Monday, December 22, 2008

THE GRAMMAR OF VOTE BANK POLITICS-The Muslim Community has suffer


THE GRAMMAR OF VOTE BANK POLITICS-The Muslim Community has suffered.

by R. Upadhyay


The grammar of vote bank politics in India is a political reality ever since Independence. With the spread of regionalism, proliferation of political parties and unprincipled alliance, elections in India are hardly contested on the basis of political ideology.  Almost all the political parties distorted this vote bank politics according to their political convenience.  Although, its character varies from state to state on the basis of caste, ethnicity, language and regional factors, the Muslims as a consolidated religious group with 12% of country's population remained a most sought after group at all India level in election time.


Manipulation of voters for seizing power in democracy is an art. Since the establishment of democratic and secular polity in India, the Muslim population was bracketed in a vote bank group initially by the congress party and subsequently by all the political parties in the country.  None of them however, offered any remedial solution to resolve the educational and economic miseries of the Muslim masses and allowed their communal conflict with the Hindus growing day by day. They did not even consider it necessary to guide them properly regarding their commitment to the fundamentals of the political blueprint of the Indian polity as free citizens.


Ironically, the Muslim leaders in connivance with the clergies allowed the situation to continue because of their self-seeking interest.  The reflections of the general contours of the Muslim politics consistently remained linked with their religious identity, which hardly faces any danger in the cultural ethos of Indian civilisation.  The efforts of the Hindu nationalists to bring the Muslims into the socio-political mainstream of the country lost its credence in its vote bank competition with the "secular" parties. Generation of heat and dust over Muslim voters therefore, became the electoral strategy of the political parties since Independence.  Initiated by Congress under the leadership of Nehru and followed by all the "secular" parties it has become a bane of electoral politics in the country.


Historically, the Muslim leaders as a group, who were responsible for partition of the country while playing in to the hands of  the colonial power turned their community members hostile to the national aspiration of the Hindus. Unfortunately, the Congress created the minority and majority syndrome and thereby widened the gap of mistrust between the two communities.



The Bhartiya Jana Sangh (BJS)/Bhartiya Janata Party(BJP), a party of Hindu nationalists with a view to consolidate the Hindu voters in its favour crititiced the Congress for pursuing appeasement policies towards the Muslims. This attitude of the party however, helped the Congress to tighten its hold over the Muslims, who found the party as the only saviour of their religious identity.  Following the footsteps of the Congress all the political parties made a mad rush to woo this community by raising hue and cry for protection of their religious identity. For the last 57 years Muslim personal law, article 370, Urdu language and subsequently Ayodhya remained the only issues to woo the community.  Following the footsteps of the Muslim leadership that played in the hand of the British establishment of the country, the contemporary leaders of the community in post Independence era also played the same divisive game under the patronage of the Congress for over thirty years for sharing political power.  Subsequently with the political decline of the Congress they bargained with the other non-BJP political parties for selling the votes of the community members without showing any interest for their economic and educational developments.


Muslims as a religion-centric society became a demoralised group after partition as they lost their exclusive political identity and bargaining power, which they enjoyed in British India. After Independence the Muslim-centric political parties namely Indian Union Muslim League and Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen with their influence confined to Malabar region of Kerala and Old City of Hyderabad respectively and National Conference and PDP in Kashmir valley had no significance at national level. With new ethos of constitutional privilege to the minority communities, the Congress party made the Muslims more important than they were in British India. The Muslim leaders for their self-seeking interest for sharing political power treated their community members as market commodity and bargained with various political parties.  The minority-majority syndrome virtually vindicated the divisive policy of the British recognising the political distinctiveness of the Muslims, which was however contrary to the democratic concept in a pluralistic society of India.


There are 95 Lok Sabha constituencies in India which have over 20% of Muslim electorates (Electoral Politics and General Elections in India 1952-98 by M. L.Ahuja, 1998, Page 277). The Muslims are however, not in a position to win these seats on their own but they are capable to tilt the electoral balance in a number of constituencies.  Therefore, there has always been a mad rush of the parties to woo them at the time of elections. Traditionally, the Muslims exercised their franchise on the basis of the strength of the party or parties and candidates, who could aggressively fight against the parties, which they viewed anti-Muslim.


The "secular" parties had a common strategy to scare the Muslims of the danger to their religious identity due to consolidation of Hindu nationalists under the banner of the BJS/BJP.  They consistently allured them with a promise to their safety against this imaginary danger. The BJS/BJP on the other hand made consistent attempt to consolidate the Hindus also as a vote bank to counter the political consolidation of the Muslims against them. Though, the party failed to achieve any major success on this issue, it made the Muslims as its permanent political enemy. This Muslim vote bank politics on over 12 0 million of country's population, therefore, caused immense harm to the Indian society in general and Muslim community in particular.


With support from a section of vested interest Muslim elite, the Congress exploited the Muslim voters for over thirty years to rule the country and kept them appeased as a permanent vote bank. This appeasement policy of the party reached to highest peak in mid 1980s, when the Congress leadership surrendered to the dictate of Muslim clergies in Shabano case by negating the Supreme Court verdict by a parliamentary amendment. It in fact thoroughly exposed the self-acclaimed secular character of the party.  Sensing the reaction and likely consolidation of Hindu votes against the party, its Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi played a pragmatic Hindu communal card to negate the folly by laying the foundation of Ram temple at Ayodhya, which has been a disputed issue between the Hindus and the Muslims. This action of the Congress distanced the Muslims from the party and they moved towards the parties of caste leaders, who came in prominence after polarisation of backward castes following the implementation of Mandal Commission report.


Despite the fact that there is no Hindu vote bank as such, the political mobilisation of Muslims as a vote bank made disturbing progress in the closing decades of last century. Such unprincipled maneuvering of votes aggravated the conflictual relations between the Hindus and the Muslims from bad to worse.  It seems there is apparent absence of capability among the political parties to wipe out communalism from democratic and secular politics. They have in fact promoted communalism with the slogan of secularism. The electoral growth of the BJP during the period on the other hand particularly after the demolition of Babri mosque and the party coming to power at centre as a leader of coalition government created a panic among the Muslim masses. Thus, the hate-BJP became their sole political ideology though, they considered both the Congress and the BJP equally responsible for demolition of Babri mosque. It was however ridiculous that they had no inhibition to support the parties aligning with the Congress in electoral battle.


Even though, movement on Hindutva plank paid dividend to the BJP, it put the contentious issues like Ayodhya, Uniform Civil Code and Article 370 of Indian Constitution away from the NDA agenda when it came to power as head of a coalition government.  But its leaders reiterated time and again that they had not given up these issues and would fulfill their ideological commitments once the BJP comes to power at their own.  This attitude of the BJP leaders kept the Muslim masses always suspicious against them. Post Godhara communal riots in Gujarat aggravated their fear.


The RJD in Bihar and SP in Uttar Pradesh, which could emerge as a political force on the basis of caste politics took advantage of the situation and aggressively propagated against the danger of Hindu communalism. The Muslims found in them as the saviour of their religious identity and accordingly went for collective but tactical voting with a sole objective to defeat the BJP. Their tactical voting was based on the ground assessment at constituency level about the strength of the party or candidate to defeat the BJP. They supported Samajwadi Party of Mulayam Singh and BSP of Ms Mayawati in Uttar Pradesh and RJD of Laloo Yadav in Bihar. The Congress replayed its political game of pragmatic communalism in Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh, which was however counter productive due to significant consolidation of Hindu voters in favour of BJP.


Despite the preference of the Muslims for the non-BJP parties to whom they had voted for, the plight of the community remained the same, as these parties hardly did anything to rescue them from their educational and economic backwardness. The Muslim leaders on the other hand continued treating the community as a marketable commodity and bargaining with different political parties in election time for their individual benefits.


The consistent disappointing situation of the Indian Muslims perhaps prompted the BJP leaders to think in term of gaining their confidence. Despite the success of the party in recently concluded assembly elections and the acclaimed "feel good" scenario, they were not sure  of increasing  their electoral gains of 13th Lok Sabha poll in the 14th Lok Sabha election. They realised that the party could not afford to ignore the Muslims that constitute second largest religious majority. To rule over one billion population of the country on its own without taking the Muslim voters into confidence may remain a remote possibility against unlikely consolidation of Hindu votes in party's favour due to the diverse character of Indian society. They considered it necessary to win over the confidence of the Muslims in ensuing Lok Sabha election and accordingly the tactical shift of the party from Hindutva to development was a move also to woo the Muslim voters. This is a major shift in the history of over half a century of party's electoral politics.


A.B. Vajpayee while addressing a BJP-led convention for development of minorities (New Delhi, February 25, 2004) made an appeal to the Muslims to shed their hate BJP mindset, judge the party on the basis of its performance during last five years of its governance, come out of their fear psychosis, think independently and asked them to vote with a free mind. L.K.Adwani on the other hand appealed to them (New Delhi, March 3, 2004) to " beware of vote bank peddlers and concentrate on education". He also said, "Many problems arise today because Muslims have so far only been thought of in terms of votes.  I am happy that Friday holiday (earlier granted by Mulayam Singh, Chief Minister of U.P. since withdrawn) was first criticised by Muslims" (Pioneer dated March 5, 2004). Promod Mahajan, General Secretary of the party made an honest admission that "the BJP too, has realised it cannot rule one billion people without the participation of 120 million of them (Muslims)". He added, "The BJP and the Muslims have realised their folly in excluding each other from their scheme of things" (Ibid.). The RSS, the parent organisation of the BJP is no more found having any obsession to the hand of friendship extended by the BJP to the Muslims. The Sangh Parivar is reportedly serious to discuss and remove misconception from the mind of Muslims against them.


It is difficult to predict whether the Muslims would respond to the appeal of Vajpayee in the coming Lok Sabha election or not. Some of the critics of Vajpayee including from within the Sangh Parivar have criticised the move also as an appeasement. "With the best of intention, both Gandhi and Nehru failed to win over Muslims. It would be a miracle if Mr. Vajpayee succeeds where icons of India failed" (Pioneer dated March 3, 2004). They are of the view that despite his best efforts Mahatma Gandhi failed to win over the confidence of Muslims to prevent partition.


There may be some logic in the criticism of Vajpayee for his new gesture towards the Muslims but the open admission of the party leaders that they cannot ignore the second largest religious group of population is a reality of contemporary politics. It has at least prompted the Muslims to lend their ears to the emotional appeal of Vajpayee that " the time has come to talk to the BJP". Though, only a limited section in the community has at least viewed the new gesture of Vajpayee in positive manner, the well meaning people are found it as an encouraging signal for improving the Hindu-Muslim relation. His appeal has seemingly hit the mental nerve of the community members.


Encouraged with the new gesture of Sangh Parivar some sections of Muslims are found responding positively. They are learnt to have even offered suggestions for "inclusion in the BJP's political agenda free education to girls up to graduation level and modernisation of Madrasas".  Some of the Muslim leaders are either found joining the BJP or hobnobbing with the party to come closer to it. They have perhaps realised that the "secular" parties had only exploited the community for vote but were hardly serious for their educational and economic developments.


Arif Mohammad Khan, former Minister in Rajiv Gandi government of Congress (I) and a defeated hero of famous Shahbano case and Anwarul Haq, RJD M.P. from Bihar have joined the BJP.  Similarly, a senior Congress leader Ms Najma Heptullah, Deputy Chairperson of Rajya Sabha has praised Vajpayee for which she has faced the wrath of her party leadership.  Arif Mohammad said, "It was my mistake that for decades I ignored Atalji's (Vajpayee) hand of friendship. I failed to sense the sincerity of his approach. Why should I blame others. It was my grave error too, that I rejected his hand" (Organiser dated March 7, 2004). Ms Heptullah remarked, " Vajpayee, a good man, who thinks of the nation".  She added, "Vajpayee is a leader, you can trust. The Congress leadership has lost that respect" (Ibid.).


The BJP is contesting the 14th Lok Sabha election on an "India Shining" plank.  How far the folly of the party as realised by the top leaders of a party that is commonly viewed as anti-Muslims and the soft gesture of some of the Muslim leaders would attract their community voters in favour of the BJP - only time will say. But the way these Muslim leaders have either joined the party or are found in the process of soul searching exercise seems to be an encouraging development towards communal harmony in the country. Besides, the slogan of the BJP has at least blunted the sharpness of the aggressive assault of the "secular" parties against Hindutva to some extent. If the new initiative of the BJP leaders works to change the Muslim opinion about their tactical voting against them, the party may get direct or indirect benefit out of it.


