Tehelka Magazine, Volume 11 Issue 31, Dated 2 August 2014
The Brains Behind Modi Sarkar
How did a little-known think-tank end up supplying so many bureaucrats to the NDA government? Brijesh Singh reports
by Brijesh Singh
Security experts Former Intelligence Bureau director Ajit Doval started the Vivekananda International Foundation in New Delhi in 2009. Photo: Vikas Kumar
What do Ajit Doval, Nripendra Misra and PK Misra have in common? Of course, they are top bureaucrats whom Narendra Modi handpicked to run his team. There is another common factor. They all hail from New Delhi-based think-tank Vivekananda International Foundation (VIF).
FormerIB director Ajit Doval was steering the ship at VIF as founder-director before he was appointed as Modi’s National Security Adviser. He was advising Modi even before the government was formed. In fact, it was Doval who came up with the idea of inviting South Asian leaders to Modi’s oath-taking ceremony.
After his stint as the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) chairman was over, Nripendra Misra became a member of the VIF’s executive council. Now, he is Modi’s principal secretary. There was a legal hitch in his appointment as TRAI law bars former chairmen from holding government positions. But Modi wanted him so bad that he tabled an ordinance to amend the law.
Former Union agriculture secretary PK Misra was associated with the VIF as a Senior Fellow. Now, he is the additional principal secretary to the prime minister.
Other VIF members whom the Modi regime has tapped for inputs include former RAW chief CD Sahay, former urban development secretary Anil Baijal, former ambassador to Russia Prabhat Shukla, former IAF chief SG Inamdar and former BSF chief Prakash Singh.
Former army chief Gen (retd) NC Vij has replaced Doval as VIF director. Sources claim that many other VIF members are likely to be enrolled in the government at significant posts soon. There are reports that former DRDO director general VK Saraswat, who is currently the dean of the Centre for Scientific and Technological Studies at VIF, might replace Chief Scientific Adviser R Chidambaram.
Interestingly, the first book that Modi released after assuming office was Getting India Back on Track. Its editor is none other than Bibek Debroy, who is the dean of VIF’s Centre for Economic Studies.
So, what is the VIF? Who are the people associated with it? When and how did the think-tank become a breeding ground of candidates to fill Modi’s bureaucracy?
VIF is Doval’s brainchild. After his retirement from the IB in 2005, he focussed his energies in creating the think-tank. On 10 December 2009, Mata Amritanandamayi and Justice MN Venkatachaliah inaugurated the foundation.
The VIF is affiliated to the Kanyakumari- based Vivekananda Kendra, which was established by RSS organiser Eknath Ranade in 1970. In 1993, the Narasimha Rao government allotted land to the Vivekanada Kendra in Chanakyapuri. And VIF was founded at the same spot.
The think-tank’s website introduces the organisation in the following words, “The VIF is a New Delhi-based think-tank set up with the collaborative efforts of India’s leading security experts, diplomats, industrialists and philanthropists under the aegis of the Vivekananda Kendra. The VIF’s objective is to become a centre of excellence to kick-start innovative ideas and thoughts that can lead to a stronger, secure and prosperous India playing its destined role in global affairs.”
About its vision and mission, the website adds, “The VIF is an independent, non-partisan institution that promotes quality research and in-depth studies and is a platform for dialogue and conflict resolution. It strives to bring together the best minds in India to ideate on key national and international issues; promote initiatives that further the cause of peace and global harmony; monitor social, economic and political trends that have a bearing on India’s unity and integrity.”
The VIF has many scholars as members of its advisory and executive councils, besides former army chiefs, former ambassadors, foreign secretaries, retired RAW and IB officials, bureaucrats as well as other key officials who have held top posts at the Centre (see box).
The VIF chiefly works in eight different areas: national security and strategic studies, international relations and diplomacy, neighbourhood studies, governance and political studies, economic studies, historical and civilisational studies, technological and scientific studies, and media studies.
The VIF invites scholars and experts from all over the world for conferences and lectures. It presents India’s outlook before the New Delhi-based diplomatic community and takes their inputs to further the country’s political, strategic, economic and cultural interests. It also holds dialogues with policymakers on current affairs. It gives policy advice to government representatives, MPs, members of the judiciary and civil society. It also carries out exchange of ideas with academic institutes and research centres.
“The foundation has done commendable work in the past 5-6 years,” says former RAW chief Anand Verma, who is now a member of the VIF advisory board. “Top-level research has been conducted in various fields. Numerous seminars of national and international significance have been organised. It has held dialogues with various global think-tanks. Senior officials, including government and nongovernmental ones, from all over the world are invited for interactions. Since the think-tank has its own rules, many of its discussions are not made public.”
Modi has had a long association with the VIF. Sources reveal that he constantly took counsel from this institute regarding economic and security issues when he was the Gujarat chief minister. In fact, the VIF core team helped Modi draft the blueprint of his election campaign.
“We were confident that Modi would be elected as prime minister,” says a VIF member. “That’s why we had been working on developing foreign, security and economic policies, etc. During the run-up to the Lok Sabha polls, he was provided all the necessary inputs on various issues by the VIF. In fact, the major intellectual inputs for his political campaign in Assam, Arunachal Pradesh and Jammu was organised by the foundation.”
Sources in the foundation confirm Modi’s affinity towards VIF, which prominent BJP and Sangh Parivar leaders approach for inputs on governance issues.
The links between Modi and the VIF became apparent last year. When Congress leaders attacked Modi in the Ishrat Jahan fake encounter case, Doval jumped to his defence. The then VIF director argued that Ishrat was a member of the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Toiba and the Congress-led UPA government was politicising the whole matter.
In the run-up to the General Election, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Arvind Kejriwal alleged that under Modi’s watch, industrialists made huge profits in Gujarat, while no actual development had taken place in the state.
Following the accusation, a group named Concerned Citizens sprang to life and came out with a statement that AAP was making unsubstantiated allegations in a bid to help the Congress in the General Election. The members included Doval, author MV Kamath, journalist MJ Akbar, former Jammu & Kashmir governor SK Sinha, former bureaucrat MN Buch and economist Bibek Debroy. It was clearly part of the foundation’s strategy.
The VIF’s major achievement has been the building up of an anti-UPA (read anti- Congress) atmosphere in the past few years. Sources close to the foundation claim that VIF members played a significant role in mobilising the anti-corruption movement across the country in 2011.
“In April 2011, the decision to create an anti-corruption forum under Baba Ramdev was taken here,” reveals a VIF member on the condition of anonymity. “It had been planned for almost a year.In collaboration with KN Govindacharya’s Rashtriya Swabhiman Andolan, the foundation organised a two-day seminar on black money and corruption on 1 April 2011. Baba Ramdev, Arvind Kejriwal and Kiran Bedi attended the programme. At the end of the seminar, an anti-corruption front was formed with Baba Ramdev as patron and Govindacharya as organiser. The members included Ajit Doval, Bhishm Agnihotri (ambassador-at-large to the US when the NDA was in power), Prof R Vaidyanathan from IIM Bangalore, Ved Pratap Vaidik, journalist and Baba Ramdev’s close aide, and (author and financial expert) S Gurumurthy.”
imgMeanwhile, Govindacharya organised a meeting between Anna Hazare and Baba Ramdev. VIF members devised a strategy that both of them will push the anti-corruption movement forward. Three days after the seminar, Hazare began a hunger strike at Jantar Mantar. By the end of April, Ramdev had also announced an anti-UPA protest on 4 June at the Ramlila Maidan in New Delhi.
