Say No To Advani

2009-05-16T21:07:00.000-07:00

I'm really put off with Advani sympathizers in the media. He was NOT a statesman and his only claim to fame is the Ram Janmabhoomi agitation which very few youngsters in India care about.

His crass politics of calling Manmohan Singh weak has worked against him.

I'm glad that he will have to retire on a losing note. He absolutely deserves it!!

Bye! Bye! Advani

2009-05-15T22:50:00.000-07:00

http://eciresults.nic.in/

A negative vote to negative politics. A negative vote to divisive politics.

Viewpoint: How to stop terrorism -Appeal to Advani

2009-05-01T05:27:00.000-07:00

By Gnani, tamil writer, journalist, theatre person, film maker.
http://www.gnani.net/

Every channel worth its TRP has started a movement against terror in India.

They declare during every alternate commercial break that, we the people won’t tolerate terror anymore; we will stop it. We won’t allow it to happen anymore. We will take to task any and every politician who is soft on terror.

Nice and well meaning words, no doubt. But can we stop terrorism by candle light rallies? No. we will only add to traffic chaos for the common man. If the politicians or trade unions affect traffic with their rallies, we will move the Supreme Court against them. If our candle rallies are denied permission, well we will still move the Supreme Court to allow them.

Will the channels organize parallel intelligence gathering agencies, will they start funding of commandos in every star hotel, will they run joint coordination committees for the three services... well, in short, will they take over the governance of the country from politicians to stop terrorism? Impossible. If they can first succeed in making the voters of south Mumbai (where Taj and Trident are located) cast their votes without fail in the next elections, it would be a formidable achievement by itself. The number of voters, who did not vote at all, was double the votes of the winning candidate there during last lok sabha elections.

Let us leave the syrupy sentiments and patriotic jingoisms out and get down to the real business of stopping terrorism. That is the task of the government and those who run it. All that the channels, media, print and otherwise, you and I can do is to only function as pressure groups to make the government and those who run it to do their jobs properly.

And to be a pressure group or a lobbyist is not all that easy either. It demands responsibility from us first to understand the system, secondly to assess how it works and thirdly to demand accountability from those running it and fourthly to know that questions to ask and fifthly to mobilize public opinion in favour of issues and not sentiments or rhetoric.

Do we first really understand what terrorism is all about.

Let me repeat- terrorism is not a mindless act of violence by non- thinking individuals or groups. It is also politics - politics by other means.

It is the politics of the disgruntled who are not or cannot be accomodated by the system which is disgruntled with them. The role of the state, as Karl Marx famously said, is to mediate between the various sections of the society at war with each other. When the state fails in that endeavour, the war is on. The state also enters into war with its citizens in the name of citizens.It becomes a bystander in wars between citizens. It also becomes a partisan with one section against the other. Terrorism , in short is, non-democratic politics.

And when the democratic politics is weakened by self serving and corrupt politicians and bureaucracy, terrorism is inevitable. The corrupt politician- bureaucrat alliance uses terrorism to further its selfish agenda of looting by perpetuating fear among its citizens and strengthening its military arm at huge costs to the public.

India is now in the brink of this danger. Mumbai terror attacks are being used by the state through the media to escalate the feeling of insecurity among people and thus cooerce their consent for spending huge amounts for expansion of specialised armed forces throughout the nation. The fauji worship has reached a nauseating peak, with no critical questions against their working methods.

But terrorism cannot be fought or prevented by mere expansion of our firepower. To attack it, we need to attack the tools of terrorism and roots of terrorism.

One of the primary tools of terrorism is corruption. The 1993 blasts in Mumbai were done with RDX smuggled from outside the country. The corrupt customs officer aided the smuggling. Issuing of identity cards to thousands of fishworkers may not be sufficient if only those ID cards could be obtained for anybody for an extra payment.

About a decade ago, the killers of Rajiv Gandhi and EPRLF leader Padhmanabha entered Tamilnadu only through the sea route. They could not have executed the murders without the support of a corrupt government machinery at every check post and a handful of local tamils who showed solidarity to the Tamil cause and abetted the crime without even being aware of it.
That takes us to the roots of terrorism. While changed circumstances now help us with USA threatening Pakistan to behave, We need to look internally within our own realm. Can terrorism survive without a local support? Punjab showed it cannot. And what brings local support to a terrorist act? What can we do to wean such support
away?

Most of the terror attacks since independence can easily be classified into two categories - religious and secular. The secular attacks are by the various insurgent groups of the north east and the Maoists of the red corridor from east to south. Here the issues involved are socio economic.

The religious attacks relate geographically only to Kashmir and Punjab. (The Khalistan terrorism is now a thing of the past, thanks to the inclusive democratic practices that weaned popular support to terrorism.) And the terror acts in Kashmir in the name of jihad have their origin in two facts of history. The creation of Pakistan by the wily British and the self determination aspirations of Kashmiris. Though kashmiri self determination issue is overshadowed by the religious colour painted by Pakistan's own aspirations to annexe it, the terror acts of jihad relating to Kashmir never spilled over the boundaries of Kashmir.

The phenomenon of bomb blasts in buses, trains and markets happening anywhere through length and breadth of India is of recent origin. To be precise just 15 years old.

It is a post Babri Masjid demolition development.

And Babri Masjid demolition has been the first biggest terror act since independence. Our refusal to acknowledge it as terror act has led us down the treacherous path of terrorism upto Mumbai attacks. Various political parties and the media, print and electronic continue to condemn babri masjid demolition but have never categorised it as an act of terrorism. The post Godhra genocidal violence of Gujarat have been widely condemned but not categorised as acts of terrorism.

In both instances, leaders of a particular political formation have led from the front, inspiring and goading the emotionally charged followers to indulge in acts of arson, vandalism and killing. In both instances, police forces have been silent spectators. And remember, both instances did not require the help of specialised commandos to stop the acts of terror. Existing police forces were sufficient enough to stop the acts but they did not stop. And to this day, no politician or bureaucrat has been held accountable for these acts of terror.

Right from Babri masjid demolition, through Mumbai blasts, Gujarat carnage, bus and train blasts, attack on parliament, temple etc. the media has not vociferously
demanded resignations of politicians from ministries. Only for attack on Hotel Taj, the media cried from the burning rooftop and extracted three heads, two home ministers and one chief minister. As usual no bureaucrat gets such treatment.

While we are demanding (rightly) Pakistan to hand over the wanted terrorists hiding in its soil, we have done nothing about the terrorists living among us, walking around freely and participating in our democratic processes.

Let us remember, no jihadi terror can succeed in this country without the help of few locals. And until Babri masjid demolition, it was impossible to recruit Muslims from any part of this country to fight Pakistan's war in Kashmir.

With Babri Masjiddemolition, for the first time, the average Muslim Indian was baffled, confused, worried and afraid. A big political party participating in electoral democracy was openly against the community, demolishing its masjid in the name of Ram, justifying such vandalism. And the other big political party was an impotent accomplice to all this. The insecurity created in the mind of an average Muslim at this juncture can never be fully understood by anyone belonging to any majority religion, culture or language in any part of the world. The condition was ripe for hatemongers and extremists to recruit.

One should say it is a wonderful tribute to the belief and faith of average Muslim Indians in the democracy of India that despite the fear and insecurity created by Babri Masjid demolition and Gujarat carnage, only a few tens of them among several millions became recruits to the cause of terror. Their primary concerns continue to be roti, kapada aur makhaan.

But the average Muslim Indian continues to be under psychological pressure everyday watching the terrorists of Babri Masjid demolition and Gujarat carnage gaining in power in the democratic structure of India. Last year, evidence emerged from Tamilnadu about sangh parivar's front organisation Hindu munnnai indulging in acts of vandalism of its own temples and blasting RSS offices to fix blame on rival religions and movements. This year Malegaon blasts have shown the true colours of saffron clad activists. But the BJP leaders and future prime ministers are openly defending them. What does this mean to the average Muslim Indian who is already plagued by poverty and illiteracy?

And Let us remember, that terrorism in India in the name of Jihad will never come to an end, unless we recognise and punish the terrorists of Babri masjid demolition.

To put it bluntly, the onus of stopping terrorism in India rests with L.K.Advani today. The buck stops there.

Advani must atleast now confess. He must tell the nation that demolition of Babri Masjid was an act of terror by his comrades in arms. He must acknowledge that the Gujarat carnage executed with the support of the chief Minister Narendra Modi and his police force was another act of terror by the sang parivar. He must declare that everyone responsible for killings and arson will be brought before law. He must apologise to the nation for practising the politics of terror in the name of democracy. He must come forward to announce that his party will rebuild the babri Masjid.

Such an act of remorse and self purification by Advani alone will convince the Muslim Indians of this country that the democracy here will never fail them. The majority moderates and peace lovers among Muslim Indians will find the job of convincing the angry and disturbed post- babri masjid- demolition generation that India is theirs.

And this is the only way Indian polity can emulate USA or UK in democratic practice of having a two party system of conservatives and liberals of the right. India has the added advantage of having a powerful pressure group of left.

