Baseless politics in the name of coalition politics, Honsbale
BHUBANESWAR(visakeo) India’s unit is Hindutva and no differences between Rashtriyata and Hindutva. Religion less politics is prevailing in the country now a day with politicians trying to distance religion from society, said RSS Sara Karyabaha D Honsbale while attending the Pt Bachnesh Tripathy memorial lectures here at UBSS on June 28.
Honsbale awarded two senior scribes including Arun Panda for Oriya and HS Dixit for Hindi with the BP Shukla memorial award and cash prize of Rs 21,000. He highlighted the contribution of BP Shukla and Padmashri Pt Bachnesh Tripathy.
A discussion held on ‘present electoral system and coalition politics’ on this occasion. Rashtradharma Editor, Ananda Mishra, Anada Mohan Choudhry, Prakash Betala and Panabanputra were among those present.
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Monday, June 29, 2009
विसकों बुलेटिन -अप्रैल-09
Keep close watch on 6000 extra EVMs , BJP tells EC
BHUBANESWAR ( VISAKEO): While alleging tampering, the Bharatiya Janata Party on April 27 urged the Chief Electoral Officer Alaka Panda to send 6000 extra EVMs to outside State.
A three member delegation of the BJP including Biswa Bhusan Harichandan, Dharmendra Pradhan and Bijay Mohapatra met CEO and apprised her that the ruling BJD is trying to tamper unused EVMs in various parts of the State to ensure its win in both Assembly and Lok Sabha polls that held in two phases.
“We have urged the CEO to send these EVMs to outside State, so that, suspension would be cleared,” senior BJP leader Harichandan told reporters here at Party’s State Headquarters.
The party also demanded a high level impartial probe into the booth capturing incident at Patakura in Kendrapara. “Not only in Kendrapara, the ruling party leaders manipulated voting across the State on April 16 and 23,” BJP national secretary Pradhan added. “An impartial probe could clear all our apprehensions,” he argued.
Meanwhile, BJP’s MLA candidate from Patakura seat in Kendrapara district, Bijay Kumar Mohapatra claimed that BJD chief Naveen Patnaik and his controversial advisor Pyari Mohan Mohapatra jointly mounting pressure on officials to tamper Electronic Voting Machines to ensure the win of BP Agarwal, the regional outfit’s candidate for the said seat.
Mohapatra, a heavy weight of undivided Cuttack district, told reporters here that the ruling Party is making all out effort to ensure his defeat.
“I suspect, efforts are on to tamper EVMs as BJD chief and his advisor providing logistical and other support to the officials including Police,” Mohapatra alleged.
It may be noted here that on April 26, BJP workers had held a demonstration in the premises of Kendrapara College, where poll officials kept about 400 ‘unused and defective’ EVMs . The used EVMs have also been stored in a strong room in the College where counting will be done.
Some officials carried about 400 EVMs in two jeeps and stored them in one of the rooms adjoining the counting room. It cannot be denied that the officials might tamper the EVMs,’’ he alleged.
Sudhashu Sekhar Ray, the election agent of BJP candidate, had also sent letters to Election Commission alleging that the district administration in a clear nexus with ruling party leaders is trying to tamper the EVMs in favour of ruling BJD candidate. He also demanded deployment of Central Forces to guard the strongroom.
Official sources told over phone from Kendrapara that the unused and defective EVMs have been kept in the College to be returned to the State Election Commission. The district administration has also allowed an authorised BJP worker to keep vigil on the strongroom along with the security persons.
BJD’s booth rigging under ECI scanner, Chawala seeks report
BHUBANESWAR( VISAKEO): Call it bad days continuing for the ruling BJD since the end of two phases Lok Sabha and Assembly polls. A day after, BJP petitioned the Election Commission seeking probe into booth rigging in Kendrapara district, the Chief Election Commissioner Naveen Chawla has on April 28 sought a report on booth rigging that was reported from Nayagarh district, a stronghold area of ruling BJD.
The allegation here also against BJD while compliant was an Independent candidate. Sources said that Chawla sought the report after taking the matter as a serious one. Chawala has asked the Chief Election Officer Alka Panda to give the report as soon as possible.
Poll officials were seen booth rigging, alleged Hemendra Chandra Singh, who lodged the complaint. Singh had petitioned the Collector, apprehending foul play in two booths.
Those are 112 and 114 number booths of Kalika Prasad under Nayagarh assembly segment. But no action was taken by the authorities of the District Administration. Thereafter, he had complained to the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC). CEC in turn has asked the CEO to report back immediately as it is a very serious matter.
The rigging was caught on camera during the second phase of polling held on April 23. It was a footage shot by a local scribe in Nayagarh that shows votes being rigged allegedly by workers of the ruling BJD workers. And all this is in the presence and knowledge of polling officials.
Nayagarh Collector, who is the District Election Officer (DEO), has gone on leave and official sources said that he has been asked to join immediately. The Sub Collector and the Returning Officer (RO) has been asked to present the CD for inspection.
Meanwhile, in what could be a major set back for the BJD chief Naveen Patnaik and his controversial advisor Pyari Mohapatra, the Kendrapara Police in its initial confidential report, confirmed the presence of BJD MLA from Rourkela Sarada Nayak and son of BP Agawal, the BJD nominee at a polling booth in Patakura Assembly segment, where violence reported during the second phase polling on April 28.
A DSP rank officer quoting the report told over phone from Kendrapara that it was looking for two vehicles, which sped away from the scene and also for Agarwal’s son. The vehicles used by them are being traced said the report.
The report also confirms the initial stand taken by the Election Commission that BJD MLA Nayak and others had ‘no business’ to be visiting the polling booth. It is violation of the Code, the CEC Alaka Panda had observed, saying notices had been served Mr Nayak.
Now police report too confirms that Nayak and others including BJD candidate’s son had gone to the polling booth where they were confronted by a mob. While BP Agarwal’s son and a few others had managed to flee the place, Nayak was accosted by the mob.
They had apparently rushed to the booth after receiving complaints about rigging by their opponents. Two cases have been registered, said the police report. Interestingly as per police report, Nayak lodged a FIR first and the BJP polling agent did so subsequently. Nayak had also alleged that he had been assaulted.
Trail of Swamiji murder case differed
PHULABANI (VISAKEO): The trial of the shocking murder of Hindu seer Swami Laxmanananda Saraswati has been differed on April 28 till an unspecified date. The case was to be taken up by the court here but it was deferred due to absence of the Judge CR Dash.
Seven arrested accused persons were present under tight security in court . But they returned to the district jail. The accused persons included Goranath Challanseth who was a panchayat samiti member of Kotagarh block who told reporters at the court that he was innocent.
Another young accused Bijay Kumar Sanseth also made a similar statement.
The accused persons ~ Goranath Challanseth, Bijay Kumar Sanseth, Durjyadhan Sanmajhi, Munda Badmajhi, Bhaskar Sunamajhi and Budha Naik have been arrested under Sections 449, 302, 380, 120(B)/34 IPC and 25/27 Arms Act. Crime Branch police has filed a 160 page charge sheet against these accused, Mr Mrutyunjay Naik, counsel for the accused informed.
It may be noted here that the Hindu seer was gunned down along with four of his disciples at Jalespeta Ashram on 23 August 2008. The killing sparked off a communal carnage in Kandhamal and a few other districts.
Call it more defeat than victory for Naveen’s BJD
BHUBANESWAR (VISAKEO): BJD supremo Naveen Patnaik might take few more glasses of imported wine at lavish Naveen Niwas after the regional outfit’s Milita Vijay Abhijan Samavesh with the help of NCP and Left, on April 3 turning a great flop show.
The BJD boss, who is making desperate effort to save his seat in the wake of the spilt in 11-year old alliance with BJP in Orissa, received a major set back, when he got information about NCP chief Sharad Pawar’s absence in the meeting that held here at PMG square.
Pawar while succumbing to Congress Chief Sonia Gandhi’s pressure skipped the meeting citing technical fault in his flight and addressed the gather over phone from Nashik in his home State of Maharashtra.
The high-voltage drama that certainly shocked the veteran Left Comrades like Prakash Karat and AB Bardhan, who were camping here to gather support for the so-called Third Front with the help of BJD. The BJD chief, who patronized the meet, was most shocking one after Pawar skipped the meet.
So, to pacify public and avoid any cracks, CPI national secretary D Raja told the joint public meeting that Pawar would address them over phone. Thereafter, NCP Orissa chief Prasanta Nanda held a cell phone near the microphone as Pawar was heard saying that he could not attend the gathering due to a problem in the aircraft that was scheduled to fly him.
Interestingly, NCP is holding country’s Aviation Ministry while party boss could not arrange a second plane for him after first developed a snag. NCP general secretary and chief spokesperson D P Tripathy told reporters here, "Efforts to arrange another plane was not successful.Political observers attributed Pawar’s move as outcome of Congress pressure.
The second blow was small gathering at the venue. As many as five political parties hosted the meet but a paltry number of people were seen at the site, sweeping smile from the face of the organizers.
In fact, by hosting the meeting on Ram Navami Day, the BJD wanted to send a message that it was not anti-Hindu but leaders like Prakash Karat of the CPI (M), AB Bardhan(CPI), DP Tripathy( NCP) and leaders of Forward Bloc, jointly sounded secular card while attacking BJP and Sangh Pariwar.
Left comrades like Karat, Bardhan and Raja were expected huge crowd and were left high and dry with such a poor turn out, a CPI (M) leader added. BJD leaders blame it for the left parties, saying the day and time was not proper for such a meeting.
As it was Ram Nabami, an auspicious day the candidates and their supporters of 77 Assembly and 11 Lok Sabha were busy in filing nomination papers in various district headquarters, no body turned up along with their supporters.
Nab Swamiji’s killers, Rajnath tells Naveen
PHULABANI (VISAKEO): The BJP president Ranjanth Singh vowed to identify and punish those who had conspired and killed Swami Laxmanananda Saraswati.
Addressing an election meeting at Baliguada in the sensitive Kandhamal district on April 3, Singh asserted that he had repeatedly asked Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik to take action but the later had failed to do so.
Clearly trying to cash in on the murder of Saraswati which had resulted in a large scale violence in August 2008, Singh said: "If voted to power the BJP will identify and arrest the real culprits."
At his public meeting in Baliguda, Singh claimed that the BJP was growing in strength after the BJD had betrayed it. "We will repeat what had happened in Karnataka," he said.
He told the gathering that the BJP had promised to provide rice at Rs one per Kg, Wheat at Rs five per kg and free salt to the poor.
Ashok Kumar Sahu, president of the state Hindu Jagaran Samukhya and BJP nominee for Phulbani Lok Sabha seat, state BJP president Suresh Pujari and others addressed the election meeting. Sahu dwelt at length on the murder of Saraswati.
Pyari’s game plan stands expose as party MLA caught
PATAKURA (VISAKEO): During a poll meeting at Patakura Assembly Constituency in Orissa’s Kendrapara district, BJD so-called super power Pyari Mohapatra had admitted that he played a key role in restricting Bijay Mohapatra from entering into State Assembly decades back.
On April 23, Mohapatra, fondly called as Sahid Nagar uncle, made desperate efforts to use both his party men and police to manipulate voting during the second phase polls, where BJP candidate Bijay fighting a crucial battle of his last part of his political career.
Though Pyari proposes to defeat Bijay Mohapatra but God disposes his wild decision and exposed all his game plan after the arrest of party MLA from Sarada Prasad Nayak on the charge of creating disturbance at booth no -222 of Talakusuma High School under Patkura Assembly constituency.
Sources said some BJD supporters led by Nayak and Sanjaya Agrawalla, son of BJD candidate Bed Prakash Agrawalla misbehaved with the presiding officer, security forces and locals at Talakusuma on Thursday.
Later, furious locals assaulted the MLA and gheraoed him. As a result there was tension between BJD and BJP activists. After the situation worsened, the police had to resort to a mild lathi charge. The police arrested Nayak and seized a car, said Returning Officer Sisisrkanta Panda.
“Police have arrested Nayak under the provisions of Representation of People’s Act,” police said. The Talakusuma polling booth, where the incident occurred, is the native village of BJP nominee who exercised his franchise in the booth.
The Kendrapara strongman told over phone that BJD nominee Agarwal had hired goons with an aim to create trouble across the Patkura Assembly constituency to intimidate the voters to vote for the BJD.
At Talakusuma, the arrested MLA and the son of Bedu Babu were the prime accused in fermenting trouble . They forcibly entered the polling booth and threatened the voters of dire consequence if they vote against the BJD, Mohapatra claimed
M3 trying to postpone polls in Kandhamal, alleges Sangh Pariwar
PHULABANI(VISAKEO0: M3, read Mukhyamantri( Chief Minister), Missionary( Church) and Maoists(Rebels), are jointly trying to disrupt polls in Orissa’s riot hit southern districts of Kandhamal, alleged RSS and its affiliated bodies on April 13. Sangh Pariwar leaders led by Priyanath Sahu, State joint general secretary of Biswa Hindu Parishad said here at a Press conference in Phulabani district headquaters.
The leaders were addressing the press to vent their anger as the district aministration with direct instruction from Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, chasing BJP’s Lok Sabha candidate Ashok Sahu.
When the BJD chief realized that his party losing ground in the district during his visit to Raikia, the most communally sensitive area, he roped into the outlawed leftwing guerrillas and the Missionary to postpone the polls.
“We consider Ashok Sahu as Lion of Kandhamal and his arrest could further create tension, for which Naveen Patnaik would be remaining responsible,” Sahu along with the leaders of RSS and Hindu Jagaran Samukhya said.
The leader made it clear that Sahu would not surrender to the police in connection with an FIR lodged against him in Raikia Police Station for his communally hatred speech on April 5. The administration had slapped a case against Sahu under Section 125 of The Representation of The People Act, 1951 (promoting enmity between classes in connection with elections) and Section 153 (A) of IPC (promoting enmity between classes).
When contacted Sahu, the former additional DGP of Assam said, "Let the police arrest me from the rally if they want. But they should be responsible for the consequence if people react."
"The police held some of my friends in Odagaon area of Nayagarh district on Sunday night and unnecessarily detained them thinking that they will be able to arrest me with the help of my supporters," Sahu said.
He said efforts were on to obtain an anticipatory bail from Orissa High Court.Police raided some places at Raikia and Phulbani on Sunday, but failed to trace Sahu.
Meanwhile, acting tough for his alleged hate speech, Election Commission on Sunday directed the district magistrate of Kandhamal to add two more sections - Section 505 and Section 295 - under IPC in the criminal case against Sahu.
Taking strong exception to the EC directive, Sahu said the commission had gone out of the way to take stern measures against him.
While Sahu termed the hate case against him as "politically motivated, BJP alleged it was part of a conspiracy against party candidates and activists to disturb their campaigning.
However, sources said pressure is mounting on the Election Commission to stop elections. Tremendous force from a few minority groups is on to postpone the elections as situation is not conducive. Second, the Kandhamal district administration is hounding to arrest Sahu.
Minority groups led by leading NGO activist Teesta Setalvad is pressing the Election Commission to postpone the elections as situation is not conducive and at least names of 22,000 Christian voters are eliminated from the voters list.
However the District Administration of Kandhamal has proved the allegation wrong as no proof was placed to coroborate the allegations. And all the Central Observers has reportedly favored elections in Kandhamal as the administration has made all the arrangements for free and fair poll.
Alka Panda, Chief Electoral Officer has also favored elections in Kandhamal as she is also convinced about the arrangements. Officers connected with management of elections apprehend another riot like situation if the elections will be postponed in the mid way. Kandhamal will be going for elections on 16 April, which has 3 Assembly and 1 Lok Sabha segment.
UBSS distributes relief materials in tornado hit Rajkanika
RAJKANIKA (VISAKEO) : Utkal Biparna Sahayata Samiti distributed relief and render medical services in natural calamity hit Rajkanika block of Orissa’s costal districts of Kendrapara.
UBSS volunteers, besides more than 50 RSS workers distributed food materials, clothes, medicines, water and other commodities in Dasabhagaria, Manaidiha and Mangalpur villages under Bharigada Panchayat, Ganja, Sevasahi, Bagabuda, Dalikenda, Barada, Mahurigaon, Govindapur, Koranda, Kalikapur under Rajkanika area. Vibhaga Karyabaha Biswambar Pani, RN Patra, Manas Ranjan and Abhaya Pati were among those monitoring the relief work.
The Samiti volunteers were also in rescue operation and clearing roads, where trees were being failing due to high speed wind that claimed more than 16 lives and left injured more than 500 while spreading panic in the entire costal region close to Bay of Bengal.
More than 15 villages in 7 Panchayats have been badly hit due to the high voltage storm. Power and tele communication has also been cut off. Roads connecting Bharigada to Rajkanika, Rajkanika to Olavar and Kantapada Bazar to Sevasahi and Bagabuda, are being cut off due to falling of trees and electrical polls.
According to locals, In Bharigada Panchayat, as many as 228 families in two villages have been badly affected while two have been killed and 40 other injured. Under Bagabuda Panchayat, 700 families of three villages have been affected while death toll stands at 4 and injured 17.
Under Kanatapada Panchayat, 30 familles from one village affected, where one person killed. Similarly, under Jagulaipada Panchayat, 200 families of one village affected, where three persons killed and 50 injured. Dalikenda Panchayat was partly affected but three persons killed here. Two persons also killed in Mahurigaon and one in Arsa.
Naveen-Pyari tampering EVMs in Kendrapara, claims Bijay
BHUBANESWAR (VISAKEO): BJP’s MLA candidate from Patakura seat in Kendrapara district, Bijay Kumar Mohapatra on April 27 claimed that BJD chief Naveen Patnaik and his controversial advisor Pyari Mohan Mohapatra jointly mounting pressure on officials to tamper Electronic Voting Machines to ensure the win of BP Agarwal, the regional outfit’s candidate for the said seat.
After petitioning Chief Electoral Officer Alaka Panda, Mohapatra, a heavy weight of undivided Cuttack district , told reporters here that the ruling Party is making all out effort to ensure his defeat.
“I suspect, efforts are on to tamper EVMs as BJD chief and his advisor providing logistical and other support to the officials including Police,” Mohapatra told reporters at BJP’s State Headquarters’ here.
It may be noted here that on April 26, BJP workers had held a demonstration in the premises of Kendrapara College, where poll officials kept about 400 ‘unused and defective’ EVMs . The used EVMs have also been stored in a strong room in the College where counting will be done.
Some officials carried about 400 EVMs in two jeeps and stored them in one of the rooms adjoining the counting room. It cannot be denied that the officials might tamper the EVMs,’’ he alleged.
Sudhashu Sekhar Ray, the election agent of BJP candidate, had also sent letters to Election Commission alleging that the district administration in a clear nexus with ruling party leaders is trying to tamper the EVMs in favour of ruling BJD candidate. He also demanded deployment of Central Forces to guard the strongroom.
Official sources told over phone from Kendrapara that the unused and defective EVMs have been kept in the College to be returned to the State Election Commission. The district administration has also allowed an authorised BJP worker to keep vigil on the strongroom along with the security persons.
Orissa on alert to spoil infiltration of Tamil Tigers
KENDRAPARA/BALASORE (VISAKEO): Indian Coast Guard personnel manning Orissa’s coast have stepped up security measures on the seawater by intensifying sea surveillance as there is every possibility that the members of Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), by following the sea route, might sneak into the State coast from the war zone of Sri Lanka.
Coast Guard personnel have intensified patrolling in the sea after Sri Lanka Army advanced towards the north eastern part of the country and captured many important areas of LTTE. Ships, speed boats with modern equipment, helicopters have been deployed to guard the Indian sea water, particularly in Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Orissa and Andaman Nicobar, official sources said on April 27.
"To mitigate possible threat of cross border activities, our Coast Guard ships are patrolling round the clock and keeping strict vigil on the State's coast. We have also deployed helicopters to guard the coast," said a Coast Guard official.
Notably, the Coast Guard personnel had recently organised a meeting among the fishermen and other people staying along the coastal areas. The fishermen were advised to keep strict vigil on suspicious vessels plying over the Bay of Bengal and to inform the Coast Guards the same. Besides, all suspected ships and fishing vessels are being meticulously searched by the Coast Guard personnel, he added.
The Coast Guard personnel have also provided some Distress Alert Transmitter (DAT) to the marine fishermen with an aim to save their life during the exigency period and also to seek marine fisher folk's involvement in guarding the 480 km long stretch along the State coast, which has become vulnerable to the intruders to enter into the mainland via sea route, said the official.
Ban dampens Akshya Tritiya in Orissa
BHUBANESWAR (VISAKEO): Election ban has come as a damper for the celebrations of Akshya Tritiya on April 27. Though elections are over by 23 April, the ban still continues in the state.
So the official celebrations of Akshya Tritiya were done at a low key. Arabinda Padhee, Director Agriculture said “how can we forget our long traditions adding celebrations were done in all the 48 Agriculture Districts along with farmers”.
Akshaya Tritiya is mainly celebrated as an agricultural festival in Orissa. After taking bath in early morning, farmers wear new clothes and in new baskets carry seeds to their fields.
The seeds are sown in the fields after offering prayers to Goddess Lakshmi for bumper crop. At the end of the day a completely vegetarian feast is prepared in every home.
In coastal Orissa, Akshay Tritiya is called as “Muthi Anukul”. And Western Orissa the day begins with “Muthi Chhuan” and eating of green leafy vegetable is forbidden on this day.
For last few years the State Government is celebrating Akshya Tritiya in a big way. With Dr.Padhee at the helm in agriculture production, Orissa this year expects to grow 10 million ton of food grains, revealed an official of the Directorate of Agriculture.
In fact Dr.Padhee is the prime mover of a frenetic growth of agriculture in Orissa, which was all along dubbed as the most backward state so far agriculture production and productivity is concerned. Orissa is now on the top of mechanization of agriculture in the country and fertilizer use has grown at a much faster pace, said another official.
“Within last 2 years use of fertilizer use has grown from 47 kilogram per acre to 62 kilogram per acre in the state’, said he. Now Orissa is harping on SRI method of rice cultivation, which has picked up very well in various parts of the state.
So taking the help of Pani Panchayats and Self Help Group (SHG)s there is a move to set up SRI Groups for facilitating the process in the state, said an official.
Charms of Chandrabhaga Beach (With Pix) (Tourism)
KONARK (VISAKEO)
Odisha is truly blessed with sea beaches, a long coast line entertains its visitors in several ways, somewhere there are ports, somewhere fishing communities, somewhere you get totally lost in the maze of a crowd and yet the beach can be clean, secluded, romantic and quiet too, like Chandrabhaga.
Chandrabhaga beach lies on the Marine Drive from Puri to Konark. Miles of casuarinas jungles shield the blue surfing sea and gives delightful openings for the passers-by to stop and admire the sea. The road goes through the Balukhand sanctuary that also abounds with small and attractive swamp deer, called Baliharina and other deer species.
The rustling of the breeze through the casuarinas is the only sound that is heard apart from the wave after wave that come with a resonance. Here there are no hawkers troubling you for your money selling sea products, pearls, shells or eatables too much. No clutter too in the shape of empty bottles, plastic pouches or dirty streaks of running water from nearby hotels. For there are no habitation close to the sea shore. The vehicles that drive through the sanctuary on the Marine Drive are barred from blowing their horns. So no distraction, no pollution on that score as well.
At Chandrabhaga, sunsets are truly a delightful experience altogether. The pearly sands warm up to the gently falling glow and the waves dazzle with a diamond of rainbow hues on their head. The sky turns into a vast canvas for the swift strokes for the inimitable paintings. One can simply stay on like that without any conversation.
Chandrabhaga Beach is located three kilometers from the famous Sun temple at Konark. It has significance as a pilgrim center. Every year in February, during the auspicious Magha Saptami day, lakhs of believers throng this beach for a dip in the Bay of Bengal at day break, to worship the Sun as a deity on his birthday and also to pay homage to their ancestors.
There is a legend connected with the place. There lived a saint named Sumanyu on the seashore. He had adopted a girl and she turned out to be an exquisitely beautiful woman. There was a river called Chitrotpala nearby where she went to bathe with her friends. Once, the Sun God spotted her and was enamored by her ravishing beauty. He became extremely impatient to get her hand as his consort, and came in the guise of a Brahmin and expressed his desire to her. The girl spurned his offer and recognized him as Surya, Himself. She tried to escape and when she could not run away she jumped into the sea. When Sumanyu heard this he became enraged and cursed the deity that the holy temple that was being erected at Konark would be defiled and that the devotees never worship him in any temple but only in the open on a sea beach. Since Chandrabhaga committed suicide on the Magha Saptami, the day is observed as holy and devotees throng here. The gathering is called Chandrabhaga Mela in her honour. Chitrotpala River too was renamed as Chandrabhaga which has shrunk to a small sacred tank now.
