India: End Soft Approach Towards Sanatan Sanstha, Says Writer Konkan writer Damodar Mauzo

End Soft Approach Towards Sanatan Sanstha, Says Writer Facing Threat from Right-Wing

Seeking closure of Sanatan Sanstha, Konkan writer Damodar Mauzo says common people should rise up to the occasion to combat the culture of fear propagated by right-wing outfits.

Devika Sequeira

01/Aug/2018

Panaji: Almost a decade after the October 2009 bomb blast in Margao brought the shadowy activities of the Sanatan Sanstha into the open, the recent police disclosure that well known Konkani writer Damodar Mauzo also figures on the list of those marked for elimination by the group has hit a raw nerve. The Sahitya Akademi awardee was provided security cover after intelligence reports from Karnataka alerted the Goa government of the threat to Mauzo.

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https://thewire.in/rights/end-soft-approach-towards-sanatan-sanstha-says-writer-facing-threat-from-right-wing

India: How Political Patronage Has Kept the Sanatan Sanstha Afloat in Goa | Devika Sequeira

The Wire - 14/09/2017

How Political Patronage Has Kept the Sanatan Sanstha Afloat in Goa
By Devika Sequeira

Starting out as just a fringe irritant, the shadowy organisation has been emboldened by the Goa government’s support

The headquarters of the Sanatan Sanstha in Ponda. Credit: Sneha Vakharia

Panaji: With the needle of forensic findings now pointing to a clear link between the killers of journalist Gauri Lankesh, Kannada scholar M.M. Kalburgi and communist leader Govind Pansare of Kolhapur, the spotlight is once again on the shadowy Goa-based Sanatan Sanstha.
Almost two decades after the hardline Hindutva organisation parked itself in Goa – it was registered by a trust deed in the state in March 1999 (a copy of the deed is with The Wire) – very little is known of what goes on inside the Sanatan Sanstha’s ‘ashram’ in Ramnathi, Ponda, or who actually calls the shots there, as its reclusive founder, Jayant Balaji Athavale, a Mumbai based hypnotherapist who turned 75 this year, stopped making public appearances at the ashram since 2004.
It isn’t clear if it was Athavale’s wife’s Goa links, or the fact that he received a warm embrace from saffron-leaning politicians in Goa, that prompted the shift of the Sanatan headquarters from Panvel in Maharashtra, to Ponda in Goa.
But Ramnathi, in Bandora village, Ponda taluka, would have seemed the natural choice. As home to a cluster of some of the biggest and best known temples in Goa, Ponda is both a religious and cultural hub.
The taluka is also the political base of the controversial Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party (MGP) politicians Sudin and Deepak Dhavlikar, who are the Sanatan’s biggest benefactors and supporters in Goa. Both the Dhavlikar brothers’ wives, Jyoti and Lata, are sadhaks at the Sanatan, something they propagate quite openly. The Dhavlikars have said their wives are Sanatan members to “help promote our Hindu dharma and culture”.
Lata Dhavlikar, whose husband was a minister in the Goa government till he lost the election earlier this year, waded into a controversy two years ago when she publicly asked parents to stop sending their children to convent schools, and pronounced rape was on the rise in the country because Indian women were becoming more and more westernised.
A politician with the ability to cling to power even though the MGP has not won more than three seats in each of the last four elections in Goa, Sudin Dhavlikar is currently a minister in the BJP-led coalition government and holds the lucrative portfolios of PWD and transport, among others.
Why did they support an organisation suspected in the killings of three rationalists, I asked Deepak Dhavlikar before the election in February this year. He was enraged by the question. “Why are you studying this so deeply? If some members are involved, does it mean all Hindus are guilty?” was his reply, before he slammed the phone down.
But shouldn’t the presence of two Goa ministers – both Dhavlikar brothers and their families attended prayer functions in the Sanatan ashram last year – in the premises of an organisation linked to the murders of at least three people who were outspoken in their criticism of intolerance in the country, raise questions in Goa?
The Sanatan’s move to Goa and its furtive functioning was viewed with both suspicion and open hostility in Bandora village, long before its violent intent came out into the open in the Margao bomb blast that killed two of its sadhaks, Malgonda Patil and Yogesh Naik in October 2009. There were complaints and cross-complaints in local police stations, and the right-wing group even moved the courts in 2004, claiming it was being defamed by some locals. The defamation case was dismissed by the high court in 2007.
But it was in 2012, after the BJP won a majority on its own in Goa in the election that year – propelling Manohar Parrikar to the chief minister’s post for the first timne –  that the Sanatan Sanstha and its offshoot, the Hindu Janajagruti Samiti (HJS), became all the more publicly and visually assertive. The Sanatan and HJS went into overdrive to put together the first All Indian Hindu Convention “for establishment of Hindu Rashtra”. The convention took place at Ramnathi in June of that year, and the right-wing organisation crowed that not for 125 years had such a large gathering of pro-Hindu groups taken place.
The second Akhil Bharatiya Hindu Adhiveshan in June 2013 saw Narendra Modi, who was then still Gujarat’s chief minister, sending a message of greetings to the organisers. The event is still held every year. In March 2017, a reporter reported about the convention for The Wire.

Narendra Modi’s message to the Second All India Hindu Convention, 2013.

How much financial and other backing is being ploughed by politicians and other below-the-radar admirers of the Hindu right into this convention we’ll never know. But what started as a dismissible gathering of the loony fringe that no one in the media paid much attention to is now offering a platform to the most obscure and the most hardline saffron elements to test the fine balance of tolerance in the state and the country. As it did, when the young Sadhvi Saraswati used this year’s convention in June – the fifth in a row – to say that “those who eat beef should be hanged in public”.
Though widely reported in the national media, Parrikar saw no reason to condemn the provocative statement. Nor has the BJP ever criticised the Sanatan or its foot soldiers, the HJS. Yet earlier this month, the party vehemently attacked the Goa Church, calling it communal for daring to use an article that drew a parallel between Nazi Germany and Modi’s rule. The article that appeared in the Church’s pastoral bulletin Renovacao before the by-election to the Panaji seat which Parrikar was contesting, cautioned voters to look beyond the narrow prism of state politics to the growing traits of fascism in the country.  The Church’s decision to set up its own fact-finding team to look into the recent desecrations of cemeteries here also angered the BJP.
The fact that the Sanatan enjoys political patronage in Goa has helped it weave its way into virtual social acceptability. Despite strong objections by many of journalists in the state, Sanatan Prabhat, the hardline Hindu rashtra proponent’s mouthpiece has been given accreditation by the Goa government. The paper has been associated with threats and warnings to writers and activists. As documents in the monsoon session of the state assembly showed, Sanatan Prabhat also gets government advertising support. Indeed, Sudin Dhavalikar told the Times of India in 2015, “We support Sanatan Sanstha through government advertisements.”
Though the BJP and its parent body, the RSS, may pretend to have nothing to do with the Sanatan, its backhand support and silence provides more than ample endorsement.

