India’s prosperity hinges on Religious Freedom

India’s prosperity hinges on Religious Freedom

The Indian-Americans have a moral duty to prevent India from being labeled as a “Country of Particular Concern” by the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF).

If India were to be ascribed with such a label, it would hinder the flow of foreign direct investments and subsequent reversal of economic prosperity achieved in the last twenty years. This label may not affect the poor Indians, but it will severely impact all those Indians working in information technology related jobs and businesses involved in software development and services.

South Africa once was an apartheid nation, and its prosperity came to a grinding halt when the foreign corporations realized that they are supporting a regime that discriminates her citizens. The harassment, lynching, and killing of Dalits, Muslims, Christians, Sikhs and others in India needs to stop; if not, it will hurt all Indians as the investors will start pulling out of the country. Who wants to invest in a place where their investment is not secure?

The success of the American economy is based on the rule of law, the law is enforced equally, and no criminal will get away with the power of his or he monies. If someone violates the rules, the individual or the company will pay the penalty, and this builds confidence and trust in the society and frees them from tensions. Every Indian should feel secure about his or her faith, ethnicity, language and culture.

The First Amendment of America’s constitution serves as a model of success for any government. “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof, or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press, or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”

Ambassador Sam Brownback had once said that the prosperity of a nation hinges on religious freedom. Indeed, the success of a country is directly proportional to religious liberty. It frees people from the daily tensions of what to eat, drink, wear and believe. It allows them to become a productive employee to the company, and a fully participating member of the family by giving the family the full attention it deserves instead of worrying about a fellow employee at the place of work.

Furthermore, the quality of life is directly proportional to freedom from religious and cultural tensions.

The sense of security is diminishing rapidly. A Christian is apprehensive of going to the Church on a Sunday, and a Muslim is afraid of storing meat in his refrigerator should the vigilantes descend on him. The women including little girls are not safe either. The murderers and rapists got felicitated with Garlands from among the current leaders instead of sending them to prison.  The man who lynched and brutally killed a Muslim man was videotaped and shared on WhatsApp, and the lyncher was rewarded with a party ticket to contest elections.   This is shamefully a weekly occurrence.

Ambassador Brownback had once said referring to mob violence around the world. If the leaders respond immediately to such incidents and tell the nation that the lynching and harassment of fellow citizens will not be acceptable, then the violence will cease or at least mitigate. Unfortunately, the current Indian leadership has remained silent when vigilantes kill and maim the people, causing every Indian to live in fear – both the minorities and the ones who frighten.

Please note that Hindutva ideology propagated by RSS and its family of parties is not Hinduism. Hindutva is to Hinduism; what Islam is to Islamists. Hindutva and Islamist are anti-Hinduism and anti-Islam respectively.   It may take a few generations for Hindutvadis and Islamists to see the value of respecting the otherness of the other and accepting the God-given uniqueness of the other. When we get there, conflicts will fade, and solutions emerge. Ultimately, every Indian wants to live in peace and feel secure about his faith and focus on contributing to the common good of the nation.

The Indian Americans have equal access to all the opportunities in the market without discrimination, and I hope the Indian Americans would want India to treat her minorities as America does hers. It is an embarrassment to note that a few Indian Americans don’t want Muslims, Christians, and Dalits to have equal rights in India.  On top of it, they are poisoning their children with ill-will towards each other.

The good news is that most of the American Indian youth are rejecting the ugliness of their parents and choose to respect the otherness of the other. After all, they have to work with people of different faiths and races, and it would be a pain for them to work with others if their parents have dumped their biases on their children.  Should parents poison their children?

We appeal to all the India oriented American organizations including the Hindu America Foundation, the Indian American Muslim Council, Federation of Indian American Christian Organization of North American to support our petition.

The petition will be addressed to the Government of India to issue Visa’s to the Commissioners of USCRIF.  They can do the investigations about the plight of Kashmiri Pandits, Sikh Genocides, Gujarat Massacre, Lynching and harassment of Dalits, Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, and others.

If India gets a “Clean Chit” it will ensure continued prosperity and investor confidence in India’s democracy.  However, if the Indian government is found guilty of the violations of religious freedoms, then two choices left to deal with are; risk losing the confidence of the investors in the stability of India, or fix the problems and earn a clean chit.  Every Indian American must ensure the sustainability of India’s democracy and prosperity.

