Birth pangs you missed on TV | |
| J.P. YADAV Feb. 19, 2014 | |
New Delhi, Feb. 18: The Lok Sabha today pushed through the Telangana bill but the nation could not see live a milestone in the imminent birth of the 29th state of the Union because of a “technical problem” at Lok Sabha Television. The live telecast stopped around 3pm just when Union home minister Sushil Kumar Shinde stood up to speak. The Lok Sabha secretariat denied suggestions of a deliberate “blackout” — although conflicting voices arose from within the government. ( ) The bill will go to the Rajya Sabha, probably tomorrow itself. Just in case anyone wants to see the rare sight of the Congress and the BJP on the same side — supporting the bill — and the Trinamul Congress and the CPM on the other — opposing the bill — the Lok Sabha secretariat has helpfully pointed out in a statement that “all the proceedings are on record and in the public domain”. The statement added that “the press was in full strength in the Press Gallery at all times to witness and report how the events unfolded”. The Telegraph brings you what the public broadcaster could not. Don’t miss the toffee-distribution moment — so apt when a baby state is on its way. Outside House Outer and inner perimeter security is tightened. Paramilitary and riot police are deployed. Roads leading to the main Parliament gate are sealed. Only vehicles with Parliament passes and journalists with passes are allowed in. MPs are not allowed to take vehicles inside at 11am but permitted later. Additional Delhi police personnel requisitioned. Parliament Security Service (PSS) staffers pulled out from other sections and placed at strategic locations. Journalists frisked before entering press gallery. It is not done in normal circumstances. Since last week, visitor gallery passes were being issued selectively. Three marshals are earmarked for every suspended MP opposing Telangana to ensure that they do not sneak in. The mild-mannered uniformed men follow the anti-Telangana MPs wherever they move inside the Parliament building. Telugu Desam’s Nimmala Kristappa wears a wry smile at the door of his party office in Parliament as well-built security officers surround him. “It is more than Z-plus security,” Kristappa says. As Kristappa and a colleague move to the outer lobby of the building, so do the security officers, smiling at one another. (“We had a hard time as we had to tail these MPs everywhere and we had to ensure no charge of manhandling was levelled against us,” a security officer later said.) The PSS head, Ajay Anand, spends virtually the entire day in the Lok Sabha lobby. Another tense face is that of Special Protection Group (SPG) director Durga Prasad Kode, who is in charge of the Prime Minister’s security. Inside House 11am: Question hour is adjourned within minutes as anti-Telangana protesters troop into the well of the House. 12 noon: House reassembles. CPM members with placards rush into the well. Congress’s Andhra MPs and ministers also in the well, protesting against bifurcation. Papers are laid in the din. Pro-Telangana members step into the well and raise slogans of “Jai Telangana”. Home minister Shinde rises to present the Telangana bill for consideration and passing. Speaker Meira Kumar adjourns the House till 12.45pm. 12.45pm: House reassembles. The scenes are replayed. The home minister rises again and tries to press for the passage of the bill in the din. Speaker adjourns the House till 3pm. The Prime Minister and Sonia Gandhi are not seen but Rahul Gandhi is present. 3pm: More than a dozen Congress MPs take position to guard the Speaker and the home minister from the protesters. “What is this? The home minister of the country needs security? Tell me… I can provide security,” Hyderabad MP Asaduddin Owaisi says on seeing Congress MPs taking position to guard Shinde. The Speaker comes and Shinde rises to present the bill. Sonia comes to the House but the Prime Minister is not seen. Some half-a-dozen Andhra Congress MPs opposed to division rush to the well and stand near the Speaker’s podium on the treasury bench side. Among the ministers are K.S. Rao, Chiranjeevi and D. Purandeshwari. They raise slogans of “Save Andhra Pradesh” and “We want justice”. No vandalism such as that witnessed on the pepper-spray day last week. CPM members join the Andhra group. They carry placards declaring — “Save Andhra Pradesh” and “We demand undivided Andhra Pradesh. We oppose bifurcation”. The CPM members raise anti-Telangana slogans. Shinde continues speaking in the din. He speaks for some 10 minutes and then leader of Opposition Sushma Swaraj takes over. The slogan shouting continues. Sushma’s best line: “I want to tell one thing to my Telangana friends. After the bill is passed, they will go out and sing and declare ‘Congress has given Telangana; Soniaamma has given Telangana’. Don’t sing what they sing. While you give credit to Soniaamma, don’t forget to give credit to this chinamma (aunt or literally little mother).” After half an hour, the CPM MP from Kerala, Anirudhan Sampath, is seen distributing some capsule or tablet-like substance to his comrades. Sonia looks uneasy, possibly because of suicide threats from some anti-Telangana members. Sonia’s uneasiness prompts the Congress MPs acting as the home minister’s guards to check what the tablet is. This leads to a mild scuffle between the CPM and Congress members. Sampath is seen throwing papers in the air. Then, it is discovered that the tablet-like substance Sampath was distributing were toffees to help clear the throats of his comrades and keep up the pitch of the sloganeering. After some time, the Congress guards and the agitating CPM members exchange toffees and smile at one another. Amendments and amendments to the amendments are being considered. Trinamul members led by Kalyan Banerjee enter the well. “Aaj ka din kala hai, Congress-BJP chor hai (Today is a black day, the Congress and the BJP are thieves),” Trinamul members shout, pointing towards the unity between the treasury and the Opposition benches. They also raise slogans of “Rahul-Modi chor hai, Sonia-Sushma chor hai”. The bill is finally passed around 4.25pm and the House is adjourned for the day. The anti-Telangana and CPM members walk away quietly while the pro-Telangana group greets Soniaamma. Not confirmed if they greeted Sushma “chinamma”, too. | |
| ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY SANJAY K. JHA AND NISHIT DHOLABHAI |
↧
Darkness at noon in Lok Sabha. Soniaamma, Sushma Chinnamma, quit politics for making Telangana a moment of shame.
↧
Don't be glassholes
Google's advice to Glass users: Don't be 'Glassholes'
Google gave early adopters of its internet-connected eyewear a bit of advice: don't be "Glassholes."
RELATED
SAN FRANCISCO: Google gave early adopters of its internet-connected eyewear a bit of advice: don't be " Glassholes."
It was the final suggestion in a recommended code of conduct posted online for software developers and others taking part in an Explorer program providing early access to Google Glass.
The California-based Internet titan appeared intent on avoiding the kinds of caustic run-ins that have seen some Glass wearers tossed from eateries, pubs or other establishments due to concerns over camera capabilities built into devices.
Don't be "creepy or rude (aka, a "Glasshole")," Google said in a guide posted online for Explorer program members.
"Respect others and if they have questions about Glass don't get snappy."
Google suggest Glass wearers be polite and offer demonstrations to possibly win over the wary. Glass fans were advised it is proper to follow the same rules set down for smartphone use in businesses.
"If you're asked to turn your phone off, turn Glass off as well," Google said.
"Breaking the rules or being rude will not get businesses excited about Glass and will ruin it for other Explorers."
In the wake of one early adopter claiming Glass gave him headaches, Google told users not to "Glass-out" by starring into the inset prism screen for long periods at a time.
Glass was designed to deliver helpful bursts of information conveniently to let wearers get back to doing things in the real world, according to the technology firm.
"If you find yourself staring off into the prism for long periods of time you're probably looking pretty weird to the people around you," Google said.
"So don't read War and Peace on Glass. Things like that are better done on bigger screens."
Google also advised against wearing Glass while playing impact sports; or being foolish enough to think the eyewear won't draw attention.
The "do" list included venturing about, using voice commands, asking permission to take pictures, and employing screen locks to prevent use if Glass is lost or stolen.
Google last month unveiled a partnership with US vision insurer VSP to make prescription Glass and to reimburse some of the costs under health benefits.
That does not include the $1,500 price for Google Glass, which is in a test phase with a small number of "explorers" ahead of a wider release sometime this year.
Glass connects to the internet using Wi-Fi hotspots or, more typically, by being wirelessly tethered to mobile phones. Pictures or video are may be shared through the Google Plus social network.
During the testing phase, developers are creating apps for the eyewear, which can range from getting weather reports to sharing videos to playing games.