It is time BJP dropped its religious communal agenda, reformed itself to emerge as the republican party of India. And to achieve this, Advani must apologise to this nation before facing the next elections.

And the electronic channels, I hope are listening, have a job cut out for them. In their resolve to stop terror and to take to task any and every politician abetting terror, they must first appeal to Advani to hand over Modis and Tokadias. Will they?

The 'Majbhoot Neta' ran away from Devil's Advocate?

2009-04-28T06:23:00.000-07:00

Advani walks out

Narendra Modi has been known to end interviews halfway, if he finds that the questioner is being deliberately hostile, but for the statesmanlike and generally diplomatic L.K. Advani, it was probably a first. Last week, the BJP leader walked out of Karan Thapar’s Devil’s Advocate at the start of the recording. He took exception to Thapar’s brusque and taunting questions that the BJP had opted for tainted candidates, including admitting in its ranks the controversial former bureaucrat Neera Yadav. Incidentally, Yadav was subsequently denied entry into the party.

http://www.indianexpress.com/news/fronting-for-a-cause/446026/0

Where does Advani stand on Art 370?

2009-04-22T11:51:00.000-07:00

BJP's manifesto has once again promised to abrogate Art 370 of the Indian constitution knowing quite well that it is easier said than done.

Abrogation of Art 370 used to be an election issue for BJP till 1998. Once BJP formed the government at the centre and began to deal with the J&K issue, it went back on its rhetoric and supported the continuation of Art 370. As the union Home minister, Advani supported the existence of Art 370 in clear terms. While in power, BJP was open to the idea of dialogue with various stake holders in J&K including the separatist Hurriat faction.

No abolition of Article 370: Advani

Home Minister L.K. Advani today categorically ruled out in the Rajya Sabha the abolition of special status to Jammu and Kashmir, saying it was not on the agenda of the NDA government.“It is not on the agenda of our government to scrap Article 370 (which gives special status to Jammu and Kashmir),” the Home Minister told Mr Balwant Singh Ramoowalia during question hour.

http://www.tribuneindia.com/2000/20000427/nation.htm#2

"The demand for restoration of pre-1953 position will never be considered... We do talk about Article 370 but there is Article 371 and sixth schedule of the Constitution also," Mr Advani said. "The autonomy is not a big deal but I would prefer to use the expression decentralisation of power rather than autonomy."Mr Advani, who is also the Home Minister, said mere debate on the autonomy issue was no cause for concern. "These demands rose from time to time... The Sarkaria Commission, which recommended more powers to the states, was constituted because of such demands."He, however, suggested decentralisation of power as the requirement for the moment.

http://ladak.free.fr/news/html/2002/02part2.htm

In March 2004, in the run up to Lok Sabha elections, BJP released a vision document for 20 years and it was silent on the abrogation of Art 370. That time BJP responded in the following way

New Delhi, Apr 1 (PTI) Close on the heels of the party avoiding any direct reference to its pet issue of Article 370 in its 'Vision Document', Bharatiya Janata Party Thursday said there was a perceptible difference in the situation in Kashmir over the last 50 years. "There is a difference of sky and earth between the situation in Kashmir at the time of late Shyama Prasad Mukherjee, who sacrificed his life for integrating the valley with the rest of the country, and now," party General Secretary Pramod Mahajan told reporters here. He said while the Jansangh founder went to Kashmir defying the permit system required to enter the state, now Federal institutions like Supreme Court, Election Commission and even the Central Administrative Tribunal had jursdiction over the state. "His (Mukherjee's) sacrifice did not go in vain. The state has now become an integral part of the country and certain temporary and transient Constitutional provisions of that time have got diluted over the years," he said in an apparent reference to Article 370, whose abrogation the party had been demanding since Jansangh days.

In 2004, BJP was confident of winning the elections along with other coalition partners and so it went silent on core issues like construction of Ram temple at Ayodhya, abrogation of Art 370 etc., It is highly irresponsible on BJP's part to revert back to the old demand on abrogation of Art 370. Political oppurtunism alone explains change in BJP's stand. It serves no purpose other than manipulation of opinions.

Let us examine the current status of Art 370 which gives special status to the state of J&K. The conditions prevailing at the time of J&K's accession to India led to its inclusion in the constitution. Art 370 is not the only special provision of its kind.Article 371 with its 9 sub clauses has special provisions for different states.

Art 371 special provisions regarding Maharastra & Gujarat

Art 371 A Nagaland

Art 371 B Assam

Art 371 C Manipur

Art 371 D Andhra Pradesh

Art 371 F Sikkim

Art 371 G Mizoram

Art 371 H Arunachal Pradesh

Art 371 I Goa

In addition, Schedule 5 & Schedule 6 of the constitution have provisions as to the administration of Scheduled areas and Tribes in various states.

There is a 3 fold distribution of legislative powers in India- the union list, State list and the concurrent list. Parliament has no power to legislate on the subjects in the state list without the consent of the states. In the case of J&K, because of Art 370, parliament’s power to legislate on subjects in the union and concurrent lists is limited. But it can legislate on all such matters which the President of India may specify with the concurrence of J&K govt.Legislative powers on Defence,Foreign affairs,Communications are fully vested with the parliament.

The president of India(and hence the Union govt) is free to amend the provisions of Art 370. In 60 years, Art 370 was amended multiple times through the passage of executive orders (as differentiated from the usual process of constitutional amendment)to extend the power of president to impose the Governor’s rule in case of breakdown of constitutional machinery, to extend the jurisdiction of Election commission, Supreme court, CAG etc.,

The special status as it exists today don’t give anything except that the parliament can’t alter the name and boundaries of the state, can’t make any law without the consent of the state legislature regarding any international treaty affecting any part of the state. More importantly it gives special rights on property rights in the form of Permanent Resident Status. The provision for Permanent Resident Certificate was made to give an assurance on preserving the demographic character of the state. Only those possesing PRCs are allowed to buy property and settle in the state. It doesn't prevent anyone from marrying the locals and living in the state. In addition there are government officials, security personnel,people belonging to the central civil services living in the state together with their families. These central services aided the cause of integration of J&K in to India.

To conclude, the diluted special status exists more on paper and gives nothing but an assurane to preserve the demographic character of the state. Parliament has all the powers to legislate on major subjects. This has to be seen in the light of existing demands ranging from more autonomy(made by mainstream valley based political parties) to complete independence (as demanded by separatists). J&K is more peaceful after the initiation of the peace process and declaration of ceasefire across LOC.Terrorist violence is at an all time low(in relative terms) for the first time in last ten years and terror groups like Hizbul are on their backfoot( http://www.hindustantimes.com/StoryPage/StoryPage.aspx?id=e1dd11f7-ecf7-46e8-a040-dc9d3de60857&&Headline=Hizbul+Mujahideen+loses+its+grip)Assembly polls last year saw the increased levels of people's participation. India wants to initiate more confidence building measures to establish permanent peace in the trouble torn state. Under such circumstances it makes no sense to harp on abrogation of Art 370.

Additional Reading: Committee on Confidence building measures , PM's Round Table Conference

http://www.hinduonnet.com/nic/jk/jkrepo rt_1.pdf

Issues dealt by the committee
1. Measures to improve the conditions of people affected by militany.
2. Schemes to rehabilitate all orphans and widows affected by militancy.
3. Issues relating to relaxation of conditions for persons who have forsworn militancy
4. An effective rehabilitation policy,including employment for Kashmiri pandit migrants
5. An approach considering issues relating to return of kashmiri youth from areas controlled byPakistan
6. Measures to protect and preserve the unique cultural and religious heritage of the state

Inauguration of first colony for KPs in the valley

http://www.rediff.com/news/2008/mar/04jk.htm

http://www.indianexpress.com/news/first-colony-for-pandits-in-valley/279934/

Advani's Autobiography is RSS Version of Events

2009-04-22T02:31:00.000-07:00

Many reviews have already come out of this book, spanning the life of Lal Krishna Advani, known for thrusting the RSS-BJP politics on the body politic of democratic India. Starting from his role in initiating a campaign around the Ram temple issue, rath yatra, Babri Masjid demolition, BJP’s becoming a significant power in the electoral arena, NDA rule and the Gujarat carnage, he has played a major role in implementing the RSS agenda of abolishing the democracy and gradually imposing a ‘Hindu nation’. That’s why the comments of Mohan Bhagawat, RSS General Secretary, at the time of release of the book, that Advani has written the book like a swayamsevak are most apt in describing the book and in understanding the agenda of the man who has been a major player in the policy rooms of RSS-BJP.

Undoubtedly there are some serious mistakes like the narration of the hanging of Bhagat Singh. Then there is a deliberate presentation that he, despite being Home minister, was not the part of decision making process of Jaswant Singh accompanying the terrorists to Kandhar. This is a deliberate lie, but with a purpose. The idea is to present himself as someone who is ‘hard’ against terrorism, and not responsible for the mistakes of the NDA regime. At the same time he takes the credit for all the supposedly good actions during NDA regime. Then there is a deliberate silence at places, that of details of death of his political mentor, Shyama Prasad Mukherjee, or expulsion of hardliner Balraj Madhok from presidentship of Bhartiya Jan Sangh, the previous avatar of BJP. All this should be expected from a person who is primarily a swayamsevak, who has taken oath to work for the Hindu nation, meaning thereby to usurp the democracy. He will tell us what suits his political goals and leave out the uncomfortable incidents from his logbook of history.