There is another legend that says that there was a demon called Arka and Surya was troubled by him in the nearby Maitreya forests. On this day they had a duel here and finally Lord Surya killed the demon. The day is thus sacred and after a dip in the Chandrabhaga and the sea one offers prayers to the deity here. The place is called Arka Kshetra for that reason.
There is also a legend about Samba, the son of Krishna , who was cursed by his father and was rendered ugly. Samba was advised by Narada to come here in penitence and worship Lord Surya every day by standing waist deep in the water and meditate in the cool climate of the Maitreya vana. He did so for 12 years and finally the Sun was pleased and restored his lost looks. Since Samba sat in Padmashana (legs folded inward and arms on the knees) when he meditated here, the place is also called Padma Kshetra.
On this day, the sun begins his north ward journey and looks most beautiful. Surya is believed to be another form of Lord Vishnu and like the latter the Sun moves swiftly. Vishnu has 360 names to justify the days in a year.
There are several sites of interests as well like the temple of Baliharachandi where the sand dunes through the emerald waters of the sea are a fit sight for a picture post card. There are ruins of Buddhist monuments as well. But this is certainly a blissful place to relax and unwind being so close to the city and yet so distant for its ambience.
Rainwater Harvesting Can Solve the Water Crisis of Orissa (Article)
By Bikash Kumar Pati
Orissa is bestowed with huge potential of water resources. The state receives 231 BMC (Billion m3) of rainfall annually. The average annual precipitation of Orissa is around 1500 mm. and 80% this occurs during June to September. Most of the rainfall in Orissa is due to southwest monsoon. The state experiences about 70 rainy days during monsoon. Despite all those, the state has experienced 12 years of flood and 5 years of drought within last 18 years (Between 1990 to 2008). When flood was common in coastal plain, drought was in upper terrain. But with the changing scenario, both drought and flood are common in almost all parts of the state. 10 districts of Orissa had experienced flood up to 1991 and after 1994 more and more districts figured in the list. The height is that, in the year 2007, 27 districts out of 30 in Orissa experienced the flood.
Around 80% of rural population in Orissa depends upon ground water for drinking and domestic purposes. At the same time, due to change in the pattern of rainfall, people have started shifting from rain fed agriculture to seasonal irrigated hi-yielding agriculture. This is again increasing the consumption of ground water like anything. Massive industrialization in Orissa is another additional threat to ground water, as industries like steel plants are run with precious ground water in Orissa. The Central Ground Water Board (CGWB) has clearly indicated that the ground water of 24 out of 30 districts in Orissa is depleting. The ground water aquifers in many regions of our state have already gone dry. Shockingly, these aquifers have been sucked dry not to provide water for drinking and domestic use, but to meet the demand of agriculture and small industries. As if all this was not enough, large industries have now joined the race to dry up the ground water aquifers.
The above mentioned crisis clearly indicates the lack of management of rain water in the state. The rain water causes a lot of health hazards directly and indirectly in the flood and post flood situations besides the drinking water problem. During the summer (Earlier it was for two months and now it is for almost 6 months), people of Orissa faces acute water scarcity due to lack of proper management of rain water during rain. Rainwater, being the only means of fresh water for us, tangible step is yet to be taken to harvest that.
Rain water has been successfully harvested in many states of India and especially in urban set-ups; people are effectively harvesting rain water to meet the water requirement for the entire year. If we look at the national perspective, rain water harvesting is mandatory in 11 states and Orissa does not figure in the list.
Rainwater harvesting may be defined as any human activity involving collection and storage of rainwater in some natural or artificial container either for immediate use or use before the onset of the next monsoon. Rainwater harvesting as defined above was followed both at individual and community levels from times immemorial to obtain high-quality water for domestic, agricultural and other uses. Rain water harvesting is not a new concept in our state. If we look at the traditional land and water management practices, we can find ancient rainwater harvesting methods of water supply – both for drinking and domestic as well as for irrigation. But those declined when the civilised government took over the self-appointed task of supplying water trough tube wells and pipe from long distances extracting the ground water.
Rain water harvesting can be done either for ground water recharging or for storing the water to meet day to day water requirement and even both the things. When we talk about ground water recharging, basically focus lies on ensuring sustainability of the sources and augmenting water availability. Another added advantage is there of ground water recharging - that is ensuring the water quality. This concept is not new and in Ghaga Village of Hayana it has been effectively solved the water quality problem.
Despite knowing the benefits of rain water harvesting, no tangible step has been taken yet to execute the process. Though the intellectuals verdict is that rain water harvesting is the need of the hour. But no such step has been taken to either make it a mandate in urban set-up or to aware the rural community regarding its importance. People those are completely dependant on ground water are yet to know its value. Though in urban set-ups like Bhubaneswar, the Bhubaneswar Development Authority (BDA) has made inclusion of rainwater harvesting mechanism in the plan mandatory, but there is virtually no monitoring of the plan execution and follow-up action and there are instances of major violations by builders. Even there is around 38% water loss due to leakage in water supply in Bhubaneswar city, whereas the national average is 21.62% (In Class-1 cities). The authority is heading towards Naraz barrage to meet the additional water loss (16% Approximate), which can easily be covered-up through rain water harvesting. If this is the situation in state capital, the situation of other urban areas can easily be realized.
If we look at the water requirement of the state, according to Water Resources Department of Government of Orissa, it is 54.99 BMC (Billion m3) per year during 2001 and projected 84.463 BMC (Billion m3) per year during 2051 covering the requirements like domestic, agriculture, industry, environment and others. Comparing the requirement and availability of water through precipitation i.e. 231 BMC (Billion m3), it can be easily estimated that how rain water harvesting can solve the problem and suffice the water requirement. The only bottleneck is the will to go about the task with a firm belief that it is possible. With the strong belief, a coordinated effort by all segments of government machinery along with strong legislation to both execute and monitor the process can save the state from severe water crisis in future.
(The writer works with Regional Centre for Development Cooperation)
No takers for OAS officers in Orissa (Editorial)
Wanted to be an OAS, forget it. Young meritorious aspirants eyeing for State Civil Service in Orissa are the most disillusioned lot. Thanks, the indifferent attitude of the Government of Orissa, for last 9 years not a single eligible person has been able to get into Orissa Administrative Service (OAS).
Vacancies notified in a year are supposed to be filled up through both direct recruitment and departmental promotion. 50 per cent of the vacancies are filled up by direct recruitment and rest is by departmental promotions.
The vacancies occurred till 1997 were filled up through direct recruitment in 2000 after so many tussle and behind the scene wrangling. Since then not a single new direct recruit OAS officer has been appointed in the state.
The Chief Minister has always harp his policy to take the administration to the door step. But the fact is otherwise as in field level administration is slowly and steadily distancing from the people.
In a district, an OAS officer is handling 3-4 assignments and he has little time to do the justice for his entire jobs.
In 2006, the process to fill up vacancies through direct recruitment began, which faced rough weather. Orissa Public Service Commission (OPSC), which is handling the recruitment of State Civil Services, interpreted the judicial pronouncements wrongfully.
This has resulted in confusion worst confounded ever in the history of administrative management. And young aspirants are rushing to courts for respite so number of cases are piling up in the Orissa High Court and State Administrative Tribunal (SAT). Now it has been decided to go for Main Entrance Examination (MEE) once again.
So the hapless aspirants, who faced MEE in 2006, have to once again sit for the test. This has created tremendous pressure on the aspirants, who were waiting for receiving appointment letters. One can expect this type of treatment in Orissa only, where the recruitment agency is managed by inefficient bosses, alleged many aspirants.
The Orissa Public Service Commission would host a fresh Main Examination for the Orissa Civil Services Examination from July 22. The examination will continue till August 20. With this, about 4,560 eligible candidates would appear their Main Examinations.
The move of the Commission came following the May 21 directive of the Orissa High Court, which had asked for a fresh and composite Main examination by cancelling the previous one in which 3,730 candidates had appeared.
The Court had ordered to conduct the examination within three months. Earlier, a second Main test, ordered by the State Administrative Tribunal, was stayed by the High Court on March 26.
Last year, after the preliminary examination for 380 posts of Orissa Civil Services was held, the Commission brought out a list of 3,730 candidates eligible for the Main examination. As per the regulation, for one post, at least 12 candidates have to be selected for the Main test which put the number at 4,560. Later, 3,730 candidates appeared for the OCS (Main) Examination.
BHUBANESWAR ( VISAKEO): While alleging tampering, the Bharatiya Janata Party on April 27 urged the Chief Electoral Officer Alaka Panda to send 6000 extra EVMs to outside State.
A three member delegation of the BJP including Biswa Bhusan Harichandan, Dharmendra Pradhan and Bijay Mohapatra met CEO and apprised her that the ruling BJD is trying to tamper unused EVMs in various parts of the State to ensure its win in both Assembly and Lok Sabha polls that held in two phases.
“We have urged the CEO to send these EVMs to outside State, so that, suspension would be cleared,” senior BJP leader Harichandan told reporters here at Party’s State Headquarters.
The party also demanded a high level impartial probe into the booth capturing incident at Patakura in Kendrapara. “Not only in Kendrapara, the ruling party leaders manipulated voting across the State on April 16 and 23,” BJP national secretary Pradhan added. “An impartial probe could clear all our apprehensions,” he argued.
Meanwhile, BJP’s MLA candidate from Patakura seat in Kendrapara district, Bijay Kumar Mohapatra claimed that BJD chief Naveen Patnaik and his controversial advisor Pyari Mohan Mohapatra jointly mounting pressure on officials to tamper Electronic Voting Machines to ensure the win of BP Agarwal, the regional outfit’s candidate for the said seat.
Mohapatra, a heavy weight of undivided Cuttack district, told reporters here that the ruling Party is making all out effort to ensure his defeat.
“I suspect, efforts are on to tamper EVMs as BJD chief and his advisor providing logistical and other support to the officials including Police,” Mohapatra alleged.
It may be noted here that on April 26, BJP workers had held a demonstration in the premises of Kendrapara College, where poll officials kept about 400 ‘unused and defective’ EVMs . The used EVMs have also been stored in a strong room in the College where counting will be done.
Some officials carried about 400 EVMs in two jeeps and stored them in one of the rooms adjoining the counting room. It cannot be denied that the officials might tamper the EVMs,’’ he alleged.
Sudhashu Sekhar Ray, the election agent of BJP candidate, had also sent letters to Election Commission alleging that the district administration in a clear nexus with ruling party leaders is trying to tamper the EVMs in favour of ruling BJD candidate. He also demanded deployment of Central Forces to guard the strongroom.
Official sources told over phone from Kendrapara that the unused and defective EVMs have been kept in the College to be returned to the State Election Commission. The district administration has also allowed an authorised BJP worker to keep vigil on the strongroom along with the security persons.
BJD’s booth rigging under ECI scanner, Chawala seeks report
BHUBANESWAR( VISAKEO): Call it bad days continuing for the ruling BJD since the end of two phases Lok Sabha and Assembly polls. A day after, BJP petitioned the Election Commission seeking probe into booth rigging in Kendrapara district, the Chief Election Commissioner Naveen Chawla has on April 28 sought a report on booth rigging that was reported from Nayagarh district, a stronghold area of ruling BJD.
The allegation here also against BJD while compliant was an Independent candidate. Sources said that Chawla sought the report after taking the matter as a serious one. Chawala has asked the Chief Election Officer Alka Panda to give the report as soon as possible.
Poll officials were seen booth rigging, alleged Hemendra Chandra Singh, who lodged the complaint. Singh had petitioned the Collector, apprehending foul play in two booths.
Those are 112 and 114 number booths of Kalika Prasad under Nayagarh assembly segment. But no action was taken by the authorities of the District Administration. Thereafter, he had complained to the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC). CEC in turn has asked the CEO to report back immediately as it is a very serious matter.
The rigging was caught on camera during the second phase of polling held on April 23. It was a footage shot by a local scribe in Nayagarh that shows votes being rigged allegedly by workers of the ruling BJD workers. And all this is in the presence and knowledge of polling officials.
Nayagarh Collector, who is the District Election Officer (DEO), has gone on leave and official sources said that he has been asked to join immediately. The Sub Collector and the Returning Officer (RO) has been asked to present the CD for inspection.
Meanwhile, in what could be a major set back for the BJD chief Naveen Patnaik and his controversial advisor Pyari Mohapatra, the Kendrapara Police in its initial confidential report, confirmed the presence of BJD MLA from Rourkela Sarada Nayak and son of BP Agawal, the BJD nominee at a polling booth in Patakura Assembly segment, where violence reported during the second phase polling on April 28.
A DSP rank officer quoting the report told over phone from Kendrapara that it was looking for two vehicles, which sped away from the scene and also for Agarwal’s son. The vehicles used by them are being traced said the report.
The report also confirms the initial stand taken by the Election Commission that BJD MLA Nayak and others had ‘no business’ to be visiting the polling booth. It is violation of the Code, the CEC Alaka Panda had observed, saying notices had been served Mr Nayak.
Now police report too confirms that Nayak and others including BJD candidate’s son had gone to the polling booth where they were confronted by a mob. While BP Agarwal’s son and a few others had managed to flee the place, Nayak was accosted by the mob.
They had apparently rushed to the booth after receiving complaints about rigging by their opponents. Two cases have been registered, said the police report. Interestingly as per police report, Nayak lodged a FIR first and the BJP polling agent did so subsequently. Nayak had also alleged that he had been assaulted.
Trail of Swamiji murder case differed
PHULABANI (VISAKEO): The trial of the shocking murder of Hindu seer Swami Laxmanananda Saraswati has been differed on April 28 till an unspecified date. The case was to be taken up by the court here but it was deferred due to absence of the Judge CR Dash.
Seven arrested accused persons were present under tight security in court . But they returned to the district jail. The accused persons included Goranath Challanseth who was a panchayat samiti member of Kotagarh block who told reporters at the court that he was innocent.
Another young accused Bijay Kumar Sanseth also made a similar statement.
The accused persons ~ Goranath Challanseth, Bijay Kumar Sanseth, Durjyadhan Sanmajhi, Munda Badmajhi, Bhaskar Sunamajhi and Budha Naik have been arrested under Sections 449, 302, 380, 120(B)/34 IPC and 25/27 Arms Act. Crime Branch police has filed a 160 page charge sheet against these accused, Mr Mrutyunjay Naik, counsel for the accused informed.
It may be noted here that the Hindu seer was gunned down along with four of his disciples at Jalespeta Ashram on 23 August 2008. The killing sparked off a communal carnage in Kandhamal and a few other districts.
Call it more defeat than victory for Naveen’s BJD
BHUBANESWAR (VISAKEO): BJD supremo Naveen Patnaik might take few more glasses of imported wine at lavish Naveen Niwas after the regional outfit’s Milita Vijay Abhijan Samavesh with the help of NCP and Left, on April 3 turning a great flop show.
The BJD boss, who is making desperate effort to save his seat in the wake of the spilt in 11-year old alliance with BJP in Orissa, received a major set back, when he got information about NCP chief Sharad Pawar’s absence in the meeting that held here at PMG square.
Pawar while succumbing to Congress Chief Sonia Gandhi’s pressure skipped the meeting citing technical fault in his flight and addressed the gather over phone from Nashik in his home State of Maharashtra.
The high-voltage drama that certainly shocked the veteran Left Comrades like Prakash Karat and AB Bardhan, who were camping here to gather support for the so-called Third Front with the help of BJD. The BJD chief, who patronized the meet, was most shocking one after Pawar skipped the meet.
So, to pacify public and avoid any cracks, CPI national secretary D Raja told the joint public meeting that Pawar would address them over phone. Thereafter, NCP Orissa chief Prasanta Nanda held a cell phone near the microphone as Pawar was heard saying that he could not attend the gathering due to a problem in the aircraft that was scheduled to fly him.
Interestingly, NCP is holding country’s Aviation Ministry while party boss could not arrange a second plane for him after first developed a snag. NCP general secretary and chief spokesperson D P Tripathy told reporters here, "Efforts to arrange another plane was not successful.Political observers attributed Pawar’s move as outcome of Congress pressure.
The second blow was small gathering at the venue. As many as five political parties hosted the meet but a paltry number of people were seen at the site, sweeping smile from the face of the organizers.
In fact, by hosting the meeting on Ram Navami Day, the BJD wanted to send a message that it was not anti-Hindu but leaders like Prakash Karat of the CPI (M), AB Bardhan(CPI), DP Tripathy( NCP) and leaders of Forward Bloc, jointly sounded secular card while attacking BJP and Sangh Pariwar.
Left comrades like Karat, Bardhan and Raja were expected huge crowd and were left high and dry with such a poor turn out, a CPI (M) leader added. BJD leaders blame it for the left parties, saying the day and time was not proper for such a meeting.
As it was Ram Nabami, an auspicious day the candidates and their supporters of 77 Assembly and 11 Lok Sabha were busy in filing nomination papers in various district headquarters, no body turned up along with their supporters.
Nab Swamiji’s killers, Rajnath tells Naveen
PHULABANI (VISAKEO): The BJP president Ranjanth Singh vowed to identify and punish those who had conspired and killed Swami Laxmanananda Saraswati.
Addressing an election meeting at Baliguada in the sensitive Kandhamal district on April 3, Singh asserted that he had repeatedly asked Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik to take action but the later had failed to do so.
Clearly trying to cash in on the murder of Saraswati which had resulted in a large scale violence in August 2008, Singh said: "If voted to power the BJP will identify and arrest the real culprits."
At his public meeting in Baliguda, Singh claimed that the BJP was growing in strength after the BJD had betrayed it. "We will repeat what had happened in Karnataka," he said.
He told the gathering that the BJP had promised to provide rice at Rs one per Kg, Wheat at Rs five per kg and free salt to the poor.
Ashok Kumar Sahu, president of the state Hindu Jagaran Samukhya and BJP nominee for Phulbani Lok Sabha seat, state BJP president Suresh Pujari and others addressed the election meeting. Sahu dwelt at length on the murder of Saraswati.
Pyari’s game plan stands expose as party MLA caught
PATAKURA (VISAKEO): During a poll meeting at Patakura Assembly Constituency in Orissa’s Kendrapara district, BJD so-called super power Pyari Mohapatra had admitted that he played a key role in restricting Bijay Mohapatra from entering into State Assembly decades back.
On April 23, Mohapatra, fondly called as Sahid Nagar uncle, made desperate efforts to use both his party men and police to manipulate voting during the second phase polls, where BJP candidate Bijay fighting a crucial battle of his last part of his political career.
Though Pyari proposes to defeat Bijay Mohapatra but God disposes his wild decision and exposed all his game plan after the arrest of party MLA from Sarada Prasad Nayak on the charge of creating disturbance at booth no -222 of Talakusuma High School under Patkura Assembly constituency.
Sources said some BJD supporters led by Nayak and Sanjaya Agrawalla, son of BJD candidate Bed Prakash Agrawalla misbehaved with the presiding officer, security forces and locals at Talakusuma on Thursday.
Later, furious locals assaulted the MLA and gheraoed him. As a result there was tension between BJD and BJP activists. After the situation worsened, the police had to resort to a mild lathi charge. The police arrested Nayak and seized a car, said Returning Officer Sisisrkanta Panda.
“Police have arrested Nayak under the provisions of Representation of People’s Act,” police said. The Talakusuma polling booth, where the incident occurred, is the native village of BJP nominee who exercised his franchise in the booth.
The Kendrapara strongman told over phone that BJD nominee Agarwal had hired goons with an aim to create trouble across the Patkura Assembly constituency to intimidate the voters to vote for the BJD.
At Talakusuma, the arrested MLA and the son of Bedu Babu were the prime accused in fermenting trouble . They forcibly entered the polling booth and threatened the voters of dire consequence if they vote against the BJD, Mohapatra claimed
M3 trying to postpone polls in Kandhamal, alleges Sangh Pariwar
PHULABANI(VISAKEO0: M3, read Mukhyamantri( Chief Minister), Missionary( Church) and Maoists(Rebels), are jointly trying to disrupt polls in Orissa’s riot hit southern districts of Kandhamal, alleged RSS and its affiliated bodies on April 13. Sangh Pariwar leaders led by Priyanath Sahu, State joint general secretary of Biswa Hindu Parishad said here at a Press conference in Phulabani district headquaters.
The leaders were addressing the press to vent their anger as the district aministration with direct instruction from Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, chasing BJP’s Lok Sabha candidate Ashok Sahu.
When the BJD chief realized that his party losing ground in the district during his visit to Raikia, the most communally sensitive area, he roped into the outlawed leftwing guerrillas and the Missionary to postpone the polls.
“We consider Ashok Sahu as Lion of Kandhamal and his arrest could further create tension, for which Naveen Patnaik would be remaining responsible,” Sahu along with the leaders of RSS and Hindu Jagaran Samukhya said.
The leader made it clear that Sahu would not surrender to the police in connection with an FIR lodged against him in Raikia Police Station for his communally hatred speech on April 5. The administration had slapped a case against Sahu under Section 125 of The Representation of The People Act, 1951 (promoting enmity between classes in connection with elections) and Section 153 (A) of IPC (promoting enmity between classes).
When contacted Sahu, the former additional DGP of Assam said, "Let the police arrest me from the rally if they want. But they should be responsible for the consequence if people react."
"The police held some of my friends in Odagaon area of Nayagarh district on Sunday night and unnecessarily detained them thinking that they will be able to arrest me with the help of my supporters," Sahu said.
He said efforts were on to obtain an anticipatory bail from Orissa High Court.Police raided some places at Raikia and Phulbani on Sunday, but failed to trace Sahu.
Meanwhile, acting tough for his alleged hate speech, Election Commission on Sunday directed the district magistrate of Kandhamal to add two more sections - Section 505 and Section 295 - under IPC in the criminal case against Sahu.
Taking strong exception to the EC directive, Sahu said the commission had gone out of the way to take stern measures against him.
While Sahu termed the hate case against him as "politically motivated, BJP alleged it was part of a conspiracy against party candidates and activists to disturb their campaigning.
However, sources said pressure is mounting on the Election Commission to stop elections. Tremendous force from a few minority groups is on to postpone the elections as situation is not conducive. Second, the Kandhamal district administration is hounding to arrest Sahu.
Minority groups led by leading NGO activist Teesta Setalvad is pressing the Election Commission to postpone the elections as situation is not conducive and at least names of 22,000 Christian voters are eliminated from the voters list.
However the District Administration of Kandhamal has proved the allegation wrong as no proof was placed to coroborate the allegations. And all the Central Observers has reportedly favored elections in Kandhamal as the administration has made all the arrangements for free and fair poll.
Alka Panda, Chief Electoral Officer has also favored elections in Kandhamal as she is also convinced about the arrangements. Officers connected with management of elections apprehend another riot like situation if the elections will be postponed in the mid way. Kandhamal will be going for elections on 16 April, which has 3 Assembly and 1 Lok Sabha segment.
UBSS distributes relief materials in tornado hit Rajkanika
RAJKANIKA (VISAKEO) : Utkal Biparna Sahayata Samiti distributed relief and render medical services in natural calamity hit Rajkanika block of Orissa’s costal districts of Kendrapara.
UBSS volunteers, besides more than 50 RSS workers distributed food materials, clothes, medicines, water and other commodities in Dasabhagaria, Manaidiha and Mangalpur villages under Bharigada Panchayat, Ganja, Sevasahi, Bagabuda, Dalikenda, Barada, Mahurigaon, Govindapur, Koranda, Kalikapur under Rajkanika area. Vibhaga Karyabaha Biswambar Pani, RN Patra, Manas Ranjan and Abhaya Pati were among those monitoring the relief work.
The Samiti volunteers were also in rescue operation and clearing roads, where trees were being failing due to high speed wind that claimed more than 16 lives and left injured more than 500 while spreading panic in the entire costal region close to Bay of Bengal.
More than 15 villages in 7 Panchayats have been badly hit due to the high voltage storm. Power and tele communication has also been cut off. Roads connecting Bharigada to Rajkanika, Rajkanika to Olavar and Kantapada Bazar to Sevasahi and Bagabuda, are being cut off due to falling of trees and electrical polls.
According to locals, In Bharigada Panchayat, as many as 228 families in two villages have been badly affected while two have been killed and 40 other injured. Under Bagabuda Panchayat, 700 families of three villages have been affected while death toll stands at 4 and injured 17.