It was the final suggestion in a recommended code of conduct posted online for software developers and others taking part in an Explorer program providing early access to Google Glass.
The California-based Internet titan appeared intent on avoiding the kinds of caustic run-ins that have seen some Glass wearers tossed from eateries, pubs or other establishments due to concerns over camera capabilities built into devices.
Don't be "creepy or rude (aka, a "Glasshole")," Google said in a guide posted online for Explorer program members.
"Respect others and if they have questions about Glass don't get snappy."
Google suggest Glass wearers be polite and offer demonstrations to possibly win over the wary. Glass fans were advised it is proper to follow the same rules set down for smartphone use in businesses.
"If you're asked to turn your phone off, turn Glass off as well," Google said.
"Breaking the rules or being rude will not get businesses excited about Glass and will ruin it for other Explorers."
In the wake of one early adopter claiming Glass gave him headaches, Google told users not to "Glass-out" by starring into the inset prism screen for long periods at a time.
Glass was designed to deliver helpful bursts of information conveniently to let wearers get back to doing things in the real world, according to the technology firm.
"If you find yourself staring off into the prism for long periods of time you're probably looking pretty weird to the people around you," Google said.
"So don't read War and Peace on Glass. Things like that are better done on bigger screens."
Google also advised against wearing Glass while playing impact sports; or being foolish enough to think the eyewear won't draw attention.
The "do" list included venturing about, using voice commands, asking permission to take pictures, and employing screen locks to prevent use if Glass is lost or stolen.
Google last month unveiled a partnership with US vision insurer VSP to make prescription Glass and to reimburse some of the costs under health benefits.
That does not include the $1,500 price for Google Glass, which is in a test phase with a small number of "explorers" ahead of a wider release sometime this year.
Glass connects to the internet using Wi-Fi hotspots or, more typically, by being wirelessly tethered to mobile phones. Pictures or video are may be shared through the Google Plus social network.
During the testing phase, developers are creating apps for the eyewear, which can range from getting weather reports to sharing videos to playing games.
↧
↧
Mamata survey: Cong. 60, BJP 150. Mamata-Anna Hazare alliance to fight 2014 Lok Sabha polls. 17-point agenda
Congress will get 60, BJP 150
-- mamata
In Mamata Banerjee, I found another person who thinks like me, says Anna Hazare: highlights
New Delhi: Gandhian activist Anna Hazare and West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee addressed a press conference in New Delhi today. In his address, Anna said he supported Mamata Banerjee's ideas, but not her party, the Trinamool Congress.
Here are the highlights:
Here are the highlights:
- I support Mamata Banerjee's thoughts about society. I have not supported her party
- For the first time there is a politician like that so I am supporting her
- She could have had a comfortable life as Chief Minister but she stays in small house and takes no car
- I have always placed country before self. In Mamata Banerjee, I found another person who thinks like me
- Mamata Banerjee is the only chief minister who responded to my letter where I had outlined 17 issues of national importance
- I had sent my 17 points to Arvind Kejriwal as well, but he never responded.
- Didi is one person who understands that without sacrifice India can't progress. I support her ideology.
- We can't progress unless we think of the development of villages
- Gram Sabhas will be empowered
- No one brought right to recall, right to reject
- In our country rivers, water bodies are sold. Must stop exploitation of rivers, this isn't progress, it's destruction.
- I will also support about 100 independents
- I will neither support Narendra Modi or Arvind Kejriwal, nor oppose them. I'll continue my work.
Mamata Banerjee:
- I am grateful for Anna's wishes. I came to Delhi only because of him.
- We need a change at the Centre
- I'm not doing this for love of power. My party doesnt have 5 cr in funds
- I only have two people to run my Facebook page
↧
Reichstag fire in the fight for free speech -- Arvind Kumar
REICHSTAG FIRE IN THE FIGHT FOR FREE SPEECH
Hindus have now become the targets of the publishing industry which is responsible for a Reichstag Fire in the arena of free-speech rights. These Hindu-baiters have indulged in self-censorship of a book but are busy spreading the untruthful claim that the book was actually banned by Hindus. Just as Hitler blamed his political opponents for an act of arson in 1933, the anti-Hindu forces are now going after Hindus by blaming them in a similar fashion. Consider the following headlines that appeared in the American media.
Chicago Tribune: India bans ‘vulgar’ book by University of Chicago scholar
Christian Science Monitor: Book ‘banning’ shows rising Hindu nationalism in India’s election year
Slate.com: Wendy Doniger’s The Hindus banned in India
These dishonest claims about an alleged ban seem to be confined to the American press and do not seem to appear in the Arab, African or East Asian Press. To be fair, the Black and Hispanic press in the US too have not carried out any anti-Hindu propaganda until now. This is consistent with the experience of Blacks in the US in the 1960s which led Mohammad Ali to say, ‘No Vietcong ever called me nigger.’
The headline by Christian Science Monitor is interesting for another reason: it carefully suppresses the fact that the complaint against the book that was pulled by Penguin Books is nearly four years old and it makes the dishonest claim that the “ban” took place because it is an election year.
There is a precedent to banning one’s own book and accusing Hindus for it. In 1995, when Salman Rushdie wrote the Moor’s Last Sigh, the press tried to get Shiv Sena’s Bal Thackeray to issue a threat. He did not take the bait and instead refused to comment on the book, so the publishers (Rupa and Co.) decided on a self-ban, perhaps in the hope that they could generate a controversy and boost the sales of the book. However, things moved faster than they anticipated and the Central government promptly banned the book when they found that it had a dog named Jawaharlal.
As the Independent reported:
Gossip sweeping New Delhi had it that Sonia Gandhi, the widow of Rajiv, read the first few chapters of Rushdie’s novel and was so incensed by the dog Jawaharlal that she is demanding the book is banned across India by the Congress government. The Prime Minister, Narasimha Rao, is smarting from the widow Gandhi’s accusations that the government has not done enough to track her husband’s assassins, and he might want to pacify her over Rushdie’s novel.
As soon as the government ordered the ban, the publishing house which had indulged in the self-ban changed their minds about banning the book and appealed to the court asking that the ban be removed!
Even today, Hindu-baiters continue to blame Hindus for this episode. They are ably supported by the Gunga Dins who carry water for them. Among those currently pontificating to the Hindus on the virtues of free-speech are two writers named Sadanand Dhume and Salil Tripathi. Their smug suggestions today are contradictory to their position a few years ago.
In an article jointly authored by the two of them when the government banned the Marathi play, ‘Mee Nathuram Godse Boltoi,’ this is what they wrote in the Far Eastern Economic Review.
The banning of a play in Bombay… has sparked a bitter debate and raised critical questions about the kind of nation India wants to be – secular, democratic and liberal, or nationalist and Hindu.
So free speech is “nationalist and Hindu” while banning plays is “secular, democratic and liberal.” That much all of us can agree upon! The authors elaborate on this position and go on to endorse the concept of banning any speech that runs counter to their beliefs. At the same time, they also praise “leftists, centrists and socialists” for being on the side of the ban.
The controversy over the play reflects a greater drama being played out on the nation’s political stage. On one side are those who believe in the 50-year-old liberal democratic model, represented by the leftists, the centrists and the socialists. On the other are those who seek a nationalist, Hindu model, championed by Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and its political arm, the Bharatiya Janata Party, and other pro-Hindu nationalist parties like the Shiv Sena.
Their article also mentions MF Husain, but there is no mention of the fact that MF Husain, during Indira Gandhi’s Emergency era, was a thug who acted as Indira Gandhi’s Goebbels and supported her censorship and totalitarianism.
In another article entitled “Shadowy Second Self” that appeared in the Far Eastern Economic Review in 1998, Sadanand Dhume complained that the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh was influencing the views of Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and the Bharatiya Janata Party. It is truly a wonder that Dhume now claims to be an advocate of free-speech rights even though he wanted the Indian government to block out the views of a legitimate entity.
I first encountered Salil Tripathi on the mailing list of South Asian Journalists Association (SAJA). He introduced himself as a civil rights advocate, and in particular, a supporter of the American First Amendment rights. Not long after, it turned out that free-speech for Salil was merely a stick with which he could beat Hindus whenever it suited him while advocating the trampling of such rights at other times. During one of the discussions on the mailing list, he announced that Laloo Prasad Yadav deserved to be considered a hero for the single act of arresting LK Advani who was responsible for giving speeches around the country.