What comes out from this massive volume is the mindset, the politics which RSS has been pursuing and its actualisation in the political arena since 1980s. What comes out is the very sophisticated presentation of RSS ideology, its standpoint on history, nationalism, culture and politics. Indoctrinated in the shakha baudhhiks (RSS branch ideological sessions) and inspired by Mukherjee and Deendayal Upadhyay, this swayamsevak does the best advocacy of the ‘divisive’ ideology and its role in pushing back the values of freedom movement.

One also wonders about his very title, My country: My Life. By ‘My country’, apparently he refers to India, as it came to be after it attained independence. During that time, the whole country, the Indian nation was striving to fight against the British colonialists, barring of course the RSS-Hindu Mahasabha. While currently, Advani and his men talk of nationalism in an aggressive manner, as a matter of fact when this nation was coming into being, they were conspicuous by their absence from the process of nation formation. When as a young recruit of RSS he was digesting the indoctrination of RSS ideology, the youth of his age were breaking the British laws to ensure that our motherland gets freedom. When he was imbibing the ‘cultural nationalism’ of RSS, Ambedkar was condemning the Brahminic theology of Hinduism, the very base of RSS cultural nationalism.

His crocodile tears at the death of Gandhi are displayed a wee bit shamelessly. While talking of Gandhi murder as a sad event, the rath yatri forgets to mention that the murder was done by none other that his fellow (former) swayamasevak, Nathuram Godse, who was also holding concepts of nationalism about which the author talks so gloriously all through in the book. His fascination for Deendayal Upadhyay reveals the deeper ideology of Hindu Rashtra. Upadhyay is credited with the ideology of Ekatma Manavad, Integral humanism, the indirect defence of the Varna system in current times.

The fortunes of RSS changed for the better with Jaya Prakash Narayan letting RSS combine become part of the movement led by him. Now it comes out that this movement was to be the turning point in Indian politics, by giving legitimacy to the murderers of the Father of the Nation and by opening the way of Hindu nationalism, which came to assert itself over a period of time. While describing the breakdown of Janata Party, he puts the blame on others, while the real issue was that socialists like Fernandes and Rajnarayan were very forthright in saying that Jana Sangh faction should dissociate from RSS if it wants to continue being part of Janata Party. The Jan Sangh faction of Janata Party (Vajpayee, Advani, Varma) decided to break the Janata Party rather than sever the connection with RSS, and that’s how the party broke. Interestingly, at that time and till quite late George Fernandes was the most vocal critic of RSS-BJP and its fascist ideology. In this book Fernandes finds a very cozy mention, as the political opportunism of Fernandes and political expediency of BJP brought them together and is keeping them together as NDA, so much for the ‘honesty’ of the narrative.

The shift away from Gandhian Socialism, the ideology of BJP as enunciated at the time of its formation finds no ideological treatment in this tome. Why they picked it up in the first place and what made them abandon this ploy? One is raising these questions knowing fully well that one does not expect RSS volunteers to answer them, as the goals justify the means for this brand of politics. The taking up of Ram Temple issue is elaborated in great detail and with this the communal historiography, Muslim kings destroyed Hindu temples, and all other Shakha baudhik outpouring, which is strengthening communal divide is dished out by him in a very clever manner. What also becomes apparent here is that Advani was never shaken or disturbed by the real life deprivations of Dalits, poor or the workers. What comes clearly is that the major problem for Advani has been the issues related to identity, in contrast to issues of bread, butter, shelter and rights. It is this identity polices which made Advani what he is.

While the whole nation was talking of India – multi-religious, diverse and multicultural – RSS was talking of a political system based on monolithic, Brahimised Hinduism called Hindutva. So Advani’s effort to project Ram as the symbol of Indian nationalism is ludicrous but it did help his political agenda to no end. It did lead to demolition of a centuries old mosque and the carnage targeted against minorities. Babri Masjid dispute is also presented through the prism of Hindu fanatical ideology, never questioning how British introduced the divisive communal historiography through their gazettes and through the history books. The sources he cites for Ramjanmabhumi temple being there, the courtier account, etc. should be a laughing matter for serious historians. But that’s what suits his politics.

Life has many contradictions and surprises. This man wants to build a Ram temple at the site, where Babri Masjid once stood. He says that the kar seva on December 6, 1992 will be done with bricks and shovels. His colleagues, the part of Ram Temple movement assert that they will destroy the mosque and the debris will be thrown in river Saryu. Then his followers do precisely what is told to them and what is desired by the Advani clan. If that is what they have been saying then how come they should endeavour to stop them while kar sevaks are demolishing the mosque, is beyond one’s comprehension. The claim that the RSS combine leadership on the stage tried to stop the demolition, is probably among the biggest and most convenient political lies of the history of current times. His colleagues are celebrating, hugging each other, distributing sweets and this gentleman wants us to believe that it was the dark day of his life! Probably he is too shrewd and astute in his political calculations for posterity.

As a build-up to the demolition he propagates that the masjid is a sore in the eyes of nationalism. Probably he knows indoctrinated history only as much as is needed as an ideal RSS swayamsevak. Who will tell him that the mosques and temples were destroyed and built more as a political calculation by the kings rather than for religious considerations alone. He will not like to know that the biggest temple in Ayodhya, Hanuman Garhi was built on the land donated by Nawab of Awadh or that Aurangzeb gave huge donations to many Hindu temples.

The build-up to Babri demolition was preceded by implementation of Mandal Commission recommendations, something which his party could not handle. If they support it, they lose their core upper caste Hindu constituency. If they oppose it, they weaken themselves on electoral wicket, so they seek the help of Ram at this juncture. His revered another leader, the one famous as the Mask of RSS, Vajpayee, put it very aptly by saying that they brought in Mandal so we had to resort to Kamandal (religiosity) in our politics. Post-Babri violence is totally bypassed, violence following the rath yatra is underplayed and attributed to everything else except their real cause the yatra. Yatra is all milk and honey, pseudo secular trouble makers are doing the violence and projecting it as blood yatra. How wrong of them, Mr. Ram Sevak!

The whole view of things is ‘genuinely saffron’, in this account. If one wants to know the trajectory of RSS combine on political chessboard, here is the book. The nuclear arms race triggered by the Pokhran and then Advani’s threat to Pakistan, now we have a bomb, dare you assert yourself. And then in reply to India’s five explosions Pakistan does six and silently tells Advani yes we also have it and if we occupy Kargil, what will you do baring requesting Uncle Sam to make us withdraw? But all this is not the part of Advani story, where the nuclear explosion is a national honour and his colleagues celebrate it by planning to spread the ‘holy’ Pokhran sand all over the country so that their ideological cancer is supplemented by physical cancer! Anyway, mercifully the latter was not done and the nation needs to thank these ‘nuclear nationalists’ for their kindness in sparing us the spread of radioactive nuclear material!

How to defend a fellow swayamasevak who has presided over a mass carnage can be nicely learnt from the chapter on Gujarat. Advani bypasses all other versions and reports to defend Modi’s actions. If Godhra train was burnt (implication, by Muslims) why you should at all consider the Bannerjee Report whose opinion is contrary to that of his fellow swayamasevak. If Gujarat Forensic Lab gives the report that fire could not have been put from outside, how can we take that into consideration. And see there were so many other acts of violence, so why single out Modi for this one. The reports by various human rights groups have no meaning. All is well in Gujarat, the Supreme Court is transferring cases out of Gujarat as the possibility of getting justice there does not exist, so what? Gujarat is prospering and Modi as a true RSS worker is ushering in Hindu Rashtra there, relegating minorities to the second class citizen status, what can be a bigger joy for this ‘nationalism’, as his nation is coming to fruition by and by. He doggedly defends Modi, and anoints this mass murderer of Gujarat as his successor, what more can speak of his politics.

There is enough material in the book to understand the politics and planning of RSS. The trivial things apart, Advani shows the glimpse of things planned by RSS. Gujarat is the way and BJP will gradually bring in such a state of affairs as outlined by their most revered Guruji, Madhav Sadashiv Golwalkar, who ordained that minorities submit to the wish of majority (RSS) else they will have to live as second class citizens. And one does get this frightening picture after going through this book.

It shows the mechanism of RSS combine also. You need a suave, soft spoken person at the top till you come to full power. That’s why Vajpayee had to be the Prime Minister despite the fact that it was Advani who led the Babri Masjid demolition and Hindutva onslaught on Indian democracy. With Vajpayee retired, some one has to take that place and Advani with his mannerism and expressions which are soft, fits the bill till they come to power and then of course it will be Modi’s day – Modi with classic fascist persona (a la Ashish Nandy), is already waiting in the wings to impose the Hindu Rashtra.

What is most frightening about the book is that communal common sense manufactured by RSS shakhas and propagated by various other means has been presented as a sugar-coated pill by this wily swayamsevak turned politician in the service of Hindu Rashtra.

