An appeal to President of India

Dear Sri Ashok Sharma,

 

Thanks for sharing the following plea. Indeed, it is a good request and I hope President Dr. Pratibha Patil considers this. May be she ought to consider taking the initiative to add a few hours course in Democracy and Pluralism to every high school curriculum, and an advanced course in College as a requirement. I will be happy to teach pluralism as a pilot project to the IIT students, the future our nation's immediate future. 

 

I am pleased to share this with my group, DallasIindians@yahoogroups.com and my India blog at http://MikeGhouseforIndia.Blogspot.com

 

MikeGhouse is committed to building a Cohesive America and offers pluralistic solutions on issues of the day. He is a professional speaker, thinker and a writer on pluralism, politics, civic affairs, Islam, India, Israel, peace and justice. Mike is a frequent guest on Sean Hannity show on Fox TV, and a commentator on national radio networks, he contributes weekly Texas Faith column at Dallas Morning News and regularly at Huffington post, and several other periodicals. www.TheGhousediary.com is his daily blog. 

 

In a message dated 4/30/2012 5:53:37 P.M. Central Daylight Time, galaxicindian@yahoo.com writes:

Ø I SUGGEST PRAY AND REQUEST OUR PRESENT PRESI MRS PRATIBHA DEVI S PATIL, THAT:

BEFORE COMPLETION OF HER PRESENT TERM AS PRESIDENT OF INDIA , SHE MUST CONSIDER SERIOUSLY HOW COULD SHE BE BEST REMEMBERED AS GOOD PRESIDENT OF INDIA. BESIDES OTHER MATTERS THAT THE PRESIDENT MAY HAVE LINED UP FOR REVIEW PRES MAY CONSIDER FOLLOWING;

Ø TAKING HELP OF A FEW WELL MEANING NON POLITICAL CITIZEN OF INDIA PRESIDENT MAY WELL START DOING SOMETHING MEANINGFUL AND GOOD FOR THE WONDERFUL PEOPLE OF THIS GREAT COUNTRY, INDIA WHERE UNFORTUNATELY, ALL RESOURCES AND FORTUNES OF NEARLY A BILLION OF OUR PEOPLE IS PLUNDERED AND DIVERTED BY THE VERY LEADERS OF INDIA WHO HUDDLE TOGETHER IN A CIRCULAR BUILDING BARELY A WALKING DISTANCE FROM THE PRESIDENT’S OFFICE .

SO, WE DEMAND THAT BEFORE EXPIRY OF THE CURRENT TERM OF PRESIDENT IN OFFICE , MRS PATIL MAY CONSIDER SIGNING A FEW IMPORTANT PRESIDENTIAL EXECUTIVE ORDER'S IN THE BEST INTEREST OF OUR PEOPLE FOR WE BELIEVE PRESIDENTS ONLY JOB SHOULD NOT JUST BE CONFINED TO JUST THREE FOUR RITUALISTIC ROUTINES OF 26 JAN PARADE OR DEFENCE FORCES SALUTES AND OR KEEP LOOKING FORWARD TO WHAT THE GOVT IN POWER /UPA CHAIRPERSON BRINGS BEFORE HER. UPA, IN ALL PROBABILITY, WOULD BE SEEN BUSY AND FREQUENTING PRESIDENT OFFICE FOR IT ALWAYS HAD A HIDDEN DUBIOUS AGENDAS OF SOME KIND OF LOOT AND PLUNDER WHICH PRESENT GOVT MAY LIKE TO CONCLUDE IN THESE FEW WEEKS BY SCORNG WINDFUL GAINS AND OR SHOWERING OTHER CONSIDERATIONS TO ITS CORRUPT PARTNERS. IN MY VIEW , THE PRESIDENT MUST SIGN A FEW EXECUTIVE ORDERS PROPOSED BELOW

EXPUNGE EVERY WORD AND QUICKLY REVERSE ALL NOTOFICATIONS AND ORDERS IMPLEMENTED AS LAWS / RULES AND REGULATIONS /NOTIFICATIONS APPLICABLE TO ANY STATES OF INDIA WHAT WOULD FIRMLY ENSURE AND ESTABLISH INDIA AS A CONSTITUTIONAL DEMOCRACY INSTEAD OF HOW AT PRESENT IT IS NOT , BUT IS SEEN TILTED TOWARDS ON AUTOCRACY AND ON MONARCHIAL LINES .

