MONTH-IN-PERSPECTIVE
UTTARAKHAND: The northern state was in the news for a very sad reason. A horse, named, Shaktiman, was inhumanely attacked by BJP party workers led by MLA Ganesh Joshi in Dehradun. The attack was so bad that Police horse slumped on the ground, with a broken leg, which led to amputation and subsequent replacement by the local Veterinary College hospital surgeons.
Something is getting rotten with a section of Sangh Pariwar, who are not being reined in by their senior leaders for their inhuman and dastardly violent attack to humans and animals. While they profess, and even violently react to cow issue, why the same love and affection is not there for other domestic animals? What was the fault of horse? Only that it can’t hit back. This kind of violence only speak about the mindset of people who are involved in these attacks on dumb animals, who can neither protest nor can hit back. There have been in the past, many leaders, MLAs and MPs who mouthed stupidities and have been party to violent incidents. Of course, the leadership did rap their knuckles, while the need was for more harsher reprimands.
These raps in the knuckles have obviously not helped in disciplining its ranks, which has certainly led to this incident at Dehradun. These BJP workers and functionaries are not making the life of their senior leaders better by their irresponsible and insensitive public behavior. Hope, before it is too late, seniors, including, their top leader Narendra Modi, act in the overall interest of the country rather than their party only.
Every development is a change. But every change is not development.
NEW DELHI: The Indian power centre had a two-day conference of National Women Legislators (NCWL). The Conference was addressed by all three top functionaries of the Indian state, The President, Pranab Mukarjee, the Vice President, Hamid Ansari and the Prime Minister, Narendra Modi. If the former two stressed the importance of 33% reservation for women in Parliament and State Legislatures, the last of the three, the Prime Minister, simply ignored the reported strong pitch of the former two, the President and the Vice President.
What compulsion drove each one of them is unknown. However there cannot be any disagreement as far as the empowerment of women is concerned. And why stop at 33%, they should be allowed to go to any length in a free democratic setup. Women have proved themselves as capable and have delivered and therefore there should not be any constraints on their aspirations. It is also; however, true that the men folk, especially in politics, do not want many women, since it is the political power, that is ultimate in any power equation. To this end, to check the male chauvinism, a legislated reservation may be a solution. But we have a political class in the Hindi belt, like Lalu Prasad Yadav, Mulayam Singh Yadav and some others, who simply do not agree on any political quota in Assembly or Parliament. It could be that, Prime Minister Modi, is a political office holder and therefore may be carrying the burden of some of his supporters, who are also opposed to this quota in politics. Hence has not committed himself on this issue of 33% reservation for women during his address to the delegates at this NCWL.
However, what is of real importance is the promotion and celebration of women’s achievements in all spheres of activity across the socio political spectrum. There is this Field Training Exercise Code named Exercise Force 18 with participation of over 360 personnel from 18 ASEAN countries, including U.S, China, Russia & Japan among others. This is a first of an initiative, and happening in India. The theme of the training is ‘Humanitarian mine action and Peace keeping operation’. The essence of this multi-national ground exercise is to learn and share the best practices of other armies of the world and to display India’s commitment for peace and stability in the region. That India has been selected for this unique initiative is an honour in itself. But, issue of greater honour, in the context of women’s empowerment at this NCWL is the selection of a lady, Lt. Col. Saphia Qareshi to lead the 40 member Indian contingent. She is the only lady in the entire group of 360 members from these 18 countries. It is a matter of great pride for Indian women, especially our Muslim brethren to have this 35 year old officer from Corps of Signals to have been picked up to lead this unique international exercise. Congratulations to Lt. Col. Saphia Qureshi and her proud parents. She is a model, not just for her community but for the entire country. In the cacophony of all-round mudslinging this is an event to celebrate.
Mohammed Tahir-ul-Qadri who created a ruffle some years ago in Pakistan and not welcome in Pakistan, is a Pakistani from Canada.
There are many from the Islamic Republic of Pakistan migrated to Canada in search of better life and better freedom. They got both, but their mindset has remained imprisoned to their theological moorings.
Qadri is one such person. He was attending the “World Sufi Forum’ held in Delhi. Talking to the media he is reported to have remarked ‘IS killers are anti-Islam, will go to hell”. According to him “it is not Jihad but fasad”. But, what about other Jihad groups, and they are dime a dozen. From Karachi to Kampala, you find them all over. These killers are Muslims or at least claim to be so. But this Mohammed Tahir-ul-Qadri is quite on them. And what about his own country cousins in Pakistan, ISI supported, ISI inspired and ISI sponsored killings, not only across the border in India, whether Kashmir, Punjab or elsewhere, but also within Pakistan itself, where Muslims are killing Muslims? Will they all go to heaven Mr Qadri? Why ‘intellectuals’ like you have this multiple standards? Killer anywhere from any background is an enemy of humanity. Period. Do you harken Mr Qadri!
In India, both media and political class have been, since quite some time, especially after BJP came to power, or rather more importantly after Narendra Modi became the prime minister, this national vilification of Indian has been going on, all in the name of freedom of expression. These elements calling themselves as secular, has been methodical in their vilification campaign to include even observations of non-political intellectuals. They can be very vicious in their no holds barred shrill vocalisation. But how conveniently they underplay or even ignore to report, to talk or to debate real intolerance from certain sections of society, clearly showing how these elements suffer from selective blindness and deafness.
