Tiranga at Lal Chowk!!!

    This we cheered lustily

I love my flag, my anthem and my country.

These words sound hollow in the face of your known track record. Dangerous politics - by Barkha Dutt in Hindustan Time

I had no plans of posting a blog, after reading the comments about 154 on this article this is what prompted me to post this blog.

These are the comments posted by Mr. A. S. Raghunath.  

“You love none but your own such nauseating news sense that are repellent to majority of self-respecting Indians. Reading your article therefore was not a pleasure, Ms. Barkha. For, every logic that you have structured in your prose, contradicts your own action on the ground—in your newsfield!

You say you love Fauj. But your addiction for sickening sense of news doesn’t hold you back from being seen on the sides of those who advocate freely against Armed Forces Special Powers Act, 1958. Your own opposition to this act puts the very jawans’ life and career in jeopardy, whom you love so much!

You say I love my country. And to you, country doesn’t mean states ruled by parties other than Congress! Your own hate-BJP-vendetta sometimes make you dislike even the people of those states! Remember, when Gujarat returned Modi back to power, in a news show and using your own voice over, you had called Gujaraties ‘traditionally effete’ people? How can you love your country when you dislike its people?

You say national Anthem brings tears. Tears would roll only when you feel the essence of what was penned by Gurudev in a highly Sanskritized Bengali language. Left to you, even this classic language is not the language of your version of India, but that of Sangh Parivar! When have you advocated in favour of Vande Matram, another national song, which was penned by Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay? Whenever there was controversy stirred up on Vande Matram, you reared your sickening news sense again and sided with those who opposed this beautiful song. To your tribe Maa tujhe salaam is acceptable but not Vande Matram!! This therefore demonstrates, the one who hardly understands the classic language, how would it trigger tears?

In one sentence you aver it was Vajpayee who should be credited with all the peace processes initiated so far in the valley. And in the next you don’t even hesitate to call many of BJP’s intervention in the state as ‘imaginative’! Ironical, no?

You credit BJP again for successfully putting this Government on defensive on non-performance, corruption and inflation; but in none of your shows you offered this credit to this party. On the contrary you questioned them on stalling of parliament. And for every Congress failure you, fiercely contrasted that with BJP’s past and present short-comings to only discredit them in the public domain. In a passing reference, you called Vibrant Gujarat a successful summit, where Modi had attracted Rs. 21 Lakh Crore potential investment through 7936 MoUs, thereby creating job opportunities for a potential 5.2 Million population base. Take a content audit of your shows, Ms. Barkha and tell us if your channel had depicted this success story on your shows? This is not news as this doesn’t conform to your sickening news sense, Ms. Barkha.

Finally you say that Omar Abdullah made multiple appeals to BJP to halt this Yatra-Rajneeti. He is the same Omar who while parting with BJP made that famous speech in Parliament that had won a billion hearts for him and made him a potential CM candidate for J&K state. He said, ‘I’m a Muslim and an Indian. And I see no difference in this..’!

Why don’t you ask the same Omar to show his statesmanship again by going and planting an Indian Tri-color himself on Lal-Chowk? This would take the wind out of BJP’s Yatra-Rajneeti and would also win him huge goodwill from all over the country. There is a symbolism of great statesmanship here, if he does that. Of course, Lal Chowk is relevant today as it had seen a Pakistani Flag being hoisted there, by separatist elements. And putting a tri-color back there is as important and relevant as putting an Indian Flag by Jawans on the Kargil heights, after it was retrieved from the grab of Pakistanis.”

                       This is not acceptable at Lal Chowk

 Dismiss Omar Abdullah if flag hoisting is  challenged HT.

Latest updates on this issue.

Siege for Tiranga, free run for separatists - Nancy Kaul

 Tiranga was hoisted also by CRPF at Lal Chowk.

I welcome a debate and discussion on this…As always, please keep your tone civil, your language polite…no sweeping generalisations please and no personal abuse.  Thank you.

Traumatized Indians.

Indians are passing thru a traumatic state, are collectively experiencing an extreme sense of disgust, cynicism with the incumbent government, congress and the fourth estate. We are being compressed from either end on one hand is the corruption of humongous proportions by the politicians in Government, on the other is inappropriate actions of the media and its population.

The brazenness of both is similar and remarkable in the face of incontrovertible evidence that is in the public domain. Neither is willing to accept their crimes instead are aggressively indulging in name calling of those who remind them of their wrong doing. The politicos are being provided the platform for this, by ever willing print and electronic medium. The discredited media person are forming their own gangs and engaging in dueling on a daily basis on social media forums.

