes in Uttar Pradesh.

BJP spokesperson Ravi Shankar Prasad said days back: “Before going to
the homes of Dalits and the village poor, Rahul Gandhi should ask his
mummy and Manmohan Singh to contain food inflation that is hitting the
rural poor hard.”

Vaidya said village-centric development was a prime subject on the
agenda of the present RSS meet, apart from national security.

“Migration from villages has to be stopped. Development should be
defined in a village-centric manner,” he told HT at the meeting venue
Saraswati Vidya Mandir, four kilometres from Rajgir, a small Bihar
town 110 km south-east of Patna.

He also disagreed with the idea that urbanisation is a necessary part
of a country’s development. “This is a western notion of development
that has created environmental problems due to obsession with
industrial growth. We have to shift to a Bharatiya way of life, which
is village-centric and environment-friendly. Environment is also a
crucial area to be discussed at this meet.”

The RSS has launched a Gau Gram Yatra that will visit lakhs of
villages with the message of rural dvelopement and cow protection.

While half the world population is urban, the figure for India was 27
per cent in the 2001 census. 75 per cent of the population of
developed countries is urban, leading to the idea that urbanisation –
and industrialisation—are central to development.

chhotemianinshallah

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Oct 10, 2009, 6:16:26 AM10/10/09
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http://www.ptinews.com/news/324258_Advani-says-he-dreams-of--grand--Ram-temple

Advani says he dreams of 'grand' Ram temple
STAFF WRITER 14:43 HRS IST

Navi Mumbai, Oct 10 (PTI) Despite the Hindutva issue failing to cut
much ice during the Lok Sabha (Lower House of Indian Parliament)
elections, senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader L K Advani has
renewed his commitment to build a grand Ram Temple at Ayodhya in north
India.

"It is my cherished dream to have a 'bhavya' (grand) Ram Mandir at
Ayodhya," the former Deputy Prime Minister said, addressing an
election rally in this west Indian city on Friday night.

Advani's statement was greeted with applause by the gathering which
came to hear him campaign for Shiv Sena- BJP alliance candidates
Suresh Haware (Belapur) and Vijay Chougule (Airoli) for the October 13
Assembly polls.

During his visit to the Somnath temple last month, Advani had said he
would keep visiting the temple till the Ram Mandir is built in
Ayodhya.

Sid Harth

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Oct 10, 2009, 9:54:18 AM10/10/09
to
http://countercurrents.org/puniyani071009.htm

RSS And Minorities

By Ram Puniyani

07 October, 2009
www.Countercurrents.org

The new RSS Sarsanghchalak, Mr. Mohan Bhagawat told Minorities (Sept
20, 2009) that they should join RSS and see that ‘our intentions are
clear and our behavior is good’. As per him all Muslims in India were
Hindus in the past. They have only changed their way of worship, and
if they accept this fact there will be no clashes. He told Christians
that they should not convert people, as that creates communal
violence.

Mr. Bhagwat is partly correct in saying that Muslims have Hindu
ancestry. Islam spread in India, by various ways, major being the
attempt of Shudras to escape the tyranny of Landlord Brahmin, to quote
Swami Vivekananda, "Why amongst the poor of India so many are
Mohammedans? It is nonsense to say that they were converted by the
sword. It was to gain liberty from Zamindars and
Priests..." (Collected Works-Vol 8-Page330). These conversions took
place as dalits were not permitted to enter temples so they were
visiting the shrines of Sufi saints and under the influence of the
Humanistic aspect of Islam they took to Islam. There were other
reasons like, anticipation of reward, interaction with Muslims, the
least important factor being fear of Muslim kings. So he is partly
right that most Muslims have local ancestry.

But is the change of religion mere change of mode of worship or is it
a total change in religious belief system? We do recognize that
syncretic traditions of Hinduism and Islam have drawn a lot from each
other. But as far as Holy book, belief in one God, Allah, belief in
Mohammad as the prophet, this is not just a change in mode of worship,
it is much broader than that.

So, are there clashes because Muslims deny their ancestry, and
culture. By no means! As far as culture is concerned for the extremist
elements, for the clergy and for those using religion for politics,
the culture is just a subset of elitist version of their religion. For
average people culture is a broad category, it is affected by regional
factors and by some aspects of religion. A large population of Muslims
and Hindus both regarded culture as a meeting and mixing point, while
elite traditions look down upon the culture of the ‘other’. In India
Muslims and Hindus did live in peace, creating different facets of
culture, Music, Poetry, clothes and food habits, architecture and
religious traditions. We see Ustad Bismillah Khan creating his
wonderful work, devoted to Hindu gods and goddesses while sitting on
the pavements of Kashi temples, we see Rahim and Raskhan writing
beautiful poetry in devotion of Lord Krishna, we see people taking to
jalebi,
Biryani and other food items coming from Iran and other places from
where Muslims came. We also see the intermixing in the customs,
festivals. To delineate a Hindu and Muslim component of our culture
was difficult at a point of time. We have the lovely tradition of
people from both religions following the teachings of Ramdeo Baba Pir
and Satya Pir. We have that great Saint Kabir who was loved by both
Muslim and Hindus.

The problem begins with the communal historiography, looking at
History through the prism of religion, introduced by British to pursue
the policy of divide and rule. This version was picked up by the
communal streams of Muslim League and Hindu Mahasabha-RSS, and aided
in the communalization of society and rise of communal violence, more
so from the decade of 1940s. To think that clashes are there because
Muslims deny their common ancestry is wrong. Also Islam is a religion
with its own spirituality and to reduce any religion to just a mode of
worship is not correct. In post Independence India the clashes were
brewed by this communal thinking, by political motivations not because
of religions. Those who deny that Sufis are a part of Indian culture,
or Urdu is and Indian language or that the contributions of Muslim
Kings, poets, artisans, are the one’s who have created divisiveness
leading to clashes. Those who deny that Bhakti tradition was part of
tradition which was respected by a section of Muslims, or that
celebrating Holi, Divali or Muharram and Id is part of Indian culture
are the cause of the political thinking which leads to clashes.

Coming to Christians, it is not they came here with the British.
Christian community in India is over 1500 years old. While their may
be some aggressive proselytizers, mainly the conversions take place
because of social interaction and genuine charity work. If conversions
were a forced phenomenon, how to explain that there are merely 2.30%
Christians in India toady? How do we explain that during last four
decades the all India percentage of Christians has fallen down,
1971-2.60%, 1981-2.44%, 1991-2.34% and 2001-2.30%? One concedes that
some dalits taking to Christianity may not be getting registered as
Christians to keep availing the job reservations, but surely this
cannot tilt the population percentage to a very great extent.

Wadhva Commission, which investigated the burning of Pastor Graham
Stains by Bajrang Dal’s Dara Sing and is facing the jail term for
that, concluded that Pastor Stains was not involved in any work of
conversions and that the percentage of Christians in Keonjhar of
Manoharpur district in Orissa, did not go up. Even recently the anti
Christian violence was launched on the pretext of murder of Swami
Laxmananand. It was a clear pretext to scare the Christian
missionaries away from the Adivasi areas, where they are involved in
the work of education and health care of Adivasis, something which
empowers Adivasis. It was a clear pretext as Maoists had owned the
murder of Swami.

Most of the organizations at the core of communal politics are manned
on one side by Muslim Communalists and on the other by the RSS trained
swayamsevaks working and controlling BJP, VHP, Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram
or Bajrang Dal. Minorities want a safety, and freedom to follow their
own religion. Indian Constitution does give us the liberty to practice
and preach our own religion. Also RSS is not the representative of
Hindus at large. We have diverse traditions of Hinduism ranging from
the one of Gandhi to the other ones which are like those of Bajrang
dal etc.

RSS has tried to co-opt and win over sections of minorities for
enhancing its agenda. RSS progeny BJP keeps doing it, trying to win
minorities, so often for electoral purpose. But over all the
minorities have experienced at heavy cost of loosing lives, that RSS
is like a wolf trying to put on sheep’s clothing. It is unlikely that
after what has been done by its pracharks, Swayamsevaks through its
progeny, Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram, Bajrang Dal and vishwa Hindu Parsishad
etc. that minorities can ever be fooled by the language being used by
Mr. Bhagwat. By now it is also well known that the second
Sarsanghchalak of RSS, M. S. Golwalkar had ordained that minorities
“the non-Hindu people in Hindustan must either adopt the Hindu culture
and language, must learn to respect and revere Hindu religion, must
entertain no idea but the glorification of Hindu nation i.e. they must
not only give up their attitude of intolerance and ingratitude towards
this land and
its age old traditions, but must also cultivate the positive attitude
of love and devotion instead; in one word, they must cease to be
foreigners or may stay in this country wholly subordinated to the
Hindu Nation claiming nothing, deserving no privileges far less any
preferential treatment, not even citizen’s rights.(We or our
Nationhood Defined, 1938, p. 27)

RSS is no representative of Hindus. It stands for values which are
opposed to the human rights of weaker sections of society, Dalits,
workers, adivasis, women and minorities. It stands for values of birth
based hierarchy of caste and gender as ordained in Manu Smriti. Its
primary goal is to establish Hindu nation, i.e. nation with primacy of
Hindu elite men, rather than the nation envisaged by the Indian people
during the freedom movement, the values which are an amalgam of the
principles of Bhagat Singh, Ambedkar and Gandhi. One wishes RSS rather
than deceiving others, learns the lessons of freedom movement and
makes Gandhi’s Hinduism as its base rather than pursuing Godse’s
Hinduism. One knows this is a practical impossibility as RSS is the
organization of those who are not elected beings; they are self-
appointed guardians of Brahmanical Hinduism, who neither represent
Hindus nor the Humanistic aspects of Hinduism. Let’s wish RSS clan can
be retrained to think as Indians rather than just as Hindus with
Brahmanical values!

bademiyansubhanallah

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Oct 10, 2009, 1:59:11 PM10/10/09
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http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/vadodara/MSU-teachers-protest-enters-fourth-day/articleshow/5110574.cms

MSU teachers' protest enters fourth day
TNN 10 October 2009, 10:46pm IST

VADODARA/ANAND: Agitation by teacher associations of MS University
against state government's GR on implementation of Sixth Pay
Commission continued on fourth day as well. While Baroda University
Teachers Association (BUTA) submitted a memorandum to Governor SC
Jamir, Maharaja Sayajirao Vishwavidyalaya Shaikshik Sangh (MSVSS) took
out a silent rally and formed a human chain. The teachers have decided
to take up their demands to all the local and state-level authorities
in order to pressurise the state government to revise pay scales as
per University Grants Commission's guidelines.

Teachers are demanding the state government reconsider the proposed
pay band and make it consistent with UGC's guidelines implemented in
many other states. They argue that pay scales offered by state
government are not as per UGC's scale.

Both BUTA and MSVSS have been organizing protests since Wednesday to
express disappointment over state government's GR on pay scale
revision. While BUTA had sent post cards signed with blood to Chief
Minister Narendra Modi on Friday, MSVSS formed a human chain the same
day outside university's campus at Sayajigunj. On Saturday, MSVSS
formed a similar chain near Nyayamandir.

"There is resentment among teaching community across the state. To
register our protest around 350 teachers formed a human chain and we
also took out a silent rally with placards and banners followed by a
signature campaign," said MSVSS general secretary professor BS
Chakrabarty.

MSVSS also submitted a memorandum to district collector Vijay Nehra
with a request to forward it to Modi. "We will meet vice-chancellor
Ramesh Goyal on Monday and as chairman of the syndicate, request him
to take up our cause with higher authorities," Chakrabarty added.

BUTA, on the other hand, has also submitted memorandum with signatures
of over 200 teachers to the Governor. Even members of Sardar Patel
University Teachers Association (SPUTA) is undertaking a signature
campaign in Vallabh Vidyanagar.

Bone of contention

* The basic pay plus grade pay of a lecturer at entry level as per UGC
should be Rs 23,000 but the state government is offering Rs 14, 700.

* Designation given by UGC of assistant professor and associate
professor has not been granted. GoG has violated UGC's guidelines by
not incorporating these changes.

* Reader's basic scale of Rs 37,400 has been abolished and instead
given to professors who should get Rs 43,000 as per UGC's guidelines.

* The GR also mentions that all teachers will be equivalent to
government employees and there exists ambiguity regarding retirement
age.

* Autonomy of all universities has also been taken away.

bademiyansubhanallah

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Oct 10, 2009, 2:13:25 PM10/10/09
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http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/india/I-sought-Modis-ouster-opposed-Advanis-Rathyatra-Jaswant/articleshow/5110160.cms

I sought Modi's ouster, opposed Advani's Rathyatra: Jaswant
PTI 10 October 2009, 05:46pm IST

HYDERABAD: Expelled BJP leader Jaswant Singh on Saturday said he had
sought removal of Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi after the post-
Godhra communal riots and even opposed L K Advani's 'Ram Rathyatra'.

"I had condemned the Gujarat riots along with Atal ji (former PM Atal
Bihari Vajpayee) so that the chief minister Narendra Modi was
removed," Singh said at a Meet-the-Press programme of Andhra Pradesh
Union of Working Journalists (APUWJ) here.

Replying to a query over the issue of Babri Masjid demolition in 1992,
Singh said he had even opposed the 'Rathyatra' of L K Advani.

"At the national executive meeting, I was the only person to have
opposed the Rathyatra explaining the repercussions it would have," he
said.

"I was the lone member in the National Executive to have voted against
the Rathyatra, but what my lone voice could have achieved," Singh, who
was in the city to launch his controversial book 'Jinnah-India,
Partition, Independence', said.

chhotemianinshallah

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Oct 10, 2009, 6:10:19 PM10/10/09
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http://www.dnaindia.com/india/column_amar-singh-makes-a-move_1297504

Amar Singh makes a move
Sunday, October 11, 2009 2:55 IST

They say there's no smoke without fire. Is something burning then in
the Samajwadi Party? Read Jaya Pradha's lips to answer that question.
The SP's actress-turned-MP lobbed a bombshell the other day when she
praised Rahul Gandhi and expressed a fervent desire to see him as
prime minister of India one day.

``He (Rahul) is working hard to understand the ground realities and
problems of the people. We would like to see him as PM,'' she was
quoted as saying. Now, everyone knows that Jaya Pradha doesn't even
sneeze without permission from the SP's celebrity politician and her
mentor, Amar Singh. Her party colleagues believe that she wouldn't
have dared praise Rahul unless she got a signal from him. It suggests
that all is not well between Amar Singh and Mulayam Singh and the
former may be shopping for alternatives.

With the SP becoming a family affair, Amar Singh must be feeling quite
left out. Mulayam's son Akhilesh has already taken charge in Uttar
Pradesh and now his daughter-in-law Dimple is making her first foray
into politics by contesting the bye-election for the Firozabad Lok
Sabha seat that Akhilesh vacated. Jaya Pradha's surprise comment could
well be a trial balloon floated by Amar Singh, either as a warning to
Mulayam or as part of a quest for life beyond the SP.

***
It looks like the RSS is back to square one in the hunt for a
successor to Rajnath Singh for the post of BJP president. Its most
favoured horse, former Goa chief minister Manohar Parrikar, seems to
have blotted his copybook by comparing L K Advani to rancid pickle.
While the Sangh bosses want to keep up pressure on Advani to step down
from the post of Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha by the end of
the year, they goggled at Parrikar's hyperbolic choice of metaphor.

Rancid pickle can be difficult to digest! Not much information
trickles out from behind the iron curtain that surrounds the RSS but
the political grapevine in Madhya Pradesh is buzzing with reports that
state chief minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan is once again a frontrunner
to take over from Rajnath. Chauhan is said to be resisting feelers
from the RSS because he doesn't want to move from Bhopal.

Delhi's murky politics can be intimidating for a small town boy. As
for Rajnath, he is lobbying hard to stay on in Delhi in any which post
he can get. Deputy leader of opposition in the Lok Sabha would do just
fine, even if it means having to work under Sushma Swaraj who is
widely believed to succeed Advani if and when he relinquishes the
position.
** *

TAILPIECE

Considering that the finance ministry will soon begin preparatory work
on next year's budget, it's strange that the government still hasn't
got down to appointing a successor to Arvind Virmani, chief economic
advisor. Virmani is slated to leave shortly for Washington to take
over as India's executive director at the International Monetary
Fund.

Manmohan Singh is believed to have sounded out Kaushik Basu, an Indian
professor at Cornell University, for the job but talk in North Block
is that Pranab Mukherjee hasn't made up his mind whether to accept a
PMO nominee or appoint someone of his choice. After all, the chief
economic advisor has to work closely with the finance minister.

bademiyansubhanallah

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Chidambaram gets RSS pat for keeping heat on Naxals
TNN 11 October 2009, 05:02am IST

NEW DELHI: BJP may feel that the government has run out of ideas in
tackling Naxalism, but the RSS feels otherwise. In a statement that
may embarrass BJP, the RSS has soundly backed home minister P
Chidambaram’s initiative to take on the Red ultras.

Blog: Support Chidambaram's war

RSS leader Madan Das Devi said that RSS shared the home minister’s
view that Naxalism was a major national security threat, and perhaps
more significantly, endorsed Chidambaram’s steps to counter Left-wing
extremism. “We are satisfied with the steps taken by Chidambaram to
counter the problem,” he said.

Devi was speaking to media at RSS meeting being held in Bihar where he
said RSS emphasised the need to keep the morale of security forces
fighting Maoists high. “We appreciate and share the views of the home
minister on tackling the Naxal menace by ensuring greater coordination
between states,” said Devi who would be well aware BJP was in power in
many Maoist-hit states.

The RSS approval may well be embarrassing for Chidambaram as well — he
was quick to distance the home ministry from Centre’s affadavit in
Ishrat Jahan case — but BJP might now face questions over its own
position on government’s initiative. For its part, Centre is likely to
duck RSS “support” as there is little to object in it.

The RSS’s backing is in keeping with the organisation’s claim that it
would back a move like action against Naxalism as this was in sync
with its own beliefs.

chhotemianinshallah

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Oct 11, 2009, 8:01:34 AM10/11/09
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http://www.mainstreamweekly.net/article1695.html

Mainstream, Vol XLVII, No 43, October 10, 2009

The Withering Lotus
Sunday 11 October 2009, by S.K. Dutta

The way things are happening in the BJP it seems it’s heading towards
the doomsday. Two election debacles have had a catastrophic affect on
the party. The unexpected defeat in 2004 and the near washout in the
2009 Lok Sabha polls have taken a heavy toll on the party and the BJP
today seems to be a party which is rudderless.

For finding out as to what has gone wrong with the BJP one has to look
at it very deeply. The problem with the party today is that it is not
headed by a single centre but is controlled by many centres. The
National President of the party, its seems, has no control over it.
Every passing day we find one or the other of the second-line leaders
within the party shooting his or her mouth off with some controversial
remarks in front of the media thereby creating more and more problems
for the party and its extended parivar.

Since the day Rajnath Singh was made the President the party has
become directionless. Perhaps the biggest mistake of the RSS was to
make Rajnath Singh the National President as it appears that the post
of the President of the BJP has turned out to be too big a shoe for
Singh to manage. Singh as a leader even today doesn’t have a pan-
Indian identity or a pan-Indian vision. His biggest problem is his
typical North Indian Thakur tag which perhaps has made his tenure so
controversial and eventless. A big problem of the BJP President is
that he has no control over his colleagues as most of them are of his
age or of the same experience and many of them are elder to him with
years of experience in politics.¨

The BJP today has many if not at least two power centres, one of L.K.
Advani and the weaker one of Rajnath Singh, both of which are at
loggerheads with each other. This has had a cascading effect on the
downfall of the BJP; but it has also made the whole of the NDA a very
weak and discredited lot. If the Sangh Parivar and the NDA leadership
don’t take immediate corrective measures the whole of the BJP and NDA
might crumble like a house of cards which would be detrimental to
Indian politics and Indian democracy in the long run as for a healthy
democracy and an accountable government at the Centre it is very
important to have a strong Opposition.

Advani should have gracefully retired from national politics the
moment the Indian masses rejected him as the new Prime Minister after
the 2009 Lok Sabha polls. But perhaps no one except Advani would know
as to why he didn’t gracefully retire like Vajpayee after the poll
defeat. The biggest mistake on part of the BJP in the 2009 elections
was its negative agenda and its personal slander campaign. Its was the
biggest political blunder on the part of Advani to call Dr Manmohan
Singh a night watchman; it didn’t go down well with the Indian
electorate, specially the youth.

The Jaswant Singh episode in the BJP once again proves that in the
Sangh Parivar there is no place for saner voices and liberal thoughts.
Whether Jinnah was solely responsible for the partition of the country
or whether he was secular or not is a debatable issue but to expel a
stalwart from the BJP only because he had a different viewpoint in his
book smacks of all political decency and the so-called “Advani hand”
behind it makes Advani look very low in the eyes of the intellectuals.
If the Sangh and the BJP are so passionate about the preservation of
their hard-core ideology then why was no action taken against Advani
himself when he had first portrayed Jinnah as a secular man and then
sung paeans to him in Pakistan during the BJP leader’s last visit to
that country? Why was Advani not expelled then from the party? Two
sets of laws for two individuals for the same kind of offence no
longer works in Indian politics.

The biggest political duplicity and hypocrisy on the part of the BJP
since its seizure of power in 1998 has been to behave in a dual manner
when it came to its core ideological issues. Talking about the Ram
Mandir only to gain votes before the elections and then forgetting
about it after the elections and using the name of Lord Ram just for
votes has totally exposed the party before the Indian masses. Hard-
core supporters of the temple movement today find themselves cheated
by the Sangh Parivar. Its seems the curse of Lord Ram has befallen the
BJP. To rub salt to the hurt sentiments was the Jinnah episode of
Advani and the masses taught the party and Advani a proper lesson in
the 2009 elections by dumping them once and for all.

It’s time for the BJP and Sangh Parivar to understand their basic
flaws and plug the loopholes. In the present circumstances and the
situation which India is facing internally as well as in the midst of
the challenges it is encountering from outside, it is very important
to have a strong united Opposition party which should be effective
enough to pressurise the government as such. The BJP and NDA have to
place their house in order soon. One cannot expect any positive
contribution from the Indian Left at this juncture. Thus the role of
the BJP becomes more vital. The Sangh and Rajnath Singh have to
realise that the hard-core Hindutva ideology no longer pays in the
modern globalised India. The present generation is not attracted to
the khaki-nikkar vision of the Sangh. The Sangh has to change its
mindset; otherwise it would perish. As long as it advocates secular
nationalism that is fine with all but the moment it upholds a communal
form of nationalism, as projected by the Sangh, the problem arises.
This is what the Sangh has to realise.

If it does not realise this soon then what has befallen the BJP would
befall the Sangh tomorrow. After all, India is a nation of Ram and
Rahim, this is what the Sangh has to understand. Ramji will be happy
the moment the BJP understands this—perhaps that day Lord Ram will
free the Sangh Parivar from his divine curse.

The author is a well-known media personality, foreign affairs expert
and political analyst.

chhotemianinshallah

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Mainstream, Vol XLVII, No 43, October 10, 2009

Dr Mukerjee on Hindutva and Article 370
Sunday 11 October 2009, by Balraj Puri

The BJP chief, Rajnath Singh, and the RSS chief, Mohan Bhagwat,
reiterated the commitment of the two organisations to Hindutva and
abrogation of Article 370 which grants a special status to the Jammu
and Kashmir State. They were speaking at a function organised by Dr
Shyama Prasad Mukerjee Research Foundation at the University of Jammu
on the occasion of 57th death anniversary of the founder President of
the Bharatiya Jana Sangh, Dr Mukerjee, on June 23.

As far the concept of Hindutva is concerned, there was no clarity or
unanimity among the leaders of the BJP. Much of the internal debate
has been widely reported in the media. Sudheendra Kulkarni, whose
affinity with the BJP and its top leaders like Vajpayee and Advani is
well known, advised the party to keep away from Hindutva for the sake
of its own future growth. In his view, Hindutva had never been the
foundational ideological representation of the BJP and its
predecessor, the Jana Sangh.

He quotes from a revealing conversation between Dr Mukerjee and Vir
Savarkar who met on August 26, 1952. The former requested the latter
to bless the Jana Sangh. Savarkar wanted the philosophy of the Hindu
Mahasabha, that is, Hindutva, to be adopted by the Jana Sangh, which
Mukerjee declined to do.

The Jana Sangh had adopted “Integral Humanism”, as propounded by Deen
Dayal Upadhyaya, its “foremost ideologue and organiser”, as the
party’s guiding ideology, according to Kulkarni. He further adds:
“When the BJP was born it adopted Gandhian socialism as its ideology
and changed its flag from saffron to add a green patch to it, perhaps
as an overture to the minorities.” Vajpayee, he says, never used word
Hindutva.

M.G. Vaidya, the senior RSS ideologue, asked the BJP to quit the
Hindutva agenda, so that it could win back its former allies like
Trinamul Congress, Biju Janata Dal, Telugu Desam and AIADMK.

Striking a via media, Advani defined Hindutva as a way of life and not
a religion and was inclusive and respected all faiths alike.

However, the wisdom of launching the Hindutva offensive at Jammu is
questionable. The BJP’s predecessor, the Jana Sangh, had launched its
first popular movement in the country from Jammu in 1952 and led a
very popular mass agitation over the Amarnath shrine land row last
year. Yet it could not get majority in the State Assembly election and
lost both seats of the Lok Sabha from the region because Muslims, who
constitute a decisive vote-bank in Jammu, did not respond to the
Hindutva appeal.¨

A more relevant issue for the State, raised on Mukerjee’s martyrdom
day, was the claim of the RSS leader that “he (Mukerjee) laid down his
life to oppose the theory of two constitutions, two flags and two
heads of state within one nation” (which were agreed upon under the
Delhi Agreement between the Indian Prime Minister and the Kashmir
leader, Sheikh Abdullah, in 1952).

This claim is factually not correct. No doubt that the Jana Sangh came
to Jammu to support the movement of the Praja Parishad for this
objective. But after a prolonged correspondence with the then Prime
Minister Nehru extending for two months of January and February 1953,
and considering the arguments of Nehru, Mukerjee, in his letter to
Nehru dated February 17, 1953, offered to withdraw the agitation and
support the Delhi Agreement, which “should be implemented in the next
session of J&K Constituent Assembly”. He further suggested that “both
parties reiterate that the unity of the state will be maintained and
that the principle of autonomy will apply to the province of Jammu and
of course to Ladakh and the Kashmir Valley”.

This was precisely the formula that I was able to persuade Nehru and
Abdullah to agree to and they announced it at a joint press conference
on July 24, 1952. The unfortunate and untimely death of Mukerjee on
June 23, 1953 only hastened the process of implementation of the offer
made to Nehru. The leaders of the Praja Parishad agitation were
released on July 1 and invited to Delhi and on July 3, they met Nehru
where they agreed to the offer of regional autonomy made by Nehru and
to withdrew their agitation. Meanwhile a 45-page draft on Regional
Autonomy was sent by the State Government to the underground leader of
the Praja Parishad agitation, Durga Dass Varma, and he returned it
after approval of the party experts. There might have been no Kashmir
problem and further complications added to it if the agreement between
Nehru, Abdullah and Mukerjee on autonomy of the State within India and
of the regions within the State had been implemented.

Many months later, the Jana Sangh, under directions from Nagpur (the
RSS headquarters), according to Jana Sangh leader Balraj Madhok,
withdrew support to the Delhi Agreement and regional autonomy. The
consequences of this volte-face are well known and, in any case,
cannot be gone into here.

The Jana Sangh, originally formed by hard-core Hindutva cadres, had
presentable faces in the personalities of Dr Mukerjee, Deen Dayal
Upadhyaya and Atal Behari Vajpayee who avioded hard-core slogans. Now
in the absence of presentable faces, revival of hard-core slogans
cannot ensure the emergence of the BJP as a viable force. n

The author is the Director, Institute of Jammu and Kashmir Affairs,
Jammu.

chhotemianinshallah

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Mainstream, Vol. XLVII, No 41, September 26, 2009

BJP etc.: The Death of Ideology
Saturday 26 September 2009, by T J S George

Power is the sole purpose of politics in India. Without power, parties
crumble. The implosion ripping the BJP apart shows how comprehensive
the crumbling can be. It is easy to say that the BJP’s self-destruct
is its internal affair. But there are two reasons why it should be
every Indian’s affair.

First, the BJP was the only national formation that rose to challenge
the Congress which inherited its all-India mantle from the
independence movement. For our nascent democracy, the two-party choice
was bad enough given the country’s size and diversity. It grew worse
when one of them developed into a family oligarchy and the other
pursued a communal divide-and-rule policy. The worst may happen now if
the challenger leaves the arena and the voter is left with a choice of
one. That will put us on par not with China but North Korea, for
though China has a one-party system, it has no family rule.

We would not have come to this pass if the Congress had accepted
Mahatma Gandhi’s advice and disbanded itself upon the attainment of
independence. That would have facilitated Jawaharlal Nehru leading a
progressive Centrist party and Sardar Patel a conservative platform.
Trade unionists and sundry radicals would have found their own Left-of-
Centre perch in such a dispensation, giving democracy a natural
environment to grow.

But Nehru saw himself as the one-size-fits-all Prime Minister, not
challengeable by competitors. So he kept potential challengers like
the Sardar under his wing and never allowed brother prog-ressives like
Jayaprakash Narayan, Rammanohar Lohia, Narendra Deva to grow under his
banyan tree. These great national leaders got frustrated and withered
away. It is specious to blame Nehru for the partition of India as
Jaswant Singh has made fashionable. With greater justification, he can
be held responsible for thwarting the development of a progressive
party in India and thereby making Indian democracy lopsided.

The second reason we should be concerned about the BJP’s plight is
that it underlines the collapse of ideology in Indian politics. The
Congress never had one. Nehruvian socialism was not an ideology, but a
policy. Even that was abandoned in due course. The Communists held on
for a while, but the temptations of parliamentary politics finally
overwhelmed them. Today the Polit-Bureau is thunderously ideological
but in Bengal and Kerala where the comrades practise what they do not
preach, communism has gone five-star, indistinguishable from
capitalism.¨

The BJP, too, fell victim to the politics of power and corruption.
Consider Karnataka. When the BJP won the last State elections, it
showed no qualms in taking renegades from other parties and rewarding
them with ministerships. No trace of ideology here, unless “Anything-
for-Power” is recognised as an ideology.

To its credit, the BJP has understood that the hardline Hindutva
ideology that gave it an initial momentum is no longer viable. It has
acknowledged Narendra Modi and the Gandhi boy from UP (who wanted to
cut off the hands of other religionists) as major vote-losers for the
party. The obvious solution is for the leadership to boldly adopt an
inclusive ideology treating all Indian citizens as equal. But they
have neither the guts nor the vision to do so. What they have is the
even more defeatist idea of the RSS “taking over” the BJP.
Interestingly, this idea came from Arun Shourie, the man who had
caused haemorrhage in the first place by projecting Narendra Modi as
the next Prime Minister. With leaders like this, the BJP needs no
ememies. If the party does not survive such negative thinking, it will
only vindicate P.V. Narasimha Rao’s pragmatism as expressed in his
novel, The Insider: “Elections in India are a choice, not of the best,
but of the least worthless.”

Sid Harth

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Sonia campaigns in Haryana, says NDA-rule discriminatory
PTI

Jhajjar (Haryana), October 11, 2009

UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi on Sunday said that while the Congress
ensured equitable and uniform development in all areas, the NDA rule
was biased against states ruled by her party.

In her 13-minute address to an election rally in Jhajjar on the last
day of campaigning in poll-bound Haryana, Sonia said that while the
BJP discriminated against the Congress-ruled states, the UPA
government at the Centre and the Congress government in Haryana
ensured a uniform development.

"During the BJP-led NDA rule, there had been drought in Rajasthan
while some other states were affected by flood, but they never helped
the states where Congress was in power," Sonia said.

"They (NDA) used to provide all help to their own people, but never
helped us. We never discriminated against any area," she added.

Noting that the budget in Haryana has witnessed a five-time increase
under Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda (from Rs 2300 crore during
INLD-BJP rule to over Rs 11,000 crore now), Sonia claimed that people
across the state have gained from it unlike in the past when only a
particular area or only selected few people reaped the benefits.

The Congress president earlier addressed a rally at Nuh in backward
Mewat district, which has a sizable Muslim population, on the last day
of campaigning for the October 13 polls in Haryana.

bademiyansubhanallah

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A Face Towel in Allahabad, 1984
(Published with the title, The Actor’s Studio, in Outlook, Volume
XLIX, No. 41, October 19, 2009.)

The late prime minister V.P. Singh’s memoir Manzilon se Zyaada Safar
has an interesting episode pertaining to Amitabh Bachchan’s political
baptism in Allahabad in 1984. The episode is not so much an event as
it is an image. An image, which by its very opacity, by its
presentation of a mask where we would normally expect to meet a face,
continues to exercise a certain strange power. V.P. Singh, who was at
that time the president of the UP state Congress party, recalls seeing
Bachchan (whom he did not know of, he says, as he did not watch films)
for the first time with his face “…covered in a towel”. Ever since I
have read this, I can no longer see Amitabh Bachchan, not even
retrospectively, without his face-towel on.

