Monday, January 4, 2010

India's "insecure" minorities - It does not stop at 49.5 percent

  • tags: no_tag

    • Images - from bottom to top:
      (a) Haj Pilgrims at Mumbai hijack airliner for 15 hours [link]
      (b) Violent stone pelting protest in Gujarat to get a BRTS stop named after a Pir [link]
      (c) Muslims protest to ban Google in India [link]
       
    • Haj pilgrims confine crew in AI plane for 15 hours
    • Haj pilgrims on board an Air India flight from Jeddah refused to leave the plane on arriving here and confined its cabin crew for 15 hours resenting the diversion of the aircraft from fog-hit Delhi.
    • [source: Deccan Herald]
    • By the time news reaches you, several filters get applied. Some of it does not reach you at all, or, sometimes when they do reach you, they get sanitized by the "style guides". For instance, once the news factory churns out the above piece of news, it becomes something like this:
    • 20 unruly fliers 'hijack' AI flight for 15 hrs
    • See, how easy it is? "Haj Pilgrims" become "unruly fliers", like they say, news is like sausage, you don't wanna know how it's made. At least you know the broad outline of how this one panned out, including how the security personnel made no attempt whatsoever trying to rescue the crew. What you don't know is just how much never makes it beyond the editorial desks. You didn't hear about Miraj riots, perhaps you didn't hear about violent stone and bottle pelting at oncoming cars at Mahim during Muharram either.
    • Happy New Year. Stay alert, stay safe.

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

महाजाल पर सुरेश चिपलूनकर (Suresh Chiplunkar): हिन्दू “नाबालिग” लड़की भगाना शरीयत के मुताबिक जायज़ है? तथा दीप प्रज्जवलित करना “गैर-इस्लामिक” है? : पढ़िये दो सेकुलर खबरें… Shariat, Islamic Personal Law, E Ahmed, Pseudo Secularism

  • tags: no_tag

    • यदि कोई व्यक्ति किसी नाबालिग लड़की को भगाकर ले जाये और शादी कर ले तो उसे भारतीय कानून और संविधान के तहत सजा हो सकती है, ये सामान्य सी बात लगभग सभी जानते हैं, लेकिन अगर कोई मुसलमान, किसी नाबालिग हिन्दू लड़की को भगाकर “निकाह” कर ले तो यह जायज़ है… कोलकाता हाईकोर्ट ऐसा मानता है, जबकि मैं समझता था कि नाबालिग लड़की भगाना गैर-ज़मानती अपराध है।
    • 1) क्या इससे यह साबित माना जाये कि कोई मुस्लिम लड़का यदि हिन्दू नाबालिग को भगाकर शादी (या निकाह जो भी हो) कर ले तब भारतीय कानून उसका कुछ नहीं बिगाड़ सकता? क्योंकि उनका अपना पर्सनल लॉ है।

      2) क्या मुस्लिम निकाहनामे में नाबालिग से शादी करना गुनाह नहीं है?

      3) एक देश में दो कानून कब तक चलेंगे?

      4) सुना है कि देश में “महिला आयोग” नाम की एक चिड़िया है वो क्या कर रही है?

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Non-veg food on ship irks Sabarimala pilgrims - dnaindia.com

  • tags: no_tag

    • Chennai
    • A group of 450 Sabarimala pilgrims from Andaman and Nicobar Islands, who landed here onboard MV Nankari on Sunday, accused the ship’s crew of serving them non-vegetarian food during their five-day travel despite assurances that they would be served vegetarian meals only.
    • Pilgrims from the Andaman and Nicobar Islands take the sea route and land in Chennai ahead of their travel to the Kerala shrine during the December-January annual puja season.

      “We found fish floating in the rasam and mutton pieces in the sambar,” the pilgrims said on embarking at the Chennai port.
      The ruling deity of Sabarimala, Lord Ayyappa, is said to be a bachelor god. Hence male devotees abstain from any contact with women during the pilgrimage.

      “We were also made to sit along with young women much against our wishes. When we complained, the crew members threatened us,” said the pilgrims.