Not withstanding all these actions, the facts will not change. Corrupt they are and corruption is their creed. The compulsion of removing these stains are of paramount concern for all those connected with corruption, they forget once the public perception is formed nothing will change, engaging the public is counter productive it only exacerbate, perception will solidify into a belief.There is yet another parallel narrative being orchestrated the trigger being used is common ‘Assassination of Mr. Salman Taseer”. One employed this to highlight her sense of victim hood, another tried to use it for resuscitating her career and now we have Mr.Samar Halarnkar who is embarking on a voyeuristic voyage by superimposing the incident in Pakistan into an Indian scenario.

There are basic differences which cannot be ignored between these two neighbours. India has been a Democracy for last 63years Jackboots have been the favorite in Pakistan. Pakistan is a theocratic state India a secular nation. The most important is that the incident has happened and the possibility of such an event happening in India is indulging in crystal ball gazing. Perhaps no, there is a deeper purpose. There is a dire need for validating what wikileaks have put out in public domain as the greatest challenge deemed by none other than the scion of Gandhi Family the Man who would Prime Minister. 

Mr. Digvijay Singh has been working very hard towards this common goal, hence the article by Mr.Samar Halarnkar- "Terror has a religion" . All this time we have been told differently. Why this shift in stance? Congress is stuck in the morass of corruption not one but plenty that it is finding it difficult to function and speak coherently. Escape hatch needed, let’s provide that by way of initiating a debate which will assuredly get shrill once ignited.

“Terrorism is almost always driven by religion. That's evident in every terror investigation since before the demolition of the Babri Masjid, which, along with the Gujarat riots of 2002, set off a wave of urban, Islamist terrorism.” This is an assertion made in the article. Has the author overlooked terrorism in the state of Jammu & Kashmir since 1989 on purpose, is it selective amnesia or is it that there are no Urban areas in that state? We are yet see any evidence of so called “Hindu Terrorists” making such claims. The author conveniently ignores the fact that Indians have been through many turbulent times in history yet never has the phenomenon of “Hindu Terror” ever taken roots in this country. 16^th Aug 1946 Direct action day did not lead to any terror groups being formed. 1984 senseless and indiscriminate killings on the streets of Delhi did not lead to formation of any terror groups. Conversely whatever were there in Punjab were put down ruthlessly by the police force.

Riots in this country have a long history to focus on 2002 is pure simple politiking for the sake of a preferred political party. Had the perpetrators of 1984 been punished without delay, then surely chances of 2002 happening would have been reduced largely. Similarly had the previous cases of terror been investigated with fine tooth and comb, perpetrators expeditiously punished would have been a deterrent for newer breed to experiment with misadventure of terrorism.

Since the previous case have not been satisfactorily solved, in public perception the investigative agencies have lost their credibility, another important factor is the credibility of Congress party which is not above board. There are daily reports appearing in print media of how the confession of Swami Aseemanand  seems a copy paste job to fit into the charge sheet already filed by the agency. Given the low esteem of the investigation authority credence has to be given to such reports, more over Indian Media is in the dock right now. It is important at this point of time to read this article by Anil Athale There is no major threat from "saffron terrorists". Muslim Persecution of Hindus In India -- The Story You Won't See In the Western Mainstream Media. . Then this blog by Mr.Kiran Kumar.S.  "Saffron or Hindu Terror: Does it Exist?"..

The real need of the hour is to prevent the many Malik Mumtaz Qadris who are roaming free in the guise of Liberals, who gather in studios armed with microphones, denigrating the judicial verdict of Dr. Binayak Sen undermining the very Democracy they swear by. So liberal are these Malik Mumtaz Qadris of our media that any contrarian viewpoint is instantaneously dubbed as radical, right wing or RSS inspired. These are Liberals not by conviction or practice, neither by choice but of convenience. Extreme intolerance is their main weapon. Unwilling to listen to any voice other than their own!

Caution should be exercised lest the stretched Saffron thread through all the events is converted into a noose, which might be the cause for many of you and your political paymaster’s downfall. We need credible independent investigative agency which will not indulge in selective leaking of purported confessions. Instead have the wherewithals to concluded investigation, conduct prosecution of the alleged terrorists; obtain verdicts and punishments befitting the crimes committed on an expeditious basis.