Rajiv Gandhi and his close advisors had decided that fielding Bachchan
in the Lok Sabha elections for the Allahabad seat was a winning
proposition. Bachchan was a friend, an Allahabad lad who had a
cathartic place on the national stage and a decisive influence on the
hairstyles and angst of millions.
Bachchan came to see V.P. Singh to discuss the impending election,
together with Arun Nehru, and covered his face with a towel, so as not
to be recognised. The superstar’s incognito entry into political life,
shielded by a towel, was the muted beginning of a new phase in the
relationship between politics and images, which would see more masks,
less faces. After all, the year was 1984. The peace that stunned us
all in the aftermath of the November pogrom of Sikhs in Delhi and the
industrial accident at Bhopal was a war. Truth was a lie. And what
could a well-known face be if it were not to be a mask.

Whether disguised, or in the spotlight, political actors (not all of
whom are ‘actor-politicians’) from that moment on in 1984, have been
masked men and women. The greater their claims to our attention, the
more crafty the fashioning of their enigmas. Some have masks made of
electronic gauze that flicker to life on prime-time television when
they are invoked by the babble of the charlatans also known as
anchors. Others have statuesque masks of stone and bronze. Some are a
grimace, others are a smile. Some masks are made up of seemingly rash
words, others of carefully weighed silences.

It has nowadays become commonplace to call politicians mukhotas or
masks that cover other more oblique, darker realities. The rancid
darkness behind masks can bridge the opaque backroom deal with the
visible spectacle and the performed massacre. The disturbing image of
a crowd wearing almost life-like Narendra Modi masks invokes a
dystopic vision of a cloned tyrant (waiting for a science-fiction film
called the ‘Boys from Gujarat’) whose power lies not in his distance
from those he rules over, but from the uncanny and intimate proximity
that is leveraged by his sinister ability to brand the faces of the
multitude with his own features, and by their desire to jettison their
own particularities in order to gain his grimace. When the electorate
dons the Modi mask, it can turn itself into a crowd that no longer has
the capacity to ‘lose face’ at the disasters meted out in its name.

So, what exactly did Amitabh Bachchan, Big B, Big Boss, the erstwhile
angry young man, a sometime corporation, now a poet of banal blogging
and a robustly ageing piece of handsomely upholstered furniture in
every television owner’s living space, contribute to the political
life of our greasy republic?

What Bachchan brought to Indian politics was not necessarily charisma
alone (and it isn’t only filmstars that generate charisma in any
case). He did of course have a headstart in terms of a flawless
performance of sincerity. A quality that has stood by him at his
murkiest moments. As a politician, he never quite exhausted the finely
tuned ‘sincerity quotient’ in his self-presentation, even as he
orchestrated the careful mix between a performative ‘son of the soil’
modesty and a grandiose Bollywood baritone. It was the same alloy of
intimate ease with the common man or woman and a simultaneously aloof
hauteur that later marked Bachchan’s avuncular presence on television
quiz shows. Seeing Bachchan the patriarch pump, cajole and console
contestants with a teflon smoothness that makes even his hairpiece
look ragged is to witness what might have made Bachchan the political
meteor that he once was. Seeing Bachchan ‘do’ Thackeray in films like
Sarkar Raj is to watch him give even the darkest of political forces
the gossamer shine of his careful blend of sincerity and cynicism.

In a recent blog post Bachchan writes, “Politics is a complicated world
—a world where if you are unable to play the game, you remain a novice
and a stranger eternally. I admire those who’ve remained in it for
long years. I admire the guile with which they steer their boats…those
who pursue this line do so with utmost dedication, passion.”

One could of course read this statement as it is, and take it at face
value, as an expression of genuine admiration on the part of a man who
tried, failed and so applauds the successes of others, even while he
makes a case for his own naive inability to play the game.

Or, one could read it against the grain, and consider it to be a
report card given by a proud teacher to good students. Acharya Amitabh
applauding the graduation of the masked princes who now rule us, who
perform better on TV than they do on the streets, or in their offices,
or even in the assembly. Bachchan was probably the pioneer who bridged
the shadows of backroom cronyism with the spotlight of increasingly
televised public life. Perhaps, like pioneers often are, he was
occasionally clumsy and awkward while trying out the moves. But the
deftness and dexterity of his true successors—and they now shine in
every political party—suggests that what began in Allahabad in 1984 is
today a full-blown revolution in the highly public performance of
sincerity. The masks that these new pretenders wear empower them to
give the right-sounding answers even to the wrong questions. They will
rake in the billions. Inhein lock kiya jaye?

bademiyansubhanallah

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Oct 12, 2009, 6:07:43 AM10/12/09
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RSS flays Nitish govt for 'minority appeasement'
Giridhar Jha
Rajgir (Bihar), October 12, 2009

The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) on Sunday came down heavily on
the Nitish Kumar government, saying it was pursuing a minority
appeasement policy. He also said its decision to grant land for
setting up the branch of Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) in Kishanganj
district of Bihar was improper.

"In keeping with our principles, we have always opposed the minority
appeasement policy whether it is pursued by the Centre or the state
governments," Sarkaryavah (working general secretary) Suresh Joshi,
alias Bhaiyyaji Joshi, said at the conclusion of the three-day
national working committee meeting at Rajgir, 110 km south-east of
Patna, on Sunday.

"It is simply not in the interest of the country." Joshi said the
Bihar government - in which the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is a
coalition partner - was indeed pursuing a minority appeasement policy.

"I am afraid such a policy is being followed in the state. The
decision to grant land to AMU for setting up its branch is anuchit
(improper)," he said.

The Sangh leaders, during their national working committee meeting
held for the first time in Bihar, also upbraided the state BJP
leaders.

Its ministers reportedly came in for a dressing down from the RSS
chief Mohan Bhagwat on the sidelines of the meeting. The RSS top brass
had invited all the BJP ministers in the Bihar government, party MPs
and legislators over dinner on Saturday night.

Almost all the BJP ministers, including deputy chief minister Sushil
Kumar Modi, health minister Nand Kishore Yadav, public health
engineering minister Ashwini Choube as well as state party chief Radha
Mohan Singh, were in attendance at the venue.

Taking exception to the BJP's style of functioning, Bhagwat is said to
have advised the ministers to desist from compromising the principles
of the party at the altar of power.

Sources said the RSS chief expressed displeasure over the fact that
the BJP tends to forget its policies the moment it comes to power.

Courtesy: Mail Today

Sid Harth

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RSS says no rift with BJP, blames media for false news
STAFF WRITER 21:24 HRS IST

Nagpur, Oct 12 (PTI) Denying any rift with the BJP, the Rashtriya
Swayamsewak Sangh today accused a section of media of giving false
news.

"A section of media has spread the news about differences between RSS
and BJP to mislead voters on the eve of assembly elections in three
states", All India Prachar Pramukh of the RSS, Manmohan Vaidya said in
a release today.

The RSS leadership held its annual Diwali meeting at Rajgir in Bihar
where the Sangh chief Mohan Bhagwat addressed the valedictory session.

Vaidya said Bhagwat did not speak about any political party during the
function and emphasised that the RSS and BJP follow the same ideology.

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First phase of BJP registration drive gets over 22 lakh primary
members
Express News Service

Posted: Tuesday , Oct 13, 2009 at 0055 hrs
Ahmedabad:

Have I become a ‘Screenager’?How true is the work hour brag?Glad I
didn't become a Pilot Yoga-Garbh Sanskar State units of the BJP,
which have completed the first phase of the ‘Sangathan Parva’
registration drive, have fallen short of meeting the undeclared target
of adding 20 per cent members to the existing strength. It registered
22 lakh primary members, two lakh below its 24 lakh mark.

State BJP general secretary Bharatsinh Parmar, who has been busy in
the exercise along with overall in-charge Bharat Pandya, said the
party enrolled over 22 lakh primary members across Gujarat. At
present, the party has 20 lakh members on its rolls. A meeting of
senior party leaders was recently held to review the campaign work
where plans to hold taluka and district elections by the end of
November were made so that a smooth transition of power takes place at
the time of electing the new state unit president.

At present, the party is enrolling active members, one step above
primary members in the hierarchy. According to party sources, there
were 65,000 active members and 20 lakh primary members in the outgoing
body.

After the completion of registration of active members, elections to
taluka unit presidents will begin in the fourth week of October,
followed by district unit heads elections in the end of November.
Parmar said the state president would be elected by December, but did
not reveal who all were in the race.

Party insiders said the workers were given a target of adding 10 per
cent more to the existing number of primary and active members. Going
by this and the feedback available with Parmar that 22 lakh members
have been enrolled, the party has fallen short of registering a couple
of lakh members, sources added.

This will put pressure on the workers to meet the next target of
enrolling at least 15,000 new active members to add to the present
figure of 65,000. The targets are formidable as they have to make all
enrollments afresh, cancelling all previous memberships.

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Sangh pre-poll scare for BJP
OUR SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

New Delhi, Oct. 11: The RSS has been sucked into another controversy
after its chief, Mohanrao Bhagwat, was quoted by a news agency as
saying that his cadres were under no compulsion to support the BJP,
the Sangh’s political child.

The report, picked up by TV channels, quoted a Sangh source as saying
that at a meeting on Saturday, Bhagwat had said the cadres were free
to endorse any political party on the basis of its policy and
programmes “in the national interest”.

Bhagwat’s alleged remark came at a meeting hosted by the Bihar unit of
the RSS at Rajgir, where the RSS central working committee is also in
session.

BJP sources sounded worried about what effect the statement would have
on Sangh and party workers just two days before the Assembly
elections, more so in Maharashtra where the Sangh is headquartered.
Apart from Nagpur, the Sangh has a presence and base in several
Maharashtra towns and cities, including Pune and Mumbai.

However, BJP Rajya Sabha MP and spokesperson Ravi Shankar Prasad, who
attended the meeting addressed by Bhagwat yesterday, dubbed the agency
report “baseless”.

He claimed that the RSS chief had spoken of the “great potential” the
BJP had. “There were as many as 500 party workers at the meeting,” he
said.

Another senior Sangh representative said that while Bhagwat had
alluded to the BJP’s “problems”, he had sounded “optimistic” that they
would be “shortly resolved” because the issues were “small and not
very major”.

The representative said that one of the Bihar swayamsevaks had asked
Bhagwat how long the “crisis” within the BJP would last. Bhagwat
apparently replied it was “not as big” as the media was making it out
to be.

Bhagwat’s “statement”, as reported by the agency, comes after two of
his colleagues, Manmohan Vaidya and Madan Das Devi, had praised Rahul
Gandhi and home minister P. Chidambaram — Vaidya obliquely and Devi
lavishly.

At a news conference in Rajgir yesterday, Devi had commended
Chidambaram’s moves to stem Maoist insurgency and said the RSS was
“satisfied” with him.

BJP sources monitoring the Rajgir conclave were quick to put a spin on
the statements. “It means the Sangh is upset with us, and more so with
Advani and his followers, for putting out an impression that he has no
intention of quitting soon (as leader of the Opposition in the Lok
Sabha),” a source said.

In the lead-up to the RSS conference, former BJP president and Advani
loyalist M. Venkaiah Naidu had said that his mentor had not been set a
quit deadline. He had added that while Advani would not lead the party
into the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, he would pass the baton at a time
of his choosing and also select and name his successor.

Some sections felt Naidu had “thrown a gauntlet” at the Sangh. It is
learnt the Sangh wanted a new leader of the Opposition before the
winter session of Parliament, which begins in November.

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Autobiography Jeevithamrutham released
BJP leader feted on his 80th birthday
By S Chandrasekhar

October18, 2009

O Rajagopal—A role model politician.—Oommen Chandy

Ninety-six-year-old BJP leader, Ayyappan Pillai, Swami Sivamrutha
Chaitanya, BJP president PK Krishnadas, leading film actor of
Malayalam Madhu, K Raman Pillai and poet Vishnu Narayanana Nampoothiri
offered felicitations to O Rajagopal. The messages of LK Advani and
Prant Sanghachalak PEB Menon and a poem in praise of O Rajagopal by
former BJP president PS Sreedharan Pillai were read out.

Inaugurating the 80th birthday celebrations of senior BJP leader and
former Union Minister O Rajagopal at VJT Hall, Thiruvanantha-puram on
September 29, Shri Oommen Chandy, top Congress leader and opposition
leader in Kerala Assembly said, Rajagopal is a simple, humble and
ideal politician, worthy of emulating. “Rajagopal is a role model for
future and present politicians,” he emphasised.

“I had the honour to participate in the first public reception, given
to him in Kottayam, after he became Union Minister in 1999. O
Rajagopal is above politics and is helped and praised by all. He used
his Ministership for the good of people, especially in Kerala. I was
not able to co-operate with BJP politically, due to ideological
differences, but had good relations with him. That is the strength of
our democracy and system. But sadly, instead of competing with other
parties for welfare and development of people, some parties (CPM), are
attacking other parties with weapons, liquidating them, physically.
This politics of confrontation and intolerance has to give way to
politics of development, welfare and conciliation. I wish O Rajagopal
long life in service of Kerala,” Shri Oommen concluded.

Releasing the autobiography after handing over first copy to Kerala
University Vice-chancellor Dr Jayakrishnan, Padmasri P Parameswaran
said, the autobiography is an encyclopaedia for political workers and
BJP watchers. “The book highlights the developments in Rajagopal’s
life in tandem with BJS/BJP’s growth. It gives insights into OR’s
relations with Pundit Deendayalji, Guruji, NSS founder Mannathu
Padmanabhan and Mata Amritanandamayi.”

“Kerala Gandhi K Kelappan likened OR’s political speeches to a teacher
taking a class. Our culture is that rulers should be guided by dharma,
values and spirituality. King Janaka was described a ‘Raja
Rishi’ (Both a Raja and a Rishi). Even Congress had a ‘Raja Rishi’
Purushotham Das Tandon, who lashed out against Partition. But the CPM
is even now shy of Bharatiya culture and values. O Rajagopal is a
‘Raja Rishi’ who has people’s welfare and spirituality uppermost, in
his mind. He is talking of sanyasa. I urge him to take sanyas on the
mould of Maharshi Aurobindo, who kept aloof from day to day politics
but directed the course of the nation from his Pondicherry ashram. In
a time when there is political vacuum, ‘Raja Guru’ like O. Rajagopal
is needed,” he concluded.

Ninety six year-old BJP leader, Ayyappan Pillai, Swami Sivamrutha
Chaitanya, BJP President PK Krishnadas, leading film actor of
Malayalam Madhu, K Raman Pillai and poet Vishnu Narayanana
Nampoothiri, offered felicitations to Rajagopal. The messages of LK
Advani and Prant Sanghachalak PEB Menon and a poem in praise of O
Rajagopal by former BJP President PS Sreedharan Pillai were read out.

Replying to the felicitations Shri O Rajagopal said Jeevithamrutham is
his experience of 80 years of life and 50 years BJP/BJS association.

He said, “Parameswarji and Raman Pillai linked me with Deendayalji.
Deendayalji convinced me that after 1,000 years of alien rule, the
nation needed an ideology to move forward. The western concepts of
socialism, liberalism and communism caters to material aspects of life
which is temporary, where there is no contentment. Only ‘Integral
Humanism’ which is based on Sanatana Dharma and dharma, artha, kama,
moksha cycle can take our nation to ‘Dharma Rajya’. I thank everyone
and implore Parameswarji to write a book on Dharma Rajya.”

The autobiography consists of very few ‘I’s and more on BJS, BJP/ RSS
ideology, old BJS days, towering pracharaks, Pandit Deendayal Upadyaya
and Guruji. It is noted for absence of personal attacks on political
parties and leaders. It emphasises Pandit Deendayalji’s message to OR
and the nation to ‘Go back to Gandhiji’. In the autobiography with 44
chapters O Rajagopal says, he is on the borderline between Vanaprastha
and Sanyasa.

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Vishwa Mangal Gou Gram Yatra
Another battle for the soul of India
By R Balashankar
August 16, 2009

We live in a social milieu driven by trivia, sensationalism and
celebrity news. Terror and crime attaining iconic status, outrageous
behaviour burns up the daily headlines. Growth is measured in terms of
the waste it produces. Gluttonous level of consumption is being
propounded to hasten the pace of recovery from meltdown. So the
world’s largest polluter is advocating the norms for environment
protection. The reigning belief is that in the end almost everyone
goes to the city. Urbanisation is the new mantra of development. In
such a situation, is it possible to maintain traditional virtues? Can
a campaign, whose focus are village life—cow, nature, farmer and food
security— and sustainable consumption, stir the national psyche, and
catch the imagination?

This issue is devoted to the most ambitious mission ever undertaken in
India in these times of globalisation to reclaim the soul of India and
redefine the sinews of modern development for total happiness. The
idea is akin to Gandhiji’s gram swaraj, Deendayal Upadhyayaji’s
integral humanism, Dattopant Thengadiji’s third way or EF Schumacher’s
Small Is Beautiful concept. He described his treatise as a study of
economics as if people mattered. It needs immense courage and clarity
of details to define a call to return to village and cow when the
whole world is rushing to the cities. The villages do not offer a
livelihood. They do not have the infrastructural facilities for a
successful living. Money has become the most motivating factor in both
social and political life. So India is ranked almost on the top of the
corruption index.

There is also the problem of the huge gap between the promise and the
practice of reformist initiatives. During the early years of this
decade, under NDA an atrocious plan to promote mechanised
slaughterhouses and meat production enhancement programme was launched
under the Department of Animal Husbandry and Dairying, Ministry of
Agriculture. The report of a sub-committee on meat constituted by the
ministry under the chairmanship of Irfan Allana, managing director of
Frigerio Conserva Allana Ltd, with other equally prominent luminaries
from the meat and meat products fraternity makes a chilling reading.
But the report was easily accepted by the then government and all
their suggestions were implemented with more vigour by the present UPA
government. Economic ambitions are good servants, they are bad
masters. The most obvious facts are most easily forgotten.

The meat-working group strongly argued for increasing the production
of meat products for increasing meat export. The members of the
subgroup, with an exception of one member, were all the people who
were in the meat business. Naturally they advocated to promote meat
production and export. Hence, the whole issue was not analysed from
experts’ point of view, taking into consideration various aspects of
the proposals. The report was an attempt to circumvent the national
consensus on banning cattle slaughter, and an attempt to promote meat
eating, marketing of meat products and substantially increasing meat
export. It did not examine the impact of such mindless animal killing
on Indian economy, agriculture and the eco-system. Thus, the document
failed to make suggestions for increasing the cattle products for the
benefit of the population. It only helped satisfy the greed of dollar-
hungry meat export lobby. It was an immoral document, alien to our
cultural moorings and national ethos.

This is not an isolated instance. One can think of any number of such
revisionist approach, be it in the matter of Tehri Dam Project or the
proposals on genetically modified seed import policy, agricultural
biodiversity, intellectual property rights and farmers’ rights. These
are just a few instances.

It is in this hostile milieu the new initiative is being launched. It
has a huge constituency of citizens concerned both in rural and in
urban India. There are the great successes of green revolution that
made India a foodgrain exporting country. On the flip side is the
growing threat of food scarcity, starving millions and the thousands
of hectares of land grown barren by the excessive use of fertilizer,
chemicals and pesticides. In the current economic matrix more than the
size of composition of national products, the extent of urbanisation
measures development status of a country. In early 20th century 38 per
cent of US workers were employed in agriculture which now stands below
three per cent. In India this percentage is still high at 70.
Agriculture cannot give prosperity or livelihood to all these people.
Making urban facilities like clean water, electricity, education,
roads and market access in the rural areas is one way of ensuring
rural prosperity and arresting rural migration.

The saints and socio-cultural organisations of the country have come
on a joint platform to launch from Vijayadashami 2009 (September 28)
to Makar Sankranti 2010—a 108-day national awareness mission covering
a distance of 20,000 km to reach every nook and corner of the country
the message of the vital role of cattle wealth in the protection of
nature and welfare and quality of human life.

The ultimate progress of the industrial civilisation is the concept
that whatever the beginning city is the end. This is the antithesis of
Indian philosophy. We still believe in the traditional wisdom that
India lives in its villages. That is why many years ago Shri Guruji
Golwalkar underlined the vision of India in the modern context. He
said, “Our administrative system was based on panchayats and the
village was its basic unit. The representative Panchs who expressed
the feelings of the masses were regarded by us as a manifestation of
God Himself. The adage about ‘Panch Parameshwar’ is proof of this. The
five members of the Panchayat were a Brahmin, a Kshatriya, a Vaishya,
a Shudra and a Nishad. The need for inclusion of the Nishad (forest-
dweller) has been stressed upon. Collectively they would be referred
to, as the ‘Panch Parameshwar’ i.e. the society, in its entirety is
just an expanded form of god himself. It is the basis of the creation
of our state, which develops from below to the top. Such
representatives express the nature of society and when they come
together, the nature of the nation-state gets created.” (Complete
Works, Volume 2 and Volume 5)

People who have worked on this idea, who through their practical
experience developed the model workshop in village after village have
created any number of microeconomic zones to explain this vision. For
them this has been the enduring idea for decades. We have requested a
number of such individuals to write on their experiences for this
Special Issue. Their contributions are authentic, because they have
lived the concept and made it a success in their areas of work.

“By regarding the village as the pivot and forming a unit of adjoining
villages, developing these units and creating a distinct identity
through commercial and geographic contacts, such units should be
created that have a common idiom of exchange. If the linguistic states
come in the way of such a development, then there is no objection,”
said Shri Guruji. (Volume 2)

At the time of the big food crisis in the country in mid-sixties Shri
Guruji said, “Every village should be visited and the farmers should
be told about the gross demand for foodgrains in the country so that
they can try for fulfilling it. If there is some land left, after
that, cash crops might be sown. The over-production of sugarcane has
made Uttar Pradesh a wheat-deficit state. In Vidarbha, peanuts are
grown on a large scale for making vegetable oil. Although, this so-
called vegetable oil-ghee is neither ghee, nor oil. It is only a money-
spinning phenomenon. But can we eat money? Even if eaten, would it be
digested? Hence, an environment is needed to be created in the
country, wherein the production of foodgrains gets priority. The other
crops should be sown on the remaining land only. For this, committees
may be constituted in every village, which may ensure expeditious
production of the foodgrains. If we stick to our commitments and give
up unnecessary things, we shall easily sail through these testing
time, soon.” (Volume 5)

One can imagine what Shri Guruji would have said about the current
emphasis on cash crops, shrimp and cut flower the government is
promoting along with cotton. Cotton has famished Vidarbha leading to
the largest number of farmer suicides in the country. A recent study
has concluded that cash crop failures have resulted in the maximum
number of farmer suicides in India. In Japan, studies show that a
farmer earns as much as a Suzuki executive does. The farmer has no
cause to leave his village in search of livelihood. The US and EU have
a well defined policy to protect the interest of their farmers. Often,
the World Trade talks are stuck because of this obstinacy of developed
countries to deny the subsidy to farmers of developing countries which
developed countries routinely give to their farmers.

This is an unequal world. Throughout history till the Industrial
Revolution, India and China were the richest countries in the world.
India had the advantage of both technology and balance of trade. After
the global meltdown, again the balance is tilting in India’s favour.
This is the big chance to rethink and reorient. Perhaps the big new
campaign to revive the Indian rural economy is timed for the fresh
start.

Today, the land-related agitations in India go to prove that people in
rural areas are still attached to their land and given a choice would
continue to remain there. But neglect and lack of human facilities are
driving them out to the urban areas, which are portrayed in the visual
media as flowing in wealth and glamour. Unthinkingly, young India is
being fed to the western culture of greed, gamble and glitz.

It is relevant to quote Schumacher here in the lines he concludes his
fascinating book. "Justice relates to truth, fortitude to goodness,
and temperantia to beauty, while prudence, in a sense comprises all
three. The type of realism which behaves as if the good, the true and
the beautiful were too vague and subjective to be adopted as the
highest aims of social or individual life, or were the automatic spin-
off of the successful pursuit of wealth and power, has been aptly
called crackpot-realism. Everywhere people ask: 'What can I actually
do?' The answer is as simple as it is disconcerting; we can, each of
us, work to put our own inner house in order. The guidance we need for
this work cannot be found in science or technology, the value of which
utterly depends on the ends they serve, (emphasis added) but it can
still be found in the traditional wisdom of mankind." (Small Is
Beautiful, p. 279)

Saint poet Tiruvalluvar says that only the farmer lives a life of
dignity and the rest of the humanity goes to him with folded hands
begging. (uzhudundu vazhlvare vazhlvar matrellam thozhutundu pin
selbavar).

Paulo Coelho, the celebrated philosopher novelist, in his recent book
The Winner Stands Alone expounds a fiction on the theme that in the
world we live in today, people who chase their dreams are manipulated
and drifted and sucked into the system, away from the dreams once they
cherished and there is a price to be paid for this by the dreamer.
Dreams come live and ideals become real if and only the man is able to
walk the talk.

bademiyansubhanallah

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Expose

UPA's lure of the foreign
Buying farm land and mines as local sectors languish
Exposing the big racket in foreign exchange, realty
By Naresh Minocha
October18, 2009

UPA denies millions of jobs to Indians to benefit foreigners

The Government’s half-hearted reforms have resulted in massive coal
shortages. Expert committees have indeed made alarming projections of
coal shortages, thereby emphatically driving home the need for
imports.

UPA could help create jobs for 10 million rural people by facilitating
plantations on seven million hectares and implementing projects for
conversion of the harvested biomass into different forms of energy
over 10 years as recommended by the draft National Mission document.

All such overseas acquisitions means decline in domestic pressure to
explore and develop coal mines within the country. This also means
decline in job opportunities in the mining sector.

The Cabinet had decided to allow private sector to undertake coal
mining for merchant sale way back in 1997. At present, private sector
firms are only allowed to undertake captive mining to generate fuel
for their power, cement and metallurgical projects.

The UPA Government has deprived job opportunities to millions of
illiterate and semi-literate Indians by forcing Indian companies to
invest abroad in overseas plantations and coal mining sectors.

Not only that, it has robbed thousands of semi-skilled Indians of an
opportunity to earn two square meals in their own homeland, thereby
making a mockery of its hobby-horse of inclusive growth.

UPA has done this by liberally granting business visas to Chinese
workers that are brought in hordes by the Chinese contractors engaged
in building power projects, metallurgical plants, airports and other
infrastructure projects in India.

It is only over the last few months that the Government is becoming
vigilant. It is asking Chinese companies to seek employment visas for
its workers instead of business visas. This is, however, only creates
basis for rigorous scrutiny of applications for employment visas. It
does not any way prevent the Chinese companies from bringing in
workers to projects primarily awarded by Indian companies.

Take the case of Vedanta Aluminum Limited’s proposed technical
collaboration with China Alumina International Engineering Corporation
(CHALIECO) for setting up aluminium smelter at Jharsuguda in Orissa.

The Home Ministry, for instance, has advised the Mines Ministry that
the number and nature of foreign personnel required for this tie-up
should be carefully assessed. Adequate scrutiny should also be
exercised in grant of visa to foreigners who intend to work on this
project, an official said.

In this era of globalisation, it is normal for Indian companies to
invest abroad to explore and develop resources that India is
deficient. These include oil and gas, diamonds, uranium and copper. It
is also normal for the firms to depute engineers and managers to
oversee such projects.

It also makes some sense for Indian companies to embark on commercial
farming in areas that offer agro-climatic advantages for crops such as
coffee, cashew nut and rubber.

There is, however, really no need for Indian companies to scramble for
exploration and development of coal mines abroad as the country has
enough reserves that would last several hundred years.

Similarly, there is hardly any need for Indian companies to rush
abroad to raise plantations to produce pulp for paper and viscose
industries, edible oils and to produce bio-fuels when over 100
millions of hectares of wasteland and degraded forest land is lying
vacant across the country.

Though official statistics are hard to come by, one can safely say
that Indian companies are investing a few billion dollars in the
overseas mining and plantation ventures.

Had the UPA Government cared to formulate employment generation-cum-
investor-friendly policies, there would have been no flight of
capital.

Indian funds and capabilities could have been deployed within the
homeland to create millions of jobs for weaker sections. And that
would have perhaps acted as restrain on UPA to indulge in divisive job
reservation politics.

What is more, investment in wasteland plantations and coal mining
would have reduced the pressure on National Rural Employment Guarantee
Programme (NREGP).

This much-flaunted programme also provides partially employment to
unemployed people in the countryside. The programme’s cup of
limitations including revenue siphoning off is already full.

National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) is supposed to
guarantee every rural household up to 100 days of wage employment in a
year within a period of 15 days of demand for such employment.

The Government’s half-hearted reforms have resulted in massive coal
shortages. Expert committees have indeed made alarming projections of
coal shortages, thereby emphatically driving home the need for
imports.

The Government has, however, forced Indian companies including public
sector Navratnas to join the rat race to acquire coal mines abroad.

Before elaborating on non-starter reforms and overseas investments,
one can recall what the Congress Party, the UPA’s lead constituent,
promised to the Aam Aadmi.

In its manifesto for Lok Sabha polls, Congress Party expounded its
concept of ‘The Middle Path – the Congress’s way’ to strike balance
between different demands and issues.

The manifesto thus said: “Balance—or the middle path—has always been
the hall-mark of the policies of the Indian National Congress…. It is
a balance between promoting employment in the organised sector and
protecting livelihoods in the unorganised sector….It is a balance
between taking advantage of globalisation and ensuring that these
benefits flow to local communities….This balance is needed now more
than ever.”

As for the issue of improving the life of farmers and their families,
it stated: “A renewed emphasis will be placed on wasteland development
and afforestation.”

Let us now start with the UPA’s report card on wastelands. The Union
Cabinet approved in September 2008 a national bio-fuels policy (NBP)
that provides for cultivation of non-edible oil crops on wastelands
for production of feedstock for bio-diesel.

The large-scale cultivation under this policy is yet to take off. Even
prior to formulation of NBP, the Planning Commission-constituted
Committee on Development of Bio-fuel (CDB) had recommended launch of a
national mission on bio-diesel in 2003. The proposed mission is caught
in a maze of government approval mechanism.

The Department of Land Resources has nothing much to say on its
status. On its website, it said: On August 8, 2007, the Cabinet
referred the matter (proposed mission to a GoM (group of ministers).
The recommendations of GoM placed before the Cabinet on September 11,
2008. Matter referred back to GoM. GoM gave “in principle” approval on
February 24, 2009 subject to certain conditions and modifications.
MNRE (Ministry of New and Renewable Resources), as service Ministry,
to place matter before Cabinet.”

CDB recommended implementation of the mission in two phases with the
first being demonstration phase to be funded by the Government with an
outlay of Rs 1496 crore.

The demonstration phase was to start by 2003-end and terminate by
March 31, 2007. The second phase was planned as self-sustaining with
bulk of the funds coming from the banks, companies, entrepreneurs,
farmers, foreign agencies. The second phase was to start in 2007 and
terminate in 2012.

The inordinate delay in implementation of bio-fuel policy and schemes
has forced Indian Inc. to look abroad.

Health care group Emami, for instance, has acquired 100,000 acres in
Ethiopia for cultivating bio-fuel and edible oil crops under a 45-
years lease. It would invest Rs 400 crore on these plantations. Emami
Bio-tech has a bio-diesel venture in India but it finds policy support
wanting at home.

In August 2009, it announced that it would export bio-diesel to India
and sell edible oils in Ethiopia.

Bangalore-based Karuturi Global Limited informed Mumbai Stock Exchange
in May last year that it had acquired 100,000 acres of the planned
650,000 acquisition in Ethiopia for cultivating rice, vegetables, palm
oil and sugarcane. It was raising $ 185 million debt and equity to
finance this project through its subsidiary Karuturi Overseas Limited,
the company added.

Another Indian firm belonging to Anmol Group recently commissioned a
paper mill in that country to take advantage of pulp crop
plantations.

Realising UPA’s failure to reduce the dependence on edible imports,
Indian edible oils leader KS Oils has embarked on land acquisition
spree in Indonesia and Malaysia to raise palm oil plantations.

On October 7, it informed the Mumbai Stock Exchange that its Singapore
subsidiary KS Natural Resources Pvt. Ltd (KSNR) has acquired an
additional 53,000 acres in Indonesia on which it would invest Rs 380
crore over the next three years.

It already owns 85,000 acres in that country, apart from a joint
venture in Malaysia that acquired plantation in 2007.

Aditya Birla Group (ABG) is already investing $ 350 million on
eucalyptus plantations and allied pulp plant in Laos. The project is
slated for commercial production in 2013. It would export pulp to its
viscose fibre plants in India and other countries.

The plantations have cultivated on 50,000 hectares acquired from Laos
Government under 75-year lease.

ABG last year converted an acquired paper pulp plant into viscose-
grade pulp facility in Canada, which is endowed with natural and
commercial forests.

In March 2007, paper major Ballarpur Industries Ltd. (BILT) acquired
Malayia’s largest integrated pulp and paper mill named Sabah Forest
Industries (SFI) for $261 million.

SFI holds a 99-year rights to raise plantations over 2,89,000 hectares
of forestland in Sabah State in Malaysia.

BILT would invest $ one billion over 8-10 years on expansion of this
prized acquisition including plantations.

All these and many more investment in overseas plantations clearly
show that UPA’s indifferent approcah towards handling over wastelands
to corporate sector is leading to denial of million of job
opportunities to weaker sections in rural areas.

Industry sources point that UPA had wasted opportunities to create
jobs and generate wealth dragging its feet over plantations for
viscose, paper, pharmaceuticals, cosmetics and bio-fuels sectors.

India’s 107 million hectares of degraded land including 64 million
hectares of wasteland can also be used to produce bio-mass for rural
people. They can be encouraged to use this bio-mass to generate
secondary forms of energy such as methane gas and electricity.