      They said they were forced to survive on fruits and biscuits during the five-day journey as their pleas for vegetarian food because of religious abstinence went in vain. They also alleged that the catering contract of the ship was given to a non-Hindu man.

      The issue came to light when newly elected Tamil Nadu BJP president Pon Radhakrishnan visited the port to meet the angry devotees.


Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

प्रवासी भारतीय सम्मेलन में मलेशिया का होगा सबसे बड़ा शिष्टमंडल - Videsh - LiveHindustan.com

  • tags: no_tag

    Image Loading
    • नई दिल्ली में होने वाले प्रवासी भारतीय सम्मेलन में सबसे बड़ा शिष्टमंडल मलेशिया में रहने वाले भारतीय मूल के लोगों का होगा। नई दिल्ली में सात से नौ जनवरी तक होने वाले आठवें प्रवासी भारतीय दिवस सम्मेलन में 150 देशों से प्रवासी भारतीय शिरकत करेंगे।

      मलेशिया से आने वाले इस 130 सदस्यीय शिष्टमंडल का नेतृत्व मलेशियन इंडियन कांग्रेस (एमआईसी) के अध्यक्ष सामी वेलू करेंगे। शिष्टमंडल में मानव संसाधन विकास मंत्री एस सुब्रामण्यम भी शिरकत करेंगे। इस शिष्टमंडल में एमआईसी के नेता, गैर सरकारी संगठन के प्रतिनिधि, व्यवसायी और मीडियाकर्मी भी शामिल हैं। वेलू पूर्ण सत्र को भी संबोधित कर सकते हैं। स्थानीय मीडिया की खबरों में सोमवार को कहा गया है कि प्रतिबंधित हिंदू अधिकार संगठन हिंदराफ के नेता पी वातीमूर्ति भी सम्मेलन में शिरकत कर सकते हैं।


Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

खोया जनाधार पाने के प्रयास में जुटा संघ :: प्रेसनोट डाट इन | आपकी भाषा आपकी खबरें

  • tags: no_tag

    • हिंदुत्ववादी विचारधारा से प्रेरित राष्ट्रीय स्वयं सेवक संघ गुजरात में एक बार फिर अपनी ताकत बढ़ाने के लिए सक्रिय हो गया है।
    • यह अलग बात है कि गुजरात में पिछले कुछ वर्षो से शाखाओं की घटती संख्या ने संघ की चिंता बढ़ा दी है। मुख्यमंत्री नरेन्द्र मोदी के नेतृत्व में भाजपा प्रदेश में पूरी तरह महफूज है,लेकिन संघ की अब पहले जैसी धमक नजर नहीं आती है। राज्य में जहां पहले 1500 से अधिक शाखाएं लगती थीं वर्तमान में उनकी संख्या घटकर 800 से भी कम रह गई हैं।
    • इसके अलावा गुजरात में विश्व हिंदू परिषद के पास प्रवीण तोगडि़या जैसा फायर ब्रांड नेता होने की कीमत भी भाजपा को चुकानी पड़ रही है। तोगडि़या की धमक के चलते युवाओं में संघ के बजाए विहिप का आकर्षण अधिक था। हालांकि प्रदेश में नरेन्द्र मोदी के सत्तारुढ़ होने के बाद तोगडि़या की भी पकड़ ढीली होने लगी ,लेकिन सांगठनिक तौर पर इसका फायदा संघ को होने के बजाए सीधे भाजपा को ही मिला।

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Raman's strategic analysis: TOI--JANG BHAI,BHAI

  • tags: no_tag

    • B.RAMAN
    • The desire for peace one can understand.


      The desire for closer people-to-people contacts one can equally understand , but the sudden love of the Times of India for the Jang group one cannot.


      If the TOI had joined hands with the Dawn group of Karachi, that would have made some sense. No other media group of Pakistan enjoys as much respect among the people of Pakistan and in the international community as the Dawn group does.


      But, no other media group of Pakistan has been as much controversial and as money-minded as the Jang group has been over the years.
    • It is alleged in Pakistan: Look where the money is. One will find Jang there.