Historically, the conflictual relation between the Hindus and the Muslims is an inescapable fact in the political developments in the Indian subcontinent.  However, the political leadership in Independent India never took serious note to resolve the consistent bitter relation between the two major religious communities. In one hand the political parties continuously scared the community against the imaginary danger to their religious identity at the hands of the Hindu nationalists, on the other hand the leaders of the community never allowed them to integrate in Indian society.  The reason behind their economic, educational and social backwardness was never an issue of concern for either the political or community leadership.


With his long political experience Vajpayee realised the diversity of Hindutva and perhaps ruled out the possibility of the political consolidation of Hindus as a vote bank to counter Muslim vote bank. If his appeal could break the strong locker of Muslim vote bank being operated by the "secular" parties for last 57 years and free the community to exercise their franchise conscientiously, it will be a great service to the Indian society and help in bringing harmonious relation between the Hindus and the Muslims.


The medieval mindset of the Muslims as a distinct political community was a communal interpretation of history. Isolating themselves from the social and political mainstream national current, the Muslims failed to develop their national identity due to their economic and educational backwardness. Social identity is closely linked with educational and economic identity for which religion hardly has any role to play. There are sizeable members in the community, who have full faith in democracy but their voice is so feeble and weak that they are unable to bring out their community from their religion-centric identity. In a wider context of Indian society, modernisation of Muslims is possible only with their educational and economic development. But assertive institutionalisation of the communal distinctiveness of the Muslims by their leaders obstructed them to think independently about their overall development as a part of Indian society as a whole. They in fact created a myth about the fear of the cultural absorption of the Muslims by Hindu majority.


The sum and substance of the discussion is confined to the socio-political triangle of the BJP, the non-BJP and the Muslims. Of them the BJP has "realised its folly". The party also claims the same realisation by the Muslims but the Muslim masses in general and larger section of their leaders is yet to endorse this claim.  No other party is so far ready to accept that there has been any folly on its part. The message in Vajpayee's appeal to the Muslims is certainly thought provoking and it is time that all the three hands of the triangle come out in one platform and admit their follies and resolve the conlictual problem between the Hindus and the Muslims. If all the political parties rake up the issues related to the social, economic and educational identity of the Muslims for their integration with national identity, it will have a far reaching impact in bringing the communal harmony between the Hindus and the Muslims.


 (E-mail :ramashray60@rediffmail.com)
http://www.southasiaanalysis.org/%5Cpapers10%5Cpaper950.html


The divisive vote-bank politics
by Deepak Kamat ~ February 29th, 2008. Filed under: Uncategorized.
 Why anti-Brahminism is as bad as anti-Dalitism?
Belgian historian Koenraad Elst described anti-Brahminism as the Indian equivalent of anti-semitism.
“Pope Gregory XV (1621-23) decreed that the missionaries could tolerate caste distinction among Christian converts; but by and large, caste remained an effective hurdle to the destruction of Hinduism through conversion. That is why the missionaries started attacking the institution of caste and in particular the brahmin caste. This propaganda has bloomed into a full-fledged anti-brahminism, the Indian equivalent of anti-Semitism.”
To understand the dynamics of anti-Brahminism, we will have to take a look at caste arithmetic, history and the social nature of Hindu society.
Census based on caste is banned in India since castes are not encouraged in public. The last census on caste was taken in the year 1931. At that time, brahmins comprised 4 percent of the population.
Many estimate that it may have shrunk given the hostile atmosphere in which Brahmins live. However, the percentage of SCs and STs and OBCs have been made available following the reservation scheme. The SCs, STs and OBCs together form 75 percent of Indian population as per data from Mandal Commission records.
Caste wise demographics:
Scheduled Caste 16 percent
Scheduled Tribe 7percent
Other Backward Caste 2 percent
Muslims 13 percent
Sikhs 2 percent
Chrisians 2 percent
Jains & Buddhists 1 percent
Brahmins 4 percent (as per 1931 census)
Others 3 or 4 percent
From this is obvious that KHAM (Kshatriya, Harijan, Adivasi and Muslim) combination would work out to more than 90 percent. So it is natural for the Congress and the secular parties to woo this combine by demonizing the Brahmins on the charges that lower castes have been exploited by Brahmins for centuries. This forms the central crux of the anti-brahmin argument. Besides it is very safe to be an anti-Brahmin since the Brahmins are docile and don’t hit back. Just imagine what would happen if other castes and other religions were targeted.
While there is no denying the Brahmin atrocities and the need for uplifting the Dalits, the other side of the coin has to be factored too. The effects of anti-Brahminism has been disastrous for the Bharathiya psyche. It is a gross distortion of history and it undermines Brahmin sacrifices in ensuring the nation’s continuity.
Remember, the Brahmins have played a stellar role in preserving India’s heritage which have been fully acknowledged by Swami Vivekananda and Gandhi. However, this contribution has not just been ignored but negated by our eminent left historians.
To understand the reason why Hindus survived the Islamic conquests we have to study the fall of Buddhism too. This is what B R Ambedkar wrote on the fall of Buddhism in India following Islamic invasion: “The Musalman invaders sacked the Buddhist Universities of Nalanda, Vikramshila, Jagaddala, Odantapuri to name only a few. They raised to the ground Buddhist monasteries with which the country was studded. The monks fled away in thousands to Nepal, Tibet and other places outside India. A very large number were killed outright by the Muslim commanders. How the Buddhist priesthood perished by the sword of the Muslim invaders has been recorded by the Muslim historians themselves. Summarizing the evidence relating to the slaughter of the Buddhist Monks perpetrated by the Musalman General in the course of his invasion of Bihar in 1197 AD, Mr. Vincent Smith says, “….Great quantities of plunder were obtained, and the slaughter of the ’shaven headed Brahmans’, that is to say the Buddhist monks, was so thoroughly completed, that when the victor sought for someone capable of explaining the contents of the books in the libraries of the monasteries, not a living man could be found who was able to read them. ‘It was discovered,’ we are told, ‘that the whole of that fortress and city was a college, and in the Hindi tongue they call a college Bihar.’ “Such was the slaughter of the Buddhist priesthood perpetrated by the Islamic invaders. The axe was struck at the very root. For by killing the Buddhist priesthood, Islam killed Buddhism. This was the greatest disaster that befell the religion of the Buddha in India….”
According to Arun Shourie, Hinduism survived largely because of Brahminism: He says: “For the Hindus, every Brahmin was a potential priest. No ordination was mandated. Neither anything else. Every household carried on rituals — oblations, recitation of particular mantras, pilgrimages, each Brahmin family made memorizing some Veda its very purpose…. By contrast, Buddhism had instituted ordination, particular training etc. for its priestly class. Thus, when the invaders massacred Brahmins, Hinduism continued. But when they massacred the Buddhist monks, the religion itself was killed.”
The priestly Brahmin class managed to preserve India’s spiritual traditions despite ethnic cleansing and genocides. This is not to undermine the contribution of other castes who had played their role by refusing to convert despite their low stature. It is high time that the Brahmin is seen for what he is rather than being demonized.
Social dimensions of Brahmin today: French journalist Francois Gautier says: Rampant anti-Brahmanism, first used by the Muslim invaders, then by the British colonialists and missionaries, is still in vogue at the hands of Nehruvians, Marxists, Indian Christians and politicians in search of the votes of Dalits and Muslims, which combined together make and unmake prime ministers.
Gautier had published an article in Rediff.com – Brahmins as Dalits of Today — stating that several young Brahmins were working in Sulab Toilets as toilet cleaners, sweepers et al (a job that is usually arrogated to the lower caste Dalits.)
Though Gautier had given this information to the Indian media, they started avoiding him, refused to publish it and some even criticized him as a “RSS stooge”. Certainly when editors, intellectuals and intelligentsia of the day bear anti-brahmin bias and refuse to look at reality, it is a tragedy of the society besides a slur on journalistic tradition which preaches objectivity. Remember, Brahmins are always projected as a fat, rich arrogant community. The selective amnesia of the media when it comes to Brahmin poverty is breathtaking. Is it not?
Sri Aurobindo wrote: ‘A Brahmin was a Brahmin only if he cultivated the spiritual temperament and acquired the spiritual training which alone would qualify him for the task.’
Says Gautier, “Thanks to the lingering influence of Nehruvianism, ‘Brahmins’ remain today a dirty word, even in the face of reality: that Dalits have considerably come up since 1947 in Indian society, that no nation in the world has done so much for its underprivileged (India had a Dalit President — did the US ever have a Black President?). But the intellectual elite of India, which never mentions these facts, continues to hide its face in the sand like an ostrich, refusing to see the reality.”
Dr Bindeshwar Pathak, the founder of the Sulabh Shauchalaya Movement remarks: ‘Society sustained the Brahmins and other upper castes earlier, who upheld the Hindu scriptures and Hindu culture. Today Hinduism is on the decline day-by-day. There is a lack of ancient knowledge. No political party has objected to reservation thanks to vote-bank politics. People have a very short memory. They have forgotten the contribution made by Brahmins to our society.’
And who says that Brahmins and other upper castes are anti-Dalits. Some of India’s top avatars, saints and gurus were of low caste and are still worshipped today by all upper castes. Valmiki, the composer of the Ramayana, was a fisherman; Ved Vyasa, the epic poet of the Mahabharata, which also contains the Bhagavad Gita, the Bible of Future Humanity, was the son of a fisherwoman; Krishna was from the shepherd’s caste. And are not today’s Amritanandamayi or Satya Sai Baba of low caste birth? Don’t they have millions of Indians, many of them from upper castes, bowing down to them?
Anti-Brahmanism has to be stopped! This inter-caste war, triggered by the politicians’ greed for votes, has to be defused.
Brahmins and Manu Smrithies: Manu Smrithies are the most effective tool used for Brahmin bashing. However, what is not pointed out is that Manu Smrithi has no validity in Hindu soceity. Manu Smriti is part of Samaja Dharma (which is like a constitution which was valid only during a certain period of time). Hindus have more faith in Sanatana Dharma (texts like Bhagavad Gita). According to several other scholars, the Manu Smrithies suffer from interpolation and cannot be relied upon. Most of the Hindus are ignorant about Manu Smrithies and tend to rely more upon classical texts like the Bhagavad Gita.
It is these alien intellectuals who have selected obscure passages from Manu Smrithies and are demonising a largely peaceful community. They do not point out other scriptures like the Gita where the Brahmin is described as a person in whom you find “truthfulness, generosity, absence of hatred, modesty, goodness and self-restraint.” Appreciating Brahmins is taboo in India.
What these intellectual worthies do not realise is that most of the Dalit reformers were Brahmins too. This only proves that brahmins are open to reforms and committed to justice.
A smritis, or code of conduct composed by sage Atri defines brahminhood very clearly.”By birth, every man is a Shudra (an ignorant person). Through various types of disciplines (samskaras), he becomes a dwija (twice born). Through the studies of scriptures, he becomes a vipra (or a scholar). Through realization of supreme spirit (brahmajnana), he becomes a brahmin.”
http://greathindu.com/2008/02/the-divisive-vote-bank-politics/


Antulay and Karkare: playing the Muslim Vote bank politics
Desh's blog 91 reads [STUMBLE]
Posted on December 20th, 2008


At a Cabinet meeting in mid-July of 2006, two ministers, Arjun Singh and Abdul Rehman Antulay suggested that terror attacks in Mumbai then were the handiwork of Hindus and not Muslims (and therefore had no links to Pakistan). At that time Dr. Manmohan Singh, the Indian PM had asked them to "refrain from raising “divisive issues” in the Cabinet before bringing them to his attention."[1]


AR Antulay, as he is popularly known, did an encore this week. He raised the issue of Hemant Karkare's death to suggest that he may have been killed because of some kind of "behind the scenes" work of Hindu groups.


