Indian Interests

[abhishek_sharma]

Views from the Right

CONSPIRACY OF SILENCE

While the media focus on the gangrape in Delhi last month put the Congress-led UPA government in a spot, it’s time for the Sangh Parivar to spin conspiracy theories and take on the media for not holding the government to account.

An Organiser editorial alleges that the media “hush-hush” over the victim’s last rites was part of the UPA’s “deception”. The editorial laments the “timid role” played by the media that didn’t deem it fit to expose the “shroud of mystery spread by the government”. The editorial seeks to lend credence to conspiracy theories that the victim had already died and was taken to and flown back from Singapore because the government wanted to “shirk the blame of her death”.

“Step into the street and strike a conversation with anyone. They all would say the same thing. That taking her to Singapore was a drama, to hoodwink the public about the government’s sincerity. Most people believe that the girl had died and she was airlifted and brought back only to cheat the public,” the editorial claims. It adds that the media played into the government’s hands with its near-saturated coverage of the incident, which kept the government out of scrutiny for the “huge arms sale agreement” that the Russian president came to sign in Delhi. It feels that the government did not make any statement, and nor the media question its “secrecy”. The editorial alleges: “In fact, there are rumours in the net that the government deliberately used the media to build up the crisis situation over the gruesome rape. Media is a powerful tool or a weapon. It depends on whose hands it is in. This time round it was in the hands of the most devious government India has ever seen...”

MYTH BUSTER

While senior BJP leader Arun Jaitley has written in the Organiser slamming the Supreme Court judgment on the appointment of the Gujarat Lokayukta, another piece expresses confidence that the alleged Congress “conspiracy” to corner Narendra Modi by bringing out “skeletons from his cupboard”, using a Lokayukta who has a record of “public differences” with the CM, will not succeed.

Indeed, an editorial in Panchjanya highlights the Gujarat government’s decision to accept

the verdict as Modi’s victory. It seeks to reject the Congress claim that the verdict was a setback for Modi by pointing out how the SC accepted the Modi government’s position that the governor should act on the advice of the council of ministers. “The intention of Modi government was never against the appointment of Lokayukta,” the editorial claims, disregarding the fact that Gujarat has not had a Lokayukta for over nine years now.

KUMBH mela

The forthcoming Kumbh in Allahabad gets prominent space in Panchjanya with a cover story and related reports. The cover story highlights the religious import of the Kumbh and provides important dates for holy dips. Another report, however, focuses on such a large congregation of Hindu saints and pilgrims to remind readers that it was the need of the hour to get a “Hindu Parliament” and “save the country” because the dream of a glorious temple at Ayodhya remains unfulfilled. The report informs that the VHP will organise a congregation of saints during the Kumbh to spread the message as to how the Congress-led Central government was supposedly acting against the interests of the Hindu community. In this context, the report criticises the Central and state governments for their lack of coordination and mismanagement regarding the Kumbh.

Compiled by Ravish Tiwari

[ramana]

Dr Ambedkar's sppech on Nov 4, 1948 on the draft constitution. It emphasizes individual rights:

LINK

[Sushupti]

Tavleen Singh exposes another secular Muslim (like boiled icecream) Javed Akhtar

Indian Islam under threat

If Javed Akhtar had not rung me to complain about the ‘communal’ nature of a piece I wrote on Akbar Owaisi in my syndicated column last week, I might have written about something else today. But, because Javed is an old friend, because I respect his opinion and because I think he is exactly the kind of Muslim intellectual who can lead his co-religionists away from the Islamist nonsense that Owaisi vomited out in his speech, I am going to use Javed’s charges against me to re-examine what secularism has come to mean in an Indian context.

In my article (you can Google it), I made the point that when Owaisi mocked India’s civilisation and her religions, he was reflecting the opinion of an increasingly large number of lower middle class, half-literate Muslims. Javed said that this sounded as if I was labeling an entire community. This was not my intention but I reiterate my assertion that a large number of lower middle class Muslims are being taught a warped idea of Indian history. This makes them believe that India was an area of civilisational darkness until Islam came along and that its idol worshipping religions are worthy only of contempt. It is this that makes men like Akbar Owaisi assert disdainfully that the ‘naked statues’ in Ajanta are worth less than the Taj Mahal and the Qutab Minar.

Hindus rarely respond to assertions of this kind because Hindutva types are interested only in the Hindu religion and ‘secular’ Hindus are usually embarrassed to discuss India’s ancient past. Either because they know nothing about it or because they believe that there is little about India’s ancient history to be proud of other than the discovery of the zero.