There was this report datelined New Delhi, appearing only in some news papers, once and then forgotten. Prof. Obaid Siddique, of Jamia Milia Islamic University (JMIU) had filed a writ petition against the Vice Chancellor Talat Ahmed in the Delhi High Court, pointing out financial bungling allegedly committed by the V.C, since April 2014. V.C Talat Ahmed had joined JMIU in April 2014. Prof Siddique had also complained to President Pranab Mukarjee on the same issue. He was suspended by the V.C immediately thereafter. Reportedly he was restrained from travelling outside Delhi without the prior permission of the competent authority. Now what is the fault of Prof. Siddique? As a responsible citizen, alive to the situation around him, did what a responsible citizen would do. For doing his duty, he has been suspended. Our 24x7 electronic media has gone dumb. When Kirti Azad went against his party, his party suspended him from the party, but he continued to remain an M.P. But 24X7 channels went to the market, as if it was an earthquake. And this Prof. Siddique has been suspended from his employment as Professor for no fault of his and the same media is deafeningly silent. How strange are ways of the urban intelligentsia! This is Yeh Mera India
People thought its only Digvijay Singh & likes of Mani Shankar Aiyar who put foot into their mouth, when they mouth inanities of political skullduggery. I am neither a RSS member nor that of BJP or other Sangh outfits. But what Ghulam Nabi Azad, a congress functionary said in the same breath about ISIS and RSS, is not just boorish but patently diabolic. His explanation about the comparison of the world’s most barbaric outfit with RSS, is clearly a vicious attempt at mudslinging. His statement “We condemn organizations like ISIS as much as we condemn the RSS” if not a comparison, then either he has pawned his head for the votebank or he simply is not fit to be a Member of Parliament. However, it is to his credit that as Union Minister of Family Planning & Welfare, he was the only one who understood the importance of small family and advocated a sensible population policy, which none of the governments of past, including the present Modi government have articulated. How can such a sensible person, mouth utter nonsense of clubbing ISIS and RSS together! Now he can be very well clubbed with Shakshi Maharajs, Adityanaths and their ilk.
Power Corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. In UPA, it was left to Dr. Ambumoni Ramdoss, an MBBS, to humiliate an internationally recognized Cardiovascular Surgeon, in the name of political power. Now it is the turn of Smriti Irani, a 12th std. pass to humiliate AMU Vice Chancellor.
Dr. Ambumoni Ramdoss was the Union Health Minister, under UPA regime. A DMK cardholder, this Dr. Ramdoss was a mere MBBS, but he had the power and tried his best to insult Dr Venugopal, the then Director of AIIMS, a premier institute of higher medical learning. Most Indians are privy to the prolonged feud between Ramdoss and Prof. Dr. Venugopal. It is another matter, that due to Apex Court intervention Union Health Minister couldn’t do much to hurt Dr. Venugopal.
In similar vein, is this episode involving Union HRD minister Smriti Irani. None is aware, what prompted Prime Minister Modi to appoint Ms. Irani to head the HRD ministry, which also handles affairs of institutes of higher learning. Unfortunately there are no seniors who could advise the first time Prime Minister. And nobody had the courage, even to suggest to the P.M., on his error of judgement in appointing Ms. Irani as HRD minister. There has been public criticism of Ms. Irani being made the HRD Minister. Strangely for whatever reasons, Prime Minister Modi has not seen it fit to change the HRD minister.
Hence, we have come to read this news in a section of the print media “AMU VC insulted by Irani?” Reportedly the AMU VC Lt. Gen. Zameeruddin had called on the HRD minister on the invite of Kerala CM Oommen Chandy, who was with the minister discussing some issues of AMU centres in Kerala. On seeing the VC in her office, an arrogant Irani, reportedly asked the V.C “Go back and sit in the visitors room” while reminding the VC, that it is the HRD ministry which pays his salary and not Kerala CM. Do we need to remind this upstart that HRD ministry is not Irani’s private property. It is the property of India and of all Indians. She better behave, before an online campaign starts for her ouster from the cabinet.
Whenever the thought of entering political arena, the first thought that used to cross my mind was what is the map of the area with all villages shown therein, whether in the assembly constituency or parliamentary constituency. The idea was to know the geography of the area, its strength and weakness. But then, it didn’t go any further, since, no political plunge took place.
Thus, I was quite impressed with the news report that appeared in the print “PM stumps MPs by his quiz”. Probably Prime Minister Modi, is the only PM, who comes to mind, who could have thought of such interactive session with MPs.
Ahead of UP election, PM Modi wanted to have a firsthand knowledge of the update that his party MPs from UP have. He calls for a meeting of MPs from U.P in the house of a Union Minister from his party. Reportedly, he spoke for 2 minutes, and asked 2 questions to all MPs and sadly none of the 71 MPs gathered could answer his question. He had asked about the state of villages of each parliamentary constituency, and if they have a list of villages and reportedly none had the list. He was interested to know the progress of the rural electrification scheme, named ‘Deendayal Jyothi Gram’, so also the ‘Narendra Modi APP’ containing NDA initiatives, if it’s been downloaded on to their mobile phones. To both the queries, PM Modi drew blank from his MPs from U.P.
If with a proactive Prime Minister like Modi, if his party men in Parliament have failed, what can be expected of other Members of Parliament? Oh Poor Mother India!
BIHAR: Bihar does not always make national news. Even if it makes, they are generally for all wrong reasons. But this one is, quite admittedly, an exemplary reason. The report “JD(U) Suspends legislators for shooting off mouth”, said it all.