Now, the Indian Government has - based on the Constable Arun Jadhav's statement, who was shot but alive and on interrogations from Kasab - said that Karkare, Kamte and Salaskar were killed when the terrorists opened fired on their vehicle. For Antulay to now come out and say stuff contradictory to what his own Government has been saying betrays mischief on part of either the Government or Antulay.[3]


Karkare, Kamte and Salaskar were all stationed outside the CST after news came in of indiscriminate firing at the busy railway station, said the constable. Soon, there was another report of two terrorists having fled from the station and barging into Madam Cama hospital behind the BMC headquarters.


All three officers decided to rush to Cama hospital. They piled into a Toyota Qualis, belonging to ACP Bhalerao, and made a dash for the hospital. Just as the vehicle reached the rear premises of the hospital, the two terrorists came running out. Seeing the approaching Qualis, they fired on it with their AK47 rifles. The officers did not have any time to react and were instantly felled by multiple bullet hits.


Interestingly, Pakistan's game of obfuscation and confusion rests on MERELY (and ONLY) the so-called "circumstantial evidence" - the timing issue, as if the threat to Hemant Karkare was only ONE dimensional.


It is somehow being projected that Hemant Karkare was some kind of an unknown guy whiling away his time in the force and suddenly hit upon this Malegaon investigation and so that was the ONLY threat he faced in life! If he was in Anti-terrorism Squad, then the chances are that he may have made enough enemies.


- So why single out ONE of the many?
- Or are we suggesting that is the ONLY worthwhile thing he did in his entire life?
- Or that the other enemies were somewhat benevolent and no matter what Karkare may have tried to do against them, they would have no grudge?


Just as a matter of record - Hemant Karkare was ALSO involved in probes related to Naxalite-infested Chandrapur district of Maharashtra and had worked in RAW in Austria for 7 years in a secret mission.[2]


Also, and VERY significantly, in an email dated August 23, Indian Mujahideen had singled out Hemant Karkare as a guy on their hit list. The email said - "Let us notify you, especially the top officials of the ATS like Hemant Karkare and allies that our line of attack has already been masterminded for you."[4]

 Now, Pakistani media and "analysts" are backing Antulay up and in Indian polity that is euphemism for Muslim support.. as if what is good for Pakistanis is also good of Indian Muslims.[5] That AR Antulay is a Muslim is bad enough! But probably that is what Antulay is playing with.. he is in no mood to retract his statement and has been getting secret support of other parties who play Muslim vote bank politics regularly. This will put Congress in a bind - as it is angry at him but may not be able to throw him out as well![6]


Antulay is no stranger to playing the Muslims card and being a "Minister of Minorities Affairs", I would be VERY interested in knowing how much of funds were used for Muslims versus OTHER Minorities?! If my experience of UP Minorities board is any indication, then in India minority usually simply equals Muslims. It may be good for some but I think it is very retrograde and communal thinking!


1. Pak hand, says NSA; Arjun, Antulay have a different take
2. Hemant Karkare - Wikipedia
3. 3 rode to death in same car
4. Indian Mujahideen had warned Karkare, ATS in emails
5. Support for Antulay building in Pakistan
6. Antulay's conspiracy theory enrages Congress
http://drishtikone.com/?q=blog/antulay-and-karkare-playing-muslim-vote-bank-politics


India's foreign policy and Muslim vote bank


By Ghulam Muhammed <Ghulam_muhammed2@yahoo.co.in>


The Milli Gazette


Mumbai: A debate is on, targeting Mulayam Singh Yadav, in the wake of coming UP assembly elections, as to how Samajwadi party is playing with the security of the nation while courting the Muslim vote bank, when it declares its intention not to break ties with Iran in the manner our newly acquired 'strategic partner' - the USA demands of us, under threat of consequences.


In fact, this poser of alternative - vote bank politics and national security - is merely a red herring. The word - vote-bank as used especially for Muslim voters' mass commitment to a single political party, is traditionally used by the Congress opposition as a pejorative. In fact, forming a vote bank is just like forming a political party or forum or front. It is the very essence of democracy in action, however otherwise the fascists may take it.


On the other hand, the current debate on foreign policy has very grave consequences for India, both in internal and external dimensions. As is clear from vigorous opposition to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's personal initiative to completely lock up India's foreign policy with that of the United State, the subject concerns all and not just the Brahmanical minority that rides roughshod over rest of the Indians. Manmohan Singh's single-handed negotiation with the US over civilian nuclear cooperation with India, resulting in a virtual veto for the US over India's foreign policies and its sovereign right of freedom to decide its own strategies on war and peace, depending on changing times in the future, is too obvious to be missed as a greatest blunder India could make.


The US has a longer term plan for a NEW WORLD ORDER, which is a public document giving out America's hegemonist agenda in the rest of the world. To commit India to a distinct and unchangeable role in the US / ISRAELI NEW WORLD ORDER, with serious impediments and consequences for any possible change of course if so desired or necessitated in the future, is something that concerns each and every citizen of this democratic nation of India.


The whole process of India's negotiation with the US, without any prior reference to Parliament or the people of the nation, is sheer negation of all norms of democracy. How can a cabal at the top decide such important changes in India's long-term security commitments without taking the people into full confidence and without exhaustive debate and even special referendum? The US audacity and arrogance and glimpse of the future level of give and take was quite visible when ordinary individual Congressmen, could demand India, on pain of consequences, to abide by US interest in boycott of Iran, during a vote in IAEA. There is no prior understanding between the two nations on this subject. Just a phone call and Indian government was forced to change its declared policy and vote against Iran. And this even before any agreement on the nuclear deal was even put to vote in US Congress, US was openly blackmailing India. This was an ample proof that as is its wont, US is not willing to give any quarter to its partners, when it comes to its own national interest and even if clashes with the obvious and clear interest of its partners. India and Iran have long relationship and India depends on Iran for its fuel needs. It has future plans to develop further sources of gas supplies from Iran to India. All had been summarily thrown out of window and US gets its way on Iran vote. Naturally, the people of India are aghast at this turn of events. The Muslim factor was brought in, later to confuse the issue. Though India's special relationship is still sticking out as a sore thumb and India public, except for the Hindutva political lobby, is not willing to see India being humiliated into turning Iran into a foe. Tomorrow, the US may ask its 'strategic partners' to join its forces attacking Iran. Why should India toe the line and abide by the US list of friends and foes and why not it keep its freedom to deal with its neighbors and rest the world, in the best interest of its own. The more ironical part is that America has all the freedom to change its relationship with Iran and make peace in an instant, while India will be left out to deal with a jilted Iran in any such future happenstance. As is the norms in the East, this India and Iran enmity could last for ages.


Why India should enter into any such binding and suffocating relationship without the other side being made aware of our sensitivities and the limits of our commitments.
The question of Muslim vote bank impacting India's foreign policy is relevant in another equally important dimension. There happens to be a distinct contrast between inclinations of a 4% Brahmin minority and another 15% Muslim minority. In the caste war erupting all over the political arena, Brahmins are getting more and more isolated, while the quantum of Muslim population has started to be viewed as free from its earlier bondage to Congress and easily accessible to lower caste political groupings. Muslims, even though without any meaningful participation in political, administrative and foreign affairs of the nation till now, being completely sidelined and ostracized by the Congress Brahmins, have their natural sense of brotherhood with a sizable mass of Muslim nations in India's immediate neighborhood. If instead of the 4% Brahmins, the 15% Muslims could line up rest of the country behind them, even on merit, India will have much closer relationship with its Muslim neighbors and the whole of Middle East and Africa. The Brahmin foreign policy binds India to Israel and results in a different set of isolationist and confrontationist policy that is counter to India's ethos and its freedom of choice.


The kind of foreign investments flooding India from the US and its cronies from all around the world is peanuts if compared to the investible funds available with the gulf countries. However, India's Brahmins with their pathological apathy against Islam and Muslims could hardly be prepared to let Arabs invest in India, even though Arab investment would never have come with such onerous terms as the US imposes.


It would not be a far fetched conjecture to imagine that the haste with which Indian Brahmins have concluded such a one-sided strategic partnership agreement with the US and bringing in Israel in a big way into the India's national and internal security set-up, is the direct threat of Muslim vote bank slipping from the Brahmanical political parties to the coalition parties from the lower caste grouping.


It is time, Muslim leadership figure out the wider implications of its voting Brahmins into power once again.
 
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 http://www.milligazette.com/dailyupdate/2006/200612233_India_foreign_policy_Muslim_vote_bank.htm


Politics over Economics — putting reforms in backseat
We may praise them, we may criticize them...but it's a fact that India's eco-politics has had its share of successes and blunders on its way to where we stand now. Time to time political stands attracted bitter criticism on whether protection of the economy was in fact truly based on long-run comparative advantage, or whether it was determined by other, more political motives.


India's political system has, on many occasions, been unable to grab the given opportunities either due to lack of knowledge or because of political motivation. In the early 1990s when firms like Motorola approached us for facilities to set up manufacturing operations in India, we declined. China welcomed them and the fruits of this association is evident today.


The need of the hour is reforms, the need of the hour is innovation. There is a difference between keeping an elephant and carrying an elephant on the shoulders.


I strongly believe that instead of subsidies and free wares we need to engage them in sectors like biofuels, bamboo cultivation and products, and medicinal plants. Each of these can engage millions. These are policies that will not hurt the economy and all the same provide them the much-needed regular flow of income. Similarly, projects that entail huge earthworks including gram sadak projects, the linking of rivers will be able to absorb millions who may be dislocated and at the same time unleash the country’s productive potential. They are the real social security that will take the nation's economy to unscaled heights.


Political parties need to rise above political equations and vote-banks. We can't defer reforms for the forthcoming elections.


Having said that however, politics is also not without economics. The government-run railways are running in profit, the navaratnas are running in profit, many other sectors too are. Why? I would say they have brought in place reforms and innovative ways to become profitable.


Recently when I was in Gujarat, I saw a new trend emerging there. With a view to attracting several overseas companies to set up base in the state and to provide job opportunities to locals, the State government has taken up an ambitious project called SCOPE (Society for Creation of Opportunity through Proficiency in English) to empower the masses to acquire basic communication skills. The government has understood and recognized the fact that manpower is its strongest area and for that they need to possess good communication skills. This is innovation!


Economic strength is itself power. We need added thrust to reforms and that too without delay. The more we delay the process, the greater the lead that others will get over us.


So will our policy-makers play their old game in keeping a part of the society handicapped and play vote-bank politics or will they bring in reforms, all the same including the larger section of the society? The answers we will have to seek within ourselves!


Bikky Khosla
CEO
Tradeindia.com  
http://www.tradeindia.com/newsletters/archive/newsletter_4_sep_2007_505.html


Get rid of vote bank politics
Author: Prafull Goradia
Publication: The Hindustan Times
Date: February 21, 2003
It's time for the BJP to present its preparatory campaign for the assembly elections that are to be held this year. However, it must be understood that Gujarat cannot be re-enacted in any of these states. The ghastly provocation provided at Godhra on February 27, 2002, made the people furious, but did not win the Gujarat polls for the Hindutva party. The VHP's activities helped mobilise sections of the people, but the BJP did not win 126 seats riding on anyone's shoulders. The BJP's trump card in Gujarat was Narendra Modi, the like of whom no other state has produced. By the time the campaigning officially began, the contest had ceased to be between political parties. The issue had become Modi versus terrorism, in every way exclusively a Gujarat phenomenon.


Nevertheless, the BJP can have decisive victories in Himachal Pradesh, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan provided it charts out a winning strategy and pursues it with boldness. It needs to be far-sighted and simultaneously aim for the 2004 Lok Sabha election. It's too premature to decide which version of Hindutva the BJP should adopt. After all, the BJP also has to consider the opinion of its NDA partners. The emphasis should be on governance rather than on ideology.


Illegal migrants or infiltrators, especially from Bangla-desh, are a case of the poorer undercutting the poor. In West Bengal, in particular, one comes across any number of such complaints - incidentally, many more from Muslims than Hindus. Take a tailor - who in Bengal is most often a Muslim - who would normally earn Rs 100 per day. But a tailor migrating from Bangladesh is prepared to work for Rs 75.


Another example is of one Mehboob Ali in Burdwan, who belongs to a family of masons, each of whom earned Rs 60 per day in 1995. Thereafter came several families of masons from Mymensingh who were prepared to work for Rs 40 per day. Communist parties welcome such infiltrators - first giving them ration cards, then listing them in the electoral rolls - as they later become loyal voters.