UPA’s now defunct National Advisory Council had itself recommended to
Prime Minister to launch a National Mission on Decentralised Bio-mass
Energy for villages and industries.

In its communication dated February 2, 2006, NCA said: “Assuming
conservative conversion figures, some 40 million hectares of wasteland
every year can yield upto about 200 million tonnes of solid bio-mass
capable of supporting about 30,000 MW of electric generating
capacity.”

UPA could helped create jobs for 10 million rural people by
facilitating plantations on seven million hectares and implementing
projects for conversion of the harvested bio-mass into different forms
of energy over 10 years as recommended by the draft National Mission
document.

Turn to UPA’s report card on coal reforms. The Planning Commission’s
status report on implementation of Integrated Energy Policy (IEP)
admits the Government has not yet instituted coal regulatory
authority.

The status report was discussed at a meeting of Planning Commission
held on September 1, 2009 under the chairmanship of Prime Minister Dr.
Manmohan Singh.

The report shows that reforms-centric changes in the Coal Mines
(Nationalisation) Act have not got Parliamentary approval through the
amendment bill was introduced in Rajya Sabha in 2000. The Cabinet had
decided to allow private sector to undertake coal mining for merchant
sale way back in 1997. At present, private sector firms are only
allowed to undertake captive mining to generate fuel for their power,
cement and metallurgical projects.

The Government only last year allowed two companies to set up coal
mining-cum-coal liquefaction projects to generate liquid fuels and
coal chemicals.

Official estimates show that India has 267,210 million tonnes of coal
reserves. Against this, domestic availability in the current financial
year is only 363 million tonnes.

According to a presentation made at international power conclave
organised by Central Electricity Authority (CEA) in August 2009,
shortfall in the domestic availability of coal in the current
financial year is estimated at 41 million tonnes. The power generating
companies have already been advised to import 28.7 million tonnes. The
deficit is projected to increase to 68 million tonnes in 2012-13.

The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs thus decided in August 2009
to assign the empowered committee of secretaries the task of approving
proposals for acquiring overseas coal mines to be submitted by
International Coal Ventures Limited, a joint venture of five public
sector undertakings.

In March 2009, UPA announced that Mozambique Government had allocated
two coal blocks at Motaize in Tete Province to Coal India Limited
(CIL) following bilateral negotiations.

In August 2007, Tata Steel had decided to acquire strategic equity
stake of 35 per cent in coal block in the same region.

Earlier in March 2007, Tata Power had acquired 30 per cent stake in
two Indonesian coal companies to import 10 million tonnes coal to
India. The company has projected its imported coal requirement at 21
million tonnes for its 7000 megawatt capacity projects coming up on
the West coast.

In May 2008, Reliance Power announced acquisition of three Indonesian
coal mines. Adani Enterprises already has gained a foothold in
Indonesian coal mining business through a wholly owned subsidiary. So
has GMR Energy. Several private companies are scouting for coal mining
assets across the globe.

Among the public sector companies, Coal India Limited is already
scouting for a strategic partner to undertake coal mining in
Australia, Indonesia, South Africa and the United States. NTPC is also
separately exploring prospects of acquiring coal mines abroad. So is
Steel Authority of India Limited.

All such overseas acquisitions means decline in domestic pressure to
explore and develop coal mines within the country. This also means
decline in job opportunities in the mining sector.

Indeed, worsening job prospects in labour-intensive sectors such as
plantations and coal mining is turning India’s so-called demographic
dividend into demographic disaster.

(The writer is a senior economic journalist.)

bademiyansubhanallah

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Opinion

Small-time politicians calling wrong shots
By Joginder Singh, IPS (Retd)
October18, 2009

The Constitution of India guarantees that you can live in any part of
India and carry on with your profession or business. Many individuals
or small-time nobodies have been cocking a snook, both at the
Constitution and the Supreme Court, who have taken askance at the son
of the soil theory, promoting regionalism and casteism.

Any season is good enough for encashing on anything, which will enable
politicians to win, or stay in power. Having run out of causes, any
trivial issue is being exploited, by petty or out of work politicians,
whom no one would not notice otherwise.

They raise such a shindy about such issues, as if it was an issue of
life and death for them.

Even the media has run out of the issues, so even frivolous and
insignificant matters are being blown out of proportion by a section
of it. For example, even Calling Bombay by its own old name and not
Mumbai, in a film, which is only a fiction, became an issue and the
producer had to apologise for it. There is no end to blowing up
anything beyond proportion. Both the Central and State Governments are
wary of doing anything, and mostly are silent spectators, lest their
own vote bank be affected adversely.

Forget about petty matters about the row on the names, the regionalism
has seeped so much in the vein of our polity, that if it is a Minister
for Roads, or Railways, all roads, and trains must lead to, or begin
in his State.

As a Director General of a Para Military force, when an MP made
demands, that all recruitments to the Indo Tibetan Force, which is
mostly deployed in hilly area, only from his Hill States, nobody from
the Ministry contradicted him as early as nearly two decades back.

The stark truth is that no politician wants to bell the cat of
regionalism, casteism, on the basis of which most of them survive.

A sentiment has taken grown up in the largest metro of India, that is
Bombay or Mumbai, as you might call it, that outsiders, or people
belonging to different communities, are grabbing lucrative local jobs
there, right under their noses. There is no fixed definition of the
son of the soil. Is it to be by birth or language or by domicile?

There are lakhs of people from other States who have been living in
other States whether Delhi or Punjab or Maharashtra or UP, or Andhra,
or Bihar or Jharkhand, for generations. Similarly, several Marathi-
speaking people have been living in other parts of India.

The Constitution of India guarantees that you can live in any part of
India and carry on with your profession or business. Many individuals
or small-time nobodies have been cocking a snook, both at the
Constitution and the Supreme Court, who has taken askance at the son
of the soil theory, promoting regionalism and casteism. In a stern
message to the political class that divisive politics would not be
tolerated, the Supreme Court warned that “We will not allow or permit
balkanisation of this country… This is one country and we will not
accept son of soil theory.”

Indeed, one political party, in Maharashtra, has demanded a ban on the
influx of outsiders to Mumbai. Migration of people from one State to
another is a phenomenon that occurs all over the world. People migrate
to the countries, or place, where they find better opportunities and
economic gains. Similarly people go from Jharkhand, Bihar to Punjab,
from Rajasthan to Gujarat, from TN to Kerala or Andhra or Karnataka
move in search of livelihood.

Coming to think of it, the real problem is, of the job opportunities
and the size of the cake which is available. The answer to this
problem, lies in increasing the size of the job cakes and ending
corruption, in providing jobs.

The National Rural Employment Guaran¬tee Scheme, the present
Government’s flagship anti-poverty plan, has come to be wracked by
cor¬ruption which has sabotaged sim¬ilar measures in the past.

A government investigation into the working of the scheme with an
annual budget of Rs 40,000 crore has revealed si¬phoning off of a
whopping 40 per cent of the allocation and woe-fully inadequate
implemen¬tation of the scheme in dis¬tricts where it is needed
most.The job market in India is that of the buyer’s market and not
sellers. In other words, it means, that it is the employer’s wish,
which reins supreme and not of the job seeker.

17 per cent of India’s graduates are jobless and the number of
Unemployed has grown from more than three times in 10 years - from
13.8 million in 1991 to 44.5 million in 2001, according to Census
figures. Sometimes back, Delhi Police advertised for filling up 2,000
posts of constables. It received a total of 2,11, 521 applications.
Out of which 2,534 were Post-Graduates and 32,408 Graduate and
1,17,963 had passed their senior secondary school examination. They
were all enrolled in the employment exchanges.

Many of the graduate and above applicants were from renowned
institutions like the Faculty of Law, Ramjas Col¬lege, Hindu College
of Delhi Uni¬versity, different schools of Jawa-harlal University,
Jamia and other professional institutes. Some of these candidates who
had applied were also pursuing research and other academic
activ¬ities. Incidentally, the basic educational requirement for
joining as a Constable is senior secondary. Obviously, those above
senior secondary had higher qualifications.

In the National Capital alone, there are more than 10,80,000 educated
persons seek¬ing employment. This is the number enrolled at the
various employ¬ment exchanges of Delhi Govern¬ment.

In this scenario, you cannot blame people for moving to greener
pastures. Even otherwise in real life, jobs are doled out by the
politicians, wherever they can, either for love or money or sometimes
for both. With the age of retirement going to 60 and even increasing
it, the job opportunities are going to shrink. There is no dearth of
money in the country, needed for the development, if the Government
shows will to ensure that it is used for the developmental schemes and
not pocketed. No amount of increase in allocation of resources is
going to redeem the situation, if it is to be siphoned off to the
pockets of selfish individuals.

All the problems, including naxalism, terrorism, farmer’s suicide,
regionalism, casteism and the son of the soil propagation, of the
country will disappear, if we can increase the employment
opportunities and make sure that every paisas is used for the schemes
sanctioned. Corruption and hypocracy, need not be the part of the
democracy, as they are today in our country. However, as the citizens
of this great country, we must remember that the accomplice to the
crime of corruption is frequently our own indifference.

(The writer is former Director, CBI, India, and can be contacted at
joginders...@hotmail.com joginders...@rediffmail.com)

bademiyansubhanallah

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Oct 13, 2009, 2:12:43 AM10/13/09
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Opinion

America, a whiff of Hindu
By Brad Pfeiffer
October18, 2009

Hindus believe that there are many paths to God. America has
conceptually become more of a Hindu society than a Christian society.
About 65 per cent of Americans believe that many religions can lead to
eternal life. Pew Forum Survey showed that 37 per cent of White
evangelicals claim to believe that, too.

Cultural hardliners such as those who wish to impose one religion on
all of America are often struggling with some kind of personal
insecurity, are politically or financially motivated, or are just
confused or manipulated. Cultural and religious diversity should be
treated as a strength.

But at the dance hall a while back, a friend told me that he used to
be religious until he took a philosophy course in college. I could
relate to that. History and cultural studies often have a similar
effect. All those early Greek and Roman gods must have been pretty
important at one time, but most of us pass them off as mythology these
days. In fact, I’d say that most of us are atheists when it comes to
gods and goddesses like Zeus, Athena, Poseidon, etc. Over the history
of man, I suppose that thousands of different religions have come and
gone.

In the August 24 and 31, 2009 issue of the Newsweek, I was drawn to an
article by Lisa Miller titled “We Are All Hindus Now” (http://
www.newsweek.com/id/212155).

Hindus believe there are many paths to God. By Ms Miller’s
interpretation, America has conceptually become more of a Hindu
society than a Christian society. She refers to a 2008 Pew Forum
Survey which shows that 65 per cent of us believe that many religions
can lead to eternal life. The survey showed that 37 per cent of White
evangelicals claim to believe that, too.

I’m really not surprised by that last fact, although I wonder if we’d
get the same results if the poll were to be taken here in Heber
Springs. Around here, there seems to be an abundance of shirtsleeve
Christians who preach that the only way to get eternal life after
death is by believing in Jesus. In fact, these zealots say that you
will burn in hell if you don’t believe in Jesus.

I don’t claim any personal knowledge about these things, and of
course, religious matters are beyond the realm of scientific
testability. So it’s certainly understandable why rationalists tend to
shrug their shoulders and move along with eyes glazed over.

Nevertheless, religion is undeniably important because, for one
reason, it is so often used by politicians to manipulate behaviour.

According to Ms Miller, “Christians traditionally believe that bodies
and souls are sacred, that together they comprise the ‘self,’ and that
at the end time they will be reunited in the resurrection.” OK, maybe
I slept through that part of my Lutheran indoctrination. But Hindus
believe no such thing, Ms Miller explains, and burn the dead body on a
pyre. The spirit escapes and gets reincarnated in different bodies.
Since 24 per cent of Americans now say they believe in reincarnation
and more than a third of Americans now choose cremation (up from 6 per
cent in 1975), Ms Miller sees more evidence that we are becoming more
like Hindus.

I told my wife that if I die before her, she should cremate my body or
donate it to one of the medical schools. If I could be ground up and
converted into some kind of feed, fertilizer or clean-burning fuel
that would be fine with me, too.

I just want to be useful after my death. These ideas aren’t based on
any religious belief, but rather my very conservative nature. I know
that’s a damaged label these days, but I’m talking about
“conservative” in the proper and good sense of the word.

You see, I think I will hate waste as long as I exist. I’m the guy who
gets ticked off when my guests throw away perfectly good food or
drink. So I can’t see why my wife should spend lots of money over my
death, putting thousands of dollars into a grave plot, stone, casket,
service, etc. I’d rather see her use our money to help her sustain a
comfortable lifestyle-something she deserves from years and years of
hard work and putting up with me.

Though I won’t give two hoots to support anyone’s superstitions, I try
to be respectful (as you can tell) since religious matters are very
important to many people.

I’ve thought for a long time that we can learn and open our minds by
studying various cultures and religions. America, after all, still
thrives on cultural and religious diversity, in spite of the Religious
Wrong culture warriors. It seems to me that those who try to impose
their own cultural narrowness on all of America do us no favours.

My impression is that cultural hardliners such as those who wish to
impose one religion on all of America are often struggling with some
kind of personal insecurity, are politically or financially motivated,
or are just confused or manipulated. I see cultural and religious
diversity as a strength.

If more Americans are turning to Hinduism, maybe it’s a good thing:
The Hindus I’ve met are all very kind, humble and polite people. In
contrast, it seems that I’m too often snubbed and/or called by nasty
names by self-identified Christians who clearly project an air that
they are too good to associate with me. Of course, there are all types
of Christians and I certainly would not condemn an entire religion
based on some very rude people, no more than any rational person would
condemn all of Islam because of the bad apples that hit us on 9-11.
But I do remember from Lutheran school that we were taught to be civil
and well behaved because our behaviour, we were told, was a reflection
on the church, a valuable lesson.

(The writer is one of the local contributors to Progressive Voice, a
“liberal viewpoint” column which runs each Friday and can be contacted
at http://www.thesuntimes.com)

bademiyansubhanallah

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Oct 13, 2009, 2:42:49 AM10/13/09
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Obituary

A Tribute to Pyarelal Khandelwal
His life was in service of the motherland
October18, 2009

Veteran BJP leader and Rajya Sabha Member Pyarelal Khandelwal passed
away at All India Institute of Medical Sciences in New Delhi on
October 6 following a cardiac arrest. He was 84 and was suffering from
cancer and age-related ailments. He was shifted to AIIMS from Ram
Manohar Lohia Hospital a few days back.

His mortal remains were consigned to flames at Bhadbhada Vishram Ghat
the same day in the presence of a large number of party workers. The
funeral pyre was lit by his nephew, Prakash Khandelwal as slogans like
Pyarelal Khandelwal Amar Rahe rented the air. Madhya Pradesh Chief
Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, state BJP president Narendra Singh
Tomar, Chhattisgarh government ministers Amar Agrawal, Brij Mohan
Agrawal and Rajesh Munat and senior RSS leader Soudhan Singh were
among those present on the occasion.

Shri Chouhan in his tribute said an entire generation of the BJP
workers were trained under Khandelwal and his death was an irreparable
loss. Khandelwalji had defeated former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister
Digvijay Singh from Rajgarh to enter the Lok Sabha. He was at present
serving his second term in the Rajya Sabha. He had earlier served the
party as national vice president and was also a member of the Central
Election Committee. He was a RSS pracharak who worked extensively in
building and strengthening the party in Madhya Pradesh.

In New Delhi Prime Minister Dr Manmohan visited the BJP headquarters
to pay tribute to Khandelalji. Former Prime Minister Atal Behari
Vajpayee, Leader of Opposition LK Advani, BJP president Rajnath Singh,
former Vice-President Bhairon Singh Shekhawat and RSS Sarsanghachalak
Shri Mohan Rao Bhagwat, senior BJP leader Dr Murli Manohar Joshi, Shri
Arun Jaitely and Shri SS Ahluwalia were among the senior leaders who
condoled Khandelwalji’s death.

In his tribute Shri Vajpayee said it was “impossible to express the
shock” caused by Khandelwalji’s death. “He was one of the principal
activists instrumental in laying the foundation and working for the
growth of Bharatiya Jan Sangh and BJP specially in Madhya Pradesh.”

In his tribute Shri Mohan Bhagwat described Khandelwalji as a
‘pracharak’ who “pledged to dedicate his life to remove the hurdles
confronting RSS when the first ban was imposed on it in 1948, and to
work for its growth.” Leader of Opposition Shri Advani said
Khandelwalji had contributed immensely to the growth of the party. “In
his death, we have lost a sincere and very dedicated worker of the
party.

He and Kushabhau Thakre had worked for the party and were a source of
inspiration for us. He had worked to get more than 3 per cent votes
for the Bharatiya Jana Sangh in the 1950s when the Election Commission
had laid down this criteria for recognising a political party as a
national party. BJS was one of the four parties to get this
recognition,” Shri Advani said. Party president Shri Rajnath Singh
said the Khandelwalji had worked for BJS as well as BJP and gave him
credit for the “extent of the organisation’s influence in the
country.”

Born on April 6, 1929 at Charmandali village of Sehore district in
Madhya Pradesh Khandelwalji came to a farmer’s family. He joined the
RSS in 1940 and participated in the freedom struggle. He also played
an important role in the students’ movement while studying in the
Maheshwari School in 1942 and took part in the distribution of secret
pamphlets published by Indore Prajamandal in his early student life.
He was endured punishment in the school for voicing the slogan of
Vande Mataram during the freedom struggle.

He became a Sangh Pracharak in 1948. He was sentenced for four months
and was imprisoned in the jails of Indore and Ratlam from 1948 to 1949
for observing Satyagraha demanding lifting of the ban on RSS. He was
also arrested with the late Eknath Ranade. He participated in Kashmir
Movement in 1953 on the call given by Dr Syama Prasad Mookerjee and
was imprisoned in Kathua and Jammu jails. He joined the Jana Sangh in
1964 and was arrested during the Emergency in 1975 but escaped from
the custody and remained underground for 19 months. He led the Lok
Sangarsh Samiti in Madhya Pradesh established by Lok Nayak Jai Prakash
Narain during the Emergency. He launched a prolonged movement called
“Gram Raj Abhiyan” and mobilised thousands of activists in Madhya
Pradesh in 1988 which helped in the election victory of the BJP in the
State in 1990. He made special efforts to integrate the Vanvasis and
Harijans with the BJP and launched a movement to redress their
problems. He went on a week-long hunger strike to redress farmers’
problems and was successful in having the region declared as ‘drought
affected’ in 1988.

chhotemianinshallah

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Oct 13, 2009, 3:30:09 PM10/13/09
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http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/ahmedabad/CM-has-ignored-Centres-contribution-to-BRTS-project-Cong/articleshow/5121466.cms

CM has ignored Centre's contribution to BRTS project: Cong
TNN 14 October 2009, 12:32am IST

AHMEDABAD: The leader of Opposition Shaktisinh Gohil who was not among
the invitees for inauguration of Bus Rapid Transport System has
accused Chief Minister Narendra Modi of taking all credit for BRTS
project.

About 35 per cent of the funding for the project came from Central
government. According to Gohil, the hoardings and advertisement issued
for inauguration of BRTS project does not mention that funds were
given under Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM).

He said that Central government has allocated Rs 2497.69 crore for
Ahmedabad, Vadodara, Rajkot and Surat municipal corporation under
JNNURM. He further said it was necessary to put JNNURM logo but
government had not done so.

Gohil said there are several technical faults in the design and
corporation has been asked to provide adequate parking and feeder bus
services. However, no such facilities are given by corporation. These
details, according to Gohil, have been acquired by him under RTI act.

chhotemianinshallah

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http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/ahmedabad/Phone-calls-threaten-Modi-assassination-two-detained/articleshow/5119618.cms

Phone calls threaten Modi assassination, two detained
PTI 13 October 2009, 03:19pm IST

AHMEDABAD: The city crime branch has detained two persons in
connection with telephone calls to the police control room,
threatening to kill Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi.

The security of Modi, who enjoys Z-plus protection, has been beefed up
following the calls made late Sunday night, police said on Tuesday.

While confirming the detention of two persons, sources said the duo
was being interrogated, but declined to reveal their identity due to
the sensitive nature of the matter.

According to police control room, an anonymous caller said two persons
were in the city to assassinate Modi and an IPS officer, whose name
was withheld, at a public function, while the second caller gave
specific locations where the hit men would kill the CM.

"The caller, identifying himself as Ajay, gave the names of the
persons who would do the job and even the specific location where the
plot was to be executed," the officer, who did not want to be named
said, adding the call was traced to a location in Juhapura area of the
city.

Asked if the phone call was a prank or a genuine threat, the police
official seeking anonymity said, "such calls cannot be taken
lightly".

Modi had yesterday attended public functions at Rakhial, Maninagar and
Amraiwadi.

Security arrangements at events being attended by Modi have been
doubled, he said, adding the chief minister would be participating in
a number of public functions in the days preceding Diwali including
the inauguration of the Bus Rapid Transit System (BRTS) at
Chandranagar in the city.

chhotemianinshallah

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Oct 13, 2009, 3:35:06 PM10/13/09
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Threat call keeps cops on toes
Parth Shastri, TNN 13 October 2009, 01:42am IST

AHMEDABAD: It would have been just another prank call for the control
room officials. Only this time the target was the chief minister
Narendra Modi. And the city police officials promptly swung into
action.

It all started when an unidentified caller informed the city police
control room that there is a threat looming large on CM when he would
attend three functions in Bapunagar, Rakhial and Amraiwadi on Monday
evening.

However, the caller did not stop at that. He gave specifics like the
names of the youths who would carry out operation along with their
description.

As a result, the city police commissioner issued written directives to
the concerned departments, including the police control room, special
branch, crime branch and Zone I and V officials about this critical
input'.

Police presence was quickly multiplied by two times. However,
according to officials, they found no suspects as per the description
during the scrutiny by police officials moving around in plain
clothes.

According to a source, the call was made on Friday night where a
caller, who identified himself as Udai, called from a public telephone
booth and informed police officials that he knew about a plan where
the CM and some IPS officers are on the cross hair of extremists.

He added that attackers' have put up at Juhapura and will start off
from there to be disappeared amongst the crowd gathered for the
function.

"The security was stepped up and the officials were informed about the
call. Though nothing happened during the ceremony, we were vigilant to
thwart any attack," said a senior city police official.

When control room officials were contacted on the issue, they accepted
that such an incident has taken place. "It was one of the threat calls
that we receive everyday. We did not take it seriously initially. We
had sent the message to the higher-ups for keeping an eye," said a
senior control room official.

chhotemianinshallah

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Oct 13, 2009, 3:59:18 PM10/13/09
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'Love Jihad' racket: VHP, Christian groups find common cause
Ananthakrishnan G, TNN 13 October 2009, 08:00am IST

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: 'Love Jihad', a religious conversion racket which
lures gullible girls by feigning love, has brought rivals Vishwa Hindu
Parishad and Christian groups in Kerala together.

The two have decided to join hands to combat the ‘‘social evil’’,
which they claim is hitting their respective communities hard.

‘‘Both Hindu and Christian girls are falling prey to the design. So we
are cooperating with the VHP on tackling this. We will work together
to whatever extent possible,’’ K S Samson, an office-bearer of Kochi-
based Christian Association for Social Action (CASA), a voluntary
Christian association, told TOI.

Samson said some days ago, CASA got to know about a Hindu family in a
Christian parish where a school going girl was the victim. ‘‘We
immediately referred it to the VHP,’’ he said, adding the saffron
outfit has helped them in many cases.

The Parishad on its part has started a ‘Hindu Helpline’, which claims
to have received as many as 1,500 calls in last three months.

‘‘Many of these callers wanted to congratulate us for our efforts and
some were threats,’’ said Vineesh, who manages the helpline.

The Kerala Catholic Bishops Council has come out with a set of
guidelines for Christian parents warning them to be more careful about
their wards.

‘‘It’s shocking but it is happening. Many Christian families are
getting affected,’’ said Father Johny Kochuparambil, secretary of
Council’s Commission for Social Harmony and Vigilance.

‘‘We are careful as this is a sensitive issue and could even lead to a
religious conflict. But now that the Kerla high court too has
interfered in the matter, we have decided to take a stand,’’ said
Kochuparambil.

The high court has asked the DGP to probe the charges and report to
it.

chhotemianinshallah

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Oct 14, 2009, 6:34:05 PM10/14/09
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http://www.livemint.com/2009/10/15012044/BJP-faces-RSS-ire-for-not-rein.html

Posted: Thu, Oct 15 2009. 1:20 AM IST
Economy and Politics

BJP faces RSS ire for not reining in allies

The RSS says the leadership of the Hindu nationalist party failed to
stop Bihar CM Nitish Kumar from allocating land for the Aligarh Muslim
University’s extension campus in Kishanganj
Santosh K. Joy

New Delhi: The main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is facing
criticism from its ideological parent, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh
(RSS), for not reining in alliance partners, especially the Janata Dal
(United) or JD(U)-led government in Bihar.

The RSS says the leadership of the Hindu nationalist party failed to
stop Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar from allocating land for the
Aligarh Muslim University’s extension campus in Kishanganj. The RSS
said there was no need for a campus in the Muslim-dominated district.
“Our view is that steps like this are aimed at winning over a few
votes and we do not subscribe to it,” said RSS national executive
member and spokesperson Ram Madhav. “Beyond this, the RSS has nothing
to say. It’s for the BJP to take a political decision on issues.”

The issue may backfire on the BJP if Kumar uses it as a political
plank against his allies. The BJP’s legislative support is crucial for
the JD(U) government in Bihar.

“If this issue gains momentum, it could not only put the BJP in a
difficult situation in the rest of the country and the state, it means
a major plank for Nitish Kumar to go to the people with” if his ally
withdraws support, said B.G. Verghese, political analyst and visiting
professor, Centre for Policy Research.

The displeasure was expressed at the Akhil Bharatiya Karyakari Mandal
conclave of the RSS that was held at Rajgir in Bihar and ended on 11
October. “The issue could be addressed separately,” said BJP
spokesperson Ravi Shankar Prasad, who was present at the Rajgir
conclave. He admitted that the matter was “flagged” at the meeting.

RSS leaders pointed out that the BJP government led by Shivraj Singh
Chouhan in Madhya Pradesh had blocked the Union government’s move to
establish such a campus in the state. “But the party could not do
anything when it came to Bihar,” said an RSS leader, who did not want
to be identified. The BJP students’ wing, the Akhil Bharatiya
Vidyarthi Parishad, has been vehemently protesting against the
Kishanganj campus.

The JD(U) has 88 seats in the Bihar assembly while the BJP has 54 in
the 243-member legislature. The state is scheduled to go to the polls
towards the end of next year.

bademiyansubhanallah

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Oct 15, 2009, 7:00:47 AM10/15/09
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http://rethinkingislam-sultanshahin.blogspot.com/2009/10/rss-here-i-come.html

Wednesday, October 14, 2009
RSS, here I come

Islam and Pluralism
14 Oct 2009, NewAgeIslam.Com

RSS, here I come

Imagine Islam's appeal to one who is constantly told he is too
"impure" to be allowed entry inside a temple. Imagine the doors of a
mosque being flung open to him with an invite — Come, stand shoulder-
to-shoulder with the rest of us. No hierarchy here, no caste, no
class, no race: Sab ka maalik ek! Who says you are too impure to enter
a holy space or hold a holy text? Here's the Quran, it's yours as much
as anyone else's: Touch it, hold it, read it, kiss it, hug it, store
it in your heart and mind. -- Javed Anand

URL of this page: http://newageislam.net/NewAgeIslamArticleDetail.aspx?ArticleID=1909

RSS, here I come
Javed Anand

Adarniya Sarsanghchalak Bhagwatji, Saadar Pranaam!

Oct.14: I am deeply moved by your humko bhi parkho Dussehra Day invite
sent out to Muslims and Christians to join the Rashtriya Swayamsevak
Sangh (RSS). So, the Sangh Parivar, here I come. Please treat this
letter as my application for entry into the fold for your kind
consideration. I understand from the media that all you want is for
the likes of me to accept that "all Muslims in India were Hindus in
the past... who have only changed their method of worship".

I hope I make it since I more than fulfil your benevolent requirement.
For starters, I am not too strong on the worship front. Even
otherwise, I have no difficulty in accepting the obvious — Hindu past
— for I doubt if my forefathers could be Sikhs, Jains, or Buddhists.
The former are easily discounted for they arrived too late on the
scene. Jains? No way, they are not interested in Mughlai cuisine. As
for Buddhists, I am unable to see what possible incentive there was
for them to abandon their faith.

But converting from Hinduism is conceivable. I have been told since
childhood that we are Siddiquis. That's big if you are talking
hierarchy — being part of the extended parivar of none less than the
closest companion of Prophet Mohammed and the first Caliph of Islam,
Abu Bakr. But this "Arabisation" drive, Bhagwatji, I suspect is quite
like Sanskritisation — in search of respectability, status and
imagination at work. It's quite likely that my forefathers were Hindu
and "untouchable".

Imagine Islam's appeal to one who is constantly told he is too
"impure" to be allowed entry inside a temple. Imagine the doors of a
mosque being flung open to him with an invite — Come, stand shoulder-
to-shoulder with the rest of us. No hierarchy here, no caste, no
class, no race: Sab ka maalik ek! Who says you are too impure to enter
a holy space or hold a holy text? Here's the Quran, it's yours as much
as anyone else's: Touch it, hold it, read it, kiss it, hug it, store
it in your heart and mind.

Imagine, Bhagwatji, does this not sound like celestial music to
outcastes such as my forefathers quite possibly were? But all this is
in the past, no hurdle in the way of my intended gharvaapsi. You may
not know it, but afflicted by fickleness of faith, the subcontinent's
Muslim is forever being pulled in four different directions: dar-e-
Habeeb, maikhana, butkhana, Kaaba. The sound of the sankh or the
temple bell continues to mesmerise many a Muslim as much as the call
of the muezzin. Nowhere is it more evident than in Urdu poetry, a
treasure house which the parivar sadly disowns.

Here, for example, is poet Mir Taqi "Mir","Mir ke deen-o-mazhab ka,
poonchte kya ho unne to kashka khaincha dair mein baitha kab ka tarq
Islam kiya" ("What can I tell you about Mir's faith or belief a tilak
on his forehead in a temple he resides, having abandoned Islam long
ago").

Even more interesting is Mohammed Iqbal, the poet-philosopher who
unfortunately started with "saare jahaan se achcha..." but ended up
with the idea of Pakistan. Here he is, however, in conversation with
shama:

"Yek been teri nazar sifat-e ashqaan-e raaz, meri nigaah maya-e ashob-
e imtiyaaz kaabe mein butkade mein yaksaan teri ziya main imtiyaz dair-
o-haram mein phansa hua".

(For you all truth seekers are alike I am accursed with a malady,
seeking differences You shine in the Kaaba as you glow in idols'
abodes I am trapped in my mosque-temple distinction).

(Noor, shama, diya: in all faiths remember, Light is among the
attributes of the Divine).

No major problems, Bhagwatji, I'll come running to Hindutva's
headquarters. My only problem is a little insecurity, that little
voice which keeps telling me I am being naive, gullible and silly. It
keeps jolting my memory, asking awkward questions. Perhaps you can
help me with some answers.

I eagerly await your assurances.

Saadar.

Javed Anand is co-editor of Communalism Combat and general secretary,
Muslims for Secular Democracy

Source: http://www.asianage.com/presentation/leftnavigation/opinion/op-ed/rss,-here-i-come.aspx

URL of this page: http://newageislam.net/NewAgeIslamArticleDetail.aspx?ArticleID=1909

Posted by Syed Asadullah at 7:47 PM

bademiyansubhanallah

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Oct 15, 2009, 7:03:19 AM10/15/09
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http://birlaa.com/news/bihar-why-the-rss-is-upset-with-nitish/1299

Bihar: Why the RSS is upset with Nitish
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
By NDTV News - India

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has a new cause for concern in Bihar
- schemes being run by Janata Dal (U) for minorities. Tension between
the allies has mounted after the Nitish Kumar government sanctioned
land in Kishanganj district to set up a branch of the Aligarh Muslim
University. The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) calls it minority
appeasement and has asked the BJP to take up the issue.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 14th, 2009 at 8:25 pm

chhotemianinshallah

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Oct 15, 2009, 11:33:34 AM10/15/09
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http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Defiant-Raje-puts-BJP-on-back-foot-/articleshow/5128287.cms

Defiant Raje puts BJP on back foot
IANS 15 October 2009, 07:56pm IST

NEW DELHI: The crisis over the removal of Vasundhara Raje as leader of
opposition in the Rajasthan assembly continues with a three-hour
parliamentary board meeting of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)
Thursday failing to reach a decision on the issue.

Raje, who refused to quit the post, is expected to continue in the
post till the by-elections to two assembly seats in Rajasthan get over
on Nov 7, sources said.

Sources close to the development said that Raje enjoys the silent
support of senior party leaders including Lok Sabha Leader of
Opposition L.K Advani.

However, party president Rajnath Singh wants Raje out.

"There are serious differences in the party over the issue," a BJP
leader said, adding: "But no one want to publicly challenge a decision
announced by the party president."