Rumour has it that the plan to corner the Congress was allegedly drafted by VIF at the behest of the BJP and the RSS. On one hand, Anna Hazare and Baba Ramdev were raking up the corruption issue and protesting against the government. On the other hand, the BJP was adding fuel to fire. This is why senior Congress leader Digvijaya Singh kept referring to the anti-corruption movement as an RSS conspiracy. But as the movement reached its peak and the UPA government came up with absurd steps to tackle the situation, nobody paid him any heed.
The VIF’s alleged links with the RSS has come in handy for Modi’s critics. Sangh leaders regularly visit the VIF, while RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat and BJP leader LK Advani actively engage with it. Recently, Bhagwat was at the VIF to release former diplomat OP Gupta’s book Defining Hindutva. Since the VIF emerged out of the Vivekananda Kendra, critics believe it would be a mistake to consider the VIF separate from the RSS.
“VIF is an RSS project,” says a critic. “The first thing you notice when you enter the building is a photograph of Eknath Ranade. VIF is filled with right-wing officials. As they were marginalised intellectually, they created their own think-tank. It is a desperate attempt to get acknowledged in the intellectual world. If it is not so, then why does the RSS chief keep visiting the VIF?”
The critic provides some examples of the VIF’s alleged right-wing bias. “When the controversy over Wendy Doniger’s book The Hindus: An Alternative History erupted, Senior Fellow Makkhan Lal wrote that the incident has provided pseudo-secularists and anti-Hindus an opportunity to play their old trick where, in the name of freedom of speech, they bitterly criticise the Hindus,” he says. “While analysing the Lok Sabha election mandate, joint-director Prabhat Shukla wrote that the results were the outcome of the exploitation of Hindus, which has been going on for decades. Another fellow, Anirban Ganguly, wrote in his research paper titled Man and Environment in India: Past Traditions and Present Challenges about how Hinduism is intrinsically aware of the natural surroundings and that the tradition finds mention in the Vedas and Arthashastra. If it is not right-wing ideology, then what is?”
However, KG Suresh, editor of the foundation’s magazine Patrika, rubbishes such allegations. “I don’t understand why there is so much negative reporting,” he says. “A picture is being projected as if everyone in the foundation is roaming around in khakis. It is wrong to link the foundation with the RSS. We are totally apolitical. Neither the BJP nor the RSS is funding us.
“We are neither pro-BJP nor anti- Congress. When the UPA was in power, we backed the government on the Devyani Khobragade issue. Similarly, we supported the UPA in the land swap deal with Bangladesh, while the Opposition raised a furore. Hence, it is wrong to call us anti- Congress. It is true that the top leadership of the BJP and the RSS take inputs from us on various issues, but even Congress leaders participate in our seminars.”
Verma is also at pains to emphasise that the VIF has no political leanings. “The think-tank is absolutely non-political and secular,” he says. “It has nothing to do with the RSS. The sole objective of the foundation is to find solutions to the various challenges before the country.
“I don’t look at the RSS the same way as the Congress does. What wrong is the RSS doing? It is only trying to restore the esteem of the Hindu community. Those who don’t understand it, abuse the Sangh. It is establishing the ancient sanskritik principles. It’s doing good work.
“When Swami Vivekananda delivered his speech in Chicago in 1893, it caught the world’s attention. But he was criticised for giving rise to a new Hinduism. If even Vivekananda is not considered secular, then who can be considered so?”
Agrees Maroof Raza, a consultant and strategic affairs expert with Times Now, who regularly participates in various programmes organised by the foundation. “Although there are rumours about VIF’s association with the RSS, no right-wing bias has come to light,” he says. “In fact, the foundation is doing excellent work.”
To buttress his point, Verma adds, “Recently, we organised a conference on the Kashmir issue and members from the PDP, Congress and National Conference took part in the discussion. (Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind chief ) Maulana Mahmood Madani also visited the foundation recently. So has the head of Pakistan’s Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam, Maulana Fazlur Rehman. Even the Dalai Lama has attended several programmes here.”
Adds another VIF member, “When the UPA was in power, many PMO officials attended our seminars. In fact, minister Kumari Selja came here to release a book.”
Shedding light on the VIF’s objectives, Verma says, “Among significant issues taken up by the foundation, one is to present the correct cultural, traditional and spiritual aspects of India. We have studied from books that offered a distorted version of our history. Today, we learn history from books prepared by the British and (Thomas) Macaulay. Their objective was to make us feel inferior and destroy our fundamental Indian values. We need to know our actual history and the foundation is working towards it. The history of India is being rewritten in 10-11 volumes, of which half are ready.
“It was necessary to establish VIF. The situation was such that whenever someone talked about Indian culture, Leftist intellectuals would dismiss him or her. They felt he or she was preaching Hinduism. The Leftist historians see RSS conspiracy in anything that involves culture.”
Adds Suresh, “Indian history must be nationalised. The Left has already been marginalised politically. Now, it will be marginalised intellectually. We had been on the margins so far, now it is their turn.”
Another VIF member echoes the sentiment. “Most of the think-tanks are governed by Leftists,” he says. “Ours is a platform for non-Leftists and nationalists who were considered untouchables in the intellectual world.”
On the subject of funding, Verma says, “This institute is funded by people from all over the world. It is not funded by any government organisation. People like you and me fund it.” In 2013, VIF reportedly received donations worth 1.5 crore.
Verma rubbishes allegations that the Sangh Parivar played a part in the appointment of Doval and Misra, saying that their elevation was made purely on merit. “I know the bureaucracy inside out,” says Verma. “I can declare with conviction that they have no match in the entire civil services. Just as they say about Modi, there is nobody like Doval.”
But are they not close to the Sangh Parivar? “Doval is a completely apolitical person,” he replies. “Yes, personally he may have cultural preferences, but in public life, he is very professional.”
As VIF basks in the newfound limelight, foreign dignitaries are making a beeline to the think-tank. Just days after Doval’s elevation, two Chinese delegations came calling. The same day, a 17-member British team, including Royal College of Defence Studies commandant David Bill, visited the place. Later, a delegation from the US Army War College held discussions with VIF’s security experts on nuclear weapons. Experts from the French Atomic Energy Agency and diplomats also paid a visit to discuss various matters, including security issues.
As more and more VIF members join the Narendra Modi sarkar, it is a no-brainer that the think-tank will play a key role in formulating the country’s foreign, economic and security policies.
Translated from Tehelka Hindi by Naushin Rehman
brijesh.singh@tehelka.com
(Published in Tehelka Magazine, Volume 11 Issue 31, Dated 2 August 2014)
|
Showing posts with label Vivekananda International Foundation. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Vivekananda International Foundation. Show all posts
July 26, 2014
June 08, 2014
Resisting Modi through mass struggles | Praful Bidwai
The News, 7 June 2014
Resisting Modi through mass struggles
by Praful Bidwai
[Resisting Modi through mass struggles] As Narendra Modi chooses his team of advisers and top bureaucrats, some commentators are appealing to him to follow proper appointment procedures, adopt the dharma of inclusion, and “reach out” to the 69 percent of the electorate who didn’t vote for the Bharatiya Janata Party – and especially assure Muslims that they should feel safe under him despite the 2002 Gujarat pogrom.