While we are discussing about the current state of affairs, it would be incomplete without mentioning the plight of Kashmiri Pandits who are living in exile in India for past 21years. No self proclaimed Liberal, Human Rights activist or Mainstream English media has ever highlighted their plight. On this January 19 (2011), Kashmiri Pandits complete their 22nd year of forced exile.  The story of Kashmiri Pandits, an ethnic group who are becoming refuges in their own land, is not-only one of the tear-jerking ones in independent India but also a mistreated one by the so-called secular government of the country.  By Dipin Damodharan.

Hindu Terror - A retributive Terror?  By RSN Singh

I welcome a debate and discussion on this…As always, please keep your tone civil, your language polite…no sweeping generalisations please and no personal abuse.  Thank you.

Why should we believe you?

 

 

“It is impossible to calculate the moral mischief, if I may so express it, that mental lying has produced in society. When a man has so far corrupted and prostituted the chastity of his mind as to subscribe his professional belief to things he does not believe he has prepared himself for the commission of every other crime.”  ~Thomas Paine, The Age of Reason

What is the basis of relationship that a journalist has with his readers and viewers? Next question is what is the currency employed to sustain this relationship? Has this individual acquitted himself to continue receiving our attention and support?

Let me try and make a plausible argument that I maybe able to sell to you my readers. Credibility and integrity are the basis of a relationship that a journalist establishes with his readers and viewers. He does not interact with us on one on one basis, he presents news which is verifiable and we expect and accept that veracity of the news that he is conveying is unimpeachable. Views expressed by him/her could be divergent from the mainstream or from what we may personally hold; that however is not ground enough to doubt the credibility and integrity of the presenter. News is the real yard stick on which he/she must pass muster day in and day out. The bonding between the journalist and the reader/viewer is strong yet paradoxically fragile, a single error and this relationship of many years can come to an end.

Trust is the currency that is employed to sustain this relationship. This is a black and white situation with no scope for any grey areas. This is one currency that cannot be duplicated, counterfeited, stored or utilized in parts. This currency will increase exponentially yet is not good enough to buy you a loaf of bread. Conversely it does not reduce with usage or at a leisurely pace; it can vanish in a matter of seconds leaving the owner bankrupt.

Let me underscore what I have said above by a couple of quotes.

“Trust is the glue of life. It's the most essential ingredient in effective communication. It's the foundational principle that holds all relationships.” - Stephen R. Covey

“Trust and reputation are not discretionary. They are as necessary in business as the people in whom they reside.” - Tony Alessandra

The third question that I had posed is? Has the individual acquitted himself to continue receiving our attention and support? This is the really the crux of the matter. Public perception of this individual is that he is known to have run a sustained campaign against Mr. Modi since 2002. His channel has nothing positive to report about the state of Gujarat for past 8years, how is it that nothing worthwhile ever happened in Gujarat according to Mr. Sardesai and CNNIBN in almost a decade?

Furthermore there has been an incident of manufacturing fake tweets to influence viewers by this channel. CNN IBN's Fake Twitter IDs Blooper!: the other issue is that no action has been initiated against deputy editor of CNNIBN for an irreverent tweet about Lord Ram, which is unacceptable. This individual may be affluent, he is bankrupt as per the standards desired for this profession. Here is the latest instance. How known faces appear live at same time on 2 channels !!



This is another interesting blog that I read this morning. A journalist is a gentleman with a glass of red wine. And this gentleman today asks where the injustice is! He is right. All is quiet. Media people love to loudmouth about others but when it comes to issues concerning them, they prefer ignorance. A work which was once considered a mission is now a profession where today’s journalists are mere gentlemen. Thus I am of the considered opinion that they have become a commodity that can be bought or sold. Journalist: A gentleman with glass of red wine: today’s journalists are mere gentlemen. 

“The Sangh parivar, be it the RSS or the BJP, has chosen to live in denial, labelling the accusations as a Congress 'conspiracy', driven by a government which seeks to deflect public attention from corruption. While questions can be raised over the timing of the 'leaks', a strident defence of the accused is misplaced and only serves to undermine the credibility of the country's investigative agencies in fighting the war on terror.” “The error of terror”   Rajdeep Sardesai, Hindustan Times 13^th Jan 2011.

Hindu Terror - A retributive Terror?  By RSN Singh

I will leave to the reader’s judgment to accept or reject the assertions being made by Rajdeep Sardesai. All that I have to say is Kaise bazaar ka dastoor tumhe samjhaaoon, Bik gaya jo woh kharidaar nahin ho sakta. (How shall I explain the law of this market? He who has been sold cannot become a buyer.) Yes Mr. M.J.Akbar has also used these very words recently.

