Media working overtime to decipher Bhagwatji’s message

Behind Bhagwat’s deceptive nonchalance, the message was there for all to read. -  Seema Chishti, Indian Express

CPM Kerala Party Secretary Pinarayi has lost his BEARING!

No one (not even his party men) has high opinion on intelligence of CPM state secretary Pinarayi Vijayan. But his latest claims blaming the RSS for the murder of Paul Muthoot George can only come from the mind of  a demented personality. He making this claim because killer has used a S-shaped knife. And according to him S-shaped knife is an RSS specialty!!!

In doing so he is refuting his own police version that it was a ‘quotation’ gang from Changanassery which had murdered Paul George and that the attack was an aftermath of a drunken-brawl.

His allegation comes in wake of growing suspicion about Home Minister Kodiyeri Balakrishnan’s office and relatives involvement in this case. Paul when he was killed was accompanied in the car by Om Prakash and Puthenpalam Rajesh, who were goondas associated with the CPM and it was two police officials of Kollam district who had saved these goondas. I guess Pinnarai is following age old policy of CPM to attack the RSS if anything wrong that happens in the state

Paul George Muthoot, a prominent businessman of the Kerala-based Muthoot Finance group, was waylaid and killed by the 12 member gang shortly after midnight while he was returning home from a resort in his car.

Whose statue is bigger?

The Congress NCP government in Maharashtra has decided to give a  competition to New York's Statue of Liberty and Mayawati by building a 300 ft; 350 Crore statue of Shivaji. This statue would be placed on an artificial island, a kilometer away in the Arabian Sea. It would also include a library, a museum and an amphitheatre.

In comparison, Mayawati’s statues is a Mickey mouse. The largest statue of Mayawati and Kanshi Ram at Bhimrao Ambedkar Samajaik Parivartan Sthal in the state capital is only 24-ft high bronze statues and build at a pittance cost of  Rs1.55 crore. Mayawati shame of you!!!

Referring to Mayawati's statue spree, Rahul Gandhi had earlier said

the state has 'place for statues, not people'. And alleged that this is why the state was ignoring important issues like the power crises.

This comes at a time when Maharashtra government is said to have borrowed Rs 11,000 crore from the Centre to fight the drought and Maharashtra is becoming Farmer suicide capital of India. Nearly 29,000 farmers committed suicide in Maharashtra between 1997 and 2005, official data show. No other State comes close to that total. This means that of the roughly 1.5 lakh farmers who killed themselves across the country in that period, almost every fifth one was from Maharashtra — which saw a 105 per cent increase in farm suicides in those nine years. More than 19,000 of those farmer suicides occurred from 2001 onwards.

 

Is TOI - Toilet of India

Todays Times of India has a screaming headline Anti-Sardar Patel book sold from RSS HQ in Gujarat. The reporter Ashish Vashi reoports with baited breath that Seshadri ji’s bookj `The Tragic Story of Partition'  has unflattering references to Nehru and Patel as Seshadri clubs both and holds them responsible for partition!

Following are the excerpt which he found most offending. I am still trying very hard to find the anti sardar reference in this

``When the new Viceroy Lord Mountbatten announced on 3rd June 1947 the plan of transfer of power, it came as a stunning blow to the people. For that plan, approved by Nehru and Patel, had envisaged cutting up Bharat and creation of Pakistan! ... The great and trusted leaders of Congress had turned their back on the sacred oaths they had taken, and the pledges they had administered to the people. What took place on the August 15-15, 1947, was this gross betrayal of the nation's faith, the betrayal of the dreams of countless fighters and martyrs who had plunged into the fire of freedom struggle with the vision of Akhand Bharat in their hearts.''

On another page, Seshadri writes: ``The Working Committee met in a tense atmosphere. Everybody felt depressed at the prospect of Partition. The Viceroy's proposals were accepted without much discussion. As a matter of fact, Jawaharlal and Vallabhai were already committed to the acceptance of the proposals. There was no critical examination...''

People go to Toilet to excrete human waste, It seems TOI has taken that place for Intellectual waste

Sudheendra Kulkarni thinking politician

Sudheendra Kulkarni has been appointed member of an advisory committee in the railway ministry, three days after he snapped his ties with the party.

Yes, he is ….He thinks for himself….

Post Jinnah Controversy – Pakistan grapples with identity crisis

Before Jinnah Controversy

After Jinnah Controversy

BJP going thru Forming – Storming – Norming – Performing model of group development

The rise of BJP to national party is phenomenal. Within a space of 30 years, it rose from a 2 seat party to become only non congress party to rule Indian for 5 years. It would be foolhardy to compare, BJP organization with congress or communist organisations which has been in existence for more than 100 years.

