Monday, March 28, 2016

Political thoughts in Veda's



Just after the creation of human race the Almighty had revealed the knowledge of the Vedas through the sacred souls of the seers. In them several issues regarding nation and systems of state have been dealt with minutely. Issues relating to creation of nation, its speciality, inculcating national feeling, nation and statehood have been mentioned. Since I have written a book on national feeling, we will now discuss only about the Political systems alone.

Many eons later, Brahmagranth (Brahmasūtras) and Kalpasūtras came into existence. They  mention about Sāmrājya, Bhaujya, Swārājya, Vairājya, Pārametyarājya, Mahārājya, Ādhipatyamaya, Samantaparyāyi, Sārvabhauma and Jānarājya types of administrative systems. By performing Rājasūya, Vājapeya and As’wamedha yagas, men became emperor, king etc., and used to rule the country based on that system.

After many Yugas and in the 28th Yuga Chakra of Tretā Yuga, Shri Rama became the King of Ayodhya. When Bharata went to bring Sri Rama back from exile, Sri Rama taught him about the anarchy and its ill effects.
About 5,100 years back the Dwāpara yuga came to an end. Sri Krishna the unparalleled strategist and political thinker lived in the Dwāpara Yuga. During the same period, grandsire Bhishma, on his bed of arrows, spoke about Vairājyavād and Rājyotpatti (Evolution of state) in very simple terms. We come to know about the depth of Bhishma’s political ideas and the heights of his scientific temper in this discourse.

In the 3rd Century B.C., Arya Chanakya composed the Artha Shastra. He also gave clear explanations to various aspects and strategies of state administration. Inspite of being the Prime Minister, he lived in a hut. He lived a selfless and service oriented life standing as an ideal to our entire nation.
Time passed on. Political science took shape in the West in the 13th Century A.D.. The Social Contract Theory was considered to be the first Political Ideology by the West. Aquinas says, “The evolution of the State, its Rights and Functioning is based on a compromise.” Protestants and Catholic sections came into existence. Later the Protestants divided themselves into sub-sects like Puritan Presbitarian and Huganis. For 36 years. France witnessed civil war between Catholic fathers and nobles on one side and Hugonis businessmen and nobles on the other. The Catholics used to say that the governance cannot be impartial but is dependent on relationships. In the early half of the 17th century five types of political thoughts came into being.
1.                  The King is answerable to only God and not to the people – thoughts of Stuart and others
2.                  King’s power is limited and both the King and the State are controlled by the Parliament
3.      A group of Visionaries said that Natural laws are supreme and the right to break them cannot be given to anyone.
4. Democrats would say – The King is a result of relationship ( Anubandh). Therefore to oppose relationship would mean that the people would revolt against the State.
5.  Catholics would say that Christianity is supreme and the State should be under its control.
Later, Europe saw the advent of Hobbs, Locke and Rousseau. Hobbs propounded the theory of Sovereign Statehood, Locke about Liberal Statehood and Rousseau about Administration through the free-will of people. Western political systems are based on various systems such as Monarchy, Aristocracy, Oligarchy and Democracy. As a result Capitalism raised its head and the world started grappling with a new problem. This was followed by the rise of Marxism and theories like Communism and Socialism sprang forth. During the same period, theories related to Pluralism, Fascism and Anarchy also came into force.
Thus, as Western Political ideas kept springing forth, states were built on these ideas and they collapsed due to weakness of these political theories. We are aware of the futility of the political ideas of the present day too. Western political thinkers are caught among various failing political systems. They are unable to find peace neither in Democracy nor in Communism. They have been unable to present a clear political philosophy and ideology. The vacuum thus created has enabled religious fundamentalist politics to raise its ugly head. Christian and Islamic leaders have turned Europe into a battlefield causing the death of millions. Christian Crusaders and Islamic Jehadis have exterminated races and religious fundamentalism now stands as a challenge to humanity.
The civil war of England was due to differences between five ideologies but at present there are so many ideologies functioning with selfish motives. Across the World, intellectuals who seek peace for mankind are worried and are searching for a way out of these problems. Many of them believe that only Bharat can provide a working solution to evolve a peaceful world order. They not only feel this but have expressed this in many forums as well. We do not need to compete with these selfish ideologies which are the foundation stones of some nations which have an extremely short history as compared to the crores of years of history and heritage of our nation.
MAIN FOUNDATION FOR STUDY OF POLITICAL SCIENCE
People following the western lifestyle afflicted by Selfishness, Conflict, Bloodshed and Jealousy have established the State in the West. Their Social Contract Theory is also based on the same, be it in Autocracy, Oligarchy, Democracy or Communism.
 However, the situation in Bharat was different. The seers in Bharat first evolved a fulfilling and value based national lifestyle and then evolved Statehood based on Vairājyavād. Since the life of the common man was based on a comprehensive value based system, the political system also ran peacefully for a long period of time. As time passed, the theory of “Big Fish Eats Small Fish” ( Mātsyānyayavād), took shape and the society was afflicted by this.  The leaders who worked towards the establishment of a working peaceful order, studied the changes that had crept in. Keeping in view Human specialities ( Mānava Vaishistya), their aims (Mānava Dhyeya) and their duties (Mānava Dharma), they evolved some beautiful social and state theories. These were called Sāmrājyavād, Bhaujyavād, Swāraajyavād, Pārmetyavād, Rajyavād, Mahārājyavād, Ādhipatyamayavād, Samantaparyāyīvād, Sārvabhaumavād and Jānrajyavād. There is a reason for the evolution of these theories. Let us discuss them.
1.         Who is Man? – Organs of State and Nationalism are for the humans. Therefore the focus of deliberation was Man. We consider that man is a combination of soul, mind, body and intellect and not just body and mind. It is said Ātmanaam Rathinam Viddhi Shareeram Rathameva tu Buddhim tu sārathīm Viddhi manah Pragrahameva ca – Kathopanishath 1/3/3/