Ø EXEC ORDER TO DEFINE INDIA AS INDEPENDENT SOVERIGN NATION AND NOT IN ANY WAY SUBSEVIENT TO ANY FOREIGN POWER, AND TO OUTLINE CLEARLY ALL IMPORTANT NECESSARY CHANGES TO ENSURE THAT THESE CHANGES ARE BENEFICIAL TO PEOPLE IN GENERAL NATION WIDE NOT ONLY IN LETTER BUT IN REALITY

Ø AN EXECUTIVE ORDER TO REDEFINE IN SIMPLE TERMS THE MEANING OF EACH WORD OF WHAT A SIMPLE VILLAGER MAY UNDERSTAND BY DEMOCRACY WITHOUT ANY HELP OF THE LEGAL OR CONSTITUTIONAL EXPERTS AND not HOW THE LAWYERS INTERPRET our CONSTITUTION, DEMOCRACY AND individual CITIZEM’S RIGHTS !

Ø EXECUTIVE ORDER TO SAY THAT INDIA IS AN INDEPENDENT , SOVERIGN STATE NOT SUBSERVIENT TO ANY FOREIGN POWER

THIS WOULD SETTLE ONCE AND FOR ALL THE APPREHENSIONS OF ALL OPPOSITION POLITICAL PARTIES AND TENS OF THOUSANDS OF OTHER INDIANS WHO THROUGH RELENTLESS MEDIA CAMPAIGNS OF PAST TWO YEARS BEEN TOLD OF AN UNDERGROUND, SECRETIVE AND TUNNELED CONNECTION OF OUR GOVT WITH ANOTHER FOREIGN POWER DEBATED ALLURED AND HYPED TO BE ITALIAN BY THE MEDIA MANY A TIME !

ASHOK SHARMA

Ashok Sharma

Reach out, support and elect /Dr. Leo Rebello - people's Presidential Candidate in the forthcoming Indian Presidential elections 2012

Modi and Responsibility

Peter Ronald deSouza : Tue Apr 17 2012, 01:34 hrs

The Indian Express

We need to discuss if the CM’s office should be an integrity institution

The response to the Ahmedabad metropolitan magistrate’s order, which says, “According to SIT, no offence has been established against any of the 58 persons listed in Zakia’s complaint”, has to be ethical and philosophical, not ideological. We must accept that a judgment has been given and legal procedures followed (properly or not will be examined in the ensuing challenge before a higher court) and hence without going into the issue of the evidence available — 40,000 pages of the SIT report — and whether it meets the standards of the Indian Evidence Act, we still have to take a position on the magistrate’s order.

Since former Congress MP Ehsan Jafri and 68 others were killed or burnt to death in the Gulberg Society riots, while there was a democratic government in power that drew its authority from the Indian Constitution, we are required to reconcile the hard fact of the carnage with the minimum guarantees of due process and constitutional protection to all citizens. This reconciling can be attempted by introducing another level of argument into the debate on the delivery of justice in Gujarat. Somebody must be held responsible for what happened.

There have been times in the evolution of our Constitution when the apex court has responded to the legal complexities of a case by formulating new judicial doctrines that have helped us make progress on the issue and thereby strengthen the constitutional order. Indian jurisprudence has grown with doctrines such as “basic structure”, “rarest of rare”, “guilty until proven innocent” or “right to life includes right to a clean environment”. Oddly enough, the doctrine that comes to mind, and seems to be relevant to the Gulberg Society massacre case, is that of “integrity institutions” formulated by the Kapadia court in the CVC case of P.J. Thomas.

The doctrine is simple: people who head “integrity institutions” must be above suspicion and even if the judicial system has not completed the process of examining the evidence and establishing the guilt or innocence of the person beyond reasonable doubt (as was the case with CVC Thomas), the fact that they are charged with a crime is sufficient basis to debar them from heading integrity institutions. 


If the doctrine is to be universally applied, the issues that need to be debated are whether the office of the chief minister is an integrity institution, what constitutes integrity, whether Narendra Modi has been charged (not whether he is guilty) and whether this debars him from occupying office. The Gulberg Society case places this moral burden on the public discourse, and on the apex court, to refine further its doctrine of “integrity institutions”. Since the court is seized with several issues of corruption that involve high offices and it is fairly active in its monitoring of these cases, it is perhaps apposite for it to tell us to which institutions the “integrity institution” doctrine applies.

The second issue is the “ethics of responsibility”. There are two aspects to this. The first is the acceptance by an individual in a position of power of the major lapses or commissions committed by the institution or agency under his or her watch. Ministers have been known to resign when trains or planes crashed when they headed the ministry in question. This ethic of “accepting responsibility” has unfortunately passed into oblivion.


 It belongs to another age. So let us move from the personal ethic of “accepting responsibility” to the public ethic of the “fixing of responsibility”, by political, social or legal process, on a person when a major crime has been committed by the institution or agency of which they are the head. The argument is simple. They could have prevented the crime from taking place, since they had all the necessary instruments at their command, and yet they did not. We have to consolidate this process of “fixing responsibility” for major crimes which requires us to initiate two exercises immediately.