Like any group formation; BJP will have to go thru the painful process of group formation. One of best group development model(Forming – Storming – Norming – Performing model ) on group formation was proposed by Bruce Tuckman. According to this model all these phases are necessary and inevitable in order for the team to grow, to face up to challenges, to tackle problems, to find solutions, to plan work, and to deliver results.  Lets see where is BJP today.

Forming

This is the first stage of team formation where the team meets and learns about the opportunity and challenges, and then agrees on goals and begins to tackle the tasks. Team members tend to behave quite independently. They may be motivated but are usually relatively uninformed of the issues and objectives of the team. Team members are usually on their best behavior but very focused on themselves. Mature team members begin to model appropriate behavior even at this early phase. this phase.

During initial 30 years of their existence, BJP was going thru this stage. This was the stage when they reach

Storming

All members have their own ideas as to how the process should look, and personal agendas are often rampant. Storming is probably the most difficult stage for the team. They begin to realize the tasks that are ahead are different and more difficult than they previously imagined. Impatient about the lack of progress, members argue about just what actions the team should take. They try to rely solely on their personal and professional experience, and resist collaborating with most other team members.

The maturity of some team members usually determines whether the team will ever move out of this stage. Some team members will focus on minutiae to evade real issues. The storming stage is necessary to the growth of the team. It can be contentious, unpleasant and even painful to members of the team who are averse to conflict.

BJP is currently going thru this phase of Group building.

Norming

Once group goes thru the storming stage, Everyone wants to share the newly found focus. Enthusiasm is high, and the team is often tempted to go beyond the original scope of the process. During this stage, members reconcile competing loyalties and responsibilities. They accept the team, ground rules, roles, and the individuality of fellow members. Emotional conflict is reduced as previously competitive relationships become more cooperative.

This is what BJP should aim for. 

Performing

By now the team has settled its relationships and expectations. They can begin performing by diagnosing, problem solving, and implementing changes. At last, team members have discovered and accepted other's strengths and weakness. In addition, they have learned what their roles are. Performing includes these feelings and behaviors:

The team is now an effective, cohesive unit. You can tell when your team has reached this stage because you start getting a lot of work done.

Sudarshanji’s Jinnah comments misinterpreted

Spokesperson of the RSS, Ram Madhav, spoke exclusively to TIMES NOW on the issue of the comments that were allegedly made by the former chief of RSS, Sudarshan, on Jinnah.
Replying to a question as to how the former chief of the RSS, Sudarshan, had said that Jihhan was committed to undivided India, he said that his statement had been misinterpreted.
He clarified that Sudarshan had said that at one point of time in history, Jinnah had supported undivided India. Madhav also said that Sudarshan had also spoken how Jinnah had been one of the main causes of partition.

There will be no knight in shining armor to rescue BJP

Arun Shourie has dropped a bombshell by suggesting RSS  should do what Mao had once advised his countrymen.

“Bombard the headquarters. Clean up everybody from the top. Bring 10-15 people from the states who are competent, honest and dedicated and reconstruct immediately.”

He went on to add

RSS should have a tighter control over the party and its working “just like an eagle”. “The RSS need not give so much democracy to the party.

However, RSS again reemphasized its oft stated policy that that it will not intervene in BJP affairs and that the party will have to "analyse" the developments and take the right decision.RSS would provide "help and advice" to the BJP "but the political work has to be managed by them." Ram Madhav told

"I want to say this clearly that it is not the job of the RSS,"

RSS has rightly kept its distance from murky world of politics and focused on nation building thru social work. RSS view about politics was captured by ex RSS chief K.S. Sudarshanji when he compared politics to prostitutes. He said

“We have kept ourselves away from politics as salvation cannot be attained through it. Politics keeps changing every minute. Like a prostitute who keeps changing her form, politics also keeps changing its appearance. There is no permanent element in politics,”

Also, RSS can only be messengers of change by offering advice and opinions. RSS can offer a path to transform BJP into a Ideology-driven, Nation-focused organization. But it cannot bring about the change. Change must come from within BJP. Until leadership in BJP recognizes the imperative for change, it will not happen. Over involvement focusing on BJP’s problem will defocus RSS from more critical nation building activity. RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat is also known to favour a hands-off approach when it comes to BJP

It is romantic to dream & believe that a knight in shining armor would come and rescue the maiden from evil forces and perhaps it is even possible in the imaginary world. However, real world this would remain a pipedream.