Under Kanatapada Panchayat, 30 familles from one village affected, where one person killed. Similarly, under Jagulaipada Panchayat, 200 families of one village affected, where three persons killed and 50 injured. Dalikenda Panchayat was partly affected but three persons killed here. Two persons also killed in Mahurigaon and one in Arsa.
Naveen-Pyari tampering EVMs in Kendrapara, claims Bijay
BHUBANESWAR (VISAKEO): BJP’s MLA candidate from Patakura seat in Kendrapara district, Bijay Kumar Mohapatra on April 27 claimed that BJD chief Naveen Patnaik and his controversial advisor Pyari Mohan Mohapatra jointly mounting pressure on officials to tamper Electronic Voting Machines to ensure the win of BP Agarwal, the regional outfit’s candidate for the said seat.
After petitioning Chief Electoral Officer Alaka Panda, Mohapatra, a heavy weight of undivided Cuttack district , told reporters here that the ruling Party is making all out effort to ensure his defeat.
“I suspect, efforts are on to tamper EVMs as BJD chief and his advisor providing logistical and other support to the officials including Police,” Mohapatra told reporters at BJP’s State Headquarters’ here.
It may be noted here that on April 26, BJP workers had held a demonstration in the premises of Kendrapara College, where poll officials kept about 400 ‘unused and defective’ EVMs . The used EVMs have also been stored in a strong room in the College where counting will be done.
Some officials carried about 400 EVMs in two jeeps and stored them in one of the rooms adjoining the counting room. It cannot be denied that the officials might tamper the EVMs,’’ he alleged.
Sudhashu Sekhar Ray, the election agent of BJP candidate, had also sent letters to Election Commission alleging that the district administration in a clear nexus with ruling party leaders is trying to tamper the EVMs in favour of ruling BJD candidate. He also demanded deployment of Central Forces to guard the strongroom.
Official sources told over phone from Kendrapara that the unused and defective EVMs have been kept in the College to be returned to the State Election Commission. The district administration has also allowed an authorised BJP worker to keep vigil on the strongroom along with the security persons.
Orissa on alert to spoil infiltration of Tamil Tigers
KENDRAPARA/BALASORE (VISAKEO): Indian Coast Guard personnel manning Orissa’s coast have stepped up security measures on the seawater by intensifying sea surveillance as there is every possibility that the members of Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), by following the sea route, might sneak into the State coast from the war zone of Sri Lanka.
Coast Guard personnel have intensified patrolling in the sea after Sri Lanka Army advanced towards the north eastern part of the country and captured many important areas of LTTE. Ships, speed boats with modern equipment, helicopters have been deployed to guard the Indian sea water, particularly in Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Orissa and Andaman Nicobar, official sources said on April 27.
"To mitigate possible threat of cross border activities, our Coast Guard ships are patrolling round the clock and keeping strict vigil on the State's coast. We have also deployed helicopters to guard the coast," said a Coast Guard official.
Notably, the Coast Guard personnel had recently organised a meeting among the fishermen and other people staying along the coastal areas. The fishermen were advised to keep strict vigil on suspicious vessels plying over the Bay of Bengal and to inform the Coast Guards the same. Besides, all suspected ships and fishing vessels are being meticulously searched by the Coast Guard personnel, he added.
The Coast Guard personnel have also provided some Distress Alert Transmitter (DAT) to the marine fishermen with an aim to save their life during the exigency period and also to seek marine fisher folk's involvement in guarding the 480 km long stretch along the State coast, which has become vulnerable to the intruders to enter into the mainland via sea route, said the official.
Ban dampens Akshya Tritiya in Orissa
BHUBANESWAR (VISAKEO): Election ban has come as a damper for the celebrations of Akshya Tritiya on April 27. Though elections are over by 23 April, the ban still continues in the state.
So the official celebrations of Akshya Tritiya were done at a low key. Arabinda Padhee, Director Agriculture said “how can we forget our long traditions adding celebrations were done in all the 48 Agriculture Districts along with farmers”.
Akshaya Tritiya is mainly celebrated as an agricultural festival in Orissa. After taking bath in early morning, farmers wear new clothes and in new baskets carry seeds to their fields.
The seeds are sown in the fields after offering prayers to Goddess Lakshmi for bumper crop. At the end of the day a completely vegetarian feast is prepared in every home.
In coastal Orissa, Akshay Tritiya is called as “Muthi Anukul”. And Western Orissa the day begins with “Muthi Chhuan” and eating of green leafy vegetable is forbidden on this day.
For last few years the State Government is celebrating Akshya Tritiya in a big way. With Dr.Padhee at the helm in agriculture production, Orissa this year expects to grow 10 million ton of food grains, revealed an official of the Directorate of Agriculture.
In fact Dr.Padhee is the prime mover of a frenetic growth of agriculture in Orissa, which was all along dubbed as the most backward state so far agriculture production and productivity is concerned. Orissa is now on the top of mechanization of agriculture in the country and fertilizer use has grown at a much faster pace, said another official.
“Within last 2 years use of fertilizer use has grown from 47 kilogram per acre to 62 kilogram per acre in the state’, said he. Now Orissa is harping on SRI method of rice cultivation, which has picked up very well in various parts of the state.
So taking the help of Pani Panchayats and Self Help Group (SHG)s there is a move to set up SRI Groups for facilitating the process in the state, said an official.
Charms of Chandrabhaga Beach (With Pix) (Tourism)
KONARK (VISAKEO)
Odisha is truly blessed with sea beaches, a long coast line entertains its visitors in several ways, somewhere there are ports, somewhere fishing communities, somewhere you get totally lost in the maze of a crowd and yet the beach can be clean, secluded, romantic and quiet too, like Chandrabhaga.
Chandrabhaga beach lies on the Marine Drive from Puri to Konark. Miles of casuarinas jungles shield the blue surfing sea and gives delightful openings for the passers-by to stop and admire the sea. The road goes through the Balukhand sanctuary that also abounds with small and attractive swamp deer, called Baliharina and other deer species.
The rustling of the breeze through the casuarinas is the only sound that is heard apart from the wave after wave that come with a resonance. Here there are no hawkers troubling you for your money selling sea products, pearls, shells or eatables too much. No clutter too in the shape of empty bottles, plastic pouches or dirty streaks of running water from nearby hotels. For there are no habitation close to the sea shore. The vehicles that drive through the sanctuary on the Marine Drive are barred from blowing their horns. So no distraction, no pollution on that score as well.
At Chandrabhaga, sunsets are truly a delightful experience altogether. The pearly sands warm up to the gently falling glow and the waves dazzle with a diamond of rainbow hues on their head. The sky turns into a vast canvas for the swift strokes for the inimitable paintings. One can simply stay on like that without any conversation.
Chandrabhaga Beach is located three kilometers from the famous Sun temple at Konark. It has significance as a pilgrim center. Every year in February, during the auspicious Magha Saptami day, lakhs of believers throng this beach for a dip in the Bay of Bengal at day break, to worship the Sun as a deity on his birthday and also to pay homage to their ancestors.
There is a legend connected with the place. There lived a saint named Sumanyu on the seashore. He had adopted a girl and she turned out to be an exquisitely beautiful woman. There was a river called Chitrotpala nearby where she went to bathe with her friends. Once, the Sun God spotted her and was enamored by her ravishing beauty. He became extremely impatient to get her hand as his consort, and came in the guise of a Brahmin and expressed his desire to her. The girl spurned his offer and recognized him as Surya, Himself. She tried to escape and when she could not run away she jumped into the sea. When Sumanyu heard this he became enraged and cursed the deity that the holy temple that was being erected at Konark would be defiled and that the devotees never worship him in any temple but only in the open on a sea beach. Since Chandrabhaga committed suicide on the Magha Saptami, the day is observed as holy and devotees throng here. The gathering is called Chandrabhaga Mela in her honour. Chitrotpala River too was renamed as Chandrabhaga which has shrunk to a small sacred tank now.
There is another legend that says that there was a demon called Arka and Surya was troubled by him in the nearby Maitreya forests. On this day they had a duel here and finally Lord Surya killed the demon. The day is thus sacred and after a dip in the Chandrabhaga and the sea one offers prayers to the deity here. The place is called Arka Kshetra for that reason.
There is also a legend about Samba, the son of Krishna , who was cursed by his father and was rendered ugly. Samba was advised by Narada to come here in penitence and worship Lord Surya every day by standing waist deep in the water and meditate in the cool climate of the Maitreya vana. He did so for 12 years and finally the Sun was pleased and restored his lost looks. Since Samba sat in Padmashana (legs folded inward and arms on the knees) when he meditated here, the place is also called Padma Kshetra.
On this day, the sun begins his north ward journey and looks most beautiful. Surya is believed to be another form of Lord Vishnu and like the latter the Sun moves swiftly. Vishnu has 360 names to justify the days in a year.
There are several sites of interests as well like the temple of Baliharachandi where the sand dunes through the emerald waters of the sea are a fit sight for a picture post card. There are ruins of Buddhist monuments as well. But this is certainly a blissful place to relax and unwind being so close to the city and yet so distant for its ambience.
Rainwater Harvesting Can Solve the Water Crisis of Orissa (Article)
By Bikash Kumar Pati
Orissa is bestowed with huge potential of water resources. The state receives 231 BMC (Billion m3) of rainfall annually. The average annual precipitation of Orissa is around 1500 mm. and 80% this occurs during June to September. Most of the rainfall in Orissa is due to southwest monsoon. The state experiences about 70 rainy days during monsoon. Despite all those, the state has experienced 12 years of flood and 5 years of drought within last 18 years (Between 1990 to 2008). When flood was common in coastal plain, drought was in upper terrain. But with the changing scenario, both drought and flood are common in almost all parts of the state. 10 districts of Orissa had experienced flood up to 1991 and after 1994 more and more districts figured in the list. The height is that, in the year 2007, 27 districts out of 30 in Orissa experienced the flood.
Around 80% of rural population in Orissa depends upon ground water for drinking and domestic purposes. At the same time, due to change in the pattern of rainfall, people have started shifting from rain fed agriculture to seasonal irrigated hi-yielding agriculture. This is again increasing the consumption of ground water like anything. Massive industrialization in Orissa is another additional threat to ground water, as industries like steel plants are run with precious ground water in Orissa. The Central Ground Water Board (CGWB) has clearly indicated that the ground water of 24 out of 30 districts in Orissa is depleting. The ground water aquifers in many regions of our state have already gone dry. Shockingly, these aquifers have been sucked dry not to provide water for drinking and domestic use, but to meet the demand of agriculture and small industries. As if all this was not enough, large industries have now joined the race to dry up the ground water aquifers.
The above mentioned crisis clearly indicates the lack of management of rain water in the state. The rain water causes a lot of health hazards directly and indirectly in the flood and post flood situations besides the drinking water problem. During the summer (Earlier it was for two months and now it is for almost 6 months), people of Orissa faces acute water scarcity due to lack of proper management of rain water during rain. Rainwater, being the only means of fresh water for us, tangible step is yet to be taken to harvest that.
Rain water has been successfully harvested in many states of India and especially in urban set-ups; people are effectively harvesting rain water to meet the water requirement for the entire year. If we look at the national perspective, rain water harvesting is mandatory in 11 states and Orissa does not figure in the list.
Rainwater harvesting may be defined as any human activity involving collection and storage of rainwater in some natural or artificial container either for immediate use or use before the onset of the next monsoon. Rainwater harvesting as defined above was followed both at individual and community levels from times immemorial to obtain high-quality water for domestic, agricultural and other uses. Rain water harvesting is not a new concept in our state. If we look at the traditional land and water management practices, we can find ancient rainwater harvesting methods of water supply – both for drinking and domestic as well as for irrigation. But those declined when the civilised government took over the self-appointed task of supplying water trough tube wells and pipe from long distances extracting the ground water.
Rain water harvesting can be done either for ground water recharging or for storing the water to meet day to day water requirement and even both the things. When we talk about ground water recharging, basically focus lies on ensuring sustainability of the sources and augmenting water availability. Another added advantage is there of ground water recharging - that is ensuring the water quality. This concept is not new and in Ghaga Village of Hayana it has been effectively solved the water quality problem.
Despite knowing the benefits of rain water harvesting, no tangible step has been taken yet to execute the process. Though the intellectuals verdict is that rain water harvesting is the need of the hour. But no such step has been taken to either make it a mandate in urban set-up or to aware the rural community regarding its importance. People those are completely dependant on ground water are yet to know its value. Though in urban set-ups like Bhubaneswar, the Bhubaneswar Development Authority (BDA) has made inclusion of rainwater harvesting mechanism in the plan mandatory, but there is virtually no monitoring of the plan execution and follow-up action and there are instances of major violations by builders. Even there is around 38% water loss due to leakage in water supply in Bhubaneswar city, whereas the national average is 21.62% (In Class-1 cities). The authority is heading towards Naraz barrage to meet the additional water loss (16% Approximate), which can easily be covered-up through rain water harvesting. If this is the situation in state capital, the situation of other urban areas can easily be realized.
If we look at the water requirement of the state, according to Water Resources Department of Government of Orissa, it is 54.99 BMC (Billion m3) per year during 2001 and projected 84.463 BMC (Billion m3) per year during 2051 covering the requirements like domestic, agriculture, industry, environment and others. Comparing the requirement and availability of water through precipitation i.e. 231 BMC (Billion m3), it can be easily estimated that how rain water harvesting can solve the problem and suffice the water requirement. The only bottleneck is the will to go about the task with a firm belief that it is possible. With the strong belief, a coordinated effort by all segments of government machinery along with strong legislation to both execute and monitor the process can save the state from severe water crisis in future.
(The writer works with Regional Centre for Development Cooperation)
No takers for OAS officers in Orissa (Editorial)
Wanted to be an OAS, forget it. Young meritorious aspirants eyeing for State Civil Service in Orissa are the most disillusioned lot. Thanks, the indifferent attitude of the Government of Orissa, for last 9 years not a single eligible person has been able to get into Orissa Administrative Service (OAS).
Vacancies notified in a year are supposed to be filled up through both direct recruitment and departmental promotion. 50 per cent of the vacancies are filled up by direct recruitment and rest is by departmental promotions.
The vacancies occurred till 1997 were filled up through direct recruitment in 2000 after so many tussle and behind the scene wrangling. Since then not a single new direct recruit OAS officer has been appointed in the state.
The Chief Minister has always harp his policy to take the administration to the door step. But the fact is otherwise as in field level administration is slowly and steadily distancing from the people.
In a district, an OAS officer is handling 3-4 assignments and he has little time to do the justice for his entire jobs.
In 2006, the process to fill up vacancies through direct recruitment began, which faced rough weather. Orissa Public Service Commission (OPSC), which is handling the recruitment of State Civil Services, interpreted the judicial pronouncements wrongfully.
This has resulted in confusion worst confounded ever in the history of administrative management. And young aspirants are rushing to courts for respite so number of cases are piling up in the Orissa High Court and State Administrative Tribunal (SAT). Now it has been decided to go for Main Entrance Examination (MEE) once again.
So the hapless aspirants, who faced MEE in 2006, have to once again sit for the test. This has created tremendous pressure on the aspirants, who were waiting for receiving appointment letters. One can expect this type of treatment in Orissa only, where the recruitment agency is managed by inefficient bosses, alleged many aspirants.
The Orissa Public Service Commission would host a fresh Main Examination for the Orissa Civil Services Examination from July 22. The examination will continue till August 20. With this, about 4,560 eligible candidates would appear their Main Examinations.
The move of the Commission came following the May 21 directive of the Orissa High Court, which had asked for a fresh and composite Main examination by cancelling the previous one in which 3,730 candidates had appeared.
The Court had ordered to conduct the examination within three months. Earlier, a second Main test, ordered by the State Administrative Tribunal, was stayed by the High Court on March 26.
Last year, after the preliminary examination for 380 posts of Orissa Civil Services was held, the Commission brought out a list of 3,730 candidates eligible for the Main examination. As per the regulation, for one post, at least 12 candidates have to be selected for the Main test which put the number at 4,560. Later, 3,730 candidates appeared for the OCS (Main) Examination.
Eclipse of the Hindu Nation
Eclipse of the Hindu Nation
Radha Rajan
29 Jun 2009
Historically, the sense of nation and nationhood among Hindus has been cultural and civilisational. The culture and its unique value system, founded in an extraordinary concept of dharma, touched every aspect of individual and collective life. Politics, a means to protect and preserve dharma, was subordinate to dharma.
Historically, until Hindus faced successive Islamic and Christian conquests, they had no sense of civilisational, adversarial political-cultural purposes. However, confronted with the hostility of Islam and Christianity, a heightened Hindu nationalism manifested itself over the last 1200 years as organized resistance and as individual acts of extreme courage to protect Hindus and the Hindu way of life. Rana Pratap Singh, Rani Laxmibai of Jhansi, Chhatrapati Shivaji, Guru Gobind Singh, the Gosamrakshana Samitis, Sri Aurobindo, Veer Savarkar, Madanlal Dhingra and the host of revolutionaries who followed each other into the twentieth century, are but a few examples of this continuing resistance. These individual and group resistance movements ignited the fire of Hindu nationalism and gave to this nation of Hindus a political consciousness which sought to bring Indian polity in line with the Hindu ethos, to wean it away from the acutely inimical anti-Hindu path it is even now traversing.
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi [1] and later Jawaharlal Nehru successfully stifled the march of Hindu nationalism. Nehru viewed a politically vibrant Hindu nationalism as a threat to his preeminence and invoked the might of state patronage to promote an academic discourse and an ‘authorized’ history that relegated Hindu civilization to the margins of national consciousness [2]
Writers of modified history [3] perpetuated the colonial fiction that India was always pluralist, never Hindu, the implication being that Hindus cannot claim this land as their special janmabhumi, and cannot legitimately undertake steps to protect their territory, their way of life, or their cultural sensibilities. Public expression of support for the Hindu way of life was termed backward, superstitious, majoritarian communalism and retrogressive vis-à-vis superior virtues like ‘scientific temper’, secularism and pluralism, which India unquestioningly adopted via Gandhi and Nehru from their White-Christian-British masters.
Hindus were insidiously conditioned to equate Hindu political intentions with jihad. So intolerant was Indian political discourse to Hindu nationalism that even eminent Hindu political leaders took to mouthing inanities, like ‘Hindu nationalism is only cultural nationalism.’ That this misconceived articulation amounted to a denial of territorial content and political intent in Hindu nationalism was either overlooked or ignored or simply not understood at all.
The present work is an attempt to balance India’s distorted public discourse by outlining the contours and content of Hindu nationalism. This is a responsibility and an imperative that can no longer be evaded. The anti-Hindu polity today constitutes the greatest threat to Hindus and the Hindu nation. This work seeks to delineate the parameters of Hindu nationalism and fire it with strategic intent. In the process the book critically examines the freedom movement between the years 1890-1947, particularly the events that launched Gandhi to the commanding heights of the movement. Gandhi did not rise naturally to demonstrated leadership potential; rather, this exalted position was reserved for him and he simply walked to the pinnacle immediately after his return to India from South Africa.
Gandhi’s leadership of the Indian National Congress and the freedom movement sounded the death-knell for Hindu nationalism, as we hope to demonstrate; and after Gandhi and Nehru (who inherited Gandhi’s political mantle) hand-picked all Congress members to the Constituent Assembly, the Hindus of the nation were presented with a Constitution that did not reflect the nation’s timeless civilisational ethos or heritage nor represent the interests of the nation’s majority Hindu populace.
The beginning of the post-independence era in the nation’s history was the beginning of an active anti-Hindu polity that continues to hold sway till the present. This book seeks to correct the anti-Hindu political discourse which owes its existence to Gandhi and Nehru; this book signals the beginning of the collective effort of political-minded Hindus to set down the coffins of Gandhi and Nehru from the unwilling shoulders of the Hindu nation.
Notes
1] As standard academic practice, we are using names without suffixes such as Mahatma or Gandhiji.
2] The dubious motives behind international awards for those that propagate a non-Hindu India is exemplified by the American Kluge prize awarded jointly to Romila Thapar. “Ms. Thapar created a new and more pluralistic view of Indian civilization, which had seemed more unitary and unchanging by scrutinising its evolution over two millennia and searching out its historical consciousness”, the Library of Congress said. (Deccan Chronicle, Chennai ed., p. 8, 5 December 2008)
3] Historians such as R.S. Sharma, D.N. Jha and Romila Thapar exemplify this school of writing.
[Excerpted from
Eclipse of the Hindu Nation: Gandhi and HIS Freedom Struggle
Radha Rajan
New Age Publishers Pvt Ltd, Delhi, 2009
Price: Rs 495/-
To order, call Rima Kar Ghosh at 011- 26493326/27/28 or e-mail Rima at ncbadel@ncbapvtltd.com
Radha Rajan
29 Jun 2009
Historically, the sense of nation and nationhood among Hindus has been cultural and civilisational. The culture and its unique value system, founded in an extraordinary concept of dharma, touched every aspect of individual and collective life. Politics, a means to protect and preserve dharma, was subordinate to dharma.
Historically, until Hindus faced successive Islamic and Christian conquests, they had no sense of civilisational, adversarial political-cultural purposes. However, confronted with the hostility of Islam and Christianity, a heightened Hindu nationalism manifested itself over the last 1200 years as organized resistance and as individual acts of extreme courage to protect Hindus and the Hindu way of life. Rana Pratap Singh, Rani Laxmibai of Jhansi, Chhatrapati Shivaji, Guru Gobind Singh, the Gosamrakshana Samitis, Sri Aurobindo, Veer Savarkar, Madanlal Dhingra and the host of revolutionaries who followed each other into the twentieth century, are but a few examples of this continuing resistance. These individual and group resistance movements ignited the fire of Hindu nationalism and gave to this nation of Hindus a political consciousness which sought to bring Indian polity in line with the Hindu ethos, to wean it away from the acutely inimical anti-Hindu path it is even now traversing.
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi [1] and later Jawaharlal Nehru successfully stifled the march of Hindu nationalism. Nehru viewed a politically vibrant Hindu nationalism as a threat to his preeminence and invoked the might of state patronage to promote an academic discourse and an ‘authorized’ history that relegated Hindu civilization to the margins of national consciousness [2]
Writers of modified history [3] perpetuated the colonial fiction that India was always pluralist, never Hindu, the implication being that Hindus cannot claim this land as their special janmabhumi, and cannot legitimately undertake steps to protect their territory, their way of life, or their cultural sensibilities. Public expression of support for the Hindu way of life was termed backward, superstitious, majoritarian communalism and retrogressive vis-à-vis superior virtues like ‘scientific temper’, secularism and pluralism, which India unquestioningly adopted via Gandhi and Nehru from their White-Christian-British masters.
Hindus were insidiously conditioned to equate Hindu political intentions with jihad. So intolerant was Indian political discourse to Hindu nationalism that even eminent Hindu political leaders took to mouthing inanities, like ‘Hindu nationalism is only cultural nationalism.’ That this misconceived articulation amounted to a denial of territorial content and political intent in Hindu nationalism was either overlooked or ignored or simply not understood at all.
The present work is an attempt to balance India’s distorted public discourse by outlining the contours and content of Hindu nationalism. This is a responsibility and an imperative that can no longer be evaded. The anti-Hindu polity today constitutes the greatest threat to Hindus and the Hindu nation. This work seeks to delineate the parameters of Hindu nationalism and fire it with strategic intent. In the process the book critically examines the freedom movement between the years 1890-1947, particularly the events that launched Gandhi to the commanding heights of the movement. Gandhi did not rise naturally to demonstrated leadership potential; rather, this exalted position was reserved for him and he simply walked to the pinnacle immediately after his return to India from South Africa.
Gandhi’s leadership of the Indian National Congress and the freedom movement sounded the death-knell for Hindu nationalism, as we hope to demonstrate; and after Gandhi and Nehru (who inherited Gandhi’s political mantle) hand-picked all Congress members to the Constituent Assembly, the Hindus of the nation were presented with a Constitution that did not reflect the nation’s timeless civilisational ethos or heritage nor represent the interests of the nation’s majority Hindu populace.
The beginning of the post-independence era in the nation’s history was the beginning of an active anti-Hindu polity that continues to hold sway till the present. This book seeks to correct the anti-Hindu political discourse which owes its existence to Gandhi and Nehru; this book signals the beginning of the collective effort of political-minded Hindus to set down the coffins of Gandhi and Nehru from the unwilling shoulders of the Hindu nation.