I will conclude this post with another quote.
                                                                           
 “Some people will not tolerate such emotional honesty in communication.  They would rather defend their dishonesty on the grounds that it might hurt others. Therefore, having rationalized their phoniness into nobility, they settle for superficial relationships.”  ~Author Unknown 

Latest update as on 09^th February 2012

If we compute the worst 10 or 20 riots of India since independence, where does Gujarat 2002 fit in?   via @KiranKS

I welcome a debate and discussion on this…As always, please keep your tone civil, your language polite…no sweeping generalisations please and no personal abuse.  Thank you.

Victimhood by Sagarika is this the last throw of the dice?

This post is being written as a rejoinder to Ms Sagarika Ghose article “Republic of fear”  in Hindustan Times date 11^th January 2011.

Where she says. “The decline of the Indian liberal is a subject on which historian Ramachandra Guha has written with great insight. While Guha sees the Indian liberal squeezed from the doctrinaire approaches of the Left and Right, yet now the liberal faces another enemy too: the youthful, hardline and nationalist, paler versions of Malik Mumtaz Qadri. Salman Taseer was murdered in Pakistan by a young hardliner because Taseer was considered anti-Islam. Will there be a day when an Indian will be faced with mortal danger from a young hardliner because he is considered 'anti-national?'

The fact of the matter is social media has leveled the playing field where these self appointed and anointed liberals, secularists have been exposed before the entire world and are now wary that they may not be the last ones left standing. These are the neo Nazi’s and Fascists who have been polluting the young minds unchallenged until blogosphere and twitter happened.

The other factor is the Radia Tapes which have exposed the wheeling dealings that these so called intellectual liberals have been liberally indulging in. Employing fake tweets to influence public! When nothing else has worked, out comes the victimhood which is the essence of the article by Sagarika Ghose “Republic of fear” Since it is fashionable to sit cocooned in their studios, pelting one and all with their shallow and bigoted world view. Those who dare to disagree are promptly labeled as Right Winger RSS brigade, Internet Hindus or  Khakhi Chaddi brigade.

 
Indians are unwilling to accept as Gospel what these channels and publications want to push down our throats. Must share this article which has appeared in DNA it is a must read which would dispel all misgivings about the claims and voyeurism of Ms.Ghose.  “India is finally seeing the birth of alternative journalism”

"It takes a school"

Education is a child’s right. It is a promise made in the Constitution, and followed up rigorously by ambitious government programmes. Yet, as even the government’s flagship programme, the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan — whose aim is to address the need of almost 200 million children — shows, demand overshoots supply by a large, worrisome margin and millions of children still remain out of classrooms. It is in this context that an unusual, heartening story of a school in a poor Bihar village, reported by this newspaper on Tuesday, acquires significance — and even points to a way forward.

The Chaitanya Gurukul Public School in the village of Chamanpura does not have teachers or blackboards. Both have been replaced by laptops as teachers from across the state and experts from outside Bihar teach students through Skype.

There is definite purpose why the above information is included. The screen shot below speaks volumes as these mercenaries with microphones did not hesitate to label the promoter of this school as per their normal practice.  

 Now for better understanding of the two terms, which are bandied about frequently by these individual have posted below the definitions as provided by Wikipedia.

Secularism and Liberalism

Secularism is the concept that government or other entities should exist separately from religion and/or religious beliefs.

In one sense, secularism may assert the right to be free from religious rule and teachings, and the right to freedom from governmental imposition of religion upon the people within a state that is neutral on matters of belief. (See also Separation of church and state and Laïcité.) In another sense, it refers to the view that human activities and decisions, especially political ones, should be based on evidence and fact unbiased by religious influence. (See also public reason.) Some scholars are now arguing that the very idea of secularism will change.

Secularism draws its intellectual roots from Greek and Roman philosophers such as Marcus Aurelius and Epicurus, medieval Muslim polymaths such as Ibn Rushd, Enlightenment thinkers like Denis Diderot, Voltaire, John Locke, James Madison, Thomas Jefferson, and Thomas Paine, and modern freethinkers, agnostics and atheists such as Bertrand Russell and Robert Ingersoll.

Secularism in India

The Preamble to the Constitution of India declares that India is a secular state. The original preamble did not mention the word "secular". It was added later by 42nd amendment in 1976. The term secularism in politics refers to the governmental practice of indifference towards religion. Though such bifurcation is not totally possible, still, secular politics attempt to prevent religious philosophies or bodies from influencing governmental policies. The philosophy that the Indian constitution upholds is a kind of secular humanism made relevant through a historical development of the ideology within the context of religious pluralism in India.