In Washington DC, there are three Indians who regularly attend the meetings about religious freedom issues from among about seventy-five individuals to talk about the concerns in different nations. Jay Kansara has been representing the Hindu America Foundation, John Prabhudoss represents Federation of Indian American Christians of North America, and Mike Ghouse serves the Center for Pluralism, standing up for the rights of people from all faiths.  Now, Ajit Sahi of Indian American Muslim Council has joined the group to address Religious freedom issues of Indian minorities. The Dalits and Sikhs have been represented on an off by different visitors.

Swami Agnivesh was in Washington DC and spoke to a group of defenders of religious freedom across the world.  The Ambassador of religious liberty Hon. Sam Brownback presided the meeting. He was eloquent and precise, and it was an honor to meet the man whom I have come to admire for his stand on eradicating bonded labor, and fighting for religious freedom of all Indians.

Here is a short speech of Swami Agnivesh – https://youtu.be/eIwPXyQQi7g

Full speech of Swami Agnivesh.

Dear Ambassador Brownback and my fellow campaigners for human rights and religious freedom. I am grateful to you for this opportunity to speak here. Since the time allotted for me to speak is limited, I will get to the point immediately.

There is a grave threat today to civil liberties in general and religious freedom in particular in India. Indeed, the levels of violence we see in today’s India against the social and religious minorities are in many ways unprecedented in recent decades. The victims of such vicious violence are some of India’s poorest and most disadvantaged communities. They include Muslims, Christians, the Dalits, who are the former untouchables of the Hindu caste society, and the Adivasis, or the indigenous tribal people whose very existence is under threat.

Moreover, the perpetrators of this violence are directly linked with the RSS, which is the mother organization of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s BJP party. Especially since Mr. Modi became India’s prime minister in 2014, the attacks on the religious minorities have sharply increased. Armed mobs owing allegiance to the RSS and other Hindu groups have been lynching to death Muslims at will, accusing them of eating beef or slaughtering a cow. Such Hindu mobs also disrupt mixed-religion weddings in which the groom is Muslim, and the bride is Hindu because they don’t want Hindu girls to marry Muslim boys. There have been instances in which such Muslim grooms have been killed, too.

Similarly, these vigilante groups owing allegiance to the RSS have been attacking Christian Churches, priests, and congregants all over India. Once again, they blame the victims for the violence, accusing the Christians of converting Hindus to Christianity.

For thousands of years, the Dalits have suffered the worst violence and indignities at the hands of upper caste Hindus. However, now, that indignity is doubled because laws have been created to deny positive quota benefits to Dalits who convert out of Hinduism to Christianity and Islam. Converted Dalits face even greater violence and assault.

As for the Adivasis, the indigenous people, the RSS-BJP have for decades been forcing Hinduism on them even though millions of these Adivasis clearly state that they are not Hindus and they have their indigenous faiths. I have myself been a victim of their violence over the years. Twice in the last six months only I have been attacked by these violent mobs. Of course, it is futile to expect any police action against such violent perpetrators.

If I being a prominent human rights defender in India cannot expect the police to act against my attackers, you can imagine what would be the story of these social and religious minorities I have spoken about, the Dalits, the Adivasis, the Christians and the Muslims, who are being targeted in their hundreds of thousands across India.

Even more worrying is that some organizations in the United States that claim to represent the interest of the Hindus defend the highly divisive and violent activities of the RSS-BJP and instead blame the religious minorities. They try to create a false equivalence between the highly organized and structural violence of the RSS-BJP, who are in power in the federal government in India as well as more than a dozen and a half of India’s 29 states, and random acts of violence against Hindus that may occur.

The truth is that the biggest perpetrator of anti-minority violence in India is the RSS-BJP, which is now in power across India and is therefore grossly abusing its control of government machinery to provide impunity to its henchmen carrying out such violence. It would be a pity if the international community did not open its eyes and take notice of this worsening situation in the India of Mahatma Gandhi.