Soul is the master, body is the chariot, buddhi is the charioteer and mind is the rein. We describe a human being using these metaphors. The Ātma (Soul) is considered to be the true identity of Man and the various Dharmas (duties) are for the purpose of helping the Ātma to reach higher states of consciousness. When Man becomes perverted, he becomes more body-centred from being soul-centred. Therefore, Veda directs Man to remain Soul Centred and in order to accomplish this and to rid the society of evils, the concept of State was created.
2. Goal of Man ( Mānava Dhyeya)– While discussing the aim of man, he is advised to develop his consciousness towards enlightenment. When the consciousness of the soul increases, then he will be equanimous in happiness and sorrow, profit and loss, victory and defeat and will realize the Truth. On this the Rgveda ( 1/164/20 ) says: Dvā suparnā sayujā sakhāyā samānavruksham, pariṣasvajāte, tayoranya pippalam svadwātti anas’nannanya bhichākas’itih
We will have to deliberate ons this from the political aspects. Man wants to attain the state of “ Tat Tvam Asi” ( That Art Thee) and So’ham ( I am Thee) by climbing the ladders of spiritual progress through his Sadhana ( spiritual practise) in this world. But when the foundation of the land on which he stands is itself unstable, how will he progress. Therefore, Nationalism and Political Science came into being. In such a state Man says,
Rāṣṭraya mahyam badhyatām (Atharva 1/29/4))  – I am controlled for the benefit of the Nation
Aham rāṣtrāsyābhivarge nijah bhūyāsam – I will be one of the best citizens of my country.
Man also describes Nation as a Devata.
Mama dvithā rāṣtram kshatriyasya vis’vāyorvis’ve amṛtā yathā nah – Let the national life here be continuous.  Because of this political science emerged after  Mātsyanyāya (big fish eating small fish ).
3. Duties of Man : (Mānava Dharma )– Dharma is a great word by itself. Intellectuals across the world are unable to find a synonym for Dharma. Therefore, we would like to elucidate and comment on Dharma on our terms.
Paramātma wanted to create and this was called a Yagya. After this, the noble Devās were created and on the lines of the Yagya of the Paramātma, they started performing works for further development. These were also called Yagyas.  The procedure for performing the various acts of the Devas and the rules for the same was also part of what is called Dharma. See Yagyena yagyam ayajanta devāh tāni dharmāṇi prathamānyāsan – Rigved 10/90/4
This became the primary Dharma in the Paramatma’s creation. After sometime, for the sake of individual development,  Vaiśeṣika Darśana ( philosophy) gave a new meaning to Dharma. Yatobhyudaya nih śreyaas siddhih sa dharmah.
That which gives rise to prosperity and well-being and then leads to ultimate salvation, that is Dharma. Maharaja Manu has stated that
Dhruti kṣamādamóstheyam
Shaucamindriyanigrahah
Dhī vidyā satyamakrodho
Daśakam dharmalakshanam
In this way, words like Gṛhasta Dharma (Dharma for house holders) and Streedharma (Dharma for women) came into being. Our sages visualized that along with Personal Dharma, Rāja Dharma ( Dharma for the kings ) was also needed.
Sarvasya Jīvalokasya rājā dharma parayanah – Mahābharata.
We have been calling Politics as Rājadharma from ancient times. With the help of Raja Dharma, we should make effort to make the World a Land of Spiritual practice which would ultimately result in making mankind realize the state of Soham ( I am Thee). It was for this purpose that Political science and political scientists came into being.
4. Co-ordination of these Thoughts : After the state of Vairājya, some ill practices found their way into social life and Mātsyanyāya ( Big Fish Eats Small Fish Syndrome ) increased. The leaders who worked towards the establishment of a working peaceful order, studied the changes that had crept in. Keeping in view Human specialities ( Mānava Vaiśiṣtya), their aims (Mānava Dhyeya) and their duties (Mānava Dharma), they evolved some beautiful social and state theories.
Present Parlance in Politics
We have adopted the Western political theories in modern India as they are. Clear evidence for this is found in the fact that the political theories currently prevalent in India are basically the translations from English. Some of the examples are as follows.
I.              Independent: This is an antonym of the word ‘Dependent’. The word ‘Independent’ is by itself meaningless because nobody in the world can live Independent of others. We are dependent on our parents, guru(teacher), friends, relatives and the society right from our childhood. “ Svādheen” is also wrongly translated as ‘Independent’. Svādheen means that Man should be under the control of something and that is his ‘Sva’. So what is Sva ? The Sva is the essence of the entire Philosophical treatises prevalent in Bharat . The Upanishads say, “Anoranīyān Mahato Mahīyān”. It is smaller than an atom and greater than greatness itself. A detailed explanation of ‘Sva’ forms the vast storehouse of Darśanas like Sānkhya, Vaiseṣika and Mīmamsa.
Secondly, the word “Independent’ itself has two meanings
a. Creating a system on one’s own and living by that and also making others live unto that system
b.    There is an existing system and that is treated as the base for everything and working as per that system and also making oneself to run accordingly.
Therefore, the political thinkers in Bharat from the Vedic period to Kautilya have never tried to play jugglery with words and did not do a post-mortem of words.
II. Communism: Unlike communism, our concept of equality does not end only at the stomach and body. Our concept of Equality is
“Samāno Mantrah, Samitih Samāni, Samānamastu Vo Mano, Samānā Hṛdayāni vah”.
(Let Our Individual Expression and Collective Decisions Be Similar. Let Our Minds and Hearts Work Similarly).
Compared to our form of equality, Communism is merely a paralytic and materialistic outlook towards equality and does not even address the preliminary aspects of the concept of equality present in Bharatavarsha.
III. Democracy or Lokatantra: The word Lokatantra is used synonymously with Democracy in India. The word Loktantra has many meanings. One of them is running the administration according to the people’s desires. The second meaning is running the administration according to the various customs, tradition and culture of the people of the land. The third meaning is running the administration by taking the advise of the people and striking working compromises. Today, the world considers India as the best democracy in the world. However, on analysis, it is unclear as to what form of democracy we are following. Our ancestors did not use an unclear word like Lokatantra which has multiple meanings, but used a very definitive word, Jānarājya.
Janānān Rājyam Iti Janrājyam, Janrājasya Bhavah Jānarājyam”, meaning the form of administration which reflects the aspirations of the people is Jānarājya.
– Ayush Nadimpalli