In just about most political parties, there are these motor mouths operating unannounced and causing entirely avoidable controversy. It may be true that the right of freedom of expression is available only to likes of JNU student leaders, or Rohit Vemulas hailing terror accomplices like Yakub Memon, and not available to these characters who are rather unkindly branded as ‘motor mouths’, and other adjectives, by our media and their ‘intelligent’ fellow travelers.
These so called ‘motor mouths’, are never taken head-on, by any political party, instead are just admonished to mind their language. And all of us know these admonishens are as transient in effect as blowing wind or flowing water. But Nitish Kumar and his party need to be publicly congratulated for taking a ‘suo-moto’ tough stand and summarily suspending their party men pending enquiry.
Reportedly, Gopal Mandal, MLA from Gopalpur had openly barked ‘I will now do politics of murder and order murder, I used to commit murders in the past and will do it again’. Rana Gangeshwar Singh, an MLC had reportedly remarked that, “national anthem is a symbol of slavery”. That the Bihar leadership under Nitish Kumar did what PM Modi has failed to do it to his MPs and MLAs, is really commendable, with all the ‘jungle raj’ epitaph making its round. Nitish has also proved better than Arvind Kejriwal in as much as he didn’t demand a similar action from ruling party in the centre, which showman Kejriwal had openly did while sacking one of his ministers on charges of corruption. Two cheers for Nitish.
And our media, going to the market demanding actions by PM Modi against his MPs and MLAs are not commending Nitish Kumar! This is Yeh Mera India.
GUJARAT: The infamous Ishrat Jahan fake-encounter case of June 2004 has been in the media for a fairly long time. Although the authorities in Ahmadabad, always maintained that it was not a fake-encounter and was based on the input from Intelligence Bureau of the government of India. However, as it happened , the court monitored investigation into this Ishrat Jahan elimination case turned upside down for Gujarat Police and the then Gujarat Home Minister Amith Shah. All of them were jailed.
Now comes the explosive revelation that, it was not a fake-encounter after all. It was not merely this David Headley urf Dawood Gilani, a Pakistani Muslim turned American Christian, making his submission about Ishrat Jahan being LeT member but the respected retired official, former Home Secretary G K Pillai, making a public statement that, the fact of the admission that Ishrat was indeed a part of LeT, made earlier was in fact changed in the Home Ministry’s later submission to the SIT Court. Similarly Rajendra Kumar, the then head of IB Gujarat Unit, too admitted to pressure from the then UPA Home Minister Chidambaram to withdraw the input that Ishrat was a LeT operative. Then came another from RVS Mani, the then undersecretary in the Home Ministry making similar charges, adding the torture that he had to undergo at the hands of SIT Chief Satish Verma. Palaniappan Chidambaram, the then Home Minister in the UPA II is clearly in trouble. But the last nail on the coffin came with a signed article released to the press by former National Security Advisor to the UPA government MK Narayanan. He has reportedly written that “Affidavit on Ishrat Jahan was indeed corrected and that it was in 2010 itself they were told about Ishrat Jahan’s LeT involvement after FBI interrogated David Headley.” Thus, clearly Chidambaram’s Harvard educated intelligence has let him down. But that is not the issue. He committed a grave antinational act. He, along with elements within the UPA, had joined hands with enemies of the nation, only to fix an opposition state government. This demands a thorough and independent inquiry into the whole episode and all those police officers too should knock the door of Court to get justice for their wrong incarceration, courtesy the then Home Minister.
KARNATAKA: The most famous contemporary Indian from Bangalore has suddenly vanished. The most colorful Vijay Vittal Mallya, reportedly ‘ran away’ from the possible clutches of the law enforcing authorities. Was there a need for him to leave the shores of India, which gave him everything from Love to Luxury, unless he had some selfish reasons to give the authorities a slip! Everything that he had, or his father Vittal Mallya so meticulously gathered, was all from this country. So he is beholden to account for all his actions and inactions.
The story going round is, he and his business empire owes to Indian banking industry a whopping 9000 crores, in both principal and interest, that he took, to fund all his activities- both commercial and personal. As all Indians are privy that, he has interest starting from liquor to airlines to pharmaceutical to cricket and many others including horse breeding. May be because of his proximity to horse, he took everybody for a ride!
But, what needs to be appreciated, but quietly pushed under the carpet, there are always two sides to an issue. In this case, there is a giver of loan as well. What has he been doing? There are almost a dozen banks, who to-gather paid this huge amount of loan. Are these banks manned by jokers? All of them are qualified banking professionals, who knew their onions. Most fundamental to any loan application is the ability to pay it back, rather than assets of the borrower. Is it that they didn’t ask questions? Or they joined the borrower in looting the system or they were under pressure to lend to the playboy high profile businessman? Surely there will be many questions looking for answers. And he is not alone in exploiting the system to live beyond their legitimate means.
Now that Vijay Vittal Mallya has bolted, what are the options? Suddenly all are active, from banks to Enforcement Directorate to CBI and of course the political class. We are wiser, smart and pro-active only when the horse has bolted. That has been the legacy of our democracy, where all are equal before law but somehow some manage to be more equal than all else. Sadly, the loot by the well connected shall continue and the general public shall keep hearing the inanities of political rhetorics. Oh poor mother India.
‘Guru did not deserve capital punishment’ was a statement attributed to a retired professor of JNU, in a section of the press from Mangalooru. According to Prof. Valerian Rodrigues, ‘Afzal Guru, the Parliament attack convict, did not deserve capital punishment and sentiments aired by JNU students were more or less in tune with the general opinion of a part of society on Guru’s punishment’.