First, we have to set up a process by which a crime can be named properly as a “major crime”, distinguishing between crimes that can be prevented and those that cannot. Was the Gujarat case a riot, a communal conflict, carnage, pogrom or genocide? The court must specify the elements, the basis and the institutional process by which a crime is to be named a major crime as has been done in international law in the case of a crime against humanity. This brings us to the second exercise. Once a case is so classified as a major crime, the person on whose watch it occurred should be debarred from public office. The constitutional order must trump democracy here. This will move the system towards better governance since the shame and fear of being debarred from public office will ensure effective exercise of authority and thereby better protection for the ordinary citizen.

Indian constitutional democracy must evolve such institutional innovations, just as South Africa did to deal with major crimes of the apartheid regime when it created the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, and not wait for the “law to take its course” to deal with cases such as that of the Gulberg Society. We need to reconcile law with justice.

This brings me to the third ethical argument, that of “social healing”. As forceful as the argument may be of “moving on” and “being practical and forgetting”, the pain, trauma and desire for justice can only be assuaged when there is a genuine gesture of remorse and a public symbol of reconciliation by those in power when the crime occurred. The state must express regret for what happened and build a grand monument to the victims. The state must acknowledge that innocent people lost their lives. It must create a public dialogue between the communities about the truth of 2002 and seek to rebuild the trust that was shattered. It must accept, not deny, what happened. Without this acceptance and remorse, social healing will not take place and the pain will not go away. We cannot have one section of our people in pain. This goes against the promise of our Independence struggle. We must not break that promise.

The author is director, Indian Institute of Advanced Study, Shimla. Views are personal

Modis Ratings

As an Indian I am embarrassed that the two American Journalists did not even verify the material tossed to them.

By HARTOSH SINGH BAL

http://latitude.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/04/24/narendra-modi-gujarats-chief-minister-gets-off-too-easy-with-the-foreign-media/ 

Sam Panthaky/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesNarendra Modi in January 2010.

NEW DELHI ” Narendra Modi, the leading figure of India's right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party (B.J.P.), didn’t make Time magazine's list of the 100 most powerful people in the world this year. Midway through the online polling, after Modi’s stock had started to surge, liberals in India organized a counter-campaign. In the end, 256,792 votes were cast for him and 266,684 votes against.

Too bad for Modi: it’s an election year in the state of Gujarat, where he is chief minister, and he is known to be eyeing the country’s prime minister slot. But I, for one, am relieved: finally a defeat for Modi’s formidable PR team, which routinely manages to whitewash his responsibility for fueling sectarian strife and oversells his economic accomplishments, especially to Western journalists.

Modi has been accused of doing little in 2002, the year after he became chief minister, to prevent largely Hindu mobs â€” led in the main by people affiliated with the B.J.P. and allied organizations — from attacking Muslims throughout the state in retaliation for the death of 58 Hindu pilgrims in a train fire. According to government records, says the BBC, 790 Muslims and 254 Hindus were killed in that outburst, making it one of the worst incidents of anti-Muslim violence since India’s independence.

Since then Modi’s PR machine has worked hard to undo the damage by portraying him as an efficient administrator. Foreign journalists have served that mission well. Their concern for striking a balance in their copy seems to have demanded that they offset the stain of the 2002 riots by praising Modi’s achievements. Modi, in turn, has played his part by granting them access to him, which he rarely does for Indian journalists.

In a 2009 profile for The Atlantic, Robert Kaplan wrote, “I have met Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, and both Bushes. At close range, Modi beats them all in charisma.” Kaplan also relayed some of Modi’s self-described achievements with little question: “What he gave me was not the usual promotional brochures, but long lists of sourced statistics put together by an aide. Gujarat had experienced 10.2 percent annual GDP growth since 2002. It had eight new universities. In recent years, almost half the new jobs created in India were in Gujarat. The state ranked first in poverty alleviation, first in electricity generation.”

Last month, just a week before Time’s online poll — and the very day that a profile of Modi in the magazine made the cover of its South Asia edition — William Antholis, the managing director of the Brookings Institution, posted “India’s Most Admired and Most Feared Politician” online. He, too, extolled Modi’s work: “Gujarat’s economic performance is without peer in India, growing an average 10 percent each year for a decade. That is faster growth than almost any place on earth, including most of China.”

Neither Antholis nor Kaplan treated the facts and figures that Modi’s team threw their way with enough skepticism. The decade of growth for which Modi gets so much credit is the decade during which the Indian economy as a whole averaged over 7.5 percent growth. Several Indian states of a comparable size, like Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu, have come close to matching Gujarat (pdf) on this count while doing better at improving living conditions for their citizens, especially marginalized groups.

The 2011 Human Development Report for India states that hunger and malnutrition are worse in Gujarat than in India’s other large states. According to the report, almost 45 percent of children in Gujarat are malnourished. A larger percentage of children go to bed hungry in Gujarat, one of India’s richest states, than in Uttar Pradesh, one of its poorest.