Author-RAM PUNIYANI
http://www.radianceweekly.com/105/1981/TYRANNY-Vs-TERRORISM/2008-04-25/Hindutva/Story-Detail/Advani039s-Autobiography-is-RSS-Version-of-Events.html

Ram Puniyani is a Professor in Biomedical engg. at the Indian Institute of Technology, Powai. Apart from his teaching and research activities, he pursues a parallel track concerned with issues related to social problems,particularly the one's related to preservation of democratic and secular ethos in our life. Also has serious interest in the understanding the Human Rights of weaker sections of society. He is a member of EKTA, Committee for Communal Amity, Mumbai and has been associated with different secular initiatives for many years. He has also been engaged in understanding global and local changes, which have resulted in communal violence. He is particularly concerned with the adverse effects of globalisation and the rise of fundamentalism, particularly in India. Ram has contributed articles to various magazines and journals on these themes. He has authored three books around these subjects: Fascism of Sangh Parivar, The Other Cheek and Communal Politics: an illustrated primer. At present Ram is continuing with his endeavour to understand these phenomena with a focus on human relationships geared around substantive liberty, equality and fraternity.

The Iron Man Melted and Gifted the Terrorists !

2009-04-14T00:32:00.000-07:00

April 13: No rousing speech, no rip-roaring slogan.

But 759 words packed in five pages, telling the tale of the “Iron Man” who melted when faced with a hijack crisis, wept in a corner when a shrine was demolished, wrung his hands in frustration when a pogrom was being carried out and abandoned his stand on Mohammad Ali Jinnah at the hint of brewing trouble back home.

Manmohan Singh, the “weakest Prime Minister” with little mastery over the art of speech-making, today responded to his principal tormentor L.K. Advani in a way few politicians have in the middle of the heat and dust of a general election: he wrote down his thoughts and read them out.

The most dramatic day yet in Campaign 2009 unfolded in the least excitable fashion in Mumbai when Manmohan picked up a sheaf of papers and deadpanned through the contents as if dealing with dry data from the Planning Commission.

The style was placid but not the substance. Homily after homily flew at “Mr Advani” — each rapier thrust slicing open an unhealed wound of the recent past. From the Kandahar hijack to the Gujarat riots to the Jinnah controversy, Manmohan tore into the record of his rival .

Just in case the soft-spoken Manmohan could not be heard beyond Mumbai, where he was addressing the media, Rahul Gandhi picked up the microphone in Kochi, four hours away from Thiruvananthapuram where Advani was campaigning.

“If Advani is a strong leader, how would he have been the home minister and not know something fundamental like this?” Rahul asked, referring to a statement attributed to the BJP leader that he was in the dark about the release of terrorists in exchange for hijack hostages.

The western and southern flanks taken care of, Sonia Gandhi struck from the east, targeting Advani on the same subject and asking a campaign audience in Shillong: “How can you trust such a person?”

The Prime Minister had replied to Advani twice earlier in the past few weeks but today’s written statement was the most scathing yet.

But Manmohan did lay stress on the face the country is more familiar with. “Throughout my life, I have believed that substance triumphs over style, performance over public relations and hard work over short-cuts. I am not a sloganeer. I will readily concede that most of my opponents make more rousing speeches.”

Advani did not respond today. BJP leaders in Delhi said they were happy that the focus was shifting towards the party’s slogan: “Strong leader, decisive government”.

But Congress leaders reacted with glee. The party’s spin doctors said unleashing Manmohan and supplementing that with pincer attacks by Sonia and Rahul were part of a deliberate approach. “Almost all leaders have been exposed too much on television or at campaign meetings but not Manmohan Singh. His statements have a novelty factor,” a Congress leader said.

Besides, the party feels that Manmohan’s clean reputation in governance and “quiet efficiency” have earned him the spurs to take Advani head-on. “We never did this when Vajpayee was Prime Minister. But now we have a Prime Minister who has proved his mettle,” the Congress leader said.

However, the Congress is still not too keen on a US-style “presidential contest” between two personalities – the reason Rahul and Sonia also fired away from the other flanks, party sources said
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1090414/jsp/frontpage/story_10819855.jsp

Wrong Placard

2009-04-11T21:30:00.000-07:00

In a letter addressed to over 1000 religious leaders, the perpetual PM-in-waiting promised a 'consultative mechanism' on 'policy matters' if voted to power ( http://www.telegraphindia.com/1090412/jsp/frontpage/story_10810571.jsp ). In the same letter he promised for the security of Ram Sethu. Earlier BJP’s Tamil Nadu unit chief promised to declare Sethu as a national monument. This is not for the first time the demolishers turned protectors appealed to the religious sentiments of people attached to the Sethu issue. For three years now, BJP and constituents of Sangh parivar have created ruckus without letting people know about the originators of the Sethusamudram canal project. RSS even employed a fake scientist Punish Taneja who went on to mislead the online followers of ‘Save Sethu’ campaign for two years with blatant falsehood and pseudo scientific theories. He was later exposed by one investigative news report of IE ( http://www.indianexpress.com/news/fraud-scientist-takes-rss-for-a-ride-down-lord-rams-bridge/33813/0 )

The Sethu Samudram Canal Project(SSCP) envisaged deepening of the shallow waters connecting the Palk Strait and Gulf Of Mannar to allow the ship movements from west to east coast and vice versa without going all around Srilanka. It involves dredging of shallow water regions including ‘Ramar Sethu’ (Adam’s bridge - a partly submerged discontinuous chain of limestone shoals and sand bars) for a width of 300m and up to a depth of 10 m. All feasibility and techno-economic studies were conducted during NDA’s rule (http://sethusamudram.gov.in/Study.asp ) and the NEERI- National Environmental Engineering Research Institute, Nagpur, approved the alignment no 6 after considering other alignments. UPA government only initiated the execution of the project in 2005 after the preparation of detailed project report. Unfortunately amidst the petitions, sound bites, chakka jams and political slogans, all voices which were debating the pros and cons of the project, cost-benefit analysis and possible ecological damage turned less audible. The project has now hit a roadblock with a wary government not wanting the Sethu issue snowball into another Ayodhya episode. It agreed to constitute an expert committee to examine the alternate alignments. Expectedly BJP is using it as a trump card in election season.

Some questions need to be answered. Who gave the green signal to the project? Why were Sangh Hindutva champions silent then? What explains the U turn of Adavni's BJP after losing the power at the centre? How many of us are aware of the promise “Sethusamudram project in Tamil Nadu will be speedily completed” made in the NDA manifesto for 2004 LS elections? Had they not lost power they would have merrily pursued the project without making an issue?

From SSCP website. What is Sethusamudram Project?

The channel project was originally proposed by a Britisher, Commandar A.D.Taylor of the Indian Marine in 1860.In 1955, the Government of India set up the Sethusamudram project committee to tool into the feasibility of the project.After several studies, the government took a concrete step towards the execution of the project when Rs. 4.8 crore was allocated for a feasibility study of the Sethusamudram Ship channel Protect in the 2000-01 Union Budget. Following a directive from the Union Ministry of Shipping, the Tuticorin Port Trust undertook a Ground breaking feasibility-cum environment study for the project.

http://sethusamudram.gov.in/WhatisSethu.asp
http://www.hindu.com/businessline/2000/03/02/stories/140260ss.htm

We are committed to implement the project (March 2003 )

Finance Minister Jaswant Singh on Thursday pledged the government's commitment for an early start of a project pushed by Tamil Nadu politicians for decades and naval planners since the 1850s - the Sethusamudram Canal project.This is a project to deepen the Palk Strait and, thus, have a straight sea route between the Gulf of Mannar and the Palk Bay. It is yet to get formal cabinet approval, though the techno-economic-environmental assessment study is on and should be ready by May.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/40212485.cms

PM Vajpayee at a public meeting in Nagercoil, Feb 2004

The Prime Minister, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, today gave the assurance that the Sethu Samudram project, a "cherished dream of the people of Tamil Nadu,'' would soon be realised.
http://www.hindu.com/2004/02/03/stories/2004020306750400.htm

Alignments considered before

Alignment 6 was approved by NEERI when NDA was in power

Ballad of an old Hawk

2009-04-09T06:01:00.000-07:00

“Boom!” went the bomb in a highly crowded place
Stunning the nation with a sudden distress.
Everybody went in a state of utter shock
The nation mourned the dead, except the old hawk.

“Where is my chariot?” shouted the bald man.
“Bring it out to me as fast as you can.”
Men around him thought he must have gone mad
“A Yatra in this hour? Won’t it look bad?”

“Oh you idiots!” scorned the iron-man
“We need a riot! Go, bring my van!
“The time is just ripe, we need to reach the mob.
“And fire up the hatred, and then the next job

Is to call the press and say it clear and loud
All these are the handiworks of secularists and Dawood.
Remember guys for ever one of my wisest sayings
That Bombs and Blood had always ensured our gains.

The Rath started to roll its wheels amidst the dust
Many towns and villages one by one it passed.
Atop the Rath, stood a man with hawkish eyes
With a heart full of hatred and lips full of lies.