Notes
1] As standard academic practice, we are using names without suffixes such as Mahatma or Gandhiji.
2] The dubious motives behind international awards for those that propagate a non-Hindu India is exemplified by the American Kluge prize awarded jointly to Romila Thapar. “Ms. Thapar created a new and more pluralistic view of Indian civilization, which had seemed more unitary and unchanging by scrutinising its evolution over two millennia and searching out its historical consciousness”, the Library of Congress said. (Deccan Chronicle, Chennai ed., p. 8, 5 December 2008)
3] Historians such as R.S. Sharma, D.N. Jha and Romila Thapar exemplify this school of writing.
[Excerpted from
Eclipse of the Hindu Nation: Gandhi and HIS Freedom Struggle
Radha Rajan
New Age Publishers Pvt Ltd, Delhi, 2009
Price: Rs 495/-
To order, call Rima Kar Ghosh at 011- 26493326/27/28 or e-mail Rima at ncbadel@ncbapvtltd.com
Saturday, June 27, 2009
PC mindset setback for peace process in Kandhamal, Samiti
PC mindset setback for peace process in Kandhamal, Samiti
By Golak Chandra Das
BHUBANESWAR:(Visakeo)- The Swami Laxmananda Saraswati Sradhanjali Samiti on Saturday hit out at Union Home Minister P Chidambaram for his partial statements during his visit to the troubled Kandhamal on June 26.
“The visit and statements of the Union Home Minister has further aggravated the situation and it was major set back for the present peace process in the tribal dominated district,” Samiti president Dr Ratnakar Chaini and secretary Laxmikant Das said in a joint statement.
The Home Minister never look into tribal land encroachment issue, illegal construction of Churches, fake caste certificate and other issues but only, he through out his stay, tried to appease a particular community for vote bank politics, the Samiti said in a hard-hitting statement. Why both Orissa Chief Minister and Union Home Minister silent? They asked.
The Government has imposed restriction on entry of religious leaders into various relief camps but people from Missionary of Charity frequently visiting relief camps, the Samiti alleged adding said it has exposed the double standard of both State and Central Government
By Golak Chandra Das
BHUBANESWAR:(Visakeo)- The Swami Laxmananda Saraswati Sradhanjali Samiti on Saturday hit out at Union Home Minister P Chidambaram for his partial statements during his visit to the troubled Kandhamal on June 26.
“The visit and statements of the Union Home Minister has further aggravated the situation and it was major set back for the present peace process in the tribal dominated district,” Samiti president Dr Ratnakar Chaini and secretary Laxmikant Das said in a joint statement.
The Home Minister never look into tribal land encroachment issue, illegal construction of Churches, fake caste certificate and other issues but only, he through out his stay, tried to appease a particular community for vote bank politics, the Samiti said in a hard-hitting statement. Why both Orissa Chief Minister and Union Home Minister silent? They asked.
The Government has imposed restriction on entry of religious leaders into various relief camps but people from Missionary of Charity frequently visiting relief camps, the Samiti alleged adding said it has exposed the double standard of both State and Central Government
Friday, June 26, 2009
Kamal Majhi’s death anniversary observed
Kamal Majhi’s death anniversary observed
By Golakha / Anurjay
BHUBANESWAR:(Visakeo)- Noted freedom fighter Kamal Majhi’s martyrs day observed on Thursday. Around 300 people from Kandha Community offered floral tributes to the late freedom fighter, who was martyred fighting against the British Raj. Organizing committee president Jayachandra Majhi urged the mark the occasion and Ekata Diwas every year. A memorial of late freedom fight to be constructed at Bhawanipatana.
By Golakha / Anurjay
BHUBANESWAR:(Visakeo)- Noted freedom fighter Kamal Majhi’s martyrs day observed on Thursday. Around 300 people from Kandha Community offered floral tributes to the late freedom fighter, who was martyred fighting against the British Raj. Organizing committee president Jayachandra Majhi urged the mark the occasion and Ekata Diwas every year. A memorial of late freedom fight to be constructed at Bhawanipatana.
Thursday, June 25, 2009
Panda, Dixit to get BP Shukla memorial award
Panda, Dixit to get BP Shukla memorial award
By Golakha / Anurjay
BHUBANESWAR(visakeo)- Senior scribes Arun Kumar Panda for Oriya and Hrudayashankar Dixit for Hindi will get the BP Shukla memorial award for their contribution in the field of journalism and mass communication.
Both will receive the award and cash prize of Rs 21,000 during the Pt Bachnesh Tripathi memorial lectures to be held in the premises of Utkal Biparna Sahayata Samiti in Manchewar Industrial area of the city on June 28.
The lectures jointly hosted by the Milat Chand Betala Memorial trust and Lucknow based Hindi weekly, Rashtradarma.
A discussion will be held on present electoral system and coalition politics. Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh , RSS Sarakaryabaha D Honsbala, Editor Rashtradharma, Ananda Mishra, Trust member Prakash Betala are among those expected to attend the meet.
It may be noted here that Padmashri Pt Bachnesh Tripathy was a versatile writer while Milapchand Boatala was leading businessman of Rajasthan.
By Golakha / Anurjay
BHUBANESWAR(visakeo)- Senior scribes Arun Kumar Panda for Oriya and Hrudayashankar Dixit for Hindi will get the BP Shukla memorial award for their contribution in the field of journalism and mass communication.
Both will receive the award and cash prize of Rs 21,000 during the Pt Bachnesh Tripathi memorial lectures to be held in the premises of Utkal Biparna Sahayata Samiti in Manchewar Industrial area of the city on June 28.
The lectures jointly hosted by the Milat Chand Betala Memorial trust and Lucknow based Hindi weekly, Rashtradarma.
A discussion will be held on present electoral system and coalition politics. Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh , RSS Sarakaryabaha D Honsbala, Editor Rashtradharma, Ananda Mishra, Trust member Prakash Betala are among those expected to attend the meet.
It may be noted here that Padmashri Pt Bachnesh Tripathy was a versatile writer while Milapchand Boatala was leading businessman of Rajasthan.
UBSS extends service during Festival of Chariots
UBSS extends service during Festival of Chariots
By Golakha / Anurjay
BHUBANESWAR: (visakeo)-Utkal Biparna Sahayata Samiti has extended various services during the Festival of Chariots that began June 24. As many 250 persons including doctors, pharmacists rendered various medical services. 340 people were treated in various medical camps. 4 ambulances were deployed at four places in Puri while 20 RSS workers shifted 15 persons for treatment.
25,000 water pouches were also distributed and it will continue till last nine days, Samiti spokesman Rabi Narayan Panda said. RSS Utkal Pranta Pracharak Jagadish Prasad Khadanga inaugurated the camp.
By Golakha / Anurjay
BHUBANESWAR: (visakeo)-Utkal Biparna Sahayata Samiti has extended various services during the Festival of Chariots that began June 24. As many 250 persons including doctors, pharmacists rendered various medical services. 340 people were treated in various medical camps. 4 ambulances were deployed at four places in Puri while 20 RSS workers shifted 15 persons for treatment.
25,000 water pouches were also distributed and it will continue till last nine days, Samiti spokesman Rabi Narayan Panda said. RSS Utkal Pranta Pracharak Jagadish Prasad Khadanga inaugurated the camp.
Training camp for Saraswati Sishu Mandir teachers held
Training camp for Saraswati Sishu Mandir teachers held
By Golak Chandra Das
By Golakha / Anurjay
Gandanali: (visakeo)-A three-day long training camp for teachers of Saraswati Sishu Mandir held here from June 21 to 23, media cell chief Sumanta Panda said. State Handloom and Textile Minister Anjali Behera attended the meeting opened the Baudhika Mandap being sponsored from the MLALAD funds. Local Tehsildar Hitansu Tripathy, SS Behera and KK Kar were among those present.
By Golak Chandra Das
By Golakha / Anurjay
Gandanali: (visakeo)-A three-day long training camp for teachers of Saraswati Sishu Mandir held here from June 21 to 23, media cell chief Sumanta Panda said. State Handloom and Textile Minister Anjali Behera attended the meeting opened the Baudhika Mandap being sponsored from the MLALAD funds. Local Tehsildar Hitansu Tripathy, SS Behera and KK Kar were among those present.
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
Raman Singh visiting Orissa on June 28
Raman Singh visiting Orissa on June 28
By Golakha / Anurjay
BHUBANESWAR: (Visakeo)-Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Dr Raman Singh is visiting Orissa on June 28 to attend Pt Bachnesh Tripathi memorial lectures to be held in the premises of Utkal Biparna Sahayata Samiti in Manchewar Industrial area of the city.
The lectures jointly hosted by the Milat Chand Betala Memorial trust and Lucknow based Hindi weekly, Rashtradarma.
A discussion will be held on present electoral system and coalition politics. RSS Sarakaryabaha D Honsbala, Editor Rashtradharma, Ananda Mishra, Trust member Prakash Betala are among those expected to attend the meet.
By Golakha / Anurjay
BHUBANESWAR: (Visakeo)-Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Dr Raman Singh is visiting Orissa on June 28 to attend Pt Bachnesh Tripathi memorial lectures to be held in the premises of Utkal Biparna Sahayata Samiti in Manchewar Industrial area of the city.
The lectures jointly hosted by the Milat Chand Betala Memorial trust and Lucknow based Hindi weekly, Rashtradarma.
A discussion will be held on present electoral system and coalition politics. RSS Sarakaryabaha D Honsbala, Editor Rashtradharma, Ananda Mishra, Trust member Prakash Betala are among those expected to attend the meet.
BJP: Himalayan Shame
BJP: Himalayan Shame
Sandhya Jain
22 Jun 2009
Not unexpectedly, the BJP national executive turned out to be much ado about nothing. The embattled president Rajnath Singh alone took responsibility for the electoral defeat; the master strategist Arun Jaitley enjoyed the European summer; and the sulking wannabe PM clung ungraciously, but tenaciously, to power.
The rot in the BJP is not new; it has been piling up for decades under the tyranny of the General whose leadership is now unpalatable to his own lieutenants. The analogy that comes to mind is that of the Augean stables, where shit had piled up so high that no mortal could clean it, and no less than the semi-divine Hercules was needed to perform the task. He did this by engineering a riverine flood through the stables; flushing the dross away and purifying that putrid biosphere. A feat of similar magnitude is now required for the BJP.
Lobh, Moha, Ahankaar
Recalling L K Advani’s swiftly withdrawn offer to quit and not take up the post of Leader of the Opposition, one is reminded of another story from Indian folklore:
A renowned spiritual teacher felt his end approaching. He called his disciples and told them that because of previous karmas, he would be reborn as a piglet to a sow living in the ashram precincts. He asked his favourite disciple to immediately kill him so that he was released from the bondage of that lowly existence, and could proceed on a more exalted karmic journey. The disciple promised.
When the litter was born, the disciple felt that he could not murder an absolute newborn. So he waited a while and on the eighth day, finally picked up a sharp knife and told the ashram inmates that he would now release their guru. But when he approached the sty, a familiar voice said: no, don’t kill me. I like it now!
That, I think, sums up the story of the RSS requesting Advani not to press his resignation – the cardinal vices of greed, delusion and pride (lobh, moha, ahankaar) that Hindus are exhorted to overcome, have him in deep thrall. He cannot now be persuaded to leave; and until he does, BJP is destined to roll in the mud of the pigsty.
Advani and Jaitley: incredible duo
By all accounts, despite a stormy national executive meeting (20-21 June 2009), dissidence was crushed and the escapist (bhagora) Arun Jaitley allowed to get away without explaining either his performance or his conduct.
We are told the party will go back to the masses, but for what? Advani having been resoundingly rejected by the people, and there being no immediate election on the horizon (unlike in 2004, there is no Raj Jyotishi to predict a mid-term poll), what is he going to the masses for - the BJP succession battle?
Few can forget how Jaitley stymied the BJP campaign by throwing tantrums to humiliate Rajnath Singh, not attending certain meetings, whimsically attending others with his face turned away, and casting aspersions on old party hands who were also key fund-raisers. Can such a man be trusted to lead the party in any capacity, that too, at such a critical time in its history?
How can Jaitley, who used the media to project himself as master strategian throughout the electoral process, pouring water over the contributions of all other stalwarts and workers alike, and elevating only a flunkey market surveyer as equal, dare refuse to give an account of his performance. A man who cannot face his own party colleagues, a man who puts a holiday in Europe above the party, cannot be permitted to lord it over his colleagues in Parliament or anywhere else. It is astonishing that he thinks he deserves anything – other than the boot, that is.
Soft Hindutva – what’s that?
After the eminently forgettable Gandhian Socialism, we now have another gem from the BJP – this time it is called Soft Hindutva.
I now feel BJP did not ditch Sri Rama. It was Sri Rama who realised that not Lotuses but Blooming Idiots were blossoming on the BJP pond, and ran for His life!
BJP leaders know nothing, learn nothing. In our part of the country there is a saying that if you don’t have your own brains (apne ghar ki akal), borrow somebody else’s; sadly, BJP lacks even this modesty.
There is no such thing as Hard Hindutva or Soft Hindutva; there is only Hindutva.
Hindutva is ‘Hindu tattva,’ the essence of Hindu-ness. In other words, it is simply Being Hindu. This means that like the sanatana dharma, being perennial, eternally contemporary, eternally relevant to the epoch in which one lives. There is no need for a pandit to lead one to an esoteric verse in the Vedas, no need for an interpretation; there is only understanding the needs of the Hindu community in any given era or situation, and ensuring that the polity delivers on it.
Hindutva, in short, means Hinduizing the polity to ensure that the government of the day does not do anything to hurt the legitimate needs or sensibilities of the Hindu community. It is not framed in ‘anti’ terms – that is the privilege of Pakistan and other monotheistic states – because the Vedic worldview seeks the well-being of all creation, human, non-human, and even inanimate.
Hindu dharma is innately affirmative and not exclusivist. Hence Hindus are unable to sustain hostility towards other communities after the immediate provocation for a flare-up is over (a point forcefully noted by my late father Girilal Jain), and that is why the phrase ‘Justice for all, appeasement of none’ found profound resonance in the Hindu heart.
‘Vasudev kutumbukum’ (the world is the family of Vasudev) is not confined to the human species, and only callow minds permit the diminution of this great ideal to a single specie. This facilitates missionaries when they appropriate Hindu symbols, rituals and concepts, and try to overwhelm the dharma by giving their own meanings to Hindu terms and traditions.
Kanchi Perivaar
By a lucky coincidence, contemporary Hindutva was summed up perfectly by the Kanchi Sankaracharya Swami Jayendra Saraswati during his discussions with Cardinal Jean-Louis Pierre Tauran, president of Vatican’s Pontifical Council for Inter-religious Dialogue, and others, in Mumbai on 12 June 2009. Since BJP obviously paid no attention to this meeting, it would be in order to sum up Perivaar’s views
[See full text at http://www.vijayvaani.com/FrmPublicDisplayArticle.aspx?id=633]
- Most countries like USA, UK, Japan, the Gulf nations, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, etc., affirm their determination to protect and defend their culture and the religion from which their cultures derive.
- In India alone we pass resolutions which officially and legally promote an irreligious and unspiritual creed called secularism. Secularism is an administrative quality; it cannot be the soul of this nation. The soul of this nation is religious and spiritual. Our government must recognize this truth and affirm commitment to protect the soul of India.
- Hindu dharma is by nature diverse; all different panthas and sampradayas co-exist on this bhumi without seeking to destroy the others. Hindu dharma has nurtured and supported all faiths and religions because that is the way of dharma.
- Religions which have entered this bhumi from other lands must respect this vital characteristic of Hindu dharma and not subvert or disturb the sense of nationhood of this country.
- Hindu dharma and the Hindu people welcome Christians, Muslims, Parsis and Jews to make this land their home. We expect these religions not to destroy our faith, our religion, and wound our religious sensibilities.
- We encourage all religions to live with mutual respect and harmony in a shared sense of nationalism which should bind us all as one nation. Nationalism should come first.
- In 1999, Pope John Paul II said the mission of the Vatican was to plant the Cross in Asia in the third millennium to facilitate the Christianizing of the world, which alone would cause the Second Coming of Jesus Christ.
- Exactly one month ago, on 12 May 2009, Pope Benedict XVI went to Jerusalem for a dialogue with the Chief Rabbinate of Israel where he agreed that the Catholic Church would cease all missionary and conversion activities among the Jews. The Church must give a similar commitment to the Hindus.
- The Church must reassure Hindus that it will not conduct itself in a manner that wounds Hindu sensibilities.
- The Buddhist Mahasangha and Joint Committee of Buddhist Organizations have urged the Sri Lankan government to pass a national anti-conversion law. A similar measure is endorsed for India.
- The US Commission on International Religious Freedom is an intrusive mechanism of a foreign government to interfere in the internal affairs of India. It must not be permitted to enter India on this intrusive mission [permission denied six days later, though government spokespersons denied this had anything to do with Sankaracharya’s statement!].
- Large sums of money come into the country for Churches and Christian groups’ charity work, and must be used only for social causes like health, education and not for religious conversion.
It is inconceivable that such Hindutva would not find resonance with the people. The truth is that the BJP leadership is now so alienated from the masses, so aloof from the legitimate concerns of Hindus, that neither the word ‘Hindu’ nor ‘Hindutva’ figured in its election campaign.
Kandhamal and the abandoned tribals
This alienation came tellingly to the fore when all prominent BJP leaders pointedly skipped the troubled Kandhamal district – where Swami Laxmanananda and four other sannyasis were brutally gunned down on 23 August 2008, and the tribal community was in deep anguish – in the elections. This was despite the fact that Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik had ditched the party on the eve of polls and Assembly elections were being held simultaneously.
The Orissa election was not just about settling scores with Patnaik; it was about addressing tribal angst. That is why Kandhamal should have been the centrepoint of the BJP campaign, because tribals are the most endangered section of society and need special protection of their identity and culture.
A common cultural substratum unites all native-born beliefs and practices; hence tribals (Adivasi, Vanvasi) are an intrinsic part of Hindu dharma. However, because of certain lacuna at the time of drafting the constitution, they were denied adequate legal protection of their tribal status.
This has made Adivasis the target of conversion and violence. The current spiral of violence began with the shooting of Tripura’s Shanti Kali ji Maharaj in August 2000; the shooting of Swami Laxmanananda Saraswati followed on 23 August 2008; and Swami Ramcharan Das was hacked to death at Puri on 3 June 2009.
BJP should have demanded – and should even now demand – a complete ban on proselytisation in tribal areas. It should also demand plugging the legal lacuna which allows tribals converts to corner reservation benefits.
Caste is Hindu
So alienated has BJP become from Hindu society that it no longer appreciates the unchanging importance of caste. From its primordial beginnings, Hindu society has organised itself on the basis of caste, and caste has served as an agency of integration of diverse groups throughout the land. So significant is caste that Samajwadi Party leader Mulayam Singh Yadav sacrified other party colleagues to maintain his relationship with the Lodh leader Kalyan Singh (once BJP’s chief minister of Uttar Pradesh).
Today, both Christian and Muslim leaders are seeking to appropriate caste and secure reservation benefits for so-called dalit Christians and dalit Muslims. Since Hindus alone are defined by jati and gotra, and caste is explicitly forbidden in the religious theology of both Islam and Christianity, BJP should demand a national debate and legislation to define Hindus as those who have jati and gotra, and minorities as those who do not have caste and are not entitled to reservations on the basis of caste.
Interim solution
In my view BJP cannot begin to sort itself out unless Advani is removed from the headship of the organisation. He should be asked to quit his Lok Sabha seat (and take protégé Varun Gandhi with him into the sunset), and the party should ask Narendra Modi to contest Gandhinagar and take over as Leader of the Opposition in Parliament.
This will have the immediate benefit of transition to a younger leadership, with a leader known to the people. The BJP can then thrash out the causes of electoral failure and work out remedies.
Within Gujarat, the immediate benefit would be that alienated leaders (Keshubhai Patel, Suresh Mehta, Rajendrasinh Rana, Gordhan Zapadia, Sankarsinh Vaghela) and communities (Kshatriyas, Patels) can close ranks and give the BJP a fighting chance in the next Assembly elections – else, Gujarat may well be lost, if the Lok Sabha results are any indication.
More importantly, shifting Narendra Modi could mitigate the hostility with which the Gujarat riot cases are currently being pursued, and give a fair chance to VHP cadres rotting in jail. The alienation of then home minister Gordhan Zapadia is a major blow to the party, which can be overcome if Modi is removed from the scene.
His national ambitions are in any case well known. By reviving the party from the current doldrums, he could earn his right to nurture them.
The author is Editor, www.vijayvaani.com
Sandhya Jain
22 Jun 2009
Not unexpectedly, the BJP national executive turned out to be much ado about nothing. The embattled president Rajnath Singh alone took responsibility for the electoral defeat; the master strategist Arun Jaitley enjoyed the European summer; and the sulking wannabe PM clung ungraciously, but tenaciously, to power.
The rot in the BJP is not new; it has been piling up for decades under the tyranny of the General whose leadership is now unpalatable to his own lieutenants. The analogy that comes to mind is that of the Augean stables, where shit had piled up so high that no mortal could clean it, and no less than the semi-divine Hercules was needed to perform the task. He did this by engineering a riverine flood through the stables; flushing the dross away and purifying that putrid biosphere. A feat of similar magnitude is now required for the BJP.
Lobh, Moha, Ahankaar
Recalling L K Advani’s swiftly withdrawn offer to quit and not take up the post of Leader of the Opposition, one is reminded of another story from Indian folklore:
A renowned spiritual teacher felt his end approaching. He called his disciples and told them that because of previous karmas, he would be reborn as a piglet to a sow living in the ashram precincts. He asked his favourite disciple to immediately kill him so that he was released from the bondage of that lowly existence, and could proceed on a more exalted karmic journey. The disciple promised.
When the litter was born, the disciple felt that he could not murder an absolute newborn. So he waited a while and on the eighth day, finally picked up a sharp knife and told the ashram inmates that he would now release their guru. But when he approached the sty, a familiar voice said: no, don’t kill me. I like it now!
That, I think, sums up the story of the RSS requesting Advani not to press his resignation – the cardinal vices of greed, delusion and pride (lobh, moha, ahankaar) that Hindus are exhorted to overcome, have him in deep thrall. He cannot now be persuaded to leave; and until he does, BJP is destined to roll in the mud of the pigsty.
Advani and Jaitley: incredible duo
By all accounts, despite a stormy national executive meeting (20-21 June 2009), dissidence was crushed and the escapist (bhagora) Arun Jaitley allowed to get away without explaining either his performance or his conduct.
We are told the party will go back to the masses, but for what? Advani having been resoundingly rejected by the people, and there being no immediate election on the horizon (unlike in 2004, there is no Raj Jyotishi to predict a mid-term poll), what is he going to the masses for - the BJP succession battle?
Few can forget how Jaitley stymied the BJP campaign by throwing tantrums to humiliate Rajnath Singh, not attending certain meetings, whimsically attending others with his face turned away, and casting aspersions on old party hands who were also key fund-raisers. Can such a man be trusted to lead the party in any capacity, that too, at such a critical time in its history?
How can Jaitley, who used the media to project himself as master strategian throughout the electoral process, pouring water over the contributions of all other stalwarts and workers alike, and elevating only a flunkey market surveyer as equal, dare refuse to give an account of his performance. A man who cannot face his own party colleagues, a man who puts a holiday in Europe above the party, cannot be permitted to lord it over his colleagues in Parliament or anywhere else. It is astonishing that he thinks he deserves anything – other than the boot, that is.
Soft Hindutva – what’s that?
After the eminently forgettable Gandhian Socialism, we now have another gem from the BJP – this time it is called Soft Hindutva.
I now feel BJP did not ditch Sri Rama. It was Sri Rama who realised that not Lotuses but Blooming Idiots were blossoming on the BJP pond, and ran for His life!
BJP leaders know nothing, learn nothing. In our part of the country there is a saying that if you don’t have your own brains (apne ghar ki akal), borrow somebody else’s; sadly, BJP lacks even this modesty.
There is no such thing as Hard Hindutva or Soft Hindutva; there is only Hindutva.
Hindutva is ‘Hindu tattva,’ the essence of Hindu-ness. In other words, it is simply Being Hindu. This means that like the sanatana dharma, being perennial, eternally contemporary, eternally relevant to the epoch in which one lives. There is no need for a pandit to lead one to an esoteric verse in the Vedas, no need for an interpretation; there is only understanding the needs of the Hindu community in any given era or situation, and ensuring that the polity delivers on it.