RSS, Hindu Nation and The State

RSS, Hindu Nation and The State

Courtesy Indian Express
MG Vaidya Courtesy Indian Express

Sometimes, something good comes out of a seemingly ugly or evil event. The JNU episode, though unfortunate, has given rise to a debate on what constitutes a nation. The confusion is due to the present-day formation of a one state — one nation reality. But the two concepts need not be congruent. One state can include many nations, so also one nation can consist of many states.
For example, the state of the USSR, till a quarter of a century ago, included many nations, like Latvia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Armenia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, etc. The state of Yugoslavia, too, had comprised of more than one nation. Our India, that is Bharat, that is Hindustan, was one nation from time immemorial but contained many states. At the time of the invasion of Alexander in the 4th century BCE, there was one Nanda empire but, besides that, there were many republics. Lord Buddha was born in a republic. In the 7th century CE, King Harshavardhan ruled over the territory to the north of the river Narmada; in the south, the king was one Pulakeshin. Germany had been a nation for many years. But from 1945 to 1990, there were two states.
The distinction between the two concepts — state and nation — should always be remembered. A state is a political association that is run by and through laws. And for laws to be effective, the state needs physical force. To quote political thinker Ernest Barker, “The state… is a legal association: a ‘juridically organised nation, or a nation organised for action under legal rules.’ It exists for law: it exists in and through law: we may even say that it exists as law, if by law we mean not only a sum of legal rules, but also, and in addition, an operative system of effective rules which are actually valid and regularly enforced. The essence of the state is a living body of effective rules; and in that sense the state is law.”
All those who follow the legal framework become its citizens. A nation means the people. The people are the nation. There are three main conditions for people to constitute a nation: One, their sentiment for the land in which they live. Those who believe that the land is their motherland constitute a nation. The Jews were driven out of their motherland and for 1,800 years, they lived in different countries. But they never forgot that Palestine is their motherland. The second condition is a common history. After all, what is history except certain events that happened in the past. Some of them may lead to a feeling of pride and others may cause shame. Those who have the same feeling of joy or grief about the events in their history constitute a nation. The third and most important condition is adherence to a certain value system, that is, culture. In all nations of the world, these three conditions prevail. It is in our hapless country alone that there is controversy about these conditions.
Who are the people who take pride in uttering a slogan like “Bharat Mata ki Jai” or “Vande Mataram”? Who are the people that stretch their history to Rama, Krishna, Chanakya, Vikramaditya, Rana Pratap and Shivaji? And who are the people that share a certain value system? One major principle of this value system is the appreciation of plurality of faiths and religions. These people are known, world over, by the name of Hindu. Therefore, this is a Hindu nation. It has nothing to do with whether you are a theist or atheist, whether you are an idol-worshipper or against idol-worship, whether you believe in the authority of the Vedas or some other sacred book. This was understood by the framers of our Constitution. Therefore, Explanation II under Article 25 states that “reference to Hindus shall be construed as including a reference to persons professing the Sikh, Jaina or Buddhist religion”. Why should this not be applicable to those who profess Christianity or Islam? B.R. Ambedkar moved the Hindu Code Bill in Parliament, and it is applicable to Sikhs, Jains and Buddhists. Why not to Christians and Muslims?
For 17 long years, I was a lecturer in a Christian college run by a Protestant church. I never concealed my affiliation to the RSS. Once, in 1957, a very senior Christian professor, some two decades older than me, asked me: “Can I become a member of the RSS?” I said, “Yes, you can.” He said, “What shall I have to do?” I replied, “You need not give up your church, nor abandon faith in the Bible and can have the same reverence for Jesus Christ.” I was watching the signs of surprise on his face. However, I said, “But, sir, you have to accept the validity of other faiths and religions also.” He immediately remarked, “I cannot accept this. If I accept this, I will not be able to propagate my religion.” I said, “Sir, then you cannot become a member of the RSS.”
The whole confusion in our understanding of “Hindu” is due to our consideration of Hinduism as a religion. It is not a religion. As S. Radhakrishnan said, “It is a commonwealth of many religions.” “Hindu” is a dharma. And in English, there is no equivalent of the word dharma. It will require another article to explain the correct concept and connotation of dharma. I will end by quoting Ernest Renan, a French philosopher, whose book as translated in English is titled What is a Nation. I quote, “The soil provides the substratum, the field for struggle and labour, man provides the soul. Man is everything in the formation of this sacred thing that we call a people. Nothing that is material suffices here. A nation is a spiritual principle, the result of the intricate workings of history; a spiritual family and not a group determined by the configuration of the earth.”
He adds, “Two things, which are really one, go to make up this soul or spiritual principle. One of these things lies in the past, the other in the present. The one is the possession in common of a rich heritage of memories; and the other is actual agreement, the desire to live together, and the will to make the most of the joint inheritance. Man, gentlemen, cannot be improvised. The nation, like the individual, is the fruit of a long past spent in toil, sacrifice and devotion…To share the glories of the past, and a common will in the present; to have done great deeds together, and to desire to do more — these are the essential conditions of a people’s being. Love is in proportion to
the sacrifice one has made and the evils one has borne.”
To become a nation, Renan emphasises that you don’t need to have one language or one religion, or a community of economic interests. You only need the spirit, the sentiment, the value system. Can one abuse this connotation of “nation” as narrow or dangerous?
  • By Sri M.G.Vaidya

Thursday, March 17, 2016

Shivaji And The Rebirth Of A Nation

Shivaji And The Rebirth Of A Nation
Clearly, the idea behind such words is to sow doubt in the minds of young Indians about a great Hindu emperor. It is targeted at killing the very idea that there was a Hindu revival in the 17th century which ultimately liberated India from Islamic rule. It was not the English but the Marathas who ended Muslim rule in India. But these facts are intolerable to the leftist/Congress/Muslim narrative in which Hindus are forever a defeated people.

For the leftists, communists and the Congress, facts must not stand in the way of their fictitious view of history. They have gone to the extent of poisoning the minds of generations of young Indians. As long as Hindus remain strangers to their own history, the leftists can remain happily ensconced in their well-paying sinecures in state-funded universities. They can continue to teach the same lies over and over again to coming generations in India and the wider world.
irani

Appropriately, Irani’s speech comes barely a week after Shivaji Jayanti. It is time Indians realised Shivaji’s massive contribution to India. The great Maratha was a military genius who built an empire from scratch but it is for sparking a national revival that he should be remembered.

Shivaji, the Maratha emperor who established a modern and powerful Hindu kingdom in south-western India from 1642-1680, is undoubtedly the greatest Indian of the modern era. To understand Shivaji’s importance in Indian history, especially his role in rekindling the spirit of Indian nationhood, one must recognise that he built his empire against impossible odds.

India in the 17th century was hurtling towards catastrophe. Hindus, who comprised the vast majority of the country, were hopelessly divided, leading a disenfranchised and moribund existence under Muslim rule. The Mughal emperor Aurangzeb had launched jihad against Hindus by destroying their ancient and beloved temples and re-imposing the hated jaziya, a punitive and offensive tax which every Hindu had to pay or convert to Islam. Before him, his father Shah Jahan and grandfather Jehangir had banned the construction of Hindu temples, and destroyed many new ones.

The world was changing rapidly, with new discoveries and advances in sciences being made. While Europe was beginning to crawl out of poverty, plagues and fanatic Christian dogma, India was going in the reverse direction. Since the destruction of leading universities such as Nalanda by Muslim invaders, not one new university had been built. India’s intellectual landscape was barren because Hinduism was battling for survival. Furthermore, a new threat was emerging in the form of European nations like Portugal, France, Britain and Holland who, under the pretext of trade, were looking for opportunities to colonise India.

Other great liberators like Italy’s Garibaldi and America’s George Washington had two things in their favour—they had only a single enemy and their people were solidly behind them. Shivaji had to reckon with Aurangzeb’s mighty Mughal army, the smaller but powerful Bijapur sultanate, the Pathans, the fierce Abyssinians of Janjira on the west coast, the fanatic Catholic Portuguese and the cunning English. His own people, the Marathas, were serving as soldiers and chiefs in Muslim armies and totally lacked nationalistic spirit.

Birth of an Army

Shivaji got his inspiration from the Mahabharata saying, “One thousand horsemen of one mind are enough to conquer the whole world.” Barely 15 years old, he formed a tightly knit group of Mawala and Konkani boys and captured some forts of the Bijapur sultan. Maharashtrians now felt a patriotic obligation to serve Shivaji, although many still served the sultan.
The amazing thing is the Mawalas and Konkanis were physically much smaller than the Pathans, Mughals and the African Muslims, and yet they prevailed in battle after battle. Starting with guerrilla raids, soon the Marathas were engaging in pitched battles with Aurangzeb’s battle hardened Mughal and Rajput armies. Instead of fighting for jagirs and cash, the Marathas were now fighting for Hinduism, country and most importantly, honour. They defeated more powerful armies and also beat the Portuguese and the English on the high seas.