Anyone who has debated a Communist or anyone belonging to one of the hundreds of varieties of socialists will soon realize that they skirt the issue on every topic and hurl a few choice cliches at their opponents. “Nothing is in black and white, everything has shades of gray,” they will assert. “It is complex” is another refrain meaning that they have no idea of how to analyze an issue and form a firm opinion. Then there is that single word – nuance. In commie-speak, ‘nuance’ means they just deviated from the truth. Scroll back up and read the first quote from the article by Salil and Dhume. You will see that they claim the ban sparked a debate in the country. ‘Sparked a debate’ in commie-speak means they just committed a huge crime and hope to cover it up with words or hope to get a consensus from all their friends, which, in some unexplained perverse way, will wash off their guilt.
Salil has a history of hypocritical positions on free-speech rights. He ignored the ban by Congress-run state governments on the movie Da Vinci Code even though he wrote on the topic of free-speech at that time and was called out on it. He also took every opportunity to blame Hindus and injected the idea of intolerant Sikhs and Hindus into his arguments when he wrote an article on the Mohammed cartoons in Denmark.
Many of his recent pieces have been thinly disguised articles pretending to defend free-speech rights but they are really attacks on the victims whose rights were violated. The ban on Geert Wilders’ Fitna was a chance for him to write a negative review of the movie.
There is another angle to the selective application of free-speech rights. Sadanand Dhume once lived in Indonesia but found it prudent to zip up and not write about the lack of free-speech rights in that country when he lived there. No matter what their position on the topic of freedom of expression, there has been one constant: they have always been on the side of people with immense political strength and who are entrenched in institutions that share power no matter which political party runs the government. It would have meant something if they had defended powerless people who were real victims instead of chasing titles, prizes and positions with international institutions. Joining the ruling class elites in various countries and enriching oneself by keeping one’s principles flexible is not free-speech advocacy but sheer opportunism.
Among the groups Salil has worked for and whose views he has aggressively pushed is Amnesty International. He has also written for the publication ‘Index of Censorship.’ This is a Marxist publication which routinely accuses others of censorship but is itself guilty of indulging in censorship in order to appease Muslims.
On his part, Sadanand Dhume works for the American Enterprise Institute which operates in the area of advocating certain policy prescriptions. When people get paid to articulate political agendas that serve the interests of institutions operated by the ruling class in Western countries, such people, in essence, become Gunga Dins who carry water for their paymasters. This is especially true as these institutions exist solely to belittle countries outside the Western civilization.
The so-called “think-tanks” in the West do not seek to enrich their worldviews or shape their policies when they hire Indians. Instead, these organizations represent the interest of certain political entities with firm political opinions and they hire Indians only as viceroys of these opinions. These viceroys have the specific task of indulging in propaganda on behalf of their employers. Even when not specifically tasked to do so, the employees continue with the propaganda in order to prove their credentials and endear themselves to their paymasters. In this context, it should be kept in mind that both Salil and Dhume have written against Muslims after the Islamic terrorist attacks occurred in New York City and London.
If the two authors have the honesty and intellectual ability to discern between real violations of free-speech rights and false flag attacks, they should not target Hindus, but make a few honest admissions. First, they should admit that the current controversy in which they have blamed Hindus is a wholly manufactured one and that it is wrong to blame Hindus for it. Secondly, they must admit that they were wrong when they supported bans on plays in India. Finally, they should also admit that all over the world, laws against free-speech rights are created by groups they support. Apart from Christian and Muslim fundamentalists, such groups include those who label themselves “leftists, centrists and socialists” or “secular, democratic and liberal,” that is, people Salil and Dhume endorsed in an article jointly authored by them.
The laws related to hate-speech in India were legal weapons for such people in their zeal to suppress the freedom of expression of Hindus. This time, one of their own allies was made to trip on the legal hurdle by a smart litigant. Just as a bomb in Iraq recently blew up killing a suicide attack trainer and his class, a creation of the intellectual Al-Qaeda has blown up in their faces injuring one of their own people. If the two authors do not correct themselves and admit to these facts, in the interest of basic decency, no media outlet should allow them to pontificate about free-speech rights.
[The author can be reached at arvind@classical-liberal.net.]
Now this is thoughtful writing! Well done, Mr. Arvind!
↧
Wendy Doniger's book: Complaint under Chapter 43 of US Penal Code
Complaint to US Authorities, to Penguin Group and to University of Chicago on harmful material defined under US Penal Code Chapter 43, authored by Wendy Doniger, employee of University of Chicago and published by Penguin Group.
The complaint is that Wendy Doniger's book 'The Hindus - An alternative history' is "Harmful material" under Chapter 43 of US Penal Code. It is of little educational value and utterly without redeeming social values for minors.
If the continued promotion of 'harmful material' is not deliberate malice, Penguin Group, University of Chicago authorities must act now in good faith.
This complaint about 'harmful material' means material whose dominant theme taken as a whole:
(A) appeals to the prurient interest of a minor, in sex, nudity, or excretion;
(B) is patently offensive to prevailing standards in the adult community as a whole with respect to what is suitable for minors; and
(C) is utterly without redeeming social value for minors.
We reiterate what was stated in the petition of 2010 sponsored by Sarasvati Research and Education Trust and which has received online 11,024 signatures (as of February 20, 2014) asking PENGUIN GROUP to:
1. WITHDRAW all the copies of this book immediately from the worldwide bookshops/markets/ Universities/Libraries and refrain from printing any other edition.
2. APOLOGIZE for having published this book “The Hindus: An Alternative History”. This book seriously and grossly misrepresents the Hindu reality as known to the vast numbers of Hindus and to scholars of Hindu tradition. PENGUIN must apologize for failure to observe proper pre-publication scrutiny and scholarly review.
3. COMPENSATE by rendering social service and pay punitive damages to the Hindu community which has been defamed.
This complaint under Chapter 43 of US Penal Code is necessitated by the fact that there has been no action on the part of the concerned persons to respond to and act to redress the situation detailed in this petition, despite repeated opportunities to initiate such remedial action to atone for the crime.
Wendy Doniger's book continues to be accessible in community libraries of USA and expose minors arousing their prurient interests.
Hindu civilization, Hindu history is taught in middle schools in many parts of USA and many minors (and also teachers in schools) are likely to refer to the book since it is promoted as Alternative Hindu history by a US academic, thus giving it a veneer of respectability, while, in fact, it is defamatory, obscene and 'harmful material'.
It appears that the intent of the publisher and the author is DELIBERATE INTENT to commit the crime. Despite the complaint made directly to the publisher through a petition detailed below, they have chosen to continue distribution of the book WITHOUT ANY CORRECTIONS and intent on continuing to commit the crime of the cover page all over the world including India which is patently against public order and public decency given the large number of Hindus living and practising minority reglion in USA.
It is also a fact that Hindu civilization is taught in the middle schools of USA (Witness the California Text book trial called the Harvard Donkey Trial which was also settled out of court).
Since Wendy Doniger is touted as the authoritative academic on Hinduism (witness her article on Hinduism in Encyclopaedia Britannica which continues to be displayed there despite protests and complaints), her book is likely to be cited as a reference book in the classrooms where Hinduism is taught. If in fact this happened is a matter for investigation by recording the evidence of teachers teaching Hinduism and asking them specifically if they used Wendy Doniger's book in their classrooms.
Anyway, that a crime has been committed is proven ab initio and prima facie that is in violation of the Chapter 43 of US Penal code is evident from the fact that the book is distributed as a 'Alternative History of Hindus'. This fact has NOT been denied by the publisher or by the author.
The crux of the complaint is that the book as a whole and the cover page in particular are violative of Section 43.24 of US Penal Code (Chapter 43) and constitutes a crime.
Sarasvati Research and Education Trust
Febuary 20, 2014
Details of the argument
Febuary 20, 2014
Details of the argument
Chapter 43 Crimes against public order and public decency
Sec. 43.24. SALE, DISTRIBUTION, OR DISPLAY OF HARMFUL MATERIAL TO MINOR. (a) For purposes of this section:
(1) "Minor" means an individual younger than 18 years.