In this endeavour to expand their electorate, the Marxist hearts cease to beat for the poor and it twists the demand for halting illegal migration into a communal bias. This is not true, as a Muslim landowner is as worried of Bangladeshi squatters as is a Hindu. Fear abounds in the border areas of 24-Parganas and Murshidabad, right up to West Dinajpur and Jalpaiguri. This partly explains why the Lok Sabha MP from Nadia on the Bangladesh border was elected on a BJP ticket.


The Congress plays along with the communists in the mistaken belief that any opposition to these migrants would hurt Muslim sentiments. To what extent the grand old party can go to placate these sentiments is illustrated by Illegal Migrants Determination by Tribunals Act (IMDT), 1983, a legislation authored by the Congress for Bangladeshi infiltrators. Amazingly, this act applies only to the state of Assam and the rest of India works under the Foreigners Act, 1946.


The IMDT was made into law by the Indira Gandhi government in 1983, soon after the election to the Assam assembly. It was so framed as to make it almost impossible to deport any foreigner from Assam. Its most outstanding feature was that the burden of proving that a person was a foreigner was on the complainant who claimed that the particular person was an illegal migrant. The Foreigners Act, 1946, puts the burden of proof rightly on the suspect. Also, Section 8 of the IMDT provides that any person may complain. But it is conditional that the alleged illegal migrant must reside within three kilometres from the residence of the complainant. And, the procedure prescribed for detection of an illegal migrant is elaborate and time-consuming. The BJP should promise a repeal of this discriminatory law.


Another promise that would be useful to the electoral campaign is nationalisation of the wakf. However pious its origin, over the centuries, it has deteriorated into an instrument of exploitation. Asaf A.A. Fyzee, in Outlines of Muhammadan Law (OUP, 1999), has written: "Wakf is a permanent foundation for a religious or pious object; the corpus belongs to God and cannot be consumed." A religious motive is the origin of the legal fiction that wakf property belongs to Almighty God. The most common objective initially was to pay the staff at mosques and to endow schools and hospitals with funds. Unfortunately, in India now, most wakfs are in favour of the wakif's (founder of a wakf) family, children and descendants.


Little wonder that the Caliph, way back in 1917, thought it necessary to abolish the institution of the wakf in the entire Ottoman empire. Many Muslim countries, including Egypt, Algeria and Morocco, have no wakfs. In India, the institution enjoys a unique advantage in that it is above all other laws. For example, the Urban Land Ceiling Act cannot apply to wakf properties.
During the raj, an appeal went up to the Privy Council which then served as the apex court for the British empire. In delivering its judgment, Lords Watson, Hobhouse and Shand and Sir Richard Couch described "the wakf as a perpetuity of the worst and the most pernicious kind and would be invalid".


A large number of madrasas have been established in India, especially on its borders with Pakistan, Nepal and Bangladesh. Regrettably, the madrasas focus on teaching of religious subjects and overlook the secular education that is so essential for earning one's livelihood. Lately, the madrasas have gained notoriety for being breeding grounds for jehadis and terrorists. The Pakistan government has clamped down on the proliferation of madrasas in that country by insisting on their registration. There is no reason why the BJP should not insist on the same for the existing madrasas here and the necessity of prior permission for opening new ones.


All in all, for the present, the BJP should deport at least a thousand proven illegal migrants every month across the Bangladesh border. The party should declare its intentions to repeal the IMDT. It should promise to nationalise the wakfs, apart from monitoring madrasas.
 
 http://www.hvk.org/articles/0203/254.html


PRESS RELEASES
December 23, 2006 
  PDF Format


BHARATIYA JANATA PARTY
National Council Meeting
23 & 24 December 2006


Sri Sundar Singh Bhandari Parisar
Lucknow


Resolution on
The UPA Government's vote-bank politics


The National Council of the Bharatiya Janata Party records the country's growing condemnation of the Congress-led UPA Government's vote-bank politics, particularly its practice of communal appeasement. In attempting to make political gains, the Congress and its allies are pursuing policies that are turning Indian against Indian, kindling divisive identities, jeopardising the country's social cohesion and compromising national security. The BJP is concerned that the Government's short-sighted approach will have a bearing on the integrity of India. In courting popular support, the Congress has destroyed all the norms governing political mobilisation and turned a blind eye to national interests.


Competitive appeasement


The recklessness of the Congress and its allies is born of expediency. The UPA Government lacks coherence in economic and foreign policy; its approach to India's larger strategic goals, including nuclear policy, is beset with contradictions. The squabbling fractions of the UPA are joined together by a competitive commitment to narrow sectarian politics, particularly aimed at the Muslim community.


The past year has witnessed the Congress President, the Prime Minister, senior Union ministers and key political figures in the states trying to outdo each other in offering sops to Muslims—regardless of its damaging consequences.


Communalisation of development


Earlier, the wooing of the Muslim community was couched in the language of minority welfare. Today, the UPA Government has shed its camouflage and is explicitly courting the Muslim community alone. The Rajinder Sachar Committee was appointed by the Prime Minister to inquire into the conditions of the Muslim community. At the National Development Council meeting, the Prime Minister declared that the Muslim community has "first claim" on India's development resources.


The BJP condemns this communalisation of the Government's development programme and the use of religious identity to apportion taxpayers' money. The Congress has initiated an unhealthy, divisive and potentially dangerous political trend.


A shameful record


The slide towards Muslim appeasement began with the installation of the UPA Government in May 2004. The notable examples include:


• The dismissal of four Governors appointed by the erstwhile NDA Government on the ground that they had links with the RSS.


• The inclusion, for the first time since Independence, of a Muslim League representative in the Union Council of Ministers.


• The attempt to shield the perpetrators of the 2002 arson attack in Godhra by the illegal appointment of the Bannerjee Committee by the Railway Ministry, despite the existence of a Commission of inquiry. Predictably, the Bannerjee committee declared that the death of the pilgrims inside a railway compartment was an accident and not the result of a pre-meditated attack.


• The illegal immigration of Bangladeshis into eastern India has been sanctioned and condoned by successive Congress Governments on the grounds that the foreigners happen to be Muslims. Census figures were sought to be doctored when they suggested a religious demographic transformation of large parts of eastern India. The IMDT Act which was struck down by the Supreme Court was re-introduced by the backdoor. The Supreme Court has struck down the latest notification too.


• Vande Mataram , India's national song which inspired the freedom movement, was dragged into controversy by the Congress following motivated objections by narrow-minded Muslim leaders to its singing.


• The introduction of religion-based reservations. The Congress Government of Andhra Pradesh introduced 5 per cent reservation for Muslims in higher education; and the Centre declared that 50 per cent of all seats in Aligarh Muslim University would be reserved for Muslims.


• Minority educational institutions have been excluded from the purview of the new reservations policy for Backward classes. As a result, the existing reservations for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes stand removed from minority institutions which are now outside the purview of legislation. The Government has fallen back on expediency to justify this. Whereas in the matter of education it claims that caste is alien to Islam and Christianity, it is simultaneously campaigning to enlarge the Scheduled Castes category to include Muslims and Christians in employment. One of the new terms of reference of the Ranganath Mishra Commission on linguistic minorities was to find ways of incorporating Muslims and Christians into the category of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes. The BJP believes that such a move will encourage religious conversions. It is significant that Congress President Smt. Sonia Gandhi wrote to the President of India Protesting against the anti-conversion legislation passed by BJP-run state governments.


• The Sachar Committee has recommended the use of nominations to enhance representation of Muslims in government.
Soft on jihadi terror


The policy of Muslim appeasement has been taken to such dangerous heights that the Congress-led Government has chosen to go soft on terrorism. The Government has yielded space to jihadi elements that are out to destroy India. The pattern of the Government's capitulation is evident from the following:


• POTA was repealed by suggesting it was anti-Muslim. This has adversely affected the fight against terrorism.


• The Congress and Left-dominated Kerala Assembly passed a unanimous resolution to release the prime accused in the Coimbatore bomb blast case.


• The Uttar Pradesh Government headed by the Samajwadi Party has not implemented the Centre's ban on the Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI). Cases against prominent SIMI functionaries have been withdrawn,


• An attempt was made by the Sachar Committee, to examine the religious composition of the armed forces. The move was dropped after a public outcry and protests by the army chief. In its report, the Sachar committee has, however, justified this attempt to view the armed forces through a religious prism.


• The death sentence awarded to Afzal Guru for his role in the attack on Parliament on December 13, 2001, has been put on hold. The punishment of a terrorist conspirator has been needlessly converted into an issue of Muslim sentiment. Shri Ghulam Nabi Azad, the Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir, went public with his opposition to a judicial verdict.


• The Government has been deliberately underplaying the involvement of both Pakistan and Pakistan-aided jihadis in terrorist incidents all over the country. By agreeing to a joint Indo-Pakistan mechanism to monitor terror, the UPA Government has diluted the Islamabad declaration of January 2004 and allowed Pakistan to extricate cross-border terrorism from the so-called peace process. It was shameful for the Government to suggest that both India and Pakistan are victims of terrorism.


• The UPA Government has rubbished the investigations of the Mumbai Police Commissioner pointing to a Pakistani-role in the Mumbai blasts of July 11. The role of Pakistan in the blasts was not even mentioned in the Foreign Secretary-level talks in October.
The BJP perspective


The BJP believes that Muslims are an inseparable part of India. They share with the rest of the people a common ancestry and a common culture. Their struggle for economic prosperity, social dignity, women's empowerment and education make them one with the rest of India. By separating Muslim issues from the rest, the Government is creating an artificial divide, breeding resentment and nurturing divisive forces. In linking the fate of terrorist conspirators with Muslim interests, the Congress and its allies are implicitly suggesting that Muslims have a stake in terrorism aimed against the ordinary people of India. This does nationalist Muslims a grave injustice.


The BJP believes that all Indian citizens, regardless of language, class and creed are equal. The party condemns the Congress Party's assertion that some citizens are more equal than others and have first claim on resources on the basis of their faith. The BJP believes that equity demands special treatment and, where necessary, affirmative action for the poor and the disadvantaged. The party, however, repudiates the suggestion that this can be done on the basis of religion.


The BJP notes that the Congress and many other parties flaunting their "secular" credentials have developed a vested interest in keeping Muslims poor, ghettoised and in a state of permanent nervousness. They have perceived Muslims as voting fodder and not worked for their betterment. The social disabilities of Muslim women have, for example, never been addressed. Shah Bano and Imrana stand testimony to this injustice to Muslim women.


The Congress, which has ruled India for 47 of the 59 years since Independence, cannot escape responsibility for the dismal plight of many Muslims in large parts of India. It is revealing that Muslims are most backward in states such as Bihar and West Bengal where the most vocal of the "secular" parties were and are in power for long.


By attempting to re-inject religion-based quotas and reservations into India, the Congress is re-opening old wounds. The BJP would like to remind the Indian people that it the creation of separate electorates and the categorisation of society along religious lines which produced a separatist mindset and led to the Partition of India in 1947. It is precisely for this reason that the founding fathers of the Republic kept religion out of decision-making by the state.
The Congress has been practising vote-bank politics and minorityism for long. What began as an instrument of electoral mobilisation has now been taken a step forward. A competitive statement war has been unleashed among Congress ministers and their supporters to prove that each can outdo the other in accommodating so-called Muslim interests. If unchecked the attempt to create a special citizenship for Muslims will pave the way for a second Partition. The BJP will resist this dangerous drift with all the might at its command.


The Congress is playing havoc with Indian identity and nationalism. The UPA has made Muslim appeasement and vote bank politics the hallmark of its governance. The BJP National Council resolves to mobilise all nationalist Indians and defeat this assault on our nationhood.
 



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 India’s Christians: politics of violence in Orissa
Jacob Ignatius


A wave of Hindu nationalist attacks on Christians in eastern India is rooted in local issues of caste and conversion but also part of a larger political strategy, says Jacob Ignatius. 1 - 09 - 2008



A catastrophic flood across the northeast Indian state of Bihar has displaced tens of thousands of people and caused untold damage to the meagre property and livelihoods of some of India's poorest citizens. The challenges of delivering aid and protecting the health of those affected by this emergency - which is spreading to the state of Assam and across the border to Bangladesh - are immense. But alongside this natural and humanitarian disaster, another less visible crisis has been unfolding: attacks on India's Christians in parts of the impoverished eastern state of Orissa.