Hindutva, in short, means Hinduizing the polity to ensure that the government of the day does not do anything to hurt the legitimate needs or sensibilities of the Hindu community. It is not framed in ‘anti’ terms – that is the privilege of Pakistan and other monotheistic states – because the Vedic worldview seeks the well-being of all creation, human, non-human, and even inanimate.
Hindu dharma is innately affirmative and not exclusivist. Hence Hindus are unable to sustain hostility towards other communities after the immediate provocation for a flare-up is over (a point forcefully noted by my late father Girilal Jain), and that is why the phrase ‘Justice for all, appeasement of none’ found profound resonance in the Hindu heart.
‘Vasudev kutumbukum’ (the world is the family of Vasudev) is not confined to the human species, and only callow minds permit the diminution of this great ideal to a single specie. This facilitates missionaries when they appropriate Hindu symbols, rituals and concepts, and try to overwhelm the dharma by giving their own meanings to Hindu terms and traditions.
Kanchi Perivaar
By a lucky coincidence, contemporary Hindutva was summed up perfectly by the Kanchi Sankaracharya Swami Jayendra Saraswati during his discussions with Cardinal Jean-Louis Pierre Tauran, president of Vatican’s Pontifical Council for Inter-religious Dialogue, and others, in Mumbai on 12 June 2009. Since BJP obviously paid no attention to this meeting, it would be in order to sum up Perivaar’s views
[See full text at http://www.vijayvaani.com/FrmPublicDisplayArticle.aspx?id=633]
- Most countries like USA, UK, Japan, the Gulf nations, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, etc., affirm their determination to protect and defend their culture and the religion from which their cultures derive.
- In India alone we pass resolutions which officially and legally promote an irreligious and unspiritual creed called secularism. Secularism is an administrative quality; it cannot be the soul of this nation. The soul of this nation is religious and spiritual. Our government must recognize this truth and affirm commitment to protect the soul of India.
- Hindu dharma is by nature diverse; all different panthas and sampradayas co-exist on this bhumi without seeking to destroy the others. Hindu dharma has nurtured and supported all faiths and religions because that is the way of dharma.
- Religions which have entered this bhumi from other lands must respect this vital characteristic of Hindu dharma and not subvert or disturb the sense of nationhood of this country.
- Hindu dharma and the Hindu people welcome Christians, Muslims, Parsis and Jews to make this land their home. We expect these religions not to destroy our faith, our religion, and wound our religious sensibilities.
- We encourage all religions to live with mutual respect and harmony in a shared sense of nationalism which should bind us all as one nation. Nationalism should come first.
- In 1999, Pope John Paul II said the mission of the Vatican was to plant the Cross in Asia in the third millennium to facilitate the Christianizing of the world, which alone would cause the Second Coming of Jesus Christ.
- Exactly one month ago, on 12 May 2009, Pope Benedict XVI went to Jerusalem for a dialogue with the Chief Rabbinate of Israel where he agreed that the Catholic Church would cease all missionary and conversion activities among the Jews. The Church must give a similar commitment to the Hindus.
- The Church must reassure Hindus that it will not conduct itself in a manner that wounds Hindu sensibilities.
- The Buddhist Mahasangha and Joint Committee of Buddhist Organizations have urged the Sri Lankan government to pass a national anti-conversion law. A similar measure is endorsed for India.
- The US Commission on International Religious Freedom is an intrusive mechanism of a foreign government to interfere in the internal affairs of India. It must not be permitted to enter India on this intrusive mission [permission denied six days later, though government spokespersons denied this had anything to do with Sankaracharya’s statement!].
- Large sums of money come into the country for Churches and Christian groups’ charity work, and must be used only for social causes like health, education and not for religious conversion.
It is inconceivable that such Hindutva would not find resonance with the people. The truth is that the BJP leadership is now so alienated from the masses, so aloof from the legitimate concerns of Hindus, that neither the word ‘Hindu’ nor ‘Hindutva’ figured in its election campaign.
Kandhamal and the abandoned tribals
This alienation came tellingly to the fore when all prominent BJP leaders pointedly skipped the troubled Kandhamal district – where Swami Laxmanananda and four other sannyasis were brutally gunned down on 23 August 2008, and the tribal community was in deep anguish – in the elections. This was despite the fact that Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik had ditched the party on the eve of polls and Assembly elections were being held simultaneously.
The Orissa election was not just about settling scores with Patnaik; it was about addressing tribal angst. That is why Kandhamal should have been the centrepoint of the BJP campaign, because tribals are the most endangered section of society and need special protection of their identity and culture.
A common cultural substratum unites all native-born beliefs and practices; hence tribals (Adivasi, Vanvasi) are an intrinsic part of Hindu dharma. However, because of certain lacuna at the time of drafting the constitution, they were denied adequate legal protection of their tribal status.
This has made Adivasis the target of conversion and violence. The current spiral of violence began with the shooting of Tripura’s Shanti Kali ji Maharaj in August 2000; the shooting of Swami Laxmanananda Saraswati followed on 23 August 2008; and Swami Ramcharan Das was hacked to death at Puri on 3 June 2009.
BJP should have demanded – and should even now demand – a complete ban on proselytisation in tribal areas. It should also demand plugging the legal lacuna which allows tribals converts to corner reservation benefits.
Caste is Hindu
So alienated has BJP become from Hindu society that it no longer appreciates the unchanging importance of caste. From its primordial beginnings, Hindu society has organised itself on the basis of caste, and caste has served as an agency of integration of diverse groups throughout the land. So significant is caste that Samajwadi Party leader Mulayam Singh Yadav sacrified other party colleagues to maintain his relationship with the Lodh leader Kalyan Singh (once BJP’s chief minister of Uttar Pradesh).
Today, both Christian and Muslim leaders are seeking to appropriate caste and secure reservation benefits for so-called dalit Christians and dalit Muslims. Since Hindus alone are defined by jati and gotra, and caste is explicitly forbidden in the religious theology of both Islam and Christianity, BJP should demand a national debate and legislation to define Hindus as those who have jati and gotra, and minorities as those who do not have caste and are not entitled to reservations on the basis of caste.
Interim solution
In my view BJP cannot begin to sort itself out unless Advani is removed from the headship of the organisation. He should be asked to quit his Lok Sabha seat (and take protégé Varun Gandhi with him into the sunset), and the party should ask Narendra Modi to contest Gandhinagar and take over as Leader of the Opposition in Parliament.
This will have the immediate benefit of transition to a younger leadership, with a leader known to the people. The BJP can then thrash out the causes of electoral failure and work out remedies.
Within Gujarat, the immediate benefit would be that alienated leaders (Keshubhai Patel, Suresh Mehta, Rajendrasinh Rana, Gordhan Zapadia, Sankarsinh Vaghela) and communities (Kshatriyas, Patels) can close ranks and give the BJP a fighting chance in the next Assembly elections – else, Gujarat may well be lost, if the Lok Sabha results are any indication.
More importantly, shifting Narendra Modi could mitigate the hostility with which the Gujarat riot cases are currently being pursued, and give a fair chance to VHP cadres rotting in jail. The alienation of then home minister Gordhan Zapadia is a major blow to the party, which can be overcome if Modi is removed from the scene.
His national ambitions are in any case well known. By reviving the party from the current doldrums, he could earn his right to nurture them.
The author is Editor, www.vijayvaani.com
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
Pt Bachnesh Tripathi memorial lectures on June 28
Pt Bachnesh Tripathi memorial lectures on June 28
By Golakha / Anurjay
BHUBANESWAR-(visakeo) -An All-India Pandit Bachnesh Tripathi memorial lectures jointly hosted by the Milat Chand Betala Memorial trust and Lucknow based Hindi weekly, Rashtradarma, will be held in the premises of Utkal Biparna Sahayata Samiti on June 28.
A discussion will be held on present electoral system and coalition politics. Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Dr Raman Singh, RSS Sarakaryabaha D Honsbala, Editor Rashtradharma, Ananda Mishra, Trust member Prakash Betala are among those expected to attend the meet.
By Golakha / Anurjay
BHUBANESWAR-(visakeo) -An All-India Pandit Bachnesh Tripathi memorial lectures jointly hosted by the Milat Chand Betala Memorial trust and Lucknow based Hindi weekly, Rashtradarma, will be held in the premises of Utkal Biparna Sahayata Samiti on June 28.
A discussion will be held on present electoral system and coalition politics. Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Dr Raman Singh, RSS Sarakaryabaha D Honsbala, Editor Rashtradharma, Ananda Mishra, Trust member Prakash Betala are among those expected to attend the meet.
Thursday, June 18, 2009
राष्ट्रीयता का दूसरा नाम हिन्दुत्व
Bhaskar News Sunday, June 14, 2009 02:28 [IST]
उदयपुर. राष्ट्रीय स्वयं सेवक संघ के अभा सह-सेवक प्रमुख सुहास ह्रिरेमठ ने कहा कि देश में राष्ट्रीयता के नाम पर दो मौकों पर जागृति आती है, ये हैं स्वाधीनता दिवस और गणतंत्र दिवस। शेष दिनों में हम राष्ट्रीयता को भूल जाते है। हिन्दुत्व राष्ट्रीयता का दूसरा नाम है, लेकिन हमने इसे पूजा पद्धति और धर्म से जोड़ दिया है।
सुहास शनिवार को विद्या निकेतन स्कूल में राष्ट्रीय स्वयं सेवक संघ के द्वितीय वर्ष शिक्षा वर्ग शिविर के समापन समारोह को संबोधित कर रहे थे। उन्होंने कहा कि शिविर का मूल उद्देश्य स्वयं सेवकों को संस्कारित करने के साथ-साथ उनमें राष्ट्रीयता की भावना जागृत करना है। हमारे देश का गौरव पूरे विश्व में है। जिस देश का समाज जागृत है, वह देश महान है। बच्चों को संस्कारित करना प्रत्येक अभिभावक, शिक्षक का कर्तव्य है, लेकिन आज की शिक्षा चरित्र को दरकिनार कर केवल उच्च शिक्षा तक सीमित होकर रह गई है।
शिक्षा और चरित्र का संपर्क नहीं रहा। जितना पढ़ा-लिखा व्यक्ति होगा उतना ही वह भ्रष्टाचार में लिप्त होता जा रहा है। सुहास ने कहा कि चरित्र, देशभक्ति और हिदुत्व का भाव प्रत्येक भारतीयों को रखना होगा तभी हम विश्वगुरु को पुन: उसी मुकाम तक ले जाने में कामयाब होंगे। इस मौके पर पूर्व जिला शिक्षा अधिकारी रामसिंह गरासिया ने कहा कि हिंदू जगेगा तो राष्ट्र जगेगा और हिन्दू सोएगा तो राष्ट्र बंटेगा। यह शिविर एक ऐसा माध्यम है जहां व्यक्ति स्वयं चिंतन कर राष्ट्र के प्रति अपनी भावना को जागृत कर सकता है।
स्वयंसेवकों के हैरतअंगेज करतब : समापन अवसर पर स्वयं सेवकों के शारीरिक व्यायाम प्रदर्शन, हैरतअंगेज कारनामे आकर्षण का केंद्र बने। स्वयं सेवकों ने विविध नियुद्ध कलाओं का प्रदर्शन किया। संघ के घोष का प्रदर्शन राहुल के नेतृत्व में हुआ। स्वयं सेवकों ने सामूहिक सूर्य नमस्कार, दंड व योग प्रदर्शन किया। बाद में चरेवैति-चरेवैति यही है मंत्र अपना, कही न रुकना, सतत चलना.. गीत का गान हुआ।
205 प्रशिक्षणार्थियों की भागीदारी : 20 दिन के शिविर में 205 स्वयं सेवकों ने भाग लिया जिसमें 203 राज्य के विभिन्न जिलों के थे। शेष 2 शिविरार्थी कोंकण से थे। उन्हें 68 शिक्षक प्रबंधक ने शिक्षित किया। शिविर का नेतृत्व लक्ष्मीनारायण चातक ने किया। शिविर में सुबह शाखा, दोपहर में बौद्धिक चर्चा, शाम को परेड अभ्यास और सांस्कृतिक कार्यक्रमों में प्रशिक्षणार्थियों ने उत्साह पूर्वक भाग लिया।
इनकी भी रही मौजूदगी : कार्यक्रम में विधायक गुलाबचंद कटारिया, पूर्व शिक्षामंत्री वासुदेव देवनानी, सभापति रवींद्र श्रीमाली, उप-सभापति वीरेंद्र बापना, उदयपुर चेंबर ऑफ कॉमर्स डिविजन के अध्यक्ष पारस सिंघवी, पूर्व विधानसभा अध्यक्ष शांतिलाल चपलोत आदि मौजूद थे।
Bhaskar News Sunday, June 14, 2009 02:28 [IST]
उदयपुर. राष्ट्रीय स्वयं सेवक संघ के अभा सह-सेवक प्रमुख सुहास ह्रिरेमठ ने कहा कि देश में राष्ट्रीयता के नाम पर दो मौकों पर जागृति आती है, ये हैं स्वाधीनता दिवस और गणतंत्र दिवस। शेष दिनों में हम राष्ट्रीयता को भूल जाते है। हिन्दुत्व राष्ट्रीयता का दूसरा नाम है, लेकिन हमने इसे पूजा पद्धति और धर्म से जोड़ दिया है।
सुहास शनिवार को विद्या निकेतन स्कूल में राष्ट्रीय स्वयं सेवक संघ के द्वितीय वर्ष शिक्षा वर्ग शिविर के समापन समारोह को संबोधित कर रहे थे। उन्होंने कहा कि शिविर का मूल उद्देश्य स्वयं सेवकों को संस्कारित करने के साथ-साथ उनमें राष्ट्रीयता की भावना जागृत करना है। हमारे देश का गौरव पूरे विश्व में है। जिस देश का समाज जागृत है, वह देश महान है। बच्चों को संस्कारित करना प्रत्येक अभिभावक, शिक्षक का कर्तव्य है, लेकिन आज की शिक्षा चरित्र को दरकिनार कर केवल उच्च शिक्षा तक सीमित होकर रह गई है।
शिक्षा और चरित्र का संपर्क नहीं रहा। जितना पढ़ा-लिखा व्यक्ति होगा उतना ही वह भ्रष्टाचार में लिप्त होता जा रहा है। सुहास ने कहा कि चरित्र, देशभक्ति और हिदुत्व का भाव प्रत्येक भारतीयों को रखना होगा तभी हम विश्वगुरु को पुन: उसी मुकाम तक ले जाने में कामयाब होंगे। इस मौके पर पूर्व जिला शिक्षा अधिकारी रामसिंह गरासिया ने कहा कि हिंदू जगेगा तो राष्ट्र जगेगा और हिन्दू सोएगा तो राष्ट्र बंटेगा। यह शिविर एक ऐसा माध्यम है जहां व्यक्ति स्वयं चिंतन कर राष्ट्र के प्रति अपनी भावना को जागृत कर सकता है।
स्वयंसेवकों के हैरतअंगेज करतब : समापन अवसर पर स्वयं सेवकों के शारीरिक व्यायाम प्रदर्शन, हैरतअंगेज कारनामे आकर्षण का केंद्र बने। स्वयं सेवकों ने विविध नियुद्ध कलाओं का प्रदर्शन किया। संघ के घोष का प्रदर्शन राहुल के नेतृत्व में हुआ। स्वयं सेवकों ने सामूहिक सूर्य नमस्कार, दंड व योग प्रदर्शन किया। बाद में चरेवैति-चरेवैति यही है मंत्र अपना, कही न रुकना, सतत चलना.. गीत का गान हुआ।
205 प्रशिक्षणार्थियों की भागीदारी : 20 दिन के शिविर में 205 स्वयं सेवकों ने भाग लिया जिसमें 203 राज्य के विभिन्न जिलों के थे। शेष 2 शिविरार्थी कोंकण से थे। उन्हें 68 शिक्षक प्रबंधक ने शिक्षित किया। शिविर का नेतृत्व लक्ष्मीनारायण चातक ने किया। शिविर में सुबह शाखा, दोपहर में बौद्धिक चर्चा, शाम को परेड अभ्यास और सांस्कृतिक कार्यक्रमों में प्रशिक्षणार्थियों ने उत्साह पूर्वक भाग लिया।
इनकी भी रही मौजूदगी : कार्यक्रम में विधायक गुलाबचंद कटारिया, पूर्व शिक्षामंत्री वासुदेव देवनानी, सभापति रवींद्र श्रीमाली, उप-सभापति वीरेंद्र बापना, उदयपुर चेंबर ऑफ कॉमर्स डिविजन के अध्यक्ष पारस सिंघवी, पूर्व विधानसभा अध्यक्ष शांतिलाल चपलोत आदि मौजूद थे।
MUST Read: 2 photos after Collision n before Death....AIR FRANCE FLIGHT
MUST Read: 2 photos after Collision n before Death....AIR FRANCE FLIGHT
Subject: MUST Read: 2 photos after Collision n before Death....AIR FRANCE FLIGHT
Feel so sad for all the passengers including the extraordinary photographer, who kept his cool even in his last moments of life and took this photo. Hats off to him!!!
The world saw the disappearance of an A330 Air Frane during a trans Atlantic flight between Rio to Paris
Two shots taken inside the plane before it crashed. Unbelievable! Photos taken inside the GOL B 737 aircraft that was involved in a mid air collision and crashed.....
A B737 had a mid air collision with the Embraer Legacy while cruising at 35,000 feet over South America. The Embraer Legacy, though seriously damaged with the winglet ripped off, managed to make a landing at a nearby airstrip in the midst of the Amazon jungle. The crew and passengers of the Embraer Legacy had no idea what they had hit. The B737
however crashed, killing all crew and passengers on board.
The two photos attached were apparently taken by one of the passengers in the B737, just after the collision and before the aircraft crashed. The photos were retrieved from the camera's memory stick. You will never get to see photos like this. In the first photo, there is a gaping hole in the fuselage through which you can see the tailplane and vertical fin of the aircraft. In the second photo, one of the passengers is being sucked out of the gaping hole.
These photos were found in a digital Casio Z750, amidst the remains in Serra do Cachimbo. Although the camera was destroyed, the Memory Stick was recovered. Investigating the serial number of the camera, the owner was identified as Paulo G. Muller, an actor of a theatre for children known in the outskirts of Porto Alegre. It can be imagined that he was standing during the impact with the Embraer Legacy and during the turbulence, he managed to take these photos, just seconds after the tail loss the aircraft plunged. So the camera was found near the cockpit. The structural stress probably ripped the engines away, diminishing the falling speed, protecting the electronic equipment but not unfortunately the victims. Paulo Muller leaves behind two daughters, Bruna and Beatriz
Subject: MUST Read: 2 photos after Collision n before Death....AIR FRANCE FLIGHT
Feel so sad for all the passengers including the extraordinary photographer, who kept his cool even in his last moments of life and took this photo. Hats off to him!!!
The world saw the disappearance of an A330 Air Frane during a trans Atlantic flight between Rio to Paris
Two shots taken inside the plane before it crashed. Unbelievable! Photos taken inside the GOL B 737 aircraft that was involved in a mid air collision and crashed.....
A B737 had a mid air collision with the Embraer Legacy while cruising at 35,000 feet over South America. The Embraer Legacy, though seriously damaged with the winglet ripped off, managed to make a landing at a nearby airstrip in the midst of the Amazon jungle. The crew and passengers of the Embraer Legacy had no idea what they had hit. The B737
however crashed, killing all crew and passengers on board.
The two photos attached were apparently taken by one of the passengers in the B737, just after the collision and before the aircraft crashed. The photos were retrieved from the camera's memory stick. You will never get to see photos like this. In the first photo, there is a gaping hole in the fuselage through which you can see the tailplane and vertical fin of the aircraft. In the second photo, one of the passengers is being sucked out of the gaping hole.
These photos were found in a digital Casio Z750, amidst the remains in Serra do Cachimbo. Although the camera was destroyed, the Memory Stick was recovered. Investigating the serial number of the camera, the owner was identified as Paulo G. Muller, an actor of a theatre for children known in the outskirts of Porto Alegre. It can be imagined that he was standing during the impact with the Embraer Legacy and during the turbulence, he managed to take these photos, just seconds after the tail loss the aircraft plunged. So the camera was found near the cockpit. The structural stress probably ripped the engines away, diminishing the falling speed, protecting the electronic equipment but not unfortunately the victims. Paulo Muller leaves behind two daughters, Bruna and Beatriz
Interfaith dialogue: in whose interest? - I
Interfaith dialogue: in whose interest? - I
B R Haran
18 Jun 2009
“Interfaith Dialogue” refers to interaction between two or more religious traditions, at both individual and institutional levels, leading to understanding of values and respecting them, resulting in prevalence of communal amity.
The compulsion to participate in interfaith dialogues arises due to two reasons. First, when the ‘state’ fails to take care of the majority community and panders to the minority communities; second, when the minority communities, emboldened by the state’s pandering, go overboard and interfere with the cultural customs and religious practices of the majority community, resulting in conflict and disorder.
Hindu Dharma and secularism
Hindus have co-existed with other indigenous creeds (Buddhists, Jains, Sikhs and others) without problems for ages, and the peace and harmony prevailing in this great Hindu land was affected only with the advent of Abrahamic faiths, mainly Islam and Christianity, which oppressed the Hindu majority in various ways.
Despite being at the receiving end for several hundred years, the Hindu majority was magnanimous at the time of independence and addressed minorities with concern while framing the Constitution, and ensured their safety, security and religious freedom. India even refrained from enacting a ‘Common Civil Code.’ The Hindu majority never treated Christians and Muslims as descendents of ‘invaders,’ but as fellow citizens.
Sanatana Dharma has been the character and culture of this great nation. Hindu culture treats the world as a divine family - Vasudaiva Kutumbakam - and welcomes outsiders as aspects of divinity - Atithi Devo Bhava!
Such exalted concepts make words like ‘secularism’ hollow and redundant in the Hindu ethos. Monotheistic religions have no space for non-believers (in Allah or Mohammed or Yahweh or Jesus). Christianity introduced the concept of secularism in western society in order to end sectarian fratricide; as Hindus have no concept or tradition of such murderous sectarianism, secularism in India can at best be a quality of administration by the state.
But the post-independence state has failed to understand this imported notion of secularism, and hence, far from steering clear of all religion, successive governments have failed even to treat all religions equally.
The privileged minorities
Minorities have been given extra privileges by an extra-solicitous Constituent Assembly. Beginning with Article 14, up to Article 30, they have been granted many freedoms, with the Hindu majority getting a raw deal. This has emboldened the minorities to provoke, hurt and disrespect the Hindu majority, while working to achieve their religious objectives. This has naturally resulted in repeated conflicts.
India has undergone major demographic changes in the 60 years since independence; the ineptness of Congress and other political parties has lost Hindu bhoomi in many states to minorities. All political parties have failed the Hindus, and particularly after the arrival of the foreigner-led UPA at the centre, a Christian agenda is being silently achieved to the detriment of this Hindu nation. Simultaneously, Muslim fundamentalists are being encouraged to wage war (jihad) against the nation.
India lost huge territory when Pakistan was born, along with the current Bangladesh. Since then, the north-east has been Christianised; Kashmir is in trouble; so is Goa; 50% of Kerala is lost to minorities; large parts of Maharashtra, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh have become Islamic; a large portion of Karnataka, Andhra and Tamil Nadu have become Christianised.
Churches and missionaries of all denominations have become the second largest land owners in the country - next only to the government - and have been building churches and prayer houses anywhere and everywhere, totally disproportionate to their flock. A similar mushrooming of mosques disproportionate to Muslim population is also cause for concern.
History shows that both Islam and Christianity have been more ‘political’ in nature rather than ‘spiritual;’ they have spread worldwide through invasions and persecutions. India has borne the brunt of both Islam and Christianity through jihad and conversions respectively. Both religions have been successful, thanks to an inept political class and immature people who get carried away by ‘secular’ machinations of the political class and the Machiavellian agenda of the clergy of the Abrahamic faiths.
The unholy nexus between pseudo-secular politicians and minority community leaders, aided and abetted by foreign-funded media houses, has caused immense damage to the character of this Hindu nation. When things go beyond tolerance, the majority reacts spontaneously, as happened in Gujarat, Orissa, Karnataka and Jammu (Amarnath). After such reactions, the Hindu majority reverts to its usual tolerant self, hoping that the minority with which conflict took place would also settle down, but the ‘Marxist-media-minority’ nexus plays ugly ‘victimhood’ games in the international arena, bringing disrepute to the country.