(Swami Agnivesh also added that he was coming from giving the keynote address at the Parliament for World’s Religions in Toronto, Canada and that the Hindu rightwing forces tried to prevent him from speaking there. He also said he had been a campaigner for justice for 50 years and had faced numerous attacks on his life, the most recent in Jharkhand in July, when hundreds of goons attacked him, and then again in Delhi in August. Swami Ji also spoke of his work with bonded laborers and said his organization had secured freedom and rehabilitation for more than 170,000 bonded laborers in India in the last thirty plus years.)

Dr. Mike Ghouse is a public speaker and the Executive Director of the Center for Pluralism in Washington, DC. He is committed to building cohesive societies and offers pluralistic solutions on issues of the day.  More about him at https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikeghouse/

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Using Ram and Hanuman, for Violence and Votes

The Central theme of this article is "Ram Ka Naam Badnaam Na Karo." The innocent people of India have been taken advantage of the political criminals; these men get the ordinary good Indians wired up with hate and kill fellow Indians in the name of Ram or Hanuman.  That Criminal act of Advani, the Rath Yathra has turned India upside down, and it will take another generation to restore dharma, the righteousness. I hope the new generations will not fall into these traps and start respecting fellow humans, that will create peace and bring prosperity.  To Modi, "Sab Ka Saath, Sab Ka Vikaas " is merely an election slogan, but it should mean we have to build an India where we all get along for common good. 

We need influential, but good pluralistic religious leaders who can make Ram, Muhammad, Buddha, Jesus, Mahavir, Krishna, Guru Nanak and others look for what they were; Peacemakers, individuals dedicated to building cohesive societies where no human has to live in fear of the other.  

I hope to write a piece on "Ram Ka Naam Badnam Na Karo" and "Muhammad Ko Mercy for Mankind Hi Rahne Do." Let no one commit bad acts in the name of Ram or Hanuman, and Let Muhammad remain mercy to humanity. 



Mike Ghouse
Center for Pluralism. 
Washington, DC

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Elections have to be fought on real issues, not on hollow but mesmerizing oratory or through ready-to-use riots.

Courtesy - The Wire
Wire is becoming India's true journalist paper.

In 1947, the two parts of Bengal could avoid the merciless massacres and incredible violence that the two halves of Punjab inflicted on each other not just because Gandhi was the world’s most effective single man peacekeeping force – remember the Noakhali riots of 1946 – but also because the Bengalis are not naturally intolerant or communally-charged all the time. However, when dark forces work overtime to create discord and manufacture riots, bloodshed does happen, even though better sense prevails within a very short time.

Let us recall how both Hindus and Muslims came together in 1905 – to resist Curzon’s ‘partition of Bengal’ and eventually compel imperial Britain to roll back the announcement. But in August 1946, the same province burst into flames because armed hoodlums were imported into Kolkata to wreak havoc, by the Muslim League. It was only through this well-planned bloodshed – that was dealt with by the British police in quite a Machiavellian manner – that the two parts of the otherwise peaceful Bengal could be amputated so that the grand political master-plan of Partition could succeed.

With such a historical precedent, it is interesting to note how gods from ‘the rest of India’ – a typically regional parlance – are being imported and pressed into service in Bengal, to heat up the sweltering month of Chaitra.

The very Bengali Shiva, whose Gajan songs and pantomime have provided so much colour and festivity to Bengal during this month, is now being challenged in his domain, first by Ram and then by Hanuman. Also under threat is the traditional Bengali worship of the benign Basanti Durga and the bountiful local Annapurna and even the powerful folk goddess, Shitala Ma, as their festivals are overshadowed by aggressive gods from the upper reaches of the Ganga.

Lumpen leaders take photographs of swords and guns for newspapers before they proudly distribute these arms to hoodlums who go on motorbikes with saffron flags, to spread terror. The Indian Penal and the Criminal Procedure Code take a break, as musclemen from the ruling party that swears by ‘secularism’ from every rooftop get into competition mode, lest they lose ground – without realising that there is nothing called “just a little” where crimes like rape or communalism are concerned.

Gods in India have considerable flexibility in adjusting to the cultural demands of different regions and this is exemplified in Bengal’s choice of how their Shiva – called Sheeb – must be.