Decades of an idea of India overlaid by the Congress version of secularism has cemented this attitude because Congress political leaders believe it is ‘communal’ to mention a past that was without doubt Hindu. To come back, though, to Owaisi’s speech, let me say that I believe he said nothing that warrants a charge of sedition. His speech was ignorant, tasteless and filled with hatred but I have listened to it more than once and did not see in it either sedition or an incitement to violence.

Could the Congress government of Andhra Pradesh have locked him up only to avoid being reminded that his party was until just the other day a constituent of the United Progressive Alliance? For a party that claims only to ally with political parties of ‘secular’ bent, the Congress certainly chooses some very dodgy Muslim allies. And, this brings us to the distortion in the idea of secularism that the Congress Party has perpetuated for petty political purposes.

In the old days, when Congress governments reigned supreme from Kashmir to Kanyakumari, Congress leaders did not need to make secularism a political issue. It was only after the Ayodhya movement in the nineties enabled the Bharatiya Janata Party to rise to new heights and coalition governments became the norm, that Congress ideologues discovered that one way to keep the BJP out of power was to label it ‘communal’. It was a clever idea that has become a powerful political tool and in 2014, the BJP could find itself isolated by some of its own allies if it announces Narendra Modi as its candidate for prime minister. But, the success of the Congress ploy has tarnished the secular character of the Indian state. It has reduced the meaning of the word secular to a label attached to certain political groupings.

This is sad because it is the secular nature of the Indian state that has made India come together as a nation in a way that it never did in the past. It is because India is secular that freedom of worship has become a fundamental characteristic of who we are as a people. It is one of the things we can be proud of and the only reason why a man like Owaisi can get away with making speeches in which he sneers at some of the most sacred aspects of the idea of India. So if he is guilty of anything, it is vulgarity, ignorance and a primitive disdain for those who do not share his religious beliefs.

For this, his punishment should be a long holiday with someone like Pravin Togadia or Ashok Singhal. He might find that he has more in common with them than he knows because one of the wonders of India is that fanatics, Hindu, Muslim and Sikh, look at history and religion through the same distorted lens. On a personal note, may I suggest to my old friend, Javed Akhtar, that he try to remember the kind of Islam that existed in India in his childhood and mine before harsh winds from Saudi Arabia changed it unrecognisably.

Follow Tavleen Singh on Twitter @ tavleen_singh

http://www.indianexpress.com/news/india ... /1058557/0

[RamaY]

2013/01/12 Andhrajyothy News Paper - Page 5

Caste is born in south India, before the arrival of so-called aryans nearly 4000-6000BC

New research in Tamil Nadu on some very old tribes shows that the concept of Caste as Lineage and concept of social structure that is Varna existed is as old as 4-6000BC and born much before the so-called arrival of Aryans (this is yet to be disproven, but heh let's make one step at a time towards Bharat).

Link to original PLOS ONE research paper - http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Ad ... ne.0050269

[Sushupti]

[abhishek_sharma]

x-post

posted by Singha in a different thread

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city ... 002860.cms

BANGALORE: Archbishop Bernard Moras of the Bangalore archdiocese feels saffronization of education is worse than an external attack on the country or bomb explosions in a city.

At a seminar on 'Combating Saffronization of Education and Suppression of the Subaltern Voice' , organized here on Saturday by the Committee For Resisting Saffronization of Textbooks, he said: "There is tension on the border now. But, saffronization is worse than an attack on the country or explosions in a city or planting a bomb. It ruins the future of the country. This negativism is more dangerous than anything else.''

Expressing his displeasure at lack of inaction to curb saffronization, he said: "We only speak but don't act. If you're interested in the future of your children, city and the country, you should act. The time has come to act.''

The Archbishop asked people to initiate legal and political action and align with like-minded secular people to fight this problem. "There are ample opportunities in the next four months as elections are due. Are we really concerned about that? Is your name on the voters' list? If not, what's the use of speaking here? Enroll your name on the voters' list and vote for the right candidate."

'Don't keep text preparation a secret'

Archbishop Bernard Moras called upon people from the minority communities to encourage their children to join the civil service and influential jobs for longterm benefits.

Participants at the seminar — Combating Saffronization of Education and Suppression of the Subaltern Voice — felt that education provided for Class V to Class VIII students, aged between 11 years and 14 years, is crucial as it influences their long-term perspective on life. Stressing on the importance of textbook production, they expressed their concern that it's being used as a powerful tool in Karnataka by right-wing thinkers to influence young impressionable minds.

