India: Centre hands over 62% of new Sainik Schools to Sangh Parivar, BJP politicians and allies.

Sainik Schools, run under the Defence Ministry’s guidance, send cadets to India’s armed forces. The new initiative however relies on ideologically slanted organisations to train future cadets

Astha Savyasachi

April 3, 2024

 

https://www.reporters-collective.in/trc/centre-hands-sainik-schools-to-sangh-parivar-bjp-politicians

 

How the Hindu Right Triumphed in India | The New Yorker

 https://www.newyorker.com/news/q-and-a/how-the-hindu-right-triumphed-in-india

Modi's India a zone of conlict

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/09/opinion/india-modi-conflict-zone.html

India: Modi inaugurates new Parliament on ruins of secular one | Jyoti Punwani

The inauguration of the new Parliament building by PM Modi in a Hindu religious ceremony marked the symbolic death of the Nehruvian vision of a secular India

Read more at: https://www.deccanherald.com/opinion/narendra-modi-inaugurates-new-parliament-on-ruins-of-a-secular-one-1222919.html

The inauguration of the new Parliament building by PM Modi in a Hindu religious ceremony marked the symbolic death of the Nehruvian vision of a secular India

 https://www.deccanherald.com/opinion/narendra-modi-inaugurates-new-parliament-on-ruins-of-a-secular-one-1222919.html

India in the 2022 International religious freedom report - Prof Apoorvanand Speaks to Satya Hindi

https://www.youtube.com/live/_2jsa7IANZ4?feature=share

Is international religious freedom report a humiliation for PM Modi ? । BJP । APOORVANAND

International religious freedom reports names India along with Russia, China and Saudi Arabia where faith community leaders are being targeted. This report comes just a month before PM Modi is scheduled to go to United States

India: From Babri Mosque to Ram Temple: Historical perspective | Ram Puniyani (Dec 2022)

 

From Babri Mosque to Ram Temple: Historical perspective

 

Ram Puniyani

 

This 5^th August (2020) the Prime Minister of India did the ground breaking ceremony (Bhumi Pujan) for Ram Temple in Ayodhya. The Prime Minster compared the 15^th August; when India got freedom to the 5^th August, when according to him Lord Ram was liberated. Also he said that as all the people rallied behind Mahatma Gandhi to get India freedom; so now all people have rallied together to liberate Lord Ram. The RSS chief who was present on the occasion quoted some shloka from Manusmriti.

It is wrong to say that from last many centuries the struggle for Ram Temple has been going on as claimed by Narendra Modi. There is some mention of the some disputes for Ram Chabutara on the outskirts of the mosque in late 19^th Century, but to say that Hindus have been struggling for this temple is a pure concoction. The issue came to forefront only from 1980s when BJP’s Advani took over the issue from VHP, who had begun the campaign that Lord Ram was born at the spot where Babri mosque is located and so we should build the grand Ram Temple, precisely at that spot. The Ram Temple campaign gained a heightened response in the aftermath of implementation of Mandal Commission, giving 26% reservations to OBCs.

The claim that there was Lord Ram’s Temple at that spot has been on tenuous grounds, Supreme Court in its judgement did not uphold this view of Lord Ram’s temple being there and Babar having destroyed it. The SC did not uphold the view that Lord Ram was born at precisely that spot. There are claims by some archaeologists that the remains of some pillars and other artefacts prove that temple was there, but it is disputed by other archaeologists. On the other hand while levelling the land for the Ram Temple, few months ago, remains of Buddhist structure was found there.

As such the seeds of the dispute was sown by British; in pursuance of their ‘divide and rule policy’. Mrs. A F Beevridge while commenting on Babri mosque in Ayodhya put a foot note saying that there might have been a temple on which the Mosque was made. (Anatomy of Confrontation: Edited by S. Gopal, Penguin). In some versions of Ramayana (there are nearly 300 version of Lord Ram Story: A. K. Ramanujam), Dashrath was the king of Varanasi and not of Ayodhya. Similarly Valmiki Ramayana also does not mention the place of birth of Lord. Goswami Tulsidas, who wrote the most popular Ramcharitmanas, was living around the time when the Temple of Lord is supposed to have been destroyed. He also does not mention any such incident in his writings. The mythological issues cannot be compared to history. A.K. Ramanujam’s book gives brilliantly the diverse narrative of Lord Ram story, which is prevalent not only in India but also in various parts of South East Asia.

In recent history, the first incident which occurred was putting up of Lord Ram idols in the Mosque in 1949 in a surreptitious manner. This was done in the middle of the night. Jawaharlal Nehru, the then Prime minister asked the UP Chief Govind Vallabh Pant to get the idols removed but no action was taken by UP’s Chief. No action was taken by the District Collector, K.K.Nayyar, who after retirement joined the previous avatar of BJP, the Bharatiya Jansangh.

