Saturday, April 17, 2010

Atanu Dey on India’s Development » Blog Archive » Open Thread — Say what you will

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    The Monkey and his Handler
    • Mr Puppet and his Italian Handler
    Gandhi loved the Young and Lovelies
    • Gandhi with the Young and Lovelies
    • As he grew older (and following Kasturba’s death) he was to have more women around him and would oblige women to sleep with him whom – according to his segregated ashram rules – were forbidden to sleep with their own husbands. Gandhi would have women in his bed, engaging in his “experiments” which seem to have been, from a reading of his letters, an exercise in strip-tease or other non-contact sexual activity. Much explicit material has been destroyed but tantalising remarks in Gandhi’s letters remain such as: “Vina’s sleeping with me might be called an accident. All that can be said is that she slept close to me.” One might assume, then, that getting into the spirit of the Gandhian experiment meant something more than just sleeping close to him.
    • Meanwhile, it seemed that challenging times required greater efforts of spiritual fortitude, and for that, more attractive women were required: Sushila, who in 1947 was 33, was now due to be supplanted in the bed of the 77-year-old Gandhi by a woman almost half her age. While in Bengal to see what comfort he could offer in times of inter-communal violence in the run-up to independence, Gandhi called for his 18-year-old grandniece Manu to join him – and sleep with him. “We both may be killed by the Muslims,” he told her, “and must put our purity to the ultimate test, so that we know that we are offering the purest of sacrifices, and we should now both start sleeping naked.”

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Atanu Dey on India’s Development » Blog Archive » Why the Congress Must Go

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    • We can paraphrase Einstein’s astute observation: Problems cannot be solved by the same set of institutions and organizations that created them.
    • Can Al-Qaeda Solve the Terrorism Problem?

      The Congress party led by the Nehru-Gandhi family cannot and will not solve India’s problem because they created the problem in the first place and it was in their narrow selfish interest that they did so. Expecting them to solve the problem is like expecting Al-Qaeda to address the problem of terrorism.

      We have a choice: either we bury the Congress party or we bury India. One or the other will happen. Which one is what we have to decide.


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VivekaJyoti: How deep are the roots of Indian civilization? -- BB Lal


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VivekaJyoti: Both Christianity and Islam owe their global success to forced conversions.


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VivekaJyoti: ‘Indians knew gravity laws 500 yrs before Newton’

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    • PUNE: Ancient Indian mathematician Bhaskaracharya, in his book Siddhanta Shriromani, had defined laws of gravity in 12th century, 500 years before Newton defined them for us. The speed of light was known to Indians since Vedic period, centuries before it was calculated by the Western world.

      Maitree, a group of professionals from Tata Consultancy Services and Bengaluru-based NGO Sanskrit Bharati have come together with a unique exhibition, Pride of India, to spread awareness about India's rich scientific heritage.

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VivekaJyoti: Marco Polo hails the Brahmins of India...

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    • Medieval Italian explorer Marco Polo hails the hails the Brahmins of India as being “most honorable,” possessing “hatred for cheating or of taking the goods of other persons. They are likewise remarkable for the virtue of being satisfied with the possession of one wife (p.298).”

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The Pioneer > Online Edition : >> Sinister pattern emerges

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    • The Pioneer Edit Desk

      Muslims run riot during Hindu festivals

      A pattern has begun to emerge from the incidents of communal violence that have been witnessed at Meraj in Maharashtra, Bareilly in Uttar Pradesh and, most recently, Hyderabad in Andhra Pradesh. In all these places, fanatical Muslims went on the rampage to prevent Hindus from observing their religious festivals or behaved in the most obnoxious manner to turn festivities into mourning.
    • In all three places, Muslims bent upon creating discord have been successful, with more than a little help from the respective State Governments: Neither the Congress (or its ally, the NCP) nor the BSP is keen to rein in hoodlums lest it be construed as acting against the ‘sentiments’ of the minority community. Hence, it is not surprising that rioting mobs have had their way as the police have stood on the sidelines, twiddling their thumbs. The pattern of Muslim-instigated violence is highlighted by the manner in which mullahs incited Muslims to run amok in Karnataka; had the State Government not acted with a firm hand, full-scale rioting would have followed.
    • Retaliatory violence, no matter how undesirable, is something that cannot be wished away.