Please leave your opinion on comments. Its a very important issue.

Jaswant Singh: The Misfit

Jaswant Singh was born on 3 January 1938  to Late Thakur Sardar Singhji & Shrimati Kunwar Baisa, in Jasol village in Rajasthan's Barmer district formerly a part of the princely state of Jodhpur.

Mr. Singh studied at the Mayo College, Ajmer and was first batch at the National Defence Academy in Khadakvasla. In 1957, he was commissioned to the Central India Horse Armoured Regiment(21st King George V's Own Horse) where he achieved the rank of Major. In Army,  he found it difficult to adjusting to grueling life in Army. In his book, A Call to Honour - In service of Emergent India he describes the Army training  to be exaggerated, needlessly loud and overbearing and which is a daily assault on his  sensibilities, and  free spirit.

It was all clearly so exaggerated, needlessly loud and overbearing, and especially concentrated too, so as to break us in quickly. And for most, that breaking-in was permanent. As I tried to cope with the daily assault on my sensibilities, and upon my incurably free spirit, this ‘understanding’ helped me arrive at just the appropriate response: ‘I must preserve myself and not sink into the anonymity of totally submissive obedience.

Spoken like a True blooded ruler who is used to giving orders(Hukums) to lesser mortals & not taking one. It was not long  before he realised that Army is not his cup of team.

I already knew, had perhaps always known, that I was not going to be in the army for good.

He left Army on 22 November 1966 within just nine years of short service. His official reason for resigning was “to join politics” however there are some who say he premature retirement in 1966 to help the maharaja of Jodhpur manage the royal household. A wise career decision I guess…

What ever may be the reason, he did join politics. His political antipathy for the Congress and particularly for Sardar Patel could have been due to his royal connection. In 1947, Patel had used tact and pressure on the princely states to merge with India. Patel has always been seen negatively by the maharajas and their families.

One would have expected him to join Jan Sangh, founded by Shyama Prasad Mookerjee in 1951  but he fought the election on the Swatantra Party ticket in 1967; the Congress candidate defeated him. For the unaware, Pt. Nehru captured the essence of Swantrata Party when he described it as “the rich man's party” backed by princely rulers and industrialists and opposed to Nehruvian socialism.  In 1971, Swatantra Party secured only 8 seats in the Lok Sabha and after Rajaji's death in 1972, it declined rapidly. The Swatantra experiment ended in 1974 by merging with Bharatiya Kranti Dal led by Charan Singh.

In 1980, He became one of founding members of BJP. However just like in Army even in BJP he was a misfit. He did not believe in the ideology of BJP's or its parent, the RSS. He even maintained his distance from the RSS and its thinking. It is well known he  never joined the Ram temple movement or other such explosive political events.  At best his opportunistic association with BJP can be termed as Marriage of convenience. 

In BJP, he enjoyed the best opportunities that the BJP had to offer, but he was never a mass leader; he was never a popular figure with whom party cadres identified with. He was just a political lightweight who enjoyed power. In fact even, the research of his book was made possible also because of the stature he enjoyed during five years as Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha.

Even while being a senior party leader occupying important positions inparty and parliament, Jaswant Singh embarrassed BJP on several occasions. 

In July 2006, Singh released a book titled A Call to Honour: In Service of Emergent India.A controversy erupted immediately after the release of the book, in which Singh insinuated that a mole had existed in the Prime Ministerial Office during the tenure of Prime Minister P. V. Narasimha Rao, who had leaked information to American sources. Soon after, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh challenged him to name the mole. In response, Singh sent a letter to him. The letter, Singh said later, had no signature, and no name of any mole. Jaswant Singh then backed off, saying his views on the subject were based on a "hunch".

It was high time BJP got rid of Misfits…

We only need selfless leaders

Come let me take you to your destiny

Sardar Patel and RSS

Also Read Murder of Mahatma Gandhi: Truth

There is an ongoing debate in the country on who took initiative to Ban RSS after tragic murder of RSS.  Following is screen capture of one of most authoritative books (The Hindu nationalist movement and Indian politics: 1925 to the 1990s ...By Christophe Jaffrelot) which throws some light on this issue. More important is the reference list used by the author. 

If only Jaswant had spend even half the time he spend studying Jinnah to study his parent organisation of 30 years!!! Moreover, If you want to blame Patel for banning RSS then you should also credit him for unbanning RSS after all both these incidents occurred under his watch as home minister. In fact, After Gandhi’s murder, it would have been more difficulty to unban RSS than ban it. If Patel really wanted he could have finished of Nascent RSS.