These commentators are unpardonably naïve in asking Modi to do the opposite of what he stands for. If Modi wanted to send a message of conciliation to Muslims, he would have long ago mourned and expressed sincere regret for the 2002 killings. He hasn’t done so, and defiantly says there’s nothing to apologise for: “If I’m guilty, I should be punished, but I won’t say sorry.”
While canvassing, he wore every type of headgear, including a Sikh turban and an Arunachali hat with horns and petals, but pointedly, and repeatedly, refused to don a skullcap!
The Modi government’s moral apathy towards Muslims was even more eloquently conveyed by the sole Muslim in the cabinet, minority affairs minister Najma Heptullah, through her first public speech declaring that India’s Muslims are too numerous to be a minority; that term best applies to Parsis – India’s wealthiest and most educated community.
This makes nonsense of the idea of protecting the rights of underprivileged religious-minority groups against majoritarianism, the ministry’s liberal-democratic rationale.
Modi has shown no respect for settled democratic conventions in making appointments. Thus, instead of choosing someone with scholarly gravitas, interest in academic pursuits, or a deep understanding of the challenges education faces in India, he allotted the weighty cabinet-rank human resource development portfolio to former actress Smriti Irani who has shown no interest in or aptitude for education, and who filed contradictory affidavits about her educational qualifications, which may be a criminal offence.
Worse, Modi used the ordinance route to override the Telecom Regulatory Authority Act, which bars the TRAI chairman from ever holding government office. This public-interest bar – enacted, ironically, by a BJP-led government in 2000 – is meant to prevent favouritism and promote impartiality, and should have been respected.
Modi was in a rush to appoint former TRAI chairman Nripendra Misra as his principal secretary. He refused to wait for parliament to convene and amend the act. The ordinance violates the Supreme Court judgement in a 1987 case, which says the ordinance power “is to be used to meet an extraordinary situation and cannot be allowed to be perverted to serve political ends”.
Misra’s is clearly a political appointment. He is no ordinary bureaucrat. He was until recently on the executive council of the Vivekananda International Foundation, a well-funded Right-wing think-tank located in Chanakyapuri, New Delhi’s diplomatic enclave.
VIF (www.vifindia.org) is an offshoot of the Vivekananda Kendra, started in 1972 by Eknath Ranade, former RSS general secretary. VIF played a crucial, if silent, role in Baba Ramdev and Anna Hazare’s anti-corruption protests beginning 2011. It runs several security- and foreign policy-related and “historical and civilisational studies” programmes.
VIF’s website carries hysterical pro-Hindutva and ultra-nationalist articles. One article describes US scholar Wendy Doniger as someone who delights in “denigrating Hinduism. Most of her own and her students’ dissertations/books … have often been described as pure pornography…” Doniger’s book on Hinduism was recently pulped – setting a nasty precedent of successful intimidation by the RSS-sponsored Shiksha Bachao Andolan, since carried over.
VIF’s director is former Intelligence Bureau chief Ajit Doval, now appointed the National Security Adviser. As I discovered during a television debate a few years ago, Doval belongs to a school of policing that believes “in shooting first and asking questions later – that’s the only way to deal with terrorists”, real or imagined.
Doval rationalises fake ‘encounter killings’ and advocates a militarist approach towards Maoists – regardless of legality and human rights consequences. He calls for a hard line against India’s neighbours, including friendly Bangladesh, who he believes, are bent on subverting India’s security.
Many VIF leading lights discount the potential for peaceful coexistence between India and Pakistan. India, they demand, should stop being overly “generous” towards its neighbours in economic cooperation, trade, visas, even water-sharing.
VIF, with other pro-Sangh Parivar outfits such as Deendayal Research Institute, Niti Central, Public Policy Research Centre, Friends of the BJP, Centre for Policy Studies and Rashtriya Seva Bharati, will provide policy inputs to Modi.
Under their influence, we are likely to witness a well-orchestrated campaign to shift India’s foreign, security, economic, social and cultural policies rightwards, in keeping with Modi’s own orientation, but with disastrous consequences.
It’s hard to see how the feeble and demoralised parliamentary opposition can resist this onslaught. Many regional outfits like the Samajwadi Party buy into the BJP’s paranoid ultra-nationalist premises and hardline approaches.
Where does that leave the recent elections’ greatest losers – the Congress, the Left, the BSP and the Aam Aadmi Party? The first two have suffered their worst-ever defeats, winning respectively 44 and 12 Lok Sabha seats (including two Left-backed independents from Kerala). The AAP, which showed great promise in December, has come a cropper, winning only four seats, all in Punjab.
These parties face an existential crisis. The Congress still deludes itself that the Gandhi family will somehow rescue it. The family refuses to own up to its leadership failure. Yet, no one demands that the party frees itself from this millstone and start afresh.
Unless the Congress rebuilds its base among the Dalits, Adivasis, lower OBCs and the urban poor, by agitating for their livelihood rights, it’s likely to go into steep, possibly terminal, decline – especially if it loses the coming assembly elections in Maharashtra and Haryana, as seems likely.
The Left’s base has been eroding everywhere, especially in its former bastion West Bengal, where it won the same number of seats (two) as the BJP. Its leadership should have responded to this with alacrity; several heads should have rolled, and the Left should have returned to vigorous mass activity instead of doing “politics from the top” based on unstable, sterile electoral alliances.
Unless the Left urgently corrects course, updates its programmatic perspectives, and develops a mass-based mobilisation strategy by taking up issues like healthcare, food security, employment, education and defence of people’s livelihoods threatened by predatory industrial, mining and water and power projects, it too will be doomed.
The solution lies in radical, painfully critical introspection, abandoning the democratic centralism organisational doctrine which prevents healthy debate, and joining grassroots struggles. This is a tall order, but the Left has no soft options.
As for the AAP, it must reinvent itself not as a political party, but as a political movement which offers new forms of participatory activity not narrowly focused on corruption or “crony capitalism”. The AAP must practise what it preaches – transparency, political honesty and inner-party consultation. It’s the lack of these that aggravated the AAP’s crisis, leading to Shazia Ilmi’s and Yogendra Yadav’s resignations, and to Arvind Kejriwal’s discrediting as an egoistic, unreliable leader.
The AAP must not shy away from ideology. It must link ‘crony capitalism’ to communal-neoliberal authoritarianism. The BJP embodies all these and is the main enemy. Rather than concentrate excessively on the coming Delhi Assembly elections, the AAP must join a broad-based national campaign against neoliberal Hindutva-capitalism. That’s the way forward.
The writer, a former newspaper editor, is a researcher and rights activist based in Delhi.
Email: prafulbidwai1@yahoo.co.in
Resisting Modi through mass struggles
by Praful Bidwai
[Resisting Modi through mass struggles] As Narendra Modi chooses his team of advisers and top bureaucrats, some commentators are appealing to him to follow proper appointment procedures, adopt the dharma of inclusion, and “reach out” to the 69 percent of the electorate who didn’t vote for the Bharatiya Janata Party – and especially assure Muslims that they should feel safe under him despite the 2002 Gujarat pogrom.
These commentators are unpardonably naïve in asking Modi to do the opposite of what he stands for. If Modi wanted to send a message of conciliation to Muslims, he would have long ago mourned and expressed sincere regret for the 2002 killings. He hasn’t done so, and defiantly says there’s nothing to apologise for: “If I’m guilty, I should be punished, but I won’t say sorry.”
While canvassing, he wore every type of headgear, including a Sikh turban and an Arunachali hat with horns and petals, but pointedly, and repeatedly, refused to don a skullcap!