Rajnath Singh had asked Raje to quit following the BJP's dismal show
in the parliamentary polls in May and the assembly elections last
December.

chhotemianinshallah

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Oct 15, 2009, 11:55:27 AM10/15/09
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http://blogs.outlookindia.com/default.aspx?ddm=10&pid=2110&eid=5

BJP's Problem: 'Ideology And Attendant Nuttiness'

Had meant to link it last week, but somehow forgot. The Economist on
how the recent intervention by RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat is proof for
many Indians that:

BJP is enslaved to bare-legged zealots obsessed with the idea that
Hindu India is under attack: from Muslims, Chinese communists and
American capitalists abroad and Muslims, Maoists and industrial
developers at home...

It goes on to wonder whether the BJP can become a mellower yellow:

...The problem is the ideology and attendant nuttiness: Islamophobia,
callisthenics, shorts and all. To lead its coalition government, the
BJP had actually to forswear core Hindutva demands: for a new temple
on the site of a demolished mosque at Ayodhya; for a federal ban on
cow-slaughter; and for an end to Muslims’ enjoyment of their own
family law.

This alienated party activists, who questioned the point of an
ideology that has to be abandoned when it wins power. But to rule
again, the BJP may have to distance itself even further from the RSS
and find a more clubable leader.

Read the full piece: Shorts and all

http://www.economist.com/world/asia/displaystory.cfm?story_id=14586982

POSTED BY Sundeep ON Oct 15, 2009 AT 03:34 IST Comments : Latest
First Oldest First

Oct 15, 2009 07:39 PM
1 Very accurate reading of the situation on the ground. But, rest
assured RSS will rather go back to time-tested methods of communal
polarization, riots and bomb blasts than change its ideology. It is
such a surprise that in the run up to any parliament election their is
such polarization, riots and bomb blasts, and once the elections are
over every thing goes back to normal.
JayKay Chraborty
Kolkatta, India

Oct 15, 2009 07:15 PM
2 Hello Sanghi "Dr" Rajiva. I don't find it a silly article at all. It
is hilarious. Makes me chortle in delight. Why get your chaddis in a
twist?

Do you want a uniform civil code? Would you like the concessions on
Hindu Undivided Family lifted? Would you, also, by the way like the
ban on cow slaughter also lifted?
Ajit Tendulkar
Seattle, United States

Oct 15, 2009 06:48 PM
3 A silly article written by some arm chair critic at The Economist.
The BJP without the RSS will be a lifeless corpse, as someone said.

And why not shorts ? It is the 'shorts' who are always at the
forefront during national calamities like floods and tsunamis.They do
sterling work, while the armchair liberals simply talk.

And yes, the threat from Maoists is very real. Witness the recent
events.Beheadings, killing of innocent children, including women and
children and tribals who do not give in to their extortion policies or
their savage attacks on infrastructre and peoples, all because they
want to destroy the Indian state and capture power(no doubt in the
service of their foreign master across the border).

It might be useful if Muslims gave up Personal Law and accepted a
uniform civil code that would unify the nation. The Hindu Code Bill is
a misnomer. It is actually a uniform civil code for the Hindu
majority. This was a progressive and good thing, because it reformed
outdated Hindu laws. Muslims were allowed to keep their backward
Personal Laws because of the opposition from mullahs. The attempt by
some Muslim liberals today to codify Muslim law (with suitable
modernisation) is also misguided. Tunisia, Turkey etc. have done so
because they are Muslim countries. In India which calls itself a
secular democratic republic, the uniform, common civil code is the
only way to go. Codifying Muslim law will only be communalising the
law.

And yes, the Christian fundamentalist outfits must be feared because
they use all methods to convert. They have abused Hinduism in
Karnataka and Kerala and other parts of India. In fact, all
missionaries should be sent packing. They are a hangover from the days
of British colonial rule.

Readers may be interested in watching the fine interview which the RSS
chief, Shri Mohan Bhagwat gave to Arnab Goswami in Times Now.
Dr. Vijaya Rajiva
Montreal, Canada

Banyan

Shorts and all
Oct 8th 2009

From The Economist print edition

India's voters are not wild about saffron. Can the BJP become a
mellower yellow?

Illustration by M. MorgensternON THE eve of India’s 2004 election the
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) looked to have completed its evolution
from a bunch of Hindu leftist and Islamophobic oddballs into a right-
leaning party of government. After winning elections in 1998 and 1999,
the BJP had run a stable, somewhat-reformist coalition government. Its
prime minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee, a witty Hindu nationalist and
poet, famed for his oratory, was India’s most popular politician. The
economy was booming. The main opposition, the Congress party, after a
decade of feuding and longer decline, was a mess. The future, for most
pundits, looked saffron.

But the BJP lost that election narrowly and this May lost another one—
calamitously. It won just 116 of 545 parliamentary seats, its worst
result for two decades. Congress won 206 seats, its best result since
1991, despite an outgoing coalition government, headed by Manmohan
Singh, that seemed hardly better than the BJP’s had been. Unpredicted
by even the most slavish acolytes of the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty that
leads Congress (Sonia Gandhi is the incumbent; her son Rahul will be
next), this success came mainly at the BJP’s expense, in north and
central India, where India’s two national parties compete head-on. It
is now the saffron party that seems in decline—and much depends on how
seriously. For a start, Congress, complacent and corrupt, needs a
testing opponent, which the BJP currently is not.

In recent weeks the Hindu party has done much to justify Indians’ poor
opinion of it. Weakly led by L.K. Advani, its 81-year-old former prime-
ministerial candidate, it has sunk to back-stabbing and recrimination
more vicious even than the round that followed its 2004 defeat, when
Mr Advani himself was forced out as the party’s president. Bizarrely,
a notable victim of the latest in-fighting, Jaswant Singh, a former
BJP foreign minister, was sacked for the very offence that did for Mr
Advani: being too nice about Pakistan’s founder, Muhammad Ali Jinnah.
At least the plodding history in which he transgressed is now flying
off the shelves.

There was other history to Mr Singh’s sacking: including a party feud
in his native Rajasthan. But that he, a rare secular BJP leader, was
sacrificed to the party’s flailing efforts to restore discipline, and
that Jinnah-praise was his crime, was doubly significant. It showed
the BJP’s instinct under duress to lurch to the extreme Hinduist
positions of its parent organisation, a mass-membership Hindu-
revivalist outfit called the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS).

The RSS, whose members perform daybreak group callisthenics wearing
khaki shorts, keeps the party on a long leash. Though many BJP
leaders, including Mr Vajpayee, now retired, and Mr Advani are former
pracharaks—full-time, unmarried RSS activists—the party has no
official link to its mother organisation. But when crisis hits, the
RSS steps in, as Mohan Bhagwat, its droopy-moustachioed chief, is now
doing with gusto.

He denies any role in Mr Singh’s sacking, but has been meeting party
bosses to quell the furore it has caused. Restore party discipline, he
has advised them, and get some younger leaders. For many Indians, this
intervention is proof that the BJP is enslaved to bare-legged zealots
obsessed with the idea that Hindu India is under attack: from Muslims,
Chinese communists and American capitalists abroad and Muslims,
Maoists and industrial developers at home. The RSS’s creed, Hindutva
(“Hinduness”), Mr Bhagwat said last month, is also imperilled: “Its
deities and its traditions are being denigrated and assaulted.”

This appeals to hard-core Hindu nationalists, the BJP’s drones, who
buzz around to spread the word and, crucially, get out the vote. And
it had a broader resonance in the 1990s, when a shiver of fear—of
Muslims and low-caste upstarts—passed through Hindu society at large,
fanned by the BJP. But the election suggested Hindutva’s pull is
waning. Important former BJP allies now want nothing to do with the
party. And research by Yogendra Yadav and Suhas Palshikar, political
scientists, shows that Congress made its deepest inroads among the
BJP’s core support: the urban upper castes and middle classes,
especially men.

The saffron party, while shackled to the dogmatic RSS, disagrees. Its
thinkers blame the party’s rout on weak leadership and a shortage of
allies—without acknowledging the squeamishness the BJP instils in
other parties. Above all, they reckon that Congress, as the front-
runner, profited from a massive, nationwide desire for stable
government. According to a writer in the Organiser, an RSS weekly:
“Congress should consider itself just lucky to have come to power for
no sound discernible reason.”

Metaphysical jerks

But there is little evidence for this rush-for-stability theory. The
combined vote-share of India’s two biggest parties actually fell—and
Congress’s increased share, just two percentage points, was modest.
Nor can Mr Advani alone be blamed for the erosion of his party’s
former base, which began in 2004 under Mr Vajpayee. The problem is the
ideology and attendant nuttiness: Islamophobia, callisthenics, shorts
and all. To lead its coalition government, the BJP had actually to
forswear core Hindutva demands: for a new temple on the site of a
demolished mosque at Ayodhya; for a federal ban on cow-slaughter; and
for an end to Muslims’ enjoyment of their own family law.

This alienated party activists, who questioned the point of an
ideology that has to be abandoned when it wins power. But to rule
again, the BJP may have to distance itself even further from the RSS
and find a more clubable leader. Thus reformed, it might thrive as a
right-wing alternative to Congress: nationalist and lightly Hinduist,
if it wishes, and committed to economic growth and more efficient
government. The trouble is, that would not be the party that most
loyal BJP activists signed up for.

npunwani wrote: Thu, 2009-10-08 13:46 .

The BJP should follow the path of the Christian democratic parties in
Europe. They should stand for free markets, limited government, and
traditional values. The Hindu nationalism does not need to be dropped,
the tone just needs to be changed. They need to emphasize tradition as
a prerequisite for a functioning free market and individual liberties.

Recommend (19)
apu2 wrote: Thu, 2009-10-08 23:59 .

The author has got it wrong. RSS stepped in because BJP was trounced
in the recent election and its leaders proved to be utter failures.
BJP has two groups of supporters which is quite similar to the
Republican Party in the USA. Like the Republicans, BJP has an urban,
suave group who believe in free market economy and a suburban, staunch
Hindu group who have a convoluted and shallow idea of Hinduism and
most of them are anti-Islam.

In contrast, Congress has always been a broad umbrella since its
founding nearly 125 years ago. In last 5 years, Congress has performed
quite well under Manmohan Singh, an internationally famous economist
with impeccable integrity. The NREGA program to provide minimum 100
days work to rural poor has been an immense success and translated
into votes. People were not impressed by BJP and CPI(M)’s opposition
to the India-US nuclear deal and both parties suffered. The fact that
last 5 years have been relatively calm with good economic growth and
no major calamities has helped Congress a lot.

To some extent, BJP is responsible for its terrible result at the
polls. Their leader Advani harped on a frivolous and untrue issue that
Indian businessmen have stashed $1.5 Trillion in Swiss banks. He did
nothing to provide a great vision for India if BJP comes to power.
Many urban BJP supporters were convinced without any basis that BJP
will come back to power with substantial strength in a coalition.

Unless BJP becomes a broader party with a genuine willingness to
capture support of Muslims and liberal Hindus, it will never be able
to compete with Congress at national level. India is a liberal nation
and non-secular parties can never have national presence.

Recommend (15)
Permalink.kvmd wrote: Fri, 2009-10-09 00:54 .

At one point the writer says, "...For many Indians, this intervention
is proof that the BJP is enslaved to bare-legged zealots obsessed with
the idea that Hindu India is under attack: from Muslims, Chinese
communists and American capitalists abroad and Muslims, Maoists and
industrial developers at home..."

And a few paragraphs later, "...And research by Yogendra Yadav and
Suhas Palshikar, political scientists, shows that Congress made its
deepest inroads among the BJP’s core support: the urban upper castes
and middle classes, especially men..."

The two statements kind of contradict one another. Urban upper castes
and middle classes are groups that are generally pro-liberalization,
meaning, they do not see industrial developers and capitalists as
negative forces, as the RSS sees it, but as two forces required for
the country's and their own individual progress.

So hard to see these people among the BJP's core support to begin
with.

Recommend (7)
.npunwani wrote: Fri, 2009-10-09 01:51 .apu2,

The NREGA program is a joke and you know it. Its a recipe for
corruption and inflation. Manhmohan Singh may be a brilliant economist
but he hasn't been able to push any policies thru. There have been
practically no market reforms since 2004, save for the opening of
domestic civil aviation. Nothing has moved on privatisation, the
reduction of government equity in banks and insurance companies,
pensions, competition regulation or the administration of subsidies.
Industrial tariffs have come down, but otherwise external protection
has not been reduced. India remains the most protectionist large
emerging market.

Worse, there has been reform backsliding and reversal. Fiscal
restraint, written into law in 2003, has been thrown to the winds.
Now, with an economic downturn, the consolidated government deficit is
projected to rise above 10 per cent of gross domestic product. Funding
for much-needed infrastructure projects will suffer. Controlled
pricing of petroleum products was reintroduced in 2008. Off-budget
expenditure has increased significantly, especially through populist
measures to support rural employment and the energy sector.

The government’s response to the present global economic crisis was to
introduce further market-distorting restrictions, including higher
tariffs, anti-dumping duties and assorted non-tariff import barriers.

This is the Congress Party! A party that defends the status quo of
corruption, nepotism, and socialism.

Recommend (13)
Vaibhav J wrote: Fri, 2009-10-09 06:11 .Dear Banyan,

Your article smacks of ignorance and arrogance. Did you do any
research for this or was it a mere compilation of anti-BJP ranting in
the leftist and Congress dominated media?

- First, you need to get your facts right. You write - Mr Vajpayee,
now retired, and Mr Advani are former pracharaks—full-time, unmarried
RSS activists. Well, a pracharak has nothing to do with being
unmarried. Mr. Advani is indeed married and has children. You may not
have heard of them because unlike children of most Congress leaders
who take politics to be their personal fiefdom, Mr. Advani's children
have maintained a low profile and gone about minding their own
businesses
- You claim- BJP is enslaved to bare-legged zealots obsessed with the
idea that Hindu India is under attack: from Muslims, Chinese
communists and American capitalists abroad and Muslims, Maoists and
industrial developers at home
Let me take each one in turn

Muslims- The BJP has time and again maintained that it is not against
Muslims per se but against those sections that drive a wedge in
society. How is this any different from any other party anywhere in
the world? Didn't the French ban head scarves when they thought they
threatened social integration. Does that make France "Islamophobic" as
you like to call the BJP?

Maoists- The Congress and Mr. Chidambaram, the Home Minister, have
called the Maoists as the single biggest internal threat to India
Chinese communists- Democracies around the world have seen communists
as a threat. Even today, the US is not comfortable with a (much much
smaller) communist Cuba in its neighbourhood and socialist govts. in
Latin America. Given India-China history and its border disputes, is
it really strange to be wary of communist China?

Capitalists and industrial developers- Please look at the 5 years of
BJP rule and you would realize that the BJP continued with greater
flourish the Congress policies on privatization and globalization.

As for the RSS, while you chose to focus and poke fun at the nuttiness
of callisthenics, it would have been more informative if you had
looked at the role the RSS has played during every major calamity
(natural or otherwise) in India in the way of relief and re-
habilitation work

To conclude, I would have expected a more researched and analytically
sound article than one that just re-gurgitates accusations and mis-
information from some publications in India

Recommend (22)
ashim2009 wrote: Fri, 2009-10-09 12:10 .

It is easy to say that not only BJP but the entire saffron brigade is
sliding out though they continue to rule a large number of states in
India. But it would be premature to think they are out and finished.
Withouit being a psephologist, one would predict that BJP shall do
reasonably well and come close to capturing power in states of
Maharashtra in particular unless internal squabbles between the rival
shivsainik plays the spoilsport for them. As an observer of their
modus operandii since the Jansangh days, one is convinced that they
thrive on emotive issues like, langauge, cow slaughter, Ram Mandir.
Now they are not finding more such emotive issues. One's sense is that
having played havoc on Ram Mandir, people will not take them seriously
anymore if they try to invoke the same or similar issues. Possibly
poeople shall suspect them of trying to hoodwink voters if they do so.
RSS possibly has a wind of it. That is why they seemed to jump into
BJP politics actively just a month or so ago throwing into air their
pretensions of being apolitical. Significantly, they have withdrawn
themselves from that position. It appears RSS is itself as youthful a
force as it used to be with first and second generation of Indians who
suffered the attrocities of partition of country in 1947. RSS ideology
has lost it's sheen for the youth of today. Visit any of their
neighbourhood shakhas ( morning prayer meetings ), one cannot miss
seeing the aging profile of it's grass root members, whose number
importantly hardly exceeds 10 in a neighbourhood of lakhs.

Recommend (4)
apu2 wrote: Fri, 2009-10-09 13:24 .npunwani,

NREGA is a very well thought out plan and the planners knew that there
are possibilities of corruption. But it has been a success beyond the
planners' imagination. You must have heard that farmers in Punjab and
Haryana are suffering because the massive migration of labor from
Bihar and UP has stopped. These laborers are getting minimum wage in
their own village, thanks to NREGA and hence do not have to migrate.
Also, local businessmen in Bihar who would normally pay lower than
minimum wage are forced to pay minimum wage because laborers have the
option of NREGA. I also have to give huge credit to Nitish Kumar for
improving Bihar.

As for the rest of your points, I agree. But Manmohanji's hands were
tied because of CPI(M)'s support. In the coming 5 years, I expect a
lot more reforms. Any Indian government must make sure that
development is uniform. The bottom 500 million must also feel effects
of development. Thanks to democracy, India has not gone China's way
where the top 20% live in luxury and the bottom 20% are pathetically
poor. China's Gini index is worse the the USA.

I sincerely think that BJP can provide a viable opposition to
Congress. But first it has to cleanse the party of the likes of MM
Joshi, Rajnath Singh, Varun Gandhi. I admire people like Arun Jetley
and Shouri, Sushma Swaraj, Shanta Kumar.

Regarding your comment about Congress, I do not see it more or less
corrupt than any other party. As far as nepotism goes, Congress had
had leaders from non-Gandhi family including Dr. Singh. But at every
crisis of the party, they have found that a person from Gandhi family
can attract many many Indians and many many votes. The party's goal is
to win elections. If Indian people prefer a member of Nehru-Gandhi
family over others, you should blame Indian people, not Congress.

Recommend (5)
drhpillai wrote: Fri, 2009-10-09 15:44 .

The idea of 'India' is critical to the future of the world,being multi
ethnic, multi lingual , multi religious , also being the cradle for 4
of the world's religions is in itself a miracle. Modern India exists
in several paradigms , yet the resilience of this democracy and the
common cultural thread that binds this nation requires robust
political debate and ideology . It is not suprising that in a Hindu
majority nation a political party that espouses 'Hindutvaa' as it's
core ideology is unable to win two successive general elections.
Political parties based on religion and narrow parochial views should
be related to the backyard of history and in it's place should emerge
a new strong party that reflects the views of 'young' India and brings
to focus a clear objective pathway to create an inclusive country that
is able to create opportunity to all it's citizens. Defeat should
provide an opportunity for introspection , violent expressions of
ideology and intolerance is not India's national character. Hopefully
all parties will bring forth a new generation of young leaders blessed
with the optimism of the future and weld together a set of clear
national agenda on subjects such as equity in economic growth, a
peaceful settlement of all outstanding border issues with
neighbours,creation of a giant domestic market and dissolution of all
archaic barriers ,good quality education and healthcare etc. Parties
such as the BJP should not just strive to be a shade of mellower
yellow but be a rainbow of the colours that represent the national
identity.

Recommend (5)
Permalink.npunwani wrote: Fri, 2009-10-09 19:56 .apu2,

I wish I was only more optimistic. India needs bold reforms if it is
to accelerate its economic growth rate.

Just look at Mukherjee's budget. Its absolutely pathetic. Nothing on
disinvestment, it still entrenches all these farm and energy subsidies
that are exceedingly wasteful for the exchequer, and nothing for
foreign investment or internal market competition. Nothing, nothing,
nothing. In spite of having a majority, they aren't doing anything.

The education bill is awful as well, pours more money into a broken
education system, where many teachers themselves are illiterate and
don't even show up to work. Why didn't the brilliant economist
messiah, Manmohan Singh, propose vouchers so people can enroll in
private schools. That would increase competition in education and
force state run schools to increase their standards in the long run.

I agree Jaitley, Shourie, Swaraj, I also think Modi are the future. My
family is good friends with Jaitley's wife.

Recommend (9)

Permalink.divakarssathya wrote: Fri, 2009-10-09 22:37

.India's insular, necrophilous oligarchy had encountered - shot dead
in cold blood - 19 year old Ishrat Jehan on idiotic dribbles.

And the Prime Minister's Office is being quiet as a mouse about the
impeccable evidence it has on the corrupt, duplicitous and psychotic
conduct of the Government of India, the Government Of Andhra Pradesh,
The Indian editorial class, the administrators of the Right To
Information Act, The Andhra Pradesh High Court and a fellow travelling
klatch of "human rights" ngos.

Welcome to yet another "conspiracy in corruption" .

This is a documented account of the schizophrenic character of the
babulog ke babalog who have formed themselves into the ruling class of
India.

This is a story of the most appalling illiberality and destructiveness
that India's editorial class will not report !

sathyagraha.blogspot.com

Divakar's Sathyagraha - News and views from Divakar S Natarajan's, "no
excuses", ultra peaceful, non partisan, individual sathyagraha against
corruption and for the idea of the rule of law in India.

Now in its 18th year.

Any struggle against a predatory authority is humanity's struggle to
honour the gift of life.

Believe me , you have no idea how much I wish I had a warm, fuzzy,
Indian fairy tale to tell!

Recommend (3)

Permalink._HindooKafir_ wrote: Sat, 2009-10-10 06:40 .

BJP is a terminally sick patient

It deserves one lethal injection administered by none but the insider
(s) - Modi and Shourie. May be some organs can be harvested and these
two can resurrect the party in an acceptable form.

Kalyan Singh summed up the current BJP aptly on his expulsion "Sadee
galee Badboodaar lash" . And the curator of this cadaver is LK Advani

Recommend (3)
HindooKafir_ wrote: Sat, 2009-10-10 06:51 .

divakarssathya say "shot dead in cold blood - 19 year old Ishrat Jehan
on idiotic dribbles."

NonSense, she was shot in a hot pursuit , most professionally, with a
bullet each in the head and the heart. No terror attack in Gujrat
since then. Ends justify the means
.Report abuseRecommend (6)Permalink.K India wrote: Sat, 2009-10-10
11:03 .The Ruling coalition in India is hell bent to paint BJP black.
It has vicious control and grip over the media both print and
electronic. There is no even playing field. Nevertheless BJP is
emerging albeit gradually because people have started realsing that
UPA is playing a political game at the cost of the people of India.

K India

Recommend (6)
indica wrote: Sat, 2009-10-10 21:44 .

BJP needs to put its house in order. Yes, but not all criticisms of
it, which are now part of 'media cliche' [Economist included, it ofen
'echoes' the views of 'secular' Indian papers like 'The Hindu'!!], are
accurate. BJP speaks its mind. It has not learnt the 'nuancing' and
'posturing' of the Congress party. How to appear pious but do many
unpious deeds, without the Public noticing it.

BJP could learn from the Congress a few things. For instance, how to
'appear' to be secular!! Have in its top echelons many Christians, and
other non-Hindus, preferably with 'white' complexions, and some
'nominal Hindus' who go to Iftar parties to tell jokes about 'holy
cows' [jokes about 'cattle class' in referring to Indian railway's
over-crowded economy class, however, are not 'secular' nor
'socialist']. These Hindus would become recognisably 'secular' if they
are married to a non-Hindu, preferably of European descent (Columbian
or Brazilian included). The female type of Hindus would find it easier
to gain admission to the ruling circle, if they are married to some
non-Hindu man or at least a Hindu man who sports a very long beard and
is often detained at US airports for hours of close questioning.

If such suitable 'reforms' are carried out, BJP can, indeed, preside
over the huge "Reservation-Quota-Corruption-Casteist- Haj Subsidy Raj"
that Congress had taken 60 years to build up from scratch in India.

Finally, critics of BJP's 'Hindutva' must remember that for Jinnah and
his Muslim League, Congress was the 'Hindutva' party. An elderly
Indian used to tell me, "Pakistan and partition happened because in
Mahatma Gandhi's meetings they all sang, "Raghupathi Raghave Rajah
Ram.... Iswaru Allah Thero Naam". Some Muslims cannot stand that sort
of thing. It is so easy to qualify as 'anti-Muslim'.

Incidentally, Britain has the highest number of Muslim prisoners of
any EU country. Is Britain 'anti-muslim'?

By 2020 BJP will have a Muslim as its deputy leader. His name may well
be Naqvi.... Isha Allah...
.Report abuseRecommend (5)Permalink.indica wrote: Sat, 2009-10-10
21:54 .Apologies for the typos in my earlier post.

Of course, I meant to say, "Insha Allah" !! Very soon all
'secularists' in India must adopt this Islamic practice. Or else, they
would be mistaken for 'communal Hindus'!!

Recommend (4)
indica wrote: Sat, 2009-10-10 23:42 .

Anyone sufficiently interested in my posts, please save them. Some of
my posts have a very short life. They are soon 'reported and removed'.
My brand of sarcasm is not appreciated by everyone. I accept that.

I do try to keep within Economist's 'Comments Policy', grateful as I
am for the chances to make points, which the Indian media has been
denying me for years.

Freedom of Expression in India, is more limited for folks with my
views, than is realised. Wishy-washy is how the Indian Establishment
is - and they strongly dislike people who are decisive and clear.

Recommend (3)
rajpipla wrote: Sun, 2009-10-11 06:59 .

The BJP is following your columnist's advice in the several states in
which it is in power - providing good governance, most famously under
the controversial Narendra Modi in Gujarat. It may have lost the
national election largely because L. K. Advani, its prime ministerial
candidate, leaves India's electorate cold and unmoved.

Recommend (5)
anandmapr wrote: Sun, 2009-10-11 07:31 .

It is time that BJP moves on. Indians want above all improved socio-
economic conditions. Parties that focus on the same are more likely to
win. Congress, drove socio-economic progress from two fronts: a)
continued to push for acceptable reforms in the organized sector while
maintaing a moderate tax and interest rate regime, and b) by
experimenting with a series of measures such as NREGA that benefited
the poorest of the poor. Yes, there can be always be a debate on the
efficacy of these measures. But the congress did not bring in divisive
issues into the discourse. It embodied decency in the form of Manmohan
Singh and a fairly talented cabinet which presided over key
portfolios. In contrast, BJP is scary. Even its natural constituency -
the urban middle class - living in small town north India, found the
violent minority bashing it stood for worrisome. While Narendra Modi
was projected as the future PM by the gleeful party cadres, the impact
outside was trepidation.

At some point in time when BJP really matures it needs to evolve into
a more centrist party. If the electorate needs to select between BJP
and the Congress, it should be based on who offers better governance
and more sensible socio-economic policies. Unless it does that BJP
will continue to slide down further.

BJP can start demonstrating its commitment to socio-economic
development and sound governance by first cleansing its cupboards. It
needs to get RSS off its back. Those who have played a central role in
unleashing a climate of violence need to be weeded out. The routine
minority bashing in the form of Muslims subject to violence and abuse,
of churches under attack needs to stop. If it reforms from within, may
be the electorate would have a more sensible choice. I am not betting
on this.

Until then, I like most, would continue to think that there is only
alternative that will take our country through.. that is congress.

Anand

Recommend (5)
.futuretense wrote: Mon, 2009-10-12 17:28 .

It would be interesting to see some comparison of India to the German
Wiemar Republic. Modern Germany has banned a lot of smaller parties to
reduce the problems of the tail wagging the dog. Parties that can
demonstrate true inclusiveness and properly define their mission and
goals would fare better than topical parties formed to chase yet
another new fear.

The end result of coalition gov't seems not much different than two
party rule (UK-Labor, US-Democrats, Congress+allies versus UK-
Conservatives, US-Republican, YYY+allies). By any other name, you have
pro-labor and pro-business parties.

Except that in parliamentary democracies, coalitions are a vote away
from failure. Undue attention is thus given to ideological fringe
parties. And there is no appetite for wringing tough changes or
concessions from your voting base.

Is there a better form of democracy for strongly multi-ethnic
countries? Parliamentary system works for Britain given its adherence
to unwritten rules of conduct and a mostly two party system better
able to ignore fringes. Should smaller parties be required to have at
least winners in multiple states? Or a 2/3 majority be required for
overturning a gov't? Shouldn't the head of party be elected by its
voters not appointed by inner bosses? Should the head of the country
be elected by all its people rather than the district the minister is
from?

The Congress party for example has great economic talent but unwilling
to wring any major concessions on employment and subsidies to its
labor and farming voting base. It uses government debt borrowing to
buy union votes through jobs created via gov't owned companies and
programs. More insidiously its decades of anti-business policies has
ingrained a French like belief in gov't regulations and a distrust of
business in the Indian polity. Pro-business parties couldn't arise. By
its own measure only 15 cents of gov't money reaches its intended
target. This result is a single party system whereby the party lives
for itself, creates jobs for itself, then votes for itself, growing
itself through debt which is paid through inflation by those outside
the system.

Recommend (2)
Permalink.nkab wrote: Mon, 2009-10-12 21:31 .

It’s colonialism to the core when Winston Churchill said "...India is
a geographic term. India is no more a country than the equator is a
country..", and I don’t agree with what an earlier poster comment that
India is rather close to becoming a failed state. India is not.

I’d rather agree with Indica that BJP needs to put its house in order.
BJP speaks its mind. It has not learnt the 'nuancing' and 'posturing'
of the Congress party.

Indeed, as Indica said BJP could learn from the Congress a few things.
For instance, how to 'appear' to be secular!! Have in its top echelons
many Christians, and other non-Hindus, preferably with 'white'
complexions, and some 'nominal Hindus' who go to Iftar parties to tell
jokes about 'holy cows'. It's not necessarily true that despite that
Sikh separatists, Assamese secessionists, Tamil militants, Bihari
gangsters, Kashmiri guerrillas—all had provided bloody evidence, of an
India sliding towards ungovernability.

Economist has reported that Indian Finance Minister Mr Mukherjee’s
admission that the central government’s deficit would widen to 6.8% of
GDP in the year to March 2010. It now borrows 34 out of every 100
rupees it spends.

Still, India and North Korea seem to share a common enthusiasm of
shooting missiles, both of their recent launches were successful and
both of their financial fortune could have been better used for their
group of people on hungry line.

Banyan
Shorts and all

India's voters are not wild about saffron. Can the BJP become a
mellower yellow?

Oct 7th 2009

Readers' comments

First<<1221-25 of 25.
Without prejudice wrote: Tue, 2009-10-13 12:22 .

The problem with political parties in India is that of Hindus
themselves.Having savoured majority power on ushering in of democratic
institutions,they do not know how to handle success.The direction of
Hindu polity is sickening and reflects a deep sense of inferiority
complex.They feel better excercising majority tyranny against all
kinds of minorities, whether religious,linguistic,sexual etc.,in the
name of preserving their culture,a vision of imagined vedic past.They
are hanging on to the straws of their beliefs against the hurricane of
modernity.It would be interesting to see,say in about 50 years,
whether the discriminated minorities would find space within the
present nation or without.

Recommend (1)
USG Contractor wrote: Tue, 2009-10-13 16:31 .

As the biggest opposition party in the 80's and 90's BJP kept on
raising the issue of constructing a Hindu temple and demolishing the
mosque that used to stand at its putative location in the north Indian
town of Ayodhaya. Their party workers stormed the site and demolished
the structure. This crucial event now only led BJP to power in 1999
but also quickly became an albatross around the neck. Once in power,
BJP simply could not go ahead and make the temple at the disputed
site. The truth is no party in power could do that as it will lead to
tremendous bloodshed not only in India but will create extremely
dangerous conditions for the Hindu Indian diaspora located in pre-
dominantly Muslim nations in the world.

Thus, BJP back-paddled the issue and thought that the public will
forget and forgive. This could indeed have been the case but some of
its leadership thought that during the elections of 2004 they can use
the promise of construction of the temple to win the elections. Alas,
they seriously miscalculated the intelligence of Indian public who had
voted them to power on the promise of turning India into a Hindu
nation.

The electorate was swift and several BJP leaders lost their ticket to
the parliament. Left with no other issue to raise, BJP during the
elections of 2009, tried to raise the temple issue again. The rout
they suffered bears a clear testimony that Indian population is more
interested in seeing the country move forward and being developed in a
global power, instead of being pulled down in a mess of religious
sacrilege and violence as we see it happening in the neighboring
Pakistan.
.
Recommend (1)
thesceptic wrote: Wed, 2009-10-14 04:53 .The Irrelevance of India?

an interesting point about all these comments is that that vast
majority, perhaps a 100%, of these comments come from indians. this is
often the case, not just this time around.

does anyone else even care?

Recommend (1)
nkab wrote: Wed, 2009-10-14 10:56 .

No one should deny India’s achievements. India is world’s largest
democracy with diversity in culture and religions, India’s feats in
science and space technology is unprecedented with moon shot and
satellite launchings leading the world, and India is world’s largest
recipient of home remittance of hardworking Indian migrant workers
from rich countries and regions including Hong Kong.

If India wants to be accepted by the west and respected by western
people and to be taken seriously, the Congress party should be more
respectful to Bharatiya Janata Party and pay attention to its issues,
and BJP should be more sensitive to Muslim issues so that they could
be more meaningful opposition to each other like Democrats and
Republicans in America. That India’s per capita GDP being only about
1/30 of the West should have no bearing to the matter.
.Report abuseRecommendPermalink.BIN SAFI wrote: Wed, 2009-10-14
22:58 ."..The problem is the ideology and attendant nuttiness:
Islamophobia, callisthenics, shorts and all...."

There's absolutely nothing wrong with Callisthentics & Shorts!