Reclaiming the Seas

Shivaji was the first Indian ruler in the modern era to understand the importance of a strong navy. The Mughals and southern sultans had been utterly irresponsible by neglecting the coast, thereby ceding control of the seas to the Europeans. After he conquered the Konkan, Shivaji realised the importance to protecting coastal trade.
Though most Marathas were not natural seamen, the Kolis and Bhandaris of the west coast were good sailors besides being tough and well-built. Shivaji built hundreds of ships, large and small, in the creeks of Kalyan, Pen and Panvel. These fleets manned by Kolis, Bhandaris and some Muslims successfully battled the British, Portuguese, Dutch and Abyssinian fleets.
shivajiHistorian Jadunath Sarkar writes, “Shivaji proved by his example that the Hindus can defeat enemies, conduct their own defence, maintain navies and ocean-trading fleets of their own, and conduct naval battles on equal terms with foreigners. He taught the modern Hindus to rise to the full stature of their own growth.”

Handling the European Threat

Shivaji was farsighted in his dealings with the Europeans. More than any other ruler, he knew of their unfair trade practices, their propensity for taking and giving bribes, their religious fanaticism, and their dabbling in Indian politics with an eye on establishing European rule on Indian land. But realising that the bigger threat were the Mughals and southern Muslim kingdoms, he initially stayed away from confrontation. Also, the Europeans owned powerful cannons and matchlocks which would have been deadly if transferred to his enemies. So while he was in favour of meeting the Europeans as far west as possible, he knew the time to deal with them was after ending the land wars.

However, he meted out exemplary punishment when required. In June 1661, Shivaji’s soldiers plundered Rajapur and captured several Englishmen. This was payback for the English aid to Bijapur. The following year, he captured a band of Englishmen in Surat for supplying ammunition to his enemies. In Shivaji: The Founder of Maratha Swaraj, C.V. Vaidya quotes from an interesting letter from the president of the English factory at Surat to the disconsolate prisoners: “How you came to prison you know very well. This punishment is not for your defending company’s goods. It is for your going to the siege of Panhala and firing cannon under English banner. Anybody who is strong enough would have punished you in these circumstances. Merchants have no business to sell ball and power nor fire on enemies.”

The western powers were constantly fighting one another but they were shrewd enough to take advantage of India’s weaknesses. Shivaji played the same game against the Europeans and took advantage of the jealousies among these powers. He would, for instance, use cannons and ammunition from the Portuguese to attack the English, and take English help to fight the Dutch. Each of these nationalities would be overjoyed when Shivaji’s armies or fleets would defeat a rival European army or fleet. Often they would pay good money to Shivaji to fight the other. The one common thing in their relations with Shivaji was all of them paid hefty tribute to him.

End of Islamic Tyranny

Shivaji’s legacy is that he laid the foundations of a strong kingdom which ultimately under the later Maratha rulers re-established Hindu rule over most parts of India—from the Krishna in the south to the Indus in Punjab. The Marathas became the masters of Delhi and the Mughal emperor their protectee. Hindus were finally able to walk free in their own country after more than four centuries of almost ceaseless Islamic tyranny.

Meritocracy

The most remarkable achievement of this soldier king was the completely non-feudatory nature of his empire. Shivaji’s was the first modern Indian state that had large numbers of soldiers, commanders and military strategists from Brahmin as well as lower castes such as Holkars and Mahars. For the first time in the modern era, jobs were not necessarily connected to one’s caste.
Even women, starting with Shivaji’s mother Jijabai, showed interest in administration. Muslims were treated equitably; his chief secretary being a Muslim. Shivaji, who was deeply influenced by the ancient Hindu epics, was keen on establishing an equal opportunity society. That it worked offers hope to those wanting to kickstart social engineering in India.
Shivaji died in 1680 of blood diarrhoea. When the news reached Aurangzeb, the emperor was elated but then the reality sunk in, and he muttered: “He was a great captain and the only one who has had the magnanimity to raise a new kingdom, while I have been endeavouring to destroy the ancient sovereignties of this country. My armies have been employed against him for 19 years and nevertheless his state has been increasing.”
Modern India’s pseudo-secularist and communist historians and political leadership have refused to accept Shivaji’s greatness. Believing that mentioning Shivaji’s name will offend Muslims, he is rarely acknowledged for his military genius, his administrative brilliance or his nation building efforts. In fact, Nehru and Gandhi both described the great Maratha as a misguided patriot. This is rich, coming from two men under whose watch India was partitioned.
But great men live in the hearts of ordinary people. It is a measure of Shivaji’s impact on the larger Hindu community that in Tamil Nadu – which has no dearth of great heroes – Shivaji is a popular name.
When Shivaji started with a few good men in the 1640s, perhaps only he could have imagined that just over a hundred years later, a mighty Maratha army would plant the Hindu flag on the walls of Attock in the Afghan heartland and liberate Punjab after 800 years of Muslim rule.
Rakesh Krishnan Simha is a New Zealand-based journalist. He writes on foreign affairs and defence for Russia Beyond the Headlines, a project of the Moscow-based Rossiyskaya Gazeta group, Russia’s largest media group. He is on the advisory board of Europe-based Modern Diplomacy.

Monday, March 14, 2016

Feminist and Media Discourse on Rape Protects Rapists


  Feminist and Media Discourse on Rape Protects Rapists
 
 
A group of friends whose friendship is thicker than blood set out on a road trip. Sometime during the trip one of the men sexually abuses and rapes one of the females in the group. If you happen to be one of the members of this group what would you do? Help the victim by driving the perpetrator straight to the police or conduct a kangaroo court amongst your friends and suggest that the victim make peace with the perpetrator for providing an apology?
The Leftist and Adarsh Liberals (LAAL) opt for the later when the perpetrator is one of theirs. Always. They consider themselves feminists and champions of female emancipation while in the long run always protect people from their camp who are caught in grave crimes against women.
They have made feminism their war cry and have vitiated the Indian society with their labels and vicious campaign on all issues related to Indic culture and specially Hinduism. But when one of their own commits a crime they think an atrocity is being committed against the perpetratorwhen they are hauled to the court house.

The LAALcabal will jump up and down in derision when Rakshabandhan, worship of women or addressing a woman as ‘Maa,’ ‘Beti’ are mentioned as part of Indian culture.
Kavita Krishnan the proud politburo member couldn’t resist being nasty even for the simple campaign of #SelfiewithDaughter which eventually went viral world over. She put out an insidious and hateful tweet alleging the Prime Minister to be a stalker.
For the LAALs, their deep hate for everything Hinduism and one man, Narendra Modi, triumphs their core belief of feminism. Let’s look at some of the alleged rape/ sexual harassment cases that have occurred in the past and how this group has dealt with them.