India: Crosses have been desecrated, hate speeches made by Hindutva fundamentalist groups in Goa

Hindustan Times

Hate speeches made by Hindu groups, crosses desecrated: Goa on fanaticism alert

Crosses have been desecrated, hate speeches made. Fanaticism is trying to break in. There is apprehension. But Goans are determined to defeat attempts to polarise the state

Updated: Aug 06, 2017 13:23 IST

Poulomi Banerjee
Hindustan Times

Last month Goa was jolted by a spate of desecration of crosses, causing grief and alarm to the Catholic community in the state. ‘The method of destruction was the same everywhere – the base of the cross was broken by hitting it with some heavy implement,’says Father Savio Fernandes, executive secretary of the Council for Social Justice and Peace, which has been engaged in fact-finding studies into the desecrations. (Ajay Aggarwal/HT PHOTO)

It was a Saturday morning in July. Agnelo Fernandes, a retired seaman and resident of Goa’s Curchorem village was dressed to go out, but decided to call a staff member of the local church before doing so, to check with him the schedule for a Mass to celebrate the local MLA’s birthday. The committee member told him about desecrations at the church cemetery. Fernandes rushed to the cemetery – one of his daughters is buried there. “When I reached, I found bones lying near the entrance. Some crosses had been broken and niches damaged. I made my way to my daughter’s grave and the niche we had made in her memory. The granite stone covering the niche was broken. Still it didn’t strike me. Then I saw the satin bag on which I had written her name, her date of birth and the date of her death, before putting her bones in it to preserve her memory, lying on the ground. It was then that I realised that the bones lying near the entrance were my daughter’s,” he says, with barely concealed pain.
Last month Goa was jolted by a spate of desecration of crosses, causing grief and alarm to Catholics inthe state. There were also reports of a temple being vandalised. “The method of destruction was the same everywhere – the base of the cross was broken by hitting it with some heavy implement. More than 40 structures were damaged,” says Father Savio Fernandes, executive secretary of the Council for Social Justice and Peace, which has been engaged in fact-finding studies into the desecrations. In some places the headstones on the graves and niches – where families preserve the mortal remains of a departed member – were broken. Goa Police has arrested Francis Pereira, a resident of Curchorem for the desecrations and claimed that he has confessed to the crime. But more desecrations were reported after Pereira’s arrest.

The cemetry in Curchorem village, where crosses were desecrated and niches and graves broken. (Ajay Aggarwal/HT PHOTO)

The mood in Goa is one of apprehension. The breaking of the crosses is being viewed as only a manifestation of the actual danger, the danger of an attempt being made to divide Goan society on the basis of religion, the danger of the shrill communal rhetoric being projected across the nation disturbing the peace also in Goa. . “Fanatical elements are getting emboldened and empowered,” says Prabhakar Timble, former president of the Goa Forward party. Timble resigned from the party when party MLAs decided to align with the BJP after the 2017 elections.
Goa, says writer Brian Mendonca, means a “certain acceptance, a certain kind of flexibility to be able to look at life wholistically and to be able to accommodate various cultures and views.” But now “I think the Hindutva people are desperately trying to find a toehold in Goa,” he says.
In June, Goans say, inflammatory speeches were made against minorities at the All India Hindu Convention organised by the Hindu Janajagruti Samiti, allied to the Goa-based Sanatan Sanstha. Sadhvi Saraswati had reportedly made a statement that she would request the central government to publicly hang people who eat beef as a mark of social status.
In Ponda, where the Sanstha has its ashram, locals say that they know little about the workings of the organisation. “Most of their members are from outside, not Goans,” says a shopkeeper near the ashram. Another asks, “Are you a cop? The police come often to the ashram. These people are involved in many anti-social activities.” Members of the organisation have been accused in the murders of rationalists outside the state. Sanatan members had also been accused in a 2009 bombing in Goa, but were acquitted.

A Disturbing Silence

“The state government should have taken note of the Sadhvi’s speech, it should have filed a police complaint against someone who makes such inflammatory comments to disturb the peace of Goa. But it did nothing,” rues Jovito Lopes, vice president of the Catholic Association of Goa. The national mood of terror and mob-lynchings fuelled by anti-cow slaughter and anti-minority sentiments adds to the mood of apprehension in the state. Goa has had a BJP government since 2012. Most Goans admit that the government has not made any anti-minority comments: “Due to the substantial numbers ( translated as votes) of minorities, it looks like the BJP has played its political cards well in Goa and successfully steered clear of national controversies created by its national leaders,” says A Freddie Fernandes, a political scientist. But he adds, “Since the BJP has been in power in the state in 2000 and now since 2012, attempts to divide the people and break the communal harmony have been visible.”
BJP MLA and deputy speaker of the Goa legislative assembly Michael Lobo admits that even he is “hurt” by the state’s inaction against the Sadhvi’s comments. “This type of thing should not be tolerated. FIRs should be filed automatically from the police side because this can create communal tension,” he says.

A resident of Goa’s Marcaim village holds up one of the crosses in hte local cemetry that was broken. (Ajay Aggarwal/HT PHOTO)

The government’s silence has added to the commonly-held perception that the BJP is a majoritarian party.In Curchorem, a young Catholic woman who doesn’t want to be named says that when she first heard of the desecrations she felt that the BJP or a fanatic Hindu group would be behind the damage. “When the party was in power between 2000 to 2005, they had made attempts to sanitise school textbooks,” says Freddie Fernandes. Favita Dias remembers how the BJP government had in the past attempted to cancel the holiday on the Feast of St Francis Xavier. “Communalisation takes place in many ways,” says writer Amita Kanekar, “both direct like the new beef bans outside Goa (which resulted in a severe shortfall in beef supply in Goan markets), and indirect, like the false portrayal of Goan culture and history as Hindu and Brahminical. Catholic culture is portrayed as foreign, while Muslim culture (including Goa’s own Islamic past and culture) is ignored.” According to the 2011 Census, Christians constitute 25.1 per cent of the population in Goa. Muslims account for eight per cent and Hindus comprise 66.08 per cent of the population.

United Colours of Goa

Goa has a history of religion-based politics. “After Goa’s liberation from Portuguese rule in 1961 we had the United Goans Party (UGP) which mostly enjoyed support of the Catholics and Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party (MGP) which was a Hindu-majority party. While the UGP wanted Goa to be a separate state, MGP wanted it to be merged with Maharashtra. But one’s political views never influenced social relations between the communities,” says writer Damodar Mauzo. The writer remembers how he was once breast-fed by the late Goan musician Anthony Gonsalves’ mother because his own was too ill to feed him. “That was the kind of relationship the communities shared. Anthony’s sisters used to call me doodh bhau (milk brother) because I had shared their mother’s milk,” he says.

Goans of all communities are peaceful in nature. Outside forces are trying to disrupt the peace,” says Michael Lobo, deputy speaker of the Goa assembly

Goans, Hindus and Catholics, repeatedly talk of this bond, of a shared living and role in each other’s lives. But now, says Timble, the situation is not as comfortable as before. “There is a feeling among a few in the majority community that they are tolerating the minorities. If earlier only five per cent of Goans were fanatics, now the number has gone up to 15 per cent.” The emergence of competition over religious display means both crosses and gumtis are increasingly being erected along the roads, says Freddie Fernandes. “There are many crosses across Goa where even Hindus pray. Now tulsi manches have come up alongside some of them,” says Timble. And an effort has begun to institutionalise Hindu practices. “The Sanstha people tell us to worship together, rather than do our individual pujas at home. At any village fair now, you will find their stalls,” says a Goan. Dadu Mandrekar, a Dalit writer and activist, rues the RSS’s growing influence in the Bahujan community. The underlying tensions sometimes spill out in social media, where a local says, “Goan Catholics are sometimes being portrayed as anti-national and pro-Portuguese”.

On July 29, the Catholic Association of Goa and the All India Catholic Union held a meeting to discuss the Sadhvi’s speech. All-religion peace meets have been organised to dispel tensions, if any. Father Savio and Shaikh Basheer Ahmed, president of the Association of All Goa Muslim Jamaats also issued a joint statement last month against the targeting of minorities. “It is important to have these meeting now, before anything happens, rather than after. Afterwards it becomes just a post mortem of events,” says businessman Ralph De Sousa.
All this is new for Goa. “I don’t think the community feels threatened but a certain element of trust, that prevailed has been lost,” says writer Maria Aurora Couto.
Most Goans feel that the Goan tradition of peace and communal harmony will win the day, that there is little divide between people in the state. “Goans of all communities are peaceful by nature and even those who have come and settled here get moulded in its culture. It’s the outside forces who are trying to disrupt the peace. Not just the minorities, even the majority is disturbed by this. But these forces won’t be able to disrupt the harmony here,” says Lobo. His conviction does not seem misplaced as one watches a group of young Goans play football under a grim monsoon sky at the beach in Siridao. Two of the players sport saffron jerseys. “It’s the team colour of Netherlands, my favourite football-playing nation,” says one with a grin. It is the same disregard for communal politics that one finds at Da Silva’s – Panjim’s favourite cutlet joint. A woman in a salwar kameez and mangalsutra comes for a snack with a young girl in jeans. She orders a chicken cutlet for herself, but nods encouragingly at her young companion who orders a beef cutlet. Da Silva does brisk business in both.