Preaching hate everywhere, spitting filth and fire
Spreading canards to all (like a perfect liar)
But alas! Nobody had cared a little time,
To listen to the old fox’s rotten old rhyme!

Temples and Mosques had lost all their charm
Votes can no longer be bought by shouting “Jai Shri Ram”
The man atop a lone chariot now looks a bit funny!
People say the clown’s name is L K Advani.

(I wrote this poem immediately after the Sankatmochan blasts in Varanasi and the announcement of Bharatsuraksha Rathyatra by L K Advani).

Wishing Good Luck to Dr Mallika Sarabhai

2009-04-08T12:12:00.000-07:00

Dr Mallika Sarabhai, one of the India's best known dancers and a social activist is contesting against Shri L.K.Advani from the Gandhinagar loksabha constituency as an independent candidate. She comes with a promise of change towards citizen centered democracy. She made a mark on the campaigning by inviting her opponent for a debate on set of questions related to local issues. Our team wishes her good luck.

http://mallikasarabhai.in/

Advani's Bhay Ho! song continues to reverberate

2009-04-08T11:00:00.000-07:00

Continued from the previous post ( http://saynotoadvani.blogspot.com/2009/03/bhay-ho-advani-se-bhay-ho-bhai.html )

Today, Jairam Ramesh, an alumnus of IIT, Chairman of Congress manifesto committee and campaign-in-charge came out in an open letter to call the bluff of Advani on his new found love (on the eve of elections) for Indian black money hoarded in swiss bank accounts. Jairam Ramesh has advised Advani not to use obscure and unauthenicated Internet sources. In my opinion this was long overdue. Jay Ho! Jairam! Par Advani se Bhay Ho!

A Letter to Advani - Jairam Ramesh

Dear Shri Advani,

I have always been amused by the sources you cite in your speeches in Parliament and outside. But your use of some obscure and unauthenicated Internet source to raise the pitch on Indian money stashed away in Swiss banks is really the limit. It is not just amusing. It is shocking, coming from a leader of your purported stature.

To put it bluntly, Shri Advani, you are lying. That your entire edifice of numbers on the black money issue is a total hoax has been demonstrated most convincingly by two of India's most distinguished economists -- Ashok Desai and Bibek Debroy -- who have both been critical of the Congress as well in the past on various issues.

That there are Indians with Swiss bank accounts is incontrovertible -- many of them, incidentally, may well be BJP supporters and part of your election funding may well be coming from these sources. There can also be no dispute on the fact that we must try and get this money back. We have had amnesty schemes in the past -- some have succeeded and some have not. But I would like to ask you a straight question -- in the six years that you were Home Minister, can you tell the country one single step you took to get Indian accounts in Swiss banks made transparent?

Your use of 'ISI' data to claim that poverty has increased during 2004/05-08/09 is another example of complete bogusness. I think you may well be referring to a study done by Inter Services Intelligence of Pakistan and not by our prestigious Indian Statistical Institute. The study of ISI, Kolkata stops at 2004/05 and whatever conclusions you have drawn from that study are completely false. I have already written to your aide Sudheendra Kulkarni on this issue. I attach a copy of the email I have sent him.

Goebbels believed that if you keep repeating a lie several times, people will begin to believe it. Your ideological brotherhood has perfected this dictum.

With regards,
Jairam Ramesh

http://election.rediff.com/report/2009/apr/08/loksabhapoll-swiss-money-congress-calls-advani-a-liar.htm

When Afzal becomes Anand Mohan

2009-04-02T02:12:00.000-07:00

"If a Hindu had been convicted in place of Afzal, or if Parliament attack case convict had the name Anand Singh or Anand Mohan, he would have been hanged by the UPA government long back" --- Advani in an election rally during Madhya Pradesh Assembly elections

"We'll hang Afzal if voted to power" --- Vijay Kr Malhotra, BJP's chiefministerial candidate during Delhi assembly election campaigning

Time and again Advani and other BJP leaders have used “Hang Afzal and don’t appease minorities” as a political slogan to portray themselves as harder, stronger, whatever on terror. Advani repeatedly asks the question ‘what could have happened to Afzal had be been a Hindu’. He alleges that appeasement and vote bank politics are coming in the way of government’s decision.

Now these are serious charges. Does Advani know the consequences of muddying water with allegations and political sloganeering? Why can’t he raise above the characteristic divisive politics of his party? On one hand he alleges minority appeasement and on the other hand he appeals to the emotions of majority community and misleads people on government's inaction in disposal of Afzal's mercy petition.

What makes Advani and BJP assume that the general population of Indian muslims (other than Kashmiris) care about Afzal's death sentence? Who told BJP that Indian muslims sympathize with Afzal and his hanging issue matters more than their liveihood concerns? Advani's partymen want all muslims to realise that they are being appeased by the government in Afzal's name by shouting from rooftops? They meant to say that nott hanging Afzal constitutes appeasement but not keeping him in jail?

Lets us look at the facts. There are many apolitical and neutral observers including intelligence experts who believe that there is a possibility of separatists in Kashmir valley turning the Afzal's hanging into a communal flash point to regain their lost ground. Is it necessary to make a martyr out of him when the peace process in J&K is proceeding well with violence levels reaching their lowest in the past decade?

B.Raman, security and intelligence analyst :

Just as there is no conclusive evidence to show that dangerous crime in the US has decreased due to the imposition and execution of the death penalty, there is no conclusive evidence to show that the absence of the death penalty in the European Union countries has created difficulties for their counter-terrorism agencies. Despite the absence of the death penalty, indigenous terrorist organisations in Europe have been withering away one after another— the Baader-Meinhof and the Red Army faction of Germany, the Red Brigade of Italy, the Action Directe of France etc. Even the Irish Republican Army of the UK and the Basque separatists of Spain have been having second thoughts about resorting to terrorism. This was partly because of the firm counter-terrorism policies of the European governments which made it clear to the terrorist organisations that terrorism will not pay and partly because of the collapse of the state-sponsors of terrorism such as the erstwhile USSR, East Germany and Yugoslavia.

The European governments are now facing difficulty due to the increasing activities of the jihadi terrorists as seen in Spain and the UK. Well-informed sections of public opinion and professional counter-terrorism experts are advocating greater powers of detention, search, interrogation, surveillance etc for the police and other agencies to enable them to deal with the jihadi terrorists, but no one is demanding the re-imposition of the death penalty. They feel confident that they they can deal with the situation without he need for the re-introduction of the death penalty.

Death penalty can be particularly counter-productive in the case of jihadi terrorist groups, which glorify acts of terrorism as acts of martyrdom.Deaths at the hands of the state—either during an encounter or a terrorist operation or after a trial— would be projected as acts of martyrdom.

There is another aspect, which needs to be considered in any debate on this issue. The security forces are authorised by law to kill a terrorist or a dangerous criminal in exercise of the right of self-defence. They can kill in order to protect themselves or others, if they reasonably conclude that there is no other way of protecting themselves or others. A dilemma arises in respect of executing an arrested and convicted terrorist because he is being executed as a punishment for what he did in the past and not due to a fear of what he may do in the future. So long as he is in custody serving a life imprisonment, he can no longer kill. What is the point in executing him?

For more on B Raman on Death penalty, Afzal issue :

http://www.outlookindia.com/full.asp?fodname=20061001&fname=raman&sid=1&pn=1
http://www.outlookindia.com/full.asp?fodname=20061004&fname=raman&sid=1&pn=1

Afzal is already undergoing a harsh prison term. He played a small role in the attack on Indian parliament but the real masterminds Masood Azhar, the founder of Jaish-e-Muhammad and others are still at large and are taking shelter in

Pakistan

. Till now all the attempts and demands for his extradition have proved futile. There is no need to explicitly mention the fact that Masood Azhar was escorted to Kandahar by Indian foreign Minister at the dawn of this millennium.

BJP with its rhetoric in the public domain wants everyone to believe that hanging Afzal would eradicate terrorism from the face of India. Whether Capital punishment acts as a deterrent to jehadi terrorists or not is a different question. Afzal's mercy petition addressed to the president of

India

for commutation of death sentence is pending like many other petitions of the convicts sentenced to death. One wonders why Advani never talks about all pending mercy petitions and the faith of all convicts. Who sat on such petitions for six long years between 1998-2004? He doesn’t know how much time did the earlier governments take to dispose off a single petition?

"Figures with the Union home ministry show that though the apex court has sentenced 50 persons to death in the last 10 years, none of them has yet been hanged. Of the 50 convicts, 32 were sentenced more than five years ago and include high-profile names like Murugan and Santhan, who were part of the Rajiv Gandhi assassination plot."

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Cities/Mercy_pleas_of_50_on_death_row_still_pending/articleshow/3409493.cms

Clearly, the purpose of Advani and his party is not anything but politicization of terrorism and emotional blackmailing of people. They would do well to put an end to sloganeering and allow the government to take a final decision on all pending mercy petitions over coming months. It is BJP that should stop playing votebank politics. Is it difficult to understand why Advani spoke of the faith of Afzal and one fictitious Anandmohan while on election campaign trail?