From the 16th to the 18th centuries, Bengal produced a large corpus of ballads in the local language that were called Mangal Kavyas, in which the local Brahminical poets valorised the previously derided ‘low class’ indigenous deities like Manasa, Dhammathakur, Chondi and Shitala. This deification or belated recognition of the gods and goddesses of the subaltern classes was, in reality, the ‘Magna Carta’ or social pact of Bengali Hinduism – that had lost two-thirds of the people to a more egalitarian Islam. What is relevant here is that the mighty Shiva of the Puranas had to suffer humiliating defeats, one after the other, at the hands of the local ‘ugly, one-eyed’ snake goddess, Manasa. Even Brahmin poets had to capitulate and compose these ballads, in order to survive.

These Kavyas entertained (and must have pleased) the masses as they were performed all over the region for several evenings in series – as one of the primary forms of popular entertainment. It was only much later that Shiva regained his popularity in Bengal after he was domiciled as a poor peasant in a flimsy gamchha cloth, with his very-Bengali wife chasing him all around the village with a broom. The point is that the King of Kailash had to be de-classed and plebianised before he hit the box offices, only after which, he was permitted, occasionally, to regain his earlier magnificence.

Let us look at the requirement of domicile once again. It is only in Bengal that Durga has invariably to come with her four children and nowhere else is she greeted with so much delirious joy. It is only in Bengal that the ferocious warrior goddess becomes such a sweet daughter and dutifully visits her parents in Ashwin and the local people revel for ten long days. ‘Navratri’? What’s that? As far as this part of India is concerned, it is time to gorge, not keep fasts, and vegetarianism is looked down upon, with derision. Incidentally, Bengalis do not forget Durga’s life and death struggle against the buffalo demon, as the dutiful daughter drags the bleeding Mahisasura to her mother’s place – as her trademark or special Aadhaar card.

West Bengal BJP Mahila Morcha chief Locket Chatterjee holds a trishul during a religious procession to celebrate Ram Navami in Birbhum. Credit: PTI

Ram did not even pass through the Bengal region in search of Sita and Hanuman’s name never appears in any visitors’ book in the state. But Ram Navami and Hanuman Jayanti have suddenly been turned into good occasions to display spurious Hindu aggression and flare up inter-community passions. Just because a very small section of Muslims come out with their traditional tajias and some of them lash their bodies with whips and swords on Muharram – something they have been doing for nearly 800 years – a section of Hindu fanatics are demanding that they be allowed to come out with arms in processions.

But Muharram’s blood-stained rituals are done by less than 1% of the Muslims and should not be compared with Ram or Hanuman but with pain-inflicting religious rituals like Tai-Pusam of Tamil Nadu or the Charak-Gajan of Bengal. This is when Hindu bhaktas of Shiva (or the local Dhammathakur, whose worship he appropriated in Bengal) hold their gory rites of self-flagellation – that too, in more places than the Muharram ritual sword-play. Bhaktas insert hooks into the backs of willing devotees who are then swung around in circles far above the ground, with ropes tied to tall poles. Many jump from great heights into open blades and swords, while others stick long needles through their cheeks and tongues. They also roll over very thorny brambles and if Muharram is the alibi of Ram-Bhakats, they may like to try some such ritual. Inflicting pain on oneself may actually be more ‘Hindu’ than on others.

Devotees and supporters of BJP participate in a procession to celebrate Ram Navami festival in Kolkata. Credit: PTI

They can even take their up-country patrons to get vicarious pleasure from such bloody rites, before instigating others to slash with swords through a totally imported brand of aggression. Four have died in instigated riots on Ram Navami and more would have if the authorities had behaved like they do in some saffron-ruled states. Yet, an irresponsible junior Union minister spreads selective clips of the Asansol-Ranigunj disturbances in Bengal, hoping perhaps to keep communal flames flaring as much as possible.

Let us look closer at Hanuman, the second entrant, as Ram Navami is already over. We thought he was born on Chaitra Purnima but Tamils and Malayalis are confusing us by insisting that he was born in the month of Pous (December-January). Since birth certificates were not compulsory then, such things happen, but no one doubts that Hanuman symbolises strength and energy that he draws from both Pavan and Shiva.