India: Desecration of religious structures and burial places across South Goa - a report

press release of the fact finding on the desecration of religious structures and burial places across South Goa, jointly conducted by the Centre for Study of Society and Secularism (CSSS) and the Council for Social Justice and Peace (CSJP)

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Press Release

Fact finding team’s brief report on investigation of the desecration of Holy Crosses and graves in South Goa

A five member team visited the sites of desecration of religious structures and burial places across South Goa on 14^th July 2017 to understand the ground reality. The members of the fact finding team were Adv. Irfan Engineer, Director, Centre for Study of Society and Secularism (CSSS) and Neha Dabhade associated with CSSS, Fr. Savio Fernandes, Executive Secretary, Council for Social Justice and Peace (CSJP), Ranjan Solomon and Roselle Solomon, prominent activists working for rights of minorities associated with CSJP.

The team visited the sites of desecration at Curtorim, Chandor, Gudi-Paroda and Curchorem in South Goa. They spoke to the priests of the related Churches, members of the Christian community, people’s elected representatives, politicians and people from across various faiths. Till the time of going to the press the team was unable to meet the police officials due to time constraints although appointments were fixed, however the team will meet the officials prior to the final report.

The observations on ground points to a possibility that the incidents of desecration and vandalism are a part of a pattern which is planned and executed by the same persons or organizations. All the attacks have been executed with heavy steel implements directed at the bases of the structures to cause maximum damage. The team sensed the pain and anguish which was palpable in the shock and fear on the faces of the members of the community.

The general perception of the community pointed to certain statements at a Hindu conclave and during the visit of a National office bearer of the political party in Government as possibly encouraging such incidents. 

The desecrations are carried out in a form of a campaign to strike fear, insecurity and mistrust among communities in Goa. Most of the desecrated crosses visited by the team have been targeted more than once in the past more particularly hinged around political developments in the state. The law and order machinery have failed to solve the cases and apprehend the culprits responsible for such crimes thereby emboldening the perpetrators. The helplessness and fear prevalent in the Christian community is giving rise to a feeling of being treated as second class citizens.

The following are the primary findings after the interactions:

The atmosphere in Goa is vitiated and communalized to cause polarization through relentless anti minority narrative. Christians and Muslims are especially targets of demonization through false propaganda. Muslims are portrayed as terrorists and loyal to Pakistan while Christians are portrayed as being agents of Portugal and anti-nationals and seeking to convert members of other religious communities through fraud/ inducement.

The fact finding team recommends that strict action in accordance with law be taken against individuals/ organizations indulging in hate campaigns against minorities in Goa and those responsible for desecration and vandalism. To ensure transparency it would be appropriate to order a judicial commission to investigate the desecrations in a time bound manner. The team also urged the civil society organizations to continue their struggle for justice to the citizens of Goa.

Incidentally, at the time of going to the press, it has been reported that one Mr. Francis Pereira has admitted to have single handedly desecrated and vandalized one hundred and forty odd religious symbols since the last five years. The team strongly feels that the arrest appears as a familiar script to similar crimes across the country to pacify the civil society and the affected communities and divert attention from the actual perpetrators. The extensive damage caused as witnessed by the fact finding team could not have been possibly inflicted by a single person, more over who is 50 years old. The fact finding team demands an impartial investigation into the crimes.

At sixth All India Hindu Convention 132 Right-Wing Hindu organisations demand creation of Hindu theocratic state by 2023 (report in scroll.in)

scroll.in - 18 June 2017

right turn

‘Establish a Hindu Rashtra by 2023’: What 132 Right-Wing Hindu organisations demanded in Goa

The sixth All India Hindu Convention also asked for construction of a grand Ram temple in Ayodhya and a ban on cattle slaughter and religious conversions.

Twitter/hindujagrutiorg

Pamela D’Mello

Declare India a Hindu rashtra, ban cattle slaughter and declare the cow India’s national animal, ban all religious conversions, start the construction of a grand Ram temple in Ayodhya: these were some of the resolutions passed by the sixth All India Hindu Convention in Goa on Saturday.
The four-day event, which began on Wednesday with 300 participants from 132 Hindu groups, was organised by the Goa-headquartered Hindu Janjagruti Samiti and its sister organisation, the Sanatan Sanstha, at the Ramnathi temple complex in the state’s Ponda region. The Samiti’s national guide, Dr Charudatt Pingale, said the next course of action was a national campaign against corruption and injustice that would unite all Hindus.
“The government does not listen to the people, nor does it work against corruption,” Pingale alleged. As a result, he said, the convention has decided to intensify its campaigns against corruption in the bureaucracy, malpractices in the medical field, donations and capitation fees in education, and to protect the nation and dharma.
There are also plans to get the organisations’ activists to file more applications under the Right to Information Act towards this end, and to organise right to information camps for their activists and lawyers. Camps on providing first aid and on self-defence were also proposed.
Furthermore, the Hindu Janjagruti Samiti and Sanatan Saunstha will hold 45 district-level and 10 provincial Hindu conventions in the coming months.

Message to the BJP

Participating in the convention, Bharatiya Janata Dal MLA from Telangana T Raja Singh, who is the founder of the Shri Ram Yuva Sena, gave his party a deadline of 2019 to start the construction of a Ram mandir in Ayodhya. He threatened to quit the party and unite “one crore” Hindus if the Central and state governments failed to start work on the temple by then. However, he professed to have “great faith in Yogi Adityanath” – the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh, who visited the makeshift Ram temple in Ayodhya on May 31 and spoke of building the mandir by consensus.
Singh also said the BJP should work out a national agenda to stop cow slaughter.
Another participant, Bharat Raksha Manch national secretary Anil Dhir, said the BJP had during the 2014 Lok Sabha election campaign promised to deport “illegal Bangladesh settlers”. Three years hence, he said, “not even hundred have been deported”. Claiming that these settlers have spread across economic sectors and regions and now number four crore, Dhir said the Centre ought to detect and deport them. “At least detect and delete them from the electoral rolls” while giving them work permits, he added.
Dhir claimed to have been part of the BJP’s campaign in 2014, and said many of its promises remain unfulfilled, such as on one rank one pension for retired defence personnel and the declassification of papers pertaining to Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose.

The BJP was the object of Hindu Janjagruti Samiti national spokesman Ramesh Shinde’s attention, too, as he said, “If you are in power due to some promises, then you have to fulfil them. It is the duty of Hindu organisations to show them the correct path.” He added, “Criticism does not mean opposition.”
Bengaluru-based lawyer Amrutesh NP, meanwhile, criticised the BJP government in Goa for banning the entry of Sri Ram Sene convenor Pramod Muthalik, calling it a shame. “We are pursuing the matter in the Supreme Court and I hope to attend the next press conference with Pramod in Goa,” he said.
The state had announced the ban in 2015 after Muthalik threatened to stop “pub culture” in the tourist state, and it has been extending the ban ever since.
The ruling BJP – which is making a conscientous effort to take the middle ground in a state with a sizeable Christian population, which it hopes to wean away from the Congress – has distanced itself from the convention. The event did not see any participation from the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, the BJP’s ideological parent, either.

Controversial start

The convention got off to a controversial start with Sadhvi Saraswati of Madhya Pradesh likening the consumption of beef to “eating one’s mother” and saying all beef-eaters should be hanged. She also called for Hindus to keep arms “for self-defence”. The state Congress demanded that Goa Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar take action against her.
Asked if the Hindu Janjagruti Samiti endorsed Saraswati’s view, Ramesh Shinde said “it was her personal viewpoint”. However, the organisation’s website put up excerpts of her speech and did not remove them even after the controversy.
As the convention wound up on Saturday, a two-day meeting of lawyers to chalk out a roadmap for a legal strategy to “establish a Hindu Rashtra by 2023” got underway under the Hindu Vidhidnya (Lawyer) Parishad. This lawyers’ group counts the bail granted in April to Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur – accused of plotting the 2008 blasts in Maharashtra’s Malegaon town that left six people dead – as one of its victories. It has also represented Sanatan Sanstha members accused in the 2009 blast outside a church in Madgaon in Goa.
After the lawyers’ meeting, a special training session or adhiveshan for activists will be held in the state’s Mahalaxmi temple from Monday till Wednesday (June 19-21).