As for the Dogmas/Ideologies & Phobias that seem to Divide & Hold US
back, they ALL must be................

Peace, Love & Respect.

bademiyansubhanallah

unread,
Oct 16, 2009, 4:51:10 AM10/16/09
to
http://www.dnaindia.com/india/report_1-20-lakh-litres-of-water-to-clean-temple-roads_1299609

1.20 lakh litres of water to clean temple roads!
Niyati Rana / DNA Friday, October 16, 2009 10:32 IST

Ahmedabad: While chief minister Narendra Modi was busy preaching the
need to save water, the BJP-ruled AMC was busy wasting it.

On Wednesday, at the inauguration of the Bus Rapid Transit System
(BRTS), Modi asked the citizens to reduce the water used in the
washroom flush. The BJP-ruled AMC at the same time was busy pouring
some 1.20 lakh litres of water on the roads leading to various temples
in the city.

The AMC was apparently trying to clean the roads. According to WHO
standards, the per capita required water consumption of a person per
day is 140 litre.

By this standard, the AMC wasted water that could fulfil the water
requirement of around 8500 citizens for a day. Recently, the health
and solid waste management committee chairman Praful Rawal had
instructed the AMC officials to clean and wash temple roads in all
zones of the city.And this is not for the first time that AMC is
washing the roads.
According to Rawal, AMC has been washing roads with water since 1987-
when the BJP came to power in the AMC.

If one were to calculate the litres of water wastedby the AMC for
washing roads, since it came to power, it would indeed be a big
figure. AMC officials say they supply around 40 tankers of 3,000
litres each to clean roads near 90 temples.

"There are around 90 temples in all the six zones. We send 10 tankers
of around 3,000 litres each at a time. And these 10 tankers commute
four times, which means around 40 trips," said an AMC official.

Not many are likely to oppose the wastage of water as parties feel
that it may affect their vote bank. Rawal, however, feels that it is
not a wastage of water as just a few roads are cleaned. The AMC
standing committee chairman Asit Vora too said that it was not a
wastage of water towash roads, when the washing is required.

bademiyansubhanallah

unread,
Oct 16, 2009, 5:10:06 AM10/16/09
to
http://indiatoday.intoday.in/site/Story/66547/LATEST%20NEWS/BJP+rebuffs+Advani+by+turning+deaf+ear+to+him.html

BJP rebuffs Advani by turning deaf ear to him
Mail Today Bureau
New Delhi, October 16, 2009

The BJP parliamentary board meeting on Thursday turned out to be
another humiliating session for L.K. Advani, as most of his
suggestions were rejected.

During a three-hour-long meeting of the central election committee and
the parliamentary board, Advani pleaded that the Lucknow assembly by-
election ticket be given to the son of senior leader Lalji Tandon, but
the central election committee rejected his request.

While the party is yet to nominate the Lucknow candidate, it has
cleared the name of Rajendra Singh Yadav to contest from Lalitpur in
Uttar Pradesh. The party leadership also turned down Advani's
suggestion to review its decision on former Rajasthan chief minister
Vasundhara Raje. She had been asked by party president Rajnath Singh
two months ago to resign as the state legislature party leader but has
so far resisted all efforts to dislodge her.

Adopting a soft-line towards Raje, Advani urged the board to
reconsider the party's decision asking her to step down. The board
rejected the suggestion, but gave some more time to Raje to relinquish
the post.

Though snubbed on other issues, Advani had the consolation of having
his way on the BJP's national meeting. The board agreed with his
proposal to postpone the party's national executive meeting slated for
October 28-29 in Mumbai.

The deferment of the meeting appears to be a tacit admission that the
BJP- Shiv Sena alliance faces the prospect of a defeat in the recently-
concluded Maharashtra assembly elections.

Sources said Raje was given more time since the party did not want to
take any harsh decision against her on the eve of Diwali and decided
to meet again on October 22.

A source said a section in the party is of the view that if raje does
not quit by October 22, disciplinary action should be taken against
her after the November 7 bypolls for 14 seats in Rajasthan, Uttar
Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Kerala and West Bengal.

Sources said since Venkaiah Naidu, who was given the assignment to get
Raje to tow the party line, is currently out of the country, senior
leader Sushma Swaraj has been deputed to persuade a defiant Raje to
quit soon.

The BJP parliamentary board meeting was attended by Advani, Rajnath,
Arun Jaitley, Sushma and Ananth Kumar, among others.

Murli Manohar Joshi, Gopinath Munde, Bal Apte and Naidu, who is
currently abroad, were some of the prominent absentees.

Raje, who had been summoned by the party leadership to Delhi, too did
not turn up citing the absence of Naidu, with whom she is talking on
the issue of her resignation.

The meeting also discussed the recent turn of events in the India-
China relations and the RSS attack on the JD(U)-BJP government in
Bihar led by Nitish Kumar for allotting land to the Aligarh Muslim
University to open a campus in the state.

The request of Lok Sabha member from Kangra, Sushant Raj, for a party
ticket to his wife in the Himachal Pradesh assembly by- election on
November 7 was also not granted.

Courtesy: Mail Today

chhotemianinshallah

unread,
Oct 16, 2009, 9:12:29 AM10/16/09
to
http://www.ptinews.com/news/334539_BJP-national-executive-meet-postponed

BJP national executive meet postponed
STAFF WRITER 17:41 HRS IST

New Delhi, Oct 16 (PTI) BJP has postponed indefinitely the meeting of
its national executive slated to be held on October 28-29.

The meeting was to be the last of the national executive to be chaired
by Rajnath Singh whose term as party President comes to an end on
December 31.

Singh said the meeting has been put off because of the festive season
and the fact that leaders are in their constituences.

BJP sources said since the results of the assembly polls in
Maharashtra, Haryana and Arunachal Pradesh would be announced on
October 22, the leaders were not interested in holding the meeting
just days after the counting of votes.

Party leaders fear while BJP may not do well in Maharashtra, it is
nowhere in picture in Haryana and Arunachal Pradesh.

Sources said the meeting could be held in November but no dates have
been finalised.

bademiyansubhanallah

unread,
Oct 16, 2009, 8:03:03 PM10/16/09
to
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1091017/jsp/frontpage/story_11626260.jsp

RSS outfits grow, away from politics
RADHIKA RAMASESHAN

New Delhi, Oct. 16: The BJP’s ongoing membership drive may be
struggling but the party’s Sangh parivar siblings are growing
robustly.

These other RSS progenies claim that being away from power and
politics is an advantage, and that the BJP’s departure from the Centre
and loss of ground in some state strongholds have actually helped
them.

Since its electoral success in 1989, the BJP had been the Sangh’s
favourite child until it lost power in the 2004 polls and began
showing the rot that had set in within the organisation.

Now, as BJP leaders vie with each other for a shrinking political
space, the Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh (BMS), the Akhil Bharatiya
Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), the Bharatiya Kisan Sangh (BKS) and the
Vanavasi Kalyan Ashram are bursting with good health.

They have some way to go yet before they can match the BJP’s numbers,
but the day that happens, the BJP would lose its rank in the parivar,
a Sangh source warned.

The BMS, India’s largest trade union, has over one crore members —
about half the BJP’s 2.14 crore.

According to the last official count by the labour ministry in 2002,
the BMS had 62.2 lakh members while the Congress-affiliated Indian
National Trade Union Congress (Intuc) had 38 lakh and the CPI’s Aituc,
33 lakh.

Both the BMS and Intuc now claim they have a crore each. But when
quizzed hard on what accounted for the leap, Intuc president and Rajya
Sabha member G. Sanjeeva Reddy became cautious and said: “A Congress
government at the Centre has certainly helped us make inroads into the
organised and unorganised sectors.”

Girish Awasthi, the BMS chief and a man of Sangh provenance, however,
argued that “governmental affinity” was a hindrance rather than a
help.

He said that for the six years the BJP had ruled at the Centre, the
BMS had repeatedly taken on the government over economic reforms and
foreign direct investments — and that each time it did so, its
membership grew.

“Trade unions virtually don’t exist in the private sector. We draw our
strength and sustenance from the public sector. So each time there’s a
major divestment project and we raise our voice, the PSU employees
rally round us,” Awasthi said.

“Because the BMS is not attached to a political party but to a service
organisation like the RSS, we are not encumbered by compulsions to
back a party’s agenda.”

The leaders of some other RSS front outfits too cited their “autonomy”
from the BJP as the main reason for their survival and growth.

Dinesh Dattatreya Kulkarni, organising secretary of the farmers’
union, said: “Our only competitor used to be the Shetkari Sangathan of
Sharad Joshi. But he too converted it into a political party, the
Swatantra Bharat Paksha. Not being in politics gives a core of
integrity to our work because we are not forced to make compromises or
deals, or to defend the indefensible.”

The BKS, which was born in 1979 with 1,500 members and now has nine
lakh, confronted the Narendra Modi government when it hiked the power
tariff for farmers in Gujarat and arrested those who failed to clear
their arrears. Its activists were arrested and the RSS went into a
sulk.

Before the last Gujarat elections, many thought the Kisan Sangh’s near-
revolt against Modi might turn the peasants against the BJP. But in
keeping with an avowed policy to remain “neutral” in politics, the
organisation didn’t work against Modi, either.

The ABVP, the Sangh student arm that the BJP often appropriates as its
own, is convinced that “political neutrality” is the passport to
success. It claims 19 lakh members (the Congress-backed NSUI refused
to give figures saying its elections were on).

The ABVP has the largest following in BJP-ruled Karnataka and in
Andhra Pradesh, a state where the party practically doesn’t exist.

“Students are attracted to us because we work beyond the campus for
the betterment of society. Our biggest slogan is against the
commercialisation of education and that affects one and all,” said
Ravi Kumar, ABVP national secretary.

Kripa Prasad Singh, joint general secretary of the Vanavasi Kalyan
Ashram, which works mainly in the Maoist zones, said an “apolitical”
outlook was the best way of ensuring that state governments did not
stand in the organisation’s way.

“Congress governments have never harassed us because they appreciate
the services we render to the tribals,” Singh said.

“Even the CPM government in Tripura has been friendly. But not the
Bengal government — they deprive the tribals who use our schools and
hostels of the monthly stipend they are entitled to.”

bademiyansubhanallah

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Oct 17, 2009, 5:13:21 AM10/17/09
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http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/india/Margao-blast-Two-detained-death-toll-rises-to-2/articleshow/5134236.cms

Margao blast: Two detained, death toll rises to 2
TIMES NEWS NETWORK & AGENCIES 17 October 2009, 11:40am IST

PANAJI: Two persons were detained today in connection with the
explosion in Margao town in Goa in which a member of a right-wing
Hindu group allegedly linked to Malegaon blast accused Sadhvi Pragya
Singh was killed and another critically injured.

The second person succumbed to his injuries on Saturday raising the
death toll in the blast to 2.

The blast took place at around 9.30 pm last night when explosives kept
in a scooter went off on a busy street in the heart of the town, 30
kms from here.

Goa Home Minister Ravi Naik said police were probing the links of
right-wing group Sanatan Saunstha with the blast. "The scooter which
was carrying the explosives belongs to Saunstha's disciple Nishad
Bakle," he said.

A man named Melgunda Patil was killed in the blast while another,
identified as Yogesh Naik, underwent treatment at the Goa Medical
College hospital. He died on Saturday.

Police said both belonged to the Saunstha, which is allegedly linked
to Pragya Singh.

The Sanatan Saunstha headquarters at Ramnathi in Ponda, 20 kms from
Margao, was raided last night following the blast and two persons have
been detained from that town in the wee hours of the day, police said.
Further details about the detained persons were still awaited.

The blast, which occurred a few metres away from the site of
'Narkasur' effigy competition, a ritual held on the eve of Diwali,
gutted three vehicles. Police have also found a bag containing a watch
and an electric circuit about 20 kms from the explosion site.

bademiyansubhanallah

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Oct 17, 2009, 5:15:36 AM10/17/09
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http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/city/goa/Red-alert-in-Goa-after-blast-police-search-Sanatan-Saunstha-office/articleshow/5133845.cms

Red alert in Goa after blast, police search Sanatan Saunstha office
IANS 17 October 2009, 09:15am IST

PANAJI: Goa has declared a red alert after explosives carried on a
scooter by two men went off, killing one of them and critically
injuring the other, in Margao town in southern part of the state.
Officials have blamed a right-wing Hindu group for the incident.
( Watch Video )

State Home Minister Ravi Naik said the scooter belonged to Nishad
Bakhale, an alleged member of the Sanatan Saunstha, a right-wing Hindu
group, headquartered in the temple town of Ramnathi in the Ponda
region of Goa. Bakhale has been detained for questioning by the
police.

Naik told reporters in Margao, some 35 km from here, that the police
have searched the group's headquarters after the low intensity blast
on Friday night.

Meanwhile, police said Malgondi Patil and Yogesh Naik, who were riding
the Honda Eterno scooter, were members of the group.

Patil, however, succumbed to his injuries a few hours after the blast,
while Naik was in a critical condition at the Goa Medical College,
near Panaji.

The blast took place near the Grace Church in Margao, where some
effigies of Narkasur, a mythical demon, were being burnt to celebrate
the victory of good over evil as part of the Diwali festival.

Police superintendent Atmaram Deshpande said a red alert was declared
after the blast and it would remain until the situation stabilises.

bademiyansubhanallah

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Oct 17, 2009, 5:17:37 AM10/17/09
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http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/goa/Sanatan-Saunstha-responsible-for-Goa-blast-says-minister/articleshow/5133357.cms

Sanatan Saunstha responsible for Goa blast, says minister
IANS 17 October 2009, 04:14am IST

PANAJI: Goa Home Minister Ravi Naik said the Sanatan Saunstha
organisation was responsible for the low intensity blast in Margao
town on Friday night, in which one person was killed and another
critically injured.

Speaking to reporters in Margao, Naik confirmed that the vehicle in
which the explosives were placed belonged to Nishad Bakhale, an


alleged member of the Sanatan Saunstha, a right-wing Hindu group,

which is headquartered in the temple town of Ramnathi in the Ponda
region of Goa.

Bakhale has been detained for questioning by the police.

Naik said the police were conducting search operations at the group's
headquarters after the blast.

The police said Malgondi Patil and Yogesh Naik, who were riding the
Honda Eterno scooter when the blast occurred, were members of the
group.

Patil succumbed to his injuries few hours after the blast, while Naik
is in critical condition and is being operated upon at the Goa Medical
College, near Panaji.

The blast took place near the Grace Church in Margao, where some

effigies of Narkasur, a mythical demon, were symbolically being burnt
to celebrate the victory of good over evil on the eve of Diwali.

Police superintendent Atmaram Deshpande said a red alert had been
declared a few minutes after the blast and it would remain until the

bademiyansubhanallah

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Oct 17, 2009, 5:21:30 AM10/17/09
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http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/goa/One-dies-in-Margao-blast/articleshow/5134080.cms

One dies in Margao blast
PTI 17 October 2009, 10:05am IST

PANAJI: One member of a right wing Hindu group linked to Malegaon
blast accused sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur was killed and another
critically injured on Friday night when an explosive kept in a scooter
went off on a busy street in the heart of Margao town.

Melgunda Patil, who was one of the two persons injured in the blast,
succumbed to his injuries at Goa Medical College.

Police said the blast, triggered at around 9.30 pm, also gutted three
vehicles.

The scooter, which contained the explosive, was parked behind Grace
Church located in the heart of the town.

Yogesh Naik, another member of Sanathan Sanstha, the right wing Hindu
outfit linked to Pragya Singh, is still critical at the hospital,
police sources said.

A red alert was declared across Goa after the incident, Superintendent
of Police Atmaram Deshpande said.

Margao town, the south Goa district headquarters, is the assembly
constituency of Goa Chief Minister Digamber Kamat.

Police have also found a bag containing electric circuit about 20 kms
from the blast site in Margao.

Nishad Bakhle, the owner of the Eterno scooter in which the explosive
was kept, has also been traced at the Sanatan Saunstha office at
Ramnathi in Ponda town 25 kms from here which was raided following the
blast, police sources said.

"We are not suspecting anyone at this moment but are not leaving
anything to chance," a senior police officer said

bademiyansubhanallah

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Oct 19, 2009, 2:33:16 AM10/19/09
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http://indiatoday.intoday.in/site/Story/66836/LATEST%20NEWS/RSS+sends+out+warning+to+BJP's+allies.html

RSS sends out warning to BJP's allies
Prabhu Chawla
October 19, 2009

Under its new chief Mohan Bhagwat, there is a new mood of aggression
in the organisation and this was evident in its decision to hold the
three day national working committee meeting last week in Rajgir, near
Patna. The venue was deliberately chosen. The RSS feels that Bihar's JD
( U) chief minister Nitish Kumar has been following a policy of
minority appeasement and cites the government's decisions to allot
land for setting up of a centre of the Aligarh Muslim University in
Katihar and to give scholarships to Muslim girl students as the latest
in a chain of steps aimed at appeasing minorities.

By holding the session in Rajgir, the RSS hopes to tell Kumar, who
heads a coalition government, that the BJP's support will be
conditional to the government not compromising on the core issues of
Hindutva. Nitish had earlier irked the BJP by asking both LK Advani
and Narendra Modi to stay away from the Lok Sabha poll campaign. The
RSS didn't spare the BJP's deputy chief minister Sushil Modi, a good
man if ever there was one in Bihar politics, for lying low while the
government pursued its minority appeasement policies.

There is a feeling in the RSS that the BJP is being used by allies to
stay in power even as they expand their base at the cost of its own
ideology. The message from Rajgir was: in a coalition, the BJP should
insist on following its agenda and force alliance partners to agree to
a common minimum programme that does not compromise on the core values
of Hindutva. No one would have failed to notice the paeans of praise
that Bhagwat had for the home minister P Chidambaram's efforts to
squeeze the life out of the ultra leftists.

Courtesy: Mail Today

Sid Harth

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Oct 19, 2009, 5:12:30 PM10/19/09
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http://www.hindustantimes.com/Sanatan-Sanstha-denies-role-in-blast-state-govt-mulls-ban/H1-Article1-466933.aspx

Sanatan Sanstha denies role in blast, state Govt mulls ban
Press Trust Of India
Panaji/Mumbai, October 19, 2009

First Published: 21:54 IST(19/10/2009)
Last Updated: 21:59 IST(19/10/2009)

Amid reports of links between the wife of a Goa minister and the
Sanatan Sanstha, the state government is contemplating a ban on the
Hindu right-wing group suspected of having had a role in the Margao
Diwali-eve blast.

The group, however, denied of any role in the explosion that left one
dead and another critically wounded.

Reacting to reports that Jyoti Dhavalikar, wife of state Transport
Minister Ramkrishna Dhavalikar, was an office bearer of the Sanstha,
Home Minister Ravi Naik said the police would examine her.

On her possible questioning, DIG Ravindra Yadav said, "Police
investigation will be on merit and as per the law. It
does not matter if a person is rich or poor, powerful or not. If there
is evidence, we will take action."

According to state Advocate General Subodh Kantak, the law department
is examining whether the Sanstha can be
banned centrally, or a state-specific ban can be imposed.

"We are examining whether the outfit can be banned. There is no formal
decision on the issue," he said.

Naik said the ban can be imposed if the investigation confirms the
outfit's involvement in the blast. "We will take
the decision only after the investigation is over," he said.

Meanwhile, Yadav said Yogesh Naik, who was reported to be dead, was in
fact fighting for his life in a hospital.

As the Sanstha's role in the blast came under the police scanner, its
spokesman Abhay Vartak said an attempt was
being made to falsely implicate the organisation.

"Home Minister Naik is trying to frame our organisation because it had
taken a firm stand on the state government's failure in preventing
desecration of temples and idols in the state," Vartak told reporters
at Panvel near Mumbai.

About Sanstha's alleged foreign links, Naik said police were probing
the issue as its Goa office was frequented by foreigners who were also
found during the raid after the blast. Reacting to Naik's statement,
Vartak said "no foreigners were living in the Goa ashram. Some
American tourists had visited the ashram last week.

"Sanatan Sanstha is being projected as a militant group and
comparisons are being drawn with LeT and Naxalites," Vartak said,
denying its association with Pragya Singh Thakur, one of the main
accused in the Malegaon blast on September 29 last year which killed
six people.

While admitting Malgonda Patil, who was killed in the blast at Margao
on October 16 night, was a Sanstha member and owned the scooter in
which the explosive was planted, Vartak said police were yet to reach
a conclusion about whether the deceased had himself kept the explosive
there.

On the other hand, Yadav said the SIT, constituted to probe the blast,
has questioned a number of top Sanstha functionaries including its
chief Jayant Athavale.

Sid Harth

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Oct 19, 2009, 5:22:29 PM10/19/09
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http://www.hindustantimes.com/Goa-Police-probing-foreign-links-of-Hindu-right-wing-outfit/H1-Article1-466735.aspx

Goa Police probing foreign links of right-wing outfit
Press Trust Of India
Panaji, October 19, 2009

First Published: 14:08 IST(19/10/2009)
Last Updated: 14:19 IST(19/10/2009)

Goa Police is probing the foreign links of Hindu right-wing
organisaiton Sanatan Sanstha, allegedly involved in the Margao blast
in which two of its members were killed.

"Some foreigners often visited the ashram at Ramnathi. I have checked
with the police. They were not even submitting their C forms to police
station," state Home Minister Ram Naik told PTI.

Foreigners on tourist visas are required to submit the C forms.

"We have found that many foreigners used to visit the place. We need
to know what they were doing here," he said, adding police had tried
to get the details of those people but the ashram has no record of
them.

Sanatan ashram at Ramnathi has been under the scanner after the blast.
Two persons, owing allegiance to the Sanstha, linked to 2008 Malegaon
blast accused Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur, were killed in the blast on
Friday night. The police has confirmed that IED was used in the blast.

The Sanstha has denied the allegations against it terming them as
"baseless".

Though police has confirmed the arrest of one person in the case, Naik
said formal arrests are yet to be made although some people have been
detained.

He said that in the wake of blasts, the foreign links of the ashram
have attained importance. "Even yesterday, there were three French
nationals staying in the ashram".

To a question, Naik said there were no intelligence inputs about the
blast. "At least, I was not informed about any inputs".

Naik refused to comment on whether the CID had been on the lookout of
the main accused in the blast, Malgonda Patil.

The organisation had on October 11 claimed that police were on the
look out for Patil.

Sid Harth

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Oct 19, 2009, 5:32:12 PM10/19/09
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http://www.hindustantimes.com/Special-team-to-probe-Goa-blast/H1-Article1-466663.aspx

Special team to probe Goa blast
Indo-Asian News Service
Panaji, October 19, 2009

First Published: 09:32 IST(19/10/2009)
Last Updated: 09:35 IST(19/10/2009)

The Goa police on Sunday formed a special investigation team (SIT) to
probe a low-intensity blast in South Goa that killed two activists of
a right-wing Hindu group on Friday night, officials said.

Two activists of Sanatan Sanstha were killed in Margao town when
explosives being ferried in their scooter went off in a traffic jam.

Senior police officials said that no arrests have been made in the
state so far. Police officers said they believed the bomb was meant
for a Hindu gathering in the town which the Hindu group bitterly
opposed.

The police also detected and defused three other improvised explosive
devices (IEDs), two of which were found near the blast site and one
nearly 25 km away in Sancoale, near the port town of Vasco, 35 km from
the capital.

Superintendent of Police Om Prakash Kurtadkar has been appointed the
SIT chief to spearhead the probe.

On Sunday, a Goa police team left for Sangli district in Maharashtra
to interrogate three Sanatan Sanstha activists who were detained for
the blast, authorities said.

Malgunda Patil, one of the two killed, hailed from Sangli and was
living in Goa for nearly two years at the Sanatan Sanstha ashram,
police said.

Goa Home Minister Ravi Naik said: "This Malgunda Patil was originally
from Sangli. The police team is expected to find out more about his
background. They will also question the persons we have asked to be
detained in Sangli."

Police sources said the team will also be questioning Patil's family
and his known associates in Sangli.

The Mumbai anti-terror squad (ATS) team, which is in Goa to assist the
police in the investigation, visited the scene of the blast Sunday.

The Mumbai ATS is already probing three blast cases in 2008 allegedly
involving Sanatan Sanstha activists in Thane, Navi Mumbai and Panvel
and police officers here said their experience would help in probing
the Goa blast.

The anti-terror team, in a joint operation with the state police,
raided a printing press operated by the Sanstha.

The police have named the two deceased, Patil and Yogesh Naik, under
the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act and under other sections of the
Indian Penal Code for waging war against the country. The police have
also detained four Sanatan Sanstha activists for questioning.

Meanwhile, the politics has started colouring the explosion with the
opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) calling the blast a "dastardly
act" and accusing the home minister of settling political scores by
interfering with investigations in the case.

"It appears that a political colour is being given to the case. The
home minister should let the police investigate first before naming
anyone," Leader of Opposition Manohar Parrikar said, referring to the
ongoing feud between Ravi Naik and a cabinet colleague, whose nephew
the home minister initially named as a suspect.

Parrikar said Goa was increasingly becoming a soft target for
terrorism and that the law and order situation was in the "shambles".

Parrikar said the BJP wanted the police to go the root cause of the
blast.

"If anyone is found guilty, be it Sanatan Sanstha or anyone else for
that matter, they should be severely punished," he said.

Sid Harth

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Oct 19, 2009, 5:34:22 PM10/19/09
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http://www.hindustantimes.com/Sanatan-Sanstha-calls-blast-charges-a-conspiracy/H1-Article1-466544.aspx

Sanatan Sanstha calls blast charges a conspiracy
Press Trust Of India
Panaji, October 18, 2009

First Published: 21:30 IST(18/10/2009)
Last Updated: 22:16 IST(18/10/2009)

Right wing Hindu organisation Sanatan Sanstha, allegedly linked with
the Margao blast, has termed the charges against them as "conspiracy".

"There is every possibility that someone may have planted the
explosives in the scooter of Malgonda Patil (an accused who was killed
in the blast). Police are unnecessarily trying to relate Sanatan
Sanstha to this blast," a release by Sanstha said in Panaji on Sunday
evening.

"We are not the accused else we are the complainants and the state
should give us justice as one of our member has been killed," the
release said.

Malgonda Patil, one of the main accused in the blast, was killed on
the spot in the blast in Margao on Diwali eve.

"This is entirely a conspiracy and one of our follower has been killed
by anti-social elements," it added. Right wing Hindu organisation
Sanatan Sanstha, allegedly linked with the Margao blast, has termed
the charges against them as "conspiracy".

"There is every possibility that someone may have planted the
explosives in the scooter of Malgonda Patil (an accused who was killed
in the blast). Police are unnecessarily trying to relate Sanatan
Sanstha to this blast," a release by Sanstha said in Panaji on Sunday
evening.

"We are not the accused else we are the complainants and the state
should give us justice as one of our member has been killed," the
release said.

Malgonda Patil, one of the main accused in the blast, was killed on
the spot in the blast in Margao on Diwali eve.

"This is entirely a conspiracy and one of our follower has been killed
by anti-social elements," it added.

Sid Harth

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Oct 19, 2009, 5:36:15 PM10/19/09
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http://www.hindustantimes.com/Minister-s-wife-under-scanner-for-links-with-Hindu-group/H1-Article1-466800.aspx

Minister's wife under scanner for links with Hindu group
Indo-Asian News Service
Panaji, October 19, 2009

First Published: 17:05 IST(19/10/2009)
Last Updated: 17:09 IST(19/10/2009)

Goa Home Minister Ravi Naik on Monday said the police would probe the
links of the state transport minister's wife with a Hindu group blamed
for an explosion that killed two of its members. The Congress has also
asked the police to probe if Chief Minister Digambar Kamat was the
intended target of the blast.

Addressing reporters at his residence, Naik said everyone involved
with the Sanatan Sanstha was being investigated. The Goa transport
minister is Ramkrishna alias Sudin Dhavalikar.

"We are probing everyone. We know that Jyoti Dhavalikar is part of the
institution, although we do not know in what capacity. I have asked
police to enquire," Naik said.

Sudin Dhavalikar is a Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party (MGP) legislator
and part of the Congress-led coalition government. Sudin's brother
Deepak Dhavalikar is also an MGP legislator.

Addressing reporters in Margao Monday, Goa Pradesh Congress Committee
(GPCC) spokesperson Ramakant Khalap said the police should get to the
bottom of the case and not spare anyone, 'however powerful'.

"We have also asked the police to probe if the chief minister was the
intended target of the Margao blast by Sanatan Sanstha members,"
Khalap, a former union minister of state for law, told reporters.
Margao, a major town in South Goa, is also the home constituency of
Chief Minister Kamat.

Calling the incident an eye opener for intelligence agencies, Khalap
said: "Any lapses on part of the police need to be probed."

State Public Works Department Minister Churchill Alemao has,
meanwhile, demanded a ban on Sanatan Sanstha, if the organization was
found involved in the Goa blast.

Speaking to reporters Monday afternoon, Alemao said: "If Sanatan
(Sanstha) is found guilty, it should be banned. It should not be
allowed to indulge in anti-social activity like this," Alemao said.
"If any politician is involved he should also be punished, so what if
he is my cabinet colleague," he added.

Two Sanatan Sanstha activists were killed when explosives they were
ferrying on a two-wheeler exploded on Friday evening on a street in
Margao, a town in south Goa, 35 km from here.

Sid Harth

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Oct 19, 2009, 5:39:15 PM10/19/09
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Goa police visit Sangli to quiz detained Sanatan activists

Goa police visit Sangli to quiz detained Sanatan activists
Indo-Asian News Service
Panaji/Mumbai, October 18, 2009

First Published: 15:14 IST(18/10/2009)
Last Updated: 15:19 IST(18/10/2009)

A Goa police team has left for Sangli district in Maharashtra to
interrogate three Sanatan Sanstha activists who were detained in
connection with the improvised explosive device (IED) explosion in Goa
on Friday night, authorities said on Sunday.

A Mumbai police anti-terror squad team has also arrived here on the
request of police investigators here who are probing the blast case.

Police officers said they believed the bomb was meant for a Hindu

gathering in Margao which the Hindu group, Sanatan Sanstha, bitterly
opposes.

Malgunda Patil, who succumbed to injuries following the blast, hails
from Sangli and had been living in Goa for nearly two years at the
Sanatan Sanstha ashram, according to the police.

Speaking to reporters, Goa Home Minister Ravi Naik said the police
team was sent to question the people detained by the Sangli police on
the request made by their counterparts in Panaji.

"This Malgunda Patil was originally from Sangli. The police team is
expected to find out more about his background. They will also

question the persons we have asked to be detained in Sangli," Naik
said.

Police sources said the team will also be questioning Patil's family
and his known associates in Sangli.

Meanwhile, the Mumbai anti-terror squad (ATS) team is in Goa and is
expected to visit the scene of the blast here and share intelligence
with the investigating police officers.

The Mumbai ATS is probing three blast cases in 2008 allegedly


involving Sanatan Sanstha activists in Thane, Navi Mumbai and Panvel
and police officers here said their experience would help in probing
the Goa blast.

On Diwali eve, an accidental explosion of an IED near a festive
gathering near Grace Church in Margao, a major town in South Goa
injured the two bomb carriers Malgunda Patil and Yogesh Naik, who
subsequently succumbed to their injuries.

The blast occurred at 9.30 p.m., when the duo were caught in a traffic
jam while ferrying the IED towards a crowded area, where revellers had
assembled to watch the ritual burning of a Narakasura effigy, which is
a tradition on Diwali eve here.

The police also detected and defused three other IEDs, two of which


were found near the blast site and one nearly 25 km away in Sancoale,
near the port town of Vasco, 35 km from the capital.

The police have booked the two deceased Patil and Naik under the
unlawful activities prevention act and under other sections of the IPC


for waging war against the country. The police have also detained four
Sanatan Sanstha activists for questioning.

...and I am Sid Harth


chhotemianinshallah

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Oct 22, 2009, 8:35:52 AM10/22/09
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http://www.ptinews.com/news/342431_BJP-to-make--honest-analysis--of-its-weakness--Prasad

BJP to make "honest analysis" of its weakness: Prasad
STAFF WRITER 16:27 HRS IST

New Delhi, Oct 22 (PTI) Conceding defeat in Maharashtra, Haryana and
Arunachal Pradesh Assembly polls, BJP today said it would have to make
an "honest analysis" of its weakness.

BJP, which was seeking to wrest power in all the three states, said it
was "disappointed" but "not discouraged" by the election results.

"We will have to think about our weaknesses... We will have to carry
out an honest analysis. We need to address these issues," party
spokesman Ravi Shankar Prasad told a press conference after the poll
results.

"I feel that most important is that we need to speak in one voice," he
said, hinting that discord within the party could have been one of the
major factors for its poor performance that began with Lok Sabha polls
and continued in the three Assembly elections.

bademiyansubhanallah

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Oct 22, 2009, 3:18:45 PM10/22/09
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http://newsx.com/story/65073

Poll defeats set BJP thinking about the road ahead
Thu-Oct 22, 2009

New Delhi / Press Trust of India

The defeat of BJP on Thursday, especially in Maharashtra and Haryana
where it had been part of coalition governments earlier, has come as a
severe blow to the party that is already reeling under the Lok Sabha
debacle and serious internal discord.

While BJP did not have much hope in Haryana, where it dumped its ally
INLD and failed to cobble up an alliance with with Bhajan Lal's party
HJC, the third consecutive assembly election loss in Maharashtra has
thoroughly demoralised the party.