A book 'A Right Wing Ideology in the Textbooks of Karnataka - A critical Appraisal' by the committee and released on the occasion, cites several instances which it perceives as evidence of the saffron agenda.

The National Commission of Minority Education Institutions has received complaints from several schools from Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Karnataka about textbooks being used to propagate the ideology of the ruling party in their states. Revealing this, commission member Cyriac Thomas said it was evaluating the complaints.

Place draft in public domain

Prof Rajendra Chenni, head of the English department, Kuvempu University , wondered why the governments keep textbook preparation a secret . "What's so secret about it? Why can't the draft be placed in the public domain? The views can be scrutinized and considered. Why can't such simple reforms be put in place?" he said. He asked teachers not to think textbook as sacrosanct. "They must be critical while teaching. A good teacher will always try to find out what isn't included in the text,'' he said.

Komu Sauharda Vedike secretary K L Ashok said it was all political parties , not just the BJP, which had contributed to the problem. "Even the Congress and JD(S) have contributed to saffronization of textbooks. The socalled secular parties play the soft Hindutva card and implement it without harming their secular image,'' he said The participants felt that to achieve ideological neutrality, the state government should think about systematizing the unsystematized knowledge like new historicism, subaltern studies , folk literature, arts, writings of women, dalit and non-Vedic knowledge.

[Vipul]

Of Course saffronization of education is worse then external attack on our country, if it involves making people aware of proselytization of hindus and the activities of the so called missionaries in the tribal region of India. What an Ass*ole.

[Varoon Shekhar]

"My encounter with Brian Pennington at the recent AAR
:
:
Next Pennington showed his own agenda, stating that the “ready identification of these two things – India the nation state and India the ancient civilization ...Umm … To me the association is troubling,” because he was suspicious of “the political uses of such a work.” He went further as said:"


Commentators like Pennington might( repeat, might) have some credibility if they have a record of study, support and espousal of 'marginalised' communities in a large variety of countries. And that would include Hindus in Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan, Buddhists in Bangladesh, Bahais and Jews in Iran, Coptics in Egypt, Armenians in Turkey( virtually wiped out) et al.

Trying to focus on, or make an example of, India is alternatively sickening, pathetic and grotesque. It merely displays hostility toward Hindus, Hinduism and Indian nationalism, not any deep, heartfelt sentiment toward 'marginalised communities'.

[RamaY]

Of Course saffronization of education is worse then external attack on our country, if it involves making people aware of proselytization of hindus and the activities of the so called missionaries in the tribal region of India. What an Ass*ole.

These are the very people who say "Vandemataram" is against their religion, nuclear energy is against their religion and their faith tells them that church is what they listen to in "certain" matters.

Muslims are the convenient mukhda and escape for these anti-nationals.

[devesh]

let the assorted bishops and archbishops cry as much as they want. it is amusing, and more than a little gratifying.

oh, how they wish they could crush our spirit and turn us into slaves of the proselytizing diseases...

not going to happen, sir, not at all. there is still fight left in us, and we have no intention of giving up. if nothing else, we will outlast you.

[RajeshA]

RamaY ji,

each one does what he does best. One organizes the street power, the mafia muscle, the vote banks while the other works on the media and deracination.

It is a convenient arrangement.

[abhik]

^^^
I don't think "street power" is the exclusive domain of only one group. As their numbers increase so will their desire to expand their physical "Power Projection" capabilities. Some time ago I noticed posters of a certain "CHRISTIAN RAKSHANA VEDIKE" in B'lore.

[Jarita]

India is pretty dangerous under MMS.
People get gang raped in Delhi and beaten by Delhi Police if they protest..

At borders TSPA chops of heads of Indian Army personnel.

In both instances MMS wants to debate.

Shows "Emperor has no clothes"

Its time for the do nothing PM to go.

If he had shown half the zeal used in suppressing Indians against the Pakis, India would have been much better!

I am not defending MMS. I really believe that he is a running dawg of the empire. However, obvious predictable actions may be what are desired by parties.

[RajeshA]

^^^
I don't think "street power" is the exclusive domain of only one group. As their numbers increase so will their desire to expand their physical "Power Projection" capabilities. Some time ago I noticed posters of a certain "CHRISTIAN RAKSHANA VEDIKE" in B'lore.

If on provocation by these groups, Hindus retaliate, then there is again a media circus about the appalling situation of security for minorities in India, aka "Kandhamal"! Even today one would find news on Kandhamal.