The Modi government’s moral apathy towards Muslims was even more eloquently conveyed by the sole Muslim in the cabinet, minority affairs minister Najma Heptullah, through her first public speech declaring that India’s Muslims are too numerous to be a minority; that term best applies to Parsis – India’s wealthiest and most educated community.
This makes nonsense of the idea of protecting the rights of underprivileged religious-minority groups against majoritarianism, the ministry’s liberal-democratic rationale.
Modi has shown no respect for settled democratic conventions in making appointments. Thus, instead of choosing someone with scholarly gravitas, interest in academic pursuits, or a deep understanding of the challenges education faces in India, he allotted the weighty cabinet-rank human resource development portfolio to former actress Smriti Irani who has shown no interest in or aptitude for education, and who filed contradictory affidavits about her educational qualifications, which may be a criminal offence.
Worse, Modi used the ordinance route to override the Telecom Regulatory Authority Act, which bars the TRAI chairman from ever holding government office. This public-interest bar – enacted, ironically, by a BJP-led government in 2000 – is meant to prevent favouritism and promote impartiality, and should have been respected.
Modi was in a rush to appoint former TRAI chairman Nripendra Misra as his principal secretary. He refused to wait for parliament to convene and amend the act. The ordinance violates the Supreme Court judgement in a 1987 case, which says the ordinance power “is to be used to meet an extraordinary situation and cannot be allowed to be perverted to serve political ends”.
Misra’s is clearly a political appointment. He is no ordinary bureaucrat. He was until recently on the executive council of the Vivekananda International Foundation, a well-funded Right-wing think-tank located in Chanakyapuri, New Delhi’s diplomatic enclave.
VIF (www.vifindia.org) is an offshoot of the Vivekananda Kendra, started in 1972 by Eknath Ranade, former RSS general secretary. VIF played a crucial, if silent, role in Baba Ramdev and Anna Hazare’s anti-corruption protests beginning 2011. It runs several security- and foreign policy-related and “historical and civilisational studies” programmes.
VIF’s website carries hysterical pro-Hindutva and ultra-nationalist articles. One article describes US scholar Wendy Doniger as someone who delights in “denigrating Hinduism. Most of her own and her students’ dissertations/books … have often been described as pure pornography…” Doniger’s book on Hinduism was recently pulped – setting a nasty precedent of successful intimidation by the RSS-sponsored Shiksha Bachao Andolan, since carried over.
VIF’s director is former Intelligence Bureau chief Ajit Doval, now appointed the National Security Adviser. As I discovered during a television debate a few years ago, Doval belongs to a school of policing that believes “in shooting first and asking questions later – that’s the only way to deal with terrorists”, real or imagined.
Doval rationalises fake ‘encounter killings’ and advocates a militarist approach towards Maoists – regardless of legality and human rights consequences. He calls for a hard line against India’s neighbours, including friendly Bangladesh, who he believes, are bent on subverting India’s security.
Many VIF leading lights discount the potential for peaceful coexistence between India and Pakistan. India, they demand, should stop being overly “generous” towards its neighbours in economic cooperation, trade, visas, even water-sharing.
VIF, with other pro-Sangh Parivar outfits such as Deendayal Research Institute, Niti Central, Public Policy Research Centre, Friends of the BJP, Centre for Policy Studies and Rashtriya Seva Bharati, will provide policy inputs to Modi.
Under their influence, we are likely to witness a well-orchestrated campaign to shift India’s foreign, security, economic, social and cultural policies rightwards, in keeping with Modi’s own orientation, but with disastrous consequences.
It’s hard to see how the feeble and demoralised parliamentary opposition can resist this onslaught. Many regional outfits like the Samajwadi Party buy into the BJP’s paranoid ultra-nationalist premises and hardline approaches.
Where does that leave the recent elections’ greatest losers – the Congress, the Left, the BSP and the Aam Aadmi Party? The first two have suffered their worst-ever defeats, winning respectively 44 and 12 Lok Sabha seats (including two Left-backed independents from Kerala). The AAP, which showed great promise in December, has come a cropper, winning only four seats, all in Punjab.
These parties face an existential crisis. The Congress still deludes itself that the Gandhi family will somehow rescue it. The family refuses to own up to its leadership failure. Yet, no one demands that the party frees itself from this millstone and start afresh.
Unless the Congress rebuilds its base among the Dalits, Adivasis, lower OBCs and the urban poor, by agitating for their livelihood rights, it’s likely to go into steep, possibly terminal, decline – especially if it loses the coming assembly elections in Maharashtra and Haryana, as seems likely.
The Left’s base has been eroding everywhere, especially in its former bastion West Bengal, where it won the same number of seats (two) as the BJP. Its leadership should have responded to this with alacrity; several heads should have rolled, and the Left should have returned to vigorous mass activity instead of doing “politics from the top” based on unstable, sterile electoral alliances.
Unless the Left urgently corrects course, updates its programmatic perspectives, and develops a mass-based mobilisation strategy by taking up issues like healthcare, food security, employment, education and defence of people’s livelihoods threatened by predatory industrial, mining and water and power projects, it too will be doomed.
The solution lies in radical, painfully critical introspection, abandoning the democratic centralism organisational doctrine which prevents healthy debate, and joining grassroots struggles. This is a tall order, but the Left has no soft options.
As for the AAP, it must reinvent itself not as a political party, but as a political movement which offers new forms of participatory activity not narrowly focused on corruption or “crony capitalism”. The AAP must practise what it preaches – transparency, political honesty and inner-party consultation. It’s the lack of these that aggravated the AAP’s crisis, leading to Shazia Ilmi’s and Yogendra Yadav’s resignations, and to Arvind Kejriwal’s discrediting as an egoistic, unreliable leader.
The AAP must not shy away from ideology. It must link ‘crony capitalism’ to communal-neoliberal authoritarianism. The BJP embodies all these and is the main enemy. Rather than concentrate excessively on the coming Delhi Assembly elections, the AAP must join a broad-based national campaign against neoliberal Hindutva-capitalism. That’s the way forward.
The writer, a former newspaper editor, is a researcher and rights activist based in Delhi.
Email: prafulbidwai1@yahoo.co.in
November 01, 2013
India: How Smiley's people fish in democratic electoral politics - Needed oversight of Indian intelligence agencies
From Kashmir Times, November 01, 2013
The Implications for Democratic polity
by Ravi Nair
It is a measure of the political naivety of Rahul Gandhi that he is willing to publically and unquestioningly parrot dubious information allegedly given to him by an intelligence official. Any seasoned politician would have made discreet enquiries from local party activists before making broad allegations. Evidently, the Congress has no reliable party activists in Muzaffarnagar and has to depend on the cloak and dagger crowd whose specialisation is disinformation. The spook's sense of power and influence emanates from peddling dubious information to the overwhelming majority of the gullible political class. What is also within the realm of possibility is that the recipient uses information planted in good faith. In one fell swoop through an imprudent statement, the goodwill generated by the earlier visit of Mrs Sonia Gandhi, the UPA Chairperson, the Prime Minister and Rahul Gandhi himself to the displaced in Muzaffarnagar was obliterated.
The issues raised are extensive and there have been no substantive reflections on the revelations concerning how Smiley's people fish in democratic electoral politics.
It started at a rally in Indore on 24 October 2013. Mr Rahul Gandhi alleged Pakistani intelligence agencies were recruiting victims of the Muzaffarnagar riots into joining terror outfits. He said that the Inter Services Intelligence Agency of Pakistan (ISI) allegedly established contact with a group of ten to fifteen Muslim youngsters, whose kin were killed in the riots. The Congress Vice President claimed an intelligence official gave the information to him.