Jacob Ignatius is an Indian who works in Britain as a software engineer.
On 29 August 2008, 45,000 Christian schools were closed across India to protest against the anti-Christian violence that had affected (mainly) the Kandhamal district of Orissa in the previous week. This was unprecedented in the history of independent India, for never before have Christians felt so compelled to stand publicly and unitedly against the forces of communalism in India. Moreover, the impact of this response is heightened by the fact that Christian schools - which provide education to both Christian and non-Christian children - form a significant part of India's education system.


The unrest in the state of Orissa started on 23 August 2008 after the murder of a 90-year-old rightwing Hindu nationalist leader called Swami Laxmanananda Saraswati; four of his associates were also killed in the attack. Although the police suspected Maoist guerrillas for the murder, members of the radical Hindu group Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) blamed Christians and went on the rampage - killing several people, and destroying a Christian missionary-school, house-churches and other buildings. The Asian Centre for Human Rights (ACHR) estimates that fifty people (most of them Christians) have been killed. Thousands of Christians have fled their homes to seek shelter in the forests or government camps. The murder of the Hindu leader is clearly reprehensible, but this is a matter for the judicial authorities and - even were the culprit found to be a Christian - would not justify what effectively became an assault against an entire local Christian community.


Among openDemocracy's articles on Indian politics and democracy:


Rajeev Bhargava, "Words save lives: India, the BJP and the constitution" (2 October 2002)


Rajeev Bhargava, "The political psychology of Hindu nationalism" (5 November 2003)


Antara Dev Sen, "India's benign earthquake" (20 May 2004)


Rajeev Bhargava, "India's model: faith, secularism and democracy" (3 November 2004)


Meenakshi Ganguly, "India's Dalits: between atrocity and protest" (9 January 2007)


Ajai Sahni, "India and its Maoists: failure and success" (20 March 2007)


Sumantra Bose, "Uttar Pradesh: India's democratic landslip" (29 May 2007)


John Elkington, "India's third liberation" (21 August 2007)


Kanchan Lakshman, "India in Afghanistan: a presence under pressure" (11 July 2008)


Ajai Sahni, "India after Ahmedabad's bombs" (29 July 2008)


Paul Rogers, "China and India: heartlands of global protest" (7 August 2008)


Antara Dev Sen, " India at 61: here's looking at you, kid!" (19 August 2008)
An area of tension


The latest trauma is part of a history of Hindu-Christian clashes in Orissa over the last decade. In January 1999, the Australian missionary Graham Staines and his two sons were burned alive while sleeping in their jeep. Around Christmas 2007 there were Hindu-Christian clashes that have some parallels with the latest events. The main conflict then was between two communities: Kandh tribals (who are mainly, though not exclusively, Hindus) and Dalit Panas (many of whom have converted to Christianity over the years). Christian missionaries have been active in the area for many years; with the entrance of radical Hindu groups, vehemently opposed to the conversion of Hindus to Christianity and cow slaughter, the potential for communal tension has deepened.


Muslims have traditionally borne the brunt of attacks by Hindu extremist groups but since the late 1990s there has been a marked increase in the number of attacks on Christians. Between 1950 and 1998, only fifty anti-Christian attacks were recorded. In 2000, the figure shot up to 100, and then rose further to at least 200 incidents annually in 2001-05; perhaps it was no coincidence that this came after after the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) came to power at the federal level (until their defeat by the Congress-led coalition in May 2004). In 2007, the number of attacks on Christians exceeded 1,000 for the first time.


Hindu radicals often make the allegation - in part-excuse for the actions of extremists - that Christians are forcibly or fraudulently converting Hindus to Christianity. There probably are some erring missionaries who are attracting converts by false inducements, but to imply that all do so is inaccurate and unfair (see Subhasis Mohanty, "Fire in Kalinga", The Pioneer, 2 September 2008). Many missionaries do great charitable work, often providing a helping hand in areas deeply affected by poverty.


In several Indian states governed by the BJP, anti-conversion laws are now in place. These laws are largely intended to prevent the flow of people from Hinduism to other faiths. Many low-caste Hindus have converted to Christianity willingly to escape the rigid and repressive caste system; the Dalit Panas of Orissa are an example. In this context the anti-conversion laws - which sanction interference in a person's right freely to choose a faith - have become a weapon used by radical Hindus to beat Christians. In areas like Orissa, the tensions that result are intermingled with disputes over land, legal status and local power (see Ravik Bhattacharya, "Down the Dark Road", Indian Express, 31 August 2008).


Christians officially constitute only 2.3% of the Indian population. Christianity is believed to have been brought to India by St Thomas, Christ's own apostle, to the shores of Kerala in 52 CE (common era). Much later, colonial powers such as the British, Portuguese, Dutch and French made strenuous efforts to convert the population. These were usually without success; Christianity has never grown to be a dominant religion in India and it is unlikely it ever will. Yet Hindu extremist groups like the VHP are fixated on the issue of conversions to Christianity - in part from dogmatic opposition to people leaving their religious fold, in part from insecurity about members of the lower castes trying to break free from the caste system. Hence, the majority of attacks on Christians are directed against the formerly low-caste converts such as the Dalit Panas of Orissa (see Biswamoy Pati, "In a crucified state", Hindustan Times, 2 September 2008).


A strategy of fear


India is a deeply religious place where the boundaries of religion and politics are somewhat porous. The country is not today blessed with philanthropic politicians of the stature of Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru who always strove for communal harmony. There is a disturbing tendency among some of their successors to exaggerate the religious divide between communities in order to polarise voters along religious lines and win the votes of the majority community. This can both encourage and justify attacks on members of minority faiths, many of which are orchestrated in advance and carried out with the connivance of the authorities. In their aftermath, very few people are prosecuted (see Rajeev Bhargava, "The political psychology of Hindu nationalism", 5 November 2003).


The next Indian general election is looming - it must be held by May 2009, and could even be sooner. The BJP seems to have returned to its policy of hard-line Hindutva (Hindu nationalism) to capture votes. The ruling Congress Party professes commitment to India's famed secularism, but it often fails to match action with rhetoric (see Rajeev Bhargava, "Words save lives: India, the BJP and the constitution", 2 October 2002). This is disappointing because to break the cycle of communal violence more needs to be done than just issuing statements and pointing the finger of blame at the BJP. A good start would be consistently to bring the perpetrators of communal violence to justice.


Hindus are in their vast majority tolerant and peaceful - as are members of other faiths in India. It is political manipulation and fear-mongering that turns peaceful coexistence into terrible violence, as in Orissa. The political instigation of of anti-Christian sentiment by the Hindu rightwing for electoral gain is another danger to Indian democracy. In the interests of a peaceful, progressive and just India, it must be opposed.


http://www.opendemocracy.net/article/india-s-christians-politics-of-violence-in-orissa
Bane of vote bank politics
Mon, 2008-10-13 01:08
By Allabaksh - Syndicate Features


Vote bank politics is the ugly side of Indian democracy. It surfaces with more prominence around election time, which means practically round the year since polls are becoming an almost annual feature in India. That has made most people accept, perhaps grudgingly, vote bank politics as a necessary evil.


Recently, the issue erupted with some force when the Samajwadi Party leader, Amar Singh, tried to do an almost impossible balancing act. He rushed to express sympathy for a slain and a much acclaimed police inspector, M.C. Sharma, who was killed when the police raided a ‘hideout’ of terrorists in Jamia Nagar in south Delhi while investigating the case of September 13 serial blasts in the capital. Two suspected terrorists were also killed in the encounter. Amar Singh presented a cheque of Rs 10 lakh to the family of late Sharma. That gesture could not be construed as anything other than a mark of honour for the slain police officer and recognition of his devotion to duty.


Curiously, the cheque had a discrepancy—the amount written in figures and words did not match. According to Amar Singh’s aides, it was not a serious matter and was just an oversight. But with the benefit of hindsight many would question if the portly leader was really serious in honouring the police officer.


Because in the past few days, Amar Singh has turned his attention to the reaction among the Muslim community in Jamia Nagar which had debunked the entire ‘encounter’ story and alleged that Sharma was not ‘martyred’ but was shot from close range by one of his colleagues. If their version is to be believed the Delhi Police had—once again—gone after ‘innocent’ people, made tall claims about ‘busting’ a terror network and tried to find an undeserving ‘martyr’ from among its rank.


Amar Singh gauged the extent of ‘anger’ in the Muslim community and realised that he must speak in support of their stand on the ‘encounter’. With its fortunes in apparent decline in its home state (UP), the Samajwadi Party leader was desperate to do something to please its supposedly large Muslim ‘vote bank’. In doing so he perhaps overstepped by questioning the ‘martyrdom’ of Sharma and by raising suspicions about the ‘encounter’.


The Sharma family is furious and decided not to accept Amar Singh’s cheque even if he is prepared to correct the discrepancy on it. The BJP jumped into the fray and denounced Amar Singh for touching a new low in ‘vote bank politics’. Amar Singh’s initial gesture towards the Sharma family got him enemies, not friends.


Since the Samajwadi Party has always claimed to watch and protect the interests of Muslims it is hardly surprising to find Amar Singh echoing the views of Jamia Nagar, a predominantly Muslim cluster near Okhla. But he would have escaped some wrath of his political opponents if he had refrained from raising a controversy about the manner of inspector Sharma’s death. The political class with its own problem of credibility still has a lot to do to catch up with the new trend of scoffing at every police claim in solving a terror.


While it may be impossible to eliminate ‘vote bank politics’ public figures like Amar Singh will be doing a great favour to our democracy if they realise that extending this kind of politics beyond a point harms the very community they are trying to support. Muslims in the country are very upset because of what they perceive as a ‘campaign’ to malign the entire community in the name of fighting terrorism. True, the community needs to purge itself of elements who have brought a bad name to them, more since unquestionably the majority Muslims abhor terrorism and whatever it stands for.


Acts of terrorism need investigation, which in turn means questioning a lot of people, often a whole group. If these people live in a community enclave it will be wrong to presume that the investigators are after all of them. Questioning neighbours is one of the first things the police do when investigating any crime. Of course, our police force is still stuck in the colonial mindset and its methods of questioning people remain as antiquated as they are offensive, even dehumanised. It is a pity that nothing much has been done to ‘reform’ the police despite a plethora of sensible suggestions made in numerous reports that are gathering dust in the Home Ministry’s North Block basement.


The inadequacies in running the police force are compounded by rampant partisan and communal politics in the country. No debate on enacting or repealing laws to curb terrorism can begin and end without the charge that the aim is to either ‘appease’ a section or ‘target’ another with the idea of seeing the voters polarised.


The politicians and members of the civil society have the right to question the methods applied by the police in carrying out investigations. At the same time, it might also be necessary for them not to induce a section of the people to believe that they are deliberate targets of the police. People may question the manner in which the police investigate the Delhi blast case, but to lend support to the charge that the police or the administration is biased against a particular community is doing a disservice to the nation.


Shoddy police investigation methods may enrage a community; that cannot be sufficient reason for abandoning the probe or bringing in absurd charges like policemen killing their own colleagues to give a band name to a community.


Muslims not only in India but also all over the world are unhappy and worried about the bad name their community has received after 9/11. But questioning investigations and describing every suspect arrested after an act of terrorism as innocent cannot correct this unfortunate situation. Terrorism is largely an ‘invisible’ enemy; looking for ‘invisible’ people may sometimes entail, unfortunate though it is, reaching the wrong address.


- Asian Tribune -


http://www.asiantribune.com/?q=node/13676


Fettered by fear, Muslims fritter away their vote
14 Dec 2008, 0015 hrs IST, M J Akbar


Indian Muslims will get development the day they vote for development. For sixty years they have voted out of fear, so that is what they have got 
from those they elected: the politics of fear. Fear is the menu, recipe and diet: and the Muslim voter laps it up with the appetite of the traumatized.


Fact and fiction are employed seamlessly in the advertising of fear. A history of riot, and the threat from organizations like the Bajrang Dal are sewn into wild conspiracy theories by ‘leaders’ of the community to shape minds on the eve of an election. I could not believe some of what I heard after the terrorist attacks in Mumbai. One was utterly aghast to hear, during a public gathering of some very worthy persons, the suggestion that we could not be sure that the terrorists had come from Pakistan. It was an appalling exercise in denial by mindsets that had either been unhinged or had turned utterly manipulative.