In terms of infant and maternal mortality, Gujarat’s record during the decade that Modi has run the state is poorer than that of the country at large. In 2006-2010, life expectancy in Gujarat was two years shorter than the national average (about 66 years). Gujarat ranked 17th among all Indian states in terms of literacy in 2001, the year Modi took over. Now it ranks 18th.

These figures belie Modi’s reputation as an efficient administrator. But you wouldn’t know it reading the foreign media. In fact, the coverage is so complimentary that Modi’s people have collected it in a 49-page e-book called “The World Lauds Narendra Modi — Excerpts from TIME, Brookings & The Economist!” and made it available on his Web site.

---

Hartosh Singh Bal is political editor of Open Magazine and co-author of “A Certain Ambiguity

The Extreme Makeover of India's (Possible) Next Leader

Narendra Modi is in international News, a whole lot is being written about him, here is one by Dr. Pervaz Ahmed. 

The Extreme Makeover of India's (Possible) Next Leader  

Posted: 04/18/2012 2:54 pm http://www.huffingtonpost.com/parvez-ahmed/the-extreme-makeover-of i_b_1434606.html

That Narendra Modi was featured on the cover of Time (March, South Asia edition), around the tenth anniversary of an anti-Muslim massacre in the Indian state of Gujarat, was not surprising. Sparking outrage was the headline (Modi Means Business), which was viewed by many as an extreme image makeover for India's most divisive politician. It was under his watch that an anti-Muslim carnage started on February 28, 2002 and continued unabated for the next three months. The violence was justified as a reaction to events that took place the previous day when 59 Hindu pilgrims, who were returning after paying homage to the site of a destroyed sixteenth century mosque, were killed by a fire that started in a section of their train. To many Hindus, the fire was a deliberate act by a mob of Muslims. To most Muslims, the fire was an accident. Two official commissions (Nanavati and Banerjee) yielded conclusions that favored one narrative over the other, leading detractors to charge that the commissions were politically tainted.

What is incontrovertible is that within hours of the tragic train fire, an organized retaliation against Muslims spread across Gujarat like wildfire. The ferocity of the carnage was unprecedented, even for a country with episodic spates of sectarian violence. By the time the bloodshed had stopped 2,000 people were brutally killed, many mutilated. Women were raped before being burnt alive. Muslims, who make up 9 percent of Gujarat's population, witnessed the entire state security apparatus standing still while vigilantes went on a rampage destroying 5,000 homes, 500 places of worship and 10,000 shops. Over 150,000 Muslims were displaced, with 16,000 remaining so a decade later. An iconic picture of a Muslim man by photographer Arko Datta epitomized the fear that had gripped the state.

Although some of the rioters have been held responsible, the state government under the leadership of Narendra Modi has so far escaped unscathed. Not a single high level official paid the price for their abject failure to maintain law and order. To the contrary, the electorate has repeatedly serenaded Modi with victories at the ballot box. Despite his obvious failures, the United States Congressional Research Service, a bi-partisan think tank whose research is advisory to the U.S. Congress, is speculating that Modi stands on the threshold of becoming India's next leader. Latest polling shows Modi beating both Rahul Gandhi (scion of the famous Nehru family) and current Prime Minister Manmohan Singh by double-digit margins.

The battle lines for the 2014 parliamentary elections are being drawn with an extreme image makeover for Modi. Leading the charge is the Washington-based PR giant APCO, which has also serviced other controversial clients such as former Nigerian dictator Sani Abacha, Kazakhstan's Nursultan Nazarbayev, and Russia's Mikhail Khodorkovsky. The core narrative in Modi's extreme image makeover is that he is as an economic miracle worker, with a clean anti-corruption record in a country where corruption remains an anathema. The story in Time quotes Modi as saying, "It is not luck. It's a carefully devised process."

But Modi's choreographed routine has several discordant notes to it. Abusaleh Shariff, Chief Economist at the National Council of Applied Economic Research, India's premier research institution, asserts that masking the apparent prosperity of Gujarat are high levels of poverty and great income inequality. Hunger levels in Gujarat are shockingly high, with only three other Indian states faring worse. Economic and social minorities continue to remain marginalized. Poverty rates for Muslims in Gujarat are eight times higher than Hindus. Only 12 percent of Muslims have a bank account and a paltry 2.6 percent are able to secure financial loans. According to data from India's Planning Commission, a whopping 31.8 percent of people in Gujarat are poor, leading many social NGOs to question the veracity of Modi's "Vibrant Gujarat" slogan.

Contrary to the carefully cultivated image of Modi's business acumen lie an inconvenient truth -- other Indian states such as Maharashtra and Delhi outclass Gujarat in drawing foreign direct investments, often by 3 to 5 folds. Modi has reaped the benefit of ruling a state whose people have always been known for their business perspicacity and industriousness. Gujarat's economic growth has generally ranked above India's national average, both before and after Modi. Recently, Modi's image of a clean politician has also taken a hit. Three major scams have come to light. The Comptroller and Auditor General of India has charged the Modi government with massive financial irregularities worth 167.07 billion rupees (approximately $3 billion).