The mosque was locked and remained so till mid 1980s. Under the pressure of Hindu nationalists the gates of the disputed structure were open and Shilanyas was performed when Rajiv Gandhi was PM. This shilanyas was not at the site where it has been done now. This criminal act of Ram Lalla idols being kept inside is recorded by the SC judgement. Later on 6^th December through communal mobilization three lakh Kar Sevaks assembled and destroyed the Archaeological monument in broad day light. The UP Chief Minster had given an affidavit to protect the mosque, but he backed out and later proudly proclaimed that he is gald about what he did.

Liberian Commission, constituted by the Government, report mentions the BJP leaders as the culprits of this crime. Court cases are under progress on this issue and cases against Lal Krishna Advani, Murli Manohar Joshi and Uma Bharati are pending in the Courts. Ram Temple movement, the rath yatras led by Advani were the big polarizing factors in Indian politics. It increased the communalisation in society. It also presented Muslims as temple destroyers and widened the Gulf between the two main religious communities in India.

The Muslims Kings and Hindu kings both had destroyed the temples for wealth and political rivalries. Just couple of examples, Maratha armies destroyed a temple in Shrirangpatnam, which was repaired by Tipu. Aurangzeb got Vishwanath temple destroyed in Kashi, same Aurangzeb gave donation to many Hindu temples, and also destroyed one mosque in Golkonda. But here destruction of temples got associated only with Muslim kings, reflecting it on the Muslims of today and atmosphere of Hate against Muslims was intensified.

This movement has been the major polarizing factor in contemporary India. Now the claims of Mr. Narendra Modi that the movement is centuries old is not true and nobody is able to challenge his assertions as lot of emotive element has been created in the whole issue. The ownership of land has been with Sunni Waqf Board. The judgement of 2010, Allahabad high Court was based on faith and the land was equally divided between three parties, two third going to Hindu side and one third to Sunni Waqf Board. The basis of judgment was the ‘faith of the people’ not the legal grounding of the case. Same thing was upheld by Supreme Court and despite recognising 1949 smuggling of Ram Lalla Temple and Demolition of mosque a crime; it allotted the whole disputed land to Hindu side and arranging for alternate site for the mosque. It was an irony of history that those who committed the crime were beneficiaries of the crime and achieved their target through a crime and other mayhem created by them.

The majority of Muslim community accepted the Supreme Court verdict with honour without any protest. They have been allotted five acres of land as compensation. While a Prime Minister who took oath by the Indian Constitution, went to inaugurate the temple building, it remains to be seen if he will go and inaugurate the building of Mosque in case Muslims decide to build one. His associate the Cheif Minster of UP, who was accompanying PM while temple ground breaking ceremony was done, did declare that he will not be part of Mosque building ceremony.

While today the Prime Minster is doing the ground breaking ceremony of the temple one recalls the similar incident in the aftermath of India getting freedom. There was a clamour that the state government should renovating Somnath temple, which was destroyed by Mahmud Gazani. Mahatma Gandhi said that building the religious places is not the work of the state. So a private trust built it. They invited Dr. Rajendra Prasad, the President of India, to inaugurate the temple. Jawaharlal Nehru, the Prime minster advised that the President should not do it in his official capacity, as the state is neutral in matters of religion. Same Nehru went on to lay the foundations of educational institutes, public sector, scientific establishments and what have you, to bring India on par with the Modern times. He also went on to label these, as ‘Temples of Modern India’.

Times have changed. Now temple building has become the agenda of the state and the education and health facilities have been passed on to the Corporate. While the Constitution says the state should not take up issues related to religion, the Prime minster goes to inaugurate the temple in full religious regalia. We need to bring back the values of Indian Constitution and welfare of the people on the centre stage of the society and leave the ‘matters of faith’ to the communities. The status quo in matters of places of worship should be maintained and plans to make more social facilities be brought on the forefront of social agenda. The whole episode has tainted the secular nature of state to no end. It has put a deep fright in the heart of minorities.

Can the secular character of Indian state is a bigger question. Can state focus more on facilities for the poor and marginalized and delving in past as a cover of for revivalism be shunned. The history of Buddhist Vihars being destroyed by followers of Brahmanism also needs to be remembered, but past should be a matter for us for learning that wrong paths have to be shunned and the issues of people be brought to forefront so that all of us can live with dignity and honor.