For secular politicians, the Muslim vote comes at an easy exchange rate. Other communities demand rice and roads. The Muslim needs nothing more than the old ploy used to help children go to sleep: stories of ghosts and monsters at the door.


When the community wakes up after sleepwalking to the polling booth, and demands legitimate needs like jobs for the young and health clinics for women, the politicians offer a large shoulder on which they can weep. No other segment of the Indian electorate can be appeased by a sob story.


Politicians will always maximize the spread of assets at their disposal in the search for an extra vote; why should they waste economic benefits on a voter who will sway to the whine of emotions rather than take a cold count of schools and sanitation? There is now a disconnect between Muslims and the benefits of democracy, a break engineered by community opinion-makers who get rewarded for such services with little dollops that wind up into their personal assets.


Fear used to be a factor with some other communities as well, particularly Dalits and tribals. Humiliation and exploitation were a constant of their experience. But they have moved on, either by asserting themselves through their own political formations or by maximizing the price of their support where parties like the BSP or Jharkhand Mukti Morcha do not exist. The sharpest player of this intelligent game is Mayawati. The results are evident. There is a good study waiting to be done comparing the employment levels, educational services and municipal services in Dalit residential areas and Muslim areas between 1947 and 2007.


Even without empirical data I can assert that there is a sharp improvement in the former and stagnation if not decline in the latter. The Dalit has punished neglect. The tribal has learnt to vote on the sensible planks of development and security: he knows that he cannot eat rice, at whatever price it is offered, unless he is alive. The Muslim has crawled repeatedly back into the sterile womb of fear. That womb will deliver nothing. The midwives of this vote fatten on fees collected by periodic declarations of false pregnancy.


Only one state is an exception: Kerala. Untroubled by the guilt of Partition, the Malayali Muslim can rally around the banner of an All-India Muslim League, which is a bit of a misnomer. It is not an all-Indian organization; it is a local Muslim party. The Kerala Muslim, with sufficient self-assurance to meet political and economic challenges, has always behaved like an equal, which is why he is treated like one. He has prised out the benefits of progress through the pressure points of a democratic polity.
There could have been a similar story in Bengal, because the Marxists are committed to both secularism and progress for the underprivileged. They were the first to empower Bengali Muslims, through land reforms inspired by three authentic Marxist heroes, Promode Dasgupta, Harekrishna Konar and Jyoti Basu. That won them the loyalty of the rural vote. But two fallow decades are forcing a shift in Muslim sentiment; it is not ready to be taken for granted any longer.


The Bengal CPM is in a bit of a bind, perhaps because it is not cynical enough to exploit the politics of fear with the dexterity displayed by other parties anxious for the Muslim vote. One senses the first stir of change in Bihar, where Nitish Kumar has begun to include Muslims within his development-based governance. The pace may not overly perturb a snail, but at least a process has started. But if the voter does not honour this start with support, then it will be back to fulmination and hot air.


Fear locks and freezes the mind. A closed mind can never liberate a community from poverty.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Sunday_Specials/Muslims_fritter_away_their_vote/articleshow/3833792.cms


The Post Secular Age
Dr. Frank Morales, Ph.D.


(Sri Dharma Pravartaka Acharya)
 
The last two centuries have been a conspicuously unique era in the history of the human race.  For, unlike any other epoch in our history, the last 200 years have witnessed the systematic and seemingly unstoppable deconstruction of religion as an important element of Western society and human culture.  So seemingly successful has the exorcism of religion from public life been since the modern Enlightenment era, that many 20th century American scholars even went so far as to prematurely pronounce the imminent death of religion in our age.  As events and trends in recent world history have shown us, however, this was an exceedingly mistaken pronouncement to say the least.


 


As is becoming increasingly apparent in the early years of the 21st century, religion’s obituary may have been written somewhat prematurely.  Our current era is witnessing one of the greatest world wide religious resurgences ever recorded in the annals of human history.  In America alone, for example, we have seen the importance of religiously based human values ushered center stage in the elections of 2004.  And the rest of the world has not been immune to this trend.  The centrality of religion in human life and culture has been aggressively reasserted in India, Israel, throughout the Islamic world, and throughout the Third World especially.  Only the modern secular states of Western Europe seem, so far, to have remained relatively untouched by the global revival of spirituality.  Rather than ushering in a new secular age, an age free from the influence of religion, spirituality and contemplation, the evidence seems to indicate that we are actually entering a Post Secular Age:  an age wherein religion will necessarily fill up the vacuum created by the ruinous failure of 20th century secular materialism.


          


The notion that religion would meet its eventual demise (and, according to some of the more rabidly atheistic thinkers, that it should meet its demise) had been espoused by a large number of Western intellectuals in the last two centuries.  Perhaps the most famous of these individuals were, what Christian theologian Martin Marty termed, “The Bearded God-Killers” (National Public Radio, 1996).  These primarily 19th century figures included:  Karl Marx, Charles Darwin, Friedrich Nietzsche and Sigmund Freud.  Mistakenly equating all human religious expression with an enslaving opiate designed to keep the proletariat bound by psychic chains, Karl Marx predicted both the inevitable death of religion and the subsequent emergence of a new atheistic world order: the Dictatorship of the Proletariat; leading to a state of Communism.  He was woefully wrong on both counts.  Similarly, Freud saw in religion the greatest threat to humanity’s social and psychic development.  Indeed, to Freud religion and philosophy represented no more than a “...black tide of mud...” designed solely to keep humanity enslaved in the chains of superstition (Ernest Becker, “Denial of Death”, p. 94).  Overt atheists were not the only individuals to pronounce the imminent end of religion.


          


Surrendering to the en vogue secularism of their day, even quite a few Judeo-Christian theologians also felt that secularism would ultimately triumph over the human religious impulse.  Among these religious leaders were several who felt that the inevitable secularization of the world merely represented a coming of age for homo religiosus (religious man).  Included among these were theologian Harvey Cox (author of “The Secular City”) of Harvard, and Anglican Bishop John Robinson (who wrote “Honest to God”).  Succumbing wholesale to the seemingly unstoppable secular tide seen in 20th century history, some shortsighted Christian theologians went so far as to declare the death of God in the early 1960’s.  If God Himself were indeed “dead”, however, such ongoing phenomena as the belief in the importance of the spiritual dimension of human life, religiously inspired values and ethics, and the active search for God on the part of multiple millions today seem to be very far from it.


          


As we enter the beginning years of the 21st Century, it appears that religion has made an undeniably powerful comeback onto the world stage.  Throughout the Third-World, nation upon nation is rejecting the current Western materialistic paradigm.  Nations that were traditionally Hindu (Sanatana Dharma), Islamic, Buddhist and Jewish are rediscovering their ancient religious heritage and turning to these time-tested spiritual world-views for meaningful and practical answers to many of today’s social, political, economic and ethical dilemmas - dilemmas, many of which were themselves created directly as a result of the failures of secular materialism.  The world’s many Indigenous peoples and tribes - peoples ranging from the Aborigines of Australia to the many hundreds of Native American tribes in North and South America – are also reconnecting with their own, long oppressed, spiritually-based cultures:  cultures that have proven themselves to be gentler, saner, and more Earth-centered paradigms than anything secular materialism ever had to offer.  Moreover, with the dramatic failure and consequent collapse of Marxist regimes in Eastern Europe, the former Soviet Union, and the Third World, the peoples of these former Communist regimes have expressed an unprecedented resurgence of interest in more religious ways of life.  Indeed, in today’s Russia, and throughout much of Eastern Europe, two of the fastest growing religions are Hinduism (Sanatana Dharma) and Buddhism.


 


This world-wide rediscovery of the importance of religion has also had a dramatic impact on the American scene.  There are several recent trends in American culture that readily reveal this fact.  One of these trends has been the explosive popularity of the trendy New Age movement in recent years.  As a movement deeply grounded in the belief that personal spiritual development is essential to any real social and political change, New Age thought has had a deeply penetrating influence on the American public.  With an emphasis in such beliefs as karma, reincarnation, meditation, natural foods, chakras, and Yoga, much of New Age thought is directly derived from much older and more orthodox forms of Hindu philosophy; though this clear dependence on Hinduism (Sanatana Dharma) is sadly often not acknowledged by many New Age thinkers and leaders.  As a result of this disconnect from its religious roots, the actual understanding of many of these New Age leaders tends to be rather shallow and faddish.  The rebirth of interest in religion is also seen on the popular stage by the amazing number of books with spiritual themes that have become run-away best sellers.  These include the works of such popular writers as Deepak Chopra, Bernie Siegal, Thomas Moore and Marianne Williamson.  While the New Age movement is not deeply rooted in the philosophical profundity and guiding discipline of traditional religious thought, the popular impact of this movement is still a clear testament to the resurgence of interest in spirituality in modern America.


 


Coupled with the more recent success of New Age spirituality has been the growing popularity of Asian religions on the previously solely Judeo-Christian American religious landscape - specifically Hinduism (Sanatana Dharma) and Buddhism.  Over the past three decades, hundreds of thousands of Americans have joined various Asian religious traditions.  Legions of famous celebrities, such as the actors Richard Gere, and musical performers like Madonna and Sting, among many others, now consider themselves to be practicing Hindus, Buddhists or Taoists.  In addition, to throngs of college students and youth across America, nothing is considered “cooler” today than studying and practicing Hindu and Buddhist philosophy and spirituality.  Every major American city has at least several dozen Hindu temples and Buddhist meditation centers.  Yoga, Tai Chi and meditation are spiritual techniques that are now practiced by millions of average, middle class Americans.  The estimate is that there are currently 15 – 18 million Americans practicing Yoga regularly, with an even greater number enjoying the benefits of meditation.  In Gallup polls conducted on the basic religious beliefs of everyday Americans for the last twenty years, a consistent 23% - 25% of Americans say they believe that the principle of reincarnation offers the best possible explanation for the afterlife.  The number of Hindus in America today is roughly 3 million.  Half of these are non-Indian Americans who have adopted Hinduism (Sanatana Dharma) as their religious practice.  In many ways, it has become easily arguable that 20th century Americans are witnessing nothing less than the slow but steady “Hinduization” of North-American culture and society.


          


The recent religious resurgence in America is affecting society not only on a more popular level, but within the realm of academia as well.  The latter phenomenon is evidenced by the recent successes of overtly religious scholars in philosophy departments across the land.  For much of the last 40 years, philosophy departments at almost every major university were uninviting intellectual vacuums, in which only materialist and empiricist philosophy was allowed to flourish.  Religious philosophers were made to feel like outsiders.  This is beginning to change quite significantly today as more and more departments open their doors to theistic thinkers.  Such philosophers of religion as Alvin Plantinga (famous for his bold defense of the Ontological Argument for God’s existence) and Keith Yandell (author of “The Epistemology of Religious Experience”) have begun to make tremendous inroads into an area that, until recently, was almost the exclusive domain of atheistic Humean skeptics.


 


On a more ominous note, the new religious resurgence in America has also included a marked rise in Evangelical Christian fundamentalism.  This new evangelical revival has taken on increasingly political tones in recent years.  Beginning with such individuals as Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell in the late 1970’s, fundamentalist Christian activists began to take their theological opinions into the partisan political realm.  Through supporting politicians and ballot initiatives viewed as being pro-family values, and pro-Christian, Evangelicals have made their views forcefully known and implemented throughout the nation.  The success and acceptability of Pat Robertson’s Christian Coalition in the Republican Party in the late 1990s, and the more recent overt confessions of Christian faith on the part of President Bush, reveals to us that this is a movement that is both immensely powerful and that is here to stay.


 


In addition to the rise of Christian fundamentalism, the world has also witnessed the violent specter of Islamic fundamentalism and Islamist inspired terrorism in recent years.  The most prominent example of the destructive force of fundamentalist terror was, without question, the terrorist attacks on innocent American civilians perpetrated on 9/11.  In an attempt to enforce their highly reactionary version of Islam upon the world, Islamic terrorists have declared open war against both modernity, as well as the followers of all non-Islamic religions.  From the southern Philippines, Indonesia, Southern Thailand and Northwest China, to the Chechen Republic in Russia, Afghanistan, Kashmir, Sudan and Israel, the ravages of Islamic fundamentalism have led to untold deaths, destruction and suffering on the part of many hundreds of thousands of innocent people globally.  Thus, the current global resurgence in religious consciousness also has its extremely ominous side, as well as its decidedly positive value.