Pink Chaddi

One of the recent cases of harassment that LAAL gang always likes to remind as a successful campaign against misogyny is the Mangalore pub incident. A few girls were harassed for drinking alcohol in bars. Hooliganism was done by Ram Sene members with Muthalik at its helm.
The subsequent Pink Chaddi campaign and maligning of everything Hinduism/ RSS/ BJP all because of the name ‘Ram Sene’ by every LAAL member worth her salt is legendary. You basically had received membership to the cozy LAAL group if you had either sent Pink underwear to Muthalik or even written a blog post screaming how patriarchal/ regressive/ illiberal Hindus are for forcing their rules in a democratic country.
The then ruling BJP government of Karnataka immediately swung into action and booked cases against Muthalik. But every Op-ed and the messaging from the UPA-II Central Government was to portray Muthalik as a part of RSS and hence BJP which was in power at that time in Karnataka.
The incident was used to create fear mongering amongst urban folks that “BJP is a regressive party which wants to foster goons like Muthalik” while the truth was that he had been thrown out of RSS and its allied groups long before the incident happened.
The LAAL cabal succeeded to such an extent in their fear mongering that the BJP lost power in Karnataka in subsequent election cycle.
Let’s come to the present day. Last week, the media reported that the current Congress government of Karnataka was considering dropping the cases against Muthalik. The reason being cited: apparently he is no longer a member of RSS. This happened a week ago and we are yet to see any high decibel drama on the evening news media or harsh opinion pieces demanding justice for the Mangalore pub victim.
Former Tehelka journalist Nisha Susan, the brain behind the Pink Chaddi campaign,currently seems to have lost her pen. Don’t hold your breath in the hopes of her finding it any soon.
The victims of this incident haven’t received any justice from the judiciary. There is no doubt that hooliganism and moral policing should not be tolerated. But the LAAL brigade and the media use such incidents only to malign and misinform rather than work towards bringing justice to the victims. They used the incident to make a tenuous connect between Muthalik –RSS and BJP and create fear of infringement of rights and moral policing.

Underage Trafficking in Kerala

In November2014, a report by JaiHind TV in Kerala about an alleged underage sex trafficking at a café house resulted in thrashing of the place by Yuvamorcha group.
The LAAL group including the media and web based news portals quickly latched on to the hooliganism incident and painted it as a moral policing issue.
A campaign called #KissofLove was set in motion.
Opinion pieces and blog posts by all and sundry including the actor Mohanlal were published. The campaign received political patronage from the local MLA and AamAadmi Party. All the sleeper cells were activated in unison as the clarion call of #KissofLove was called out.
Each endorsement starting with local CPM Leader to the famous actor created a chain reaction and the news was slurped right away by the JNU brigade and English media in New Delhi who left no stone unturned to beat Hindus as being regressive.
The incident had happened in Kochi but public demonstrations of #KissofLove were organized in many places outside Kerala. The campaign idea like the Pink Chaddi campaign had supposedly gone viral.  Someone who had no idea of Indian Metro culture, only read about the campaign and watched TV news, would believe India was being ruled by Sharia law which disallowed any public displays of affection: such was the tenor of the campaign.
In all the manufactured noise, one vital piece of information was sidelined and forgotten- What was the reason for Yuva Morcha to become so irate?
As reported by the local news channel,the Café House which the YuvaMorcha had stormed was suspected of being a heaven for immoral trafficking using minor girl students. Thankfully, the police had not forgotten about it. They continued to diligently do their work. After a year, the Kerala Police arrested the main organisers of the #KissofLove campaign for Prostitution and Child sex trafficking.
The main pimp and organizer Rahul Pashupalan used his wife’s nude photographs to attract clients. Pashupalanand his wife Reshmi Nair had been the prominent face of the #KissofLove campaign.
During interrogation, Reshmi Nair confessed to her crimes but is reported to have also mentioned being coerced into posing nude and soliciting clients by her husband. There were no debates on TV and no raging opinion pieces published on the criminal activities of the main players of the drama.
The LAAL group put out a tepid explanation distancing themselves from Pashupalan and Nair. The couple was engaged in luring clients and trafficking young underage girls from different cities even outside Kerala. This is a grave crime.
In any other situation the LAAL gang would have gone after the government for information on the details of any story but here there has been total silence. No human stories on how the girl child is dealing with the trauma of being pushed in to prostitution. No story on how or where were these young girls trapped and convinced to travel to another city for flesh trade.

Narrative on Nirbhaya Rape

Nilanjana Roy, the leader of the left liberal feminists in India, wrote an article on the Nirbhaya incident blaming Hindu scriptures for the brutal rape of a young girl. The five-part skewering response by Sandeep B to her article became a legend in the world of take downs.
While Nilanjana’s unflinching support to feminist causes is well known, many maybe unaware of her singular support to former Penguin India head, David Davidar who was accused of sexual harassment by a Canadian co-worker. Roy insisted on Davidar’s character being spotless even as he himself admitted to the alleged harassment. Davidar lost his job with his Canadian employer and seems to have returned to India.
His career also seems to have been suitably resurrected with no mentions nay whispers of his alleged misbehavior in the past though this article interestingly mentions “A second factor is simply Davidar’s profile among women in his circle in India. He had several consensual relationships, according to former colleagues. Women he’s worked with describe him as “passionate,” “magnetic” and “charismatic.”