(2) "Harmful material" means material whose dominant theme taken as a whole:
(A) appeals to the prurient interest of a minor, in sex, nudity, or excretion;
(B) is patently offensive to prevailing standards in the adult community as a whole with respect to what is suitable for minors; and
(C) is utterly without redeeming social value for minors.
(b) A person commits an offense if, knowing that the material is harmful:
(1) and knowing the person is a minor, he sells, distributes, exhibits, or possesses for sale, distribution, or exhibition to a minor harmful material;
(2) he displays harmful material and is reckless about whether a minor is present who will be offended or alarmed by the display; or
(3) he hires, employs, or uses a minor to do or accomplish or assist in doing or accomplishing any of the acts prohibited in Subsection (b)(1) or (b)(2).
(c) It is an affirmative defense to prosecution under this section that the sale, distribution, or exhibition was by a person having scientific, educational, governmental, or other similar justification.
(c-1) It is a defense to prosecution under this section that the actor was the spouse of the minor at the time of the offense.
(d) An offense under this section is a Class A misdemeanor unless it is committed under Subsection (b)(3) in which event it is a felony of the third degree.
Acts 1973, 63rd Leg., p. 883, ch. 399, Sec. 1, eff. Jan. 1, 1974. Amended by Acts 1993, 73rd Leg., ch. 900, Sec. 1.01, eff. Sept. 1, 1994.
Amended by:
Acts 2011, 82nd Leg., R.S., Ch. 497, Sec. 1, eff. September 1, 2011.
The cover page of Wendy Doniger's book The Hindus -- Alternative History (Penguin) is harmful material as defined in the Code. The author, publisher and the employer (University of Chicago) who has failed to reprimand the employee, Wendy Doniger are charged with disseminating 'harmful material' which is utterly without redeeming social value for minors. The book has not been declared as ADULT PORNOGRAPHY and hence, used or likely to be used in a school, public library or educational institution with minors, likely to appeal to the prurient interest of minors in sex, nudity, or excretion.
For the benefit of the complaint to the courts in USA, the following facts of the cover page is cited as consistent on all THREE counts which define 'harmful material' under 43.24(2) of US Penal code:
Excercising due diligence and extreme care with the facts the picture at http://newstrack.outlookindia.
The picture is reproduced here in utter disgust for ready reference for authorities in USA to appreciate the gravity of the crime agains public order and decency committed by its publication:
The dominant theme taken as a whole is a presentation of provocative poses, dance poses of love by naked ladies so drawn as to constitute a male horse and a blue-bodied person riding on a horse with a pronounced penis indicated by the protruding hand of one of the dancing naked ladies.
The bodies of 8 bare-breasted ladies with prominent books are so contorted as dance poses to constitute the body of the horse on which a rider is seen. The entire scene is presented below the shade of a tree.
The hind-legs of the horse (naked-breasted lady) thrusts her hand through the legs of another lady while holding the left foot of the naked lady on whose buttocks Krishna is seated.
The black flowing hair of this lady constitutes the tail of the horse.
The naked lady who forms Krishna's seat has her left hand on the right boob of the forelegs of the horse (naked-breasted lady); while her right hand is trying to reach out to the boob of the lady on the neck with an uplifted leg.
The mouth and face of the horse has only one leg hanging upwards. The ears of the horse (with a bare-breasted lady with boobs) having her two hands lifted upwards.
The whole theme is to depict a male horse as made up of a bevy of naked bare-breasted boobs of 8 ladies constituting the horse. The hind-legs of the horse (naked-breasted lady) is thrusting her left hand to denote the penis of the horse.
I am sure art historians will be able to make a more vivid art appreciation of the pornographic piece. The pornography is complete with a blue-bodied Krishna true to the descriptions in sacred texts of the Hindus and there will be no confusion in the viewers' minds as to who is sought to be represented with a blue body: Krishna considered an avatara of paramaatman, Vishnu.
On this porno, Vishnu is riding on the horse, an evocation of riding on the arses of big-busted Hindu ladies enjoying the sexual encounter with the blue-bodied lover -- engaged in ecstatic dance poses called karanas (dance poses) according to Bharata's Natyashastra. The theme appeals to the prurient interest of a minor, in sex, nudity, or excretion (indicated by the erect penis) since a minor will associate the nude ladies with Hindu ladies many of whom adore Krishna as a divinity.
Let us also assume that US Penal Code Chapter 43 on Crime against Public Order and Public Decency is close to an 'international standard'.
I submit that the cover page on Wendy's book is enough to prosecute the author, publisher and employer of the author, Univ. of Chicago under US Penal Code.
Here is an excursus on Indian criminal code compared with US case laws in particular reference to Lady Chatterly's Lover.
The book of Wendy Doniger is more indecent and more devastating to public order since there is a danger that it may arouse prurient interests in minors, particularly Hindu minors in USA. Hence, a complaint is warranted for further action under due process under US Laws.
http://indconlawphil.wordpress.com/tag/obscenity/
PHOTO CREDIT: Jacket: The jacket image reproduces a contemporary
mural from Puri, in Orissa, serigraphed on recycled handmade paper, by Santi Arts, India (www.santiarts.com), who have kindly given us permission to reprint it here. It depicts the god Krishna riding on a horse composed of the cowherd women who love him.
Wendy has paid Katherine Ulrich for getting the image for the cover of the book:
Excerpts:
Richard Rosengarten, dean of the Divinity School of the University of Chicago, for his unflagging interest and encouragement, his faith in me, and his generosity in providing time for me to write and funds for me to pay my student assistants and my special Indological editor, Katherine Eirene Ulrich...
Katherine Ulrich read several long, long drafts, catching many howlers as well as stylistic tics, pinpointing obscurities, suggesting books and articles, challenging unsupported assumptions, and sustaining me with no-nonsense, appreciative, and often hilarious comments. To cap it all, she gave me the image of the composite horse that appears on the jacket of this book, not just finding it but buying it and carrying it back from India for me.
It is clear from NPR interview of Wendy Doniger that Penguin intends to import 1000 books with the same content as was found offensive in India and intends to distribute through electronic and other means.
Wendy Doniger said: " When I'm delighted that is that the book is sold like hotcakes everywhere in the world, that Penguin New York is considering sending several thousand copies to India, because there's no law against Penguin USA selling the book - just Penguin India selling the book. Copies are circulating in India and Kindle is available in India.If the purpose of these gentlemen was to keep people from buying my book and reading it, it has backfired quite wonderfully."
Wendy Doniger's intent was to use sex as a framework to analyze Hindu history.
Here is a quote from Wendy D: "Aldous Huxley once said that an intellectual was someone who had found something more interesting than sex; in Indology, an intellectual need not make that choice at all." Wendy Doniger in When the Lingam is Just a Cigar, Psychoanalysis and Hindu Sexual Fantasies .
Among the charges listed in the complaint against Penguin Books were charges of plagiarism, false claims in the book, and that it was written with a Christian missionary zeal. For example, the complaint alleged that the book falsely claimed that the image on the jacket of the book was from a temple in Puri in Odisha even though that was not the case. If true, such false claims would at least violate consumer protection laws in India. Making false claims to sell a book, that too on the cover of the book, is an unethical practice.
Wendy Doniger's book "The Hindus, an Alternative History" (see the cover), published and distributed by Penguin has been a phenomenal sales success. Already (in February 2010), more than 600 libraries in North America have acquired a copy of the book, in less than one year since its publication. The Indian division of Penguin has brought out an Indian reprint as well. Doniger claims that her book is about Hindu women, low castes, dogs and horses. But these merely appear to be an excuse for her to indulge in bouts of lewd descriptions, imaginary rapes, violence, titillating sleaze, drugs, booze and the like - all of which is then superimposed on the Hindus and on their traditions. As usual, she kinks fairly straightforward narratives in Hindu scriptures to present her own pornographic versions. http://vishalagarwal.
In a reply to Dr. Shukla's article in Washington Post, Doniger argued that her book did well in India, it was on the best-seller lists and sold 10,000 copies. The figure could well be an exaggeration; she might have taken the same liberty with truth in boasting about the sales of her book as she did with much of what is in it. For with a price tag of Rs 999, it is doubtful so many Indians had a taste for the bilge that it contained. The curiosity aroused by the title and the rave reviews of some magazines which have a penchant to celebrate anti-Hindu calumny might have sold a few copies.