A Letter to Advani from 'Say no to Advani' team

2009-04-01T11:23:00.000-07:00

Dear sir,

You must be aware of our tiny effort to counter 'Advani for PM' campaign.However angry you are with the 'Say No to Advani' team, we wish you to remain in good health and at your best as the ever PM-in-waiting. This is to inform you that one Libertarian National Socialist Green party has listed your party along with other ultra-national European parties on its website ( http://www.nazi.org/ )

We want to believe that the association between the Nazi party and yours is only limited to 'Nazi ads' issued by your campaign managers in the same way they have made you omnipresent in the virtual world through google ads. If that's not the case please get your party removed from the website lest it will send wrong signals about your ideological affinity.

Thanking you,

Yours Sincerely,

"Say No To Advani" Team.

View Point: Can Advani match Manmohan?

2009-04-01T06:34:00.000-07:00

The BJP says Manmohan Singh is weak and no match for their strongman Advani.

Is that true? Let us examine their qualifications.

Born in 1932, Manmohan Singh graduated in economics from Punjab University, read for his tripos (first class honours) from St John's College, Cambridge University, where he won the Wright's Prize in 1955 and the Adam Smith prize in 1956. He got his DPhil from Nuffield College, Oxford University, in 1962.

His thesis was on "India's Export Trends and Prospects for Self- Sustained Growth". By age 30, he understood that Nehru's inward- looking economic policy was misplaced.

He has worked at the United Nations, served as governor of the Reserve Bank, deputy chairman of the Planning Commission and chairman of the University Grants Commission. He has taught at Punjab University and Delhi School of Economics.

In government, he reversed what we call Nehruvian socialism during his five years as finance minister between 1991 and 1996. His policy crafting gave India economic success, through a doctrine now called Manmohanomics, which he continued in his five years as prime minister from 2004 to 2009.

In 1991, the year Manmohan became finance minister, India's per capita GDP was $328, and Pakistan's was $458. In 2008, Pakistan's was $623 and India's $900. From 28 per cent behind Pakistan, India went ahead 30 per cent because of him. No Indian leader has ever been as qualified, or as effective, as Manmohan Singh.

Born in 1927, L K Advani attended D G National College, Hyderabad, Sindh, but could not get a degree. His website says he got an LLB from Bombay University's Government Law College, but does not say when, and his autobiography does not mention this degree at all.

He worked for the RSS publication Organiser till 1967, where he wrote film reviews. After a brief term in the Delhi municipal council, because of his RSS connection, Advani was nominated to the Rajya Sabha. Jailed along with other opposition leaders during Indira Gandhi's emergency of 1975-77, Advani came to power as the combined opposition defeated the Congress for the first time since independence.

Because of his journalism experience, Advani became minister for information and broadcasting in 1977. At the age of 45, this was his first job in an executive position. It was a brief experience; the government collapsed in two years.

In the 80s, Advani became a star when he campaigned on the Babri Masjid issue across India. It was demolished on December 6, 1992. He says he did not anticipate this, showing his lack of understanding of the Indian mind, and of consequences. Over 2,000 Indians were killed.

As home minister in Vajpayee's government (1999-2004), Advani got his second executive job at age 72. Did he build his tough-man image then?

No.

He surrendered to Jaish-e-Mohammad at Kandahar after the hijacking of an Indian Airlines plane in December 1999, and released Masood Azhar and Omar Saeed Shaikh, who later beheaded Wall Street Journal's Daniel Pearl.

In March 2002, as Union home minister he could not prevent the massacres in Gujarat, in which 1,000 were killed.

If he has no record to speak of, why do his supporters call him strong?

Advani actually has very little experience in executive or policy positions. And he does not show evidence of being able to overcome this lack of experience through his intellect, or his effort.

His autobiography ("My Country, My Life") is maudlin, and peppered with mistakes. With typical hyperbole, he calls the emergency the "darkest period in Indian history" but then he reports its years wrong (pages 259, 266, 270). He spent years in villages in RSS service, but mistakes (on page 69) Guinea worm for tapeworm.

Advani's problem is that his intellectual bandwidth is limited by his ordinary education. He is not at the same level as Oxbridge's Manmohan, and Harvard's Obama.

His reading is basic and he likes it pre-digested through writers like William Shirer and Thomas Friedman.

In a lifetime in opposition, Advani has stirred the pot with drawing-room solutions to emotional problems. The sort of problems that trouble our aching nationalists. India is weak -- we must build an atom bomb! Pakistan is doing terrorism -- we must hit back! Hindu sentiment is hurt -- we must replace the Babri masjid!

Such a Manichean and innocent view of the world is touching, because it comes out of trauma (Advani was kicked out of Karachi at partition).

One of the most moving moments of his life, according to Advani, was when on a tour to the Himalayas, he asked what a passing stream was, and was told it was the Indus, Sindhu nadi, from which he gets his Sindhi identity and we get our nation's name.

He is unable to separate himself from this sentimentalism.

Though he keeps attacking India's minority-ism, his own mentality is still that of a besieged minority from Sindh.

Manmohan was also kicked out (he is from village Gah in Chakwal), but has lifted himself above our sub-continental pettiness.

Manmohan has the exposure, and the intellect, to detach himself from the insanity below. Advani cannot do this, because he has been wading in it and beating his breast, even after Indians built one of the most successful democracies in the world.

Crucially, Manmohan has deep access into pan-Indian culture because of his ability to read, in addition to Hindi and Gurmukhi, Urdu.

He educated Indians on Iqbal through his budget speeches as finance minister. I was familiar with Tarana-e-Hindi (which Indians know as Saare jahan say achcha), but I had not registered its most stirring couplet till I heard Manmohan recite it in his Punjabi lilt: Yunan-o-Misr-o-Roma, sub mitt gaye jahan say, ab tak magar hai baqi naam-o-nishaan hamara.

Advani does not have this access into his own culture because, as he wrote to his regret, he did not learn to read Sanskrit. His grandmother could read Gurmukhi, but he could not.

While he speaks Sindhi well (Benazir opened a conversation with him in Sindhi but then could not continue it), he cannot read it in Nastaliq because he went to an English-medium school, St Patrick's in Karachi.

He mistakes Persian script for Arabic (page 34).

He writes that till the age of 20 he did not even speak Hindi properly. Not particularly good qualifications for a man whose policy thrusts -- Ram temple, Uniform Civil Code, Article 370 -- are all cultural.

Politically, both Manmohan and Advani are weak, and dependent.

Manmohan is a member of Rajya Sabha (not directly elected), and serves at the pleasure of Sonia Gandhi.

Advani contests for the Lok Sabha, but from Gujarat, where he is at Modi's mercy (Advani cannot speak Gujarati). And he has spent a lifetime bending his knee to the RSS, which echoes his seething resentment of Muslims.

But while he's politically weak, Manmohan is undisputed master of policy. And because of his integrity, Sonia Gandhi has given him a freehand where it matters.

Sonia did not push for the Indo-American strategic alliance; that is all Manmohan.

Manmohan brings an economist's cold view to policy: he has the mind of the bania, rather than the warrior, whom we more readily identify with Advani. Advani loves Rajasthan, India's only martial state, and has "developed a fascination for this land of heroes and martyrs."

India does not need its leaders to be martial heroes and martyrs. We need education and healthcare and a strong economy.

India, and also Pakistan, needs a bania's self-preserving mentality because under the warrior's code, we commit suicide quite easily, like we did in 1962's avoidable war with China.

Advani doesn't want the Indo-US nuclear deal because it is surrender.

Under it, some current and all future nuclear installations will be now classified as civilian and subject to international regulation, while others will be outside scrutiny, free to make weapons. What is wrong with this deal? India has been starved of nuclear technology for four decades, which it will now get freely. But Advani says it makes us 'strategically subservient' because the US does not treat us as 'equals'.

He sees foreign policy in terms of honour and dishonour.

Advani is clueless on economics because of his lack of education, and uninterested in it because the subject lacks heroic emotion.

If he does take power, his urge for martyrdom will be disciplined by India's bureaucracy, as Vajpayee's was before him। He will be made more realist by the limits of power, which will deflate his bombast, as he finally gets a proper education, at age 82.

http://www.asianwindow.com/india/can-manly-advani-match-weakling-manmohan/

Advani's Record as the Union Home Minister

2009-03-31T12:57:00.000-07:00

Advani and his party never loose an opportunity to exploit the issue of terrorism and insecurity in peoples' mind but they fail to look at their own record . The issues of national security shouldn't be used by any party for political gains.

Advani literally has the worst record as the union Home minister in containing terror related incidents . Kandahar fiasco was talked about earlier ( http://saynotoadvani.blogspot.com/2009/03/advani-and-kandahar-hijack-episode.html ) During his tenure J&K witnessed peak levels of terrorist violence, J&K assembly, Raghunath temple in Jammu, Indian parliament, Red Fort, Akshardham Temple in Ahmadabad and other high profile installations came under suicide attacks.

But the then opposition behaved responsibly and avoided politicising the terror. The spate of urban bombings in populated areas and market places began in 2003 when Mumbai was attacked by little known 'Gujarat Revenge Force'.