Rampant Sexual Harassment at Jawaharlal Nehru University

Jawaharlal Nehru University, the bastion of feminists and Hate India-Hate Hindu (HI-HH) cabal has the highest number of reported cases of sexual harassment on its campus but most of these stories are suppressed in the media.
IndiaFacts has run many exposes of sexual harassment and abuse of women in its #JNUChronicles series.
The latest story that broke out is a serious crime against a female student and involves a faculty member of JNU.
It was first highlighted by ex-JNU student @navfrn in a blog post here. A foreign student was sodomised by her faculty advisor by asking her to meet at midnight in a secluded area. As per norms, the student complained to the University’s internal enquiry commission, the Gender Sensitization Committee Against Sexual Harassment (GSCASH). The girl was so traumatised that she left her studies midway and returned to her country.
In reality, the GSCASH is the Khap Panchayat of JNU. The mainstream media is not reporting significant details of the case. Tweets from JNU students expose the brutality the girl faced and went into a shock after her rape.
Apparently, she was so scared that she even refused to file an FIR. The GSCASH is an internal committee consisting of the JNU faculty and elected student representatives. The election of student representatives for GSCASH is a fierce ideological battle even though technically, one would expect that such an organization would be free of any particular political or religious ideology.
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This news report on the elections of student representative for GSCHA suggests that students from SFI, an affiliate of CPIM, and AISF, an affiliate of CPIML are more concerned about supposed patriarchal control by Hindu men than impartial justice. “From gharwapsi to love jihad BJP-RSS-VHP-Bajrang Dal combined are working relentlessly to strengthen the control of patriarchy over the lives of women and undermining movements towards democratization of gender relations. So GSCASH can serve as a vital bulwark against such reactionary politics,” said Salini, who is the representative of SFI.
With such prejudices set hard in the minds of the committee members, one doubts the efficacy and the unbiasedness of justice that may be eventually agreed upon by GSCHA committee. One wonders how the committee will react if the perpetrator is a Hindu man with pro-BJP views versus someone with anti-BJP views.
The religious bigotry of the student members is exposed when they confine their enemy to only the RSS-VHP while routine Shariasque fatwas announced by Muslim clergy are being completely ignored by the representatives.
The alleged Professor had a history of sexual harassment offences against him but it looks like he was let off with a light rap on his wrist.
In the JNU case, while the girl did not file any police case it appears that the University has been forced to terminate the Professor based on the report of GSCASH. The termination happened only after the University was pressurized to do so by other student bodies.
If one connects the dots it looks like the high number of reported cases amongst 104 Universities, and a mention in the Lok Sabha by the HRD minister on the statistics may have forced the University to act against the wishes of the JNU Teaching Association (JNUTA) who equivocally resisted his termination.
Guru Brahma Guru Vishnu
Guru Devo Maheshwara
Guru Sakshat Param Brahma
Tasmai Shri GuraveNamah
In Hindu culture we consider the teacher/advisor our Guru and regard him/her as a reverential figure. The Professor misused his position of power, the trust and respect placed by the student in him.
As per the Sexual Harassment Act of 2013, the said crime has violated the woman in multiple ways and yet the JNUTA is spending its energies in protecting the perpetrator. The SHA is a far more stringent Act than the earlier law and calls for strict punishment if a man uses his position to intimidate or abuse a woman.
The rape in itself carries a lesser punishment than intimidation and use of power.  JNU has directed its students to not publicize the case citing violations of the GSCASH guidelines. Long before the case was reported by media, Kavita Krishnan tried to intimidate @navfrn to remove his blog post.
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The GSCASH is a redressal system, not a legal body sanctioned to hand out the final justice to a victim or penalise the alleged criminal. The home page of GSCASH says:
Following the guidelines on the prevention and deterrence of sexual harassment in the workplace laid down by the Supreme Court of India in its 13 August 1997 judgment on the Writ Petition (Criminal) Vishaka vs. State of Rajasthan, the Vice-chancellor of JNU appointed a Working Group on Sexual Harassment headed by Professor KarunaChanana on 5 September 1997.”
It should be noted that the Sexual Harassment Act of 2013 now supersedes the Vishaka Guidelines and this fact should have been noted on the GSCASH webpage. The legal impact of these changes on the rules and regulations of GSCASH are a separate matter.
By asking faculty and students to keep the cases confidential, JNU and the LAAL group is attempting to hide their comrade’s heinous acts of crime. A rape case of such proportions should entail a legal punishment as provided in SHA.
In the communication sent out to curb publicity of the case, JNU has said “such acts tantamount to grave violation of privacy of those who have entrusted faith in GSCASH. Any such incident should be reported to GSCASH instead of publicising. This will further aggravate and amplify the sufferings of the concerned and will have a detrimental effect on mental peace and tranquility“.
GSCASH is not an apex legal body. In fact, instead of only an internal enquiry committee report, the JNU should be reporting the case to the police.
Feminism calls for nurturing courageous women and a society that is conducive to such nurture. It does not call for women to be fearful of the society because they have been raped. By using language like “detrimental effect on mental peace and tranquility” in their communication, the University is dissuading the victim and women in general from being encouraged to report the crime. It is tantamount to exploitation and intimidation of the victim.

How the LAAL Brigade Protects Rapists

Why does the LAAL cabal want to protect a serial offender?
When they arrange huge crowds and candle marches for women’s rights and laws to protect women, are they doing so only to stigmatise and break down the Hindu culture that they hate? Don’t the laws hold good for their comrades? Or is it that the victimized women are only a tool for them to further an agenda of Hindu hatred?
To understand how JNU functions if the tables are turned and the victim is a faculty member do read this link.
There are many rape and heinous abuse cases that occurred in the past few years but have been swept under the rug or under reported because of powerful connections to the LAAL brigade. Two of them occurred in West Bengal: the Suzette Jordan case and Tuktuki Mondal.
Last year in March 2015, Suzette Jordan of the Calcutta bar rape case, died due to prolonged illness. On Twitter, her death played out almost as expected with media trying to trend #JusticeforSuzette attempting to allude that justice was denied to her by the current government at the Centre.
The usual Candle Light Brigade was out in full force on social media and a candle light vigil was held for her in New Delhi. The incident had occurred in 2013. Mamata Banerjee, the Chief Minister of West Bengal,attempted to stall the investigations by transferring the lady officer in charge of the investigations who had succeeded in arresting three of the five perpetrators.
The Chief Minister also tried to malign the victim by implying that the incident is cooked up and false. In any other circumstances the media and the LAAL brigade would have kicked up a storm against such utterances by a Chief Minister but for some reason it chose to remain quiet now.
Overall, insufficient exposure was given to the methods adopted by the CM in pursuing the case to bring justice to the victim. After Suzette’s death, the LAAL brigade attempted to turn the tables by blaming the society and creating false narratives of only a few standing by the victim.
In essence, the case was distorted as a blot on the society rather than expose the system which had let her down. A good ploy by LAAL comrades to make others feel guilty rather than work to make the system foolproof.
The Tuktuki Mondal case came into limelight due to the perseverance of courageous people on social media rather than the mainstream media or the feminist brigade. Again, the West Bengal CM tried to sweep the case under the rug by giving excuses that the girl was an adult and had left home on her own will. However,the victim was only 14 years old and had been abducted by Muslim rogues. There was no media limelight or Op-eds written to pressure to the WB government to clean up their act.
An extremely heinous murder and a case of Love Jihad took place in Kerala in 2015 but nobody from the LAAL brigade spoke out nor the mainstream media carried any investigative reports on the same. A young girl was trapped into a relationship and was being forced to convert to Islam.
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Her reluctance to convert led to her murder allegedly by her live-in partner and member of the outfit ‘Popular Front’ which many consider as the resurrection of the banned outfit ‘Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI)’.
The accompanying picture says everything but our vocal feminists seem to have developed laryngitis over this incident. If such a heinous and barbaric crime had been carried out by a pro-Hindu outfit member, the hue and cry created by phony feminists from Kavita Krishnan to Shabana Azmi would have been earth shattering.