Earlier this year, the Gujarat High Court criticized Modi for his inaction in stopping the violence of 2002 and ordered the restoration of the many houses of worship, which were damaged during the carnage. Failure to protect places of worship and shrines, which are invaluable to India's cultural heritage, is a flagrant violation of the Hague Convention of 1954.

All people of conscience, who deeply care about India's secular and pluralistic character, are relentlessly demanding justice and remain doggedly in opposition to any attempts that may give India's most controversial political figure an extreme image makeover. American lawmakers Keith Ellison and Frank Wolf have introduced resolutions condemning Modi and held congressional hearings respectively. The State Department continues to uphold its visa ban on Modi.

Underneath Modi's economic success lay a story of brutality and systematic marginalization of economic and social minorities. To quote Shakespeare's Lady Macbeth, "Here's the smell of the blood still. All the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand." The Indian national motto succinctly states, Satyameva Jayate -- Truth Stands Invincible. Nothing less than a major truth and reconciliation effort can set Gujarat free of one of the most shameful episodes in its modern history.

[Parvez Ahmed is an Indian-American who teaches at the University of North Florida in Jacksonville.]

Standing up for Hindus

The purpose of writing this piece is to inspire each one of you to do things for others –  If you are not willing to stand up for others, why should anyone stand up for you?

In the following compilation, I will highlight some of the work I have done with and for Hindus and Hinduism. This excludes the work for my motherland India. However, there is a lot of work prior t0 2003 that I need to collect and put it together.  


I am blessed to connect with Atheists to Zoroastrians and every one in between including Native Americans. 

As an Indian it was embarrassing for me that most of the Indians have no clue about each other – a few Hindus know about Muslims, some of them don’t even know about Jainism or Buddhism let alone Sikhism.  Same goes with Muslim and others. We live and work together, and yet we don’t know about the other.

What do we know?  The cooked versions and bad things about others, shame on us.

So, I ventured out into public in 1993 to teach and to facilitate knowledge about each other.  The Asian News Magazine offered glimpses of each religion and every week, we wrote about the essence of every festival. Then we continued the same on Asian News Radio from 1996-2001.

Since this chapter about Hindus, I will focus on Hinduism, as brief as I can.

Shri DD Maini wrote articles on Hinduism and his visits to every place of worship in India, and our Dallas Hindu Scholar Dr. Hasmukh Shah wrote about Hinduism besides others and our first Radio show on Religion started with Dr. Hasmukh Shaw’s interview about Hinduism.  Then I did 100 hours of talk show Radio on Hinduism over a period of two years (and of course others) with Swami Nityananda Prabhu of Hare Krishna Temple, we learned the whole Bhagvad Gita and amazing principles of life.

We did two workshops on Hinduism as a part of learning about each other.

When I was called in by different Radio stations on Christmas day or other days to talk about Religion, I always talked about Hinduism (and others). I visited the Maya Temples in Mexico, there I prayed the Hindu (and other) prayers in the underground wells, and on the temple grounds.  All of this is available on my different sites and blogs.

Check out Dallas Morning News’s Texas Faith column – of the 80+ articles I have written, 70 of them carry a note about Hinduism. You can visit www.TheGhousediary.com and plug Texas Faith in the search box, and you can see most of the articles. For 2010 and before it is on blogs of Islam and Pluralism. 

For the first time in Dallas, I was able to bring all the Hindu Temple management teams together at the Program Shanti Shanti at Richardson Civic Center.  Mihir Meghani, President of HAF was introduced to Dallas for the first time.

The second time (and a few times after that) was the first Unity Day event in 2005 pictures at  www.UnitydayUSA.com  

As an individual it is my duty to share whatever little good I can and counter the bad with good.

We have various religious leaders visiting from overseas, particularly Hindu and Muslims, most of them preach goodness of their religion and a handful of them preach hate from the temples and the Mosques.  They come here to tell Hindus or Muslim to hate each other, their talk is loaded with hate in the place of worship and I always wonder how my Hindu and Muslim friends can listen to that. At least in Dallas,  the Muslim Imams give sermons about co-existence , however once in a blue moon some one comes along and speaks ill of others, both in Hindu and Muslim communities.   

If you are not comfortable in telling them that they are wrong, let me know, I will do that.  I will not even spare the big mega church Pastor Jeffress who called Hinduism a cult.  

I value free speech and the only way to combat evil is with goodness and love.