[Prem]

Observing, thinking about all the weaknesses of Bharat and Bhumiputras stem from political set up forced on Desh by Congress since 47. Replacement of current political regime will go long way in rectifying the both country and civilization's mistakes. There is no country but Bharat on the planet which has dissatisfied and helpless majority.

[member_20036]

Mafia does a rope trick?

Has the December 31, 2012 raid on the premises of Tamil Nadu trader TM Ramalingam landed in cold storage following an ‘understanding’ between the Government and the alleged true owner of this mindboggling wealth of International Bills of Exchange worth $5 billion? Readers may recall that the small town agricultural commodities trader briefly grabbed the headlines for holding $5 billion worth international bills of exchange, before quietly fading away.

On January 10, 2013, a senior Income Tax Department official informed the media that the $5 billion worth international bills of exchange appeared to be bogus, and that this had been orally confirmed by the Barclays Bank which supposedly issued the instruments on February 25, 2011; these were due to mature in February 2015.

Ramalingam was to appear before the Income Tax Department on Friday, January 11, but the meeting was abruptly cancelled and no reasons given for the same.

The story of the jaw-dropping wealth of the Tirupur district trader has taken so many twists and turns in the recent fortnight that they raise legitimate doubts about the conduct of the case. Soon after the raid, it was said Ramalingam was a nondescript agricultural commodity trader with a modest annual income of just Rs 3 lakh per annum, which kept him out of the tax net. His office-cum-residence is an 86-cent plot on the Dharapuram-Palani road, of which 27 cents is rented to a petrol bunk. The combined income from trade and rentals is Rs 3 lakh.

He ostensibly came to the notice of tax authorities when he suddenly purchased a sports utility vehicle for Rs 17 lakh without a loan. It was further alleged that Ramalingam had submitted a proposal to the Centre for a petroleum product refinery worth thousands of crores of rupees at Thondi, Ramanathapuram district, for which he set up a company, Baranidhar Refinery Private Limited. Informed sources say the story of the refinery is a red herring.

During the raids, the authorities found US Treasury Bonds worth $5 billion (Rs 28,000 crore), which later changed to $5 billion worth International Bills of Exchange (five in number). Ramalingam claimed he purchased the bills with gold bonds from a person based in Brazil, and was raising funds for his petroleum refinery. Possessing such huge bills of exchange without disclosure to income tax authorities is illegal.

After initially asking the Reserve Bank of India and State Bank of India to investigate the bonds, it was announced on January 11 that the documents were being flown to the United States for physical verification. The cognoscenti sniggered it was the beginning of a cover-up.

Sure enough, barely 24 hours later – it takes a minimum 17 hours to fly to America, and the officials carrying the documents would first check into a hotel and recover from jetlag before arriving at the bank, which would take time to study the documents and give a written report about its findings – Ramalingam’s bills of exchange were pronounced a hoax! The Government now says it will investigate his frequent visits to Myanmar.

Informed sources say this development ties in with foreign media reports that Italy’s anti-mafia prosecutors seized $6 trillion worth of ‘fake’ US bonds in February 2012. The bonds were found hidden in makeshift compartments of three safety deposit boxes in Zurich; eight people were arrested in this connection. The financial fraud uncovered included two cheques issued through a bank in London for £205,000 ($325,000), not backed by available funds. The probe also yielded fake bonds for $2 billion in Rome. The individuals involved were planning to buy plutonium from Nigerian sources, according to phone conversations monitored by the police, a Bloomberg report said. All this suggests a massive international money-laundering scheme with as yet unknown objectives.

The raid at Ramalingam’s premises also yielded fixed deposits worth Rs 1.83 crore in the names of Ramalingam and his son with the State Bank of India and Karur Vysya Bank. An income tax official said Ramalingam had received Rs 2.5 crore from a Singapore company by promising it a loan from a financial institution. He used the funds to buy a new car, repair his house and deposited the balance.

The Ramalingam case seems destined to go the way of the investigations into Hasan Ali Khan, the Pune stud farm owner who shot to fame in 2007 with an account with UBS, Zurich, with $8 billion in deposits. The account has since reputedly been emptied; what else? Un-embarrassed, the Union Finance Ministry quietly informed Parliament’s Standing Committee on Finance last month that it was simply ‘not possible’ to recover tax arrears of about Rs 91,000 crore from Hasan Ali Khan.

Despite growing public pressure on the issue of corruption, the UPA Government continues to sit on a list of 26 people with accounts in a Liechtenstein bank, handed over by German authorities. The UPA stand is that the names cannot be revealed as they were received on condition of ‘confidentiality’. Experts estimate that around $500 billion of Indian money is stashed away in illegal havens abroad.