Over time, jehadist outfits located across the border achieved more sophistication and started picking up soft targets. The serial bomb blasts are undoubtedly meant to disturb communal peace and create fear psychosis among people. Should the political parties further the goal of jehadists through politicisation of terror?Do we need the blame game to start after every strike? Indian security establishment is beginning to deal with the terror threat and hopefully they will tackle this new face of terror -- urban bombings.

It has little to do with empty rhetoric of anyone claiming to be hard harder hardest against terror.

One shouldn't forget that the hate politics played by these very people in the past has aided the cause of jihadist propaganda machinery and recruitment of locals for carrying out terror strikes. Associating one whole community with terror and indulging in hate propaganda will take the nation anywhere?

*Major Terror attacks and mass killings in J&K between 1998 and Sep 11,2001

June 19, 1998: 25 at ChapnariJuly 28, 1998: 16 in two villages of Doda districtAugust 8, 1998: 35 at KalabanFebruary 20, 1999: 4 at Muraputta, 9 at Barlyara and 7 at BllalaJune 30, 1999: 15 in Anantnag districtJuly 19, 1999: 15 at LayataFebruary 28, 2000: 5 near QazigundMarch 20, 2000: 35 at ChatisinghporaAugust 1, 2000: 31 Amarnath Yatris at PahalgamAugust 1-2, 2000: 27 in Qazigund and AchabalAugust 2, 2000: 11 in Doda districtFebruary 3, 2001: 6 in Mahjoornagar in SrinagarFebruary 11, 2001: 15 in Kot-ChadwalMarch 2, 2001: 15 in ManjkoteMarch 17, 2001: 8 near Atholi in DodaJuly 21, 2001: 13 including 7 Amarnath pilgrims at SheshnagJuly 22, 2001: 12 in Cheerji and Tagood in Doda districtAugust 4, 2001: 15 in Ludder-Sharotid Har area in Doda district

*Incidents of terrorist violence and casualities in J&K in the post Sep-2001 period

http://satp.org/satporgtp/countries/india/states/jandk/data_sheets/majorincidents.htm

http://satp.org/satporgtp/countries/india/states/jandk/data_sheets/annual_casualties.htm

* Decimation of Hizbul and drastic improvement of security situation in J&K in past few years , PM's initiative on Confidence Building Measures, Round Table Conference and successful conduction of elections to the state assembly with high levels of popular participation

"The Hizbul Mujahideen, once the strongest militant outfit in Jammu and Kashmir, now faces decimation. The outfit has lost its top leaders and cadres in encounters with security forces, especially Jammu and Kashmir police.The group, which once ran an unquestioned writ in the Valley such foreign militant outfits could not do without it, lost some of its top leaders like Hanief Bhat, Sajjad Bhat and Rahool Bhat. Last year, it had lost as many as 23 top commanders and 300 foot soldiers. The Hizb’s cadre strength always stood between 5,000 and 7, 000 until a few years ago. "

http://www.hindustantimes.com/StoryPage/StoryPage.aspx?id=e1dd11f7-ecf7-46e8-a040-dc9d3de60857&&Headline=Hizbul+Mujahideen+loses+its+grip

Dramatic improvements in Jammu and Kashmir, where terrorism related killings - at 768 - fell below the 'high intensity conflict' mark of a thousand deaths for the first time since 1990 (when they stood at 1,177). At their peak in 2001, fatalities had risen to 4,507.

* Data on fatalities due to terrorist violence all over India

From 1998-2001 (excluding left wing extremism)
Year No. Of Deaths

1998 3764

1999 3754

2000 4975

2001 5839

From 2002-07(Including the fatalities due to left wing extremism)

2002 4455

2003 4217

2004 3208

2005 3188

2006 2765

2007 2598

(Source: South Asia Terrorism Portal)

"As many as 18,350 civilians died during the past nine years in 61,226 incidents of violence in Jammu and Kashmir, north-east, naxal-affected States and communal flare-ups.Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil may be facing flak for a string of recent terror attacks, but his Ministry has quickly compiled statistics of violent incidents and civilian deaths for two periods – 1999 to 2003 of the BJP-led NDA rule and 2004 to 2008 – to show that incidents of violence were actually on the lower side during the UPA rule. While during 1999-2003, the number of civilian deaths were put at 11,714 in 36,259 incidents of violence, the 2004-2008 period witnessed 6,636 civilian deaths in 24,967 incidents, showing a substantial decline.In Jammu and Kashmir, in 18,106 incidents as many as 4,519 civilians lost their lives during 1999-2003, while in the 2004-2008 period the number of incidents in the State came down to 7,769 resulting in 1883 civilian deaths.Similarly, in the north-eastern States, in 7,697 incidents of violence 3,051 civilian deaths occurred during 1999-2003 while during 2004-2008 the region saw 6,498 incidents of violence which resulted in 1,899 civilian deaths.In 3,761 incidents of communal violence as many as 1959 civilians lost their lives during 1999-2003, but the number of incidents came down marginally to 3,472 during 2004-2008 and the civilian deaths dropped to 573.However, 2004-2008 witnessed a higher number of incidents of naxal violence – 7,228 in which 2,281 civilians died. During 1999-2003, the number of incidents of naxal violence were put at 5,695 resulting in 2,185 civilian deaths."

http://www.hinduonnet.com/2008/09/25/stories/2008092553801300.htm

*Nothing beats BJP's counter terrorism strategy-Hate politics

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/21001890.cms

http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/2003/08/16/stories/2003081601471200.htm

More to come..

Lal Krishna Advani - A Profile

2009-03-31T11:35:00.001-07:00

Name - Lal Krishna Advani

Pet Names - Yatra Purush, Chota Sardar; His personal choice - Loh Purush(Iron Man). No offense meant to the real Iron man of India, Sardar Vallabhai Patel

Age - 81

Martial status- Married. Two spouses - Kamala in personal Life, and Hindutva in professional life. Kamala asserted her position over Hindutva by becoming the electoral symbol of Hindutva politics.

Address: Desired address: Any deconstructed mosque; Temporary Address: Waiting room outside 7, Race course Road;
Education - Spent years at the Shakhas, did a Phd on the topic 'Cultural ethos of Demolishers'. Also holds an LLB degree (as per Lok Sabha website) but the year of graduation is not known.

Worked As - Law breaking Rath(Riot) yatri and Law making Home minister

Seeking Job As - The Prime Minister of India since Dec 6,1992

Languages I speak - Hate preaching knows no language barriers

Past Record - Crucial role in the demolition of the Babri Masjid; Organised a Rathyatra which turned in to a riot yatra; Slept while terrorists were released, parliament was attacked, Gujarat was set on fire.

Associated With - The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh; The Bhartiya Janata Party; Yatras; Personal jabs; demagoguery

Passions - Right now, only the PM chair of India

Political Ideology - Rank Opportunism

Pets - Varun Gandhi, an exotic member of a dynasty is the latest entry

Books - My Country My Lies, err...sorry My Life.

Ideal Match - Arun Jaitely Vs Rajnath Singh.

In His Bedroom you may find - Pictures of 7, Race Course Road

Favourite Icons: Jinnah, Savarkar, Golwalkar

Pet Hates: Muslims and to some extent Christians. Also all Hindus who disagree with his candidature to the post of Indian PM.

Favourite Words: Strong, hard, vigour, decisive, domination.

Favourite Abuses: Secularism, Tolerance, Liberalism, Communism.

Bhay Ho! Advani se Bhay Ho! Bhai

2009-03-31T02:46:00.000-07:00

NDA's prime ministerial candidate Advani wants to fight corruption and wants to bring back Indian black money lying in swiss bank accounts. The decisive leader made a press statement in this regard with lot of fanfare. When asked about the action plan, he replied that a taskforce was being appointed by BJP to look into all issues. Well and good. Everyone thought that the decisive leader to fight corruption has at last arrived on Indian political stage. It made all those having illegal money in swiss bank accounts restive. For their comfort an SMS is doing rounds. It goes like:

“Nishikant Dube is the Lok Sabha candidate from Godda (jharkhand), Sudhanshu Mittal made in-charge of north-east, Neera Yadav joins BJP to garner votes in Ghaziabad, and L K Advani fights against black money and corruption. Bhay Ho, BJP se Bhay Ho!’’

Read the rest of the story on BJP's anti-corruption faces here : http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/News/PoliticsNation/Neera-Yadav-is-BJPs-anti-corruption-face/articleshow/4337072.cms?curpg=1

There is more to this SMS campaign. Last Decemeber, 2.6 crore rupees went missing from BJP's HQs. BJP was pushed into a peculiar dilemma.