As I make the time, I will update this, there is a lot of work done prior to 2003, from when I kept records of my work inDallasIndians@yahoogroups.com and the blogshttp://MikeGhouseforIndia.blogspot.com and two sites world Muslim Congress and Foundation for pluralism.  There is a whole big story prior to 2003 that I need to put together…

Again, the purpose of compiling this piece is to inspire each one of you to do things for others. If you are not willing to stand up for others, why should anyone stand up for you?

 .........................................

Senator Williams' Remarks Offended Hindus
Governor of Kentucky attended a factory opening ceremony that created 275 jobs for Americans. Senator Williams  criticized the Governor for sitting cross-legged with a "dot on his forehead," and described the ceremony as "polytheistic." It is not only a Hindu issue, it is indeed an American issue and so I spoke up and wrote a piece and hope to meet him and share the wisdom of Hinduism.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mike-ghouse/senator-williams-offend-hindus_b_1075392.html

Bigtory against Hinduism in RussiaBigotry exists not because of bigots, but because we have not spoken out against it. The Arcbishop of Siberia attacks the Bhagavad Gita, the holy book of Hinduism. I just could not sit and let the ignorance become the currency. So I wrote and asked Muslim, Christians, Jews, Sikhs and others to call the Russian Embassy in Washington DC and thanks to all those who made the call. This is how we build cohesive societies. 
http://theghousediary.blogspot.com/2011/12/bigotry-against-hinduism-in-russia.html
 

Surya Namaskar and Muslim responseThe Surya Namaskar is a Hindu religious tradition, a beautiful act of bowing to the Sun and welcoming the first rays of dawn as an expression of gratitude to the energy it breathes in to life and everything about life. I was urging the Muslims to participate in the event in their own way.
http://www.indianmuslimobserver.com/2012/01/latest-editorial-surya-namaskar-and.html

Doniger’s book on Hindu history - Factual errorsThe book: Hindus, an alternate history is out now. Wendy Donigers writes on Indian History laden with errors. It is our responsibility to hightlight the errors, and as civil socieites we cannot perpetuate the errors and pass on to the next generation as facts. Let the reader "beware clause" be added to the book that the facts are not verified.
http://theghousediary.blogspot.com/2010/04/donigers-book-on-hindu-history-factual.html
 

Swami VivekanandaWhen Swamiji talks about, “The Christian is not to become a Hindu or a Buddhist,” He was talking about religion is a pathway to spirituality.
http://theghousediary.blogspot.com/2011/03/swami-vivekananda-gave-new-meaning-to.html
 

Happy Ganesh ChaturthiAmong Hindus there is beautiful tradition of invoking that aspect of God which removes barriers and paves the way for a smoother life. The icon that represents this aspect of God is known as Ganesh, Ganesha, or Vinayak depending on the region, most Hindus around the world invoke Ganesh before they start any thing in life from starting their day, to opening a new business or wearing new clothes or starting a social ceremony. 
http://theghousediary.blogspot.com/2011/08/happy-ganesh-chaturthi.html

Should Christians practice YogaIn my weekly Dallas Morning News, I wrote about anti-yoga talks. Mohler seems to be threatened by the popularity of yoga, a beautiful practice to bring composure to oneself. He is obsessed with the idea that yoga is a bait to lure his congregation away into "a spiritual practice that threatens to transform their own spiritual lives into a `post-Christian, spiritually polyglot' reality", and then he asks, "Should any Christian willingly risk that?" How mistaken can one be?  

http://theghousediary.blogspot.com/2010/11/texas-faith-should-christians-and-other.html
 

Essence of DiwaliDiwali is the Indian festival of lights and light symbolizes hope and positive energy, it indicates the victory of good over evil; a new beginning; seeing the light at the end of tunnel and light is also a symbol of knowledge as it is an internationally used.

http://theghousediary.blogspot.com/2011/10/happy-diwali-essence-of-diwali.html

Dallas Religious Leaders, Swami Nityananda PrabhuThe open mindedness of Swami Nityananda Prabhu of Hare Krishna Hindu Temple; a panelist on this forum is admirable. Where ever I run, people love to talk about his teachings from Bhagvad Gita on my Radio Show, called Wisdom of Religion.  He has indeed opened up minds of non-Hindus to see the wisdom of Hinduism.

http://theghousediary.blogspot.com/2012/01/texas-faith-beyond-king-which-religious.html
 

Essences of Janmashtami Celebration of Sri Krishna's birthday, the man who gave us so much wisdom in Bhagvad Gita. The book is an encapsulation of his advise to Arjuna when he goes through different phases of thoughts and actions. ...It is one of the best self analysis books to read.

http://theghousediary.blogspot.com/2009/08/happy-janamashtami.html

Roberts Jeffress and his bigotryI am surprised that the Israel Lobby has spared this man. He has not spared Mormons, Muslims, Catholics, Jews, Buddhists and Hindus in his rants.
http://theghousediary.blogspot.com/2011/10/pastor-robert-jeffress-and-his-bigotry.html