India: Editorial on BJP's 'Frankenstein' moment - The Telegraph (June 9, 2022)

 The Telegraph

Uncaged: Editorial on BJP's 'Frankenstein' moment

Large segments of right-wing ecosystem have not taken too kindly to saffron party’s ‘censure’ of its spokespersons after the controversy over their intemperate remarks and tweets on the Prophet

The stridency discernible in the right-wing reiterates the concern that the fringe has, indeed, taken over the political centre of the BJP.

File picture

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The Editorial Board   |   Published 09.06.22, 02:19 AM

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The endurance of great literature can be attributed to the lessons it holds for future generations. It is not known whether the leaders of the Bharatiya Janata Party are familiar with Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, the nineteenth-century novel which chronicles a doomed experiment that begets a beast. The BJP leadership’s inability to tame the beast — a vicious constituency of trolls, ideologues and sympathisers — from going about its own business, not once but quite a few times, has evoked a Frankenstein moment for the party. First, there seemed to be few takers for what appeared to be Mohan Bhagwat’s calculated, conciliatory appeal that urged the sangh parivar’s patrons to stop looking for shivalingas in every masjid. Now, it is being reported that large segments of the right-wing ecosystem have not taken too kindly to the BJP’s ‘censure’ of its spokespersons after the controversy over their intemperate remarks and tweets on the Prophet. Apparently, the prime minister — the BJP’s tallest Hindutva icon — has also fallen from grace. This rogue community’s endorsement of an equally divisive Dutch lawmaker exposes its refusal to accept disciplinary action against rabble-rousers no matter what the transgression. Of course, the BJP’s apparent retreat in the face of international condemnation of ‘fringe’ elements has been necessitated by strategic imperatives. India is dependent on the Islamic nations of West Asia for trade, energy and oil. The Gulf also has a large number of Indian employees whose remittances are crucial to the domestic economy. A retaliation against this segment by their host countries would pose significant hurdles. But the bigot is not amenable to logic or has concern for fellow citizens.

The stridency discernible in the right-wing reiterates the concern that the fringe has, indeed, taken over the political centre of the BJP. Having unleashed the Creature, the political leadership is now struggling to put this evil genie back into the bottle. This can have serious repercussions not only for the party but also for the country. India’s global goodwill, the result of the pursuit of inclusive policy, is now in tatters in the Islamic world and also in the West: periodic criticism from the United States of America and Europe on rising communalism is now common. There is just one way out for the BJP: to cage the beast through meaningful action against perpetrators of mischief. But does it have the will and the integrity to crack the whip?

India: Eight years of Modi Rule and Vision of Gandhi-Patel | Ram Puniyani

https://www.southasiamonitor.org/open-forum/india-gandhi-and-patels-dreams

Modi Sarkar and Vision of Gandhi-Patel

Ram Puniyani

As Narendra Modi completed his eight years tenure (May 30 2022), there are claims and counter claims about the performance of his regime. Modi acolytes are very happy that during this period India has made great leaps in all areas of development. Various leaders from Amit Shah and others have praised the achievements of last eight years. Many other have also written to highlight the schemes for housing, vaccination, women taking the wheel (Smiriti Irani), Ujwala Gas Yojana, the Jan Dhan bank accounts etc.

While the opponents of the Government highlight that there have been massive setbacks due to demonetization, the sudden Covid lockdown led to mass migrations under adverse situations and the lockdown also revealed the inadequacy of health services. There is a record rise in unemployment, the farmer’s plight has worsened and we see the rising prices of commodities. The rupee is falling. The claim is that there were no incidents of communal violence, but reality shows not only the increasing acts of violence peaking in the Delhi violence of 2020, but also the growing discord between two major religious communities. While overall the spiral of violence is on the rise, there is a qualitative worsening of the same. “Communal incidents in UP had increased 47% from 133 in 2014 to 195 in 2017. According to another 2017 Huffington Post report, India was ranked fourth in the world in 2015–after Syria, Nigeria and Iraq–for the highest social hostilities involving religion.” This trend continued in following years.

The ‘hate other’ (read Muslims and Christians) has become the new normal. The achievements are being shown in the form of building of Ram Temple in Ayodhya, Kashi Corridor and revival of issues like Mathura, Taj Mahal, Jama Masjid and Baba Budan Giri in Karnataka. Globally India has slipped down on different indices: democracy, freedom of religion, freedom of press, hunger and happiness to name the few. In this context Modi’s claim that he is working in the ‘bid to build India of Gandhi and Sardra Patel’s dream’ needs serious questioning.