Granted, like JNU students, Prof. Rodrigues too have his right to free speech. Is he saying Supreme Court of India, which gave all the opportunity to this convict to prove his innocence was wrong in awarding the capital punishment? Prof. must come clear on that.
Students can be excused for their ignorance of duties, while hankering only for their rights; but not a retired professor. Besides, was this Professor Rodrigues disturbed when Osama Bin Laden was killed, his head blown off, by the Seals of United States, not in the United States, but in a restricted defense area of Pakistani Army in Abbottabad right inside Pakistan! United States is the ‘greatest champion’ of freedom of expression. Even Amnesty International did not question the U.S. Besides, no American university campus anywhere debated the killing of Osama Bin Laden. Prof. Rodrigues did you lose sleep over this? According to me, it is the commitment to duties that makes a citizen and a country great rather than crying for rights & rights only.
While on the subject, it needs to be recognized that there were others too who got the capital punishment in India and nobody shed their tears on them including JNU students. Are JNU students and their supporters being politically correct in defending Afzal Guru, a convicted terrorist?
WORLD: Researchers from University of Sheffield in Britain conducted a study of 17000 sentencing decision in South Carolina in the U.S. Strangely there were no sentencing guidelines and decision makers have greater discretion when sentencing offenders.
Commenting on the study, the lead researcher Todd Hartman had stated “Whether intentional or not, the fact that race appears to influence incarceration and criminal sentencing decisions is troubling. It is particularly concerning that this pattern of disparity appears to be affecting African American offenders with limited criminal histories or for less severe crimes.”
Clearly there appears to be bias in sentencing blacks in white America. According to the study, petty criminals who are black are more likely to be jailed than their white counter parts, also longer sentences for crimes which are in low intensity. It highlighted the iniquity in incarceration rates and sentence lengths for black offenders. The results of the study, reportedly, also showed that blacks with lower levels of criminal history were more likely to be jailed than whites, and the likely hood of incarceration increased by some 43% for those with no past criminal history.
Isn’t the white American running an unfair and unjust justice delivery system? And New York Times goes to the market to cry hoarse on alleged intolerance in India!
Japan, the land of the rising sun, the land of Buddhism and therefore land of peace is in some kind of a weird turmoil. A month ago stories datelined Tokyo appeared in print. A Japanese woman and her boyfriend reportedly abused a teenage girl, who happened to be the daughter of this woman. The couple poured detergent into their fish tank and killed all fish and forced the girl to eat more than 30 dead gold fish. Although the report is silent as girl’s condition, couple has been arrested. Reportedly, they were indicted last year for torturing the girl including burning her tongue with a lit cigarette after tying her with a rope, and this was their fifth arrest for the abuse of the child. In Europe, even if a child falls off accidentally inside the parental home, and suffers no injuries, the child is taken away for foster care. Here in Japan, the mother is arrested for the 5th time in a year for abusing and torturing her teenage daughter, they have continued to leave the teenager in her mother’s care!
Then comes the story of another mother who deliberately poured boiling water on her 3 year old girl child. Seriously burnt child died. Reportedly police arrested the women and her boyfriend for negligence and not for homicide. According to the Japanese Ministry of Health, there have been over 89000 cases of child abuse during the 12 months ending March 2015.
Report also informs about the abuses of elderly, where a former hospital worker was arrested for throwing an 87 year old resident from the balcony of his house, killing the old man. This hospital worker was reported to have killed two more octogenarians in similar fashion around the same period.
This state of affairs is unbelievable for a country as advanced as Japan in all its socio economic indicators, unlike other 3rd world countries. What ails Japan?
There was this print media report in a section of the press “Modi govt. under attack for authoritarian drift’. On reading the whole report, it transpired that it was New York Times and ‘Le Monde’ from Paris, supposedly ‘World’s leading news papers’. They did not say anything different from what a section of Indian press have said in recent times. In India there are three kinds of reporting. One unbiased in reporting, straight off the cuff, without any addition or subtraction. Then there is pro-government and those who are anti-government. In the second and 3rd, both are subjective according to their agenda, and unfortunately they have wider circulation unlike the first variety.
As it happens, the present government at the centre is BJP dominated. With their allies they have near 2/3rd majority. But they have a Prime Minister, a hugely grassroots politician with huge grassroots following. He has kept the media away from the corridors of power. That has greatly irked, at least those who are anti-govt. types.
It is also true that, Prime Minister Modi has his own style of working, while being a 24x7 worker, minus some rest, he is a bit of domineering. But that has not reduced his popularity and that is what irks both opposition politicians and a section of the press. It is also true that whenever BJP is in power, its cadres have tried to assert in public space. But then, it is largely true of most political parties. Ask Left cadres in both Kerala & W. Bengal or ask Trinamool cadres. They are all same. May be, to an extent Congress may have been better. But they have lost power for varieties of reasons. Of course, while there is scope for Modi and his government to adjust its style of functioning for better public perception, likes of NYT or Le Monde, have simply no business to ‘read us scriptures’. Both have their own enough problems to be written about and addressed, which need not be elaborated, whether it’s the issue of blacks being badly treated by the police, or Indian Sardars (Sikhs) being beaten up mistaking as Osama bin Laden’s duplicates, or even those who cannot reply the police questioning in English being badly man handled, problems are many.