In between, minority community leaders organize so-called interfaith dialogues to create a false picture of reconciliation, and successfully complete the exercise by forcing their pre-conceived ‘resolutions’ on the few ‘secularised’ Hindu leaders, using jugglery of words and making them sign a declaration accepting resolutions advantageous to minorities only.
Roman Catholics vs. other denominations
The Vatican is very clever in conducting such farcical exercises. The prime objective of the Vatican is Christianisation of the whole world. The same was pronounced by Pope John Paul II when he gave a “catholic” call for evangelization of Asia, particularly India, during his visit to the country in November 1999. He had the audacity to give such a call standing on Indian soil, that too, as India’s state guest! The Vatican has a history of achieving its objectives by creating divisions among local people leading to conflicts, and later through a healing touch by rehabilitation, education and healthcare.
While other Christian denominations are aggressive and overt in their evangelical activities, Roman Catholics are covert and subtle. The Catholic leadership doesn’t restrain the other denominations from indulging in aggressive evangelization, purely for the reason that this differentiation helps them to create concepts like “ethical” and “unethical” conversions, or “forced” and “unforced” (voluntary) conversions.
The Catholic leadership always blames other denominations for “unethical” and “forced” conversions during these so-called interfaith dialogues, in order to convince leaders of other faiths to accept the dangerous concept of “ethical” conversions. It achieved success in one such farcical dialogue at the Vatican in May 2006, where leaders whose names have not been made public in India, went ahead and signed a declaration accepting the resolutions prepared by the Vatican and the World Council of Churches!
There is another motive behind the Vatican’s interfaith dialogues. That is to indirectly put pressure and restrictions on other denominations which poach its targetted community for harvesting.
In this fight for “harvest” between various denominations, one question arises - what is the need for Hindus to agree for such dialogues and why should they participate? Hindus don’t indulge in blasphemy of other faiths, gods, and scriptures; they don’t indulge in conversion activities; they don’t interfere in other religious traditions; they don’t meddle with other faiths. On the contrary, Hindus have been amicable to others and they have been tolerating the propaganda (however provocative) of other religions.
Dhimmitude and disunity
How are they reciprocated? By hacking bodies (jihad) and harvesting souls (conversions)! Much of the so-called tolerance is simply dhimmitude, the result of being beaten up or beaten down for ages. Dhimmitude resulted from Nehruvian secularism and impacted Hindus so much that they cannot see the monster standing gleefully before their eyes; they are still in deep slumber.
Some religious leaders are averse to identifying themselves and their ‘teachings’ as ‘Hindu;’ they are more interested in marketing their wares in a global market, than in spreading dharma among the masses in the remotest hamlets. Some Hindu leaders are so magnanimous (naïve?) that they preach “all faiths are the same”! Faiths and custom-oriented traditional mathams have lost out to personality-oriented and business-oriented ‘cults.’
(To be continued…)
The author is a senior journalist; he lives in Chennai
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B R Haran
18 Jun 2009
“Interfaith Dialogue” refers to interaction between two or more religious traditions, at both individual and institutional levels, leading to understanding of values and respecting them, resulting in prevalence of communal amity.
The compulsion to participate in interfaith dialogues arises due to two reasons. First, when the ‘state’ fails to take care of the majority community and panders to the minority communities; second, when the minority communities, emboldened by the state’s pandering, go overboard and interfere with the cultural customs and religious practices of the majority community, resulting in conflict and disorder.
Hindu Dharma and secularism
Hindus have co-existed with other indigenous creeds (Buddhists, Jains, Sikhs and others) without problems for ages, and the peace and harmony prevailing in this great Hindu land was affected only with the advent of Abrahamic faiths, mainly Islam and Christianity, which oppressed the Hindu majority in various ways.
Despite being at the receiving end for several hundred years, the Hindu majority was magnanimous at the time of independence and addressed minorities with concern while framing the Constitution, and ensured their safety, security and religious freedom. India even refrained from enacting a ‘Common Civil Code.’ The Hindu majority never treated Christians and Muslims as descendents of ‘invaders,’ but as fellow citizens.
Sanatana Dharma has been the character and culture of this great nation. Hindu culture treats the world as a divine family - Vasudaiva Kutumbakam - and welcomes outsiders as aspects of divinity - Atithi Devo Bhava!
Such exalted concepts make words like ‘secularism’ hollow and redundant in the Hindu ethos. Monotheistic religions have no space for non-believers (in Allah or Mohammed or Yahweh or Jesus). Christianity introduced the concept of secularism in western society in order to end sectarian fratricide; as Hindus have no concept or tradition of such murderous sectarianism, secularism in India can at best be a quality of administration by the state.
But the post-independence state has failed to understand this imported notion of secularism, and hence, far from steering clear of all religion, successive governments have failed even to treat all religions equally.
The privileged minorities
Minorities have been given extra privileges by an extra-solicitous Constituent Assembly. Beginning with Article 14, up to Article 30, they have been granted many freedoms, with the Hindu majority getting a raw deal. This has emboldened the minorities to provoke, hurt and disrespect the Hindu majority, while working to achieve their religious objectives. This has naturally resulted in repeated conflicts.
India has undergone major demographic changes in the 60 years since independence; the ineptness of Congress and other political parties has lost Hindu bhoomi in many states to minorities. All political parties have failed the Hindus, and particularly after the arrival of the foreigner-led UPA at the centre, a Christian agenda is being silently achieved to the detriment of this Hindu nation. Simultaneously, Muslim fundamentalists are being encouraged to wage war (jihad) against the nation.
India lost huge territory when Pakistan was born, along with the current Bangladesh. Since then, the north-east has been Christianised; Kashmir is in trouble; so is Goa; 50% of Kerala is lost to minorities; large parts of Maharashtra, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh have become Islamic; a large portion of Karnataka, Andhra and Tamil Nadu have become Christianised.
Churches and missionaries of all denominations have become the second largest land owners in the country - next only to the government - and have been building churches and prayer houses anywhere and everywhere, totally disproportionate to their flock. A similar mushrooming of mosques disproportionate to Muslim population is also cause for concern.
History shows that both Islam and Christianity have been more ‘political’ in nature rather than ‘spiritual;’ they have spread worldwide through invasions and persecutions. India has borne the brunt of both Islam and Christianity through jihad and conversions respectively. Both religions have been successful, thanks to an inept political class and immature people who get carried away by ‘secular’ machinations of the political class and the Machiavellian agenda of the clergy of the Abrahamic faiths.
The unholy nexus between pseudo-secular politicians and minority community leaders, aided and abetted by foreign-funded media houses, has caused immense damage to the character of this Hindu nation. When things go beyond tolerance, the majority reacts spontaneously, as happened in Gujarat, Orissa, Karnataka and Jammu (Amarnath). After such reactions, the Hindu majority reverts to its usual tolerant self, hoping that the minority with which conflict took place would also settle down, but the ‘Marxist-media-minority’ nexus plays ugly ‘victimhood’ games in the international arena, bringing disrepute to the country.
In between, minority community leaders organize so-called interfaith dialogues to create a false picture of reconciliation, and successfully complete the exercise by forcing their pre-conceived ‘resolutions’ on the few ‘secularised’ Hindu leaders, using jugglery of words and making them sign a declaration accepting resolutions advantageous to minorities only.
Roman Catholics vs. other denominations
The Vatican is very clever in conducting such farcical exercises. The prime objective of the Vatican is Christianisation of the whole world. The same was pronounced by Pope John Paul II when he gave a “catholic” call for evangelization of Asia, particularly India, during his visit to the country in November 1999. He had the audacity to give such a call standing on Indian soil, that too, as India’s state guest! The Vatican has a history of achieving its objectives by creating divisions among local people leading to conflicts, and later through a healing touch by rehabilitation, education and healthcare.
While other Christian denominations are aggressive and overt in their evangelical activities, Roman Catholics are covert and subtle. The Catholic leadership doesn’t restrain the other denominations from indulging in aggressive evangelization, purely for the reason that this differentiation helps them to create concepts like “ethical” and “unethical” conversions, or “forced” and “unforced” (voluntary) conversions.
The Catholic leadership always blames other denominations for “unethical” and “forced” conversions during these so-called interfaith dialogues, in order to convince leaders of other faiths to accept the dangerous concept of “ethical” conversions. It achieved success in one such farcical dialogue at the Vatican in May 2006, where leaders whose names have not been made public in India, went ahead and signed a declaration accepting the resolutions prepared by the Vatican and the World Council of Churches!
There is another motive behind the Vatican’s interfaith dialogues. That is to indirectly put pressure and restrictions on other denominations which poach its targetted community for harvesting.
In this fight for “harvest” between various denominations, one question arises - what is the need for Hindus to agree for such dialogues and why should they participate? Hindus don’t indulge in blasphemy of other faiths, gods, and scriptures; they don’t indulge in conversion activities; they don’t interfere in other religious traditions; they don’t meddle with other faiths. On the contrary, Hindus have been amicable to others and they have been tolerating the propaganda (however provocative) of other religions.
Dhimmitude and disunity
How are they reciprocated? By hacking bodies (jihad) and harvesting souls (conversions)! Much of the so-called tolerance is simply dhimmitude, the result of being beaten up or beaten down for ages. Dhimmitude resulted from Nehruvian secularism and impacted Hindus so much that they cannot see the monster standing gleefully before their eyes; they are still in deep slumber.
Some religious leaders are averse to identifying themselves and their ‘teachings’ as ‘Hindu;’ they are more interested in marketing their wares in a global market, than in spreading dharma among the masses in the remotest hamlets. Some Hindu leaders are so magnanimous (naïve?) that they preach “all faiths are the same”! Faiths and custom-oriented traditional mathams have lost out to personality-oriented and business-oriented ‘cults.’
(To be continued…)
The author is a senior journalist; he lives in Chennai
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Tuesday, June 16, 2009
A section of media playing double standard, alleges Puri Seer
A section of media playing double standard, alleges Puri Seer
By Golakha / Anurjay
BHUBANESWAR(Visakeo)- Sankaracharya of Puri Gobardan Pitha , Jagadaguru Swami Nischalanand Saraswati has alleged that a section of media, particularly the electronic medias are playing double standard on various sensitive issues.
While addressing the media here on June 15, the Puri Seer argued that all electronic media kept their concentration on Nun rape case in Kandhamal but not a single TV channel shown the brutal muder of Hindu seer Swami Laxmananda Saraswati and the side effects of conversion.
It is “vinash” and not “vikas” that is taking place, he observed, while talking to reporters here and insisting that India has turned directionless. He went on to refer to the Ram Setu controversy and the conversions that are taking place.
"Why is it that conversion is deemed not a problem in our neighborhood, be it due to the influence of Pakistan or China?" he questioned, before announcing that the politics of the ‘vote bank’ is squarely responsible for allowing large scale conversion to take place.
The seer went on to express concern over the onslaught on the Hindu religion and culture as well as the attacks on religious leaders.
Responding to questions on the recent murder of a head of one of the ashrams in Puri, he said it was "a matter of concern" that the state government is unable to protect sadhus.
“A couple of years ago, I used to take pride in telling people across the country about the safety of Puri. I used to say that even at 2.00 a.m. one could walk around Puri without any fear. But I can't say the same thing now.”
Answering questions on the suspected links between Maoists and a religious group, the Puri seer said it was for the Chief Minister to spell this out. "Ask the CM, why are you asking me?" demanded the seer, before adding that he was not bothered about threat letters being sent to him.
"The CM should say who killed Laxmanananda Saraswati and who was behind the murder. Laxmanananda was attacked on nine previous occasions and he had escaped, but the tenth attack was committed by trained and armed people. This indicates that somebody had conspired and engaged trained people to eliminate Laxmanananda," he said.
By Golakha / Anurjay
BHUBANESWAR(Visakeo)- Sankaracharya of Puri Gobardan Pitha , Jagadaguru Swami Nischalanand Saraswati has alleged that a section of media, particularly the electronic medias are playing double standard on various sensitive issues.
While addressing the media here on June 15, the Puri Seer argued that all electronic media kept their concentration on Nun rape case in Kandhamal but not a single TV channel shown the brutal muder of Hindu seer Swami Laxmananda Saraswati and the side effects of conversion.
It is “vinash” and not “vikas” that is taking place, he observed, while talking to reporters here and insisting that India has turned directionless. He went on to refer to the Ram Setu controversy and the conversions that are taking place.
"Why is it that conversion is deemed not a problem in our neighborhood, be it due to the influence of Pakistan or China?" he questioned, before announcing that the politics of the ‘vote bank’ is squarely responsible for allowing large scale conversion to take place.
The seer went on to express concern over the onslaught on the Hindu religion and culture as well as the attacks on religious leaders.
Responding to questions on the recent murder of a head of one of the ashrams in Puri, he said it was "a matter of concern" that the state government is unable to protect sadhus.
“A couple of years ago, I used to take pride in telling people across the country about the safety of Puri. I used to say that even at 2.00 a.m. one could walk around Puri without any fear. But I can't say the same thing now.”
Answering questions on the suspected links between Maoists and a religious group, the Puri seer said it was for the Chief Minister to spell this out. "Ask the CM, why are you asking me?" demanded the seer, before adding that he was not bothered about threat letters being sent to him.
"The CM should say who killed Laxmanananda Saraswati and who was behind the murder. Laxmanananda was attacked on nine previous occasions and he had escaped, but the tenth attack was committed by trained and armed people. This indicates that somebody had conspired and engaged trained people to eliminate Laxmanananda," he said.
Anil Chawla, a classmate of Kulkarni’s at IIT Bombay, has joined issue with a public letter discussing the BJP’s loss in general but Advani’s role in
Anil Chawla, a classmate of Kulkarni’s at IIT Bombay, has joined issue with a public letter discussing the BJP’s loss in general but Advani’s role in that defeat in particular. (Chawla had taken on Advani in the Mohammad Ali Jinnah episode too.)
***
Dear Sudheendra,
I have just read your “deeply introspective essay” about BJP’s defeat in recent elections. The article is described as introspective, but I failed to find anything that could be called introspection by any stretch of imagination. True, you say that “I too carry my share of responsibility”, but that is more courteous than introspective.
All through the essay, you look upon BJP as a patient lying on an operating table and your role as that of an outsider trying to see all that has gone wrong. The patient is being blamed for all that has gone wrong, without in any way blaming either the virus or the team of doctors who have brought the patient to the present critical state.
Please pardon me for being direct and on the face. I guess as a former classmate I can take this freedom.
I campaigned for Janata Party in 1977 elections. Ever since then I have been in and around the party (JP/BJP) working at various levels. Sure enough, I have not been an aide to L.K. Advani (LK) like you have been. Both of us began dabbling in public life together at IIT Bombay.
I have spent more than three decades in close proximity with BJP and RSS without ever being offered a post. I am not alone. There are thousands like me who have served in their own humble way.
What has always surprised me is that someone like you who was a committed fulltime communist for almost two decades, suddenly did an ideological somersault and landed up straight in the top rungs of BJP. When you are in mood for some introspection, please do think about this. Probably, the roots to the present malaise in BJP can be traced to your own personal journey.
When a communist suddenly becomes an ideologue for a party like BJP, there is bound to be skepticism and even some ridicule. It becomes imperative on the neo-convert to prove that there has been a genuine transformation of the soul and not just a change of coat. Even if the neo-convert does manage to prove his credentials, there is no way that he should ever be allowed to rule over the heads of people who have devoted their life to the cause.
In your case, (a) you have never proved that you have really changed and (b) you actually landed up on top of the ranks in a manner that is most inexplicable. I say that you have not been able to prove your credentials because I have read some of your articles and I can say with a fair level of confidence that you remain at heart a communist who is trying to put on the camouflage of a Hindu.
Dear Sudheendra, I have nothing against you personally. Your appointment as National Executive member of BJP, at the time of your joining BJP, and later as Prime Minister’s key aide had pleased me enormously. One always likes to see old friends in positions of power. The problem is that your case is not an isolated one, but a representative one. There are many in Delhi and Mumbai who have been able to gain access to LK’s coterie by hook or by crook and it is these who now rule over BJP.
When you analyze BJP and RSS with a cold surgeon-like approach, you ignore the role that LK’s family and coterie has come to play in the party. Elections of 2009 were not fought by BJP against Congress, but were reduced by LK and his gang to a war by LK against one and all.
The party has been systematically hijacked and decimated over the past decade and a half by LK’s coterie. You just need to look at the campaign material prepared by the party for the recent elections. There is only one face — LK’s. Even Atalji was not considered worthy of being put on the hoardings and posters.
Congress gained mileage from photographs of Gandhi and Nehru decades after their deaths. Communists continue to revere Lenin and Stalin till today. Contrast this with the way LK and his war team dumped Atalji most discourteously even though he is alive and continues to be revered by millions in the country.
You say that the BJP leadership is in disarray. If it is true, the only person who is responsible for the mess in the party is LK and no one else. He has ruled over the party with an iron hand for more than two decades. In fact, the words “Majboot Neta” (Strong Leader) that were used to describe LK during the recent election, apply only in respect of the way LK behaves in the matter of crushing his critics and opponents within the party. He is ruthless in demolishing anyone who as much as raises an eyebrow against him. He has no patience for anyone who even dreams of being his equal within the party.
Can you please name for me two people who are LK’s equals within BJP, in LK’s vision? LK’s desire to stand as a tallest leader made him choose only pygmies for all critical positions in the party. The only way that one could rise up in BJP with LK at helm was to act as a subservient spineless dwarf.
The problem with dwarfs is that while they are very good for boosting one’s ego, they have limited use when one faces a war-like situation. In the recent elections, LK decided to fight it all alone. LK and his family and coterie thought that their rag-tag army of laptop professionals could substitute for the well-oiled and tested machinery of BJP, ABVP and RSS. The irony is that the blame for the defeat is now being put on the doors of the organizations that were treated most shabbily when LK and his team were dreaming of victory.
LK and his team are now complaining that no one from BJP top leadership stood up to defend him when he was under attack. The fact is that among BJP leadership, the ones who command any stature were always ignored, attacked and pushed to the sideline by LK and his gang. So, when LK came under attack he looked around for support and found none. Of course, there were many rats who were raising their feeble voices in his support. Unfortunately, the voices of rats do not count. This is something that LK should have thought before he appointed rats in all the key positions.
You talk about the party’s social base. Did LK do anything in this regard during the past five years? The answer is an emphatic NO. When LK did his last yatra before 2004 elections, a photograph of his starting point was circulated. It showed LK standing with his daughter and wife. There were no BJP leaders on the dais. LK defended the presence of his family by saying that he drew strength from them.
This is the root of the problem. In the past decade or so, LK stopped drawing strength from the party or Sangh parivar, an started leaning on his personal family ignoring the larger family to which small humble persons like me belong and from where we draw our strength. LK saw the party and Sangh pariwar as a tool to achieve his personal ambition at all costs. In the past decade, LK’s focus was on building his personal image, his family strengths, his mafia-like grip on the party. The thought of getting or building leaders who command or could potentially command respect in various social groups seems to have been far removed from LK’s mind.
I attended the function at Bhopal of LK’s unveiling of his autobiography in Hindi. What an unabashed projection by a person who has no achievements worth mentioning even in one paragraph! Future historians will mention LK as a classic example of a person who had illusions of grandeur. They will write that he was a manipulator who was ruthless to independent thought within his party and rose by methods that ruined the party. Having said that they would probably add – he saw films and wrote two eminently forgettable autobiographies.
What else is there to mention about LK’s lifetime achievements? Are there any articles / books written by him on social-political issues? At least I am not aware of any. He is a self-centered person who cannot see beyond himself and his interests. If he puts pen on paper it is to describe his own self because that is all that he can ever see. If he talks about Hinduism / Hindutwa or any political ideology or national issues, it sounds hollow because he has never applied his mind to anything except his own interests, his family, his career, his ambitions, his dreams etc.
You might respond by saying that all politicians today are like that. You would probably be right on that. But then they know that they are run-of-the-mill politicians with no illusions of being grand strong leaders. If LK had realized his own limitations, he would not have tried to fashion 2009 elections as an exercise to elect him as the prime minister.
The worst thing that happened in 2004 and 2009 elections is that the BJP, under the influence of LK, did not use the elections as an exercise to take party’s ideology forward. In days of Jansangh, when it used to be absolutely clear that there was no possibility of winning, the party would still fight. In those days, it used to be clear that fighting an election was an opportunity to propagate our ideology and thoughts to a bigger audience. In the 2009 election, the campaign was focused only on the persona of LK ignoring even the party’s manifesto.
As an old hand of the broad ideological historical process that I call as Hindu nationalistic movement, I have no serious regrets about BJP losing 2004 or 2009 elections. But I do regret that the party which was making an attempt in its initial years to define a new vision for Ekatm Manavwad (translated by me as Monistic Humanism) lost way.
I regret that instead of focusing on issues and ideas the party focused on an individual. I regret that the party for whom thousands shed blood and lives became a tool in the hands of some who want to live a seven-star lifestyle. I regret that personal ambitions and aspirations of one man became the focus of many organizations that are known for the sacrifices of their leaders.
Dear Sudheendra, I agree with you wholeheartedly when you say, “The BJP can indeed bounce back. But it can do so only if it first renews and empowers itself comprehensively — in its ideology, its geographical-social spread, its own political strength, its mass activity, its alliance-building, its cadre-based organizational network, and its leadership”. The difference is in approach. While you would like to probably do it with LK and his cronies at the helm, I shall like Sangh pariwar to put the dark days of LK and his cronies behind.
Sangh leadership must act to decisively purge BJP of LK and his individual-centered style of working. Competence and not loyalty to this or that individual must be the criterion for all appointments. Ideology must take centre-stage once again and those who can help with defining and clarifying ideological issues should be in key positions and not sycophants or moneybags.
I am making this letter public because I think that the issues that are discussed here are very important and need a wider debate. Of course, I know that this will put me at the risk of harsh retaliatory action by LK and his coterie. I guess that I have to take this risk in wider national interest. I hope I can count on you as an old friend if the action turns nasty.
With Best Wishes and Regards,
Anil Chawla
***
Dear Sudheendra,
I have just read your “deeply introspective essay” about BJP’s defeat in recent elections. The article is described as introspective, but I failed to find anything that could be called introspection by any stretch of imagination. True, you say that “I too carry my share of responsibility”, but that is more courteous than introspective.
All through the essay, you look upon BJP as a patient lying on an operating table and your role as that of an outsider trying to see all that has gone wrong. The patient is being blamed for all that has gone wrong, without in any way blaming either the virus or the team of doctors who have brought the patient to the present critical state.
Please pardon me for being direct and on the face. I guess as a former classmate I can take this freedom.
I campaigned for Janata Party in 1977 elections. Ever since then I have been in and around the party (JP/BJP) working at various levels. Sure enough, I have not been an aide to L.K. Advani (LK) like you have been. Both of us began dabbling in public life together at IIT Bombay.
I have spent more than three decades in close proximity with BJP and RSS without ever being offered a post. I am not alone. There are thousands like me who have served in their own humble way.
What has always surprised me is that someone like you who was a committed fulltime communist for almost two decades, suddenly did an ideological somersault and landed up straight in the top rungs of BJP. When you are in mood for some introspection, please do think about this. Probably, the roots to the present malaise in BJP can be traced to your own personal journey.
When a communist suddenly becomes an ideologue for a party like BJP, there is bound to be skepticism and even some ridicule. It becomes imperative on the neo-convert to prove that there has been a genuine transformation of the soul and not just a change of coat. Even if the neo-convert does manage to prove his credentials, there is no way that he should ever be allowed to rule over the heads of people who have devoted their life to the cause.
In your case, (a) you have never proved that you have really changed and (b) you actually landed up on top of the ranks in a manner that is most inexplicable. I say that you have not been able to prove your credentials because I have read some of your articles and I can say with a fair level of confidence that you remain at heart a communist who is trying to put on the camouflage of a Hindu.
Dear Sudheendra, I have nothing against you personally. Your appointment as National Executive member of BJP, at the time of your joining BJP, and later as Prime Minister’s key aide had pleased me enormously. One always likes to see old friends in positions of power. The problem is that your case is not an isolated one, but a representative one. There are many in Delhi and Mumbai who have been able to gain access to LK’s coterie by hook or by crook and it is these who now rule over BJP.
When you analyze BJP and RSS with a cold surgeon-like approach, you ignore the role that LK’s family and coterie has come to play in the party. Elections of 2009 were not fought by BJP against Congress, but were reduced by LK and his gang to a war by LK against one and all.