The Prime Ministerial candidate of the Bharatiya Janata Party Mr Narendra Modi asked Mr Gandhi to publicly reveal the names of the youths or apologise for the "Muslim terror slur." Mr Modi stated that according to his sources, a Rajasthan police official who had electoral ambitions provided Mr Rahul Gandhi with the information. Unsurprisingly, the Rashtriya Swayam Sevak Sangh (RSS) on 26 October 2013 differed with Narendra Modi over Rahul Gandhi's statement,
"Rahul Gandhi's claim at a poll rally in Indore is right to an extent. The UPA government needs to take firm action against such tendencies," RSS Joint General Secretary Dattatreya Hosabale told reporters… "Being an MP, Rahul may have got the information. Nothing wrong in Rahul getting the information. We also get information from various sources. Those in public life will have such connections. The information given by him should be pursued."
Former Home Secretary R K Singh on 26 October 2013 denied that any intelligence officer might brief a person not in an official position.
Anyone reading Moloy Krishna Dhar's book, "Open Secrets" would be aware of the connections between the RSS and the spooky intelligence crowd. It should be noted that a former Director of the Intelligence Bureau is presently the Director of the Vivekanand International Foundation whose umblical cord with Nagpur is well known.
The Hindustan Times provided a further, interesting input. According to the Hindustan Times, dated 27 October 2013, Uttar Pradesh Home Secretary, Kamal Saxena confirmed the Intelligence Bureau (IB) had not shared any report with the state regarding recruitment.
"The Government has not received any input from IB about the ISI being in touch with riot victims in Muzaffarnagar," Saxena specified. Furthermore, an intelligence official stated, "Just two days ago, there was a meeting between the IB and UP Police intelligence officials where generic inputs about Muzaffarnagar emerging as a 'breeding ground' for disaffected youth were shared. HT learnt that an additional director with the IB, Khinya Ram Bagadia, had indeed met Gandhi three days ago. When contacted, Bagadiya, who was heading the IB's unit in Rajasthan till a week ago, confirmed having met Gandhi but denied briefing him about the Muzaffarnagar youth. I worked in Rajasthan Police and served with the IB long ago. I was at Rahul's rallies in Alwar and Churu to manage security on behalf of my private security agency. I do not know anything about the controversial statement on riots," Bagadia told HT. IB officials, however, confirmed Bagadia was still serving with the agency and has recently been posted to Delhi."
The plot gets curiouser and curiouser as Lewis Caroll would say. Either the IB has too many mavericks ploughing their furrows or as is quite common in intelligence work the right hand does not know what the left hand is doing. In any event, it is essential that the Election Commission investigate this intelligence scaremongering on the eve of key assembly elections and further down the road Parliamentary elections that will define India for many decades to come.
Spook interference in domestic politics across the world is well documented. Many countries have legislated safeguards against a Praetorian guard that lives in the delusion of making and unmaking Caesars.
The feisty Supreme Court of Pakistan in October 2012 ordered intelligence agencies in the country and the presidency to refrain from interfering in politics. The court ordered further criminal investigations into how politicians received government funds from the military officers to manipulate elections in the 1990s.
In South Africa, despite legislation governing intelligence activity much evidence has surfaced in 2012 that "senior intelligence officers were meddling in politics, spying on politicians and hatching or fabricating conspiracies in order to influence the factional battles within the ANC. These subversive activities have bedevilled the political arena for over a decade, doing serious damage to the democratic system and the legitimacy of the intelligence services."
Earlier this year, South Korea was agog with news of how the National Intellegence Service was actively seeking to influence South Korean politics. One official investigation found that, "spy agents systemically intervened in domestic politics by writing around 1, 900 postings on politics in cyberspace through hundreds of different user IDs. Among them were 73 online posts, which directly tampered with last year's presidential election." The list of similar scandals could continue endlessly.
Mr Morarji Desai's downfall as Prime Minister was in no small measure linked to his healthy suspicion of the activities of the spook brigade and the major budgetary cuts he imposed on them. And of course, it was mere happenstance that the VP Singh Government fell very soon after he appointed Mr Jaswant Singh of the BJP to head a committee to look into possible Parliamentary control of the Intelligence agencies.
In a 2010 lecture before the Research & Analysis Wing, Vice President, Hamid Ansari, called for a Parliamentary intelligence committee to establish independent oversight and accountability and to address Executive domination over and "misuse" of the intelligence agencies. While Mr Ansari was speaking about intelligence agencies generally, the implication was the concern in India. Shashi Tharoor, a Member of Parliament and former United Nations Under-Secretary General for Communications and Public Affairs, and then Minister of State for the Ministry of External Affairs, similarly called for independent oversight of Indian intelligence agencies in a 2007 speech before the R&AW.
Manish Tewari, a current Minister in his earlier avatar as a Member of Parliament and spokesperson for the Congress Party, the main partner in the ruling United Progressive Alliance in India, advanced a private member's bill seemingly in answer to the Vice-President's call. Unfortunately, The Intelligence Services (Powers and Regulation) Bill, 2011 did little to address intelligence failings and weaknesses. In fact, the statutory framework suggested for the agencies and the mechanisms for achieving independent accountability and oversight are so poor that it appears the Bill was simply purporting to make radical change while in fact maintaining the status quo.
As this commentator wrote earlier in the SAFMA journal, there is an obvious need for the creation and implementation of a statutory framework for intelligence agencies and the development of effective mechanisms for oversight and accountability. While national security is a highly important public interest, it is only one of many competing interests to be balanced for effective governance.
Democratic nations regularly struggle to secure their citizenry and the state against external and internal threats while preserving the fundamental civil rights and liberties guaranteed by their democratic mandate. A delicate balance between security and civil liberties is hard to achieve as protection against terrorism, hostility and physical attacks often demand limiting guarantees of privacy and liberty that are at the heart of democratic rights. Secrecy and operational discretion are necessary for the government to respond to potential security threats while transparency and curbing the abuse of civil liberties are both essential to a thriving democracy.
Complicating the balance between security and civil liberties is that in times of great danger, such as when facing terrorism and insurgency, the public are more willing to accept restrictions on their rights in a theoretical trade for greater safety. However, historical evidence indicates once governments are afforded enhanced security powers, including gathering intelligence against their citizens, these powers are readily abused and exploited for political purposes with no real gain in security.
The author is a Delhi analyst.
The Implications for Democratic polity
by Ravi Nair
It is a measure of the political naivety of Rahul Gandhi that he is willing to publically and unquestioningly parrot dubious information allegedly given to him by an intelligence official. Any seasoned politician would have made discreet enquiries from local party activists before making broad allegations. Evidently, the Congress has no reliable party activists in Muzaffarnagar and has to depend on the cloak and dagger crowd whose specialisation is disinformation. The spook's sense of power and influence emanates from peddling dubious information to the overwhelming majority of the gullible political class. What is also within the realm of possibility is that the recipient uses information planted in good faith. In one fell swoop through an imprudent statement, the goodwill generated by the earlier visit of Mrs Sonia Gandhi, the UPA Chairperson, the Prime Minister and Rahul Gandhi himself to the displaced in Muzaffarnagar was obliterated.
The issues raised are extensive and there have been no substantive reflections on the revelations concerning how Smiley's people fish in democratic electoral politics.