Eminent Feminists in Mainstream Media

Sunetra Choudhary, NDTV reporter, had written extensively about sexual harassment by a well known UPA minister. It is interesting that she wrote about her ordeal in DNA and not in NDTV, her own channel.
Evidently, her employer whose tagline is “Experience the Truth” didn’t want to deal with the reality faced by their own employee. Sunetra also mentioned her fear of meeting the alleged politician for an upcoming public function
“I should mention that I’m probably going to be bumping into the perv soon. It’s inevitable with me being a political journalist, isn’t it? There’s a planned public event where he’s slotted to appear and I admit, that there’s a part of me that’s very scared about meeting him again. But then I remind myself, I have done nothing wrong and if anything, it’s the perv who should be hiding, not me”. 
Yet, neither NDTV nor Barkha Dutt, the fiery feminist chose to take any action after Sunetra’s first article. We are left to wonder why a journalist is unable to present her case to the public on her own employer’s website.
Recollect NDTV’s drama on the suppression of Freedom of Expression when the current government banned it from airing India’s Daughter due to legal issues? NDTV took the high road of exposing India’s attitude to women and sexual harassment by insisting on broadcasting the documentary while history shows that they apparently care less for the safety of their own employee.
A young female employee of Greenpeace India struggled to get attention to her case of sexual harassment and rape by a male employee of the organization. The victim’s faith in her colleagues and in the institution were shattered when Greenpeace took no cognizance of her complaint.
I’d had such implicit trust in my fellow campaigners, activists and social workers that I never thought I’d have to familiarize myself with the mechanism of harassment complaints. When I got over my initial hesitations (fearing the resulting tensions,) and filed an official complaint two months after the incident, there was no follow-up, and no verbal or written communication that year, or the year after that. Vishaka Guidelines and the subsequent act, The 2013 Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace Act clearly instructs the ICC to carry out an internal investigation and gather evidence, neither of which was done. Instead, my harasser denied the entire incident, saying that ‘he didn’t mean it in that way!’ The official ‘punishment’ involved swapping his role with another colleague’s. I was told a man should get a second chance, even though two other female colleagues of mine had fallen victim to my harasser before me, which the senior management was fully aware of. In 2015, the senior management ordered my harasser to apologize to me through this email (supposedly the “penance” that “lacerates” him)”
Greenpeace, a worldwide organization whose motto is to protect the environment and the environmental rights of people seems to have a very poor mission statement for women’s rights and safety. Are women lower in dignity than the environment or are Greenpeace female employees not entitled to any justice and redressal system?
Though eventually Greenpeace did remove its senior management employee who was in charge of redressal, it seems too late and too little. As per SHA 2013, the findings of ICC should be eventually shared with local authorities, especially in the case of rape allegations. Based on reports available, no legal penalty has been sought in this case so far.
Khurshid Anwar, a well-known Delhi activist and Director of Institute for Social Justice committed suicide following charges of rape by a woman colleague.
Seema Mustafa wrote a column maligning the victim even as police investigations were being carried out. The victim claims that her bosses discouraged her from undergoing medical examination when she reported her ordeal to them. The victim in fact has alleged that her bosses washed her clothes to destroy evidence. This incident happened in 2013, a year after the Nirbhaya case and almost around the time SHA came into being a law.

Tarun Tejpal Case Exposes the Feminist-Mainstream Narrative

The TarunTejpal case has become a legend of epic proportions.
Tejpal, one of the kingpins of the LAAL cabal used his position as the boss to coerce and attempt to rape his junior female employee. He later used his position to intimidate the victim by agreeing to do “a penance that lacerates” by being away from the organisation for a small period of time.
The Storify put together by @Barbarindian on the Tejpal case is a must read to understand how the LAAL cabal reacted to the crime and went on an overdrive to protect Tejpal.
 9Jan4Compare the “respect the victim’s view on how she wants to deal with the situation” with how the mainstream media and LAAL whipped up a frenzy when the woman who was allegedly snooped on by the Gujarat government did not want to cooperate with the police.
Kavita Krishnan has written:
“This isn’t about whether the woman and her dad today claim that they are okay with having been snooped on. Criminal violations of laws are a crime against society – the state is obliged to take cognisance of it if facts are in the public domain”.
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If one tactic was to covertly intimidate the woman by supposedly giving her space and choice instead of giving her courage to do the right thing, the other method adopted was to malign to the victim.
News Laundry ran a vicious biased piece against TarunTejpal’s victim. Sample a few paragraphs to glean the unashamed brazenness:

A bubblegum feminist would have, for instance, knowingly or unknowingly, allowed Tejpal somehow to believe that he was allowed to invade her personal space, would have thought that she could say and behave any which way she wants – that that is her “right”. And that Tejpal should just indulge it. She wouldn’t have reacted to his misbehaviour in the beginning because she would feel confused and scared that he didn’t play the game according to her rules – she was just not expecting it. And when she finally got her head around it, she would respond with fury – want revenge from him for breaking the rules of the silly games she was used to playing. Her vengeful whim as a bratty, half-formed woman who wants everything to go her way fits in wonderfully well with the inherent contradiction our society faces between tradition and modernity – and voila– she would have all the TV channels, and anyone who is anyone, scrambling to be more fiercely patriarchal and protective of her than the khap panchayats could themselves dream of being. Because after all, it is always men who are predators – and women who are always damsels in distress. Exactly the way they behaved in your case, the only thing we missed were large pugdis on the heads of our TV “moderators” as they tripped over themselves to protect your “honour”.
 9Jan5BI hope you realise that in this“noble” race you have been actively complicit in the event of a man being thrown into jail –  without a trial – purely on the basis of the accusation of assault. You have allowed the most ludicrous comparisons to be made between him and violent rapists. You must be supremely self-indulgent and deeply un-empathetic not to imagine the anguish and bewilderment you would have caused Tejpal’s parents, daughters, relatives and friends. The systematic public humiliation of a person has been wildly out of balance.”
Madhu Trehan, Editor-in-Chief of News Laundry chose to support Tejpal based on a video which showed that the victim supposedly exited the elevator calmly. Ms. Trehan seems to be watching way too many Bollywood movies to think EVERY raped woman will be screeching and crying hoarse immediately after the act like those dainty celluloid heroines.
As an aside, Madhu Trehan wrote a book, Tehelka as Metaphor admiring Tehelka’s brand of journalism.
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As per this Mumbai Mirror article, Tejpal loved to gossip and had very low respect for dignity of women and specially those who were his subordinates.
He was also getting a seedy reputation for talking loosely about the sex lives of people he knew and for brushing aside sexual harassment complaints. One of his former colleagues, who quit journalism after an incident in which the Tejpal-Chaudhury duo played a questionable role, remembers the indifference with which he treated her sexual harassment complaint against a colleague who had circulated pictures of her exposed midriff all around the office.
Fourteen years on, this former journalist still remembers her shock when Chaudhary came up to her with a message from Tejpal that her complaint wouldn’t go down well with the management and that she should settle for a letter of apology. She had no choice but to accept the apology, but she quit in disgust when her colleague got a promotion a few months later. Today, this former journalist finds an uncanny resemblance between Chaudhary’s behaviour in her case and his response to the Goa grope fest – the only difference is that she’s no longer a gullible newbie.” (emphasis added)
Another veteran member of the LAAL brigade Bachi Karkaria chose to resurrect Tejpal’s career in 2014 by inviting him as a speaker for the Times of India’s Lit Fest only to drop it after it caused a Twitter uproar where senior journalists like Swapan Dasgupta declined to attend if Tejpal was given a platform.
Bachi tweeted “We have asked Tarun Tejpal to drop out of the TOI Litfest. We’ve got a great program & we don’t want it hijacked by extraneous noise”.Indeed, Bachi was more worried about the “extraneous noise” rather than being caught supporting Tejpal, an alleged rapist.
In effect, what the Times of India actually conveyed to its readers was this: we don’t believe in practicing what we publish in our newspapers.