Hence we need not seriously take these observations from foreign press. Indians are quite competent to manage their affairs. We are in nation of close to 1.3 billion people, with some 25 official languages, over 1500 dialects and some ½ a dozen religions with a mind boggling diversity unmanageable anywhere in the world.
Something is getting rotten with a section of Sangh Pariwar, who are not being reined in by their senior leaders for their inhuman and dastardly violent attack to humans and animals. While they profess, and even violently react to cow issue, why the same love and affection is not there for other domestic animals? What was the fault of horse? Only that it can’t hit back. This kind of violence only speak about the mindset of people who are involved in these attacks on dumb animals, who can neither protest nor can hit back. There have been in the past, many leaders, MLAs and MPs who mouthed stupidities and have been party to violent incidents. Of course, the leadership did rap their knuckles, while the need was for more harsher reprimands.
These raps in the knuckles have obviously not helped in disciplining its ranks, which has certainly led to this incident at Dehradun. These BJP workers and functionaries are not making the life of their senior leaders better by their irresponsible and insensitive public behavior. Hope, before it is too late, seniors, including, their top leader Narendra Modi, act in the overall interest of the country rather than their party only.
Every development is a change. But every change is not development.
NEW DELHI: The Indian power centre had a two-day conference of National Women Legislators (NCWL). The Conference was addressed by all three top functionaries of the Indian state, The President, Pranab Mukarjee, the Vice President, Hamid Ansari and the Prime Minister, Narendra Modi. If the former two stressed the importance of 33% reservation for women in Parliament and State Legislatures, the last of the three, the Prime Minister, simply ignored the reported strong pitch of the former two, the President and the Vice President.
What compulsion drove each one of them is unknown. However there cannot be any disagreement as far as the empowerment of women is concerned. And why stop at 33%, they should be allowed to go to any length in a free democratic setup. Women have proved themselves as capable and have delivered and therefore there should not be any constraints on their aspirations. It is also; however, true that the men folk, especially in politics, do not want many women, since it is the political power, that is ultimate in any power equation. To this end, to check the male chauvinism, a legislated reservation may be a solution. But we have a political class in the Hindi belt, like Lalu Prasad Yadav, Mulayam Singh Yadav and some others, who simply do not agree on any political quota in Assembly or Parliament. It could be that, Prime Minister Modi, is a political office holder and therefore may be carrying the burden of some of his supporters, who are also opposed to this quota in politics. Hence has not committed himself on this issue of 33% reservation for women during his address to the delegates at this NCWL.
However, what is of real importance is the promotion and celebration of women’s achievements in all spheres of activity across the socio political spectrum. There is this Field Training Exercise Code named Exercise Force 18 with participation of over 360 personnel from 18 ASEAN countries, including U.S, China, Russia & Japan among others. This is a first of an initiative, and happening in India. The theme of the training is ‘Humanitarian mine action and Peace keeping operation’. The essence of this multi-national ground exercise is to learn and share the best practices of other armies of the world and to display India’s commitment for peace and stability in the region. That India has been selected for this unique initiative is an honour in itself. But, issue of greater honour, in the context of women’s empowerment at this NCWL is the selection of a lady, Lt. Col. Saphia Qareshi to lead the 40 member Indian contingent. She is the only lady in the entire group of 360 members from these 18 countries. It is a matter of great pride for Indian women, especially our Muslim brethren to have this 35 year old officer from Corps of Signals to have been picked up to lead this unique international exercise. Congratulations to Lt. Col. Saphia Qureshi and her proud parents. She is a model, not just for her community but for the entire country. In the cacophony of all-round mudslinging this is an event to celebrate.
Mohammed Tahir-ul-Qadri who created a ruffle some years ago in Pakistan and not welcome in Pakistan, is a Pakistani from Canada.
There are many from the Islamic Republic of Pakistan migrated to Canada in search of better life and better freedom. They got both, but their mindset has remained imprisoned to their theological moorings.
Qadri is one such person. He was attending the “World Sufi Forum’ held in Delhi. Talking to the media he is reported to have remarked ‘IS killers are anti-Islam, will go to hell”. According to him “it is not Jihad but fasad”. But, what about other Jihad groups, and they are dime a dozen. From Karachi to Kampala, you find them all over. These killers are Muslims or at least claim to be so. But this Mohammed Tahir-ul-Qadri is quite on them. And what about his own country cousins in Pakistan, ISI supported, ISI inspired and ISI sponsored killings, not only across the border in India, whether Kashmir, Punjab or elsewhere, but also within Pakistan itself, where Muslims are killing Muslims? Will they all go to heaven Mr Qadri? Why ‘intellectuals’ like you have this multiple standards? Killer anywhere from any background is an enemy of humanity. Period. Do you harken Mr Qadri!
In India, both media and political class have been, since quite some time, especially after BJP came to power, or rather more importantly after Narendra Modi became the prime minister, this national vilification of Indian has been going on, all in the name of freedom of expression. These elements calling themselves as secular, has been methodical in their vilification campaign to include even observations of non-political intellectuals. They can be very vicious in their no holds barred shrill vocalisation. But how conveniently they underplay or even ignore to report, to talk or to debate real intolerance from certain sections of society, clearly showing how these elements suffer from selective blindness and deafness.