Sardar Patel was an ardent follower of Gandhi and told Nehru that they both have learned politics sitting at the feet of their mentor, Gandhi. One of Gandhi’s dictum was that in making of the policies what should be paramount is keep in mind the needs and betterment of last man in the line. What we are witnessing is that those standing in the front rows are growing abysmally with most social resources under their belt, while those in the last lines are suffering the pangs of deprivation.

There are many aspects of the decline in the freedoms, freedom of expression being one of these. Many an intellectuals and activists are being incarcerated while those making Hate speeches (Yati Narsinghanand, Suresh Chavanhke and company is roaming with big baggage of Hate, confident of the fact that they are safe and secure despite giving the call of murdering, launching genocide against the hapless minority. The interesting part of the whole phenomenon is that a ‘social construct’ is being made where the victim community is being projected as the culprits.

The central theme of Gandhi in his marathon efforts was Hindu Muslim unity. This became a serious matter of concern in later period of his life. Starting from association with Khilafat movement to his travails in Bengal, particularly Noakhali and later in Delhi this was the central direction of his commitment to build an India based on its diversity and pluralism, Hindu-Muslim unity being the core of his concern. It was this which underlined his fast unto death in Delhi where he put the unity aspect as the major demand of his.

In contrast to what he envisioned the gulf between the two communities has been made wide and deep. Though this process became prominent with Ram Temple agitation the policies during last eight years has deepened the gulf to intolerable limits. Gandhi reprimanded the communal elements in both the communities and sought commitment to amity and non violence. What is happening today is a process contrary to this. Religion is mixed with the state policies, while Gandhi an ardent sanatani Hindu wanted to keep state away from dictates of religion. “"In India, for whose fashioning I have worked all my life, every man enjoys equality of status, whatever his religion is. The state is bound to be wholly secular", and, "religion is not the test of nationality but is a personal matter between man and God, and," religion is a personal affair of each individual, it must not be mixed up with politics or national affairs" (Harijan August 31, 1947)

As far as Sardar Patel, whose name Mr. Modi is invoking; he was very concerned about rising ‘Hate in the society’ and this is what led him to ban the RSS in the aftermath of murder Gandhi. Indian Express Madras edition on 5^th Februat 1948 reported ‘RSS has been declared unlawful throughout India, Move for rooting out hate and violence’. Sardar wrote “All their speeches were full of communal poison … As a final result of that poison; the country had to suffer the sacrifice of Gandhiji” 

Currently hate spreading is becoming worse by the day. Modi himself leads the pack by giving the dog whistles of Hate, ‘if there was Aurangzeb, Shivaji also emerged’. Those down below and around his ideology-politics do take it further through Dharam Sansads and social media. They enjoy a sort of impunity.

The three day Dharam Sansad held in Haridwar in December 2021 was just one example. In this event the speeches peaked with a call for genocide in presence of prominent BJP leaders. To cap it all Modi kept a total silence on this. It is no wonder that with such an atmosphere of insecurity among minorities; on one side the Muslim communal elements get a boost but majority of them writhe in pain and insecurity. Gregory Stenton the President of Genocide Watch says that India is already on 8^th spot, in the scale of ten, of genocide. What would have been the response of Gandhi and Sardar Patel on this scenario? Just using their names as a shield cannot hide the painful realities of the society.

India: The frenzy to rename places - BJP leader want forty villages around renamed (The Hindu, April 29, 2022)

 Delhi

BJP writes to Kejriwal for renaming 40 villages

Special Correspondent New Delhi April 29, 2022

 

[ . . . ]  The villages, which the party wants to be renamed, include Begumpur, Saidulajab, Fatehpur Beri, Sheikh Sarai, Neb Sarai, Jafarpur Kalan, Kazipur, Naseerpur, Hasanpur, Ghalibpur, Tajpur Khurd, Najafgarh among others. [ . . . ]

https://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/Delhi/bjp-writes-to-kejriwal-for-renaming-40-villages/article65364043.ece

 

India: RSS idealogue’s barb on bank employees: Unions call for his resignation from RBI Board

RSS idealogue’s barb on bank employees: Unions call for his resignation from RBI Board

The Secretary of the All India Bank Employees Association (AIBEA) has termed the comment dirty and derogatory and has asked the government to remove S Gurumurthy from RBI Board.

 https://www.thenewsminute.com/article/rss-idealogue-s-barb-bank-employees-unions-call-his-resignation-rbi-board-163966

India: Prime Minister inaugurates the Kashi Vishwanath Corridor project involving millions of dollars from tax payers money for a religious project

 

https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/varanasi/kashi-vishwanath-dham-corridor-inauguration-live-updates-pm-modi-achieved-what-could-not-be-in-1000-yrs-says-yogi-adityanath/liveblog/88247852.cms