The party has been systematically hijacked and decimated over the past decade and a half by LK’s coterie. You just need to look at the campaign material prepared by the party for the recent elections. There is only one face — LK’s. Even Atalji was not considered worthy of being put on the hoardings and posters.
Congress gained mileage from photographs of Gandhi and Nehru decades after their deaths. Communists continue to revere Lenin and Stalin till today. Contrast this with the way LK and his war team dumped Atalji most discourteously even though he is alive and continues to be revered by millions in the country.
You say that the BJP leadership is in disarray. If it is true, the only person who is responsible for the mess in the party is LK and no one else. He has ruled over the party with an iron hand for more than two decades. In fact, the words “Majboot Neta” (Strong Leader) that were used to describe LK during the recent election, apply only in respect of the way LK behaves in the matter of crushing his critics and opponents within the party. He is ruthless in demolishing anyone who as much as raises an eyebrow against him. He has no patience for anyone who even dreams of being his equal within the party.
Can you please name for me two people who are LK’s equals within BJP, in LK’s vision? LK’s desire to stand as a tallest leader made him choose only pygmies for all critical positions in the party. The only way that one could rise up in BJP with LK at helm was to act as a subservient spineless dwarf.
The problem with dwarfs is that while they are very good for boosting one’s ego, they have limited use when one faces a war-like situation. In the recent elections, LK decided to fight it all alone. LK and his family and coterie thought that their rag-tag army of laptop professionals could substitute for the well-oiled and tested machinery of BJP, ABVP and RSS. The irony is that the blame for the defeat is now being put on the doors of the organizations that were treated most shabbily when LK and his team were dreaming of victory.
LK and his team are now complaining that no one from BJP top leadership stood up to defend him when he was under attack. The fact is that among BJP leadership, the ones who command any stature were always ignored, attacked and pushed to the sideline by LK and his gang. So, when LK came under attack he looked around for support and found none. Of course, there were many rats who were raising their feeble voices in his support. Unfortunately, the voices of rats do not count. This is something that LK should have thought before he appointed rats in all the key positions.
You talk about the party’s social base. Did LK do anything in this regard during the past five years? The answer is an emphatic NO. When LK did his last yatra before 2004 elections, a photograph of his starting point was circulated. It showed LK standing with his daughter and wife. There were no BJP leaders on the dais. LK defended the presence of his family by saying that he drew strength from them.
This is the root of the problem. In the past decade or so, LK stopped drawing strength from the party or Sangh parivar, an started leaning on his personal family ignoring the larger family to which small humble persons like me belong and from where we draw our strength. LK saw the party and Sangh pariwar as a tool to achieve his personal ambition at all costs. In the past decade, LK’s focus was on building his personal image, his family strengths, his mafia-like grip on the party. The thought of getting or building leaders who command or could potentially command respect in various social groups seems to have been far removed from LK’s mind.
I attended the function at Bhopal of LK’s unveiling of his autobiography in Hindi. What an unabashed projection by a person who has no achievements worth mentioning even in one paragraph! Future historians will mention LK as a classic example of a person who had illusions of grandeur. They will write that he was a manipulator who was ruthless to independent thought within his party and rose by methods that ruined the party. Having said that they would probably add – he saw films and wrote two eminently forgettable autobiographies.
What else is there to mention about LK’s lifetime achievements? Are there any articles / books written by him on social-political issues? At least I am not aware of any. He is a self-centered person who cannot see beyond himself and his interests. If he puts pen on paper it is to describe his own self because that is all that he can ever see. If he talks about Hinduism / Hindutwa or any political ideology or national issues, it sounds hollow because he has never applied his mind to anything except his own interests, his family, his career, his ambitions, his dreams etc.
You might respond by saying that all politicians today are like that. You would probably be right on that. But then they know that they are run-of-the-mill politicians with no illusions of being grand strong leaders. If LK had realized his own limitations, he would not have tried to fashion 2009 elections as an exercise to elect him as the prime minister.
The worst thing that happened in 2004 and 2009 elections is that the BJP, under the influence of LK, did not use the elections as an exercise to take party’s ideology forward. In days of Jansangh, when it used to be absolutely clear that there was no possibility of winning, the party would still fight. In those days, it used to be clear that fighting an election was an opportunity to propagate our ideology and thoughts to a bigger audience. In the 2009 election, the campaign was focused only on the persona of LK ignoring even the party’s manifesto.
As an old hand of the broad ideological historical process that I call as Hindu nationalistic movement, I have no serious regrets about BJP losing 2004 or 2009 elections. But I do regret that the party which was making an attempt in its initial years to define a new vision for Ekatm Manavwad (translated by me as Monistic Humanism) lost way.
I regret that instead of focusing on issues and ideas the party focused on an individual. I regret that the party for whom thousands shed blood and lives became a tool in the hands of some who want to live a seven-star lifestyle. I regret that personal ambitions and aspirations of one man became the focus of many organizations that are known for the sacrifices of their leaders.
Dear Sudheendra, I agree with you wholeheartedly when you say, “The BJP can indeed bounce back. But it can do so only if it first renews and empowers itself comprehensively — in its ideology, its geographical-social spread, its own political strength, its mass activity, its alliance-building, its cadre-based organizational network, and its leadership”. The difference is in approach. While you would like to probably do it with LK and his cronies at the helm, I shall like Sangh pariwar to put the dark days of LK and his cronies behind.
Sangh leadership must act to decisively purge BJP of LK and his individual-centered style of working. Competence and not loyalty to this or that individual must be the criterion for all appointments. Ideology must take centre-stage once again and those who can help with defining and clarifying ideological issues should be in key positions and not sycophants or moneybags.
I am making this letter public because I think that the issues that are discussed here are very important and need a wider debate. Of course, I know that this will put me at the risk of harsh retaliatory action by LK and his coterie. I guess that I have to take this risk in wider national interest. I hope I can count on you as an old friend if the action turns nasty.
With Best Wishes and Regards,
Anil Chawla
How the Congress family defeated Sangh Parivar
How the Congress family defeated Sangh Parivar
Say what you will, but at least Pramod Mahajan had the courage to come out and face the cameras and, with some humility and a smile on his face, try to provide some answers for the BJP’s shock defeat in 2004. It was as close to a televised confessional as a nation could come to have seen.
In contrast, the BJP’s 2009 debacle has been remarkable because it underlines the axiom that failure is a pathetic orphan.
L.K. Advani hasn’t even had the courtesy to thank those who voted for his party. The hair-splitting, finger-wagging talking heads who had a problem for every solution—Ravi Shankar Prasad, Prakash Javadekar, Chandan Mitra, Balbir Punj—have all disappeared. Narendra Modi is happy playing his little mind games, threatening to take the “stationary train from Ahmedabad to Delhi”.
In other words, the introspection that a party must make after being subjected to a rout of such a scale and size has been missing. Not because it makes a good sight, but because India needs the BJP. It’s all very well to crow about the Congress victory, but the prospect of a political landscape without a credible, viable, national opposition party is grim if not catastrophic as the 1984 landslide win of Rajiv Gandhi showed.
Thankfully, Sudheendra Kulkarni, the Belgaum-born, Kannada-speaking former left winger who became a key advisor to both Atal Behari Vajpayee and Advani provides a small corrective in this week’s issue of Tehelka. The BJP’s failure to convince the people, he writes, is rooted in a combination of structual, political ideological, organisational and campaign-related issues.
These are some of the salient points Kulkarni makes:
# “The BJP’s geographical presence in the country is much narrower than that of the Congress. It won only one seat out of 143 that were available in West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Kerala. The Congress won 60.”
# “A principal reason for the party’s success in forming a government in 1998 and 1999 was its ability to forge alliances. After 2004, many alliance parnters left, not becuase the NDA had been defeated but their perception that the communal violence in Gujarat in 2002 was an important cause of the defeat and hence their conclusion that continuation of the alliance would cost them Muslim votes.”
# There is widespread ideological confusionwithin the BJP over what the party’s advocacy of Hindutva actually means. There is a section which believes it lost in 2004 because it “abandoned Hindutva” (Ram Temple, Article 370, Uniform Civil Code) and many angry voices have again said the same.
“It’s a deeply flawed view. It errs in believing that the BJP’s Hindu base is synonymous with the totality of Hindu voters. The fact is, Hindus never vote as a block for any particular party. There is only a small section of Hindus who have voted as Hindus for what they perceived as a pro-Hindu party.”
# “It is high time the BJP seriously debated and decided what it means by Hindutva and also what formulations of Hindutva are not acceptable to it. True the BJP must remain an ideology-driven party. But without clarity on what the BJP’s ideology is, the party cannot win the support of more Hindus, let alone the support of Muslims and Christians.”
# “The mentality of a large section of the party is so dogmatic that any idea of promoting the welfare and development of Indian Musims or of addressing their legitimate concerns is quickly brushed aside as “appeasement”. In five long years after 2004, the BJP did not come up with a single worthwhile initiative which Muslims could welcome. The party gave tickets to only three Muslim candidates. “
# The party has a near-zero presence in 143 Lok Sabha seats. On top of that, it practically writes off 15% of the electorate who are Muslims. In recent years, even Christians hae turned agaisnt the BJP. Even within the Hindu society, the BJP’s support base is less than 25% nationally.”
# “It is obvious that the BJP failed to utilise its five years in the opposition to construct and present a positive agenda that could catch the imagination fo the people beyond its core support base. We harped too much on the UPA government’s failures, without convincing the people how we would perform better.”
#”Never in the history of the Jana Sangh or the BJP was the party enfeebled by so much disarray at the top. The disorder at the Centre and also in several states demoralised the disunited party works down the line, with disastrous results. Although Advani was projected as the party’s prime ministerial candidte, this took place after he had been disempowered after the Mohammad Ali Jinnah episode. The cropping of Narendra Modi’s name in the middle did not help at all. To the people of India, the contrast was obvious: there is unified command in the Congress, but not in the BJP.”
# “Sonia Gandhi and her son Rahul made an essentially weak Prime Minister like Dr Manmohan Singh look strong by abcking him solidly. In contrast, the BJP and the Sangh Parivar made a strong leader like Advani, whose contribution to the growth of the party is enormous, look weak, helpless and not fully in command.”
Say what you will, but at least Pramod Mahajan had the courage to come out and face the cameras and, with some humility and a smile on his face, try to provide some answers for the BJP’s shock defeat in 2004. It was as close to a televised confessional as a nation could come to have seen.
In contrast, the BJP’s 2009 debacle has been remarkable because it underlines the axiom that failure is a pathetic orphan.
L.K. Advani hasn’t even had the courtesy to thank those who voted for his party. The hair-splitting, finger-wagging talking heads who had a problem for every solution—Ravi Shankar Prasad, Prakash Javadekar, Chandan Mitra, Balbir Punj—have all disappeared. Narendra Modi is happy playing his little mind games, threatening to take the “stationary train from Ahmedabad to Delhi”.
In other words, the introspection that a party must make after being subjected to a rout of such a scale and size has been missing. Not because it makes a good sight, but because India needs the BJP. It’s all very well to crow about the Congress victory, but the prospect of a political landscape without a credible, viable, national opposition party is grim if not catastrophic as the 1984 landslide win of Rajiv Gandhi showed.
Thankfully, Sudheendra Kulkarni, the Belgaum-born, Kannada-speaking former left winger who became a key advisor to both Atal Behari Vajpayee and Advani provides a small corrective in this week’s issue of Tehelka. The BJP’s failure to convince the people, he writes, is rooted in a combination of structual, political ideological, organisational and campaign-related issues.
These are some of the salient points Kulkarni makes:
# “The BJP’s geographical presence in the country is much narrower than that of the Congress. It won only one seat out of 143 that were available in West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Kerala. The Congress won 60.”
# “A principal reason for the party’s success in forming a government in 1998 and 1999 was its ability to forge alliances. After 2004, many alliance parnters left, not becuase the NDA had been defeated but their perception that the communal violence in Gujarat in 2002 was an important cause of the defeat and hence their conclusion that continuation of the alliance would cost them Muslim votes.”
# There is widespread ideological confusionwithin the BJP over what the party’s advocacy of Hindutva actually means. There is a section which believes it lost in 2004 because it “abandoned Hindutva” (Ram Temple, Article 370, Uniform Civil Code) and many angry voices have again said the same.
“It’s a deeply flawed view. It errs in believing that the BJP’s Hindu base is synonymous with the totality of Hindu voters. The fact is, Hindus never vote as a block for any particular party. There is only a small section of Hindus who have voted as Hindus for what they perceived as a pro-Hindu party.”
# “It is high time the BJP seriously debated and decided what it means by Hindutva and also what formulations of Hindutva are not acceptable to it. True the BJP must remain an ideology-driven party. But without clarity on what the BJP’s ideology is, the party cannot win the support of more Hindus, let alone the support of Muslims and Christians.”
# “The mentality of a large section of the party is so dogmatic that any idea of promoting the welfare and development of Indian Musims or of addressing their legitimate concerns is quickly brushed aside as “appeasement”. In five long years after 2004, the BJP did not come up with a single worthwhile initiative which Muslims could welcome. The party gave tickets to only three Muslim candidates. “
# The party has a near-zero presence in 143 Lok Sabha seats. On top of that, it practically writes off 15% of the electorate who are Muslims. In recent years, even Christians hae turned agaisnt the BJP. Even within the Hindu society, the BJP’s support base is less than 25% nationally.”
# “It is obvious that the BJP failed to utilise its five years in the opposition to construct and present a positive agenda that could catch the imagination fo the people beyond its core support base. We harped too much on the UPA government’s failures, without convincing the people how we would perform better.”
#”Never in the history of the Jana Sangh or the BJP was the party enfeebled by so much disarray at the top. The disorder at the Centre and also in several states demoralised the disunited party works down the line, with disastrous results. Although Advani was projected as the party’s prime ministerial candidte, this took place after he had been disempowered after the Mohammad Ali Jinnah episode. The cropping of Narendra Modi’s name in the middle did not help at all. To the people of India, the contrast was obvious: there is unified command in the Congress, but not in the BJP.”
# “Sonia Gandhi and her son Rahul made an essentially weak Prime Minister like Dr Manmohan Singh look strong by abcking him solidly. In contrast, the BJP and the Sangh Parivar made a strong leader like Advani, whose contribution to the growth of the party is enormous, look weak, helpless and not fully in command.”
Hindu Divided Family
Hindu Divided Family
In a deeply introspective essay, LK Advani’s key aide says that if the BJP wants to win, it needs to rethink its approach to Muslims, Hindutva, the poor, the RSS, and itself
SUDHEENDRA KULKARNI
Political advisor, BJP
Lone Charioteer Advani came to the correct conclusions post-2004, but failed to implement them
FIRST THINGS first. Before I reflect on why the Bharatiya Janata Party lost the Lok Sabha elections and how it can revive itself, it must be said that the outcome of the polls is a resounding victory for India’s democracy. True, there are many glaring deficiencies in our democracy. But the people of India have shown once again to the world that it is they who decide the fate of governments, parties and leaders in this country, and also that their verdict is accepted by one and all in the polity. India is not like China, where its communist rulers fear that free elections with multiple choices before the people would destabilise their nation. Nor are we like Thailand, where warring parties recently laid siege to the airport and parliament building. We are not like many other countries in Asia and the world where the sanctity of elections is contested, where leaders are jailed or banished, and where the military replaces the independent judiciary and the election commission. Undoubtedly, the renewed recognition that India, inspite of its bewildering diversities and problems, is unshakable in its commitment to democracy has raised its prestige globally. Even as a person belonging to the defeated party, I feel proud of this triumph of India’s democracy.
Next. Congratulations to the Prime Minister, Sonia Gandhi and their party. They outsmarted the BJP in the electoral battle, which I believed along with many others outside my party, was ours to lose. The BJP snatched defeat out of the jaws of victory. The Congress did the opposite.
A third prefatory point. In commenting on the causes that led to the BJP’s defeat, I cannot but say upfront that I too carry my share of responsibility. As one who was closely associated with the party’s election campaign, specifically the campaign of LK Advani, our prime ministerial candidate, I too committed mistakes. To be meaningful, productive and curative, collective introspection in the party must begin with each one individually. Collective responsibility is a laudable principle, but it can often become a mask for persons in key positions at the central and state levels to evade their individual responsibility. This has often happened in the BJP. The party must, therefore, conduct a rigorous and objective analysis of all the factors that led to its defeat, and this should be done with the participation of the largest possible number of party workers and supporters at various levels.
Beneath the pervasive disappointment, the mood in the party is indeed introspective. After all, this is the second consecutive defeat for the BJP in its bid for power at the Centre. In 2004, it had lost after heading the government of the National Democratic Alliance for six years. The verdict of the people, hence, clearly meant that they wanted change. In 2009, after five years of largely dismal performance by the government of the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance, the BJP could not convince the voters that they should vote in favour of change. Rather, the truth is that the people wanted change but were not convinced that the BJP or the BJP-led NDA assured the kind of change they wanted.
REASONS FOR THE BJP DEFEAT IN 2009
The BJP’s failure to convince the people on this score is rooted in a combination of structural, political, ideological, organizational and campaign-related reasons. The party’s longstanding structural weakness is that although it has succeeded in bi-polarising India’s politics at the Centre, its geographical presence in the country is much narrower than that of the Congress. It won only one seat in four big states that together account for 143 out of the 543 seats in the Lok Sabha — West Bengal (42), Andhra Pradesh (42), Tamil Nadu (39) and Kerala (20). The Congress’ tally: 60 seats. Unless the BJP overcomes this structural weakness by increasing its own political and electoral strength in these big states, it can never emerge as an equal and durable alternative to the Congress nationally.
The BJP’s allies left the NDA because they felt the Gujarat riots would cost them Muslim votes
The second reason was the failure of the BJP’s political strategy — in particular, its alliance strategy. A principal reason for the party’s success in forming the government, under the leadership of Atal Behari Vajpayee, in 1998 and 1999 was its ability to forge alliances, especially in three of the four afore-mentioned big states (Trinamool Congress in West Bengal; Telugu Desam Party in Andhra Pradesh; and first AIADMK and later DMK in Tamil Nadu). Its alliance with the Biju Janata Dal in Orissa (21 Lok Sabha seats) also proved to be extremely useful. In the aftermath of the 2004 defeat, many of our allies left the NDA. The main reason for their leaving was not that the NDA had been defeated, but their perception that the communal violence in Gujarat in 2002 was an important cause of the defeat and, hence, their conclusion that continuation of the alliance with the BJP would cost them Muslim votes. Between 2004 and 2009, the BJP did nothing to address this factor. As a result, it failed to win back a single ally in West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu, or win a single ally in Kerala. Moreover, almost on the eve of the 2009 elections, the BJP actually lost an important ally in Orissa due to inept alliance management.
It is true that, in the early months of 2009, the BJP forged three new alliances — with Asom Gana Parishad in Assam, Ajit Singh’s Rashtriya Lok Dal in UP, and Omprakash Chautala’s Indian National Lok Dal in Haryana. But these could not make up for the damage caused by the loss of our earlier alliances. In the absence of a cohesive and numerically strong alliance, the BJP could not assure the voters that it was in a position to form a stable government at the Centre. Hence, by default, the voters not only chose the Congress over the BJP but also gave it increased parliamentary strength to quench their own thirst for stability.
CONFUSION ABOUT HINDUTVA
Why did the BJP invite this weakness upon itself? The reason has to do with the widespread ideological confusion within the party over what the BJP’s advocacy of Hindutva actually means. The confusion has persisted for a long time, but it intensified after the defeat of the BJP/NDA in 2004. There was a strong view within a section of the party — and a much stronger and almost unanimous view within the larger Sangh Parivar — that the Vajpayee’s government was defeated because the BJP had “abandoned Hindutva”. The argument went like this: “In its bid to form the NDA government, the BJP kept aside its core ideological commitments on the construction of the Ram Temple in Ayodhya, the abrogation of Article 370 and the Uniform Civil Code. The Hindu voters, who had enabled the BJP to emerge as a strong force in Indian politics in the late 1980s and 1990s, felt let down by this. In 2004, the BJP again kept the Hindutva issues in cold storage and made development its main plank. This further disillusioned the Hindu voters. Their indifference led to the party’s defeat in 2004.” In the aftermath of the setback in 2009, many angry voices have again blamed the party leadership, Advani in particular, for the same reason — “You lost because you abandoned Hindutva.”
The BJP’s Hindu base is less than 25 percent, too small to have lost because it abandoned Hindutva
It’s a deeply flawed view. It errs in believing that the BJP’s Hindu base is synonymous with the totality of Hindu voters. The fact is, Hindus never vote as a block for any particular party. There is only a small section of Hindus who have voted as Hindus for what they perceived as a pro-Hindu party — the Jana Sangh in the past and the BJP in later years. Their number increased dramatically in the late 1980s and early 1990s due to the Ayodhya movement, which, for about ten years, caught the imagination of a large section of the Hindu society. However, the BJP’s rising strength in the late 1990s was also on account of another important factor, which had nothing “Hindu” about it: the people’s desire to give the BJP also an opportunity to govern the country. This desire was further whetted by Vajpayee’s pan-Indian popularity, as was evident from the appeal of the slogan “Sabko dekha baari baari, Ab ki baari Atal Behari”.
If the BJP’s electoral success in 1998 and 1999 was due to factors beyond what are narrowly seen as “Hindutva” issues, subsequent events have proved beyond a shadow of doubt that the party’s Hindu base is small even within Hindu society, not to speak of the electorate as a whole. This small Hindu base on its own can never bring the party to power at the Centre. Between 2004 and 2009, some people were toying with the idea of constructing a ‘Hindu Agenda’, and creating a large enough ‘Hindu Vote-Bank’ around it. Even the idea of establishing a new Hindu political organization, as a counter to the BJP, was being talked about. In the aftermath of the BJP’s defeat in the 2009 parliamentary elections, these ideas may get a new lease of life. They are doomed to fail.
At a broader level, it is high time the BJP seriously debated and decided what it means by ‘Hindutva’, and also what formulations of ‘Hindutva’ are not acceptable to it. True, the BJP must remain an ideology-driven party. But without clarity on what the BJP’s ideology is, the party cannot win the support of more Hindus, let alone the support of Muslims and Christians. Understood as ‘Cultural Nationalism’ in an inclusive, integrative and noncommunal sense, Hindutva indeed defines the organizing and sustaining principle of the Indian Nation. However, just as the noble principle of secularism can be perverted and practiced for politically expedient reasons — the selfstyled ‘secular’ parties have indeed done it to isolate the BJP — Hindutva is also vulnerable to narrow interpretations and bigoted practice. My own understanding of Pandit Deendayal Upadhyaya’s ‘Integral Humanism’, which the BJP accepts as its guiding philosophy, convinces me that it completely rejects narrow, exclusivist and communal interpretations of India’s national identity.
FAILURE TO OVERCOME THE PARTY’S LIMITED SOCIAL BASE
Post-2004, many leaders in the BJP, Advani in particular, had come to the correct conclusion that the party faced twin tasks: (a) to nurse its core ideological/social constituency (which had felt let down for various reasons, including the valid reason of a lack of sufficient dialogue and coordination between the BJP leaders in the Vajpayee government and the leaders and activists of the Sangh Parivar at various levels); and (b) to expand the BJP’s appeal and support base beyond its core constituency, both on its own and by forging alliances. Sadly, between 2004 and 2009, the BJP leadership attended only to the first task and did very little to attend to the second. For example, even within the Hindu society, large sections (especially Dalits) have remained outside the influence of the BJP. No effort was made to endear the party to them.
The party’s collective mind is confused about how to deal with the issue of Indian Muslims
As far as taking the BJP closer to the minorities (Muslims and Christians) is concerned, both confusion and indifference within the party are of Himalayan magnitude. The mentality of a large section of the party is so dogmatic that any idea of promoting the welfare and development of Indian Muslims, or of addressing their legitimate concerns, is quickly brushed aside as “appeasement”. In five long years after 2004, the BJP did not come up with a single worthwhile initiative which Muslims could welcome. Take the example of the Sachar Committee report. No doubt, the Congress party, guided by its votebank politics, tried to appease the Muslim community with some dangerous and thoroughly condemnable pronouncements — reservation for Muslims on religious grounds and the Prime Minister’s shocking statement that Muslims should have the first claim on the country’s budgetary resources. But was everything about the Sachar Committee report or its recommendations objectionable? After all, by highlighting widespread socio-economic backwardness within the Muslim community, the report laid bare the successive Congress governments’ own failures and betrayals towards a community that has been its most loyal supporter. Sadly, the BJP rejected the Sachar report completely and unreservedly. The party could have responded to its findings and recommendations in a more nuanced manner by presenting some alternative proposals for addressing poverty and backwardness among Muslims. It didn’t do so because, as I have mentioned earlier, the party’s collective mind is suffering from a prolonged confusion about how to deal with issues relating to Indian Muslims. Those leaders who want to think and act innovatively know that they are prone to be quickly accused of following a “Muslim- appeasement” policy. The BJP’s Minority Morcha is a non-operational body, whose voice is heard neither within the party nor within the Muslim community.