      The sudden love of the TOI for Pakistan and the Jang group is as mysterious as the sudden love of L.K.Advani for Mohammad Ali Jinnah some years ago and as the sudden admiration of Jaswant Singh for Jinnah last year.

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Why Hinduism will win in the end « Indian Realist

  • tags: no_tag

    • Our religion and culture is the produce of a psyche that is conditioned by the concept of Dharma — the primordial, universal order of things that ensures peace and justice for all. While Muslims and Christians rampaged through the whole world, enslaving other people and looting their treastures, Hindus considered going outside their borders to subjugate other people as “opposed to justice and dharma.”
    • Just explain the concepts of Hinduism to Americans and Europeans and they will come on their own — there is no need for us to carry rice bags with us like missionaries to sell spurious goods that no one will buy otherwise. Aren’t we all proud to be Hindu, the inheritors of the greatest civilisation humanity has ever produced?

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Shady ToIlet paper’s new salvo against India « Indian Realist

  • tags: no_tag

    • Here is Times of India newspaper’s Aman ki Asha project. This message was printed on a full-page false cover of the paper on New Year day. (Note: Times of India (ToI) is called ToIlet paper by its readers due to its unethical, anti-national editorial standards.)
    • Love Pakistan
    • Why must we do it? Why do we need them? Why don’t they first say sorrty for what they’ve done? And the answer is simple.

      It is easier to say Hi than to say sorry. It’s shorter too.

      Besides, there is no rule that says a book has to be closed before a new one is opened. Not even if it’s a history book.

      So on the first day of this new year, we’re going make a start. Again.

      With Aman ki Asha. A brave, new people-to-people initiative by The Times of India and Pakistan’s Jang Group to bring the people of two fine nations closer together. Culturally, emotionally and peacefully.

    • India has absolutely nothing to gain by this while Pakistan will benefit immensely. It is designed to defang the Indians and encourage them to recieve blows from Pakistan repeatedly with inertness.

      Basically, Pakistani government and the Goras who back them and arm them know very well that the apple cart — Pakistan hitting India repeatedly through terror — can be upset once India makes up its mind to hit back and pay in the same coin. This “south Asian” business and “both are essentially the same people” campaigns are funded by the Goras in India to thwart exactly this possibility.

    • It is stupid to think that peace between two countries depends on the goodwill of the two peoples, one of whom is on the recieving end of bomb blasts and shootings orchestrated by the other.

      The people and their feelings do not matter at all in these things. It is the governments which drive these as a matter of strategy. The problem lies in the Pakistani ruling junta and its Islamic fanatacism, violence and terror as instruments of foriegn policy. The TOIlet’s communist editors and deranged owner wants to hide this basic fact from ordinary Indians.

    • To get an idea of how stupid this TOI campaign of Aman ki Asha is — which preaches pacificism and goodwill to the victim when the bodies of the Mumbai shootings are still warm — imagine ToI printing the same message for Ruchika’s father Subhash Chander Girhotra to make peace with Rathore after 19 years of bad blood. Here is what it will look like:

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

VIGIL Public Opinion Forum - THE 'TOLERANT' HINDU AS THE 'VILLAGE IDIOT'