Nor is the unaccounted money circulating within the country less impressive. Prior to the Uttar Pradesh Assembly election in February-March 2012, income tax authorities raided Centrestage Mall, Sector 18, Noida, and reportedly seized Rs 100 crore from a basement vault allegedly belonging to liquor baron late Ponty Chadha (Gurdeep Singh Chadha). Five cash counting machines were also recovered with the cash. A major national daily put the recovery at over Rs 125 crore in cash, while a leading regional daily reported Rs 200 crore seized, plus an additional Rs 38 crore seized from his son-in-law. But two weeks later, the stash diminished to Rs 11 crore in cash, jewellery and fixed deposits! How can Rs 100 crore (if not more) become Rs 11 crore, when estimates of cash seized are made on the basis of volume of the bundles? A 90 per cent margin of error merits an explanation.

http://www.niticentral.com/2013/01/mafi ... trick.html

[abhishek_sharma]

Javed Akhtar ‏@Javedakhtarjadu
@aRandomIndian you are illiterate and ignorant. You don't know how vehemently RSS had opposed daughter's right on family property in 1956.

--

Is he right?

[svinayak]

In India all the people who are not Hindus are working on changing the Hindu law. This is the trend we see right from the 1947 independence.

[Sagar G]

Javed Akhtar ‏@Javedakhtarjadu
@aRandomIndian you are illiterate and ignorant. You don't know how vehemently RSS had opposed daughter's right on family property in 1956.

--

Is he right?

Searching for Info about it only leads to a site by "Gu-kha" which vomits the same thing without any explanation. Javed was born 1945 so only 11 by the time these things happened and "Gu-kha" was born on 1958. So both are vomiting the same thing without any iota of proof, trust them at your own risk. What RSS did or didn't do at that time has to be seen in proper perspective and the info must come from neutral sources.

[harbans]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hindu_code_bills

Essentially, those in Parliament who opposed the Bills were men, and largely came from Nehru's own Congress Party. They believed that the Code Bills would institute reform that strayed too far from the classical Hindu social order, and were too radical.

Not too sure, but orthodox Hindu groups also did oppose the bill. So it is quite possible the RSS and indeed many in the INC itself did oppose the same.

[Sagar G]

Essentially, those in Parliament who opposed the Bills were men, and largely came from Nehru's own Congress Party.

Pass this info to that closet Islamist a$$ Javed.

[ramana]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hindu_code_bills

Essentially, those in Parliament who opposed the Bills were men, and largely came from Nehru's own Congress Party. They believed that the Code Bills would institute reform that strayed too far from the classical Hindu social order, and were too radical.

Not too sure, but orthodox Hindu groups also did oppose the bill. So it is quite possible the RSS and indeed many in the INC itself did oppose the same.

harbans, Wouldn't the word 'largely' imply the INC had more to do than the others based on the principle of majority rules? How does it matter what the minority postion was when its the largely majority that decided?

IOW Sri. Akhtar is wrong when he blames "RSS" for that opposition to the bill. It doesnt matter what your stance is if you are not in the Parliment.

BTW I dont think the RSS had any seats in the Parliment then or now!

[Prem]

Akhtar is out to prove a common saying in Punjab. They say dip your whole body in thick syrup and then role many time in huge pile of sesame seeds. Count the seeds and if any Islamist BDy swear by the same matching numbers , still dont trust the inbred.
Unless , of course, you are true secular or Dhimmi .

[harbans]

Absolutely right Ramana Ji. RSS didn't have any seats in parliament then. JLNs INC had a clear majority.

[ramana]

Prof Deepak Lal of UCLA:

Hello 2013: blame Nehru dynasty for India’s growth collapse

Read in full.

Hello 2013: blame Nehru dynasty for India’s growth collapse

High quality global journalism requires investment. Please share this article with others using the link below, do not cut & paste the article. See our Ts&Cs and Copyright Policy for more detail. Email [email protected] to buy additional rights. http://blogs.ft.com/beyond-brics/2013/0 ... z2I4VPK1lB


The 12th in our series of guest posts on emerging markets in 2013 is by Deepak Lal of UCLA

India’s recent economic growth collapse is reminiscent of many similar declines seen in other countries*.

Whilst the proximate causes were severe macro-economic imbalances, the deeper causes were numerous micro-economic distortions and unsustainable politically-motivated fiscal expenditures. Bad policy has been the basic reason for these collapses.