Indian concept of secularism takes is colour from Article 15 (Prohibition of discrimination on grounds of religion, race, caste, sex or place of birth), Article 25 (Freedom of conscience and free profession, practice and propagation of religion), and Article 26 (Freedom to manage religious affairs). These are among the list of Fundamental Rights of citizens. It is interesting to note that Indian Constitution merely states the behaviour of the State in terms of what it will not do (i.e. not discriminate based on religion). It does not say that the State has or has not a religion. It does not say whether State can or cannot participate in religion. It does not say whether State can or cannot spend public money on religious activities.

Even so, India recognizes laws based on religion. Hindus, Muslims, and Christians are governed by their own religious laws. Thus, India does not really fit into any text book definition of Secularism. It has, in fact, created its own brand of Secularism. Indeed, Supreme Court of India observed the same thing in the case of Aruna Roy vs. Union of India (SC AIR 2002), when it said Indian Secularism means ”sarva dhrama samabhav” and not “sarva dharma abhav” ( meaning, "equal feeling for all religions" and not "no feeling for any religion").

Liberalism (from the Latin liberalis, "of freedom") is the belief in the importance of individual liberty and equal rights. Liberals espouse a wide array of views depending on their understanding of these principles, but most liberals support such fundamental ideas as constitutions, liberal democracy, free and fair elections, human rights, capitalism, free trade, and the separation of church and state. These ideas are widely accepted, even by political groups that do not openly profess a liberal ideological orientation. Liberalism encompasses several intellectual trends and traditions, but the dominant variants are classical liberalism, which became popular in the eighteenth century, and social liberalism, which became popular in the twentieth century.

Liberalism first became a powerful force in the Age of Enlightenment, rejecting several foundational assumptions that dominated most earlier theories of government, such as hereditary status, established religion, absolute monarchy, and the Divine Right of Kings. The early liberal thinker John Locke, who is often credited for the creation of liberalism as a distinct philosophical tradition, employed the concept of natural rights and the social contract to argue that the rule of law should replace absolutism in government, that rulers were subject to the consent of the governed, and that private individuals had a fundamental right to life, liberty, and property.

Liberalism in India

 













Raja Ram Mohan Roy, other contributors to political thought on freedom in 19th century India included Dadabhai Naoroji (1825-1917), Mahadeo Govind Ranade (1842-1901), Gopal Krishna Gokhale (1866-1915) and Pherozeshah Mehta (1845-1915). Theory led to an independence movement in India. Gandhi demonstrated through a humane, non-violent, and dignified protest, that all humans were equal and should be treated equally, including their being given the opportunity to govern themselves. This was a major advance in the theory and practice of freedom and can be argued to have had a major effect in ending the age of imperialism and the age of racial discrimination.

The 1949 Indian Constitution gave to Indians some of the liberal rights that the British and Americans had come to expect by then. In addition, India extended franchise to everyone: all adults had the right to vote in the Indian Republic. That was earlier than even most developed countries had provided to their citizens at that time.

While Rajaji and Masani, and economists like B.R. Shenoy advocate the greater freedom, they were unable to over-ride the Indian fascination with socialism.

Chakravarthi Rajagopalachari, the second Governor-General of India, and a Bharat Ratna, was a close colleague of Nehru during the independence movement. But soon after independence he quickly began to see the risks to India of letting Nehru’s fervour with socialism go unchallenged. Despite having fought for independence by Nehru’s side, and without regard for his own advanced age (Rajaji was 80 by then), Rajaji decided to act to block Nehru’s onslaught on freedom. He formed the Freedom (Swatantra) Party, to oppose Nehru's policies.

Juxtapose all what is described as Secularism and Liberalism with what has been written in this article “Republic of fear” by no stretch of imagination can these individual be called liberals however much they may fancy this label and usurp it.

In conclusion liberal is not necessarily a meat eating, liquor drinking individual just as a vegetarian, non drinker an illiberal. Mainstream English media personalities would do themselves a great service by desisting from fragmenting society according to convenience of caste, creed, religion or ideology in order to serve their narrow viewpoints. India needs to be viewed as a single entity and dealt accordingly.

Heavens have mercy on us if the below pasted images are their standards of Secularism and Liberalism.

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Amateur journo Sagarika Ghose case study has been updated with her latest blunder & superficial apology


I welcome a debate and discussion on this…As always, please keep your tone civil, your language polite…no sweeping generalisations please and no personal abuse.  Thank you.