The amount was taken, clean as a whistle, from a "tijori" (safe) in a small room to the back of the party headquarters, not far from BJP president Rajnath Singh's office. The theft came to light on Friday, when the office reopened after Christmas holiday, causing consternation in BJP circles. The money was deposited on December 24 and apparently stolen on December 25, when the office was closed. The premises, however, have a fairly large resident population of staffers and party office bearers who live in the office building and the next bungalow — 9, Ashoka Road. As a red-faced BJP brass mulled what had happened, it found itself wrestling with a peculiar dilemma — the money had possibly been collected for elections and was not accounted for and hence the police could not be called in. After consultations, the party called in a private detective agency to investigate into the theft.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/India/Rs26cr_goes_missing_from_BJP_office/articleshow/3911144.cms

Even BJP's presidential candidate, Bhairon Singh Shekhawat made a public call asking BJP to come clean on the issue. The following SMS was doing rounds then

"Na Taala Toota na tijori, Phirbhi BJP Mukhyalaya se dhai karod chori"

Coming back to Advani, his stand on corruption confuses many minds. He draws a fine line between being dishonest and being stupid. When 6 MPs of his party along with four others were disqualified from the parliament on cash for question scam, he walked out in protest terming the action disproportionate!

"What we are subjecting them to is capital punishment in parliamentary parlance. They were being stupid. But the punishment is not commensurate with their crime"

Bhay Ho!Advani se Bhay ho!!

The day Bajrangdal blowed upon Advani

2009-03-31T00:03:00.000-07:00

Occasion: Yatra purush Advani's "Bharatsuraksha yatra" was all set to enter the state of Maharashtra after its journey in other states. The yatra was undertaken by him for the cause of national security in the aftermath of terrorist attack in Varanasi.

Location: Nanded in southeastern Maharashtra. Two Bajrangdal activists were accidentally killed and three were injured while making a pipe bomb in a house.

Inference: "Bharatsuraksha[national security] through Bajrangdal crude bombs"?

We don't know. All we know is that Bajrangdal is a constituent of sangh parivar and its founding president Vinay Katiyar is a prominent leader in BJP who played a crucial role in RamJanbhoomi movement. One expected the champion of internal security aka Advani to speak about the incident. Nothing was ever heard from him on sangh parivar's activities in boosting national security.

Unmasking the Moderate Advani

2009-03-30T01:11:00.000-07:00

Advani played a prominent role in mobilization of karsevaks and demolition of Babri masjid. His 1990 Rathyatra left behind a trail of bloody riots and polarized independent India on communal lines as never before.

Babri masjid was demolished on Dec 6, 1992 when the state BJP government failed to keep up its promises to Supreme Court and National Integration council on the safety of the structure. Advani was present on the dias facing the mosque and hate speeches made by Sangh/BJP leaders from the same stage were said to have instigated the mobs.

The demolition in turn was followed by nationwide riots doing irreparable harm to social cohesion and communal harmony. India is still facing the consequences of the mandir-masjid hate politics. It took 13 years for Advani to regret the Babri demolition and that too during his visit to Pak in 2005. He found a secular champion in Jinnah and termed Dec 6, 1992 as the saddest day of his life. The whole effort appeared as an attempt to change his hardliner image in order to improve his acceptability for PM post.

Noted Writer and columnist Khuswant Singh:

“Advani claims that breaking the mosque was not on his agenda and he actually sent Murli Manohar Joshi and Uma Bharati from the dais to plead with the breakers to desist. If that is so, why were the two seen embracing each other and rejoicing when the nefarious task was completed? We don’t have to wait for the verdict of the Liberhan Commission to tell us what happened: we saw it with our own eyes. The destroyers were Shiv Sainiks and members of the RSS and they boasted about what they had done. Advani records the jubilation that followed at the site and along his triumphal return to Delhi.”

http://www.outlookindia.com/full.asp?fodname=20080407&fname=Books&sid=1&pn=2

Dec 8, 1992: Advani at his residence in New Delhi soon after the arrest

Moments of Jubilation?
Dec 10, 1992: Advani and Uma Bharati produced before the magistrate at Faizabad

Change of Heart?: Advani at Jinnah Mausoleum (2005)
During the same visit to Pak he termed Dec 6,1992 as the saddest day of my life!

Sangh Parivar's first choice

2009-03-29T08:48:00.000-07:00

In the aftermath of change of Advani's heart and declaration of Dec 6,1992 as the saddest day of his life, RSS got him ousted from the party president post. VHP’s Togadia called him a traitor for disowning Ram mandir movement.

Now he has become BJP's Primeministerial candidate. It is not known whether the 2005 Indo-Pak cross border melodrama was meant to shed his hardliner baggage. Sangh continues to wield influence in the decision making process of BJP and it has again approved the candidature of its first choice.

Do you want the Indian PM to be controlled by a non-elected, extra constitutional organisation which is not accountable to anyone for its actions?

From News archives:

It is no secret that the RSS reversed Vajpayee's decision to appoint Jaswant Singh as Finance Minister. In so doing it demonstrated that he was a mukhota. The decision about Jaswant Singh was cleared by Vajpayee, L.K. Advani and K.C. Sudershan at 9 p.m., though Advani and the RSS leaders continued to have reservations. The list was sent to Rashtrapati Bhavan. Vajpayee informed Jaswant Singh who is learnt to have asked if the decision was final and he could tell his family. But a phone call from a highly-placed RSS functionary in Madras changed everything. Theissue was reopened and the tussle went on till early hours of the morning. By 5 a.m. Jaswant Singh was out of the race. Hours later, Vajpayee had to eat his words again though he said he would retain the Finance portfolio, Yashwant Sinha became the Finance Minister.

http://www.indianexpress.com/res/web/pIe/ie/daily/19980407/09750724.html

Advani and Kandahar Hijack Episode

2009-03-29T04:46:00.000-07:00

Advani claims to be too strong and a decisive leader. Till date he made many flip-flops on Kandahar plane hijack issue and the role played by him as the then union home minister. He doesn't even mind to embarrass his old cabinet colleagues to disown a collective decision taken by the cabinet . All in the name of "I am hard against terror" posturing. Where was Advani during the crucial hours of plane hijack if he was not aware of the decision of Cabinet Committee on Security? The CCS decided to release three dreaded terrorists including Masood Azhar (who went on to form Jaish-e-Muhammad, the jihadist outfit accused of carrying many terror strikes including the one on Indian parliament). The decisive home minister was not even aware of the cabinet decision? Then what is he up to now?

From News Archives:

*Advani was part of the Decision: Jaswant Singh

"In remarks that are at variance with those of L.K. Advani, senior BJP leader Jaswant Singh on Saturday said the decision to send him to Kandahar in 1999 during the Indian Airlines plane hijack crisis was taken by the Cabinet Committee on Security and the then Home Minister could have “forgotten” it. “It was a decision of the Cabinet Committee on Security,” Mr. Singh told reporters here when asked about the then External Affairs Minister accompanying three terrorists to Kandahar to seek release of 156 people held hostage on the hijacked plane. When referred to Mr. Advani’s recent remarks that he was not aware about Mr. Singh going to Kandahar as the CCS had not taken any such decision, Mr. Singh said the Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha “would either have forgotten or have been absent from the meeting.”

http://www.hindu.com/2008/05/12/stories/2008051260091400.htm

*Advani had differed with the decision?

http://www.hindu.com/2006/04/12/stories/2006041210461200.htm

*Intelligence and security agencies are surprised to hear that

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1494690.cms

Even if one agrees that the then government had no option but to release the terrorists , NDA's PM candidate should explain to the nation why proper actions were not taken to prevent the plane from leaving the Indian airspace. It is a known fact that the hijacked plane halted at Amritsar airport for 45 minutes before leaving India.

*Who Goofed at Amritsar?

http://www.india-today.com/itoday/20000117/nation2.html

Ram Jethmalani, the former minister in NDA gov blames the then National Security Advisor

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1507433.cms

Did Money change hands?

This new and unheard angle was raised by Madanlal Khurana, a senior BJP leader. He left the party and rejoined it now, but no clarification was issued by him or his party over the allegation of money changing hands.

Khurana said, "Singh handed over the money as a Swiss 'currency king' was onboard the flight IC 814 and the money had come from Switzerland itself. He went to Kandahar on the directions of the Swiss foreign minister." Khurana accused BJP of "double standards" for not taking any action against Singh for the revelations made by him in a recent book of his.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1802718.cms

Dr. Abhishek Singhvi, spokesperson of INC raised few pertinent questions on Shri Advani and his claims of ‘Majbooti’ in this regard. Advani should better come clear on this.

1. Why is Shri Advani trying to put the blame regarding Kandahar on Mr.Vajpayee and on the NDA and why is he trying to distance himself from that decision?
2. Is it not true that Shri Advani in both his book and in a “Walk the Talk” interview with Shekhar Gupta of Indian Express confirmed that he was not consulted and not involved in the decision making regarding Kandahar?
3. Is it not equally true that no less than the then Defence Minister, Mr. George Fernandez, in an interview to Mr. Karan Thapar on 30.03.2008 after Mr. Advani’s book release, categorically confirmed that Mr. Advani was present at the meeting which took the Kandahar decision?
4. Is the sign of strong leader—a Majboot Neta—one who leads from the front or one who tries to dishonestly shift the blame onto his own party and his own leaders to try to avoid tainting himself?

His Rathyatra: Journey of Faith?

2009-03-29T04:36:00.000-07:00

Places affected by violence during Advani's rath yatra (Sep- Nov 1990)