India - Assembly elections 2017: Anger in Goa as BJP shocks by forming of morally illegitimate government

scroll.in

Assembly election results

Goa's 'legally legitimate but morally illegitimate government': Anger in state as BJP stakes claim

Many who voted for the Goa Forward Party, which positioned itself as a secular organisation, feel let down.

Vijai Sardesai via Facebook

12 March 2017 

Pamela D’Mello

Anger erupted among some sections in Goa on Sunday night as the Bharatiya Janata Party said it had stitched together enough support to continue to run the state government, even though Saturday’s Assembly election results gave the saffron party only 13 seats in the 40-member house.
To some in the state, the BJP’s decision to seek the support of eight members of smaller parties and independents was a direct contradiction of the verdict of the voters.
“It is a legally legitimate but morally illegitimate government,” lawyer and political commentator Cleofato Almeida Coutinho told Scroll.in. “ You are manipulating the mandate, distorting it and making a fraud of the mandate.”
In the election, eight of the 12 ministers of the government run by the BJP in an alliance with the Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party lost their seats. Among them was Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar. The BJP’s alliance with the Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party crumbled in the months leading up to the election.
On Saturday, the Congress emerged as the single largest party with 17 seats. The Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party and Goa Forward Party bagged three seats each, while the Nationalist Congress Party got one. Three independents also emerged victorious.

Stitching it up

Late Sunday night, the three members of the Goa Forward Party – which had positioned itself as being anti-BJP – announced that they were throwing in their lot with the saffron party. Earlier in the day, the BJP obtained the support of the three MLAs of its former ally, the Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party, was well as two independents and staked its claim before Goa Governor Mridula Sinha to form the government.
Their letters of support were conditional on Manohar Parrikar being made chief minister. Parrikar had last served as the state’s chief minister from 2012 to 2014, until he was inducted into the Union cabinet as defence minister. On Sunday, the BJP announced that he would resigned from that central position to return to Goa.
The BJP said its decision to make a bid for government was based on the fact that it had gained the largest vote percentage. But not all voters were convinced by this logic.
“The mandate is clear,” said Raju Nayank, editor of Lokmat newspaper. “The BJP should accept the verdict and sit in the opposition.”

Secular credentials

Coming in for special criticism was the Goa Forward Party, which had projected itself through the campaign as a stauchly secular organisation in opposition to the BJP.
Over the past five years, its leader Vijai Sardessai has been a trenchant critic of the BJP’s policies.
Within minutes of Goa Foward’s legislators meeting the governor, the organisation’s president Prabhakar Timble resigned mailed his letter to the media.
“I found the decision a bit abrasive and abrupt,” he told Scroll.in. “Not that the BJP is untouchable. Our main plank was to keep the BJP out of power. So the first thing was we should have supported the Congress to form the government and if that were not possible then we could have considered other alternatives.”
He added: “I don’t want to be the face of the party in this situation.”
However, Timble said he would not leave the Goa Foward Party. “Why should I not continue with the party?” he asked. “The BJP and Congress make hundreds of mistakes but their members dont leave”, was his logic.”
Other supporters of the party were more critical.
Cardiologist Dr Francisco Colaco who was a staunch supporter of the party and its general secretary Vijai Sardessai described the alliance as a meeting of devils. ”Today we are faced with the greatest betrayal of all times,” he said.
In the morning, when it emerged that the Goa Foward Party was negotiating with the BJP, Colaco took to social media to say, “ Beware GFP. Please don’t upset the verdict. I’ve given my heart and soul to support GFP....The Fatorda electorate is restivr and closely watching the developments. Beware.”
Another supporter of the Goa Forward Party, lawyer Cleofato Almeida Coutinho said it was a personal blow to him. “The GFP might not have had an alliance with the Congress leadership, but the Congress people and the Congress voters were with them,” he said. “They have let down all these people.”

India: Trouble could be brewing for the BJP in Goa

Dhaka Tribune

Turmoil in the Hindutva camp

• Kenneth Bo Nielsen
• Published at 06:09 PM February 02, 2017

Should BJP be worried?/REUTERS

Trouble could be brewing for the BJP

Goa is an important state for the BJP. Except for Punjab, where the party is the junior partner in a coalition government led by the Shiromani Akali Dal, Goa is the only one of the five states that will soon go to the polls where BJP is already in power.

Goa’s former Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar was handpicked by Modi himself in 2014 to head the Defense Ministry; and none other than the BJP’s former president Nitin Gadhkari is in charge of party affairs in the state. A defeat here will thus be extremely unwelcome; much is, in other words, at stake — even if Goa is India’s smallest state.

But there is turmoil in the Hindutva camp.

In addition to the BJP, Goa’s Hindu national wing comprises of several smaller players. The Shiv Sena, which we otherwise know best from Maharashtra and Mumbai, has a presence although it is quite limited. And it seems that the bad blood that gradually has emerged between the BJP and Shiv Sena in Maharashtra has found its way to Goa.

When Shiv Sena President Uddhav Thackeray kicked off his party’s campaign in Goa in October, he talked about how a power-hungry BJP had exploited and abused Shiv Sena’s loyal support in pursuit of its own power and influence.

That is why his party would take on the BJP in Goa, said Thackeray.

This kind of threat should not give the BJP leadership in Goa sleepless nights — the Shiv Sena is, as mentioned, a marginal player. But since October other events have transpired. A new party, the Goa Suraksha Manch (GSM), has seen the light of day, and behind this party stands the rebellious RSS leader in Goa, Subhash Velingkar.

Velingkar is unhappy that the BJP government in Goa has not done enough to promote the use of their mother tongue as the medium of instruction in schools; therefore he campaigns now to defeat the BJP. He has also quit the RSS and formed its own branch of the RSS in Goa.

Reportedly, several hundred RSS members followed him. Such internal strife in the RSS, which even played out in full public view and in most media channels, is far from common. Still, on its own, the GSM poses no threat to the BJP. But things do not stop here.

As if this was not enough, the BJP’s partner in government in recent years, the Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party (MGP), not long ago decided to leave the alliance. 50 years ago the MGP was the main party in Goa with considerable appeal among non-Brahmin Hindus. Since then it has mostly been downhill for the MGP who has lost many votes to the BJP. But they are not yet reduced to a political small fry.

If the BJP performs badly in Goa, Modi may appear politically weakened and the more conservative elements of the RSS may find the time opportune to raise their demands for a stronger Hindutva imprint more vocally

In 2012, they polled around 6% of the votes and won three seats in the state legislative assembly. And in light of Goa’s political fragmentation, a party can (even with only three MLAs) achieve considerable influence.

Now, the MGP has entered into an electoral alliance with Shiv Sena and the GSM, and this should be a cause for concern for the BJP.

For, in what promises to be a very close election, all parties need to hold on to their core voters — and it is precisely the BJP’s core constituency that the new alliance is eyeing.

The GSM-MGP-Shiv Sena alliance used the Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Costa’s recent visit to Goa to lash out at the former colonial power. They demanded an apology for past colonial sins; demanded that the Portuguese Consulate General in Goa closed; and even accused the Portuguese of having introduced an “English culture” in Goa.

Antonio Costa has roots in Goa and visited his ancestral home in Margao, the largest city in Christian-dominated Salcete. But for the GSM-MGP-Shiv Sena alliance, this was no happy homecoming.

While they  used the opportunity to demonstrate their nationalist pedigree, BJP Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar paid a courtesy visit to meet Costa at the Portuguese Consulate General, where he spoke warmly about the good and close relations between Portugal and Goa.

In the big picture, the Goa elections may be a trivial matter for BJP, which probably has its eyes set on the big political prize to be won in Uttar Pradesh.

But it may very well be that the internal disagreements in RSS in Goa, and the ensuing conflict between the BJP and segments of the RSS, could ultimately prove to be symptomatic of wider problems in the Hindutva camp.