Hinduism 101 Workshop – Dallas Morning News

The Foundation for Pluralism, a Dallas-based interfaith organization, will host the workshop at the Crowne Plaza Hotel, 14315 Midway Road in Addison. Organizer Mike Ghouse, who founded the group and is the event's moderator, said this workshop will cover the origins of Hinduism, the concept of rebirth, India's caste system and more.

http://mikeghouseforindia.blogspot.com/2007/02/hinduism-101.html

Happy Ramnvami – Birth Celebrations of Lord RamaIt is a Hindu festival, celebrating the birth of Lord Rama to King Dasharatha and Queen Kausalya of Ayodhya. Ram is the 7th incarnation of the Dashavatara of Vishnu.SreeRama Navami festival falls on the ninth day of the month of Chaitra in the Hindu calendar. and marks the end of the nine-day Chaitra-Navratri celebrations. I will be happy to do a presentation on the event. I enjoy listening to the stories about Rama, an exemplary person to model life after.

http://theghousediary.blogspot.com/2012/03/happy-ramnvami-lord-ramas-birthday.html

Diwali Vandana

Diwali is the Indian festival of lights, and the light symbolizes hope and positive energy; It is a poem I wroten
http://mikeghouseforindia.blogspot.com/2009/10/diwali-vandana-diwali-prayers.html

Hanuman Jayanthi

Hanuman plays a critical role in the Indian epic Ramayana. It is the story of King Rama who was banished to the forest for fourteen years. While in exile, he remains defacto king, as his younger brother Bharata who was the king, submits to the will of Rama, his elder step brother.
Contd: http://theghousediary.blogspot.com/2012/04/happy-hanuman-jayanthi-hindu-festival.html
 

Standing up for a Hindu Family in NorwayNorway is one of the nations looked up for best the civil conduct; however, they have failed to even study the culture of their inhabitants. Here Anurup and Sagarika Bhattacharaya fed their child with hands as is the custom in their home land, India, and had the kids sleep on their bed. The Norway government found that to be offensive and abusive and took the child away from the family. 
http://theghousediary.blogspot.com/2012/01/stand-up-for-hindu-family-in-norway.html

Happy Holi, India’s festival of colors and joyHoli is an Indian festival of radiance. It is a celebration of spring with colors that nourish one’s joyous moods and complements the function of respective elements in the atmosphere.
http://theghousediary.blogspot.com/2012/03/happy-holi-india-festival-of-colors-and.html

Let’s leave Ram Sethu Alone

On the faith side, Ram Sethu is a bridge built by Hanuman and his friends; this was the bridge that Rama crossed over to go to Sri Lanka. It is not only an Indian heritage; it is a world heritage site. We may need to explore this and learn about the science and art of bridge making during the times of Rama. How did they fill the dirt in the ocean, what materials did they use? Will it bring an understanding of Ramayana?http://mikeghouseforindia.blogspot.com/2007/09/lets-leave-ram-sethu-alone.html

Rama – A Muslim Perspective

As beauty is in the eyes of the beholder, faith is in the heart of the believer.
There is a consistent theme in Qur'aan of looking the world from a pluralistic point of view. Qur'aan, Al-Hujurat, Sura 49:13 " O mankind, we have created you male and female, and have made you nations and tribes that ye may know one another. The noblest of you, in sight of Allah, is the best in conduct. Allah know and is aware of everything."http://mikeghouseforindia.blogspot.com/2007/09/rama-muslim-perspective.html

Harassment of Hindus in Kazkhastan

The Muslim community condemns this insane act of the Government of Kazakhstan, I will seek support from Muslim groups to take the necessary action. Please recommend the course of action we can take. Who should we write to? Who should we call? Is this a religious harassment? Please send us the details.
http://worldmuslimcongress.blogspot.com/2007/02/hindus-harassed-in-kazhakstan-dear-mr.html

Hinduism and American PluralismWhat role does Hinduism play in the emerging pluralistic society? The author Jakob De Roover explores it well in the following article (after my comments)

http://mikeghouseforindia.blogspot.com/2007/01/hinduism-and-american-pluralism.html

Hindu Muslim DialogueAn innovative approach to Hindu-Muslim dialogue. This reminds me of my College Professor Ramachandran and my weaver friend Fakhru Bhai; a Hindu and a Muslim respectively and I used to discuss and understand the wisdom of each aspect of religion.http://mikeghouseforindia.blogspot.com/2008/05/hindu-muslim-dialogue.html

Supreme Court Brief Filed on Behalf of Hindu Americans 

In behalf of the Foundation for Pluralism and World Muslim Congress, I support the case filed by the Hindu American Foundation and hope the Supreme Court decides in favor of opening the hearts and minds of all people to include every faith and tradition in public square.