This is how the website described the ‘acclaimed Sanskrit scholar and author’, in a write-up that accompanied Russell Peters’ interview with her, on March 27, 2002:
“Professor Wendy Doniger is known for being rude, crude and very lewd in the hallowed portals of Sanskrit Academics. All her special works have revolved around the subject of sex in Sanskrit texts ranging from Siva: The Erotic Ascetic to Tales of Sex and Violence.
Fellow Sanskrit academics and Wendy herself feel it was only a matter of course before she got round to doing her pièce de résistance - the definitive English translation of that most famed sexual text, theKamasutra.
Never one to shy away from sex, she threw herself into the job of translating the text...She was particularly interested by the parts that justify adultery and the list of ways to get rid of a man.She feels that the book is basically about how to live the good life, it’s about wooing, and power in a relationship.
...When she was translating it (over a period of a few years and numerous Sanskrit classes), she frequently found herself having to take cold showers.” [Emphasis added - Vox Indica]
[Interview with Wendy Doniger, March 27, 2002,http://web.archive.org/ web/20020911134952/http://www. bbc.co.uk/asianlife/tv/ network_east_late/biogs/wendy_ doniger.shtml]
The referenced online petition by Sarasvati Research and Education Trust requesting Penguin to withhold publication of the book is at:
Sarasvati Research and Education Trust
February 20, 2014
↧
↧
Rajiv assassination: re-investigate
LTTE’s messages tell why Rajiv’s murder should be re-investigated (Part-1)
by Feb 19, 2014
In view of the Supreme Court verdict on Tuesday that commuted the death penalty of Rajiv Gandhi's killers to life term, citing the 11-year delay in deciding their mercy pleas, there is also a need for the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case to be reopened and re-investigated.
The SC verdict saved three death row convicts-Santhan, Murugan and Perarivalan-from the gallows. The apex court bench rejected the Centre's submission that there was no unreasonable delay in deciding their mercy plea and the prisoners still fit the bill to be hanged to death.
]![Supreme Court of India. Reuters]()
Supreme Court of India. Reuters
Supreme Court of India. ReutersThat the case should be reopened is not just this writer's view alone. The Jain Commission of Inquiry, headed by former Delhi High Court chief justice MC Jain, which probed the conspiracy aspects of the 21 May 1991 assassination, had also pitched for the same when it had submitted its voluminous report to the Centre more than 15 years ago.
The Jain Commission had put its finger on a large number of grey areas in investigations done by the Special Investigation Team (SIT).
This writer had followed it up with an investigative book Beyond the Tigers: Tracking Rajiv Gandhi's Assassination, published in 1998 by Kaveri Books, New Delhi. The book put a laser beam focus on the SIT's shoddy investigations and demanded fresh investigations into the case.
The Atal Bihari Vajpayee government had set up a Multi Disciplinary Monitoring Agency (MDMA) way back in 1998 to probe several dark areas in the case as flag-marked by the Jain Commission.
But the MDMA has done precious little. Nobody knows what the MDMA has done and what is the current status of the MDMA. For all practical purposes, the MDMA is a moribund body and has been so for years.
Shockingly, even during the UPA's tenure in last one decade, the MDMA's actions, or lack of action, are not known.
The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), which planned and executed the assassination, had sent a series of coded wireless messages before and after the assassination. These wireless messages were intercepted by Indian security and intelligence agencies, particularly the naval intelligence and Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), but unfortunately these could be decoded months after the assassination.
The LTTE wireless messages throw up a gold mine of information with regard to the Tigers' plot to assassinate the former Indian prime minister.
Before I reproduce the LTTE wireless intercepts, a few things need to be mentioned.
1. These are "enclaire" messages (explained later) which are extremely tough to decode.
2. The messages are being reproduced verbatim without any editing or correcting spelling mistakes and grammatical errors. Obviously, the decoders were aiming at cracking open these highly encrypted messages, rather than bothering about the Queen's English!
3. Readers will do well to carefully see which message is emanating from whom and when. A brief introduction has been given upfront to facilitate this.
4. Many of these wireless intercepts have important clues and leads embedded in them which remain uninvestigated till date. This is a compelling reason for launching fresh investigations into the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case, much like the John F Kennedy's assassination which had to be investigated afresh after the public hue and cry.
5. Part 1 of this two-part series ends with an intercept dated 6 June, 1991, a fortnight after the assassination. The reason for this cutoff is that till this stage most of the actors in the assassination plot have figured and identified by way of asterisk-marked footnotes which the readers will do well to carefully notice.
6. The LTTE's code names for some of the key actors in the assassination who are constantly referred to in these wireless messages are as follows - Dhanu (the suicide bomber): Anbu; Subha (Dhanu's stand-by suicide bomber): Thatya; Murugan (one of the three death row convicts whose death sentence was commuted to life imprisonment by the Supreme Court on Tuesday): Indu Master. The other key player Santhan (among the three death row convicts) has been referred to as ‘Shantham', or ‘Shanthan' or simply as Santhan.
Here is a reproduction of the LTTE's wireless messages which is the Annexure Number 1 in this writer's afore-mentioned book (Page 231-241):
(1) LTTE'S wireless messages
Following are some of the coded wireless messages transmitted between the LTTE bases in India and abroad before and after Rajiv's assassination. These were intercepted by the Indian security agencies but decoded months after the assassination. As per the procedure after intercepting and recording code messages, transcripts are sent to the decoding section for breaking the code. After ten days of the recording of the intercepted messages, audio cassettes are used again for recording further messages.
The LTTE messages were transmitted from seven stations - Nos. 14, 31, 32, 33, 22, 91, 95 and 910. Station No. 14 was LTTE leader Prabhakaran's base, station no. 91 was Pottu Amman's base and station no. 95 and 910 were operated from Tamil Nadu. Messages transmitted from station nos. 91, 95 and 910 came to be monitored from 1991 beginning. Pottu Amman was in control of station nos. 91, 92 and 95. Station no 92 functioned from Jaffna and station no. 95 was a mobile base.
Some messages are reproduced below 22.3.1991 (95 to 91)
-- Will come to Madras. If it is Delhi lot of time and lot of effort will be required. If Neru comes, it will be good. Set can start.
91 to 95:
If I send one of my men, can you train him to drive in a crowded town? Buy a vehicle.
25.3.1991 (91-95)
Leave on --- will reach you on (2 digits date) in the morning or evening. Better if Kodiakarai. At least 1,000 litres of petrol to be sent ---- send those two people. Send medicines and other things in the boat.
6.4.1991 (91-95)-11.50 to 12.25 first.
Don't use knife on Chandrahasan. Hit with pistol. If you don't have pistol you make arrangements. I will send etc. Kittu is in touch with Ragu.
7.4.1991(91-95):7 A.M.
I cannot send you men before the date given by you. If it is beyond that, make all connections and let me know.
7.5.1991 (95-91):-9-00 to 9.15 Hrs.
She is the eldest daughter in the house of Indu Master. Moving closely. Our intention is not known to anybody except ourselves. I have told her that it is to have the support of the party who will be coming to power. Here VP Singh is coming. We are receiving. Like that we are receiving all the leaders.
I am slowly approaching. If I tell our intention there is no doubt that she will stand firmly on our side.
We are moving with her closely, have full satisfaction. Girls are telling that the intention can be revealed to her and she can be believed.
If I return I will return as your man. We are strong in powder business.
22.5.1991 (91-95):-1.00 to 1.20 Hrs..
To..**..Don't send long messages. It will create suspicion. There is a news that there is violence in your place. What is
that?
Is there any incident of attack on Sri Lankan Tamils. The vehicle will come to any place of your choice on 2nd. Start and meet me.
13.00 Hrs.
Even to our people in higher places we informed that we have no connection with this.
25. 5.1991 (91-95)-07.30 Hrs.
Is the photo of ‘Anbu'* identifiable. 07.35 Hrs.
"Press cuttings" of all the newspapers are needed. 07.40 Hrs.
For Thatya+. As you told a strong foothold. I will later inform you about the task.
7.6.1991 (91-910):-8.00 to 8.25 Hrs.
To... Regarding Chandrahasan if it messes with knife finish him with pistol. If there is no facility to give pistol make arrangement and come.