It is well known that not everyone in the RSS is enthusiastic about the policy direction of the BJP under Modi. If the BJP performs badly in Goa (and the four other states who go to the polls soon), Modi may appear politically weakened and the more conservative elements of the RSS may find the time opportune to raise their demands for a stronger Hindutva imprint more vocally — not just in Goa, but also elsewhere.

For now, however, the BJP in Goa can find solace in the fact that the “secular” camp consisting of parties like the Congress Party, AAP, and Goa Forward appears no less divided than the Hindutva camp.

Kenneth Bo Nielsen is the Coordinator of Asianettverket, the Norwegian Network for Asian Studies.

India: RSS to concentrate more on Manipur, Uttarakhand and Goa; UP, Punjab left to BJP

Hindustan Times - Jan 31, 2017

RSS to concentrate more on Manipur, Uttarakhand and Goa; UP, Punjab left to BJP

assembly elections Updated: Jan 31, 2017

Smriti Kak Ramachandran
Hindustan Times, New Delhi

RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat (in car) with BJP's LK Advani after a breakfast meeting at the latter's residence in New Delhi in 2009. (Arvind Yadav/HT file photo)

The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) has decided to divert its resources from Punjab and Uttar Pradesh to focus on the other three poll-bound states: Manipur, Uttarakhand and Goa.
The move could hurt the BJP’s electoral prospects in the two bigger and politically crucial states, which among the five voting for a new government this February and March.
With a committed cadre at the grassroots, the Sangh plays a vital role in mobilising public opinion in favour of the BJP and deploys its vast machinery to help the party on the day of polling.
The official line, however, is that the RSS does not get involved in elections.
The RSS, the BJP’s ideological fount, is not happy with the way the party is attempting social engineering in UP on caste lines, sources said. The Sangh long-held belief is that caste divisions are a hindrance to larger Hindu unity.
The BJP has returned to the Hindutva agenda, but its core poll strategy revolved around caste equations with aggressive wooing of non-Yadav other backward classes and non-Jatav Dalits in UP.
Caste was the main criterion in the selection of party candidates and this does not have the Sangh’s sanction.
In Punjab, the RSS has strong issues with the BJP’s coalition partner, the Shiromani Akali Dal.
These factors prompted the RSS to opt for a passive role in UP and Punjab. It would rather focus on Uttarakhand, Goa and Manipur.
“The cadre in these states (UP and Punjab) will do its bit, but there is no intensive planning. Besides, the BJP has a strong cadre base in these states and so, it should not be a problem for the party to mobilise votes,” an RSS functionary said, seeking to play down its decision not to be pro-active in UP and Punjab.
The organisation wants the party to coalesce the Hindu vote, instead of following the “caste-based” politics of the Samajawadi Party and the BSP.
The RSS’s attempts to woo Sikhs in Punjab through its outfit, Rashtriya Sikh Sangat, have not gone down well with the Akalis, who see the move as an attempt to overshadow the Sikh identity by including them in the Hindu fold.
“The Sangh was not happy with the drug problem in Punjab; it also has concerns about growing presence of Christian missionaries in the state, particularly along the border. Another area of contention is the periodic threat of the Khalistan-movement reviving,” an RSS functionary from the Punjab unit said.
In Uttarakhand , the seat of a large number of Hindu pilgrimage sites, the focus is on consolidation of the community against the growing presence of missionaries.
The state’s proximity to China is another reason why the Sangh is keen on aiding the BJP in the hill state.
In Goa, the cadre have been asked to redouble efforts to keep the debutant Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and the Congress out and ensure there is no mixed signal to “Hindu” voters after senior Sangh leader Subhash Velingkar broke away to float his own party. Velingkar has accused the BJP-RSS of appeasing the former Portuguese colony’s “English-speaking” population.
As was done for Assam and Kerala, the Sangh’s dyed-in-the-wool cadre has been progressively paving the way for the BJP’s ascendance in Manipur. The Sangh and the BJP are working together to stop Congress chief minister Ibobi Singh getting a fourth term in Manipur.
Considered the architects of the Assam win, BJP general secretary Ram Madhav and election strategist Rajat Sethi have been anchoring the poll process in the northeastern state with Sangh functionaries.
With limited grassroots presence in Manipur, the Sangh is counting on the “Hindu vote”, making overtures towards the majority Meiteis who control 40 seats in the Valley, without ruffling sentiments of the hill tribes having 20 seats.
“When the party began campaigning in Assam, no one thought it could pose a challenge to the Congress, but the Sangh cadre had been preparing the ground and the results were for all to see,” a source said.
In the three states, the Sangh is overseeing work at every booth and the cadre had been instructed to downplay caste fractures

India: Hindutva outfits seek ban on Sunburn electronic dance music festival

The Indian Express

Hindutva outfits seek ban on Sunburn festival
Sunburn was being organised in Goa annually for the last nine years, but the Goa government’s ban forced the organisers to shift the venue to Pune this time.

By: Express News Service | Pune | Published:December 13, 2016 3:55 am

Describing it as against Indian culture, Hindutva outfits in the city have come together to protest against Sunburn electronic dance music festival, which will be held at Kesnand on Pune-Ahmednagar highway. The outfits claimed that the festival promotes consumption of narcotic substances and obscene activities.

Sunburn was being organised in Goa annually for the last nine years, but the Goa government’s ban forced the organisers to shift the venue to Pune this time.

Watch What Else Is making News

Members from the women’s wing of the Hindu Janjagruti Samiti, Shiv Sena, Vishwa Hindu Parishad, besides other Hindutva groups, on Monday protested in front of the Lokmanya Tilak statue in Mahatma Phule Mandai. They distributed pamphlets, shouted slogans and started a signature campaign against the festival.

Pratiksha Korgaonkar, state organiser of Ranragini, said, “In 2009, a girl died at Sunburn in Goa due to drug overdose… Such events mislead the youth.”

Sarita Ambike of VHP’s Durga Vahini said, “We should not allow western events like Sunburn festival to take place in Pune, which is the cultural and educational capital of the country.”

Sunburn CEO Karan Singh said, “We do nothing illegal…. We work very closely with all government authorities to ensure a safe event.”

India: HJS, Shiv Sena come out in support of Far Right Sanatan Sanstha

Saturday , 3 October 2015

HJS Goa convenor Dr Manoj Solanki and immediate past president of Shiv Sena Ramesh Naik along with Dr Durgesh Samant, former editor of Sanatan Prabhat addressing media

HJS, Shiv Sena come out in support of Sanatan Sanstha

Posted by: Navhind Times October 2, 2015 in Goa News

PANAJI: Hindu Janajagruti Samiti (HJS) and Shiv Sena have extended support to the Sanatan Sanstha which has its headquarters in Ramnathi village in Ponda.
On Thursday, HJS Goa convenor Dr Manoj Solanki and immediate past president of Shiv Sena Ramesh Naik alongwith Dr Durgesh Samant, former editor of Sanatan Prabhat, the mouthpiece of Sanatan Sanstha addressed the media jointly. They condemned the demand by Saurabh Lotlikar, president of Ramnath Yuvak Sangh and villagers to ban or shift the organisation’s base from Ramnathi village.
Dr Samant terming the demand unconstitutional said “Saurabh Lotlikar and his group have made the demand without any valid reason.”
Stating that during the 2009 Margao blasts case too these allegations had surfaced, Samant said, “Sanstha was not even charge-sheeted then.”
Extending support to Pramod Muthalik-led Sri Ram Sena, Dr Samant said, “Sri Ram Sena should not have been banned by the Goa government. When the Karnataka government has not banned, why the Goa government should do so?”
Responding to the ban on media entry to the Sanatan Sanstha Ashram in Ramnathi, Dr Samant said, “During the on-going issue we have realised that there is a media trial going on. Some sections of the media have misquoted the representatives of the ashram. Due to media trial the trust has decided not to allow media inside the ashram premises.”
The three were flanked by four seekers of the Sanstha living in the vicinity of the ashram.