Sardar Patel supported Hindu activist against Gandhi’s candidate for presidency of congress 

Patel invites RSS to Merge with Congress and his belief that RSS is a patriotic organisation. And how he chides congress for trying to crush RSS

How Patel didnot believe that RSS was not responsible for Murder of Gandhi and how Nehru pressurized him to act

Nehru was Paranoid!

How RSS was brutally repressed

Congress passes resolution authorizing Swayamsewaks to be part of congress

Its not first time a book is banned in India!

The seculars are raising a huge stink on Gujarat banning Jawant Singhs controversial book Jinnah — India, Partition, Independence. They see it as another instance of stifling independent views in Gujarat

However , what they forget is in 2006, The Da Vinci Code, which was not even banned in in Christian majority was either banned or suspended in Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Nagaland, Meghalaya and Punjab. None of them were ruled by BJP

Similarly congress government also banned James Laine's Shivaji: Hindu King in Muslim India fopr remarks that were deemed derogatory to the Maratha hero.

Also, Books which showed congress leaders and Nehru Family in bad light were also banned at different point of times.  The list includes Who Killed Gandhi by Lourenco De Sadvandor Banned: Dec 29, 1979  with the most famous ones being Nine Hours to Rama Banned: Sept 1, 1962, a fictionalised account of Mahatma Gandhi's assassination by Stanley Wolpert & Nehru, A Political Biography by Michael Edwards. Banned: Dec 13, 1975

Congress’s Dilemma

Gujarat Ban of Jinnah: India-Partition Independence is an overreaction

Gujarat government had on Wednesday night banned Singh's controversial book on Jinnah alleging it is an attempt to defame the image of the country's first Home Minister Vallabhbhai Patel by "questioning his patriotic spirit".

I fully agree with BJP’s decision to expel Jaswant Singh, he had crossed the laxman rekha. But banning the book is NOT ACCEPTABLE! 

I agree with what Jaswant Singh said

"The day we start banning books, we ban thinking.

We Are All Hindus Now – Lets say OM

As per a recent surveys, conceptually Americans are slowly becoming more like Hindus and less like traditional Christians in the ways they think about God, themselves, each other, and eternity.

On the question of GOD

The Rig Veda says: "Truth is One, but the sages speak of it by many names." A Hindu believes there are many paths to God. Jesus is one way, the Qur'an is another,  None is better than any other; all are equal. While conservative Christians have not been taught to think like this. They learn in Sunday school that their religion is true, and others are false. Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the father except through me."

Americans are no longer buying it. According to a 2008 Pew Forum survey, 65 percent of Americans believe that "many religions can lead to eternal life"—including 37 percent of white evangelicals, the group most likely to believe that salvation is theirs alone. Also, the number of people who seek spiritual truth outside church is growing.

On the question of Resurrection.

Christians traditionally believe that bodies and souls are sacred, that together they comprise the "self," and that at the end of time they will be reunited in the Resurrection. You need both, in other words, and you need them forever.

Hindus believe no such thing. At death, the body burns on a pyre, while the spirit—where identity resides—escapes. In reincarnation, central to Hinduism, selves come back to earth again and again in different bodies.

So here is another way in which Americans are becoming more Hindu: 24 percent of Americans say they believe in reincarnation, according to a 2008 Harris poll. More than a third of Americans now choose cremation, according to the Cremation Association of North America, up from 6 percent in 1975.

Was this really necessary!

Former Indian foreign minister and Bharatiya Janata Party leader Jaswant Singh, right, and Pakistan’s high commissioner to India, Shahid Malik, left, pose at the release of Singh’s book

Hindu Chini Bhai Bhai

The Beijing correspondent of The Hindu - Ananth Krishnan in his article Does Beijing Really Want To break Up India? has questioned the credibility of the article titled 'China Should Break Up The Indian Union', written by D.S.Rajan, of the Chennai Centre For China Studies. A detailed retort to Ananth Krishnan’s article was published by B. Raman in his article Not Lost In Translation. Interestingly, Ananth Krishnan has taken issue with Ramans retort and has said its libellous & irresponsible. You can read Ananth Krishnan’s justifications here

For the unaware, D.S.Rajan was part of team trained and developed by Government of India after 1962 chinese debacle and has spend more than 35 years monitoring writings in the Chinese language media. While, Ananth Krishnan belongs to Kasturi Ranga Iyengar family who owns “The Hindu” (just like N. Ram, his predecessor N. Ravi etc) and is the first member of the youngest generation of the family to join the business. Ananth Krishnan took over as Beijing correspondent of The Hindu after Pallavi Aiyar moved on as Brussels correspondent of Business Standard.