9.6.1991 (910-91):-8.15 to 8.30 Hrs.
To... There is a news that one of my associates was caught at Nagapattinam and he has told all the things about me. Tomorrow 10.6.1991 night after 7.00 P.M. we will be waiting for the vehicle. Walkie No. 5212.
At present even if there is no wireless communication vehicle can be sent.
(To be concluded)
Chandrahasan is a Sri Lankan Tamil leader based in Madras who runs a refugee organisation called organisation for Eelam Refugee Rehabilitation (OFERR). He has been anti-LTTE.
** The conversation between two LTTE bases transcribed in the transcripts before and after the transmission of messages in code language is known as "Enclaire Messages" in the intelligence parlance. Most often, these enclaire messages are broken because the sender keeps changing frequencies too swiftly for the interceptor to react. That is why it is difficult quite often to make sense out of such messages.
* LTTE's code name for Dhanu.
+ Code name for Subha. Again, this message is apparently unintelligi¬ble. Actually, her code-name was Nitya. While decoding, ‘Ni' become ‘Tha'.
The writer is a FirstPost columnist who tweets @Kishkindha.
↧
Textbook approach to Asia's disputes -- Yojana Sharma, BBC News
18 February 2014 Last updated at 20:12Textbook approach to Asia's disputes
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-26073748
Textbook approach to Asia's disputes![]()
Footsteps of the past: Across Asia disputes have been played out in the pages of school textbooks
Does a common future mean that South East Asia should be able to agree a common past?
Educationalists and historians have been meeting across borders to attempt the seemingly impossible - a common history textbook for South East Asia.
Not only will they have to accommodate diverse countries and a tangle of overlapping disputes, they have to contend with countries wanting to revise their history books to reflect territorial claims.
This ambitious task is taking place within the Association of South East Asian Nations (Asean) group of countries - Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.
Textbook experts from the region met in Bangkok in Thailand last year to look at the idea of a common history.
"There are still fundamental miscommunications, deeply-held prejudices and emotionally-charged perceptions which we have to overcome," a former Asean secretary-general, Dr Surin Pitsuwan, told the meeting, organised by Unesco.
'Bad history, bad neighbours'"This is just the first step in what will be a very long and complex process," says Tim Curtis, chief of the culture unit of Unesco's Asia Pacific regional office.
"Revising history textbooks is a never-ending story. But that does not mean we should not start."
Thai history scholar Kasetsiri Charnvit was succinct: "Bad history, bad education, bad neighbour relations."
The move towards an Asean single market in 2015 provides an extra impetus. As countries come together as an economic group it will allow free movement, trade and educational exchanges.
"It's a good starting point. People are willing to come together to talk about it," said Ivy Maria Lim, a historian and assistant professor at Singapore's National Institute of Education and co-editor of Controversial History Education in Asian Contexts.
The idea of a common Asean history textbook emerged after the Preah Vihear temple dispute between Cambodia and Thailand. Both claimed sovereignty over temple land on their common border.
Fighting erupted in 2011 after troop build-ups on both sides when Cambodia applied for Unesco World Heritage status for the site in 2008, interpreted as a claim over the area.
Disputed claimsOther historical disputes, some going back centuries, involve Thailand and Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam, Malaysia and Indonesia, among others.
Beyond the Asean countries, there are separate disputes between China and Japan in the East China Sea, and competing claims in the South China Sea which have escalated recently.
In January, Vietnam's Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung asked the Ministry of Education to include Vietnam's sovereignty over parts of the disputed Paracel Islands and Spratly Islands in the South China Sea in school textbooks.
Vietnam disputes sovereignty of the Paracels with China, while other Asean countries, Brunei, Malaysia and the Philippines claim parts of the Spratlys, as do China and Taiwan in a tangle of claims and counter claims.
In such a climate, textbook writing is fraught with risk and governments can be reluctant to yield any ground.
Governments wield "very strong control over what goes in textbooks, what is written in the curriculum, how they want it to be taught", said Dr Lim.
"In South East Asia, the need to foster patriotism is felt acutely," says Filomeno Aguilar, Professor of History at Ateneo de Manila University in the Philippines.
Air-brushingGovernments assert their claims over disputed territory through the rewriting of history textbooks - at the same time as air-bushing versions that could lead to opposing claims.
"It infects histories with political bias and prevents coverage of topics not allowed by the state," Prof Aguilar notes.
The approach in many Asean countries, says Prof Aguilar, is to suppress difficult topics in history. Sometimes this is justified as wanting to avoid antagonising neighbours.
Not every South East Asian country is keen on a joint history. Some wanted to get around the thorny problem of reconciling conflicting narratives by promoting the idea of a regional Asean identity, rather than a common history.
But, says Prof Aguilar, such a regional economic grouping is not a "neat fit" for individual countries' histories.
Because of vast differences in culture, languages, religion as well as colonial experiences, there isn't a shared Asean history.
Japan's pastOne of the few commonalities between many of the countries has been wartime Japanese rule.
It might not be a dimension they want to explore - and Japan has taken a tough line with its history textbooks.
Prof Tokushi Kasahara, a progressive Japanese historian who has worked for years on a joint history textbook with South Korean and Chinese academics, does not believe that Japan will co-operate with Asean on re-examining history.
"Frankly there is no desire or will to create a joint history textbook with other nations among Japanese historians and educationalists," said Prof Tokushi.
Yet he continues undaunted working on a common North East Asian history, History of the Three Countries of East Asia.
"The prospect of achieving a common historical understanding will surely be realised only when citizens living in East Asia learn the truth of the regions' history of wars of aggression and colonial rule, and then engage in repeated dialogue and debate over how best to overcome these legacies of the past," said Prof Tokushi.
Re-writing historyThere are few successful precedents.
Prof Tokushi and academics from China, Japan and South Korea have spent years thrashing out differences in a non-governmental history textbook commission, without support from politicians.
If there are too many differences to be reconciled for a joint textbook, the Asean group could still produce joint guidelines on the way history could be taught in Southeast Asia.
That's the view of Eckhardt Fuchs, deputy director of the Georg Eckert Institute for International Textbook Research in Germany, invited by Unesco to advise the Asean group.
At least this could give people a "perspective that goes beyond their own national narrative," said Dr Fuchs, after South Korean President Park Geun-Hye proposed a common textbook as a way to build peace and economic cooperation in North East Asia.
The president had referred to the German-French joint history textbook as a model, published in 2006.
"It shows us that communication and collaboration on a joint textbook is possible. Once you sit together and discuss problems, there is a way to resolve them," said Dr Fuchs.
But it requires strong political will.
"The lesson we learned in Germany is that you cannot escape history. You have to come to terms with it as a country or society or even groups within society. If you don't, you are not going to have peace. At some point these conflicts break out again," said Dr Fuchs.http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-26073748
↧
Psecularatti Poirot and muddemal (seized evidence). So, Poirot, what are you investigating?
Tejpal gets CCTV feed, lawyer says it has ‘nothing’
Written by Smita Nair | Panaji | February 20, 2014 3:26 am
SUMMARY
The footage includes several hours of feed from the cameras on the ground floor, first floor and second floor, including lift and lobby areas, of Guest House 3 and 7 of the hotel.
Tarun Tejpal has been accused of sexually assaulting a junior colleague during a fest in Goa and has since been in jail.
Lawyers for former Tehelka editor Tarun Tejpal reiterated on Wednesday that there was “absolutely nothing” in the CCTV footage that incriminated their client in the rape case he is fighting.
The chief judicial magistrate’s court in Panaji on Wednesday allowed Tejpal to access the entire feed from CCTV cameras at the Grand Hyatt, Bambolim, for the period November 7-10, 2013.
Tejpal is alleged to have raped a former junior colleague inside the hotel’s lift. Investigators have placed the CCTV feeds as the primary evidence on record.
The defence on Wednesday evening received a copy of the footage produced as evidence by the Goa Police Crime Branch. Counsel for Tejpal Raunaq Rao said, “The investigation agency has made a request to the court that no portion of the footage should be made public as it could reveal the identity of the victim. We will adhere to it.
“We viewed the footage and found there is nothing, absolutely nothing, that incriminates our client. We wanted the footage of those relevant portions of the days alleged. We are satisfied at this stage. In future, after reading the charge-sheet, if we feel the need for additional viewing or any other material evidence, we will make a suitable appeal,” Rao said.