http://wisdomofreligion.blogspot.com/2008/06/discrimination-public-prayers.html

Ayodyha – proud of my India
The court has finally made the decision and so far peace has prevailed.  I was not able to sleep last night late until 3:00 AM and thank God, goodness has yet prevailed. If people don't agree, let it go to Supreme court, we have to prove to the world that we are a nation that respects rule of Law. Let other nations in the world look up to our model and never, every dream of becoming like the very ones we denigrate.
http://mikeghouseforindia.blogspot.com/2010/09/ayodhya-proud-of-my-india.html

Ayodhya on 18^th Anniversary and democracy
The Babri Masjid controversy has been around since Mid Nineteenth century and after disputes, the right wing political parties demolished the 15th Centutry structure in Ayodhya on December 6th, 1992.http://mikeghouseforindia.blogspot.com/2010/12/ayodhya-on-6th-anniversary-and.html

Am I a Hindu?
This is one of the most read articles among my Muslim and Christian friends. I came across this excellent piece "Am I a Hindu" explaining religion in its simplest terms. I recommend every one to take a few minutes to read through this. It is the simplicity of talking with a young girl that makes this article beautiful. I have added a few comments and additional information below the article.

 http://wisdomofreligion.blogspot.com/2008/01/am-i-hindu.html

Bangladeshi Hindus Harassed
The World Muslim Congress expresses outrage at the Municipal Council of Chakuli, in Mirpur, Bangladesh for evicting families from their ancestral Homes.http://worldmuslimcongress.blogspot.com/2007/06/bangladeshi-hindus-harassed.html

Muslims condemn temple desecration

Dallas, Texas. Sunday, August 5, 2007- "It is a shame that people stoop so low to desecrate a place of worship. We condemn this crime" reflects Mike Ghouse, head of the Foundation for Pluralism and the World Muslim Congress.
http://wisdomofreligion.blogspot.com/2007/08/condemn-temple-desecration.html

Muslims condemn demolition of Hindu Temple
Dallas, Texas - The World Muslim Congress condemns the demolition of Hindu Temple in Lahore and urges the Government of Pakistan to restore the temple. Muslims follow Islam, a monotheistic religion but not a monolithic religion. Muslims who have deeply imbibed the teaching of Islam condemn the act of demolition of the temple in Pakistan.
http://worldmuslimcongress.blogspot.com/2007/01/krishna-temple-lahore.html

Muslims condemn intolerance in Malaysia

The act of carrying a head of a bull is un-acceptable and we urge the Malaysian Government to punish these loonies as criminals bent on disturbing peace of the state. They should not be cited as Muslims and their religion does not permit them to do that, they are criminals and must be cited as such.
http://worldmuslimcongress.blogspot.com/2009/08/festivities-soured-by-race.html

Protecting Pakistani Hindus
Let every Pakistani speak up and be a defender of other Pakistani, be it a Hindu, Ahmadiyya, Christian, Jew, Zoroastrian, Shia, Bohra, Ismaili or a Sunni. We need more voices to make this work. May God give us the passion to speak out and do the right thing. Amen!
http://worldmuslimcongress.blogspot.com/2008/04/protecting-pakistans-hindus.html

Condemning Ghazni

This issue has been a sore subject with the Indians. Ghazni did destroy the Somnath temple, and it has been believed as destruction of Hindu Places of Worship.

http://worldmuslimcongress.blogspot.com/2007/03/india-ghazni-temple-destruction.html

Malaysia – Bangaramma Verdict
The verdict amounts to forcing Ms. Bangarma to believe what she does not believe, that is not Islamic in any sense. The original intention of such ruling was to prevent treason against the state for switching loyalties to harm the state, sort of double agent. Bangarma is no harm to the state, her belief in Hinduism must be honored.http://worldmuslimcongress.blogspot.com/2010/08/malaysia-banggarma-verdict-religiously.html

Muslims Speak out against Harassment of Minorities
The Talibans have begun harassing Ismaili Muslims in Pakistan. They would not spare any one and will not be satisfied until the last person left obeys them. If this trend is not checked and criticized, they may think that they have the approval from the Muslims. They don't.http://worldmuslimcongress.blogspot.com/2009/06/muslims-speak-out-against-harassment-of.html

Add:

Catholic Church firing the priest for allowing a Hindu wedding in the church and my protest and the threat calls from California diocese.


My father's advice on communal riots

Interfaith dialogue with my English Teacher RamaChandra and Fakhru Bhai

Add the six page story on me from Dallas Observer.


Mike Ghouse is committed to building a Cohesive America and offers pluralistic solutions on issues of the day. He is a professional speaker, thinker and a writer on pluralism, politics, civic affairs, Islam, India,Israel, peace and justice. Mike is a frequent guest on Sean Hannity showon Fox TV, and a commentator on national radio networks, he writes weekly at Dallas Morning News and regularly at Huffington post,and several other periodicals. www.TheGhousediary.com is Mike's daily blog.