But, the Indian growth collapse poses the puzzle: why have the economic reformers who initiated the economic liberalisation of 1991, and who have been in charge since 2004, allowed such bad policies to undermine their legacy?
The answer lies in the baleful effects of the political sway of the Nehru dynasty over most of India’s independent history, and its basic misunderstanding of Indian society.

It is important to note that the two bursts of economic liberalisation in 1991 and 2000-4 occurred under two non-dynasty prime ministers: Narasimha Rao and Atal Behari Vajpayee.

Admittedly, Rao headed a government led by the Nehruvian Congress party and had to defend the reforms of Manmohan Singh, his finance minister, as a continuation rather than repudiation of Nehruvian policies.

Vajpayee, heading Bharatiya Janata Party administration, had no such inhibitions, and under his watch, major economic reforms were undertaken which put the Indian economy on a growth path of 8 per cent a year.

But the Congress Party returned to office in 2004 at the head of a disparate coalition. With the dynastic matriarch Sonia Gandhi holding power, and the reforming 1991 finance minister Manmohan Singh as prime minister, the government embarked on a massive enlargement of welfare spending. The economic reformers in the government were thwarted by the coterie of NGO activists formed into the National Advisory Council of the Congress Party president (Sonia Gandhi). The economy’s growth rate has – predictably – slipped.

With the lower economic growth rate diminishing the tax revenues on which the enlarged spending on welfare had been predicated, a fiscal crisis was brewing until the government finally acted last year.

The prospect of losing the means to finance the welfare state that they wanted to create, forced Sonia Gandhi and her son Rahul to come out in support of the reformers in the government for the minimal reforms they had spent the past three years thwarting.

The basic problem is that the dynasty and its acolytes have never come out openly to develop a public consensus for the classical liberal economy that is needed to replace the defunct Nehruvian socialist model.

So the reformers within the party have had to reform by stealth. When the Congress-backed former finance minister Pranab Mukherjee became India’s president and announced that “trickle-down” from rapid growth cannot redress Indian poverty, it showed a shocking failure to recognise the outcomes of the recent period of rapid growth in reducing poverty at a speed that the failed Nehruvian model never delivered.

The expansion of unsustainable welfare entitlements lies in the failure of the Nehruvians to distinguish between two kinds of populism. The first, embraced by the Congress is redistributive with an extension of state largesse. It views the majority of its citizens as being dependent children who need the state to provide for them.

The other is to empower the people who are fully capable, autonomous beings held back by various impediments created by dirigisme, and the state’s failure to provide the basic public goods of law and order and the merit goods of health and education.

In regional elections last year, Rahul Gandhi, the Congress crown prince, campaigned on the first form of populist programme. His opponents – Nitish Kumar in Bihar, Akhilesh Yadav in Uttar Pradesh, and NarendraModi in Gujarat – based their campaigns on the second form of populism – and trounced him.

This in turn reflects a distinction in the beliefs of two wings of what I have termed Macaulay’s children**, who were the inheritors of Thomas Babington Macaulay, the Victorian reformer, who sought to create an English-speaking middle class in India.

The Nehruvian wing embraced English as its first language; followers of the Gandhian wing saw English as an instrumental second language but retained India’s native tongues as their primary languages.

As the primary language of a group determines the world view of the speakers, (see my Unintended Consequences***), the Nehruvians came to mirror their elitists European cousins and became infected with various forms of ‘noblesse oblige’ disguised as egalitarianism.

By contrast the Gandhian wing still wedded to their native tongues subscribed to Indian tradition. This as the sociologist Louis Dumont has emphasized in his Homo Hierarchicus**** was based on hierarchy, in which given the Hindu belief in reincarnation, promoting equality of outcomes (as opposed to opportunity) in this life, would reverse the just desserts which earned in a past life. The Hindu majority has thus always been an aspiring and not an egalitarian society.

Now that the Gandhian wing has accepted that tradition can coexist with the modernisation on which India’s future depends, it is much more in tune with the aspiring classes which comprise the majority of the Indian electorate.

This offers hope for the future. It is difficult to tell if the Bhartiya Janata Party, or some other combination of regional parties of the Gandhian wing, will be able to resurrect Vajpayee’s reform legacy, roll back the entitlement economy,and finally put an end to the Nehru dynasty’s dysfunctional hold on the Indian polity.

But, this remains the best hope for putting economic growth back on at 9-10 per cent a year that India is capable of achieving – and badly needs.