It started at a rally in Indore on 24 October 2013. Mr Rahul Gandhi alleged Pakistani intelligence agencies were recruiting victims of the Muzaffarnagar riots into joining terror outfits. He said that the Inter Services Intelligence Agency of Pakistan (ISI) allegedly established contact with a group of ten to fifteen Muslim youngsters, whose kin were killed in the riots. The Congress Vice President claimed an intelligence official gave the information to him.
The Prime Ministerial candidate of the Bharatiya Janata Party Mr Narendra Modi asked Mr Gandhi to publicly reveal the names of the youths or apologise for the "Muslim terror slur." Mr Modi stated that according to his sources, a Rajasthan police official who had electoral ambitions provided Mr Rahul Gandhi with the information. Unsurprisingly, the Rashtriya Swayam Sevak Sangh (RSS) on 26 October 2013 differed with Narendra Modi over Rahul Gandhi's statement,
"Rahul Gandhi's claim at a poll rally in Indore is right to an extent. The UPA government needs to take firm action against such tendencies," RSS Joint General Secretary Dattatreya Hosabale told reporters… "Being an MP, Rahul may have got the information. Nothing wrong in Rahul getting the information. We also get information from various sources. Those in public life will have such connections. The information given by him should be pursued."
Former Home Secretary R K Singh on 26 October 2013 denied that any intelligence officer might brief a person not in an official position.
Anyone reading Moloy Krishna Dhar's book, "Open Secrets" would be aware of the connections between the RSS and the spooky intelligence crowd. It should be noted that a former Director of the Intelligence Bureau is presently the Director of the Vivekanand International Foundation whose umblical cord with Nagpur is well known.
The Hindustan Times provided a further, interesting input. According to the Hindustan Times, dated 27 October 2013, Uttar Pradesh Home Secretary, Kamal Saxena confirmed the Intelligence Bureau (IB) had not shared any report with the state regarding recruitment.
"The Government has not received any input from IB about the ISI being in touch with riot victims in Muzaffarnagar," Saxena specified. Furthermore, an intelligence official stated, "Just two days ago, there was a meeting between the IB and UP Police intelligence officials where generic inputs about Muzaffarnagar emerging as a 'breeding ground' for disaffected youth were shared. HT learnt that an additional director with the IB, Khinya Ram Bagadia, had indeed met Gandhi three days ago. When contacted, Bagadiya, who was heading the IB's unit in Rajasthan till a week ago, confirmed having met Gandhi but denied briefing him about the Muzaffarnagar youth. I worked in Rajasthan Police and served with the IB long ago. I was at Rahul's rallies in Alwar and Churu to manage security on behalf of my private security agency. I do not know anything about the controversial statement on riots," Bagadia told HT. IB officials, however, confirmed Bagadia was still serving with the agency and has recently been posted to Delhi."
The plot gets curiouser and curiouser as Lewis Caroll would say. Either the IB has too many mavericks ploughing their furrows or as is quite common in intelligence work the right hand does not know what the left hand is doing. In any event, it is essential that the Election Commission investigate this intelligence scaremongering on the eve of key assembly elections and further down the road Parliamentary elections that will define India for many decades to come.
Spook interference in domestic politics across the world is well documented. Many countries have legislated safeguards against a Praetorian guard that lives in the delusion of making and unmaking Caesars.
The feisty Supreme Court of Pakistan in October 2012 ordered intelligence agencies in the country and the presidency to refrain from interfering in politics. The court ordered further criminal investigations into how politicians received government funds from the military officers to manipulate elections in the 1990s.
In South Africa, despite legislation governing intelligence activity much evidence has surfaced in 2012 that "senior intelligence officers were meddling in politics, spying on politicians and hatching or fabricating conspiracies in order to influence the factional battles within the ANC. These subversive activities have bedevilled the political arena for over a decade, doing serious damage to the democratic system and the legitimacy of the intelligence services."
Earlier this year, South Korea was agog with news of how the National Intellegence Service was actively seeking to influence South Korean politics. One official investigation found that, "spy agents systemically intervened in domestic politics by writing around 1, 900 postings on politics in cyberspace through hundreds of different user IDs. Among them were 73 online posts, which directly tampered with last year's presidential election." The list of similar scandals could continue endlessly.
Mr Morarji Desai's downfall as Prime Minister was in no small measure linked to his healthy suspicion of the activities of the spook brigade and the major budgetary cuts he imposed on them. And of course, it was mere happenstance that the VP Singh Government fell very soon after he appointed Mr Jaswant Singh of the BJP to head a committee to look into possible Parliamentary control of the Intelligence agencies.
In a 2010 lecture before the Research & Analysis Wing, Vice President, Hamid Ansari, called for a Parliamentary intelligence committee to establish independent oversight and accountability and to address Executive domination over and "misuse" of the intelligence agencies. While Mr Ansari was speaking about intelligence agencies generally, the implication was the concern in India. Shashi Tharoor, a Member of Parliament and former United Nations Under-Secretary General for Communications and Public Affairs, and then Minister of State for the Ministry of External Affairs, similarly called for independent oversight of Indian intelligence agencies in a 2007 speech before the R&AW.
Manish Tewari, a current Minister in his earlier avatar as a Member of Parliament and spokesperson for the Congress Party, the main partner in the ruling United Progressive Alliance in India, advanced a private member's bill seemingly in answer to the Vice-President's call. Unfortunately, The Intelligence Services (Powers and Regulation) Bill, 2011 did little to address intelligence failings and weaknesses. In fact, the statutory framework suggested for the agencies and the mechanisms for achieving independent accountability and oversight are so poor that it appears the Bill was simply purporting to make radical change while in fact maintaining the status quo.
As this commentator wrote earlier in the SAFMA journal, there is an obvious need for the creation and implementation of a statutory framework for intelligence agencies and the development of effective mechanisms for oversight and accountability. While national security is a highly important public interest, it is only one of many competing interests to be balanced for effective governance.
Democratic nations regularly struggle to secure their citizenry and the state against external and internal threats while preserving the fundamental civil rights and liberties guaranteed by their democratic mandate. A delicate balance between security and civil liberties is hard to achieve as protection against terrorism, hostility and physical attacks often demand limiting guarantees of privacy and liberty that are at the heart of democratic rights. Secrecy and operational discretion are necessary for the government to respond to potential security threats while transparency and curbing the abuse of civil liberties are both essential to a thriving democracy.
Complicating the balance between security and civil liberties is that in times of great danger, such as when facing terrorism and insurgency, the public are more willing to accept restrictions on their rights in a theoretical trade for greater safety. However, historical evidence indicates once governments are afforded enhanced security powers, including gathering intelligence against their citizens, these powers are readily abused and exploited for political purposes with no real gain in security.
The author is a Delhi analyst.
August 22, 2012
India: RSS, 'corruption' and high society Vivekananda International Foundation
From: The Indian Express
At centre of stirs against graft, a body with RSS links, ex-babus
Manoj C G : New Delhi, Mon Aug 20 2012, 02:34 hrs
A high profile institute-cum-think tank in the heart of New Delhi’s diplomatic area in Chanakyapuri, set up on land allotted by the then Narasimha Rao government, a clutch of former intelligence officials running the place, and a group of well-known RSS swayamsewaks — they are the silent force behind the recent anti-corruption movements in the country, especially the one led by Baba Ramdev.