In alliance with its oldest saffron friend, Shiv Sena, the party had
hoped to retrieve some ground after the Lok Sabha debacle by capturing
power in Maharashtra, pinning on anti-incumbency factor.

But the Raj Thackerary-led MNS, the splinter group of Shiv Sena, again
played the spoilsport for the Sena-BJP combine handing over victory to
the Congress-NCP combine for a third consecutive term.

BJP spokesman Ravi Shankar Prasad admitted as much when he said that
MNS, which was poised to get 12 seats, had affected the alliance in
over 40 seats. This, he said, had made the difference between victory
and defeat.

One of the top leaders of BJP in Maharashtra, Gopinath Munde, appeared
despondent when he said the party was badly in need of a morale-
booster but what happened in the state would come as a further
dampener.

"Nationally the party needs a young leadership," he said, a view that
may find immediate resonance in several of his partymen.

"The victory would have had a major effect on the party at the
national level but we lost. The party needs a morale booster and a
young leadership," he said.

Prasad said "We will have to think about our weaknesses... We will


have to carry out an honest analysis. We need to address these

issues."

"I feel that the most important is that we need to speak in one


voice," he said, hinting that discord within the party could have been

one of the factors for its poor performance.

While a change of guard is in the offing with party president Rajnath
Singh completing his term in December, this defeat is likely to raise
the clamour for senior leader L K Advani shedding whatever posts he
has like the Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha.

The RSS, which had told Advani to choose his successor as Leader of
Opposition in Lok Sabha, is likely to assert itself further and play a
more prominent role in BJP affairs.

This may lead to more pressure on Advani to quit active politics
sooner, say party sources.

The dent in BJP-Shiv Sena votes by Raj Thackeray-led MNS may set the
party thinking on future alliance partners.

"MNS appears set to win about 13 seats after garnering around 5-6 per
cent votes. After all, these were our votes," Munde said.

The snapping of ties with Om Prakash Chautala's INLD has also proved
to be an erroneous decision for the BJP. While Chautala was keen on an
alliance, a section within the BJP felt there was no point in
continuing the alliance after the two failed to win a single seat in
Lok Sabha polls.

"INLD has won 31 seats in Haryana assembly polls. Had the alliance
continued, we would have gained considerably," said a BJP leader.

BJP General Secretary in-charge of Haryana, Vijay Goel said discussing
which alliance would have reaped better results is now an "after-
thought". But he did concede that Congress had gained from the
confusion in the opposition camp.

"Congress has benefitted from the division of votes of opposition
parties," he said, adding, "If these parties (like MNS, INLD or HJC)
fight together, we can defeat the Congress."

The BJP also seems to be at a loss for issues as price rise,
corruption, terrorism and accusations of misrule against Congress did
not cut ice with the electorate.

bademiyansubhanallah

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Oct 22, 2009, 3:20:29 PM10/22/09
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Sena-BJP combine virtually concedes defeat in Maha
Thu-Oct 22, 2009

New Delhi / Press Trust of India

As initial trends showed that the Congress-NCP combine is surging
ahead in Maharashtra, Shiv Sena-BJP combine on Thursday virtually
conceded defeat in the assembly elections.

"If it is a defeat, it has to be accepted by everybody," Shiv Sena
leader and former Lok Sabha Speaker Manohar Joshi said when asked if
the party conceded defeat in the elections.

"We are thinking as to how these results have come..we never expected
these results," he added.

Initial trends showed that the ruling Congress-NCP combine leading in
119 seats, while Shiv Sena-BJP combine ahead in 92 seats.

Asked about the reasons behind the performance of the combine in the
state, BJP state president Nitin Gadkari said, "If there is a defeat,
it is a defeat of everybody. If it is a victory, it is everybody's
victory. I don't want to blame anybody for the the defeat."

bademiyansubhanallah

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Oct 22, 2009, 3:32:12 PM10/22/09
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http://blog.livemint.com/have-you-heard/2009/10/22/bjp-boycott-channel/

The BJP boycott channel!
Posted by Santosh Joy on Thursday, October 22, 2009

Whether it was due to a genuine cause or an affectation of mere
arrogance is open to interpretation, but reporters of news channel
Times Now had a tough time with the BJP, after the party chose not to
appear for any of the talk shows or election analysis on the channel.
The reporters of the channel who reached the Ashoka Road party office
along with other political reporters early morning were told the party
had made a decision to boycott them.

The reason for the boycott? Times Now had reportedly telecasted a talk
show where socialite Sohail Seth used what has been termed
“objectionable language” against BJP chief Rajnath Singh.
The party’s objection is that Times Now boss and ace anchor Arnab
Goswami failed to restrain the panel speaker.

But who ultimately suffered from the boycott? The poor reporters who
were sandwiched between the studio and party office and were ordered
to convince the BJP cadres to change their minds! However the
opposition did not budge. Even the prime time evening show of the
channel had to run without BJP representation.

But the channel has apparently not learned its lesson from the
epideos! Times Now had another socialite, Shobha De to analyze the
poll result and express her concern for BJP’s downfall.
Strange but true.

bademiyansubhanallah

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Oct 22, 2009, 3:35:02 PM10/22/09
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http://www.livemint.com/2009/10/22214230/In-latest-election-setback-BJ.html?h=B

Posted: Thu, Oct 22 2009. 9:43 PM IST
Economy and Politics

In latest election setback, BJP seeks to connect with its cadreParty
will need to conduct an honest analysis and address internal issues in
the face of poll defeats
Santosh K. Joy

New Delhi: Faced with consecutive poll defeats, the Bharatiya Janata
Party (BJP) says it is time for the party to put its house in order
and connect with its cadre.

The main opposition party in the Lok Sabha lost assembly elections in
all the three states—Maharashtra, Haryana and Arunachal Pradesh—that
held polls last week. The results were announced on Thursday.

Little to show: A deserted Bharatiya Janata Party election management
and coordination office in New Delhi on Thursday. PTI

The ruling Congress party, along with its allies, held on to power in
Maharashtra and Arunachal Pradesh, and was expected to form the
government in Haryana as well, though it fell slightly short of a
majority.

“We will have to have an honest analysis,” said BJP spokesman Ravi
Shankar Prasad. “We need to address these (internal) issues. There is
a need to speak in one voice and be up to the expectations of our well-
wishers and supporters.” Any reinvention of the party would involve
its ideological parent the reassertion of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak
Sangh (RSS) over the BJP, say analysts.

“This defeat would give further reason for RSS to reassert itself,”
said Bhaskar Rao, political analyst and chairman, Centre for Media
Studies. “The reinvention process of the party, which the leadership
is openly talking of, involves a greater role of the Sangh.”

After losing in the April-May Parliament elections, the BJP was struck
by a series of controversies. Senior leaders Yashwant Sinha, Arun
Shourie and Jaswant Singh openly criticized the party for its poll
strategy. BJP later expelled Singh in August over his book on Muhammad
Ali Jinnah, the founder of Pakistan.

Party members have also challenged the leadership of veteran BJP
leader L.K. Advani.

Also See Final Count (Graphics)

Analysts say the latest results underscore the BJP’s disconnect with
ground realities.

“The BJP was without an agenda,” Rao said. “The only agenda that was
reflected during the campaign was differences within its leadership.
There was a clear lack of communication at all levels in the party.”

An internal analysis of the results shows the Maharashtra Navnirman
Sena (MNS), led by Raj Thackeray and a party with a similar right-wing
ideology, influenced at least 30 seats against the BJP-Shiv Sena
combine in Maharashtra. The MNS won at least 10,000 votes in nearly
all the places it contested in, eating into what might have been BJP-
Shiv Sena votes.

“These 10,000 votes were crucial for us,” said a BJP leader who worked
closely in the party’s Maharashtra campaign. “The core thing is that
those who managed Lok Sabha polls were not the ones who managed these
ones. So the problem (is) more organizational than being that of
strategy.” After the results were announced, the BJP deferred its
parliamentary board meeting scheduled for Thursday evening to Friday.

“The country’s main opposition has failed to infuse confidence among
the voters to replace the ruling combine. It is a lost opportunity,”
says analyst and former BJP member Sudheendra Kulkarni.

Analysts also point out that in the latest assembly elections, the BJP
took on its erstwhile allies and supporters.

If it was the MNS, a splinter group of an ally, in Maharashtra, in
Haryana the party took on the Indian National Lok Dal led by former
state chief minister Om Prakash Chautala.

Several key leaders left the party before the polls, including Kiren
Rijiju who joined the Congress in Arunachal Pradesh.

Asked about the likely reason for the BJP’s defeat, Rijiju said, “The
reason remains the same as the reason I left the party for. The grass-
roots-level workers are willing to work but there is no direction from
the leadership.”

The BJP, which won nine out of 60 seats in Arunachal Pradesh in the
previous assembly polls, could only win three.

In Maharashtra, the BJP-Shiv Sena combine won 90 out of 288 seats, and
in Haryana, it improved its tally from two out of 90 seats in the
previous state election to four.

“We have improved our vote percentage from 10% to almost 16% in
Haryana. The message in Haryana is that the only reason for the
Congress’ comeback is a divided opposition,” said Vijay Goel, party
general secretary in charge of Haryana.

“The message (for the BJP) is that it has to be different from the
Congress. If it were like the Congress the people will prefer the
original and not the photocopy,” said analyst and RSS ideologue S.
Gurumurthy. He is a former head of the Swadeshi Jagaran Manch.

“It’s time for rejuvenation through introspection,” said Tarun Vijay,
who heads an RSS think tank in New Delhi and is a former editor of RSS
mouthpiece, Organiser.

Graphics by Ahmed Raza Khan / Mint

bademiyansubhanallah

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Oct 22, 2009, 3:38:01 PM10/22/09
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http://www.hindu.com/2009/10/23/stories/2009102355231000.htm

BJP blames it on MNS
Neena Vyas

Postpones parliamentary board Meeting
“MNS split vote, affecting BJP-Sena’s chances in 40-45 constituencies”
BJP will support INLD’S efforts to form government

NEW DELHI: Stunned by the Assembly election results, the Bharatiya
Janata Party has postponed a meeting of its Parliamentary Board to
Friday. The party said the results were not up to its expectations,
but it was not frustrated or desperate.

One leader said the board meeting was postponed because there were no
governments to be formed, nor did the long-awaited resignation of
Vasundhara Raje as Leader of the Opposition in Rajasthan materialise
as she had rushed to Mumbai to attend a funeral.

The BJP blamed Raj Thackeray’s Maharashtra Navnirman Sena for its poor
showing in Maharashtra, pointing out that the splitting of the Shiv
Sena vote adversely affected the alliance in 40-45 constituencies.

While accepting the results “with all humility,” BJP spokesperson Ravi
Shankar Prasad said the strong anti-incumbency vote in Maharashtra
scattered, benefiting the ruling alliance.

Party leaders agreed that the MNS not only hurt the BJP-Shiv Sena
alliance in Mumbai-Thane, as expected, but also made a surprisingly
strong showing in other regions as well, including Marathwada.
However, there would be no re-think on its two decades-old alliance
with the Shiv Sena.

“Lack of credibility”

One BJP leader said that in 1995, the BJP-Sena coalition won the
Maharashtra Assembly election “on the back of the 1992-93 communal
riots” but the votes the coalition got after the “Ram temple campaign”
simply vanished, never to come back, as the BJP failed to deliver on
its promise of a Ram temple at Ayodhya. It was a case of lack of
credibility.

Did postponing the board meeting mean that the party would once again
shy away from analysing the reasons for its defeat?

Mr. Prasad did not agree: “Analysing results is an ongoing process. We
will sweep nothing under the carpet. We will have to honestly think of
our weaknesses.”

Party leaders did not think that the poor results from Maharashtra
would in any way affect the chances of a leader from the State
becoming the next BJP president when Rajnath Singh’s term ends. This
was said in the context of State president Nitin Gadkari’s name being
mentioned by some close to Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha
L. K. Advani.

“Better performance”

In Haryana, where the BJP won four seats as against the two it held in
the last Assembly. This was a “better performance” despite its going
solo.

However, the blame game in the party has started with the good showing
by Om Prakash Chautala’s Indian National Lok Dal, which walked away
with 31 seats. There were some in the BJP who were in favour of
continuing the alliance with the INLD despite the 0-10 setback in the
Lok Sabha elections. There were others who favoured a tie-up with
Bhajan Lal’s Haryana Janhit Congress, but that idea too did not work
out.

BJP general secretary Vijay Goel kept alive a hope of a non-Congress
government being formed in Haryana, welcoming the announcement by Mr.
Chautala that he was very much in the game of government formation.
The message was: the BJP would not hesitate to support the INLD in its
efforts.In Arunachal Pradesh, the BJP had lost long before the
election campaign began. About half-a-dozen MLAs quit the party and
more recently, the former MP Kiran Rijiju left also to join the
Congress. The Congress victory was a result foretold.

chhotemianinshallah

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Oct 22, 2009, 7:11:34 PM10/22/09
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http://www.telegraphindia.com/1091023/jsp/nation/story_11647165.jsp

RSS west plan awry
RADHIKA RAMASESHAN

New Delhi, Oct. 22: The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh’s plans to appoint
leaders from western states to the BJP central apparatus and perhaps
project one of them as the party’s national chief ran aground today
after another dismal showing in Maharashtra.

The Sangh, and more specifically, sarsanghchalak Mohanrao Bhagwat had
two candidates in mind: Nitin Gadkari from Maharashtra and Manohar
Parrikar of Goa.

Sources said Bhagwat’s rationale was the BJP needed to “reconsolidate”
its base in western India after losing Maharashtra in 1999 and
Rajasthan in 2008 and, therefore, required a “face” from the region.

He also believed that Gadkari and Parrikar combined “discipline” and
“professionalism” supposedly ingrained in most politicians from the
western states — Pramod Mahajan and Narendra Modi were cited as
examples — with “youth” and “dedication to the Sangh’s ideals”.

Although they were not really known nationally, the sources said
Bhagwat believed they had the “potential” to be moulded into leaders
capable of heading a party like the BJP after Rajnath Singh’s term
ended in December.

Eyebrows were raised in the BJP when their names started circulating:
although Parrikar was chief minister of Goa twice, the sources
wondered how, for instance, he would cope with the dynamics of
heartland politics.

Gadkari, who was a minister in Maharashtra, never contested an
election and has always been a member of the legislative council.

The Sangh had promoted the two tacitly in the recent elections.

Gadkari, with Gopinath Munde, had completely managed the Maharashtra
show and minimised the intervention of central leaders — much like
Kalyan Singh would when he was the lord and master of all he surveyed
in Uttar Pradesh.

Parrikar was pulled out of Goa for the first time to campaign in
Maharashtra.

Those uncomfortable with the “interlopers” from the western coast
hoped the debacle would knock out Parrikar and Gadkari from the
reckoning.

The exercise to find Rajnath’s successor is expected to gain momentum
once 50 per cent of the organisational polls are over and done with.

chhotemianinshallah

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Oct 22, 2009, 7:44:22 PM10/22/09
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http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics/nation/BJP-may-soon-claim-patent-on-poll-defeat/articleshow/5151095.cms

BJP may soon claim patent on poll defeat
23 Oct 2009, 0305 hrs IST, Devesh Kumar, ET Bureau

NEW DELHI: For BJP, tasting defeats in electoral battles has by now
become routine. Given the disarray in the party leadership, it is
hardly surprising that it has given a walk-over to its main political
opponent in the latest round of assembly polls.

The verdict in Arunachal Pradesh, which has returned Congress to
power, was never in doubt. While in Maharashtra, the bitter rivalry
between Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray and his cousin Raj, meant
that it was not in a position to influence the eventual outcome, it
could be said in hindsight that it literally snatched defeat from the
jaws of victory in Haryana.

As the results of the Haryana assembly polls started filtering in, it
was clear that the saffron party had scored a self-goal in the state.
The manner in which it unilaterally and abruptly terminated its
electoral project with Mr Om Prakash Chautala’s INLD only confirms the
whimsical manner in which Mr Rajnath Singh has run BJP in the last
four years.

Steamrollering all contrarian voices, Mr Singh first shook hands with
Mr Chautala in the run-up to the general election held earlier this
year, and then, on the advice of his camp-followers, dropped him like
a hot potato after assembly elections were announced in Haryana. The
decision, announced by Mr Vijay Goel, who is the general secretary in-
charge of Haryana, took even party colleagues by surprise.

Mr Singh not only severed his party’s ties with INLD, but he also
ensured that it contested the polls in the state all alone, thereby
gifting Haryana to the Congress. Despite all this, in the 90-member
assembly, Congress now finds itself reduced to a mere 40 seats, down
from the 59 seats it had in the previous assembly.

INLD has staged a remarkable comeback by winning 32 seats, while BJP’s
tally stands at 4. Party leaders concede that had the alliance with Mr
Chautala remained in place, they would have wrested power from
Congress.

The flip-flop on the question of alliance in Haryana and the ticket-
selection procedure employed in Maharashtra, where BJP general
secretary Gopinath Munde was allowed to muscle the party into giving
at least four tickets to his close relatives, including his daughter
and niece, exposes the continuing drift within the party. With Mr
Singh on the way out, and Mr L K Advani dropping strong hints of
embracing political sanyaas, the saffron outfit has been left
completely leaderless and direction.

With the so-called second generation leaders engaged in a bitter
tussle to wrest control of the party, decision-making has been
outsourced to RSS. The perception that BJP’s internal affairs at all
levels is now being micromanaged by the Nagpur establishment has also
not gone down well with those independent sections which are willing
to back the party.

The disarray within BJP’s leadership was all too evident during the
campaigning for the assembly polls. The issues that are agitating the
popular mind — escalating prices of essential commodities, including
grain and vegetables, corruption, high interest-rate regime, growing
joblessness, rural unrest and turmoil in the neighbourhood — remained
by and large unaddressed, with the task of wooing the electorate being
consigned to local leaders.

The danger for BJP is that if this drift is allowed to continue, it
runs the risk of conceding defeat in Jharkhand, where assembly polls
will be held in less than two months. The party had performed
exceedingly well in the state in the Lok Sabha polls, when it bagged 8
of the 14 seats, but has since then seen its standing among the people
go down.

If the party fails to get its act together, it could well end up
losing the state once again despite the presence of favourable
conditions.

The principal Opposition party, political observers admit, stands at
the crossroads. Mr Singh’s tenure as BJP president, which was marked
by high command-inspired rebellions in state units and dangerous
machinations to settle intra-party disputes, comes to an end by
January next.

Failure to elect, or appoint, a replacement who has the vision and the
capability to re-energise the cadre while taking the alliance along
would only precipitate the crisis had hasten its downfall.

bademiyansubhanallah

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Oct 23, 2009, 3:58:20 AM10/23/09
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http://www.samaylive.com/news/evms-not-responsible-for-haryana-defeat-bjps-goel/663646.html

EVMs not responsible for Haryana defeat: BJP's Goel
(Source: IANS)
Published: Thu, 22 Oct 2009 at 14:00 IST

F Prev Next LNew Delhi: There is no one reason or one person
responsible for the Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) defeat in the
Haryana assembly elections, its general secretary Vijay Goel said
Thursday contradicting a senior party colleague.
"There is no one reason or one person responsible. We are looking at
the reasons," Goel told CNN-IBN news channel.

He also refused to blame Electronic Voting Machines for the defeat and
said: "The party has never said the party is losing because of EVMs."

Earlier in the day, the BJP vice president Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi had
struck a discordant note, blaming EVMs for its defeat and saying these
had become "electronic victory machines" for the Congress. "It is a
sponsored victory for the Congress."

Goel said: "Definitely, the Congress will form the government."

He stated that in Haryana the BJP contested 90 seats and their seats
and vote percentage would increase, but that was no cause for
satisfaction.

Asked whether he feels there should be a leadership change at the
national level, Goel said: "We have a leadership change after every
three years... At present our organisational elections are going on
and within a few months we will have a new leadership."

The Congress is headed towards a simple majority and is expected to
win 46 seats in the 90-member assembly.

Sid Harth

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Oct 23, 2009, 8:15:08 AM10/23/09
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http://www.bombaynews.net/story/557430

Shotgun Sinha recommends 'surgery' for ailing BJP
Bombay News.Net
Friday 23rd October, 2009 (IANS)

Jaswant Singh should return to the party, Manmohan Singh is the best
prime minister, the RSS needed to take full charge of the BJP... actor
and MP Shatrughan Sinha was in full flow Friday as he recommended
'surgery' to check the 'raging dissent' in his party.

'All is not well within the party. The party now needs a surgery. As
the medication has failed to check the raging dissent, surgery is the
only option left. We need to take tough actions and introspect,' Sinha
told reporters here, a day after the party's drubbing in the assembly
elections in Maharashtra, Arunachal Pradesh and Haryana.

He admitted that the party had failed again in the elections --
following the defeat in the May general elections.

'We have certainly failed in the recent elections... still we have not
learnt lessons,' he said.

He also endorsed the views of senior party colleague Arun Shourie that
the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) should take charge of the BJP
that faced a leadership crisis.

'Since the BJP is an offshoot of the RSS, it has to adopt (take
charge) the BJP fully. If parents do not take care of the children,
who else would?'

Asked a question on the leadership of L.K. Advani, the MP from Patna
Sahib in Bihar said: 'For me, Advani is the tallest leader. I can't
comment on him.'

According to Sinha, Jaswant Singh, who was expelled from the party
after his book on Pakistani founder Mohammed Ali Jinnah, should return
to the BJP fold.

'The return of expelled leader Jaswant Singh to the BJP would be in
the larger interest of the party... Jaswant Singh has been a founding
member of the party. His expulsion has given a wrong signal. My
personal opinion is that if he returns to the party, it will be in the
larger interest of the party.'

He was also fulsome in his praise of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and
Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi.

'He (Rahul Gandhi) has a bright future... I think the path he has
chosen will bear fruit one day,' he said.

On Manmohan Singh, he said: 'He is one of the best prime ministers of
the country. He is known for his integrity and honesty.'

Sid Harth

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Oct 23, 2009, 8:19:19 AM10/23/09
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http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics/nation/Raje-resigns-as-leader-of-opposition/articleshow/5152990.cms

Raje resigns as leader of opposition
23 Oct 2009, 1554 hrs IST, IANS

NEW DELHI: Former Rajasthan chief minister Vasundhara Raje met senior
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader L.K. Advani on Friday and
submitted her resignation as leader of opposition in the state
assembly.

"Raje met Advani and tendered her resignation," said a BJP leader, who
said he was privy to the development, but refused to be identified as
the party had not made an official announcement.

The issue has been a tricky one for the party with the leadership
asking Raje two months ago in August to accept moral responsibility
for the BJP's defeat in the Lok Sabha and the assembly polls in the
state and step down.

The BJP was Friday tightlipped on the issue. Party vice president
Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said the matter would be taken up in a
parliamentary board meeting likely to begin Friday evening.

"I have no knowledge about Raje resigning. I don't think she has so
far. But the matter will be taken up in the meeting later," Naqvi
said.

The BJP has convened the parliamentary board meeting to discuss the
Raje issue and the causes for the poor performance in the assembly
polls in Maharashtra, Haryana and Arunachal Pradesh, Naqvi said.

Sid Harth

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Oct 23, 2009, 8:27:57 AM10/23/09
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http://www.ptinews.com/news/344412_Afzal-Khan-effect--BJP-dominates-in-Sangli-and-Miraj

Afzal Khan effect: BJP dominates in Sangli and Miraj
STAFF WRITER 17:24 HRS IST

Mumbai, Oct 23 (PTI) BJP has wrested Sangli, Miraj and Ichalkaranji
seats from Congress, which has won the highest number of seats -- 82
-- in the Maharashtra Assembly polls.

The BJP's success in the region is being attributed to the heat
generated over depiction of the slaying of Afzal Khan by Chhatrapati
Shivaji on an arch erected at a Ganesh pandal in Miraj.

This is the first time BJP won in the constituencies that witnessed
riots in August after the controversy erupted. The issue polarised the
local communities, helping BJP win the three seats, its leaders said.

BJP candidate Suresh Halvankar won from Ichalkaranji, defeating his
nearest Congress rival Prakash Awade by 23,237 votes.

In Sangli constituency, Sambhaji Pawar defeated minister Madan Patil
of Congress by 11,164 votes. Suresh Khade beat Congress candidate
Balasaheb Honmore by 54,456 votes in Miraj.

Sid Harth

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Oct 23, 2009, 8:29:30 AM10/23/09
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http://www.ptinews.com/news/344418_Sushma-capable-of-guiding-the-BJP--Shotgun

Sushma capable of guiding the BJP: Shotgun
STAFF WRITER 17:27 HRS IST

Shimla, Oct 23 (PTI) With indications that L K Advani may not lead the
BJP in 2014 Lok Sabha polls, actor-politician Shatrughan Sinha today
said Sushma Swaraj among others is capable of guiding the party in the
next general elections.

"She (Swaraj) is competent to become the captain among others like
Yashwant Sinha, Arun Shourie, B C Khanduri and Shanta Kumar", Sinha
told reporters at a "Meet the Press" programme here when asked if he
thought she could pilot the party in the next polls in case Advani
chose to step aside.

He, however, said it was for the top leaders of the party in
consultation with the RSS to select the captain.

"But it will give me immense pleasure if she (Swaraj) is chosen",
Sinha, who represents the Patna Saheb constituency of Bihar in the Lok
Sabha, said.

Sid Harth

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Oct 23, 2009, 8:35:52 AM10/23/09
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http://www.ptinews.com/news/344419_BJP-s-a-bad-loser--Digvijay-Singh

BJP's a bad loser: Digvijay Singh


STAFF WRITER 17:27 HRS IST

Varanasi, Oct 23 (PTI) Congress today ridiculed BJP's allegation that
the EVMs were "manipulated", saying it was looking for a scapegoat
following its loss in the assembly elections to the three states.

"Let me say it, BJP is a bad loser this time," Congress General
Secretary Digvijay Singh said here.

"The people of the country have vindicated in clear terms this time
around that they hate politics of communal passion and violence.

"This is the reason that BJP and like minded parties have suffered
drubbing at the hustings," the party in-charge of the UP affairs said.

On BJP's raising doubts about the credibility of EVMs and seeking to
blame their "manipulation" for the party's poor performance, Singh
said "khisiyani billi khamba noche (BJP was looking for a scapegoat).

chhotemianinshallah

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Oct 23, 2009, 2:00:33 PM10/23/09
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http://twocircles.net/2009oct23/oman_embassy_india_petitioned_rescind_modi_s_visit_oman.html

Oman Embassy in India petitioned to rescind Modi’s visit to Oman
Submitted by admin3 on 23 October 2009 - 10:47pm.

By Mumtaz Alam Falahi, TwoCircles.net,

New Delhi: The New Delhi Embassy of the Sultanate of Oman has been
filed with a public petition urging their government to rescind the
likly visit of Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi to Oman later this
year.

The petitioners have reminded the Oman Embassy and their government
that Modi is being investigated for his role in the 2002 pogrom in
Gujarat in which thousands of innocents were killed with the help of
government machinery.

Due to global condemnation due to the pogrom, “Mr. Modi is desperately
courting foreign investments and collaboration to mend his image as a
progressive in an effort towards a political restitution. The U.S. and
many countries in Europe have banned his entry, by denying him visa.
The question is - Will Oman and other Muslim nations of the Gulf
region offer Mr. Modi that restitution, by legitimizing his record of
promoting hatred and violence against the minority Muslims and
Christians of Gujarat,” asked the petition sent to the New Delhi
Embassy of Oman.

“We the signatories to this petition humbly request your government to
reconsider the invitation extended to the Gujarat Chief Minister Mr.
Modi, as a mark of respect for humane values enshrined in all
religions and the declaration of universal human rights under the UN
Charter.”

“We sincerely hope that with your leadership the Sultanate of Oman and
other Gulf States will use their influence to ensure justice for the
suffering Muslims and Christians of Gujarat. It will be very helpful
if the invitation of to Mr. Modi is rescinded and all investments and
collaborations with the Gujarat government are made contingent on the
justice to the innocent victims of the Gujarat Massacre,” the petition
reads.

Recalling the 2002 pogrom, the petition said: In February-March 2002,
as Chief Minister of Gujarat, Mr. Modi presided over and orchestrated
widespread riots in which about 2000 hapless Muslims were massacred
and more than 200,000 were rendered homeless. It was widely reported
as a pogrom against the Muslim minority in Gujarat.

As a reproach, the Indian Supreme Court compared Mr. Modi with the
infamous Roman Emperor Nero. International human rights organizations,
including the Amnesty International, and Human Rights Watch, held him
directly responsible for orchestrating that gory mob violence in which
about 2000 innocent Muslims were butchered, burnt alive and many women
were gang-raped.

The petitioners have put the petition online for people to visit and
sign it to build up pressure on the Oman government to cancel Modi’s
visit.

Link of petition:

http://www.petitiononline.com/modi2009/petition.html

Meanwhile, the Government of Oman in an advertisement published in The
Hindu and Asian Age today has clarified that Modi has been invited by
a private company and government of Oman has nothing to do with the
visit. But petitioners have refused the clarification.

“The clarification is a plain lie. Modi was invited by Oman’s minister
of trade. He was not leading a private company. Moreover, the visa
issuing authority is also not private. And lastly he was never given
visa even for private visits in US and UK,” one of the signatories to
the petition told TCN.

chhotemianinshallah

unread,
Oct 23, 2009, 2:15:25 PM10/23/09
to
http://www.ptinews.com/news/344994_Modi-not-invited-by-Oman-government--embassy-clarifies

Modi not invited by Oman government: embassy clarifies
STAFF WRITER 20:50 HRS IST

Ahmedabad, Oct 23 (PTI) Amid protests by civil rights activists in
Oman against Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi's proposed visit to
that country, its embassy has clarified the government has nothing to
do with the event.

In a clarification issued in a national daily, the Embassy of Oman in
India has said a private company has invited Modi to visit its project
sites in Sohar city where he will be its guest and not that of the
Sultanate.

"The Embassy of Oman would like to inform that Dutch Norterdam Company
has some projects in Sohar city. The company has some agreements with
Gujarat and it has invited Narendra Modi to visit its projects in
Sohar. The government of the Sultanate of Oman has no relation to this
visit, since he is a guest of the company," the clarification said.

chhotemianinshallah

unread,
Oct 23, 2009, 2:18:24 PM10/23/09
to
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/varanasi/Gau-Gram-Yatra-arrives-in-city/articleshow/5154192.cms

Gau Gram Yatra arrives in city
TNN 23 October 2009, 09:30pm IST

VARANASI: The 'Vishwa Mangal Gau Gram Yatra', starting from
Kurukshetra on September 30, arrived Varanasi on Thursday evening.

Under the campaign launched by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS),
the 20,000-km and 108-day yatra would end at Nagpur on January 17
next. The main objectives of the campaign are to declare cow as
national animal, formation of law for the protection of cows, and
development of its breed.

A function was organised at Town Hall ground to welcome the yatra. The
function was addressed by Govindacharya, Swami Avimukteshwaranand
Saraswati and others. The Bhojpuri singer and actor Manoj Tiwari also
performed on the occasion. After a night stay in the city the yatra
left for Azamgarh on Friday.

chhotemianinshallah

unread,
Oct 23, 2009, 2:28:16 PM10/23/09
to
http://kanchangupta.blogspot.com/2009/10/bjp-savaged-againparty-pays-for-drought.html

Thursday, October 22, 2009
BJP savaged again.Party pays for drought of leadership!

Delhi Cabal has its way: Vasu forced to resign.

Friday evening update:

It’s truly bizarre. Rather than ponder over the party’s defeat in
Maharashtra and washout in Haryana and Arunachal Pradesh, the BJP’s
central leaders [Dilli4 +2] spent all of Thursday and Friday hounding
Vaundhara Raje, threatening to suspend from the party her if she did
not put in her papers immediately as Leader of Opposition in Rajasthan
Assembly.

Vasu was formally elected leader of the legislature party. She was not
‘appointed’ to the post by short-circuiting the rules laid down in BJP
Constitution as has been done for Dilli4 and their mentors.

Vasu has been held responsible for BJP’s defeat in Rajasthan Assembly
election and later the Lok Sabha poll. Vasu would have fetched victory
had Dilli4 and their mentors not conspired to a)field rebel candidates
and fund them; b)undermined her authority by appointing those opposed
to her as party office-bearers; and, c)not played wretched games to
pull her down so as to neutralise competition.

Dilli4 and their drum-beaters (including in media) would like the
world to believe that Rajnath Singh alone is responsible for Vasu's
sacking. This is not true. Dilli4 colluded in this shocking spectacle
of a promising leader who has delivered for the party much more than
the BJP's Sir Thomas Clifford, Lady Arlington, the Duke of Buckingham,
Lord Ashley and Lord Lauderdale being humiliated.

Vasu has her faults and can be outrageously imperious when she chooses
to. But those faults are far outweighed by her leadership qualities,
her popularity and her ability to connect with the masses. Unlike
Dilli4, she leads (or should it be led?) from the front. Most
important, she is the 'modern', presentable, youthful face which the
BJP needs so badly.

Strangely, not a single ‘national’ leader has stepped down from office
despite leading the BJP to a humiliating defeat in the 2009 Lok Sabha
poll. If the party lost the election it is because voters rejected the
BJP’s ‘national’ leadership. Ironically, those who led the party to
its defeat have been handsomely rewarded.

Vasu refused to give her resignation to Rajnath Singh or Dilli4. On
Friday morning she handed over her resignation letter to LK Advani.
That is a measure of the authority and prestige that the party’s
‘national’ leadership commands today!