Deepak Lal is the James S Coleman Professor Emeritus, UCLA


Notes
*The Political Economy of Poverty Equity and Growth, D Lal and Hla Myint, Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1996
**”The View of America from India”, K. Almqvist&A. Linklater (ed): On the Idea of America, Axel and Margaret Ax:son Johnson Foundation, Stockholm, 2010.
***MIT Press, Cambridge Mass, 1998.
****Weidenfeld and Nicholson, 1970.

Reflects our ideas of India and Bharat.

[vera_k]

Like I say when faced with this type of quip - A former INC president (Bose) fought alongside the Axis powers. Therefore the INC today must be the reinvention of national socialism.

[RamaY]

C-System is the modern apartheid system.

[kish]

'We don't want our salaries, we just want to go home'

Despite Union Minister for Overseas Indians Vayalar Ravi's intervention, the fate of 29 Indian fishermen, who have been languishing in Iran since October 10 last year, remains uncertain.

The fishermen, who were employed by a Qatar company, were arrested for straying into Iranian waters last October.

The men were released from prison last month after the Indian government interceded with its Iranian counterparts following the publication of a report on Rediff.com

The fishermen returned to their boats, but the vessels were not allowed to leave Iranian waters.

Each boat was asked to pay a fine, but even after this payment was made, the boats were not permitted to leave.

Qatar has detained several Iranian boats for straying into its waters and the Iranians want their boats back before they let the Qatari vessels leave.

But Qatar wants Iran to release its boats first before it releases the Iranian vessels.

As both sides wait for the other to blink, the Indian fishermen continue to languish.

On the first day of the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas (January 7), this reporter approached Ravi in Kochi and appraised him about the fishermen's situation.

"I have already got them released," the minister told Rediff.com He was unaware about the boats not being released Minister for Overseas Indians doesn't know the status of NRIs and promised to ask Defence Minister A K Antony to speak to the Iranian government.

A few days later, when this reporter called Ravi for an update, the minister said negotiations were on and one needed to be patient.

Captain Shirin, who commanded one of the boats with the Indians, is upset that though his crew has returned, there is no sign of them being allowed to leave Iran.

Shirin said he had telephoned Ravi who promised to settle the matter with the Iranian authorities.

On January 14, Shirin told Rediff.com, "We have been languishing here for three months. We don't want our salaries, we just want to go home. Please rescue us."

[devesh]

a State that openly shows that it cares not for its citizens is a State that exposes itself fatally to all and sundry bullies.

when your citizens are held hostage against their will by a foreign State, it is your responsibility to question the legitimacy of the actions of that State and also to set the entire apparatus of your own govt/State to advertise the wretched nature of that State, and do everything to secure the release and return of those citizens. it is a basic duty that you cannot abandon. at the least, do it for yourself, b/c no action, or negligence of the issue is an open invitation to all and sundry 2-bit players to goad and taunt you.

[Anurag]

Hits the nail from the article above... Some how this needs to be echoed LOUD and CLEAR!

So the reformers within the party have had to reform by stealth. When the Congress-backed former finance minister Pranab Mukherjee became India’s president and announced that “trickle-down” from rapid growth cannot redress Indian poverty, it showed a shocking failure to recognise the outcomes of the recent period of rapid growth in reducing poverty at a speed that the failed Nehruvian model never delivered.

The expansion of unsustainable welfare entitlements lies in the failure of the Nehruvians to distinguish between two kinds of populism. The first, embraced by the Congress is redistributive with an extension of state largesse. It views the majority of its citizens as being dependent children who need the state to provide for them.

The other is to empower the people who are fully capable, autonomous beings held back by various impediments created by dirigisme, and the state’s failure to provide the basic public goods of law and order and the merit goods of health and education.

[ramana]

Anurag, Thats by Deepak Lal Prof at UCLA. He was product of DSE and IAS. He quit the service and became a collge prof.

[rgosain]

Ramana, Anurag. Re Deepak Lal, also ex oxford compare that to Jean Dreze and it shows how India has devalued itself. No self-respecting African or Chinese would tolerate such amateurs

[abhishek_sharma]

Views from the Right

BORDER RAGE

The brutal killing of two Indian soldiers by Pakistani forces has made the Sangh Parivar critical of the Congress-led UPA government. The editorial in the Organiser asserts that the government has taken a “cavalier attitude” towards the defence of borders, with the power of the commanders on ground being so “restrained” for political reasons that “they have to wait for a nod from Delhi to act even in an on-the-spot case” like the killings. Lamenting the “increasing” say of bureaucrats and political appointees on matters that are “purely strategic” and that should be dealt with by “battle-scarred soldiers”, the Organiser, in fact, stretches its criticism to allege that the UPA was guided by its “vendetta” against former army chief V.K. Singh. The Organiser, in fact, criticises the government for “refusing to give a befitting reply to those who are daring to kill and maim our soldiers”.