The entrenched thinking within the BJP is that “Muslims never vote for us and therefore there is no need to think or do anything for them.” The party gave tickets to only three Muslim candidates in the recent Lok Sabha elections. True, the party’s manifesto had some good points about minorities, but these could hardly change the image of the BJP as a party that does not care for Muslims. Purely in electoral terms, all this contributed to the BJP’s grievous self-disablement. Consider the following. The party has a near-zero presence in 143 Lok Sabha seats in four big states. On top of that, it practically writes off 15% of the electorate who are Muslims. In recent years, even Christians have turned against the BJP. Even within the Hindu society, the BJP’s support base is less than 25% nationally. Thus, both geographically and socially, the party’s electoral base is not strong enough to challenge the Congress. On top of all these, we had the Varun Gandhi episode in the middle of the election campaign, which, along with other factors, clearly led to the consolidation of Muslim votes in favour of the Congress in UP.
NEGATIVISM IN THE BJP’S CAMPAIGN
In hindsight, it is obvious that the BJP failed to utilize its five years in the opposition to construct and present a positive agenda that could catch the imagination of the people beyond its core support base. We harped too much on the UPA government’s failures, without convincing the people how we would perform better. The party rightly adopted ‘Good Governance, Development and Security’ as its plank for Elections 2009. However, none of these three ideals was intellectually fleshed out in terms of specific policies and programmatic initiatives, nor made the basis of a sustained mass campaign. The people, who were hardly enthused by the performance of the UPA government, were keen on knowing if the BJP had superior ideas on tackling the problems of price rise, unemployment, economic downturn, plight of farmers, etc. The middle class wanted to know if the BJP had better plans to address the shortage of housing, water and power, the problem of transportation, and the rising costs of education and healthcare. India’s young men and women were waiting to see if the BJP was capable of making them dream big and if it could connect to their own rising aspirations.
We harped too much on the UPA’s failures without convincing people we would be any better
Advani did speak of the Ladli Laxami Yojana for the education of the girl child, his infrastructure vision and his vision for ‘IT as an instrument for transforming Bharat’. But all this did not cohere into a sharply focused superior agenda of governance and development. On the issue of security, which was a BJP’s strong point, we fumbled on many occasions. Even the Congress party’s completely baseless criticism on the Kandahar episode put the BJP on the backfoot. On the whole, we did not dictate the agenda for Elections 2009. As a result, the media as well as a large number of uncommitted voters concluded that this was an ‘issue-less’ election.
LEADERSHIP IN DISARRAY
My last point in the analysis of the 2009 elections concerns the state of the BJP organization. Never in the history of the Jana Sangh or the BJP was the party enfeebled by so much disarray at the top. The disorder at the Centre and also in several states (examples: Rajasthan, UP and Delhi) demoralised the disunited party workers down the line, with disastrous results. Although Advani was projected as the party’s prime ministerial candidate, this took place after he had been dis-empowered after the Mohammad Ali Jinnah episode. The cropping up of Narendra Modi’s name in the middle of the campaign did not help at all. To the people of India, the contrast was obvious: there is unified command in the Congress party, but not in the BJP.
Look at the irony. Sonia Gandhi and her son Rahul made an essentially weak Prime Minister like Dr Manmohan Singh look strong by backing him solidly. In contrast, the BJP and the Sangh Parivar made a strong leader like Advani, whose contribution to the growth of the party is enormous, look weak, helpless and not fully in command. Saddened by this, many dedicated party workers bemoaned, “Atalji succeeded in becoming Prime Minister because he had Advaniji working for him faithfully and determinedly. Unfortunately this time, there was no Advaniji working similarly for Advaniji.” Of course, it is also true that Advani himself failed to assert his leadership at crucial points before and during the campaign.
ROAD AHEAD
Where does the BJP go from here? The answer depends on how honest and widespread the introspection about the past and the future is within the BJP, and how thorough the corrective action in the near future will be. For this to happen, the party should encourage free debate, based on constructive criticism and self-criticism. But let it be understood both by the BJP’s supporters and adversaries the outcome of Elections 2009 is by no means a catastrophe for the party. True, our strength in the Lok Sabha came down from 182 in 1999 to 138 in 2004, and has further come down to 116 in 2009. But in defeat we should not lose a sense of balance and perspective. After all, in 1998, the Congress was reduced to a tally of only 110 in the Lok Sabha. Yet, six years later it bounced back. So can the BJP. Today the BJP is not only the main opposition party in the 15th Lok Sabha but, in some ways, the sole opposition party because the Left parties have been completely marginalized. What this means is that, whereas there is need for honest introspection, there is no need for despair at all.
Advaniji worked hard for Vajpayeeji but there was no Advaniji working for Advaniji’
This is not to belittle the fact that difficult days are ahead for the BJP, at least in the short term. The Congress seems to be on the revival path in UP and Bihar. The support for the BJP is declining in its two strongholds — Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat. In Rajasthan and Delhi, the BJP has again scored self-goals. In Karnataka, in spite of the good showing in the recent Lok Sabha elections, the BJP and its government face many problems that demand immediate attention. As far as leadership is concerned, the party needs to address the challenges in the post-Advani era, while recognizing that it needs the guiding hand of karmayogi Advani — who embodies the best of the BJP — for as long as he can be active in public life. His message of ‘Good Governance, Development and Security’ has relevance for the BJP in the future too. However, the party has to infuse positive and inspiring content into this message, and the content has to become more visible in states where the BJP is in power. One of the most important learnings from the NDA government, as well as from the governments of Narendra Modi, Shivraj Singh Chauhan, Raman Singh and Nitish Kumar, is that inclusive development should become as important an element of the ideology for a Nation First party like the BJP as, for example, Hindutva.
Here is a sensitive question that the BJP cannot shirk. Issues relating to the right relationship between the BJP and the RSS also need to be candidly debated for mutual good. The RSS is indeed a nationalist organization, and there are many valid reasons why India needs a non-communal pro- Hindu organization committed to the ideal of Hindu unity and renaissance. However, just as the BJP needs introspection, the RSS needs it no less. Its leaders must ask themselves, and answer the question honestly and earnestly, “Why is the acceptability of the RSS and the Vishwa Hindu Parishad limited in Hindu society itself?” No less important is the challenge of re-orienting the party’s thinking and action on issues relating to the suffering of the poor and the downtrodden, and the severe regional and social imbalances in India’s development.
The BJP can indeed bounce back. But it can do so only if it first renews and empowers itself comprehensively — in its ideology, its geographical-social spread, its own political strength, its mass activity, its alliance-building, its cadre-based organizational network, and its leadership.
Kulkarni was a key aide to former Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee and
a member of the BJP’s Election Strategy Group, 2009
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In a deeply introspective essay, LK Advani’s key aide says that if the BJP wants to win, it needs to rethink its approach to Muslims, Hindutva, the poor, the RSS, and itself
SUDHEENDRA KULKARNI
Political advisor, BJP
Lone Charioteer Advani came to the correct conclusions post-2004, but failed to implement them
FIRST THINGS first. Before I reflect on why the Bharatiya Janata Party lost the Lok Sabha elections and how it can revive itself, it must be said that the outcome of the polls is a resounding victory for India’s democracy. True, there are many glaring deficiencies in our democracy. But the people of India have shown once again to the world that it is they who decide the fate of governments, parties and leaders in this country, and also that their verdict is accepted by one and all in the polity. India is not like China, where its communist rulers fear that free elections with multiple choices before the people would destabilise their nation. Nor are we like Thailand, where warring parties recently laid siege to the airport and parliament building. We are not like many other countries in Asia and the world where the sanctity of elections is contested, where leaders are jailed or banished, and where the military replaces the independent judiciary and the election commission. Undoubtedly, the renewed recognition that India, inspite of its bewildering diversities and problems, is unshakable in its commitment to democracy has raised its prestige globally. Even as a person belonging to the defeated party, I feel proud of this triumph of India’s democracy.
Next. Congratulations to the Prime Minister, Sonia Gandhi and their party. They outsmarted the BJP in the electoral battle, which I believed along with many others outside my party, was ours to lose. The BJP snatched defeat out of the jaws of victory. The Congress did the opposite.
A third prefatory point. In commenting on the causes that led to the BJP’s defeat, I cannot but say upfront that I too carry my share of responsibility. As one who was closely associated with the party’s election campaign, specifically the campaign of LK Advani, our prime ministerial candidate, I too committed mistakes. To be meaningful, productive and curative, collective introspection in the party must begin with each one individually. Collective responsibility is a laudable principle, but it can often become a mask for persons in key positions at the central and state levels to evade their individual responsibility. This has often happened in the BJP. The party must, therefore, conduct a rigorous and objective analysis of all the factors that led to its defeat, and this should be done with the participation of the largest possible number of party workers and supporters at various levels.
Beneath the pervasive disappointment, the mood in the party is indeed introspective. After all, this is the second consecutive defeat for the BJP in its bid for power at the Centre. In 2004, it had lost after heading the government of the National Democratic Alliance for six years. The verdict of the people, hence, clearly meant that they wanted change. In 2009, after five years of largely dismal performance by the government of the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance, the BJP could not convince the voters that they should vote in favour of change. Rather, the truth is that the people wanted change but were not convinced that the BJP or the BJP-led NDA assured the kind of change they wanted.
REASONS FOR THE BJP DEFEAT IN 2009
The BJP’s failure to convince the people on this score is rooted in a combination of structural, political, ideological, organizational and campaign-related reasons. The party’s longstanding structural weakness is that although it has succeeded in bi-polarising India’s politics at the Centre, its geographical presence in the country is much narrower than that of the Congress. It won only one seat in four big states that together account for 143 out of the 543 seats in the Lok Sabha — West Bengal (42), Andhra Pradesh (42), Tamil Nadu (39) and Kerala (20). The Congress’ tally: 60 seats. Unless the BJP overcomes this structural weakness by increasing its own political and electoral strength in these big states, it can never emerge as an equal and durable alternative to the Congress nationally.
The BJP’s allies left the NDA because they felt the Gujarat riots would cost them Muslim votes
The second reason was the failure of the BJP’s political strategy — in particular, its alliance strategy. A principal reason for the party’s success in forming the government, under the leadership of Atal Behari Vajpayee, in 1998 and 1999 was its ability to forge alliances, especially in three of the four afore-mentioned big states (Trinamool Congress in West Bengal; Telugu Desam Party in Andhra Pradesh; and first AIADMK and later DMK in Tamil Nadu). Its alliance with the Biju Janata Dal in Orissa (21 Lok Sabha seats) also proved to be extremely useful. In the aftermath of the 2004 defeat, many of our allies left the NDA. The main reason for their leaving was not that the NDA had been defeated, but their perception that the communal violence in Gujarat in 2002 was an important cause of the defeat and, hence, their conclusion that continuation of the alliance with the BJP would cost them Muslim votes. Between 2004 and 2009, the BJP did nothing to address this factor. As a result, it failed to win back a single ally in West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu, or win a single ally in Kerala. Moreover, almost on the eve of the 2009 elections, the BJP actually lost an important ally in Orissa due to inept alliance management.
It is true that, in the early months of 2009, the BJP forged three new alliances — with Asom Gana Parishad in Assam, Ajit Singh’s Rashtriya Lok Dal in UP, and Omprakash Chautala’s Indian National Lok Dal in Haryana. But these could not make up for the damage caused by the loss of our earlier alliances. In the absence of a cohesive and numerically strong alliance, the BJP could not assure the voters that it was in a position to form a stable government at the Centre. Hence, by default, the voters not only chose the Congress over the BJP but also gave it increased parliamentary strength to quench their own thirst for stability.
CONFUSION ABOUT HINDUTVA
Why did the BJP invite this weakness upon itself? The reason has to do with the widespread ideological confusion within the party over what the BJP’s advocacy of Hindutva actually means. The confusion has persisted for a long time, but it intensified after the defeat of the BJP/NDA in 2004. There was a strong view within a section of the party — and a much stronger and almost unanimous view within the larger Sangh Parivar — that the Vajpayee’s government was defeated because the BJP had “abandoned Hindutva”. The argument went like this: “In its bid to form the NDA government, the BJP kept aside its core ideological commitments on the construction of the Ram Temple in Ayodhya, the abrogation of Article 370 and the Uniform Civil Code. The Hindu voters, who had enabled the BJP to emerge as a strong force in Indian politics in the late 1980s and 1990s, felt let down by this. In 2004, the BJP again kept the Hindutva issues in cold storage and made development its main plank. This further disillusioned the Hindu voters. Their indifference led to the party’s defeat in 2004.” In the aftermath of the setback in 2009, many angry voices have again blamed the party leadership, Advani in particular, for the same reason — “You lost because you abandoned Hindutva.”
The BJP’s Hindu base is less than 25 percent, too small to have lost because it abandoned Hindutva
It’s a deeply flawed view. It errs in believing that the BJP’s Hindu base is synonymous with the totality of Hindu voters. The fact is, Hindus never vote as a block for any particular party. There is only a small section of Hindus who have voted as Hindus for what they perceived as a pro-Hindu party — the Jana Sangh in the past and the BJP in later years. Their number increased dramatically in the late 1980s and early 1990s due to the Ayodhya movement, which, for about ten years, caught the imagination of a large section of the Hindu society. However, the BJP’s rising strength in the late 1990s was also on account of another important factor, which had nothing “Hindu” about it: the people’s desire to give the BJP also an opportunity to govern the country. This desire was further whetted by Vajpayee’s pan-Indian popularity, as was evident from the appeal of the slogan “Sabko dekha baari baari, Ab ki baari Atal Behari”.
If the BJP’s electoral success in 1998 and 1999 was due to factors beyond what are narrowly seen as “Hindutva” issues, subsequent events have proved beyond a shadow of doubt that the party’s Hindu base is small even within Hindu society, not to speak of the electorate as a whole. This small Hindu base on its own can never bring the party to power at the Centre. Between 2004 and 2009, some people were toying with the idea of constructing a ‘Hindu Agenda’, and creating a large enough ‘Hindu Vote-Bank’ around it. Even the idea of establishing a new Hindu political organization, as a counter to the BJP, was being talked about. In the aftermath of the BJP’s defeat in the 2009 parliamentary elections, these ideas may get a new lease of life. They are doomed to fail.
At a broader level, it is high time the BJP seriously debated and decided what it means by ‘Hindutva’, and also what formulations of ‘Hindutva’ are not acceptable to it. True, the BJP must remain an ideology-driven party. But without clarity on what the BJP’s ideology is, the party cannot win the support of more Hindus, let alone the support of Muslims and Christians. Understood as ‘Cultural Nationalism’ in an inclusive, integrative and noncommunal sense, Hindutva indeed defines the organizing and sustaining principle of the Indian Nation. However, just as the noble principle of secularism can be perverted and practiced for politically expedient reasons — the selfstyled ‘secular’ parties have indeed done it to isolate the BJP — Hindutva is also vulnerable to narrow interpretations and bigoted practice. My own understanding of Pandit Deendayal Upadhyaya’s ‘Integral Humanism’, which the BJP accepts as its guiding philosophy, convinces me that it completely rejects narrow, exclusivist and communal interpretations of India’s national identity.
FAILURE TO OVERCOME THE PARTY’S LIMITED SOCIAL BASE
Post-2004, many leaders in the BJP, Advani in particular, had come to the correct conclusion that the party faced twin tasks: (a) to nurse its core ideological/social constituency (which had felt let down for various reasons, including the valid reason of a lack of sufficient dialogue and coordination between the BJP leaders in the Vajpayee government and the leaders and activists of the Sangh Parivar at various levels); and (b) to expand the BJP’s appeal and support base beyond its core constituency, both on its own and by forging alliances. Sadly, between 2004 and 2009, the BJP leadership attended only to the first task and did very little to attend to the second. For example, even within the Hindu society, large sections (especially Dalits) have remained outside the influence of the BJP. No effort was made to endear the party to them.
The party’s collective mind is confused about how to deal with the issue of Indian Muslims
As far as taking the BJP closer to the minorities (Muslims and Christians) is concerned, both confusion and indifference within the party are of Himalayan magnitude. The mentality of a large section of the party is so dogmatic that any idea of promoting the welfare and development of Indian Muslims, or of addressing their legitimate concerns, is quickly brushed aside as “appeasement”. In five long years after 2004, the BJP did not come up with a single worthwhile initiative which Muslims could welcome. Take the example of the Sachar Committee report. No doubt, the Congress party, guided by its votebank politics, tried to appease the Muslim community with some dangerous and thoroughly condemnable pronouncements — reservation for Muslims on religious grounds and the Prime Minister’s shocking statement that Muslims should have the first claim on the country’s budgetary resources. But was everything about the Sachar Committee report or its recommendations objectionable? After all, by highlighting widespread socio-economic backwardness within the Muslim community, the report laid bare the successive Congress governments’ own failures and betrayals towards a community that has been its most loyal supporter. Sadly, the BJP rejected the Sachar report completely and unreservedly. The party could have responded to its findings and recommendations in a more nuanced manner by presenting some alternative proposals for addressing poverty and backwardness among Muslims. It didn’t do so because, as I have mentioned earlier, the party’s collective mind is suffering from a prolonged confusion about how to deal with issues relating to Indian Muslims. Those leaders who want to think and act innovatively know that they are prone to be quickly accused of following a “Muslim- appeasement” policy. The BJP’s Minority Morcha is a non-operational body, whose voice is heard neither within the party nor within the Muslim community.
The entrenched thinking within the BJP is that “Muslims never vote for us and therefore there is no need to think or do anything for them.” The party gave tickets to only three Muslim candidates in the recent Lok Sabha elections. True, the party’s manifesto had some good points about minorities, but these could hardly change the image of the BJP as a party that does not care for Muslims. Purely in electoral terms, all this contributed to the BJP’s grievous self-disablement. Consider the following. The party has a near-zero presence in 143 Lok Sabha seats in four big states. On top of that, it practically writes off 15% of the electorate who are Muslims. In recent years, even Christians have turned against the BJP. Even within the Hindu society, the BJP’s support base is less than 25% nationally. Thus, both geographically and socially, the party’s electoral base is not strong enough to challenge the Congress. On top of all these, we had the Varun Gandhi episode in the middle of the election campaign, which, along with other factors, clearly led to the consolidation of Muslim votes in favour of the Congress in UP.
NEGATIVISM IN THE BJP’S CAMPAIGN
In hindsight, it is obvious that the BJP failed to utilize its five years in the opposition to construct and present a positive agenda that could catch the imagination of the people beyond its core support base. We harped too much on the UPA government’s failures, without convincing the people how we would perform better. The party rightly adopted ‘Good Governance, Development and Security’ as its plank for Elections 2009. However, none of these three ideals was intellectually fleshed out in terms of specific policies and programmatic initiatives, nor made the basis of a sustained mass campaign. The people, who were hardly enthused by the performance of the UPA government, were keen on knowing if the BJP had superior ideas on tackling the problems of price rise, unemployment, economic downturn, plight of farmers, etc. The middle class wanted to know if the BJP had better plans to address the shortage of housing, water and power, the problem of transportation, and the rising costs of education and healthcare. India’s young men and women were waiting to see if the BJP was capable of making them dream big and if it could connect to their own rising aspirations.
We harped too much on the UPA’s failures without convincing people we would be any better
Advani did speak of the Ladli Laxami Yojana for the education of the girl child, his infrastructure vision and his vision for ‘IT as an instrument for transforming Bharat’. But all this did not cohere into a sharply focused superior agenda of governance and development. On the issue of security, which was a BJP’s strong point, we fumbled on many occasions. Even the Congress party’s completely baseless criticism on the Kandahar episode put the BJP on the backfoot. On the whole, we did not dictate the agenda for Elections 2009. As a result, the media as well as a large number of uncommitted voters concluded that this was an ‘issue-less’ election.
LEADERSHIP IN DISARRAY
My last point in the analysis of the 2009 elections concerns the state of the BJP organization. Never in the history of the Jana Sangh or the BJP was the party enfeebled by so much disarray at the top. The disorder at the Centre and also in several states (examples: Rajasthan, UP and Delhi) demoralised the disunited party workers down the line, with disastrous results. Although Advani was projected as the party’s prime ministerial candidate, this took place after he had been dis-empowered after the Mohammad Ali Jinnah episode. The cropping up of Narendra Modi’s name in the middle of the campaign did not help at all. To the people of India, the contrast was obvious: there is unified command in the Congress party, but not in the BJP.
Look at the irony. Sonia Gandhi and her son Rahul made an essentially weak Prime Minister like Dr Manmohan Singh look strong by backing him solidly. In contrast, the BJP and the Sangh Parivar made a strong leader like Advani, whose contribution to the growth of the party is enormous, look weak, helpless and not fully in command. Saddened by this, many dedicated party workers bemoaned, “Atalji succeeded in becoming Prime Minister because he had Advaniji working for him faithfully and determinedly. Unfortunately this time, there was no Advaniji working similarly for Advaniji.” Of course, it is also true that Advani himself failed to assert his leadership at crucial points before and during the campaign.
ROAD AHEAD
Where does the BJP go from here? The answer depends on how honest and widespread the introspection about the past and the future is within the BJP, and how thorough the corrective action in the near future will be. For this to happen, the party should encourage free debate, based on constructive criticism and self-criticism. But let it be understood both by the BJP’s supporters and adversaries the outcome of Elections 2009 is by no means a catastrophe for the party. True, our strength in the Lok Sabha came down from 182 in 1999 to 138 in 2004, and has further come down to 116 in 2009. But in defeat we should not lose a sense of balance and perspective. After all, in 1998, the Congress was reduced to a tally of only 110 in the Lok Sabha. Yet, six years later it bounced back. So can the BJP. Today the BJP is not only the main opposition party in the 15th Lok Sabha but, in some ways, the sole opposition party because the Left parties have been completely marginalized. What this means is that, whereas there is need for honest introspection, there is no need for despair at all.
Advaniji worked hard for Vajpayeeji but there was no Advaniji working for Advaniji’
This is not to belittle the fact that difficult days are ahead for the BJP, at least in the short term. The Congress seems to be on the revival path in UP and Bihar. The support for the BJP is declining in its two strongholds — Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat. In Rajasthan and Delhi, the BJP has again scored self-goals. In Karnataka, in spite of the good showing in the recent Lok Sabha elections, the BJP and its government face many problems that demand immediate attention. As far as leadership is concerned, the party needs to address the challenges in the post-Advani era, while recognizing that it needs the guiding hand of karmayogi Advani — who embodies the best of the BJP — for as long as he can be active in public life. His message of ‘Good Governance, Development and Security’ has relevance for the BJP in the future too. However, the party has to infuse positive and inspiring content into this message, and the content has to become more visible in states where the BJP is in power. One of the most important learnings from the NDA government, as well as from the governments of Narendra Modi, Shivraj Singh Chauhan, Raman Singh and Nitish Kumar, is that inclusive development should become as important an element of the ideology for a Nation First party like the BJP as, for example, Hindutva.
Here is a sensitive question that the BJP cannot shirk. Issues relating to the right relationship between the BJP and the RSS also need to be candidly debated for mutual good. The RSS is indeed a nationalist organization, and there are many valid reasons why India needs a non-communal pro- Hindu organization committed to the ideal of Hindu unity and renaissance. However, just as the BJP needs introspection, the RSS needs it no less. Its leaders must ask themselves, and answer the question honestly and earnestly, “Why is the acceptability of the RSS and the Vishwa Hindu Parishad limited in Hindu society itself?” No less important is the challenge of re-orienting the party’s thinking and action on issues relating to the suffering of the poor and the downtrodden, and the severe regional and social imbalances in India’s development.
The BJP can indeed bounce back. But it can do so only if it first renews and empowers itself comprehensively — in its ideology, its geographical-social spread, its own political strength, its mass activity, its alliance-building, its cadre-based organizational network, and its leadership.
Kulkarni was a key aide to former Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee and
a member of the BJP’s Election Strategy Group, 2009
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Sanjay Kumar Azad
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