Not to go down without a fight, Vasu has written a letter, sent to
each member of the parliamentary board, reportedly making the
following points:
. She feels humiliated by the manner in which her resignation issue
was handled.
. There is lack of inner-party democracy in the BJP’s functioning and
there is no accountability within the organisation.
. Some senior party leaders created hurdles in her functioning as
Chief Minister.
. There has been a continuous decline in the party due to lack of
leadership. For example, the party’s decline and fall in Uttar
Pradesh.
Who will Dilli4 and their mentors sack after they have sacked
everybody else? Soon it could be the turn of the hapless peons,
drivers and tea boys at the BJP Central Office!

The most absurd comment that I heard on Thursday, the day results for
the Assembly elections in Maharashtra, Haryana and Arunachal Pradesh
were declared, was made by BJP spokesman Ravi Shankar Prasad. “The
results were unexpected,” he said, “but we accept them with
humility.”

If only the BJP had been less humble and more robust, and had the
party bothered to end its crisis (some would say drought) of
leadership both in the States and at the national level, perhaps the
humiliation of successive defeat could have been avoided. But neither
is going to happen soon.

With Dilli4 firmly entrenched and the RSS stepping back, at least for
the moment, the BJP will continue to wallow in denial. To protect its
own vested interests, Dilli4 will insist on maintaining status quo.

If Bhishma Pitamah could have led an army into battle when he was more
than 100 years old, there is no reason why, or so we are told, the BJP
should look for youthful leaders who can feel the pulse of today’s
India and with whom voters aged 40 and below can identify; more
importantly, leaders who will be seen as leading the party (and the
State / nation) into the future.

Now for the most misleading comment of the day: Congress spokespersons
have claimed that the Assembly poll results are an unequivocal
endorsement of the party’s policies and programmes. The party has also
claimed that it has ‘defied anti-incumbency’.

That’s hogwash. The results of the Arunachal Pradesh Assembly election
were predictable. In Haryana the Congress has been halted at 40 – six
short of simple majority. INLD chief Om Prakash Chautala, with 31
seats, has vowed not to sit in the Opposition. In Maharashtra the
Congress-NCP coalition may have reached the halfway mark, but
‘victory’ has been achieved through the expedient means of propping up
Raj Thackeray’s virulently parochial MNS.

Nonetheless, the BJP should, if it is still serious about remaining in
mainstream national politics, try and figure out why its seat share
has declined in Arunachal Pradesh. The current nationalist fervour in
that State should have been ideal for the party which claims to put
nation first. If at all there is any introspection (the BJP says it
will deliberate on the ‘road ahead’!) it should also include a frank
discussion on why Kiran Rijiju left the party. That would necessitate
some explanation on financial issues and the corrupting influence of
certain ‘leaders’.

As for Haryana, Swapan Dasgupta has already raised some interesting
and revealing points in his blog on why the BJP failed to enter into
any meaningful alliance in that State. I think Dilli4 should be asked
to explain why it got its sums wrong. There is, however, the view that
an alliance between the BJP and INLD may not have worked to either’s
advantage on account of Haryana’s caste arithmetic.

The most interesting are the results of the Maharashtra election. My
personal view, as I have written in The Pioneer’s main editorial
comment, is that the winner came second in this poll. Together, the
BJP and Shiv Sena have secured 30 per cent of the total votes, down
from 33.64 per cent in 2004. The Congress and NCP vote-share is 38 per
cent, almost two per cent down from 39.81 per cent in 2004. The MNS
has got six per cent.

Needless to say, the MNS vote has come from the BJP-Sena catchment
area, especially in the Mumbai-Thane-Pune belt. The MNS may have won
only 13 seats, and lost its deposit in 95 of the 143 seats it
contested, but it has inflicted severe injury on the BJP-Shiv Sena
alliance. Raj Thackeray wanted to spite his uncle and cousin; the
Congress wanted to split the Opposition and anti-incumbency vote;
their interests coalesced.

Yet, the decline in the BJP’s tally from 56 seats in 2004 to 46 seats
in this election (the Shiv Sena has suffered greater loss: It is down
from 62 seats to 44 seats) cannot be entirely attributed to the ‘MNS
factor’. Nor is there any reason for the BJP to celebrate because it
is two seats ahead of the Shiv Sena and hence will get to nominate the
Leader of Opposition in the Assembly.

The BJP needs to explain as to why it has fared poorly in Vidarbha
region, which saw most suicides by debt-ridden farmers, where Congress-
NCP candidates have performed remarkably well. It must also look
within to find reasons as to why in Marathwada the Congress-NCP
coalition has doubled its tally of seven seats in the 2004 election.

A last point: I am increasingly veering round to the view that all
high falutin talk of there being a co-relation between election
results and quality of governance / agenda of governance is pure
bunkum.

The quality of governance, if at all this word can be used, in
Maharashtra over the past decade has been appallingly poor. This poll
was contested against the backdrop of high inflation (CPI pegs it at
around 14 per cent in both urban and rural areas), mounting agrarian
crisis, industrial job losses, and a crippling power shortage.

Vilasrao Deshmukh was waxing eloquent on CNN-IBN as to how the voters
had endorsed the good work done by him which was continued by Ashok
Chavan. P Sainath asked him to list four good things done by the
Congress-NCP Government. He couldn’t think of any. Finally it came
down to Sainath asking him to name one achievement. Deshmukh pretended
a disruption in communication and went off air.

In sharp contrast, the BJP had an excellent governance blueprint which
touched every strata of society – from the pavement poor to those who
live in Mumbai’s opulent palaces. The BJP-Shiv Sena Manifesto had some
very good ideas. The BJP-Shiv Sena’s record in governance is nothing
to be scoffed at, especially on the organised crime front as well as
infrastructure development.

But I guess the people of India are least interested in what a
Government can give them. What turns them on and swings their vote
remains a mystery. Or perhaps not. It could just be something as
simple as credible leadership – in the States, in New Delhi.

In my previous blog I had lamented that the BJP was unravelling
rapidly yet nobody in the party seemed to be bothered. Between then
and now, nothing has changed. Much as I hate saying this, it is
unlikely to change in the coming days, weeks, months.

What do you think?


ASSEMBLY ELECTION RESULTS

MAHARASHTRA

Total seats: 288
Results declared: 288
Party Seats Vote
Share
Cong 82
NCP 62
38%
BJP 46
SS 44
30%
MNS 13 06%
CPM 01
Ind & others 48


ARUNACHAL PRADESH

Total seats: 60
Results declared: 60
Party Seats Vote
Share
Congress 42 50%
Trinamool 5 15%
NCP 5 21%
BJP 2 5%
Others 6

HARYANA

Total seats: 90
Results declared: 90
Party Seats Vote
Share
Congress 40 35%
INLD 31 27%
HJC 6 7%
BJP 4 9%
BSP 1
SAD 1
Independents 7

Posted by Kanchan Gupta at 12:49 PM

26 comments:
Anonymous said...
Time for BJP to "Wake up and shit" and shit out the super stinky
Rajnath first. All the bujurgs are clogging the colon of the party.

I feel that renewed Sushma Awaraj can be the Kayam churna. She needs
to talk thoughtful, stop being a mindless opposer and bring in some
fresh faces.

Thursday, October 22, 2009

offstumped said...
The despair in your mind is palpable. But the rot is much deeper than
merely a drought of Leadership.

As I had tweeted earlier 3-Is plague the BJP - Inchoerence on ideology/
policy, Incompetence in Leadership both which adding up to Insecurity
causing those well entrenched in Delhi to maintain status quo even
months after the Titanic hit the iceberg and is already half way sunk
in the Ocean.

More from my 2 blog posts today

http://offstumped.wordpress.com/2009/10/22/maharashtra-results-end-of-the-road-for-bjp-avatar/

http://offstumped.wordpress.com/2009/10/22/kaun-jitega-muqabla-kaun-pahnega-rahul-gandhi-ka-pajama/

Thursday, October 22, 2009

Niraj said...
Its highly possible that the elections were just bought by who ever
had more money!!
http://www.dnaindia.com/mumbai/report_rs1000-per-vote-was-the-going-rate-at-the-polls_1301539

Thursday, October 22, 2009

Anonymous said...
Chaddiwalah and BJP both r perceived as regressive organization who
can't take India forward. They talk nonsense on TV...saley ghuma fira
ke ..lambhi-chaudi bateein kartey hai...inki image theek nahi
hai...neta nahi hai salo ke pass...RSS the frozen in the past
organization talk nonsense..listen folks I'm all for Hindu politics
b'coz i understand the danger of Islam..it can't be accepted unless
reformed and our Hindu politics also helps us in differentiating us
from congress..but BJP has made its ideology a whore which is sold on
election eve...moreover fear of Islam has evaporated from the masses
b'coz of two reasons first is economic progress, second is secular
virus which baited the vast section of media..so there is no info on
this front...then there is most important issue leadership
vacuum..development is no criteria for win election everyone should
understand this...public actually in logo ko trust nahi karti..inki
creditability destroy ho chuki hai..saley kehte kuch hai karte kuch
hai...satta ke liye kuch bhi kar sakte hai....then there is
simplistic, treta yugi approach of chaddi brigade...India has changed
a lot and they r fast becoming irrelevant...we need complete
rebuilding...we shouldn't hesitate to speak abt Islam..we should do
other thing also I'm not against that but we should talk in a simple
manner and shouldn't do the promise which we can't keep...rest will
tell u tomorrow...i'm not saying this in anger whatever I've written
is truth and have written with cool and calm mind...

Thursday, October 22, 2009

Anonymous said...
Niraj..stop ur bullshit conspiracy theory..this is not s new thing...

Thursday, October 22, 2009

Niraj said...
@Anonymous, if it is not a new thing then that explains why Congress-
NCP had won the previous two elections in Maharashtra as well.
I'm not saying that's the only reason, but surely vote buying is one
of the reasons.

Thursday, October 22, 2009

M. Patil said...
Why is every one ignoring EVM issue? What is the need for a week delay
to announce election results?

Thursday, October 22, 2009

Ravi said...
Completely agree on the development issue. Even in the Lok Sabha
Election, the BJP has come out with fairly impressive policy documents
and blueprints for governance, but got the stuffing kicked out of
them.

Indeed, there are possibly 3 Congress Chief Ministers over the last
couple of years who I would say deserved to get re-elected on the
basis of performance alone - the late YSR, Shiela Dixit and Bhupinder
Hooda. Few can deny that his government did a good job in developing
the state. Yet he may not be able to form a government, or at the
least someone else will be made CM as the blame for the reduction in
seats will be on him.

Compare that with Maharasthra. Where everyone unanimously agrees the
Cong-NCP govt over the last 10 years has been the worst ever. If they
didnt deserve to get kicked out, who does? And yet they are reelected
for a 3rd term!

The issue of development bringing votes which the Congress' media
brings up every time the Congress wins...pure bunkum, as u call it.

However, whats the solution? Politics is about doing what the people
want. If people dont care about actual governance....

Thursday, October 22, 2009

I, Me, Myself ! said...
It is more like BJP is losing all elections, rather than Congress
winning them.

P. Sainath's question says it all - List just one achievement!

And even then the opposition could not get its act together, which is
a very sad reflection on their leadership, if there is one.

One trend that needs to be observed in almost the entire country is
that the opposition vote to Congress is always split. There is
resentment against the policies, but then the people are not sure
which alternative to choose!

So the BJP has a two fold job to do now. One is to build back itself,
and then win back the 24 allies they had when ABV was at helm. A
united opposition will give the Congress a run for its money
(literally :D)!

So, for that they need another ABV. Sushma Swaraj is the only person
who comes close to being a moderate face in that part.

Shrill rhetoric roped in votes at one point of time, but to expect
that it will happen everytime is mere stupidity. The Holy Cow and Calf
of the Grand Old Party of India are simply advocating that they will
govern at their own pace, will not use language that will arouse
passions, and in this process at times will bring out some programs
that our ever-ready psycophant media will help in propogating.

Many of us need more proactive leaders, leaders who are willing to
jump to the next level by creating opportunities and not wait for
them. But then, we dont see a single party offering that option, and
hence this confusion.

It's been a long post, will stop now :). So the solution is basically
this - Rajnath should quit. Sushma's grooming should start. Advani
also should quit. NaMo, as much I love his administration, cannot
become the face of the party. But he can become the next Advani of the
party. Sushma - NaMo duo can work wonders, if they start working on it
NOW.

- Sudhir

Thursday, October 22, 2009

Indian Well Wisher said...
BJP Haryana results - analysis

http://is.gd/4wLe5

or

http://indianwellwisher.wordpress.com/2009/10/23/bjp-haryana-results/

There are some good things for BJP in Haryana.

Thursday, October 22, 2009

zoomindianmedia said...
Check Comprehensive Blueprint for reviving BJP.

Thursday, October 22, 2009

psudo said...
Kanchan, If you would know , how Advani feels about these losses.I
wonder what dose his self respect tell him? What make him beg for visa
for Shanawaz Husain from PM? Is the leader of oppsition is such a big
deal? As a BJP supporter I can not stop wondering why BJP appears to
be sleeping, i sometimes feel that there deal between TOP BJP
leadiship and Anti-national people who would occupy space of
"OPPSITION" whithout doining any thing like oppostion.

Thursday, October 22, 2009

Supporter said...
The electorate loves a fighter. They rejected passive observers who
come out on the election eve to preach. Raj Thakre was active much
before the elections through his well publicized actions on Chhath
puja, Railway exam candidates, anti-bhaiyya-movt and what have you.
Whatever be his agenda or the establishment support, he was seen as a
relentless fighter. So is the case in WB where Mamta is seen as a
fighter even when the intelligentsia dosen't agree with her agenda or
actions. Or Haryana where all anti incumbency votes went to a 2 year
old party. Compare them with the BJP leadership who only surface just
before elections and are otherwise conspicuous by their absence in the
period in between. In Maha and Haryana assembly elections LKA and RNS
were seen only on the cover of the manifesto.

Thursday, October 22, 2009

Common Hindu said...
"Wake up and shit"

Why is every one ignoring EVM issue? What is the need for a week delay
to announce election results?


NaMo, as much I love his administration, cannot become the face of the
party. But he can become the next Advani of the party. Sushma - NaMo
duo can work wonders, if they start working on it NOW.

Friday, October 23, 2009

Anonymous said...
BJP's Delhi leadership is in pay of Sonia and/or afraid of blackmail
by her govt.

Friday, October 23, 2009

Swabhimaan said...
When is Modi becoming the party President? Why can't the BJP decide on
something as simple and straightword as this?

Friday, October 23, 2009
Jiggs said...
Kanchan Gupta...

You indeed SAVAGED the BJP yet again, albeit without relevant facts.
Let me fill you in.

MNS factor effected BJP-SHS not only in Mumbai/Pune/Thane/Nashik URBAN
BELT, but also in Marathwada.

Congress won the elections as said by Niraj on three factors:

1. MNS
2. Money power
3. Muscle Power

Further more BJP has not exactly done bad, it losses in Mumbai wherein
they lost one sitting MLA is due to de-limitation of the
constituencies, the 5 seats the BJP has won is with impressive 20K
margins.

Furthermore, BJP-Shiv Sena candidates have lost to the Congress by
margins of 1300 to 1700 votes.

BJP too won a seat in Narayan Rane bastion of Konkan by 34 VOTES.

The fact is that MNS has doubled its vote share as compared to May
2009, this will effect BJP-SHS severely.

Dilli4 had nothing to do with Maharashtra, the campaign was run
locally by Maharashtra BJP, so Kanchan please reserve your OPINIONATED
attack for them,if you must.

BTW, can you please explain the logic of the RSS PRAISING RAHUL GANDHI
FOR VISITING DALIT HOMES a fortnight before elections in Maharashtra?

That should be a good beginning to introspect on why Vidarbha voted
Congress? Rahul and Momma keep on visiting Vidarbha, why dont we start
answering this question first?

Friday, October 23, 2009

Venkatesh said...
Hi Jiggs,

Nice to read your post albeit after a long time. It is great to see
that you have not lost your fervour for the BJP.

The fact of the matter is that the BJp lost and badly. The cpombine
lost more than 30 seats. I am a great fan of the shiv sena, as i grew
up in Thane in the 70s and the sena was extremely helpful to say the
least. You say the first problem was MNS. Ok agreed. but how did the
problem arise. It was because Balasaheb in his love for his son lost
sight of the meritocracy. The second and third issues are common
issues in the election. Do you think the BJP/SS lack them?

What is lacking is the strategy and the cunning of the central
leadership here. The BJP is so caught up in its internal wrangles,
that it does not look like a party that is interested or capable of
governing. I would never vote for the congress, but looks like there
are not too many like us around and that has to be attirbuted to the
lack of leadership in the BJP.

If LKA is attributed to bring the BJP to power, I think it is fair if
we hold him accountable for BJPs problems today.

I am however confident that the BJP will rise from the abyss of
despair

Friday, October 23, 2009

M. Patil said...
"Furthermore, BJP-Shiv Sena candidates have lost to the Congress by
margins of 1300 to 1700 votes"

This is really suspicious. When ever there is victory in with such a
slim margin there is a recount. How do you do a recount with EVMs?

In Andhra Pradesh many Congress assembly members won with slim
margins.

Friday, October 23, 2009

Jaideep said...
Why is it that inspite of a good agenda and past record of delivering
good governance does the BJP leadership lack credibility? While it is
natural to ask for a change of leadership isn't it worth wondering
whether a change of leadership would affect future outcomes.
My opinion is (and this may be hard to swallow for a lot of BJP
supporters)that India as a whole actually rejects the broadly right of
center thinking/ideology of the party. The entitlement based left of
centre approach of the Congress is more in tune with post-independence
Indian thinking. Pockets like Gujarat are more an exception than the
norm.
BJP starts with this inherrent disadvantage and thus unless there is
an undercurrent in the form of an emotional issue BJP finds it very
difficult to win

Friday, October 23, 2009

M. Patil said...
"
A last point: I am increasingly veering round to the view that all
high falutin talk of there being a co-relation between election
results and quality of governance / agenda of governance is pure
bunkum."

You cannot make such a grand statement without any evidence. BJP
should do some social sciences research and find out the following
from a random sample of each region. The sample should accurately
represent the general population.

(i) Did you Vote? If yes to whom
If not why. What would make you vote?
(ii) Who do you think will govern the state better
Congress+, BJP+, or MNS and why?
(iii) What are you looking for in your Govt?
(iv) What do you want the opposition party to do?
(v) List your 3 serious issues/concerns.

I think the above questions will reveal a wealth of information about
what the voter and non voters are thinking. You can tally this
information against the EVM voting in selected constituencies. If they
match EVMs were not manipulated, else ...

In AP CBN lost because in 2004 because of farmer suicides and his
percieved image as anti poor. But Congress does not seem to lose no
matter what.

I personally would wait for accurate information before coming to any
conclusions.

Friday, October 23, 2009

Anonymous said...
I'm appalled by the presence of unthinking types here. ur replies r
not worth reading...and those who r suggesting tiny Sushma as
"moderate" face r deluding themselves be believing in the bunkum of
left-liberal intelligentsia. Not only Sushma is a rootless politician
but she is also disliked by vast section of middle class, as a ground
worker u can take this from me. Modi has charisma but still he has lot
of things to learn...his love for development and moderate image might
prove dangerous for him..rather than being a vikas purush he should
make his image..as that of a authoritarian ruler who can make things
work..BJP must learn how to take media head on rather than
ingratiating them...There biggest problem is THINKER nahi hai inke
pass....

Friday, October 23, 2009

mpanj said...
@Anon,

"rather than being a vikas purush he should make his image..as that of
a authoritarian ruler who can make things work"

Finally!! Someone is starting to think about the intricacies of a NaMo
Presidency.

NaMo is the only answer. But he has several 'flaws'.

But these are minor. Lets not buy into the 'Modi is unacceptable'
gibberish psec media has peddled for the last 6 months.

Besides, the ultimate goal should be to make BJP 'idiot proof' so that
even in NaMo's absence - the party and larger right-of-center movement
marches on and thrives.

Friday, October 23, 2009

mpanj said...
Kanchanda,

Note: Raj T. did not win on a parochial appeal alone. A cynical
electorate that refuses to even vote cannot be turned on an us-versus-
them idiom alone. They have seen that movie before.

Raj T. very assiduously usurped NaMo’s development politics and
presented his vision for M’rastra.

The difference: instead of blaming Congress for M’rastra’s woes, he
blamed migrants.

Also, unlike Bal T’s brand of parochialism – Raj T. has gained
traction in almost every urban center – B’bay, Thane, Pune, Nashik and
even smaller towns.

Unless he is co-opted and/or politically neutralized, BJP/SS will lose
25 seats in 2014.

Also, let’s not give up on politics of performance.

But performance means different things to different people.

For the south Bombay elite – it means better airports, clean air,
clean streets, garbage collection, better schools, etc.

For the Vidharba farmer it means – 2 square meals a day and no debt
burden – aka survival.

For the migrant in Bombay, it means living in absolute squalor so he
can save a little to feed his family back in Mulluk.

As NaMo repeatedly points out – development must be converted into a
mass movement. It cant be a cacophony of promises, allegations and
counter allegations.

But, BJP must stop using a one-size-fits-all approach.

The urban-rural divide has given way to the urban-urban and rural-
rural divide – add caste, religion, regional identity to this mix.

Indian electoral marketplace is now a highly fragmented entity with
each micro-segment vying for attention and a political message (and
approach) tailored to its needs.

Raj T’s market was limited to the urban M’rastrian – he could afford
to offer a narrow vision. But at least he tailored and articulated
that vision better than either Uddhav, Munde or Gadkar. SS/BJP had
nothing to offer – besides “Congress is crooked bring us to power”.

BJP has been in power in several states, at different levels. The
baggage of non-performance makes it difficult differentiate itself
from Congress.

Agar saab sale chor hai – why not vote for the original chor.

Friday, October 23, 2009

mpanj said...
So what will a NaMo presidency look like.

Who, what and how will he need to present himself and his vision.

If there's one silver lining to the M'rastra fiasco – it is this.

Raj T. has proven that positioned well – The NaMo agenda works and
works spectacularly.

But here’s the difference.

Bengal has faced the same wave of migration – but it would never
produce a Raj T.

(Note: Mamata never blamed anyone but the commies for WB's sad state)

Gujaratis and M’rastrians both crave the same development – but where
NaMo can cater to the Gujarati sense of profit-and-loss, his
development message in M’rastra must be tailored to address employment
generation – a subtle but important difference.

Gujarat has a mercantile mindset – M’rastra has a martial mindset.

Can NaMo do this in every state – tailor his amazing vision to where
the local populace can understand and identify with it.

He can if he uses a franchise model. He can if he develops an army of
apostles.

Friday, October 23, 2009

Anonymous said...
You are way off the mark. BJP had not acquitted itself creditably.
People are not fools. Sena leaders thought it is a monarchy with two
princes fighting and the King indulging. Yes some got swayed by the
local line. caste + religion + lots of grants +bribes. Who could have
stopped the results. BJP's loss was a foregone conclusion. National
leadership of BJP is a Circus. They can enjoy in Delhi and sit on the
mock saddles as long as congress permits them.

Friday, October 23, 2009

chhotemianinshallah

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Oct 23, 2009, 2:43:11 PM10/23/09
to
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Poor-BJP-show-may-lead-to-more-active-RSS-role/articleshow/5150391.cms

Poor BJP show may lead to more active RSS role
TNN 23 October 2009, 04:08am IST

NEW DELHI: The BJP's disappointing performance in the three assembly
elections has strengthened the prospect of RSS stepping up its
involvement in Shiv Sena leader Udhav Thackeray and BJP chief Rajnath
Singh are garlanded at a joint election rally at Shivaji Park in
Mumbai. (TOI Photo)
party affairs.

The BJP, reeling under a severe crisis since the Lok Sabha defeat, has
now lost further ground after the BJP-Shiv Sena alliance fell below
its expected three-digit score in Maharashtra.

Though the Sangh has to share some responsibility for the Maharashtra
defeat, since it had put in all efforts for a BJP victory, it would
still want to prevail on BJP matters as the party seems unable to put
its act together.

That the BJP's poor showing can be blamed on no one else other than
the party itself was clear from the comment party spokesperson Ravi
Shankar Prasad made soon after conceding defeat in Maharashtra,
Haryana and Arunachal. "We have lost but are not disappointed, we will
overcome the shortcomings," he said, before adding, "The cadre and
support base of the party should be speaking in the same language."
That was almost an acknowledgement of the fact that the party was in
no position to put up a fight, even when the enemy was not in great
shape.

While the Sangh brass -- helped by BJP's electoral failures, factional
feuds as well as leaders' tendency to enlist Nagpur's support -- has
become the most powerful factor in BJP, the trend is sure to gather
momentum, with the electoral setbacks on Thursday further undermining
the authority of those like L K Advani who are not comfortable with
pracharaks micro-managing party affairs.

Party chief Rajnath Singh's term ends next month and Advani is also
expected to step down sometime later, though he gets to choose the
timing. That the Sangh will decide who succeeds them has hardly been a
secret, but the continued poor spell will ensure that the next party
chief will have no delusions about his autonomy. It will also mean a
bigger role for pracharaks in states and the possibility of conflicts
between them and the mass leaders.

The RSS's disappointment with BJP -- losing poll after poll -- may
also see it getting more focused on its other activities, and becoming
more indulgent of other Parivar components like VHP. The latest poll
reverses coincide with VHP's plan to launch a big movement on the
emotive issue of protection of cows. It is billed as a mass
mobilisation effort on the same scale as the successful Ram
Janmabhoomi campaign which, importantly, was launched in the wake of
the party's debacle in the 1984 polls.

Whether the theme of cow protection will have the same traction that
Ayodhya had remains to be seen but the frustration with BJP's
continued poor form in the electoral arena may lead the Sangh to back
VHP's enterprise far more vigorously than it had originally planned.

chhotemianinshallah

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Oct 23, 2009, 2:45:42 PM10/23/09
to
http://www.dnaindia.com/mumbai/report_bjp-outshines-sena-eyes-key-assembly-post_1301935

BJP outshines Sena, eyes key assembly post
Kiran Tare / DNA
Friday, October 23, 2009 2:37 IST

Mumbai: The BJP, which outperformed alliance partner Shiv Sena in the
assembly election, has started dreaming of its old goal -- to get the
post of the leader of opposition. The party may nominate Eknath
Khadse, a fiery leader from Jalgaon, for the post.

The BJP has won 46 seats, whereas the Sena won 44. This tally has
given the BJP an opportunity to stake claim on the post of the leader
of opposition held by the Shiv Sena for the past 10 years.

The BJP has been eyeing the post for a long time. In the outgoing
assembly, Shiv Sena's tally came down from 62 to 56 after Narayan Rane
and some of his supporters quit the party in 2005. At that time, the
BJP, which too had 56 members, had unsuccessfully tried to get the
office of the leader of opposition.

State BJP general secretary Vinod Tawde said, "Since we have the
numbers, it is obvious we will get the post. We [BJP and Sena] will
jointly work as a constructive opposition."

BJP leaders Gopinath Munde and Nitin Gadkari called on Sena chief Bal
Thackeray on Thursday afternoon to discuss the election outcome. But
the issue of the leader of opposition was "not discussed" in the
meeting.

Sena spokesperson Sanjay Raut said, "Munde, Gadkari, Manohar Joshi and
I were present at the meeting. We accepted defeat, but did not discuss
the issue of the leader of opposition."

After being elected to the Lok Sabha, Munde has already made clear he
is more interested in the national politics. He has also indicated
that Khadse may lead the BJP in the assembly. Khadse is a Munde
loyalist.

chhotemianinshallah

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Oct 23, 2009, 2:48:19 PM10/23/09
to
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics/nation/Carry-on-Congress-say-voters/articleshow/5151082.cms

Carry on Congress, say voters
23 Oct 2009, 0257 hrs IST, Aarthi Ramachandran, ET Bureau

NEW DELHI: Congress will be forced to pull back and assess it failures
in local-level management after the Haryana verdict, which has
dampened its celebrations following splendid victories in Maharashtra
and Arunachal Pradesh.

The party, which is on the rebound after its successful Lok Sabha bid,
was expecting a clean 3-0 victory in this round of polls to continue
the winning streak. This psychological boost has suffered a setback,
following the less than expected performance in Haryana, as it heads
for the Jharkhand elections in December.

The Haryana verdict also holds important lessons for Congress state
units. The Lok Sabha verdict, in Haryana at least, now appears to be a
vote against BJP and its prime ministerial face L K Advani, rather
than a backing for Congress chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda. The
Congress had won nine out of 10 Lok Sabha constituencies in the
state.

But in this election held barely six months later, the Jat vote split,
with a large section which backed the Congress in the Lok Sabha polls
shifting loyalties to Om Prakash Chautala’s INLD. Congress’
shortcomings at local-level management seem to have played a big role
in the party’s fall from 59 seats in the 2005 to 40.

The INLD, which could not win a single Lok Sabha seat, improved its
performance from 7 in 2005 to 32. It appears that a severely divided
Opposition might have thrown Congress a lifeline. Congress has
attributed its performance to “overconfidence and complacency.” It
will have to pay a big price for these failings as it seeks out
support of independents and others to form the next government.

But the Haryana results apart, Congress will be happy with itself in
both Maharashtra and Arunachal Pradesh. Though Congress’ state-level
management is under question in Maharashtra as well — the Marathi vote
for instance deserted it in Mumbai and Thane for MNS — the
significance of a third consecutive term for Congress-NCP combine in
the state cannot be denied. Moreover, its tally bolstered by a
resurgence in parts of rural Maharashtra, practically ensures it an
upper hand in negotiations with NCP during portfolio allocation.

The decisive victory for the party in Arunachal Pradesh will also help
Congress at the Centre as it gears up to tackle China’s aggressive
posture on the boundary issue.

There are also gains at the central level. Having retained Maharashtra
and Arunachal Pradesh and managed to also keep Haryana, Congress will
be in much stronger position within UPA. There will be no takers for
tantrums of Trinamool Congress or even DMK. The less elbow room for
allies could translate into more out-of-the-box ideas on the policy
front.

chhotemianinshallah

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Oct 24, 2009, 7:32:21 AM10/24/09
to
http://www.fakingnews.com/2009/10/rss-appoints-goldman-sachs-as-investment-bankers-for-acquiring-bjp/

RSS appoints Goldman Sachs as investment bankers for acquiring BJP

Reported by Pagal Patrakar on Oct 24th, 2009

Nagpur. In an unprecedented move that has never been seen in the
political circles anywhere in the world, RSS has appointed Goldman
Sachs as the investment bankers to help them with the acquisition of
BJP. Goldman Sachs will help in asset valuation and debt restructuring
of BJP, identification of synergies for RSS, and advice on
organizational integration post the acquisition. The amount of
brokerage payable to Goldman Sachs for these services was not
disclosed.

After a dismal performance in the Lok Sabha elections earlier this
year and losses in the assembly elections earlier this week, calls for
acquisition of BJP by RSS had been getting stronger. Our sources
inform that RSS wanted to carry out this task in the most professional
way possible, and finally they decided to go the corporate way. RSS
could re-launch BJP as a private limited company post this
acquisition.

“The top leaders of the BJP will be asked to invest money in the new
company. This will make sure that all the leaders will work together
to realize higher market valuation of the party, including those who
could be looking for exit options. In the current political scenario,
if a leader is looking for an exit option, he or she starts working to
bring the market valuation down. It happens in each party.” Ram
Madhav, RSS spokesperson explained the logic.


Investment Bankers of Goldman Sachs moving in RSS uniform
The current BJP leaders are tight lipped about the development, but
sources say that the move by RSS has foxed them completely.

“We are a right-wing party, but this takes us just too far right.
Money should not be the only criteria of investment. We have worked
for so many years to bring BJP to this level (sic) and our
contributions must be taken into account.” A party leader told on the
conditions of anonymity.

RSS has dispelled such myth and had argued that the prior
contributions by the existing leaders would indeed be taken into
account through the ‘asset valuation’ process. But it was yet not
clear on what basis the leaders would be valued. Goldman Sachs
officials too refused to divulge the parameters saying it was a
“classified” matter. Unconfirmed reports say that instances like
finding controversial mosques could be one of the most highly valued
parameter.

When Faking News contacted SEBI to ask if they would allow listing of
a political party for active trading on bourses, the officials
couldn’t come up with a satisfactory answer. SEBI has called a meeting
of its officials and policy makers later next week to discuss the
issue.

“It would indeed be an interesting situation if RSS approaches SEBI
for listing the new BJP shares for active trading. But I guess it
would be better for our democracy. We have been listening about horse
trading for so long and we all know that money plays such an important
factor in politics today. It would be a step towards transparency.” a
stock market specialist opined.

It’s yet not clear how RSS zeroed upon Goldman Sachs for the job, but
our experts inform us that two factors could have gone in the favor of
the Manhattan based investment bank. Firstly, Goldman Sachs has a very
long history of hobnobbing with powers-to-be in the USA, and secondly,
they were appointed the investment bankers for Satyam when Ramalinga
Raju disclosed that company was in deep shit.

chhotemianinshallah

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Oct 24, 2009, 7:34:18 AM10/24/09
to
http://www.fakingnews.com/2009/08/bjp-launches-jinnah-t-shirts/

BJP launches Jinnah T-shirts
Reported by Pagal Patrakar on Aug 19th, 2009

After senior BJP leaders like L K Advani and Jaswant Singh conceded
their love and admiration for Mohammad Ali Jinnah, BJP has finally
decided to come out of closet and support Jinnah lock stock and
barrel. The party has launched Jinnah T-shirts to honor the great
secular leader of British India.