The Panchjanya has published a full-page article that loudly declares that the government’s silence on Pakistan will go against the national sentiment. Contending that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s Sharm el-Sheikh initiative with Pakistan indicated a weakness on India’s part, the editorial in Panchjanya suggests that Pakistan should be “taught in the same language” for its brutal act.

DEFENDING BHAGWAT

Both Sangh Parivar weeklies have taken it upon themselves to tell the “truth” about the alleged distortion of RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat’s remarks on women and atrocities against them in Indian society.

The Organiser has published a full-page special report on Bhagwat’s recent visit to Assam to set the record straight, given that his remarks dismissing atrocities against women in urban India at Silchar created a controversy. “India has a tradition of respecting and protecting womanhood,” goes the headline, summing up Bhagwat’s remarks on women.

Another full-page article in Panchjanya criticises the media for creating the controversy about Bhagwat’s remarks by allegedly twisting them out of context. In an article titled “Far from truth, market of untruths”, the article seeks to warn the media that it has no business to “sensationalise” comments to sell news. It alleges the media seeks to create intellectual confusion by running down the Hindu and nationalist opinions under pressure from foreign capital and secularism to nurture market forces. The article reproduces Bhagwat’s remarks verbatim to set the record straight.

SECULAR SILENCE

Both Sangh Parivar journals prominently display reports expressing the Parivar’s anger at Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen MLA Akbaruddin Owaisi’s recent allegedly communal speech. While it was the media that brought Owaisi’s speech into the spotlight, the cover story in Organiser criticises secular thought for Owaisi’s transgression, saying that “the media and the political class” have entered into a “conspiracy of silence” on the issue in “the true traditions of Indian secularists”.

The Panchjanya report describes Owaisi as a “traitor” with a “poisonous mentality” and highlights the High Court’s observations expressing displeasure to substantiate its claim. Reporting the “judicial rap” and 14 days of judicial custody, the Organiser’s cover story asserts that “loony blabs” of the “Rowdy Razakar” have provoked “national contempt” and that the “secular silence” has been “deafening”.

Compiled by Ravish Tiwari

[Anurag]

Ramana, Anurag. Re Deepak Lal, also ex oxford compare that to Jean Dreze and it shows how India has devalued itself. No self-respecting African or Chinese would tolerate such amateurs

I'm not sure what you're trying to say here, but what I'm saying is the man is spot on!

[rgosain]

Anurag, Jean Dreze (university of essex) is Sonia G economics guru and the spiritual father of the NRGEGA project - not so much an economist more an ideologist and it's a pity that India is laboratory for their amateurish schemes

[Sushupti]

Ideas from the Rajiv's book "Being Different" trickles to MSM

Imperious Authoritarianism in the Garb of Modernity
Pleading protection from the New Missionaries of Uniformity


An edited version of this article appeared in The Hindu of January 17, 2013 under the title "Don't Like This Temple? Choose Another" (See link:http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/d ... 313507.ece)

http://www.manushi.in/blog_content.php?blogid=51

[Anurag]

Anurag, Jean Dreze (university of essex) is Sonia G economics guru and the spiritual father of the NRGEGA project - not so much an economist more an ideologist and it's a pity that India is laboratory for their amateurish schemes

I don’t' care about Jean Dreze, that Frenchie is a big time socialist! I'm only talking about Deepak Lal and what he says in that article is spot on. India's creative energy needs to be let lose. There is a reason why constituencies like Amethi have remained a third world dump even after dole outs from SG's party for decades now. Their goal is to keep them enslaved on "welfare". That's the very same reason why Africa will always remain poor. They defeat the entire purpose of 'aid'.

The day the Indian govt. gets its act together and steps back to allow the people of India to be truly free will be the day India's adversaries will start to get uneasy. They know, the Indian Govt. is the only impediment to India's real growth and realizing its people's potential!

[ramana]

Anurag, rgosain is also reiniforcing your message by saying dregs are advising.

[Anurag]

Anurag, rgosain is also reiniforcing your message by saying dregs are advising.

Except for I dont' like Dreze, because NREGA is a waste of money! Reforms and small govt is what's needed, but again in India that's a wet dream!

[Prem]

ISLAM and Hindus: Late Anwar Sheikh [A Vedic Hindu]
On following islam , God relization
great answer "why there are so many fools in the world?"