India: Goa villagers serve 7-day deadline to ban Far Right Sanatan Sanstha

Bandora villagers serve 7-day deadline to ban Sanatan
http://m.goanews.com/news_details.php?id=6128

Kill them like dogs: Sanatan Sanstha newsletter seeks brutal treatment for 'anti-nationals' (report in Firstpost)

http://www.firstpost.com/india/kill-them-like-dogs-sanatan-sanstha-newsletter-seeks-brutal-treatment-for-anti-nationals-2449412.html

Kill them like dogs: Sanatan Sanstha newsletter seeks brutal treatment for 'anti-nation

by FP Staff Sep 29, 2015

A group of Hindu ultra-right organisations have jumped right back into the headlines thanks to yet another controversial statement, this time against 'anti-national elements'.
The September edition of the Sanatan Sanstha’s newsletter Sanatan Prabhat — which doubles as the mouthpiece for the Sanstha’s sister concern, the Hindu Jagruti Samiti (HJS) — carries a press release from the HJS that calls for action against anti-national elements.
In a report, The Indian Express quotes the release as stating that ‘(as) per Samratha Ramdas Swami’s teaching, anti-nationals are like dogs, they must be killed’.

A representational image from the Sanatan Sanstha's website

The implications of this statement are worrying for a few reasons.
First, the release equates those ‘who criticised the judiciary (for recommending Yakub Memon’s hanging) and those who worked hard to get his capital punishment revoked’ as ‘anti-nationals’.
Second, considering slain scholar MM Kalburgi was also branded ‘anti-national’ during agitations — by BJP protestors — in Bangalore in June 2014, the label is one that is thrown around quite liberally. The fact that Kalburgi was later murdered isn't exactly comforting.
The release goes on to lament that “Bharat is the only country in the world where traitors get so much social, political, constitutional and religious support” and proposes that “if terrorism is to be eliminated from our soil, the supporters of terrorists should also feel very afraid”.
But if killing is a bit too extreme for you, and a simple punch would probably suffice, the September issue of the newsletter has a piece for you.
A piece titled ‘Only devout Hindus will protect the interests of Hindus and therefore, support them only!’ starts out by criticising the BJP for a ‘breach of trust’ in Goa and across the country.
It goes on to exhort its readers to instead stand by the HJS and Sanstha that ‘are serving the cause of Dharma sincerely and selflessly’, before inviting them to create ‘an ‘Iron-Fist’ of Hindu unity, and deliver such a punch to those who oppose the interests of Hindus’.
But it isn't all doom and gloom. This issue of the Sanatan Prabhat also contains a piece that proclaims that Sanstha founder Dr Jayant Balaji Athavale is the ‘personification of God’.
Why, you may well ask.
It’s because auspicious signs are appearing on his body, apparently. A handy pictorial guide draws attention to the image of a lotus appearing on his forehead, a trident appearing on his throat, and a swastika also appearing on his throat.
The expository text states that the “appearance of Divine changes is the effect of the developments in the subtle dimension on His body. Therefore, it is observed that those who have the ability to understand the subtle dimension (meaning, beyond the comprehension of the mind and intellect) can see them more clearly”.

India: Sanatan Sanstha on the extreme edge of the Hindutva right wing in Goa (Pamela D’Mello for Scroll)

scroll.in - 27 september 2015

 

Brotherhood in saffron

How the Sanatan Sanstha is positioning itself on the extreme edge of the Hindutva right wing in Goa

The outfit has powerful backers in Goa.

Pamela D’Mello

 Even as investigating agencies in Maharashtra study the alleged links between the members of Hindutva group Sanatan Sanstha with the killings of rationalists Govind Pansare and Narendra Dabholkar, the organisation's headquarters in central Goa’s Bandora village seems unaffected, at least from the outside.

Goa Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar has shrugged off any responsibility for investigating the organisation, whose members in Maharasthra and Goa have been implicated in several terror plots, including the 2009 Diwali-eve Margao bomb blast. (The six men arrested for the explosion were acquitted in 2013).

Parsekar justified his inaction saying one or two individuals caught doing “ill” do not reflect on the organisation as a whole, even though one of though a colleague from his Bharatiya Janata Party had compared the Sanstha to the Students Islamic Movement of India and called for it to be banned.

Parsekar said that would be possible for Goa to take a decision on banning the organisation only after the authorities in Maharashtra establish whether the Sanstha was actually involved in the murders of the two rationalists.

Powerful backers

Ramesh Gauns, a member of the Goa Andhashraddha Nirmulan Samiti, which has repeatedly challenged the Sanstha's claims of being able to "scientifically tabulate spiritual levels", said he was not surprised by the Goa government's tip-toeing around the organisation.

“They have managed to build a large base of influential donors, followers and supporters, in private and government service, teachers, housewives, among professionals and business families in Goa," Gauns alleged. "Every political party sees the number of people behind them and leaves them alone.”

The organisation hasn't always been held in such regard. In 2009, many Goa residents were angered when members of the Sanstha were implicated in blasts that went off on Diwali eve near a huge gathering of Hindu revellers for the hugely popular Narakasura effigy contests. The Sanstha opposes the Narakasura festivities because they celebrate the demon rather than its righteous slayer Krishna.

Demonstrations against the Sanstha in the temple towns of Ramnathi and Ponda put the organisation on the backfoot for a while.

But once the protests died down, the Sanstha found its stride again. The Goa government resumed giving advertisements to the organisation's daily Sanatan Prabhat, a practice it continues. “We support Sanatan Sanstha through government advertisements," Goa's Public Works Department Minister Sudhin Dhavlikar admitted to a newspaper.

The Dhavlikar brothers – Sudhin and Deepak – who head the Maharastrawadi Gomantak Party, which in alliance with the Bharatiya Janata Party run the state government, have been steadfast supporters of the Sanstha from 2000, facilitating the construction of the spacious air-conditioned ashram in their constituency. This allowed the sanstha to shift its headquarters from Panvel, near Mumbai, to Goa in 2004. Sudhin’s wife Jyoti and Deepak’s wife Lata, are both sadhaks (literally, seekers) of the organisation. Lata Dhavlikar was in the news recently for urging parents not to send their children to Christian schools and suggesting that the spread of western culture was leading to increasing incidents of rape.

From spiritual to political

While the Sastha was established in Mumbai 1990, it got a toehold in Goa when its founder Dr Jayant Athavale, a clinical hypnotherapist, was invited by a local businessmen’s social club to deliver a lecture, Ramesh Gauns said. He apparently quickly gauged how devoted local Konkanis were to their kuldevta or family deity. Early devotees were asked to recite and write their family deity’s name repeatedly, until they responded to hypnotic suggestions that they had indeed “sighted” the deity before them.

As the Sanstha's following and donors increased, with many prominent doctors joining its ranks as sadhaks or seekers, it began organising weekly satsangs (religious discourses) in temples, conducting moral science classes in schools, or giving up their professions and families to become full-time seekers. Seekers are conferred levels of spirituality based on their levels of sadhana or devotion, says the Sanstha's website, according to which some 53 persons have been granted sainthood.

While the Sanstha's spiritual teachings may be harmless and even therapeutic to its large following of middle-class women and men, its political teachings of a militant Hindutva are far from benign. Its many editions of Sanatan Prabhat proclaim that the organisation aims to establish a Hindu Rashtra by 2023. Articles and headlines attack non-Hindus, Muslims and Christians and target the Congress for the failure of "Bharatiya democracy” since Independence.

In 2002, ENT specialist Dr Charudatta Pingale, a disciple of Athavale and former editor of the Sanatan Prabhat, went on to become the head the newly formed Hindu Janajagruti Samiti, which is also headquartered in Goa. Later, a youth wing, Dharmashakti Sena, with branches in Maharashtra and Goa, caused a bit of a stir when it became involved in defence and martial arts training.

The Hindu Janajagruti Samiti was particularly active during the tenure of the Congress government led by Digamber Kamat, forcing it to withdraw  textbooks, even as it targeted artists for depictions of Ganesha and prevented the screening of films, including some at the International Film Festival of India. It was also alleged to be behind several incidents of communal tension, singling out Kamat's Margao segment. But the political will to bring the organisation to book, see cases to completion or challenge acquittals seemed always lacking in Goa. All Samiti campaigns seem to find an echo in the Sanstha's newspapers and websites, with the two organisations seamlessly complementing each other.