On Tuesday, Tejpal issued a statement accusing the police of filing a “highly spurious” chargesheet from which “the most crucial piece of evidence, the CCTV footage of the incident”, was missing. Goa Police officers said that in order to protect the victim’s identity, the footage had been given only to the court, and it was up to the court to decide whether to release it to the accused.
On Wednesday, the court directed that the ‘muddemal’, or seized evidence, should be opened on its premises and under its supervision, and a copy of all CCTV feed be given to all three direct stakeholders — the prosecution, Tejpal’s counsel, and the investigating team from the Dona Paula Crime Branch. The footage includes several hours of feed from the cameras on the ground floor, first floor and second floor, including lift and lobby areas, of Guest House 3 and 7 of the hotel.
↧
The state is Amma (Tamil: Soviet Union! Frontpage: Dinamalar, Feb. 20, 2014)
No wonder, the principal AIADMK alliance partners are Leftists. This full page banner-headlined story in Dinamalar (Tamil) says it all: Soviet Union!
The two aa's in her name ending may denote: anti-anarchism.
The state withers away and spreads all over space and time. Relax. Go to Tasmac. State is the mother. State is everything.
Kalyanaraman
It is all Amma all over Chennai: (Graphic in Tamil)
↧
↧
Is Arvind Kejriwal a CIA agent? -- India News (Video 12:53)
Published on Feb 18, 2014
↧
SoniaG should ensure PC quits as FM for expressing happiness over release of killers of RajivG
Not unhappy with move, says PC, angers Cong
TIMES NEWS NETWORK
February 20, 2014 (Page 9)
New Delhi: Finance minister P Chidambaram said he was “not unhappy” with Tamil Nadu government’s decision to release the convicts in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case, a remark that drew a sharp rebuke from Congress.
Chidambaram, who hails from TN, said in a TV interview that the grief of the assassination was irreparable while the decision to release the convicts was based on the conclusion arrived at by the court and the state that imprisonment of two decades was sufficient.
“I am not unhappy,” Chidambaram said when asked for his reaction to the decision. Asked to explain his comment, he said, “Our grief arises out of the brutal killing of Rajiv Gandhi and if the court says that imprisonment of 22 years is sufficient and leaves it to the executive government to decide, that’s it.”
Congress dismissed Chidambaram’s comments as his “personal view”.
Chidambaram also did not see any cynical politics in the state’s release order.
But in sharp contrast to the senior minister’s opinion, an official statement from Congress general secretary Ajay Maken said the party felt the release of convicts was guided solely by political considerations to suit sectarian vested interests which is against the law.
↧
The Hindus draped in a Red Sari: Why it's time to talk about freedom of expression -- Advaita Kala
The Hindus draped in a Red Sari: Why it's time to talk about freedom of expression
By ADVAITA KALA
|
Sonia Gandhi is the latest high-profile figure to get the Javier Moro treatment
Javier Moro is not new to ruffling the feathers of the Indian elite with his extensively researched and dramatised narrations of real-life people.
His book Passion India based on the love affair between the Maharaja of Kapurthala Jagajit Singh and Anita Delgado drew consternation from descendants.
But Javier dismisses that quibble with a straightforward comment on the dissenter: "He is such a snob he would not acknowledge his grandad had a long love affair with a Spanish dancer. Had she been an aristocrat, he would probably have reacted in a totally different way."
It is this disarming candour that Javier brings to his writing, which makes his books eminently readable and engaging.
His last book on the Emperor of Brazil won him the Premio Planeta, the highest literary award in the Spanish world, and the aforementioned book on the Maharaja's love affair sold 1.3 million copies worldwide.
His interest in India began with the book, Five Past Midnight in Bhopal which he co-wrote with his uncle Dominique Lapierre.
And Javier isn't quite done with India, despite the experience he's had with publishing his last book - The Red Sari: a dramatised biography supposedly on the life of Sonia Gandhi, which was stalled by threats of lawsuits.
It's really why we are speaking, after the withdrawal of Wendy Doniger's book by Penguin and the ensuing outrage.
I felt that the time had come to explore this issue in greater depth, which would mean identifying more books as well as tasking this enquiry with the responsibility of identifying the multiple aggressors that pose a threat to the freedom of expression in this country.
The environment that a writer works in is more often than not greatly compromised, not only by religious hardliners but by politicians and big business.
But then why do we shy away from discussing it? Why are our sensitivities only hotwired to religious intolerance, when the problem is far more pervasive and deep rooted?
Javier lives in Madrid, so our interaction was conducted over email, through which he explained to me what exactly went wrong with publishing The Red Sari in India and what is meant by the contentious term "dramatised biography".
But first the important question, why Sonia Gandhi?
Javier tells me it started with a simple curiosity: how come no one had written about Sonia Gandhi except for political pamphlets?
He found it strange, "because the story of an Italian woman from humble origins who ends up being one of the most powerful women in the world, ruler of a country of more than a billion people is certainly interesting, is it not?"
As this curiosity crystallised, it wasn't about liking Sonia Gandhi for Javier, or even agreeing or disagreeing with her politically; her dramatic life and the cast of characters it included was a writer's dream, and he was hooked.
Then began the process of piecing together a "dramatised biography" of her life.
He explains to me that a lot has already been written about the Gandhis and it forms the basis of his book; he uses these facts and approaches them with a focus on the dramatic, much like a TV scriptwriter would while telling the story of a character.
He admits that it is always his point of view, but nonetheless asserts it is based on facts and extensive research on already published material.
The Red Sari, he tells me, is too close to the facts - and that's what went against it.
"That's what bothered the Congress hardliners who did not have any interest in publicising Sonia's Italian origins".
But what of the accusation that the book was mischievous in its intent?
Javier has a ready answer for that one: "Before banning a book, you trash it. But the real fact is that nobody in India could have read the book, as it was not available in English. It's still not. It was all a political move.
"The strategy of Abhishek Manu Singhvi worked quite well. He knew there was no ground for a lawsuit because the book is mainly based on material already published plus some stuff I found during my research in Italy and India.
"But he publicly threatened to sue me, he created a lot of noise, he trashed the book in the media with the purpose of scaring off all English language publishers.
"And he succeeded, except for Roli Books, who will publish it after its release in the US."
Which brings me to the current trend of lambasting Penguin books. Whilst their actions have been in breach of the relationship between writer and publisher, are other publishers any different in an environment which is so biased against a writer's right to express?
The entire ecosystem facilitates a quelling of creative freedom. But what about Javier? Has this made him swear off India?
Unlike the rest of us who live and work here, he has an option. But he is steadfast. "Of course I will set another book in India. India is fascinating, in spite of its rotten political elite."
And I suppose that attitude will have to remain the silver lining for now.
As a female writer who tells stories about women, I personally find Mrs Gandhi's journey compelling and the complexity of her choices at the time of her husband's assassination and its aftermath a test in fortitude and a final homecoming of sorts.
So why the censor? Is it the arrogance of the dynasty and its many gatekeepers, or is it the harshness of our politics that leaves no room for the human story?
The writer scripted the story of the much acclaimed film Kahaani. This is the first in a series about freedom of expression
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/indiahome/indianews/article-2562323/The-Hindus-draped-Red-Sari-Why-time-talk-freedom-expression.html#ixzz2trATRyLl
Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook
↧
How media let guilty Kejriwal off the hook -- Arvind Lavakare
How media let guilty Kejriwal off the hook
It’s amazing that an otherwise vigilant media of our time has facilitated the Aam Admi Party…
By Arvind Lavakare on 20 Feb 2014
It’s amazing that an otherwise vigilant media of our time has facilitated the Aam Admi Party (AAP) to magnify its reach from just Delhi to almost all across the country in just about two months from the time.
There have been very limited exceptions, no doubt, to this assertion but there’s no doubt also that our TV anchors and Press reporters have been so mesmerised by the self-righteousness and rhetoric of Arvind Kejriwal that they have, overall, failed to pin him down on his humungous hypocrisy and dangerous unorthodoxy of talking one thing and doing the other, of foul-mouthing his adversaries, real or imaginary, including the media itself, without carrying proof of his diatribe and without caring for the a civilised society’s norms of courtesy and civility.