One should not be surprised by this coming from The Hindu whom World Press Review (Worldpress.org) lists  as a left-leaning independent newspaper. This political polarization towards left ideology is supposed to have taken place since N. Ram took over as editor-in-chief after N. Ravi and Malini Parthasarathy were removed as editor and executive editor of the paper in an overnight bloodless coup in 2003.

N Ram is a well known CPI(M) and Marxist sympathizer. He had served as the vice president of the Students Federation of India (SFI), the student wing of CPI(M). Ram's first wife Susan was an Irish woman who was for many years in charge of Oxford University press publications in India. After separating from Susan, he is now married to Mariam (Mariam Chandy), a Kerala Syrian Christian.

This is not first time when The Hindu has went against popular sentiment (& intelligence) to project and protect Leftist Ideology and China by extension. Even Hindus Readers' Editor K. Narayanan found fault with the Hindu’s coverage of Nandigram and Tibet. In a stinging analysis he reported

I compared the reporting of the events in other Indian newspapers (English) and also The Guardian and the New York Times with that in The Hindu from March 15 to 19 and could not but note the wide gap which led to the readers’ protests. (The angles given to the stories and their display are not to be questioned; that is editorial privilege). Overall, these points struck me as noteworthy:

1. Reliance on Xinhua, the official Chinese news agency. Its reports should have been balanced by inputs from other news agencies, but their use was scanty and selective. No doubt they too would have had their angles and biases but that would have been another side of the picture. Why was The Guardian, otherwise used extensively, ignored (except for an eyewitness account which was not very informative)?

2. The Hindu’s perceptive correspondent in Beijing, Pallavi Aiyar, made no contribution, except to report Prime Minister Wen’s press conference.

3. The statements of the Chinese Prime Minister and the Chinese envoy in Delhi were fully reported. The Dalai Lama’s were truncated versions. Many readers noted that his remark on “cultural genocide” was edited out.

4. The most surprising feature was the total absence of Tibet in the “Letters to the Editor column” — in which otherwise comments appear even as events are unfolding and continue for days. A few letters appeared after an article and an editorial were published and ceased abruptly.

The Hindu uses Xinhua news agency owned by the Government of China, and a mouthpiece of the Chinese government to fetch China related stories. Also, according to Friends of Tibet, N Ram is also the mastermind behind 'India-China Association of Journalists', an embassy-sponsored organisation specializing in arranging pleasure trips for Indian journalists. After one of his trips to Tibet, The cover story in  Frontline, written by N.  Ram, provided an extended and lavishly illustrated brief for the Chinese occupation of Tibet.  The Chinese, claims Ram, have brought hospitals, roads and schools to a previously deprived land.  He minimizes the attacks on Tibetan cultural institutions and religious beliefs that the Chinese have so demonstrably carried out. , he wrote with baited breath

Unprecedented economic growth, rises in living standards, education, infrastructure development, job creation, central government subsidies, and political policies implementing the autonomy mandated in the Chinese Constitution are transforming life, work, and mindsets, especially of the young, in sparsely populated Tibet. And the railway is making a big difference.

It is sad that “The Mahavishnu of Mount Road” has now become  “People’s Daily of China” or “Beijing’s Mouthpiece” depending upon you follow B. Raman or  Nitin Pai.

Chronic Attention Seekers

A person  lives in several circles which are not mutually exclusive. He/She may be a son/daughter, a mother/father, a citizen of nation, a responsible person in a society and may be even a leader of an outfit etc etc. Every circle has its marayada and responsibility.

One cannot be just responsible and respectful towards responsibility and maryada of one circle  forget others. He/she has to be a responsible son/daughter at the same time he has to be a responsible leader/citizen/father etc..

In Jaswants Singhs case, it he seems that he is more focused towards his role as a independent citizen of this nation but is forgetting his responsibilities as leader of a nationalistic political party whose survival depends on goodwill of common citizens who love this nation and cannot forget "painful" part of history for which the Pakistan founder was directly responsible.

He is acting like a chronic attention seeker. In these circumstances, I donot seem him very different from Rakhi Sawant. Only difference being one is material while other is more psychological.

There will be no secular tears for Rulda Singh!

Rulda Singh, head of Rashtriya Sikh Sangat, an affiliate of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS)  succumbed to his injuries in PGI.

Earlier, Babbar Khalsa Internationl (BKI) had claimed responsibility for the attack on him.

Had it been a a leader of some other minority group our secular media would have cried a river!