          


The fact that religion, both in America and throughout the world, is again becoming an increasingly important factor in human culture is well-established knowledge.  Let us now explore some of the possible reasons for why this is the case.  One reason for the ascension of religion is certainly the dramatic failure of the most powerful anti-religious ideology in human history:  Marxism.  First presented to the public as a rational, scientific and humanistic alternative to religion, the fall of Communism in Europe in 1989 revealed Marxism to be a more repressive, inhumane and destructive system than any religion had ever been.  As only one of a large multitude of examples showing the failure of Marxism, we have the vivid example of Cambodia.  Cambodia was a peaceful and beautiful Buddhist nation previous to the Marxist Khmer Rouge shooting their way to power in 1975.  Marxist rule led to the systematic genocide of at least 1.5 million of Cambodia’s inhabitants - over an eighth of the population! - over a three year period.  This was an instance, not of a foreign nation invading and committing acts genocide, but of Communist Cambodians committing acts of mass genocide against their very own Cambodian people!  And all was done in the name of a humane and rational ideal of Marxist atheism.    Interestingly, Marxists and secularists throughout the last hundred years had repeatedly attempted to accuse religion of being responsible for all of humanity’s many historic sufferings and injustices.  As we now know, however, more human beings have been persecuted, murdered, tortured and dehumanized as a direct result of atheistic Marxism in the 20th century alone than have been harmed in all of the world’s religious wars combined since the very beginning of human history.


 


Indeed, it could be argued that the complete and unmitigated failure of secularism, as a whole, is directly responsible for the new religious renaissance now being experienced globally.  The omnipresent human need for meaning simply could not be adequately addressed by the cold, impersonal institutions and ideologies of secular materialism.  The human heart desires love, meaning, beauty and compassion.  Secular materialism could only offer conflict, meaninglessness, mediocrity and fear instead.  Consequently, we are now witnessing an increasing worldwide reaction against all forms of Western materialism - both Marxist and capitalist.  America, as we have seen, has been far from immune from this rather dramatic global shift.


Some might argue that it is still somewhat premature to proclaim the advent of a new religious era for humanity.  However, the data reveals that there is currently a definite and dramatic global shift away from institutions and philosophies that have urged the abandonment of the human spirit and the Transcendent.  Additionally, the currently ongoing rediscovery of humankind’s many unique spiritual traditions reveal to all impartial observers that we are at present experiencing nothing less than the beginning of a Post Secular Age.   It is quite apparent that those scholars who earlier in the 19th and 20th century had predicted - and in some cases, even looked forward to - the death of religion were exceedingly mistaken.  Rather than being on the verge of extinction, as we begin the second Millennium, the natural, positive and healthy phenomenon of human religious expression seems to have been rekindled anew.


 


 


About the Author 
Dr. Frank Gaetano Morales, Ph.D. (Sri Dharma Pravartaka Acharya) earned both a doctorate and a Masters degree in Languages and Cultures of Asia from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.  Previously, Dr. Morales earned a B.A. in Philosophy and Theology from Loyola University Chicago.  His fields of expertise include Philosophy of Religion, Hindu Studies, Sanskrit, History of Religion, Comparative Theology, Contemporary South Asian Politics, and the interface between Hinduism and modernity.  Dr. Morales is currently recognized as one of the nation’s leading authorities on Hindu philosophy and religion, as well as South Asian studies.  In addition to directing his own institute (The Center for the Study of Religion and Civilization), Dr. Morales works in conjunction with several educational institutes and think tanks globally.  Dr. Morales maintains a very demanding schedule consisting of lecturing, consulting and writing.  Dr. Morales has been a guest lecturer at over two dozen major universities throughout the USA, including Cornell, Northwestern, Illinois Institute of Technology, and University of Virginia.  In addition, Dr. Morales has served as a South Asian affairs consultant for such corporations as Ford Motor Company, Lucent Technologies, Goodwin Procter Law Firm, and the Global Health Corporation.  His first book, “Experiencing Truth: The Vedic Way of Knowing God”, is scheduled for publication in 2006.  In addition to his academic duties, Dr. Morales has been a practicing orthodox Hindu for 30 years, and is an ordained Hindu priest.  The practice of Yoga and meditation are of central importance in his life.  His website is www.dharmacentral.com.


 


"Dr. Frank Morales represents the Sankalpa [the will] of the Hindu people and the cause of Sanatana Dharma. I urge all Hindus everywhere to give him your full support, assistance, and encouragement in his crucial work. He needs and deserves our help."


- Dr. David Frawley (Oct. 14, 2007)


 


 


 


 


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Copyright 2007, Frank Morales. You may print, duplicate or copy this article only if you credit the author and not alter or add to the author's work in any way. 


 


Have Dr. Frank Morales Speak to Your Organization 
Dr. Morales is currently recognized as one of the nation's leading authorities on Hindu philosophy and religion, as well as South Asian studies.  In addition to directing his own institute, Dr. Morales works in conjunction with several educational institutes and think tanks globally.  Dr. Morales maintains a very demanding schedule consisting of lecturing, consulting and writing.  Dr. Morales has been a guest lecturer at over two dozen major universities throughout the USA, including Cornell, Northwestern, Illinois Institute of Technology, and University of Virginia.  In addition, Dr. Morales has served as a South Asian affairs consultant for such corporations as Ford Motor Company, Lucent Technologies, Goodwin Procter Law Firm, and the Global Health Corporation.  Topics that Dr. Morales has spoken on include: 
Meditation      Philosophy      Religion      Hindu Studies      South Asian Affairs      Ethics      Asian Culture     Contemporary South Asian  Politics      History of Religion      Foreign Affairs      Comparative Theology       Principles of Effective Leadership       Yoga


as well as many other subjects. He has spoken throughout North America before diverse audiences ranging from 50 to 5000 people. If you would like to arrange for Dr. Morales to give a presentation to your university, company, conference or organization, please contact us to schedule an event.
 


Created by Dharmodaya Communications
http://www.dharmacentral.com/articles/postsec.htm


A Heresy Undergirds Secular Liberalism, Neo-Marxism, & Today's Democratic Party
By Quelleon October 14, 2008 10:35 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
Much of today's political, religious, and cultural issues have their genesis in the gnostic faith of abbot Joachim of Fiore (ca. 1135-1202). A Western Roman Catholic monk, Joachim's outlook on the history of man was and still is the source of schismatic movements within the Christian faith and a major influence on today's societal thought.


Because the church's 12th century leadership did not effectively counter Joachim's personal theology, Joachim's beliefs took root in the realm of ideas and have flourished to this day.


A Franciscan monk, Joachim of Fiore's theology challenged the prevailing Augustinian outlook on history. St. Augustine's analysis of history as being transitory was deeply rooted in scripture and the Fathers of the Church. Augustine wrote that the present day is a transitory time of fallibility and trial. And the church, with its belief in God and the Incarnate Son, are man's guiding light through the turmoil with a promise of eternal life at the end. Only God is forever. Therefore, only with an eye on God as our ultimate objective can we endure and begin to comprehend this world. The foregoing remains today's orthodox and Orthodox Christian view.


In contrast, Joachim of Fiore's outlook was dramatically different. Abbott Joachim's theology held that there are three great periods of history. The first encompassed the time addressed by the Old Testament. This period was eclipsed by the birth of God's Son, Jesus. The second period, therefore, is that time addressing the formation of the church in the New Testament. With the descent of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, man entered into a third epoch.


It was during this latter and present epoch that Joachim's communicated theology caused profound changes that still affect us to this day. This last period was intended to be one in which mankind, with the Holy Spirit's counsel, was to evolve into a society of complete equality. All of society's problems would be overcome if man would pursue unselfish means. Essentially, Joachim believed that it was man's duty to pursue the establishment of heaven on earth and all of man's actions were to be directed toward this goal.


Joachim's private theology shared within the monastic order and society at large caused a fracture within the Franciscan community. It was St. Bonaventure, the Franciscan General Secretary, who had to combat Joachim's heresy. Although St. Bonaventure prevailed, his efforts were not forceful enough to uproot and counter Joachim's already disseminated beliefs - this according to then Reverend Professor Joseph Ratzinger, today Pope Benedict XVI.


As a consequence, Joachim's theology of history misinformed countless numbers of clergy and lay people through the decades and centuries that followed, flourished during the Enlightenment, and resulted in a vast array of ideologies from Marxism to socialism to liberation theology. Indeed, Joachim's beliefs are at the heart of present-day political and religious liberalism.


Tell the communists, socialists, and secularists, all in today's liberalism and other false ideologies, that their faith is undergirded by a discredited gnostic theology.
http://www.redcounty.com/cityofman/2008/10/a-heresy-undergirds-secular-li.html


SECULARISM AND THE WEST


 


 


In this commentary we will discuss the topic of Secularism. We will attempt to define what it is; what it is believed to be; where it came from; who is responsible and where it intends to take Western society which seems to have been held captive by it.


Let us begin with what it is. Secularism is defined in the dictionary as "...an ethical or moral code, which advocates a moral code independent of all religious considerations and practices..." Even by that definition alone we can see that our society is not ‘Secular’ because the very basis of our laws are as a direct result of Christian values, principles and moral standards of our European forebears.


Even though this explicit definition alone should be enough to put down any ‘Secularist’ argument, we must also be mindful of the fact that the leftist also likes playing with words to achieve his objective and suit their worldview. Operating from the post-modernistic style of thought of the Frankfurt school where everything can become a ‘construct’, even truth, we have a brand new, highly flexible definition of secularism - that is elimination of references, celebration or even religion itself, anywhere as per the atheist dogma of Marxism.


Evidence of this deliberate misinterpretation can be seen in the United States where the First Amendment of the Constitution reads "...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..." this is actually interpreted by the Cultural Marxists to read ‘freedom FROM religion’.


Necessary reading for full understanding of the Marxist-Secularist argument is first the fact that it explicitly mentions "Congress" as writings by Thomas Jefferson testify, he fully intended that religious direction be taken up by the States, not the Federal government. Which is in line with the next part, that the Government could not establish a national religion. The founding fathers also made it extremely clear that free exercise of religion should not be curtailed. This makes moves to remove Christmas decorations from public spaces in actual fact, illegal!


Of course, lawyers belonging to such groups as the Alliance Defence Fund and Thomas More Law Centre have tried to argue the folly of these misinterpretations in court, however their cause has been stymied by the fact that they must appear before leftist judges who sympathise with the ‘separation of church and state’ argument.


Moreover, survey after survey has shown that people in that country overwhelmingly regard themselves as religious, upwards of 80% in fact, therefore the idea that the population needs to have ‘freedom’ from something they believe in, is an absolute absurdity.


Across the Atlantic in Britain, the Archbishop of York, Dr David Hope recently said that he would be "hard-pushed" to label Britain a Christian country. We tend to agree with this summation considering the fact that multiculturalism is implemented to water-down the Christian values and principles of the host culture with interests foreign to our own. Yet let us never forget that the Queen remains the Head of State and the Head of the Church of England.


In Australia and other Commonwealth nations who retain British traditions and institutions, and even in countries which don’t, things aren’t much different. This perverted idea of Marxist-Secularism is pushed by a wafer thin percentage of the population with agendas to ‘save’ society from itself and replace it with their own imposed ideology.


So why is Marxist-Secularism being pushed so hard by so few, and why is it particularly anti-Christian in its outlook? Primarily because Christianity remains the last great moral hurdle, the politicians having sold themselves to the lowest bidder, in achieving the stated Marxist goals of imposed ‘equality’ for everyone. It remains the strongest voice against homosexual marriage and abortion ‘rights’ - although the white-ants are doing their best to subvert the church from within. Without the strong moral compass of Christianity to fall back on, society generally could collapse into a free-for-all, again in line with the dubious post-modernistic thinking.


It is at this point, very important for some historical perspective on the whole argument. The origins of Secularism can be found in the 18th and 19th centuries, when philosophers attempted to explain the origins and destiny of man without reference to God and religion, which had helped shape society. This period is also known as the ‘Age of Enlightenment’. Leading figures like Compte, Descartes, Pascal, Bayle, Montesquieu, Voltaire, Diderot, and Rousseau saw themselves as a courageous, elite body of intellectuals who were leading the world toward progress...sound familiar?