In fact, it was at the Vivekananda International Foundation last year that a decision was taken to form an anti-corruption front under Baba Ramdev — this was just days before Anna Hazare sat on his first fast. The foundation’s director is Ajit Doval, a former director of the Intelligence Bureau. It was at the foundation again that the first serious attempt was made to bring Ramdev and Team Anna members together.
Inaugurated in 2009, the Vivekananda International Foundation is a project of the Vivekananda Kendra, founded in the early 1970s by former RSS general secretary Eknath Ranade and headed now by RSS pracharak P Parameswaran.
It was in April last year that the foundation, together with RSS ideologue K N Govindacharya’s Rashtriya Swabhiman Andolan, organised a seminar on corruption and black money attended by both Ramdev and Team Anna members Arvind Kejriwal and Kiran Bedi.
At the end of the two-day seminar, held on April 1 and 2, an “anti-corruption front” was formed with Ramdev as patron and Govindacharya as convenor. The members included Doval; RSS swayamsewak S Gurumurthy; Bhishm Agnihotri, who was India’s ambassador-at-large during the NDA regime; and Prof R Vaidyanathan of IIM-Bangalore, who co-authored a BJP task force’s report on black money along with Doval and Ved Pratap Vaidik.
The two-page statement at the end of the seminar said that Ramdev had declared an “all-out war on corruption and that the front would announce immediate actionable programmes and reach out to like-minded anti-corruption organisations, institutions and individuals”.
Soon after the seminar, Hazare’s fast began, and in April end, Ramdev announced his June 4 Ramlila Maidan protest — his first public showdown with the UPA government.
Apart from the fact that it operates from government-allotted land, the foundation’s advisory board and executive council consist of a host of former intelligence officials, retired bureaucrats, diplomats and ex-military men. These include former RAW chief A K Verma, ex-Army chief V N Sharma, ex-Navy chief Vijai Singh Shekhawat, ex-air chiefs S Krishnaswamy and S P Tyagi, former BSF chief Prakash Singh, ex-foreign secretary Kanwal Sibal, former deputy national security advisor Satish Chandra and ex-home secretary Anil Baijal.
Asked about the seminar, Doval said it was on an issue of national importance and was attended by, among others, Subramanian Swamy, Justice M N Venkatachaliah, Justice J S Verma, former Lok Sabha secretary general Subhash Kashyap and ex-chief election commissioner N Gopalaswamy.
However, Doval added that while he supported anti-corruption agitations, the Vivekanand Internation Foundation had no role in the protests. “We strongly feel that it is time a stronger, stable, secure and prosperous India plays its destined role in global affairs and finds its deserved place among the comity of nations. Corruption and black money are draining India. We not at all feel defensive about talking about these issues,” he said.
Interestingly, apart from Ramdev and Team Anna members, another of those who had attended the seminar, Swamy, also announced the formation of an anti-graft front — ‘The Action Committee Against Corruption in India’. While Ramdev was the chief guest at its first meeting, the committee’s members included the same cast of Govindacharya, Gurumurthy, Doval and Vaidyanathan.
Asked about Ramdev’s connection to the foundation, Govindacharya said he has been a “frequenter”. “Ramdev and I have been in constant touch since August 2010 (Ramdev had travelled to Gulbarga in December 2010 to attend Govindacharya’s Bharat Vikas Sangam). He used to come to the Vivekananda Foundation. He had a few places in Delhi, but the foundation was the easiest place for him and for others too for meetings,” he said.
Govindacharya also admitted that the seminar hoped to have “some sort of closer coordination” by bringing together the Ramdev and Anna camps.
The RSS ideologue didn’t deny the Sangh link either. Asked if it would be wrong to assume that the Vivekananda Kendra and foundation were all connected with the RSS, he said: “One can deduce that... Organisationally, the RSS doesn’t get involved. Swayamsevaks take initiatives.”
Doval, however, said the foundation was independent and had nothing to do with the RSS. “We had no role in his (Ramdev’s) agitation. None of us went there. We are an independent and registered body. We don’t receive government funding,” he said.
Mukul Kanitkar, who was with the foundation earlier, pointed out that bureaucrats, including those from the PMO, regularly attend seminars organised by the foundation on issues of national security. In fact, Union Culture Minister Kumari Selja is scheduled to release a book called ‘The Historicity of Vedic and Ramayana Era: Scientific evidences from the depths of ocean to the heights of skies’, at the foundation this week.
Despite his association with Ramdev’s campaign, Govindacharya now feels the movement is over. “Both the movements (Anna and Ramdev’s) are lost in the black hole of power and party politics... Ramdev would now become an ally or promoter of the BJP cause,” he said.
At centre of stirs against graft, a body with RSS links, ex-babus
Manoj C G : New Delhi, Mon Aug 20 2012, 02:34 hrs
A high profile institute-cum-think tank in the heart of New Delhi’s diplomatic area in Chanakyapuri, set up on land allotted by the then Narasimha Rao government, a clutch of former intelligence officials running the place, and a group of well-known RSS swayamsewaks — they are the silent force behind the recent anti-corruption movements in the country, especially the one led by Baba Ramdev.
In fact, it was at the Vivekananda International Foundation last year that a decision was taken to form an anti-corruption front under Baba Ramdev — this was just days before Anna Hazare sat on his first fast. The foundation’s director is Ajit Doval, a former director of the Intelligence Bureau. It was at the foundation again that the first serious attempt was made to bring Ramdev and Team Anna members together.
Inaugurated in 2009, the Vivekananda International Foundation is a project of the Vivekananda Kendra, founded in the early 1970s by former RSS general secretary Eknath Ranade and headed now by RSS pracharak P Parameswaran.
It was in April last year that the foundation, together with RSS ideologue K N Govindacharya’s Rashtriya Swabhiman Andolan, organised a seminar on corruption and black money attended by both Ramdev and Team Anna members Arvind Kejriwal and Kiran Bedi.
At the end of the two-day seminar, held on April 1 and 2, an “anti-corruption front” was formed with Ramdev as patron and Govindacharya as convenor. The members included Doval; RSS swayamsewak S Gurumurthy; Bhishm Agnihotri, who was India’s ambassador-at-large during the NDA regime; and Prof R Vaidyanathan of IIM-Bangalore, who co-authored a BJP task force’s report on black money along with Doval and Ved Pratap Vaidik.
The two-page statement at the end of the seminar said that Ramdev had declared an “all-out war on corruption and that the front would announce immediate actionable programmes and reach out to like-minded anti-corruption organisations, institutions and individuals”.
Soon after the seminar, Hazare’s fast began, and in April end, Ramdev announced his June 4 Ramlila Maidan protest — his first public showdown with the UPA government.
Apart from the fact that it operates from government-allotted land, the foundation’s advisory board and executive council consist of a host of former intelligence officials, retired bureaucrats, diplomats and ex-military men. These include former RAW chief A K Verma, ex-Army chief V N Sharma, ex-Navy chief Vijai Singh Shekhawat, ex-air chiefs S Krishnaswamy and S P Tyagi, former BSF chief Prakash Singh, ex-foreign secretary Kanwal Sibal, former deputy national security advisor Satish Chandra and ex-home secretary Anil Baijal.
Asked about the seminar, Doval said it was on an issue of national importance and was attended by, among others, Subramanian Swamy, Justice M N Venkatachaliah, Justice J S Verma, former Lok Sabha secretary general Subhash Kashyap and ex-chief election commissioner N Gopalaswamy.