End Note

You are no feminist if your reaction to rape depends upon the religion of the victim or perpetrator or the power of the perpetrator in the organization or the political situation in the country.
In each of the sexual abuse cases mentioned in this essay, the victim was an educated, working and independent woman except for Tutuki. Yet each one was let down by the same people they were led to believe in.
The media, the Op-ed writers and the feminists who churn out reams of typed paper or yell in shrieking tones on TV debates when people who are not aligned with their politics and ideology commit rapes. These same people suddenly grow quiet when the perpetrator is one of their own. Their pens run out of ink. They develop a strange malady that robs them of their voice. One is tempted to pool funds for their medical treatment so that they can get their voice back to defend their  sisters.
Feminists have a severe case of Dhimmitude on burqa when compared to Hindu traditions and festivals like Raksha bandhan and Karva Chauth.
Arundhati Roy claims “coercing a woman out off burqa is as bad as coercing her into one” while feminists claim the Hindu concept of protection (sic Rakshabandhan) implies “Women who fail the test of patriarchal morality; women whose caste and class identity does not spell sexual “respectability,” fall outside the embrace of protection”.
How does a regressive practice of one religion become acceptable while a celebration of the relationship between a brother and sister become patriarchal? In the cases presented above, five of them feature Muslim perpetrators but we’ve never heard any sound bytes from the LAAL brigade on how their religious scripture might be affecting their moral choices.
Feminism as practiced by the LAAL group is a dichotomous construct with one set of rules for the men belonging to their side and another for the Hindu man.
The LAAL cabal practices opportunistic feminism while brainwashing young girls with empty concepts of women’s liberation and women’s rights.
Karva Chauth is labeled as a regressive construct by the mainstream media and women practicing it are treated as pariahs while forcing Muslim women into the Burqa is labelled as “minorities should be free to follow their religious practices” and allied airbrushing.
Leftist feminist women and their cohorts in the media seem to be caught in the Stockholm syndrome when it comes to fighting sexual harassment in their side. It is only a matter of time before their hatred and self-loathing consumes them.
The author is an academic, specialist in Civil Engineering, and entrepreneur and classical music aficionado

Art Of Living and Vultures around it

Art Of Living and Vultures around it
Suddenly Environmentalists, Environment Lovers, savers, worshippers appeared from all the directions.
It started in 2010. Five thousand volunteers daily came together and worked hard for rejuvenating the forgotten river Yamuna. No one came to help them. They named that movement as “Meri Dilli, Meri Yamuna”.  They removed 512 tonnes of garbage from the same river. No one was in the picture that time. Now in 2016, in that same place Art Of Living announced that it will be organising “World Culture Festival” on March 11th, 12th and 13th and that too for 4 hours a day.

And this caught everyone’s attention. Suddenly Environmentalists, Environment Lovers, savers, worshippers appeared from all the directions and started their chest beating program in national media saying “Sri Sri Ravishankar Guruji is spoiling Yamuna river and that whole art of living is spoiling the environment near Yamuna river” etc.. etc.

I really don’t know where these rats were hiding from 2010? And why this outrage now? To know this secret you’ve to see this – The pride of World Culture Festival is:

One stage = 7 acres, whole program in 1000 acres, estimated participation = 35lakh and plus so many elites from all over the world and crores on money spent on this program. In this 3 days worldwide Art Of Living centres will  be celebrating, International media cover up, and literally whole world will be looking curiously at India.

And as far as I know there is no such cultural happened anywhere in any part of the world. As they say “A big thing has thousand hindrances” now some vultures are waiting to stop this at any cost.
“Ravishankar Guruji and team are polluting Yamuna and cutting off hundreds of trees” is itself a lame argument by NGT (National Green Tribunal). You just won’t believe if I say this – NGT was started by Sonia Gandhi led congress in 2010. And its main objective is to save environment. But unfortunately we don’t get much work from them. More than a river, Yamuna was a place of garbage dumping and a heaven for unlawful activities. Where were this NGT at that time? Until Art Of Living took over the responsibility of Yamuna cleaning, these buggers weren’t aware that there is something called Yamuna River in that garbage area.

After 5 years of hard work of AOL volunteers now these NGT roaches woke up. No, not for work but for collecting fine. If you look at the Yamuna River Bank closely, there is a building called Abdul Fazal Enclave. The NGT is creating  a scene when AOL said they want to conduct World Culture Festival. But when such a big enclave is built within the limits of NGT, they are least bothered.
Do you think AOL’s three days program will cause more harm to the Yamuna  than that Abdul Fazal Enclave? But all of a sudden national media started breaking news that NGT has imposed 5 crore rupees fine and allowed AOL to conduct WCF.  For argument sake if we accept that AOL is polluting the Yamuna , will it compensate the damage a after accepting the 5 crores fine? It shows their intention is only to collect money as much as possible. After all who will reduce fine amount from 120 crores to 5 crores. Hence, it proves something.

As the days are nearing, ‘environment saver’ rats are popping up with the same intention of extorting money from AOL. If you had observed, there is an online petition started by an NGO against WCF saying AOL is planning to encroach all 1000 acres land by constructing some buildings etc. But not even a single sack of concrete was allowed inside the WCF Premises, then where is the point of construction works. Well these are the lies circulating from the mouth of such missionary funded NGO’s.

If you know Delhi properly, you must be aware of a place called Asian Games Village. It is constructed in 35 acres land. The basic idea behind that was to provide hospitality for international athletes who came to Delhi for participating in events like the Commonwealth games. Now the same Asian Games Village is in the hands of some real estate agents. Do you think AOL’s 3 days program will affect the environment more than that 35 acres village? Surprisingly no environmentalist is shouting against the Asian Games Village because those real estate agents have given them many flats to be silent.

From the past two, three days the mainstream media is creating an outrage that AOL is using Indian Army to build bridges in WCF and for other security purposes. But to clarify the AOL didn’t invite the army . It was Delhi police who sought the help from the Army as they found it very risky to mange the whole program alone. If you can recall your memory, in 2005 from January 21st to 23rd Evangelist Benny Hinn came to Bangalore for his “Festival of Blessings” in which many people were converted to Christianity openly.

And the interesting part here is the program took place in Jakkur Airport. I was really shocked to know that the whole aerodrome was completely shut down for three days just for a missionary like Benny Hinn. How can you just stop Indian Air force planes from functioning for three days?
And all these tactics are clearly explained in Rajiv Malhotra’s “Breaking India” book. Just relate few developments happening from past one month. Shani temple issue, Ayyappa Swami temple issue,  are clear examples of how Hindu traditions are being harmed by these leftists and so called environmentalists.  Now NGT has given green signal for WCF only after giving 5 crores.  If AOL “satisfies” them it will be less of “Culture Festival” and more of a “Vulture Festival”. And this is how it is. Incredible India.
Chiranjeevi Bhat is a journalist in Vishwavani Kannada Daily. Previously he has worked in Kannada Prabha, Suvarna News 24/7 and Samaya News. His writings will be mainly on security related issues, politics, distortion and appropriation. You can follow him on Twitter @mechirubhat