We know that he wields his deadly gada (mace) with ease and that he can handle many other celestial weapons like toys. He is capable of assuming any form at will and can move mountains. He flies through the air very swiftly and actually gave Ram many free flights, even before ‘Pushpak’ was conceived. The beleaguered Indian Science Congress may soon have to scientifically study this. But when did he first appear? The first Indian civilisation in the Indus Valley had no Ram or Hanuman, nor did the Vedas mention them. Some over-enthusiastic scholars have strained to compare Indra’s favourite monkey, the Vriksha Kapi, with Hanuman but cultural DNA tests proved negative.

Hanuman Jayanti celebrations in West Bengal. Credit: PTI/Files

The kernel of the Ramayana first appeared in the ancient Buddhist Dasaratha Jataka, but it mentioned neither Sita’s abduction nor any Lanka. It exiled Ram, but he went north to the Himalayas. Let us accept the present version of the Ramayana, though there are strong views that Ravana’s Lanka was not today’s Sri Lanka but was somewhere in central India. It has been argued that the Ramayana’s events were later transferred to a more southernly location.

Albrecht Weber, Lassen and other scholars believe that Ram’s ‘long march to Lanka’ is an allegorical narrative of the Aryan penetration into South India and Sinhala country. The clash between the Shaivite Ravan and the Vishnu-worshipping Ram also comes out quite clearly. Pre-Aryan religions or Dravidian traditions neither record nor deify Ram. In fact, during the anti-Brahmin, anti-North agitations in the mid-twentieth century period, Periyar and his Dravidian followers burnt the Ramayana because they felt that Southerners had been treated most unfairly.

Edward Moor’s classic text, The Hindu Pantheon of 1810 says that there was indeed “a popular idea entertained in India that Ceylon (was) peopled by monkeys and demons, (so) the priests and poets who chronicled the exploits may have constructed their epic machinery for the Ramayana in conformity to the public prejudices or tastes”. H.C. Lal is, however, categorical that Vanara refers to the tribe of Oraon or Vraon while others feel it could be any Austric or Negrito tribe. The Aryan-Vanara social engineering and coalition worked very well and the best reward that the Vanara tribes could be given for helping defeat the superior Dravidian power of Lanka was to allocate a cabinet berth in Hinduism to the most loyal and Sanskritised Vanara, Hanuman.

For nearly 400 years, Valmiki and his scholars had to work hard to portray the glory and valour of Brahmanical religion that had suffered heavy losses in the popularity contests of Aryan India, thanks to the new craze for Buddhism and Jainism. The new Hinduism that the Ramayana preached had lesser complications, rituals and mantras and it introduced new stars with very human faces. Ram, incidentally, gave frequent bear-hugs to Hanuman, somewhat like our leader does nowadays, but to foreigners only. This love that Ram bestowed on ‘lowly monkeys’ sent the right signals down to the masses who were tired of Hinduism’s suffocating caste system and had moved towards egalitarian Buddhism. Devotion, sheer devotion to the Master was the latest Hindu reply and Hanuman was its cultic figure.

This upgraded version of Hinduism portrayed Ram not as a hot-headed Arya-putra like Bhim or Duryodhan, but as exceedingly mild and tranquil, for he was modelled on the Buddha. We are sure that this Maryada Purush Ram could never want schoolboys in Bengal to carry swords. Though two major elections are drawing near, political parties have no right to test their strength through Ram and Hanuman and cause so many deaths.

Returning to history, we see that within five-seven hundred years of the Ramayana’s final version, leaders like Sankaracharya ensured that the new Hinduism made people forget Buddhism. During this period, several other non-Aryan deities and even animals and birds were also accommodated. Even the leader of the opposition, the Buddha, found himself on the Dashavatar pedestal, seated quite close to Ram. In the medieval period, regional language Ramayanas and Krishna literature spread the Bhakti cult, with Ram-Bhakt Hanuman and Radha as role models of devotion. Ramananda, Nimbarka, Namdev, Suradas, Tuncatt Eluttacchan, Krittivas and, of course, Tulsidas, led the way with brotherhood and loyalty as their thrusts.