All leaders and workers of BJP will now wear the Jinnah T-shirt in the
party’s chintan shivir (thinking camp). Party leaders also claimed
that the move will please RSS as the parent organization has been
asking BJP to don a younger look for some time now. Wearing T-shirts
will help leaders look younger.

chhotemianinshallah

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Oct 24, 2009, 7:36:17 AM10/24/09
to
http://www.fakingnews.com/2009/10/bjp-workers-had-used-happydent-gums-to-help-rajnath-plane-fly/

BJP workers had used Happydent gums to help Rajnath’s plane fly
Reported by Pagal Patrakar on Oct 20th, 2009

Dumka, Jharkhand. BJP has vehemently denied the allegations that party
president Rajnath Singh violated any air traffic rule by ordering his
plane to take off in darkness. Party claims that supporters of Rajnath
Singh had illuminated the runway with Happydent teeth to help the
chartered plane in taxiing smoothly before taking off. BJP is expected
to submit thousands of wrappers of Happydent chewing-gums as a proof
to the concerned authorities.

“The charges are politically motivated and full of political vendetta.
Congress doesn’t say anything when their own leaders, including Rahul
Gandhi, violate security rules. In fact they go all out and support
them. And here is a case where our leader and our workers showed
amazing presence of mind in helping a plane take off and Congress is
making ugly noises. BJP’s got talent and Congress is jealous.” BJP
spokesperson Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said.

A BJP supporter helping Rajnath Singh fly

Mr. Naqvi also said that BJP was a party that was well versed in
handling vehicles of all sorts and it did not need to follow any
‘external’ rules. The party has been accused of flouting Directorate
General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) norms.

“What rubbish! We are a party that was created by driving a Rath. Our
associations with trains are also well known. Our leaders are high
flying. We know all kinds of traffic rules inside out and don’t need
any external help. Rajnathji didn’t do anything wrong.” Mr. Naqvi
argued.

Aviation experts and dentists are divided over the issue with. While
aviation experts are not sure how could an airport be functional
without lights on the runways, dentists believe that the incident
could seriously damage the teeth of the BJP workers, who tried to help
Rajnath Singh.

“There could be dentures and fractures in their (BJP workers’) teeth
as planes send out very strong waves and vibrations to nearby objects.
It could seriously harm their teeth and most of them could lose their
teeth in near future.” Manjan Mehra, a leading dentist warned.

The warnings by dentists have further put BJP in trouble as the party
could as well face fresh charges of endangering the dental health of
their supporters. BJP is also worried of losing the appeal of being a
party of the young and the strong if their supporters start losing
their teeth early.

chhotemianinshallah

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Oct 24, 2009, 7:38:30 AM10/24/09
to
http://www.fakingnews.com/2009/08/jinnah-was-reduced-to-zero-by-congress-and-zero-cant-divide/

Jinnah was reduced to zero by Congress, and zero can’t divide
Reported by Pagal Patrakar on Aug 30th, 2009

The Dividers?

For the last ten days or so, every media organization has been
discussing Jaswant, Jinnah and BJP, after the former BJP leader
Jaswant Singh wrote a book arguing that Jinnah was not the sole person
responsible for division of India in 1947.

While BJP expelled him for the argument, others trashed the book for
glorifying a person who divided India and caused a civil war leading
to death of millions of people. Newspapers and news channels have been
debating the issue since then and now it’s Faking News’ turn.

The editorial team of Faking News believes that Jaswant Singh has
written book that is antithesis of his own arguments. In fact there
was no need to write a book that argues that Jinnah alone couldn’t
have carried out division of India. Congress had already established
it through their efforts.

Jinnah was reduced to zero by Congress in the history textbooks
prescribed for the children of India. We all know that division by
zero is impossible in normal circumstances, therefore, in a way
Congress had already proved that it was impossible for Jinnah to
divide the nation.

To add to that, Indian children hardly study history textbooks and
prefer to depend upon guides and guess papers to get passing marks.
Therefore most of them never bothered to know who Jinnah was and what
did he do. Now suddenly, these children, some of whom might have grown
up since then, are reading and hearing bout Jinnah. Some of them can
actually go on to believe that it was Jinnah who divided India,
something they never cared to believe or disbelieve.

So it is really not clear to our editorial team what did Jaswant Singh
want to do by writing the book?

Faking News invites its readers to join the discussion and pitch in
with their hypotheses about the motives behind Jaswant Singh writing
the book.

Sid Harth

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Oct 24, 2009, 12:48:05 PM10/24/09
to
http://www.ptinews.com/news/345981_After-Raje--BJP-removes-West-Bengal-unit-chief

A file photo of BJP leader LK Advani with party president Rajnath
Singh. PTI Photo Photograph (1)

After Raje, BJP removes West Bengal unit chief
STAFF WRITER 19:20 HRS IST

New Delhi, Oct 24 (PTI) The West Bengal BJP chief had to step down
today for poor performance of the party in the Lok Sabha polls, a day
after Vasundhara Raje bowed to pressure from the central leadership
and quit as Leader of Opposition in the Rajasthan assembly.

West Bengal BJP President Satyabrat Mukherjee resigned from his post
to abide with the party decision to remove all unit heads in states
where the party had performed badly in the Lok Sabha polls, party
sources said. His resignation was accepted by Rajnath Singh.

Mukherjee has been replaced by Rahul Sinha, who was nominated as the
West Bengal state unit president of the party by Singh today.

However, the party leadership maintains that new state unit presidents
are being appointed as country-wide organisational elections are on to
elect office-bearers from block level upwards.

bademiyansubhanallah

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Oct 24, 2009, 3:51:48 PM10/24/09
to
http://www.outlookindia.com/article.aspx?262431

Magazine | Nov 02, 2009
PTI
Death ride: Police at the Margao blast site
goa: blasts

Fear Is Beached
A Hindu group roils a tourist paradise
Lionel Messias

Saffron Hood

•The Oct 16 blast in Margao at a Diwali function has caused alarm
•Bomb could have killed more people if the Sanatan Sanstha activists
it killed had managed to plant it
•The Sanstha is a Hindu outfit linked to blasts in Thane, Navi Mumbai
•A bomb the Sanstha allegedly planted on a truck carrying a Narakasur
effigy was defused
***
Goa is quite a paradox. For tourists, it’s a place known for fun and
feni. But below the surface, there’s a communal divide that runs
deep, and it is in its undercurrents that the Sanatan Sanstha has
flourished since 1990 at Ramnathi, near Ponda, some 20 km from Panaji.
On October 16, there was a blast in Margao, Goa’s commercial capital
and constituency of chief minister Digambar Kamat. Three days later,
reacting to news reports, Sanstha spokesman Abhav Vartak said in
Panvel (Maharashtra), “We are not a terrorist organisation. There is a
conspiracy to implicate us. We teach the Hindu religion
scientifically.” But the fact remains that both the deceased, Malgunda
Patil and Yogesh Naik, were Sanstha members. They died when the crude
ammonium nitrate bomb they were transporting on a scooter went off.
Patil died on the spot, Naik four days later at the Goa Medical
College. Luckily, there were no other casualties.

Patil worked with Sanatan Prabhat, the organisation’s mouthpiece, at
Sangli, Maharashtra, before moving to Goa two years ago to become an
administrator of its Ramnathi ashram. Naik, a local, taught at the
Lokvishvas Pratisthan for the deaf and dumb in Ponda and also
delivered milk to the ashram before becoming a member. Both had
participated in the activities of the Hindu Janajagriti Samiti (HJS),
described as a “sister” organisation of the Sanstha. The police are
also probing the Sanstha’s links to Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur, co-
accused in the 2006 Malegaon blast.

“Patil and Naik could have shed light on the case,” says police
superintendent Atmaram Deshpande. “The deceased were part of the
organisation. We did not dream up the links.” He could say that
because, during a joint raid on the ashram, the Goa police andMumbai’s
anti-terrorism squad recovered circuits and timer devices similar to
those found in the scooter. Another bomb, found on a Sancoale-bound
truck carrying a Narakasur effigy, was defused.

The palatial ashram has come under intense police scrutiny. Pamphlets
and hard discs were recovered from the ashram, which was hosting 161
people when the raid took place. Foreigners are said to be regular
visitors. Home minister Ravi Naik says, “We need to know what the
foreigners were doing there.”

So why did an extreme right-wing Hindu group target a Hindu annual
ritual where an effigy of Narakasur is burnt on Diwali? Sources said
the Sanstha has been objecting to the glorification of evil, as
represented by Narakasur, who was slain by Lord Krishna. But the
Sanstha saw the burning of Narakasur as giving evil too much
prominence. Earlier protests took the form of petitions and articles,
letters in the media.

The Sanstha was founded by Dr Jayant Balaji Athavale, a clinical
hypnotherapist from Mumbai. Last summer, the organisation was
suspected of setting off bombs in auditoriums in Thane and Vashi to
protest the alleged denigration of Hindu gods in Aamhi Paachpute, a
Marathi play. The police had arrested four HJS activists who were
reportedly living at the Sanstha premises.

It hasn’t taken long for Goa politicians to muddy the waters. Ravi
Naik dragged in his rival, transport minister Ramakrishna alias Sudin
Dhavalikar, saying, “We are probing everyone. We know that Jyoti
(Dhavalikar’s wife) is part of the Sanstha.” Dhavalikar, however, says
his wife was only a volunteer at the ashram and spends three hours
there daily in meditation.

Sid Harth

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Oct 25, 2009, 1:51:46 PM10/25/09
to
http://www.hindustantimes.com/The-saffron-brigade-s-test-of-fire/H1-Article1-469140.aspx

The saffron brigade’s test of fire
Pankaj Vohra, Hindustan Times
October 25, 2009

First Published: 22:15 IST(25/10/2009)
Last Updated: 22:22 IST(25/10/2009)

The BJP’s run of bad luck seems endless. After getting a drubbing in
the parliamentary polls where its numbers went down from 138 to 116,
the party has again bitten the dust in the recent assembly polls.
Senior leaders are at loss to explain this sudden decline in the
saffron party’s fortunes even though it is obvious that its leadership
crisis is the main reason. But those in charge refuse to read the
writing on the wall and the RSS is finding it difficult to impose its
will on its own political wing.

In fact, RSS sarsanghchalak Mohan Bhagwat’s visit to the capital a few
months ago seems to have been an exercise in futility. The BJP
leadership continues to function under the very leaders whom the Sangh
wants replaced. Stories doing the rounds say that both L.K. Advani,
leader of the opposition in the Lok Sabha, and party chief Rajnath
Singh are in no hurry to quit their posts and enable new people to
take over. Some reports suggest that Advani will go on his 83rd
birthday on November 8 and Rajnath at the end of his term.

Significantly, an operation undertaken by the sarsanghchalak himself
does not seem to be coming to a logical conclusion. The Sangh’s
detractors are amused at the fact that the RSS seems unable to force
the BJP to fall in line. Mohan Bhagwat’s own credibility is at stake
and the delay is eroding it further. What is worse is that the BJP’s
factional feuds have also spread to the RSS. For the first time in
many years, it is finding it difficult to resolve its internal
contradictions.

The recent assembly results where the BJP and its allies were trounced
should occasion further introspection. The polls were held with no one
in charge in the real sense. Every candidate had to virtually fend for
himself or herself. There was no direction, strategy or political
management. If Haryana was a straight case of miscalculation,
Maharashtra became a battleground between Advani loyalists and those
owing allegiance to the Sangh. In both cases, the BJP paid the price
even though some leaders are now blaming the Shiv Sena’s inability to
hold on to its base as the main cause for the debacle.

In Haryana, the INLD made a remarkable comeback largely because the
BJP

(contesting on its own) failed to present itself as an alternative to
the Congress. A tie-up between the two would have benefited both.
Similarly, in Maharashtra, the MNS stole the thunder from right under
the nose of the BJP-Shiv Sena coalition.

What the BJP does not realise is that if it fails as an opposition
party and does not project itself adequately as an alternative, the
political vacuum will be filled by someone else. It has happened in
states and may soon happen in Parliament. Further, the credibility of
its current leadership will always be an impediment to it becoming an
alternative to the Congress.

Parliament is about to commence next month for its winter session. One
wonders what kind of challenge the BJP can provide to the Congress
with this lameduck leadership. Further, the Liberhan Commission report
is likely to be tabled in both Houses. There may not be many in the
BJP itself who will come to the defence of Advani if he is attacked by
various sections of the House. Instead of the Opposition taking the
government on over its inability to control rising prices etc, the BJP
will find itself at the receiving end.

The RSS is facing its biggest ever test. It has to either withdraw
itself completely from the political (culture is also another name for
pursuit of power) arena or prepare to go through its own kind of agni
pariksha. The credibility of the RSS is at stake. Between us.

Sid Harth

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Oct 25, 2009, 2:21:10 PM10/25/09
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Oman to Modi: Sorry, we have not invited you
Submitted by admin3 on 25 October 2009 - 10:41pm.


By Mumtaz Alam Falahi, TwoCircles.net,

New Delhi: To Narendra Modi, now humiliation and embarrassment have
come from Oman with the Arab country publicly denying that it ever
invited him to visit the country. UK and America have more than once
shut their doors on the Gujarat Chief Minister for the most heinous
ever communal pogrom of 2002 that was orchestrated under his rule.

In an advertisement published on October 23 in the national daily The
Hindu, the New Delhi embassy of the Sultanate of Oman clarified Oman
had never invited Narendra Modi to the country. If he visits on the
invitation of a company there, the government of Oman would have no
relation to that visit and thus he would not be a state guest.

“The Embassy of the Sultanate of Oman would like to inform that Dutch
Norterdam Company has some projects in Sohar City, Sultanate of Oman.
Hence the Company has agreements with State of Gujarat, Republic of
India. It has invited Mr Narendra Modi the chief minister of Gujarat
to visit its projects in Sohar. The Government of the Sultanate of
Oman has no relation to this visit, since he is a guest of the above
mentioned company,” reads the advertisement.

The embassy clarification has come following a citizens’ online
petition to Oman to rescind Modi’s visit. The South Asia Citizens Web
had launched similar online petition against Modi’s UK and US visit.

Meanwhile, Gujarat Chief Minister’s office has clarified that Modi was
not scheduled to visit Oman. The officials, however, have reportedly
admitted that Oman Industries and Commerce Minister Maqbool Ali Sultan
during his Gandhinagar visit on September 9 had invited Modi to visit
Oman. The Gujarat officials have also admitted that Modi had accepted
the invitation.

Sid Harth

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Oct 26, 2009, 11:29:32 AM10/26/09
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http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics/nation/Roadshow-time-for-Vasundhara-after-showdown/articleshow/5161900.cms

Roadshow time for Vasundhara after showdown
26 Oct 2009, 0458 hrs IST, ET Bureau

NEW DELHI: Having quit as opposition leader in Rajasthan as per
directions of BJP’s central leadership, Ms Vasundhara Raje now plans
to hold a show of strength on her way back to the state capital.

Ms Raje is planning to go back to Jaipur by road on Tuesday. Enroute,
her supporters are planning to hold rallies at various places to greet
her and express their solidarity with her.

Ms Raje is now planning to resume her political activities in the
state as ``an ordinary foot-soldier.’’ The roadshow being planned by
her on way back to Jaipur is part of the project to demonstrate her
clout among the party-workers. She remains the tallest BJP leader in
the state, notwithstanding the party brass’ attempts to undermine her
authority.

For BJP’s central leadership, getting Ms Raje to step down from the
Rajasthan opposition leader’s post is turning out to be the easier
part as it struggles to find her successor. In the 79-member
legislature group, Ms Raje has the backing of an overwhelming
majority. Attempts to break her hold among MLAs have been futile so
far, with MLAs making it clear that they wouldn’t settle for anyone
else but Ms Raje.

BJP’s central leadership now finds itself in a dilemma. It cannot
appoint anyone else to replace her, for conventionally the leader of
the legislature group has to be elected by the MLAs.

In view of the clout demonstrated by Ms Raje among MLAs, BJP president
Rajnath Singh wanted to bar her from throwing her hat in the ring once
again. There’s, however, nothing in the party constitution, or
legislative rules to prevent a former leader of the opposition from
contesting for the post again. Doing so is certain to expose Mr Singh
to the charges of being vindictive and undemocratic, political
observers argue.

The former Rajasthan chief minister, in her three-page resignation
letter addressed to Mr L K Advani, had expressed her resolve to
continue working as an ``ordinary party worker.’’ She accused Mr
Singh, who had been gunning for her for quite some time, of indulging
in ``undemocratic conduct.’’

She maintained that she had been elected the leader of the legislature
group by the MLAs and the leadership ought to have sought their views
before asking her to step down.

Sid Harth

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Oct 26, 2009, 11:59:49 AM10/26/09
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http://www.khabrein.info/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=28225&Itemid=66

NRI Leaders Welcome Oman's stand on Modi

New York, October 25 2009:

Human Rights activists in the US welcomed the decision of the Oman
government not to invite the pogrom politician, Narendra Modi, for a
visit. The embassy of the Sultanate of Oman had taken the unusual step
of taking out an advertisement in a national daily to deny the claim
by Modi government that he was invited by the Oman.

"The next logical step for the government of Oman is to investigate
the flow of funds to Modi and his party from Oman. The governments of
other Gulf countries and countries in the far east, as well as in
Europe and the Americas, must investigate the flow of funds to Modi
and his militant wing of the Hindutva supremacist, BJP," said Dr.
Shaik Ubaid, a founding national coordinator of Coalition Against
Genocide.

Dr. Shaik Ubaid congratulated the human rights activists and
organizations for educating the government of Oman about the dangers
of Hindutva supremacist movement that derives inspiration from Hitler,
and was founded on the model of Mussolini's Fascist party in the
1920's. The movement was responsible for the assassination of Mahatma
Gandhi.

Narendra Modi orchestrated the anti-Muslim pogrom of 2002 to revive
his sinking political fortunes. He seemed to have succeeded initially
by polarizing the state of Gujarat and gaining the support of a
significant population of Gujarati Hindus to win successive state
elections. He was soon being promoted as the next prime minister of
India by many in the ruling BJP party. He was to replace the
septuagenarian leaders Vajpaye and Advani.

He was to launch the next phase of his political career by undertaking
an ambitious and high-profile tour of the US, where many Gujarati
Hindus were supporting and raising funds for him.

To counter the rise of such a ruthless politician, more than 40
organizations and communities came together and launched the Coalition
Against Genocide (coalitionagainstgenocide.org). In spite of the
support of the powerful Hotel lobby, The Asian American Hotel Owners
Association, the State department revoked Modi's visa. His party, BJP,
could not promote him as the official leader as long as he would be a
persona nongrata in the US.

bademiyansubhanallah

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Oct 26, 2009, 2:31:31 PM10/26/09
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http://www.ptinews.com/news/348840_Veteran-RSS-leader-Pt-Giriraj-Shashtri-felicitated

Veteran RSS leader Pt Giriraj Shashtri felicitated
STAFF WRITER 23:44 HRS IST

Jaipur, Oct 26(PTI) Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh today felicitated one
of its octogenarian and founder of Sanskrit Bharti magazine Pandit
Giriraj Shashtri "Dadabhai" at "Amrit Mahotsav" function here.

The 88-year-old Pandit Shastri was presented garlands, shawls, plaques
and silver coated "shreefal" in the presence of RSS Chief Mohan Rao
Bhagawat, former vice president Bhairon Singh Shekhawat, former HRD
Minister and BJP leader Dr MM Joshi.

Quoting contribution of Pandit Shashtri, the RSS Chief Bhagawat said
like Pandit Shastri, every one should have "free smile" in life
without any frustration or getting cynical.

"Dadabhai's discipline, commitment, and devotion should be adopted by
every swayam sevak," he said.

Former Vice President Shekhawat said, "Indian culture and Sanskrit
language should not be neglected in society. Our traditions and
culture would survive as long as we respect Sanskrit language and show
devotion towards work in that direction.

bademiyansubhanallah

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Oct 26, 2009, 2:33:47 PM10/26/09
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http://www.ptinews.com/news/348698_Lalu-for-implementation-of-Liberhan-s-commission-report

Lalu for implementation of Liberhan's commission report
STAFF WRITER 17:13 HRS IST

Patna, Oct 26 (PTI) Demanding tabling of the report of Liberhan
Commission that probed the Babri mosque demolition case, RJD leader
Lalu Prasad today said his party would raise the issue in the next
session of the Parliament.

"The Centre must take immediate steps to table the report of the
commission that probed the demolition of the mosque in Ayodhya... in
the next session of the Parliament," Prasad said while addressing a
function here.

Prasad said tabling of the report was necessary to "expose the real
faces who operated behind the screen" in the Mosque demolition in
1992.

"All culprits in the case must be brought to justice immediately," he
said.

Prasad claimed he was "under pressure" from various quarters not to
arrest senior BJP leader L K Advani in Bihar then.

chhotemianinshallah

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Oct 26, 2009, 6:22:49 PM10/26/09
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http://www.dnaindia.com/india/report_vasundhara-raje-wants-to-connect-to-her-state_1303532

Vasundhara Raje wants to connect to her state
Rajesh Sinha / DNA Tuesday, October 27, 2009 2:38 IST

New Delhi: Rajasthan BJP leader Vasundhara Raje, who has been forced
to quit as leader of opposition in the assembly, intends to go back to
the state and try to position herself as the tallest leader there.

Her resignation may have given a sense of satisfaction to BJP
president Rajnath Singh, but it has not solved the problems for the
party. Battle lines appeared to have hardened in the state unit and a
game of one-upmanship is likely to ensue between Raje's camp and her
adversaries.

Raje is not shying away. Sources said she is not interested in taking
any position in the central leadership -- something she had insisted
on. Her position now, as stated in her 3-page note to Advani, is that
Rajasthan is her soul and "the soul cannot be separated from the
body". "For serving people of Rajasthan, I do not need any post but
the affection of the people, and that I have," she said.

There was talk of Raje being advised by her mentors to lie low for
some time. Party polls are due in December when Rajnath would be
replaced. The election for legislature party leader could happen soon
after and Raje could be re-elected to the post she was forced to quit.

bademiyansubhanallah

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Oct 27, 2009, 5:08:19 AM10/27/09
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http://www.ptinews.com/news/349448_Nishank-lectures-BJP-leaders

Nishank lectures BJP leaders
STAFF WRITER 13:12 HRS IST

Dehradun, Oct 27 (PTI) For a change, Uttarakhand Chief Minister Ramesh
Pokhriyal Nishank donned the role of a teacher again after about two
decades.

Nishank, a former Saraswati Shishu Mandir teacher, took lecture of the
ruling BJP MLAs and leaders at state party headquarters here last
night.

The 50-year-old chief minister addressed newly appointed state
parliamentary secretaries, heads of state-run corporations and
committees on maintaining party's discipline.

The party's prospects in 2012 assembly elections were also discussed.

Seven MLAs were appointed parliamentary secretaries and 25 others
including legislators and leaders were given ministerial-level ranks
which BJP describes as "Daytivadhari" (responsibility-holders).

"We want to achieve our goal for the mission 2012 and our party
workers and leaders are important in this direction," Nishank said.

bademiyansubhanallah

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Oct 27, 2009, 5:10:33 AM10/27/09
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BJP trying to woo back Himachal rebel
Submitted by admin4 on 27 October 2009 - 1:34pm.
India Politics
By IANS,

Shimla : The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Himachal Pradesh
is trying to woo back its rebel, fearing that he might dent the
party's vote bank in the Jawali assembly by-election scheduled Nov 7.

BJP rebel Madan Sharma, who was denied party ticket from Jawali, filed
his nomination papers for the bypoll as an independent candidate.

State BJP chief Khimi Ram said Tuesday that there was no harm in
convincing Sharma to return to the party.

"The doors (of the party) are still open for him," Khimi Ram said.

Sharma is the elder brother of Kangra MP Rajan Sushant, who was trying
to get the BJP ticket from Jawali for his wife, Sudha Sushant.

Two assembly seats in Himachal -- Rohru and Jawali -- fell vacant
after legislators Virbhadra Singh and Sushant contested and won the
Lok Sabha elections in May.

Sharma has accused Sushant of favouring "weak candidate" Baldev Raj
Chaudhary for Jawali after the party refused to give a ticket to his
wife.

"The allotment of ticket to weak candidate Baldev Raj was under
pressure from Sushant," he told IANS.

Sharma said he is still a primary member of the BJP.

The Congress has fielded former minister Sujan Singh Pathania from
Jawali.

Eight candidates are in the fray for the two assembly seats.

bademiyansubhanallah

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Oct 27, 2009, 5:19:32 AM10/27/09
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Blast in Goa
Submitted by admin3 on 25 October 2009 - 7:39pm.

By Ram Puniyani,

Goa, the paradise for tourists, witnessed a bomb kept in a scooter
going off on the eve of Divali (17th Oct 2009) in Margao. It killed
Malgonda Patil and seriously injured Yogesh Naik. Another bomb was
detected in Sancoale in a truck carrying 40 youth for Narkasur
competition. Interestingly Narkasur day, one of the five festivals of
Divali, is celebrated in Goa on a big scale. Sanatana Sanstha, to
which both the activists belong, is opposed to Narkasur festival on
the ground that it is celebration of evil. The second aim of this
blast was to create communal tension in Margao, which has a history of
communal violence. Fortunately, the bomb went off before being planted
in the crowded place and so the casualty was less.

This is the same Sanatan Sanstha, which came to light in the context
of a blast which occurred in Gadkari Ragayatan in Thane on 4th June
2008, this had injured seven people. In one of the few cases of
success in investigating such cases in Maharashtra or anywhere for
that matter, the Anti Terrorist Squad (ATS) of Police, succeeded in
nabbing the culprits, against whom cases are going on still. It was a
clear case of involvement of Hindu Right wing organizations involved
in a case of terrorism. The culprits belonged to Hindu Janjagaran
Samiti (HJS), an outfit of Sanatana Sanstha, whose one of the ashrams
is based in Panvel near Mumbai. These culprits were also involved in
other blasts, in Vashi, Panvel and Ratnagiri.


In Thane the blasts were done to protest against the play Amhi
Pachpute, a satirical play on Mahabharata. The allegation was that the
play insults Hindu Gods. The earlier blast in Panvel was in a theater
where the film Jodha Akbar was being screened. In this film the Hindu
princess is married to Akbar, a Muslim king, and that is regarded by
these outfits as insult to Hindu religion.

Sanatan Sanstha founded by Dr. Jayant Balaji Athwale is inspired by
the political ideology of Savarkar of Hindu Mahasabha and Hedgewar of
RSS. It has branches spread all over, including one in Panvel near
Mumbai, while its head office is in Ramnathi in Goa. In earlier Thane
and nearby blasts also all the accused belonged to this organization.
Sanatan Sanstha says it has nothing to do with the blasts, despite the
fact that those involved were members of the organization. Police is
investigating the links of these accused with the recent Miraj Sangli
riots in Maharashtra on the eve of elections (2009).

The same organization also brings out a paper called Sanatan Prabhat,
carrying the ideas of Hindu Rashtra, and propagating against
minorities. Since the last overt action from this organization, no
serious action has been taken against this organization, despite
Maharashtra ATS asking for a ban on this organization. Now it surfaces
that Goa transport miniter Dhavalikar’s wife Jyoti is also associated
with this organization. It is again same organization which campaigned
forcefully against the screening of M.F. Hussein’s film 'Through the
eyes of a painter', due to which the screening of the film in the Goa
Film Festival held in November 2008 was shelved.

One recalls that starting from April 2006, many acts of blasts done by
the RSS associates, Bajrang Dal, Sadhvi Pragya group etc. came to
light. The pattern of these was to target the mosque at time when the
crowd of Muslims is maximum there, especially on the Jumma, Friday
afternoon namaz (prayer). In case of Sanatan Sanstha associates the
blasts so far seems to be taking place to protest against something
which they don’t approve of, staging of play Amhi Pachpute, screening
of Film Jodha Akbar to here in Goa the celebration of Narkasur
festival. The Hindutva related terror seems to be having two types of
operations, from which they can be demarcated. And so within the
Hindutva inspired terror groups these two clear cut demarcations need
to be understood.

What is strikingly painful is the police and media response to such
events. One knows that in Bajrang Dal- Sadhvi Pragya variety of
terrorism starting from Nanded to Malegaon, the investigation has been
lukewarm and slow. Initially the investigators refused to believe that
Hindu Right wing groups can be part of terror acts. It is only after
Hemant Karkare’e immaculate investigation unearthing the role of
Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur, Dayananad Pande and company that it was
taken with some seriousness. One recalls Karkare having stated that he
has collected all the evidence against Sadhvi group. Despite that why
the investigation is so slow?

One also recalls that while doing this investigation, Karkare was
under immense pressure, he was called Deshdrohi (anti National) etc.
His pain and anguish went to the extent that he shared this with a
senior police officer, Julio Rebeiro, who in turn correctly advised
him to continue doing his work with same degree of professionalism. It
is same Karkare who got killed in the 26/11 terrorist attack in Mumbai
prompting the then Minorities Affairs minister A.R. Antuley to state
that there may be something more than meets the eye in the murder of
Karkare. Will the truth ever come out?

When any blast takes place, and what are popularly called ‘Jihadi
terrorists’ are suspected, the newspapers generally devote front page
banner headlines, with all details and suspicions spelt out day after
day. In cases related to Nanded types or the ones related to Hindu
Jagran Samiti type, the coverage is relegated to small columns in the
back pages. The visual media which generally carries non-stop running
commentary around such an event is now muted when it comes to Hindutva
inspired terror.

Abhay Vartak, the spokesperson of Hindu Sanatan Sansthan said that his
organization has nothing to do with these blasts. He went on to say
that talk of his organization being part of it and so banning it, is
meant to defame his organization. But still the problem remains, those
who have done it are part of his organization. Why they are regularly
involved in it, in personal capacity or as organization is a question
which needs to be answered? What they preach, teach, indoctrinate due
to which the terrorists are mushrooming in his Ashram needs to be
investigated.

A terrorist is a terrorist. To mete out different treatments to them
according to their religion is a product of biased minds and distorted
social common sense, which needs to be overcome to strive for justice.

Goa/punyani
Submitted by Shoeb K (not verified) on 26 October 2009 - 3:42pm.
Mr Ram

People like you are worse than terrorists.

You create a division by compariosn - why label this way, why one is
treated this way while other is treated a different way, you bring
insinuations and connect non-related dots..

Goa blast does not get a coverage because it is even "less than" a
nuisance --one person got killed. Man, to be newsworthy, it has to be
gory with many killed in mayhem..Unfortunttely, all of that was
committed by Muslims, except the 2002 Gujrat which in a sense put the
religious riots in gujrat to a stop and got the statte moving in the
path of development.

All should be investigated. However, the lion share of rsources should
be allovcated to Islamic Jehadism, ebacuse that is the most vicious
and murderous ideology since Nazism. We are witnessing its murderous
scale in Pakistan; and unless the police and populace is careful and
vigilant, those terrorists will create a havoc here. It is imperative
that police watch suspected Muslims (and others) who provide home base
to these people.

FYI Karakare would not have dies if JeT people did not attack Mumbai.
May be he would have killed by so aclled Hindu extremists some other
way. It is far fetvched reasoning that Hindu extremists will get
PAkistanis to come to Mumbai to create a mayhem so Karkare will go to
afce them, and provide a backdrop for killing him. You must be nuts!

bademiyansubhanallah

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Oct 27, 2009, 5:37:46 AM10/27/09
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Khul ja sim SIM, Modi woos Russians
DNA Tuesday, October 27, 2009 14:10 IST

Gandhinagar: Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi has invited the
Russian telecom giant, SIS TEMA, to set up a Sim card and microchip
manufacturing unit in Gujarat. Modi, who is currently in Russia on a
three-day visit, invited the company on Monday after a tour of SIS
TEMA's manufacturing unit in Moscow.

Quoting reports from Moscow, sources in Gandhinagar said that the
chief minister had also observed SIS TEMA's disaster management
technology that can be used by the coast guard. The sources added that
SIS TEMA had responded positively to Modi's offer and had promised to
send a delegation of company officials to Gujarat.

Earlier in the day, the CM addressed the 4th International Energy Week
Conference that is being held in Moscow. In his speech, he highlighted
the achievements of Gujarat in the petroleum and energy sector, and
said that Gujarat had made considerable progress in creating an
"integrated value-chain in the petroleum and energy sector".

Recalling that, in 1964-67, Russia had conducted extensive exploration
for oil in the bay of Khambhat, Modi invited Russian oil and gas
companies to invest in Gujarat once again. He told the delegates at
the conference that, in 2001, Gujarat had evolved a strategy for
exploration and research in hydrocarbons (gas, oil and petroleum).

As a result, the state had become the petro-capital of India within a
decade, he said.
The sources in Gandhinagar said that Modi had state at the conference
in Moscow that all major petroleum and gas companies had a presence in
Gujarat today. He told the assembled delegates that the state had
entered into tie-ups for technical collaboration with the world's best
gas, petroleum and energy companies.

To become a major player in the oil and gas sector, Gujarat is now
focussing on creating an integrated value-chain in the petroleum
sector, the chief minister said. He added that, for this, the state
was working to integrate exploration, production, transmission and
distribution of petroleum and gas in the state.

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