There was this report datelined New Delhi, appearing only in some news papers, once and then forgotten. Prof. Obaid Siddique, of Jamia Milia Islamic University (JMIU) had filed a writ petition against the Vice Chancellor Talat Ahmed in the Delhi High Court, pointing out financial bungling allegedly committed by the V.C, since April 2014. V.C Talat Ahmed had joined JMIU in April 2014. Prof Siddique had also complained to President Pranab Mukarjee on the same issue. He was suspended by the V.C immediately thereafter. Reportedly he was restrained from travelling outside Delhi without the prior permission of the competent authority. Now what is the fault of Prof. Siddique? As a responsible citizen, alive to the situation around him, did what a responsible citizen would do. For doing his duty, he has been suspended. Our 24x7 electronic media has gone dumb. When Kirti Azad went against his party, his party suspended him from the party, but he continued to remain an M.P. But 24X7 channels went to the market, as if it was an earthquake. And this Prof. Siddique has been suspended from his employment as Professor for no fault of his and the same media is deafeningly silent. How strange are ways of the urban intelligentsia! This is Yeh Mera India
People thought its only Digvijay Singh & likes of Mani Shankar Aiyar who put foot into their mouth, when they mouth inanities of political skullduggery. I am neither a RSS member nor that of BJP or other Sangh outfits. But what Ghulam Nabi Azad, a congress functionary said in the same breath about ISIS and RSS, is not just boorish but patently diabolic. His explanation about the comparison of the world’s most barbaric outfit with RSS, is clearly a vicious attempt at mudslinging. His statement “We condemn organizations like ISIS as much as we condemn the RSS” if not a comparison, then either he has pawned his head for the votebank or he simply is not fit to be a Member of Parliament. However, it is to his credit that as Union Minister of Family Planning & Welfare, he was the only one who understood the importance of small family and advocated a sensible population policy, which none of the governments of past, including the present Modi government have articulated. How can such a sensible person, mouth utter nonsense of clubbing ISIS and RSS together! Now he can be very well clubbed with Shakshi Maharajs, Adityanaths and their ilk.
Power Corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. In UPA, it was left to Dr. Ambumoni Ramdoss, an MBBS, to humiliate an internationally recognized Cardiovascular Surgeon, in the name of political power. Now it is the turn of Smriti Irani, a 12th std. pass to humiliate AMU Vice Chancellor.
Dr. Ambumoni Ramdoss was the Union Health Minister, under UPA regime. A DMK cardholder, this Dr. Ramdoss was a mere MBBS, but he had the power and tried his best to insult Dr Venugopal, the then Director of AIIMS, a premier institute of higher medical learning. Most Indians are privy to the prolonged feud between Ramdoss and Prof. Dr. Venugopal. It is another matter, that due to Apex Court intervention Union Health Minister couldn’t do much to hurt Dr. Venugopal.
In similar vein, is this episode involving Union HRD minister Smriti Irani. None is aware, what prompted Prime Minister Modi to appoint Ms. Irani to head the HRD ministry, which also handles affairs of institutes of higher learning. Unfortunately there are no seniors who could advise the first time Prime Minister. And nobody had the courage, even to suggest to the P.M., on his error of judgement in appointing Ms. Irani as HRD minister. There has been public criticism of Ms. Irani being made the HRD Minister. Strangely for whatever reasons, Prime Minister Modi has not seen it fit to change the HRD minister.
Hence, we have come to read this news in a section of the print media “AMU VC insulted by Irani?” Reportedly the AMU VC Lt. Gen. Zameeruddin had called on the HRD minister on the invite of Kerala CM Oommen Chandy, who was with the minister discussing some issues of AMU centres in Kerala. On seeing the VC in her office, an arrogant Irani, reportedly asked the V.C “Go back and sit in the visitors room” while reminding the VC, that it is the HRD ministry which pays his salary and not Kerala CM. Do we need to remind this upstart that HRD ministry is not Irani’s private property. It is the property of India and of all Indians. She better behave, before an online campaign starts for her ouster from the cabinet.
Whenever the thought of entering political arena, the first thought that used to cross my mind was what is the map of the area with all villages shown therein, whether in the assembly constituency or parliamentary constituency. The idea was to know the geography of the area, its strength and weakness. But then, it didn’t go any further, since, no political plunge took place.
Thus, I was quite impressed with the news report that appeared in the print “PM stumps MPs by his quiz”. Probably Prime Minister Modi, is the only PM, who comes to mind, who could have thought of such interactive session with MPs.
Ahead of UP election, PM Modi wanted to have a firsthand knowledge of the update that his party MPs from UP have. He calls for a meeting of MPs from U.P in the house of a Union Minister from his party. Reportedly, he spoke for 2 minutes, and asked 2 questions to all MPs and sadly none of the 71 MPs gathered could answer his question. He had asked about the state of villages of each parliamentary constituency, and if they have a list of villages and reportedly none had the list. He was interested to know the progress of the rural electrification scheme, named ‘Deendayal Jyothi Gram’, so also the ‘Narendra Modi APP’ containing NDA initiatives, if it’s been downloaded on to their mobile phones. To both the queries, PM Modi drew blank from his MPs from U.P.
If with a proactive Prime Minister like Modi, if his party men in Parliament have failed, what can be expected of other Members of Parliament? Oh Poor Mother India!
BIHAR: Bihar does not always make national news. Even if it makes, they are generally for all wrong reasons. But this one is, quite admittedly, an exemplary reason. The report “JD(U) Suspends legislators for shooting off mouth”, said it all.
In just about most political parties, there are these motor mouths operating unannounced and causing entirely avoidable controversy. It may be true that the right of freedom of expression is available only to likes of JNU student leaders, or Rohit Vemulas hailing terror accomplices like Yakub Memon, and not available to these characters who are rather unkindly branded as ‘motor mouths’, and other adjectives, by our media and their ‘intelligent’ fellow travelers.