Saffron terror

One article on the Samiti's website propagates the use of “saffron terror” in order “to hunt down Pakistani and foreign agents in India and eliminate them.” Others say that it is “time to hold India's media legally accountable”, forego tolerance and hunt down “anyone who kills or hurts a Hindu for religion reasons” wherever they live.

The Samiti's All India Hindu conventions at Ramnathi temple have drawn other like-minded organisations since they started in 2012. Temple trustee, former member of Parliament and influential banker Ramakant Angle has promised to build 100 rooms to house future delegates, the organisation's website reports.

An organisation of Hindu lawyers, the Hindu Vidhidnya Parishad, set up as an offshoot of the 2012 convention to assist Hindu causes, boasts of its success in securing the acquittal of the Margao bomb blast accused, getting orders to clear Muslim-dominated slums in Margao and Pune and take on the rationalist Maharashtra Andhashraddha Nirmulan Samiti.

As the Congress and Aam Aadmi Party in Goa clamour for the organisation to be banned, the Sanstha, it would appear, is bidding to lay claim to the extreme in competitive militancy within the Parivar and is becoming increasingly trenchant in its criticism of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh.

India: 2010 report by the Goa police, Far Right Sanatan Sanstha using a mix of murder, arson, hypnotism and sexual exploitation (Alka Dhupkar in Mumbai Mirror)

http://www.mumbaimirror.com/others/sunday-read/The-Sanstha-makes-orange-a-new-black/articleshow/49121120.cms

The Sanstha makes orange a new black

Mumbai Mirror | Sep 27, 2015, 12.54 AM IST

0

 

From top: Published by the Goan Observer in 2008, these pictures show Vinay Panvalkar, erstwhile chief of the Sanatan Sanstha’s Dharm Shakti Sena, demonstrate the use of air rifles and tridents; The Sanstha’s Ponda headquarters; The Margao blast in October 2009 had claimed the life of Sanatan Sadhak Malgonda Patil; (Inset) Sameer Gaikwad is suspected to have murdered Govind Pansare

By Alka Dhupkar

According to a 2010 report compiled by the Goa police, the Sanatan Sanstha is using a mix of murder, arson, hypnotism and sexual exploitation to build a future Hindu nation.

The murder of communist politician Govind Pansare only tops off the list of crimes that the ultra-right organisation Sanatan Sanstha has been accused of. Over the years, that roster has come to include transgressions such as the issue of threats and more dangerously, terror activities such as bomb blasts. Though their alleged infractions have pressed multiple state and Central-level investigation agencies into action, it is in the local police stations of Goa that the Sanstha's infamous story first unravelled. Headquartered in the state's Bandora-Ponda rural belt, the Sanstha, it would seem, might be guilty of more than weapons training and arson. If complaints of Goa residents and a report by the state police are anything to go by, the Sanstha also resorts to blackmail, brainwashing and sexual exploitation in order to further its declared agenda of Hindu supremacy.

Reporting first information

Light flickers in the small room. Dressed in plain clothes, an inspector sips coffee from a plastic cup. Juniors, and even hardened criminals, fold their hands in his presence. He chastises a constable for sporting a stubble. Known for his courage and progressive outlook, the police official starts sharing his firsthand experiences of investigating the Sanstha, but he insists on anonymity. In a Goa police report that he had helped prepare in 2010, his fears were categorically articulated — "At present the institution [Sanatan Sanstha] appears to be developing into a stage of terror activities and if allowed to grow up in a peaceful state, there is eminent danger to the life, property, communal harmony of the state and the nation." The inspector confides, "There is so much political pressure on the police when it comes to banning the Sanatan Sanstha. I have information that this report was twice sent to the Director General's office from the SP's office." He goes on to add that the Sanstha is trying hard to exploit the polarised political views in a state where more than half of the population is Hindu.

It is this slender file of approximately 25 pages that seems to summarise the 1,000-page dossier submitted by the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad to the Union Home Ministry in 2011. The dossier argues that the Sanatan Sanstha is a threat to state security and is engaged in erecting a terror network in India. In recent times, the Sanstha has had to battle against a number of police and court cases. Many of these now appear incriminatory. Sameer Gaikwad, a devoted Sadhak of the organisation was arrested on September 16. He is accused of having shot Govind Pansare on February 16. Pansare's murder, in many ways, emulated the August 2013 death of rationalist Dr Narendra Dabholkar. A Sanatan Sadhak had been detained then too, but a conviction had proved elusive. The Sanstha was also implicated in bomb blasts that had disturbed the peace in Thane, Navi Mumbai and Margao, during the years 2008-2009. Observers are joining dots to draw a pattern of violent terror.

The 2010 Goa police report questions the exponential growth of the Sanstha's financial and real estate assets. Dubbing the organisation's literature "unlawful and suspicious", it says that their writings are pointedly aimed at promoting "communal disharmony". The report reads, "This organisation is actively participating in unlawful activities and demanding [members of the] Hindu community to be Naxalites/terrorists. Numbers of Hindu people are falling in the trap of Jayant Athawale [founder of Sanatan Sanstha], who is systematically misusing them by using hypnotism techniques." If the Goa police's concerns are warranted, then much of India has cause to be worried. The Sanstha has offices across Maharashtra, in Belgaum, Bangalore, Chennai, Gwalior, Jaipur and several other urban areas.

When asked about the fate of this laboriously researched report, Umesh Gaonkar, SP, North Goa, told Mirror, "The report was sent to the government for further action. After the Margao blast, this report was drawn up to take stock of the situation. But our CM Laxmikant Parsekar has clarified that there is no need to ban Sanatan unless its role in wrongful activities can be definitively proven."

Behind closed doors

It isn't just the Goa police that had first raised an alarm about the Sanstha's dangerous activities. Some of the state's residents too had begun to complain of a terror that was insidiously darkening their lives.

Panjim's Pushpalata Poyekar, for instance, wrote to the then Maharashtra Home Minister RR Patil, demanding a ban on the Sanstha. The 60-year-old told Patil that after having been brainwashed and blackmailed, her son Avinash was staying at the outfit's Devad Ashram in Panvel. She had written, "There are many single women and men staying in the Ashram. Their parents and family members are trying to get them back, but the Ashram won't give any information. Sexual abuse and hypnotism happens inside. There is enough evidence if police take complaints seriously."

Contractor Ramesh Walke, from Amravati, Vidarbha, also wrote to the Maharashtra CM a few years ago, informing him of a police complaint he had made against the Sanstha after Sadhaks at the Devad Ashram refused to let him meet his daughter Dipti alone. He too alleged sexual abuse of young girls, but later withdrew his complaint, fearing his daughter's safety. Interestingly, the Goa police's report mentioned that the Sanstha had collected 2,600 condoms from the Ponda Health Centre for its use. "This creates doubt about the so-called spirituality of the Ashram," it had said.

Four aggrieved parents and relatives - Vijay Rokade, Shobha Chinchkar, Rajendra Swami and Bhanudas Adbhai — had filed a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) before the Bombay High Court in 2011, asking that Sanatan Sanstha be declared a terrorist organisation. Documents in our possession from the hearing clearly show that the Central government has not yet filed an affidavit to make clear its stand on Sanatan Sanstha. On March 11, 2013, the Centre had told the HC that having received communication from the Maharashtra government, it would need more time to verify its position. The state's chief minister until October 19, 2014, Prithviraj Chavan says, "As per my information, we didn't get any recommendations from the central government on the report which we had sent. So, we assume the decision is still pending with the Centre. I appeal to the present Maharashtra CM to follow up and add current information about the Sanstha to the report that we had then submitted."

Arms over alms

The 2010 police report also deconstructs the 'selfdefence training' the Sanstha gives to its sadhaks. It mentions, "In the Ashram, the sadhaks have been taught about revolt against other religions. They have been shown films like A Wednesday and Black Friday to inspire them. The activists, who are totally under the control of Athavale, are trained in self-defence at Dhamse, Valpoi and Sattari Goa."