Incidentally, Bengal, Punjab and Kashmir that had little or no place for the Ram-Hanuman duo, actually accounted for the maximum conversions to Islam. But, while Ram could be a pacifist, a belligerent deity was also needed, especially by the chiefs of Rajputana, Vijaynagar or in Maratha county who challenged Muslim rulers, with ‘Har Har Mahadev’ and ‘Jai Bajrang Bali’. Hanuman was again in great demand and akhraas spread all over. We must really thank this god of the wrestlers for encouraging them to get so many rare gold and silver medals for India.

Other ‘genius’ qualities were then discovered in Hanuman: in music, grammar and pancha mukhi virtues. But one of the primary reasons for his success was that he emerged as a 24×7, any-hour distress relief agency. Even coastal fishermen and seagoing sailors invoked his aid to calm his father, Pavan, during tempests and the weak sought his protection in the face of terror, while the ailing prayed to him for succour.

As a hassle-free god, he appeared to be winning a few Muslim admirers as well. K.C. Aryan says that he was called a mo-atbar madadgar (reliable helper) by some Muslim believers. Begum Rabia of Avadh even built a temple in his name at Aliganj in Lucknow in the 19th century.The worship of this simian god of Hindustan has passed through quite a chequered career. Bengal can always welcome more gods who seek ‘domicile’ and more gods result in more public holidays, but this last bastion of secularism also loves peace and plural values. While there is no dearth of musclemen and other desperados in all political parties – nor of arms and bombs – and power is quite a heady drug, elections have to be fought on real issues, not on hollow but mesmerising oratory or through ready-to-use riots.

Jawhar Sircar retired from the Indian Administrative Service as Union culture secretary.

Center for Pluralism in India to bring Achche din

Achche din coming to India? Zaroor Aayeinge!
http://centerforpluralism.com/india-and-the-center-for-pluralism/

Yes, Achche din will come to every Indian. I am an independent guy who supports neither Congress nor BJP, but planning to reach out to politicians, one each from BJP, Congress, BSP, and other major parties to be a part of the Center for Pluralism. Our mission would be an extension of the mission we have for America that is no Indians should live in apprehension or fear of the other. We have the programs designed to bring that cohesion through religious, social, economic and political pluralism.

People on the left and minorities are reluctant to meet with RSS guys, if our ego holds us hostage, we are passing the problem to the next generation and living through it ourselves.

India will succeed if we bring opposing people together for common goodness. Our focus would be religious freedom in the first year.  The naysayers say it won’t happen, but the optimist in me says, if we don’t try nothing will happen.

I will be going to India within the next few months and want to meet them and establish the services of Center for Pluralism in India. There are many great Indians leaders who believe in pluralism – i.e., respecting the otherness of others, two on the top of my list are: Shashi Tharoor and VP Ansari and I am sure we can gather up many more to move forward.  We have to show to fellow Indians that an inclusive society sustains the achche din we have had for generations, and the divisive society gives tension to everyone and achche din will not come.

It is time we start thinking of India as one nation, even if a segment of the population does not want to.  Indians are good people and just caught in what they want and what they get in terms of governance.  The general population is hunkering for good leadership and good pathways to walk on.

The key to the success is to bring business people into the equation and let them see that an inclusive India will bring sustainable prosperity to all. A non-discriminatory India reduces social hostilities among different Indians and nurtures good will. Deep down in the hearts, there is not an individual who does not want justice to prevail. If the business people can see the economics of pluralism, they will become the driving engine for the achche din.

For Muslims of India who differ, I will be happy to share the guidance from Quran and Prophet’s practices. We are all one family with origins in one single father and mother and the best ones among us are those who care for his creation; life and matter.

If you are interested in funding and be a part of the Institution in India, you are welcome, the only condition is you must be willing to be prejudice free. We will go through difficult exercises to make sure each member on our board is thoroughly oriented to take on the responsibility. That is someone who genuinely respects the otherness of other and accepts the God (or evolutionary) given uniqueness of each one of us.

Thanks to Frank Islam for supporting INS, a news agency committed to promoting good news out there. It is one of the best ways to combat negativism and nurture goodwill.

Shashi Tharoor and I have written many similar articles and one of them is at Huffington Post. A similar language is the product.  My slogan has been let every Indian eat, drink, wear and believe whatever he or she wants. Our former VP Dr. Ansari had delivered extraordinary speeches on pluralism.