These so called ‘motor mouths’, are never taken head-on, by any political party, instead are just admonished to mind their language. And all of us know these admonishens are as transient in effect as blowing wind or flowing water. But Nitish Kumar and his party need to be publicly congratulated for taking a ‘suo-moto’ tough stand and summarily suspending their party men pending enquiry.
Reportedly, Gopal Mandal, MLA from Gopalpur had openly barked ‘I will now do politics of murder and order murder, I used to commit murders in the past and will do it again’. Rana Gangeshwar Singh, an MLC had reportedly remarked that, “national anthem is a symbol of slavery”. That the Bihar leadership under Nitish Kumar did what PM Modi has failed to do it to his MPs and MLAs, is really commendable, with all the ‘jungle raj’ epitaph making its round. Nitish has also proved better than Arvind Kejriwal in as much as he didn’t demand a similar action from ruling party in the centre, which showman Kejriwal had openly did while sacking one of his ministers on charges of corruption. Two cheers for Nitish.
And our media, going to the market demanding actions by PM Modi against his MPs and MLAs are not commending Nitish Kumar! This is Yeh Mera India.
GUJARAT: The infamous Ishrat Jahan fake-encounter case of June 2004 has been in the media for a fairly long time. Although the authorities in Ahmadabad, always maintained that it was not a fake-encounter and was based on the input from Intelligence Bureau of the government of India. However, as it happened , the court monitored investigation into this Ishrat Jahan elimination case turned upside down for Gujarat Police and the then Gujarat Home Minister Amith Shah. All of them were jailed.
Now comes the explosive revelation that, it was not a fake-encounter after all. It was not merely this David Headley urf Dawood Gilani, a Pakistani Muslim turned American Christian, making his submission about Ishrat Jahan being LeT member but the respected retired official, former Home Secretary G K Pillai, making a public statement that, the fact of the admission that Ishrat was indeed a part of LeT, made earlier was in fact changed in the Home Ministry’s later submission to the SIT Court. Similarly Rajendra Kumar, the then head of IB Gujarat Unit, too admitted to pressure from the then UPA Home Minister Chidambaram to withdraw the input that Ishrat was a LeT operative. Then came another from RVS Mani, the then undersecretary in the Home Ministry making similar charges, adding the torture that he had to undergo at the hands of SIT Chief Satish Verma. Palaniappan Chidambaram, the then Home Minister in the UPA II is clearly in trouble. But the last nail on the coffin came with a signed article released to the press by former National Security Advisor to the UPA government MK Narayanan. He has reportedly written that “Affidavit on Ishrat Jahan was indeed corrected and that it was in 2010 itself they were told about Ishrat Jahan’s LeT involvement after FBI interrogated David Headley.” Thus, clearly Chidambaram’s Harvard educated intelligence has let him down. But that is not the issue. He committed a grave antinational act. He, along with elements within the UPA, had joined hands with enemies of the nation, only to fix an opposition state government. This demands a thorough and independent inquiry into the whole episode and all those police officers too should knock the door of Court to get justice for their wrong incarceration, courtesy the then Home Minister.
KARNATAKA: The most famous contemporary Indian from Bangalore has suddenly vanished. The most colorful Vijay Vittal Mallya, reportedly ‘ran away’ from the possible clutches of the law enforcing authorities. Was there a need for him to leave the shores of India, which gave him everything from Love to Luxury, unless he had some selfish reasons to give the authorities a slip! Everything that he had, or his father Vittal Mallya so meticulously gathered, was all from this country. So he is beholden to account for all his actions and inactions.
The story going round is, he and his business empire owes to Indian banking industry a whopping 9000 crores, in both principal and interest, that he took, to fund all his activities- both commercial and personal. As all Indians are privy that, he has interest starting from liquor to airlines to pharmaceutical to cricket and many others including horse breeding. May be because of his proximity to horse, he took everybody for a ride!
But, what needs to be appreciated, but quietly pushed under the carpet, there are always two sides to an issue. In this case, there is a giver of loan as well. What has he been doing? There are almost a dozen banks, who to-gather paid this huge amount of loan. Are these banks manned by jokers? All of them are qualified banking professionals, who knew their onions. Most fundamental to any loan application is the ability to pay it back, rather than assets of the borrower. Is it that they didn’t ask questions? Or they joined the borrower in looting the system or they were under pressure to lend to the playboy high profile businessman? Surely there will be many questions looking for answers. And he is not alone in exploiting the system to live beyond their legitimate means.
Now that Vijay Vittal Mallya has bolted, what are the options? Suddenly all are active, from banks to Enforcement Directorate to CBI and of course the political class. We are wiser, smart and pro-active only when the horse has bolted. That has been the legacy of our democracy, where all are equal before law but somehow some manage to be more equal than all else. Sadly, the loot by the well connected shall continue and the general public shall keep hearing the inanities of political rhetorics. Oh poor mother India.
‘Guru did not deserve capital punishment’ was a statement attributed to a retired professor of JNU, in a section of the press from Mangalooru. According to Prof. Valerian Rodrigues, ‘Afzal Guru, the Parliament attack convict, did not deserve capital punishment and sentiments aired by JNU students were more or less in tune with the general opinion of a part of society on Guru’s punishment’.