  • tags: no_tag

    • The Hindus of post independent India find themselves in a position similar to that of the village idiot. We have an acquired image, an image given to us and enforced by the Indian political and intellectual class to sustain the myth of communal harmony and to sustain the modern face of this country – composite-cultural, multi-national, pluralist, secular democracy.
    • If these images, a combination of falsehoods and partial truths have to be sustained then the Hindu has to continue to remain the village idiot with an identity which is not self-realised but cleverly imposed. The Hindu must forever and all times be unflinchingly committed to ‘tolerance’ and ‘ahimsa’ – the two qualities guaranteed to keep Hindus in inaction, in self-destructive pacifism, in smug masochism which delights in its tolerance of abuse and which begs for more.
    • India is held up by the likes Sonia Gandhi, Syed Shahabuddin and Romilla Thapar as the perfect example of a ‘pluralist democracy’, of communal harmony where Hindus live peaceably with the world’s second largest population of Muslims. Now this is a self-serving and palpably false image because communal harmony is maintained as long as the Hindus do not react to Muslim intractability and Christian and Muslim stubborn refusal to respect Hindu sensibilities. Communal harmony rests on Hindu inaction, on the Hindu remaining the village idiot.
    • The intellectual Hindu with the capacity to resist abuse but whose will to resist has been neutralised by western education, is happy with the ‘tolerant’ epithet because ‘tolerance’ does not compel him to accept responsibility for resistance.
    • Gandhi ji told us that generosity and tolerance to be whole must now be embellished with ‘ahimsa’. So no matter how we are abused and humiliated, we must never give up on ‘ahimsa’. ‘Ahimsa’ is not for the weak, Gandhi ji told us kindly, to make us all feel even more virtuous, it is for the strong. Yeah, right. But of what use is strength if it cannot deter abuse or if it refuses to punish the abuser? And the Hindu village idiot never asked Gandhi ji if ‘ahimsa’ is a practical quality when good lived with evil, when an inclusive civilization was forced to co-exist with exclusive religions. And the idiot also never asked Gandhi ji why his inspiration Sri Rama did not practice the kind of ‘ahimsa’ Gandhi ji was preaching to us and why Sri Rama had to take to arms and wage a bloody war against Ravana.
    • The Hindu idiot also did not dare to question Gandhi ji if perhaps Gandhi ji was not imposing what was undeniably an admirable quality in an individual totally erroneously on an entire people, on an entire community! ‘Ahimsa’ is not a collective virtue, not when we live amidst humans who have no faith in it.
    • Radha Rajan
    • 21st June, 2004.

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

India Retold: BJP'S RECIPE FOR DISASTER: 'BAGAL MEIN SOREN, MUNH MEIN RAM RAM'

  • tags: no_tag

    • If we base our analysis on the faulty understanding that the Ram temple movement was no more than a communal, anti-Muslim upsurge, then everything else that follows not only prevents us from understanding the phenomenon in all its dimensions but also leads us to a wrong path for the future. Yes it did lead to the tragic and unacceptable demolition of the Babri Masjid. But, for most Hindus, was the movement really against mosques or Muslims? Absolutely not.
    • At another and more fundamental level, however, it was about values of governance.
    • Ram was the God whose name was always on the lips of Mahatma Gandhi. But no one can call him communal. Because for Gandhi, Ram represented a set of values to live by. That is what Ram has always meant to most Hindus too. That is one reason why, when Rajiv Gandhi gave Doordarshan the go ahead to telecast TV serial Ramayan in 1987, what followed was unprecedented and remains unsurpassed. The TV serial became so popular that the entire country used to come to a virtual halt on Sunday mornings as everyone who could gain access to a TV set stopped doing what they were to watch the story of Ram, even though they already knew much of it.
    • Ram represented a set of values to live by. That is what Ram has always meant to most Hindus too.
    • Arun Govil brought Ram in flesh and blood into the homes and hearts of Hindus across India like never before in India's history. It is due to this phenomenon, and not Advani's Rath Yatra or the Sangh Parivar's efforts, that the movement to build a Ram temple in Ayodhya gained the tremendous momentum that it did.
    • In the event, it was the BJP that reaped the benefit of the resurgence of Ram in Hindu homes and hearts. But where its leaders made a fundamental error was in believing that they could exploit the sentiments of people in name of Ram solely to get and keep political power. They clean forgot that Ram was really about values and ethics of governance.
    • Perhaps, there is still a belief that the practical and dirty craft of politics can somehow be married with Ram san His values. Perhaps the logic is that if the Congress can con, so can the BJP.
    • "Bagal mein chhuri, munh mein Ram Ram"

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Muslim Minister imposes Islamic Shariah on Indian Railways. He should be kicked out | Great Hindu

  • tags: no_tag

    ahmed
    • Union Minister of State for Railways E Ahmed should be kicked out of his portfolio.