Free will is an inalienable right of every human and we must guard the rights of every Indian and bring basic security to every Indian, it comes through education.

Here is Shashi Tharoor speech:

http://www.newindianexpress.com/nation/2017/nov/25/i-want-new-india-where-you-dont-get-lynched-for-the-food-you-eat-shashi-tharoor-1710968.html

Mike Ghouse is a speaker, thinker, writer, optimist and an activist of Pluralism, Justice, Islam, India, Peace and Civil Societies. He is a conflict mitigater and a goodwill nurturer and offers pluralistic solutions on issues of the day.  www.CenterforPluralism.com and MikeGhouseforIndia.blogspot.com

Season of ghar wapsi: Intellectuals go back 'home' after brief Modi infatuation

MikeGhouseforIndia.Blogspot.com

After speaking against Modi for nearly a dozen years, I bought into his good speeches, consistent good speeches and wrote good pieces about him. http://mikeghouse.net/NarendraModi.asp


Yes, I am one of these guys like Varshney and Kishwar. Now, along with them I am returning home away from supporting Modi, he will mess up India if he does not control the rogues. The statement that he denied - that he did not tell his goons that they have three days to do whatever they want to do with Muslims... seem like a pattern. Is he giving one year to the Radicals to shake up and frighten every Indian, then he will speak up?  It will be too bloody late. 

My article "Is Hinduism a violent religion" is pending publication, wherein I write, "The problem seems to the be Prime Minister of India’s silence. He has not said a thing about these.  If he does not control the situation in India, the rogues among Hinduism will define his agenda and not him.

His election slogan, “sab ka sath, sab ka vikas” that is "every one’s support, brings prosperity to all" will become meaningless. Instead it will become, “Hindutva ka saaz BJP ki bakwas.” The right wing will play the music and the BJP will utter non-sense. 

The only way to save Hindus and non-Hindus from rogue Hindus is for good Hindus to speak up. So what if all Indian's become Hindu? Will you be safe as a Hindu? Would the mistreatment of Dalits and other "untouchables" go away? 

When Madhu Kishwar was in Dallas, I had a conversation with her, I found her to be a reasonable and logical person. Her unflinching support for Modi kind of assured me that, she is an insider, and knows what she is talking about. Well, she feels betray and I do too. 

I will still  give Modi a chance to speak up. The problem is not him, it is his RSS Madrasa training which excludes Christians and Muslims from Vasudhaiva Kutumbukum.

Modi seems to be betraying all those who supported him, believing he is a good guy and is for sab ka vikas and not satyanas. 


 Mike Ghouse

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Season of ghar wapsi: Intellectuals go back 'home' after brief Modi infatuation

Courtesy First Post

Volumes have always been read into the silences of Narendra Modi. When he was still Candidate Modi, Ashutosh Varshney had seen evidence of Modi the Moderate based mostly on what he was NOT saying. “Quite remarkably, Hindu nationalism has been absent from his speeches,” Varshney had written. Surely, this was then modi-fied Modi outfitted with “Vajpayee-like ideological moderation and political pragmatism.”
Now the same public intellectuals are being forced to read volumes into the same silences of Prime Minister Modi. Modi is still not talking about Hindutva and Ram temples. But everyone around him from Mohan Bhagwat to his frenemy Praveen Togadia are getting more and more bellicose. As ghar wapsi rhetoric gathers steam, the PM’s silence gets louder. And the public pundits, many of whom sick and tired of the UPA sarkar, had thrown their weight behind Modi are having second thoughts. In a season of ghar wapsi, some are going back “home” after a brief Modi infatuation.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi in a file photo. PTI

Pratap Bhanu Mehta: Mehta seems to have given up on Modi. He writes that while the PM “still strikes enchantingly nice notes” the government is floundering. Even worse to him it’s like a “Bollywood film – a big lead, some sets, some good lines, a few meaningless fight scenes, but fundamentally, no script. We cannot break into a song just yet.” And he is not buying the argument that the Hindutva firebrands are just fringe elements. It “simply does not wash. The number of inflammatory statements by a range of MPs is increasing.”
Status: Despairing. Classic buyer’s remorse.