However, Doval added that while he supported anti-corruption agitations, the Vivekanand Internation Foundation had no role in the protests. “We strongly feel that it is time a stronger, stable, secure and prosperous India plays its destined role in global affairs and finds its deserved place among the comity of nations. Corruption and black money are draining India. We not at all feel defensive about talking about these issues,” he said.
Interestingly, apart from Ramdev and Team Anna members, another of those who had attended the seminar, Swamy, also announced the formation of an anti-graft front — ‘The Action Committee Against Corruption in India’. While Ramdev was the chief guest at its first meeting, the committee’s members included the same cast of Govindacharya, Gurumurthy, Doval and Vaidyanathan.
Asked about Ramdev’s connection to the foundation, Govindacharya said he has been a “frequenter”. “Ramdev and I have been in constant touch since August 2010 (Ramdev had travelled to Gulbarga in December 2010 to attend Govindacharya’s Bharat Vikas Sangam). He used to come to the Vivekananda Foundation. He had a few places in Delhi, but the foundation was the easiest place for him and for others too for meetings,” he said.
Govindacharya also admitted that the seminar hoped to have “some sort of closer coordination” by bringing together the Ramdev and Anna camps.
The RSS ideologue didn’t deny the Sangh link either. Asked if it would be wrong to assume that the Vivekananda Kendra and foundation were all connected with the RSS, he said: “One can deduce that... Organisationally, the RSS doesn’t get involved. Swayamsevaks take initiatives.”
Doval, however, said the foundation was independent and had nothing to do with the RSS. “We had no role in his (Ramdev’s) agitation. None of us went there. We are an independent and registered body. We don’t receive government funding,” he said.
Mukul Kanitkar, who was with the foundation earlier, pointed out that bureaucrats, including those from the PMO, regularly attend seminars organised by the foundation on issues of national security. In fact, Union Culture Minister Kumari Selja is scheduled to release a book called ‘The Historicity of Vedic and Ramayana Era: Scientific evidences from the depths of ocean to the heights of skies’, at the foundation this week.
Despite his association with Ramdev’s campaign, Govindacharya now feels the movement is over. “Both the movements (Anna and Ramdev’s) are lost in the black hole of power and party politics... Ramdev would now become an ally or promoter of the BJP cause,” he said.
November 29, 2010
Hindutva Jamboree in Delhi - A report in the press
The Hindu
NEW DELHI, November 26, 2010
Focus on Indian civilisation
Staff Reporter
Focussing on creating awareness in civil society about recent archaeological and historical researches and to promote understanding and relevance of Indian civilization in modern times, a seminar, “How deep are the roots of Indian civilization? An archaeological and historical perspective” was inaugurated by Ministry of Culture Secretary Jawahar Sircar here on Thursday. Organised by Draupadi Trust in collaboration with knowledge partners Archaeological Survey of India and Indian Archaeological Society and hosted by the Vivekananda International Foundation, the three-day-long seminar will include presentations by renowned scholars and archaeologists from India and abroad.
Mr. Sircar stressed the importance of a “serious study on the subject of antiquity of Indian civilisation” and urged scholars to base their research on rational, not emotional basis. He inaugurated an exhibition- “Draupadi: Shashakt- Rupa Rupeshwari”- depicting the life of Draupadi as a woman of substance.
Delivering the keynote address, former ASI Director-General Prof. B. B. Lal spoke about “postulates [that] have been distorting our vision of India's past”. Among these is the belief that the Vedas are no older than 1200 B.C. and that Vedic people were nomads. Recent excavations at sites in Rajasthan, Punjab, Haryana and Gujarat and a fresh study of Vedic texts, he said, have proved that most of these postulates are “ill- founded.”
According to Prof. Lal, these excavations proved that the Rigveda is older than 2,000 BC and people of this civilisation were not nomads. Quashing the “Aryan invasion theory” he said that the Harappan civilisation did not become extinct, and C-14 dating procedures proved that Harappan and Vedic people were indigenous, not invaders or migrants.
Thursday's session focussed on the life and practices of Harappan and Vedic civilisations with presentations on scientific findings of the drainage system in north-west India with regard to river Saraswati by Central Arid Zone Research Institute's Dr. J. R. Sharma and Indian Space Research Organisation scientist Dr. Bidyut Bhadra; the geographic identification and significance of Sapta Sindhu by California State University Professor Dr. Shiva Bajpai; Harappan town planning and water harvesting by former ASI Joint Director-General Dr. R. S. Bisht; continuum in town planning and metrology in Harappan in classical India by Coimbatore scholar Dr. Michel Danino and a comparative study of the middle Asian intercultural space and the Indus civilisation by University of Bologne (Italy) Professor Maurizio Tosi. Also present was Shah Abdul Latif University (Pakistan) Vice-Chancellor Dr. Nilofar Shaikh.
Draupadi Trust Chairperson Neera Misra spoke about the need for a “holistic approach to development” and knowledge of one's civilisation being an important part of development of a nation
NEW DELHI, November 26, 2010
Focus on Indian civilisation
Staff Reporter
Focussing on creating awareness in civil society about recent archaeological and historical researches and to promote understanding and relevance of Indian civilization in modern times, a seminar, “How deep are the roots of Indian civilization? An archaeological and historical perspective” was inaugurated by Ministry of Culture Secretary Jawahar Sircar here on Thursday. Organised by Draupadi Trust in collaboration with knowledge partners Archaeological Survey of India and Indian Archaeological Society and hosted by the Vivekananda International Foundation, the three-day-long seminar will include presentations by renowned scholars and archaeologists from India and abroad.
Mr. Sircar stressed the importance of a “serious study on the subject of antiquity of Indian civilisation” and urged scholars to base their research on rational, not emotional basis. He inaugurated an exhibition- “Draupadi: Shashakt- Rupa Rupeshwari”- depicting the life of Draupadi as a woman of substance.
Delivering the keynote address, former ASI Director-General Prof. B. B. Lal spoke about “postulates [that] have been distorting our vision of India's past”. Among these is the belief that the Vedas are no older than 1200 B.C. and that Vedic people were nomads. Recent excavations at sites in Rajasthan, Punjab, Haryana and Gujarat and a fresh study of Vedic texts, he said, have proved that most of these postulates are “ill- founded.”
According to Prof. Lal, these excavations proved that the Rigveda is older than 2,000 BC and people of this civilisation were not nomads. Quashing the “Aryan invasion theory” he said that the Harappan civilisation did not become extinct, and C-14 dating procedures proved that Harappan and Vedic people were indigenous, not invaders or migrants.
Thursday's session focussed on the life and practices of Harappan and Vedic civilisations with presentations on scientific findings of the drainage system in north-west India with regard to river Saraswati by Central Arid Zone Research Institute's Dr. J. R. Sharma and Indian Space Research Organisation scientist Dr. Bidyut Bhadra; the geographic identification and significance of Sapta Sindhu by California State University Professor Dr. Shiva Bajpai; Harappan town planning and water harvesting by former ASI Joint Director-General Dr. R. S. Bisht; continuum in town planning and metrology in Harappan in classical India by Coimbatore scholar Dr. Michel Danino and a comparative study of the middle Asian intercultural space and the Indus civilisation by University of Bologne (Italy) Professor Maurizio Tosi. Also present was Shah Abdul Latif University (Pakistan) Vice-Chancellor Dr. Nilofar Shaikh.
Draupadi Trust Chairperson Neera Misra spoke about the need for a “holistic approach to development” and knowledge of one's civilisation being an important part of development of a nation
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