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VivekaJyoti:


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सुंदर, साहसी और विवादास्पद -नज़रिया-विचार मंच-Navbharat Times

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    • देवदत्त पटनायक
    • हिंदू पौराणिक कथाओं में बहु-पुरुष संबंध रखनेवालीं द्रौपदी अकेली नायिका नहीं हैं। बल्कि उनकी सास कुंती का संपर्क अपने पति पांडु के अलावा कई पुरुषों के साथ रहा : वे चार देवता थे (सूर्य, यम, वायु और इंद्र)। लेकिन द्रौपदी की तरह कुंती का देवताओं से संपर्क आम जानकारी में नहीं था। उसके बारे में खुलकर चर्चा नहीं होती थी, केवल दबी जुबान में बातें की जाती थीं। और वे देवता कुंती के पतियों के रूप में नहीं जाने जाते, वे केवल संतानदाता थे।
    • हालांकि पांच पतियों वाली द्रौपदी को राजसभा में खींचकर लाया गया और सबके सामने उसके चीरहरण की कोशिश हुई। उन्हें आश्चर्य हुआ कि उसके साथ ऐसा क्यों हुआ? लोककथा है कि एक बार कृष्ण ने उसके लिए उत्तम वर भेजा जो उन्हें प्रेम करता, उनकी रक्षा करता और उनके प्रति निष्ठावान भी रहता। उसका नाम था कर्ण, लेकिन द्रौपदी ने उसे नीच कुल का कहकर नकार दिया। इसलिए बाद में उसका विवाह ऐसे पुरुष से हुआ जिसने उसे अपने भाइयों के बीच बांट दिया और जब उसे सबसे ज्यादा जरूरत थी तो उसकी रक्षा नहीं कर पाया।

      (लेखक पौराणिक कथाओं के विशेषज्ञ हैं )

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Haindava Keralam - Husain - A muslim ! So What?

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    • PRESS NOTE OF SANSKAR BHARATI ON CONTROVERSIAL PAINTINGS OF M.F. HUSAIN
    • Khajuraho and Konark Sculptures:

      This is true that sculptures at Konark and Khajuraho are erotica, depicting the man-woman relationship in generic terms. These sculptures nowhere represent a God or Goddess generally or specifically. But Maqbool Fida Husain has made specific Goddesses as the subject of his obscene paintings.
    • Call for Peaceful Satyagraha:
    • They should persuade people to socially ostracise him, boycott his painting exhibitions, not to purchase or hang his works and picket peacefully and offer Satyagraha to get all his paintings removed from the offices and galleries where they are on display. People should not take the law into their hands. Let the law take its own course.

      D.P. Sinha, I.A.S. (retd) for, Sanskar Bharati

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India Retold: SHASHI THAROOR: MAKING A 'DIFFERENCE'

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    • In 2005, the then Foreign Minister Natwar Singh was exposed for being a petty thief for helping his son make around Rs 75 lakhs through a dubious oil deal with Iraq. Natwar too was one of media's PLUs. Initially he stoutly denied any wrong doing whatsoever on his part, just as Tharoor is now doing. But soon, despite his best efforts, he found himself thrown out of the government because it was impossible to cover the trail.

      During those days, Vir Sanghvi had jumped to his defence. Natwar, Sanghvi wanted the nation to believe, was an honourable man because he was well-read, had a well stocked library, had devoured a large number of books, even authored some, and also had an 'outstanding' career in the Foreign Service.
    • When the Tharoor story first broke, the reaction of Rajdeep Sardesai was almost similar.

    • It is more than evident from the interview that Shashi Tharoor gave to Barkha Dutt that when he got into the 'mentor' game, he figured that his real role would remain under wraps because of the confidentiality clause about the identity of the owners of a team; since no details of the ownership of other teams had been made public till then, Tharoor reckoned that the 'hamam' effect would ensure that the extent of his involvement and the 'pay-off' of Rs 75 crore worth of sweat equity to his girl friend and possibly future wife would not become public. That, and not naiveté, emboldened Tharoor to misuse public office.
    • As per his own admission, in the consortium that includes Sunanda Pushkar, there are some people "I haven't even met or am aware of". Why, then, did he agree to 'mentor' a lot whose identities, much less credentials, were not known to him? Was it because Sunanda was from the beginning a part of the consortium or was it only after they agreed to bring her on board on Tharoor's 'suggestion'?

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Why this fuzz about Sania Mirza? Her display can be matched even by a bitch | Great Hindu

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