This new Humanist way of thinking was taken up by the Bolsheviks during their revolution in the 20th century as they attempted to put their atheistic theory into practice and build a state without God. The French during their own revolution years earlier, might have been inspiration for the Bolsheviks as they attempted to do exactly the same thing with their ‘Rights of Man’ declaration in 1789.


History itself failed to avoid a reworking by these ‘enlightened’ as popular anti-Christian tales were formulated. As one website attempted to explain pre-Enlightenment days "...It was an age of reason based on faith, not an age of faith based on reason...."


One such historical inaccuracy which expands on this premise, is the idea that the Medieval Christians believed the earth to be flat - cue science to prove the superstitious, paranoid, and unadventurous Churchmen wrong. In actual fact this was a story created by Compte (1798-1857) who developed Positivism, that is the idea of a positive progress from Superstition to Science, further reinforcing the idea that Church and Science have been in mortal combat since time began. Not to mention of course that it was the Ancient Greeks, namely Eratosthenes, who proved the Earth was round when he measured the 'Stades' of the world and Ptolemy who contributed a great deal supporting this view. The Medieval Churchmen had absolutely no cause to deviate from this established principle.


Another tale involves Galileo proving the earth not to be the centre of the universe, much to the chagrin of the Christian church who had him persecuted for defiance. In actuality, it was the Secular scientists who complained the loudest because Galileo’s version of the structure of the universe went against the selfish humanist science of Aristotle. Moreover the Church would probably have supported Galileo considering his theory contradicted the idea that humans were the centre of the universe, it was when he reworked scriptures and publicly ridiculed the Pope - then he was in trouble.


This Marxist-Secularist re-wording of history also goes a long way in explaining why the theory of evolution, today skewed even from original Darwinian proposals, was created and is supported with such vehemence by those on the left - particularly ‘intellectuals’. The need for ‘another way’ other than God’s is so important to them that it almost hurts. The very fact that evolution lacks a grain of evidence is of no consequence as they seek to pursue this new ‘humanist’ way.


One very important point needs to be made in conclusion to this section. Scientific endeavour would not have been possible without the backing of the Church who had the wealth and political power to make things progress. As with the Renaissance, the Popes and influential Church leaders of the day played Patron to a great many works of wonder. Thus making a lie out of the idea that the Church and State need be separate in the way the Marxist-Secularists advocate.


Surely then, what you are advocating is a theocracy? No. An example of a theocracy is Iran or Saudi Arabia where Faith is society, indistinguishable from each other. As we have learned ‘Secularism’ is complete atheism where a society cannot ask for religious foundation in the formulation of its laws. Once more, it is not a matter of being ‘one-or-the-other’; it is simply a matter of recognising that our society is based on Christian values and principles without needing to force worship on anybody.


Doesn’t ‘Secularism’ provide protection for people from tyrannical religious fanatics? No again. Fanaticism comes in all stripes and shades and colours, replacing it with atheistic fanaticism imposed on the vast majority by the 5% of the population who could be ‘offended’, is as irrational as an Iranian style theocracy.


In conclusion, we must also remember that ‘Marxist-Secularism’ is inconsistent, allowing ‘Stars and Crescents’ and ‘Menorahs’ to be displayed but not Nativity scenes, Christmas trees or Crosses. This should be enough to demonstrate that the Cultural Marxists pushing this rubbish, aren’t serious about ‘Secularism’. It is merely a front for a wider agenda of breaking down society.


This we must resist at all costs.
 http://www.geocities.com/anti_multiculture/SECULARISM.html


India loses Rs.1.5 trillion due to logistical loopholes
22 Dec 2008, 2303 hrs IST, IANS


MUMBAI: India loses around 3 percent of its total gross domestic product (GDP) or Rs.1.5 trillion because of supply chain inefficiencies, according 
to a survey done by a business consulting firm.


India's spending of 13 percent of the GDP is higher than that in the developed world; in the US, the spending is 10 percent of its GDP, Europe is at 11 percent, and Japan 10 percent, the report released Monday said.


The survey titled 'Technology Survey for the Indian Logistics Industry - 2008', conducted by Kale Consultants, said inefficient use of technology in the logistics business costs the economy billions of rupees.


The report further goes to state that significant strides in IT implementation could lead to bridging the gap in the supply chain, resulting in higher efficiency at lower costs.


While IT spends in Indian logistics industry currently stand at Rs.4 billion, it is slated to grow by approximately 22 percent CAGR (compounded annual growth rate) to over Rs.10 billion in the next five years.


"There is a lot of activity happening in this highly fragmented market. Family-owned businesses are growing in stature while global majors have committed huge investments for their Indian operations. The sector has already attracted investments of over Rs.20,000 crore (Rs.200 billion) in the first half of 2008," said Sumeet Nadkar, head of Kale Consultants' logistics strategic business unit.


The report also said the demand is expected from the western part of India, followed by the northern and southern regions. About 46 percent of IT investments are currently made towards capital expenditures, and the remaining 54 percent as operational costs.


Govt moves to hike insurance investment cap
22 Dec 2008, 2038 hrs IST, PTI


NEW DELHI: Government on Monday sought parliament's approval to raise foreign investment limits in domestic insurance firms by up to 49 percent, 
despite noisy protests in the national legislature.


The move sparked protests, resulting in adjournments in the assembly's two houses and verbal attacks on the government, which had kept the proposal in cold storage for nearly four years over fears it would meet political resistance.


Junior finance minister P. K. Bansal was interrupted by leftist MPs who tried to snatch papers as he revealed plans to almost double the cap on overseas capital from the existing 26 percent, a move he said would attract foreign capital.


Private insurance companies are delighted by the plans but the measure may not be passed in the current session of parliament because of insufficient time.


India must hold general elections by May 2009, meaning the measure could have to wait for a new government.


Foreign insurers have said increasing the limit is important as it will allow them to expand their array of products and improve distribution channels.


Four-fifths of India's 1.1 billion population has no insurance cover and around 90 percent have no pension scheme, forcing them to rely on savings and relatives in old age.


Marxists opposed to the move accuse the government of taking the step to help out cash-strapped companies in the United States.


"The government is trying to bail out bankrupt insurance industries in the US by inviting them to come to India," Marxist MP Brinda Karat argued in parliament.


Sensex ends below 10K; ICICI Bank, RIL fall


22 Dec 2008, 1539 hrs IST, ECONOMICTIMES.COM


MUMBAI: Benchmarks ended the choppy session lower as selling pressure resumed in index heavy-weights like ICICI Bank and Reliance Industries. Second 
rungs stocks ended flat with a negative bias.


Bombay Stock Exchange’s Sensex ended at 9940.08, down 159.83 points or 1.58 per cent. The index touched an intra-day low of 9894.01 and an intra-day high of 10,173.34.


National Stock Exchange’s Nifty closed at 3045.65, down 1.03 per cent or 31.85 points. The broader index hit a low of 3027.80 and a high of 3110.45 during the day.


BSE Midcap Index was 0.03 per cent down and BSE Smallcap Index closed 0.10 per cent lower.


Amongst the sectoral indices, BSE Oil&gas index was down 3.13 per cent, BSE Bankex fell 2.21 per cent and BSE Auto Index declined 1.56 per cent. BSE FMCG Index closed 0.70 per cent and BSE Realty Index moved 0.45 per cent higher.


Among frontline stocks, ICICI Bank (-5.29%), Reliance Industries (-5.06%), Mahindra & Mahindra (-4.55%), Maruti Suzuki (-4.27%) and Reliance Infrastructure (-3.05%) were badly hit.


Tata Motors (4.55%), DLF (3.27%), Ranbaxy Laboratories (2.28%), ITC (1.96%) and Grasim Industries (0.75%) managed to end with gains.


Market breadth on BSE showed 1295 advances against 1242 declines.


'Indian economy to revive faster from global slowdown'


22 Dec 2008, 2245 hrs IST, PTI


MUMBAI: Giving a positive outlook amid the global downturn, global management consultancy firm Deloitte has said the Indian economy will recover 
faster than other nations from the economic crisis and bounce back on high growth trajectory.


"It is very difficult to forecast when the last of the current global downturn will be seen.


"However, going by internal consumption trends in India, it is certain that India will be amongst those countries that will recover faster than others from the current slump and will bounce back with high growth rates soon, once the situation comes back to normal," Deloitte global managing partner-tax Alberto Terol said.


Deloitte said that flooding the system with liquidity is alone not sufficient to resolve the crisis.


"There is a need to bolster confidence among the people about the positive aspects of the economy and encourage higher spending. This alone can act as a balm to revive economies across the world," Terol added.


Meanwhile, Deloitte does not foresee the crisis situation globally to improve in the first half of 2009 and predicts a tough time ahead for the US.


Public expenditure to enhance labour output is definitely the need of the hour, Terol said while addressing a media round table on how world economies can create liquidity in the system in uncertain times.


Besides, countries like China are already reworking their strategies for inducing higher domestic consumption as exports have been showing a steep slump, it added.


Petrol, diesel, LPG prices may be cut before General Elections


22 Dec 2008, 1600 hrs IST, PTI


NEW DELHI: The government may further reduce petrol, diesel and domestic LPG prices just before the General Elections are announced in February, a 
senior official said.


"To my mind, the government will wait till February before making another round of price cuts," a senior Petroleum Ministry official said.


Earlier this month, the government reduced petrol price by Rs 5 a litre and diesel by Rs 2 per litre as international crude oil prices dipped from an all-time high of USD 147 a barrel in July to under USD 45 a barrel.
"This period (till February) will be used to monitor the movements in international prices. There is no point in cutting fuel prices just now and then having to raise it again if oil makes a retreat," the official said.


Even after this months price cut, public sector oil firms were making a profit of Rs 9.98 on sale of every litre of petrol and Rs 1.03 per litre on diesel. The further softening in global oil prices has seen these profits widen to Rs 11.48 per litre on petrol and Rs 2.92 a litre on diesel, he said.


The oil companies, however, continue to lose Rs 17.26 per litre on PDS kerosene and Rs 148.38 per domestic LPG cylinder.


Indian Oil, Bharat Petroleum and Hindustan Petroleum are together projected to lose Rs 1,10,381 crore in revenues this fiscal on fuel sales, the official said, adding the oil firms can use the period till the next price cut to make up part of the losses they have incurred on fuel sales this fiscal.


The three firms had posted a combined net losses of Rs 14,431 crore during the first six months of 2008-09.


 
Crisis-hit cos restructure group health policies


22 Dec 2008, 0111 hrs IST, Sarah Jacob & Arun Iyer, ET Bureau
BANGALORE: As India Inc prepares for the economic slowdown, companies are rationalising incentives, such as medical insurance cover for their 
employees and their dependents, and are now reworking on health insurance covers through different models including co-payment, where a part of the premium is paid by an employee.


Industry experts, who did not wish to be identified, told ET that while this shift was being considered for a long time by corporates, the recession has made many companies reconsider medical insurance cover immediately.


“Initially, insurance companies chose to honour most claims but with insurance costs rising, things have changed. Today, companies are citing age and higher medical costs to make employees go in for co-payment of premium to retain the extent of cover for dependents. Faced with such options, employees are becoming extremely watchful,” said an insurance expert.


“Corporate houses will definitely look at restructuring healthcare insurance, which is a larger payout than rolling back on preventive care or healthcare engagement initiatives,” said G Krishnamurthy, chief executive of health management and consulting company People Health Services.


“Health insurance has not been a robust portfolio for many players, who have to face the prospects of underwriting losses. Medical costs have also been rising at a higher rate than normal levels of inflation, which is putting additional pressure on costs and claims management,” said Srinivas Raju, president of Dr Insurance, a boutique business consulting firm.


Meanwhile, insurance companies are also considering alternatives to ensure business growth by tweaking their product offering.


State-run Oriental Insurance, for instance, is now betting big on the floater policy to gain traction among employees in the health insurance market. Unlike conventional group, health insurance products where the insurance cover per person is fixed, the floater is a more dynamic product which enables sharing of cover depending on need.


http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/News/Economy/Indicators/Crisis-hit_cos_restructure_group_health_policies_/articleshow/3871684.cms


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