Granted, like JNU students, Prof. Rodrigues too have his right to free speech. Is he saying Supreme Court of India, which gave all the opportunity to this convict to prove his innocence was wrong in awarding the capital punishment? Prof. must come clear on that.
Students can be excused for their ignorance of duties, while hankering only for their rights; but not a retired professor. Besides, was this Professor Rodrigues disturbed when Osama Bin Laden was killed, his head blown off, by the Seals of United States, not in the United States, but in a restricted defense area of Pakistani Army in Abbottabad right inside Pakistan! United States is the ‘greatest champion’ of freedom of expression. Even Amnesty International did not question the U.S. Besides, no American university campus anywhere debated the killing of Osama Bin Laden. Prof. Rodrigues did you lose sleep over this? According to me, it is the commitment to duties that makes a citizen and a country great rather than crying for rights & rights only.
While on the subject, it needs to be recognized that there were others too who got the capital punishment in India and nobody shed their tears on them including JNU students. Are JNU students and their supporters being politically correct in defending Afzal Guru, a convicted terrorist?
WORLD: Researchers from University of Sheffield in Britain conducted a study of 17000 sentencing decision in South Carolina in the U.S. Strangely there were no sentencing guidelines and decision makers have greater discretion when sentencing offenders.
Commenting on the study, the lead researcher Todd Hartman had stated “Whether intentional or not, the fact that race appears to influence incarceration and criminal sentencing decisions is troubling. It is particularly concerning that this pattern of disparity appears to be affecting African American offenders with limited criminal histories or for less severe crimes.”
Clearly there appears to be bias in sentencing blacks in white America. According to the study, petty criminals who are black are more likely to be jailed than their white counter parts, also longer sentences for crimes which are in low intensity. It highlighted the iniquity in incarceration rates and sentence lengths for black offenders. The results of the study, reportedly, also showed that blacks with lower levels of criminal history were more likely to be jailed than whites, and the likely hood of incarceration increased by some 43% for those with no past criminal history.
Isn’t the white American running an unfair and unjust justice delivery system? And New York Times goes to the market to cry hoarse on alleged intolerance in India!
Japan, the land of the rising sun, the land of Buddhism and therefore land of peace is in some kind of a weird turmoil. A month ago stories datelined Tokyo appeared in print. A Japanese woman and her boyfriend reportedly abused a teenage girl, who happened to be the daughter of this woman. The couple poured detergent into their fish tank and killed all fish and forced the girl to eat more than 30 dead gold fish. Although the report is silent as girl’s condition, couple has been arrested. Reportedly, they were indicted last year for torturing the girl including burning her tongue with a lit cigarette after tying her with a rope, and this was their fifth arrest for the abuse of the child. In Europe, even if a child falls off accidentally inside the parental home, and suffers no injuries, the child is taken away for foster care. Here in Japan, the mother is arrested for the 5th time in a year for abusing and torturing her teenage daughter, they have continued to leave the teenager in her mother’s care!
Then comes the story of another mother who deliberately poured boiling water on her 3 year old girl child. Seriously burnt child died. Reportedly police arrested the women and her boyfriend for negligence and not for homicide. According to the Japanese Ministry of Health, there have been over 89000 cases of child abuse during the 12 months ending March 2015.
Report also informs about the abuses of elderly, where a former hospital worker was arrested for throwing an 87 year old resident from the balcony of his house, killing the old man. This hospital worker was reported to have killed two more octogenarians in similar fashion around the same period.
This state of affairs is unbelievable for a country as advanced as Japan in all its socio economic indicators, unlike other 3rd world countries. What ails Japan?
There was this print media report in a section of the press “Modi govt. under attack for authoritarian drift’. On reading the whole report, it transpired that it was New York Times and ‘Le Monde’ from Paris, supposedly ‘World’s leading news papers’. They did not say anything different from what a section of Indian press have said in recent times. In India there are three kinds of reporting. One unbiased in reporting, straight off the cuff, without any addition or subtraction. Then there is pro-government and those who are anti-government. In the second and 3rd, both are subjective according to their agenda, and unfortunately they have wider circulation unlike the first variety.
As it happens, the present government at the centre is BJP dominated. With their allies they have near 2/3rd majority. But they have a Prime Minister, a hugely grassroots politician with huge grassroots following. He has kept the media away from the corridors of power. That has greatly irked, at least those who are anti-govt. types.
It is also true that, Prime Minister Modi has his own style of working, while being a 24x7 worker, minus some rest, he is a bit of domineering. But that has not reduced his popularity and that is what irks both opposition politicians and a section of the press. It is also true that whenever BJP is in power, its cadres have tried to assert in public space. But then, it is largely true of most political parties. Ask Left cadres in both Kerala & W. Bengal or ask Trinamool cadres. They are all same. May be, to an extent Congress may have been better. But they have lost power for varieties of reasons. Of course, while there is scope for Modi and his government to adjust its style of functioning for better public perception, likes of NYT or Le Monde, have simply no business to ‘read us scriptures’. Both have their own enough problems to be written about and addressed, which need not be elaborated, whether it’s the issue of blacks being badly treated by the police, or Indian Sardars (Sikhs) being beaten up mistaking as Osama bin Laden’s duplicates, or even those who cannot reply the police questioning in English being badly man handled, problems are many.
Hence we need not seriously take these observations from foreign press. Indians are quite competent to manage their affairs. We are in nation of close to 1.3 billion people, with some 25 official languages, over 1500 dialects and some ½ a dozen religions with a mind boggling diversity unmanageable anywhere in the world.
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