Tavleen Singh: Singh had written an entire book shredding the Gandhi durbar and is obviously no fan of Sonia Gandhi. But her disillusionment with Modi has been sharp and quick. She complains that in the past six months, he has “allowed Hindutva types to speak louder than him and he has allowed his comrades in the RSS to wander about spreading religious tensions.” And she sees no hope for the PM’s agenda of reform when the likes of Mohan Bhagwat defend Ghar wapsi by saying “It is our maal, so we have the right to take it back.” “Why is the Prime Minister allowing the RSS to steal his mandate? I ask this question wherever I go these days and frankly I have no answer?”laments Singh. (Note to Singh: Read Varshney’s latest column. It might have an answer)
Status: Anguished. But clutching at straws as she tweets “The PM’s warning to his MPs on development and governance being his only agenda is very, very welcome.”

Gurcharan Das: Das is all about the economy and ghar wapsi is getting in the way. Das just seems annoyed that for all his success in Parliament, “for a brief moment, ‘strong’ Modi resembled ‘weak’ Manmohan Singh.” Das just sees the entire affair as a management problem as opposed to an ideological one. Of course, “Modi is acutely aware that his mandate is jobs and growth and he must curb the unruly elements of the Sangh Parivar.” But what to do? He needs those footsoldiers for future elections. To Das the choice is clear. Modi needs to “assuage the anxieties of the cultural extremists while pursuing his jobs agenda with ekagrata.” And if he could marginalise the RSS in Gujarat, surely he can do it nationally. Like a good former CEO, Das has the solution – “Modi must ‘sell’ his reforms – especially to the ‘cultural right’ of the party” talking not about Adam Smith’s market but the great marketplace of Hampi.

Status: Worried but still strongly hopeful that Modi will prove to be all the Modi he hoped for.

Swapan Dasgupta: Dasgupta is of course the BJP’s own public intellectual and was one of the most robust champions of Modi in his quest for power. So he cannot afford to step on Modi’s toes. That means we have to read something into the silence of Swapan Dasgupta about the silence of Narendra Modi. Dasgupta writes that Modi needs to keep “hotheads in check” and “shift the political centre of gravity in the BJP towards development and governance.” But from what? Dasgupta manages to write all this without ever uttering the Hindutva word which sits like the elephant in the room. He just talks about the conversion and Christmas furore as “media activism” playing up the antics of a “loose cannons” which view Modi as “an instrument of convenience” and are “anxious to take advantage of a friendly Centre to press ahead with its pet schemes.” But he is silent on whether that “fringe” actually dominates the BJP’s “centre of gravity”. And if not, then where’s the need to shift it?
Status: Glimmers of nervousness. But Modi-ji tum aagey badho, hum tumharey saath hain.

Ashutosh Varshney: Oddly Varshney who once saw Modi the Moderate in his silences, now doubles back and basically sees a dyed in the wool RSS man in the same silence. He points out that culture, not economics drives Hindu nationalism. It chafes against the “1200 years of servitude” and thinks that now that “Hindu raj” has come it is entitled to “use the cover of state protection for conversion.” “It should now be clear why Modi has not yet taken a public stand against conversions,” writes Varshney. “He has grown up with the RSS ideology, which views shuddhi as its core.” But then Varshney does a somersault and poses the same question back to his readers as if he had himself not already answered it. “A critical question, therefore, is: at what point would he draw red lines for the RSS?”
Status: Very cautious U-turn. Not eating his words but chewing on them.

Madhu Kishwar: And finally of course Madhu Kishwar, the original Modi fangirl, the woman behind that 13-part gushing home video. She’s now convinced someone has done “black magic” on her sarkar. But Kishwar’s “shock” seems to be largely about Smriti Irani. She worries that “Delhi has disoriented him” but for now she’s just sticking to her “tweets of anguish” because if she actually went to him and he said “Madhuji chodo na” it would have been very difficult to say no.
Status: Oh, Modiji how could you betray me so? But still yours truly.

Courtesy First Post - http://www.firstpost.com/fwire/politics-fwire/season-of-ghar-wapsi-intellectuals-go-back-home-after-brief-modi-infatuation-2022549.html