      A cultural Taliban in secular India
    • The anti-Hindu ways of Ahmed were very well known in Kerala even before he became the Union Minister of State for Railways. After becoming the Union Minister of State for Railways, he is functioning like a Mughal chieftain. Many organisations like the Vishwa Hindu
      Parishad have already publicly condemned this Hindu-hating Minister for having issued instructions to Railways officers not to do Ganesha Puja, breaking of coconut, etc before starting of new trains, inauguration of tracks, bridges, etc. He has banned lighting of traditional oil lamps during inaugurations. Likewise, garlanding of
      trains, anointing them with sandal paste, sindoor, etc. have also been banned. Railway stations have been discouraged against doing puja to electronic panels etc. during ‘Vijayadasami’ and ‘Durga puja’.
    • He has ordered the closure of temples in Railway compounds and is planning their demolition. This anti-Hindu move of Ahmed has caused deep religious resentment and intense anger among the 25 lakh strong railway staff and Hindus at large.
    • – V. Sundaram
    • I am constrained to raise these questions.
      Are we living in Islamic Pakistan? Are we living in Islamic
      Bangladesh? Or are we living in Taliban-controlled Afghanistan? Let me
      move from this macrocosm to the microcosm. Are we living in the
      Muslim-majority Malappuram District in Kerala, rightly described by
      some journalists as a mini-Pakistan in India?

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Coward Hindus or Failed Islam | Column - M. Lal Goel | M. Lal Goel

  • tags: no_tag

    • Islam's rapid rise from insignificance to vast international empire had a touch of the miraculous. How could the Muslims have attained all this if God was not on their side? The fabulous military victories demonstrated to the faithful God's pleasure with their ways and displeasure with the ways of the infidel.
    • The Nobel Laureate V. S. Naipaul (Beyond Belief, 1998) observed that the Arabs were the most successful colonizers in the world.  The Arabic language becomes the sacred language for over a billion people.  Arabic heroes become their heroes. Bowing towards Mecca five times a day must surely count as an ultimate symbol of Arab cultural imperialism.

    • When temples and shrines were being destroyed, Hindus turned within and produced the most lyrical devotional poetry.  Mirabai, Kabir, Guru Nanak, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, Surdas, Ravidas, Tulsidas, these and many more composed their poems during Muslim ascendancy in India.  It is easier to bring down temple walls.  How do you bring down the shakti encased in shlokas and bhajans?  Who survives after 500 years? Mighty Babar or Guru Nanak? 

      Hindus should give up the false notion that they performed miserably before the Muslim or British challenge.  Maharaja Shivaji defeated Muslim armies in 1660s; Europe followed in defeating the Turks at Vienna in 1683 (on 9/11/1683, mark the date).  India was the first country in all of Asia and Africa to throw off the British colonial yoke in 1947.  Independence in Afro-Asian countries followed.

    • The 21st century may well be an Indian century, not because of India's growing economic might, but because of its perennial philosophy.  The tide has begun to turn in favor of ideas that first took root in India some 2,500 years ago: Oneness of Godhead, inherent divinity of man, pluralism, religious freedom and non-violence.

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

|| Satyameva Jayate || » Blog Archive » Reading the Bhagavad Gita…

  • tags: no_tag

    mahabharat
    • Arjuna asked:

      Hey God, if you feel that, wisdom is superior to action,
      Why are you pushing me to do this savage war? 1

      You seem to enchant my brain by your conflicting words,
      Please tell me decisively that, by which I will get fame. 2

    • Lord said:
    • None can remain for even for a fraction of time,
      Without doing any action whatsoever,
      For by fundamental laws of nature,
      One is forced to indulge in some action or other. 5
    • All actions in this world are done,
      Due to innate property of nature,
      And only the self centered one,
      Who is ignorant thinks that he does it. 27
    • Dedicate all the work you do to me,
      And understanding that you are the soul,
      Do actions without desire and attachment,
      And undertake this war in the state of peace. 30

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.