Evidence of the Sanstha's 'self-defence training' era, a period that is said to have lasted from 2001 to 2008, can be found in a collection of photographs that were printed in the organisation's brochure Swasaunrakshan Prashikshan. These pictures show Vinay Panvalkar, chief of the Sanatan Satha's Dharm Shakti Sena, demonstrating how to use weapons like air rifles, tridents and spears. Sunil Dhavat, Maharasthra coordinator of the Hindu Janjagruti Samiti (a sister organisation of the Sanstha) says, "We closed our Dharm Shakti Sena long back. Panvalkar is in Delhi now, working as a Sadhak."

The Goan Observer first published these grainy photographs for public consumption in 2008. A former Sadhak had then worked on a series of stories that exposed the inner workings of the Sanstha. "I was so fed up with the extreme and narrowminded thoughts being advocated by Sanatan that I stopped going for Sadhana. I took to journalism to lay bare their radical brain," says the young female journalist, while requesting anonymity for fear of reprisal. The weekly's editor, though, is undaunted. He hasn't eased up on gritty reportage. "Sanatan has filed many defamation cases against us but that has never stopped us from publishing the truth," says Rajan Narayan.

Human rights advocate Asim Sarode is demanding an inquiry against the Sanstha by the Charity Commissioner, arguing that its arms training amounts to illegal activity. "This activity is illegal. The Arms Act is very specific. Air rifles and trishuls cannot be used in self-defence training. In the current condition, when the prime suspect of a murder is from the Sanatan Santha, it is only logical that investigating agencies look into Sanstha's past activity." NCP MLA Jitendra Ahwad asks, "What kind of spiritual work requires arms training? Did the organisation have licenses for the weapons used?"

No country for other men?

According to sources, Maharashtra police have found that Sameer Gaikwad, who is suspected to have killed Govind Pansare, was communicating with Rudra Patil. A sadhak like Gaikwad, Patil has been on the run ever since the National Investigating Agency issued a red corner notice against him. Incidentally, Patil's wife is defending Gaikwad in court with other advocates of the Hindu Vidhidnya Parishad (legal wing of Sanatan Santha.) The nexus, though, might run deeper. Malgonda Patil, another sadhak who had died in the Margao blast, is said to have been Gaikwad's friend and Rudra Patil's cousin. The police are investigating all possible familial and fraternal links.

After having spent three years in prison for their suspected involvement in the Margao blast case, six Sanatan Sadhaks were acquitted because of little evidence. In January 2014, the Sanstha celebrated their release with an open jeep rally and branded each of the six Sadhaks a 'Dharamveer'. Rajan Ghate, an RTI activist in Goa, is insistent that the organisation disclose the precise present location of these individuals. Even the 2010 Goa police report had expressed a similar concern. It had warned, "Some of the Sadhaks, who are accused persons from Margao bomb blast case, are still absconding, and therefore, there is eminent danger to the society."

Always dressed in orange kurtas and sarees, the 250 Sadhaks who stay at the Sanstha's Ponda headquarters are hardly ever allowed to speak to the media. The Sanstha has not inducted any new members since 2007, and though their everyday missions remain secret, Jayant Athavale has made his larger intent clear. By 2023, the Sanstha wants to start a new nation of Hindus. To allay our fears, the one essential question the Sanstha founder needs to answer is this — will a Govind Pansare be able to return home unharmed from his morning walk in the saffron country Sanatan is founding?

India: Goa government funding "extremist" Sanatan Sanstha, says AAP (PTI report on The Economic Times)

Goa government giving financial support to "extremist" Sanatan Sanstha, says AAP

By PTI | 24 Sep, 2015, 06.43PM IST

The Sanatan has come under the scanner after its activist Samir Gaikwad was arrested in connection with the murder of rationalist Govind Pansare.

PANAJI: Goa unit of Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) today alleged that the state government was providing financial support to the "extremist and dubious" organisation Sanatan Sanstha, by giving advertisements to its mouthpiece.

The Sanatan Sanstha has come under the scanner after its activist Samir Gaikwad was arrested in connection with the murder of CPI leader and rationalist Govind Pansare.

"It is shocking to note that Goa government is officially handing over public money to such a radical organisation through its mouthpiece 'Sanathan Prabhat'," Valmiki Naik, ad-hoc secretary of AAP in Goa said.

"AAP strongly condemns this financial support given to this extremist organisation under the guise of newspaper advertisements," he added.

The government should immediately stop releasing a single rupee of public money to such dubious organisations, and also put an immediate ban on its mouthpiece the Sanathan Prabhat, while beginning active monitoring of all activities of the Sanstha, Naik said.

"AAP Goa also demands that the Home Ministry should obtain a copy of the 2011 dossier of the Maharasthra Government, and completes a time-bound NIA-assisted probe into the organisation under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act and submit a fresh request to the Centre to ban the Sanathan Sanstha, without leaving any loopholes in its report for the BJP-led central government to deny the request," he said.

The Maharashtra Home Ministry had, in 2011 sent a detailed report to the Central government and had requested it to ban the Sanatan Sanstha, though the government did not act upon it, former Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan had recently said.

Naik further said, "It is with dismay that AAP Goa notes the active support given by the Goa government to Sanatan Sanstha. While individual support by Goa Ministers such as Sudin Dhavalikar and Deepak Dhavalikar is deplorable, but it is not entirely surprising due to their known narrow-minded and regressive opinions on various issues."

The AAP leader also alleged that Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar remains oblivious, or pretends to be oblivious, of simple facts when conveniently stating that an organisation cannot be banned due to the actions of one person, in reference to the recent arrest of Samir Gaikwad.

Fourth All India Hindu Convention in Goa from 11 June 2015

The Hans India


All India Hindu Convention in Goa from June 11
June 07,2015, 02.13 AM IST | | THE HANS INDIA
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EXPANSION MODE

Hyderabad: The fourth All India Hindu Convention will commence from June 11 at Goa. The convention is aimed at building nation-wide organisation of Hindu organisation for the establishment of the Hindu nation. It will be attended by 350 delegates from 125 organisations from 21 States and also from Nepal, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.

From Telugu- speaking states, 32 delegates will participate in the convention. Chandra Moger, Co-ordinator, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, Hindu Janajagruti Samiti, said, “As finalised in last three conventions, agitations were held against Urdu as first language in Telangana, protest against anti Hindu movie “Singham Returns”, protest against Tirupati Islamic University, protest against “Play Boy” Club etc. An attempt to speed up this mission will be made in the fourth convention.

The national and overseas media is curious about the expectations of the convention from Modi government about Hindutva.”

India: Goa magistrate directs police to register a complaint on charges of obscenity against a naked Jain monk

Court: File FIR against naked Jain monk

TNN | May 29, 2015, 03.30 AM IST

Margao: A judicial magistrate first class (JMFC) court, Margao, has directed the Margao town police to register an FIR against the Jain monk, Pranam Sagar maharaj, on alleged charges of committing obscenity in public places by "roaming naked" in the streets of Margao .

The court passed the order on May 26 on an application filed by Atish Mandrekar.

The police have also been directed by the JMFC, by the same order, to conduct an inquiry into other offences pointed out by the applicant and to submit a report within 15 days.

Stating that the photos of the Jain monk "prima facie make out an offence under Section 294 of the IPC", the judge, Bosco Roberts in his order stated, "No doubt the freedom to practice and propagate one's religion is sacrosanct under the Constitution of India, but with every freedom comes responsibility and duty not to cause annoyance to others."

The court rejected the applicant's view that the monk, by roaming naked, outraged religious sentiments.

"I do not find that roaming in a procession naked causes outrage to religious sentiments nor does it promote enmity between different religions or communities. It only outrages public sensitivities. It would be an offence under section 294 IPC. No one can be allowed, even in the name of propagating or practicing one's own religion, to be unmindful of the sentiments of others," the order reads.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/goa/Court-File-FIR-against-naked-Jain-monk/articleshow/47462991.cms