Here are just some examples of how the media has been almost mute on the humungous deceits of the AAP during its short stint for which it ran the Delhi Government.
1. Arvind Kejriwal was known to have publicly sworn by his two children that he would not take the support of the Congress to form his Government. But he did it without a word of remorse or retraction. How, then, can one trust anything else he swears by?
2. The AAP’s election manifesto promised 700 litres of water free to Delhi’s residents. Its Government ended up restricting the promise to just about that small portion of Delhi’s population which had meter connections. Yet, no one really pilloried its Chief Minister. Instead, there were newspaper headlines that said AAP had fulfilled its first promise!
3. Its promise of reduction of Delhi citizens’ electricity expenditure was similarly partially fulfilled. Shockingly, the media proclaimed that the AAP had kept its second promise.
4. When the Delhi Government announced a helpline and a licence to conduct a sting operation to catch corrupt officials, there was no outcry that AAP was, in fact, creating a Gestapo regime where even a son could blackmail his father.
5. Over a Rule of the Government of India requiring the Jan Lokpal Bill being required to obtain the Lieutenant Governor’s prior approval before the Bill’s introduction in the Assembly, the Chief Minister ridiculed the LG as well as the Home Minister of the country. The Home Minister dubbed him as mad but the media kept its ammunition dry.
6. After he resigned over his stillborn Jan Lokpal Bill, Arvind Kejriwal again rebuked the LG for not accepting his Cabinet’s demand for the dissolution of the Assembly. Once more, the media kept its ammunition dry.
Since that resignation and before, the AAP boss has made wild allegations against political parties and highly placed individuals such as Mukesh Ambani and Narendra Modi. But the media has chosen to give this Chief Minister platforms where he is enabled to convert interviews into his own platforms for delivering his monologues: “Every political party is evil” and “Without me, the deluge”.
All this humbug even as the former Chief Minister does not utter a single comment regarding his Law Minister who has been indicted by a CBI court for tampering with evidence, who has been exposed by a TV channel as a scammer in the spamming business, and who is accused of forcibly testing an African woman’s urine on the road for a suspected drug offence.
The time has truly come for the media to wake up to the Frankenstein monster they are helping create.
Meanwhile, those who are at all interested in the hogwash which the likes of Yogendra Yadav of the AAP peddle about gas pricing and the Adani group’s links with Narendra Modi, may like to read the way he has been stripped naked of his falsehoods in the article available here.
↧
↧
UPA betrayed Rajiv Gandhi's soul -- K. Raghothaman, Retd. CBI Officer
Freeing Rajiv’s killers will only end Jaya’s PM dreams
by Feb 20, 2014
Rahul Gandhi, a Congress spokesperson said on television, was not angry. Just sad.
That is understandable.
It is also understandable that Jayalalithaa felt she could score political points in Tamil Nadu by releasing the seven men facing life in prison for their involvement in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination. The Supreme Court can block her as it has done, but she can claim to her political foes in the state that she has done her best.
That is understandable.
It is also understandable that Jayalalithaa felt she could score political points in Tamil Nadu by releasing the seven men facing life in prison for their involvement in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination. The Supreme Court can block her as it has done, but she can claim to her political foes in the state that she has done her best.
]![Will Delhi be forever distant to the woman who set free a Prime Minister's killers? PTI]()
Will Delhi be forever distant to the woman who set free a Prime Minister's killers? PTI
What is incomprehensible is that she does not feel any need to justify an announcement as monumental and politically sensitive as this one. Her matter-of-fact tone was that of someone announcing a bureaucratic reshuffle.
Will Delhi be forever distant to the woman who set free a Prime Minister's killers? PTI“Taking into account that they have spent nearly 23 years in prison, the state cabinet has resolved to release them, exercising the power of remission vested in it under section 432 of the CrPC,” Jayalalithaa told the Assembly.
Then she outlined the mechanical steps.
“To proceed with the consultation, the state cabinet's decision to remit the sentences of the seven persons will be forwarded to the Centre immediately. If the Union government delays its response beyond three days, the state government will exercise its powers and will release Perarivalan, Sriharan, Santhan, Nalini, Robert Payas, Jayakumar and Ravichandran.”
Forget a sobering acknowledgment of the gravity of the decision, it became another heroic Centre-state confrontation.
“Whether the Centre responds to our recommendation or not, we will invoke the powers vested with the government and release them,” she said, while members, across partly lines thumped their desks in approval.
There was no hint that the decision weighed heavily on her at all, that she had lost any sleep about the ramifications of the precedent she was setting. If Jayalalithaa remembered that Rajiv Gandhi was campaigning for an alliance with her party when he was killed in Sriperumbudur or that sympathy wave helped her come to power for the first time, she made no mention of it. In fact, the excerpts that appeared in newspapers and national television programmes of her statement have no mention of her invoking Rajiv Gandhi's name or the others who were also killed that day.
Congress leader A. Gopanna bitterly said “Jayalalithaa first came to power in 1991 benefiting from the brutal assassination of Rajiv Gandhi. Now she herself has buried his memory.”
While the decision has evoked the expected howls of protest about playing politics with the death penalty, what is more baffling for the rest of the country is how non-controversial it seems to be for her in Tamil Nadu.
Political parties including the CPI, PMK, MDMK, VCK, SDPI, DMK welcomed the decision. Karunanidhi has merely tried to claim credit for the idea. The Hindu quotes him as saying “When I proposed idea of commuting their death sentence in 2011, she ridiculed it. Now she has taken a decision in favour of it. I welcome her stand.”
Karunanidhi has had his own twists and turns. He had once rejected mercy petitions for the convicts in 2000. Since then he has gone on record saying “"Had young leader Rajiv Gandhi been alive today, that noble man would have definitely come forward to save the lives of Santhan, Perarivalan and Murugan, responding to the voice of true Tamils and in accordance with the golden saying of Anna, forget and forgive."
Regional parties are far more powerful today and national parties have shrunk. Our political killers are no longer viewed through the lens of terrorism but through their regional affiliation. It's not that one person's terrorist is another person's freedom fighter. It's that one person's terrorist is another person's Tamilian or another person's Sikh. When our politicians make naked appeals based on ethnicity and religion they make a mockery of the law and whittle it down for their short-term political gains by carving out exception. The exceptions will not prove the rule. Soon they will become the rule.
It's too late to say we should not politicize the issue. We have already politicized it whether by setting these convicts free or by hanging Afzal Guru with such alacrity. It's too late to be wary of double standards. We are completely mired in them. Even the delay in the execution was a political act just as letting them go will be.
Manmohan Singh might now say that the attack on Shri Rajiv Gandhi “our great leader” was an “attack on the soul of India” but as K. Raghothaman, a retired CBI officer who investigated the case, said to ABP: “The blame will lie entirely with the UPA government, which delayed the mercy petitions of the three from April 2000 to August 2011 and helped these convicts. UPA has betrayed Rajiv Gandhi's soul.”
And Jayalalithaa is clearly not alone in playing politics with the death penalty. In 2012 the Shiromani Akali Dal and the Shiromani Gurudwara Prabandhak Committee were hailing Balwant Singh Rajoana who conspired to assassinate chief minister Beant Singh in 1995 as a “living Sikh martyr” and demanding clemency from the Prime Minister. Even Punjab Congress party leader Captain Amarinder Singh supported the clemency demand.
As we had observed back then on Firstpost “All our politicians are tough on terrorism - except when their vote bank calculations dictate otherwise.”
That is apparently the only thing a chief minister needs to care about. The rise of the power of regional parties has meant that a Jayalalithaa is so secure in how her decision will play out in Tamil Nadu she feels no need to even explain it to a baffled nation. How her decision reverberates on television screens and newspapers across the country seems to matter little in Poes Garden.
But such nonchalance may prove expensive in the long run for a woman who is being projected by her party as an excellent prime ministerial candidate. Dilli door ast, indeed, when you are chief minister of Tamil Nadu. But will Delhi remain forever distant for a leader who sets free the killers of a former Prime Minister?
↧
Are the ‘kleptocrats’ on the run? -- M.G.Devasahayam
Are the ‘kleptocrats’ on the run?
M.G.Devasahayam
February 20, 2014
Anti-Corruption rhetoric has been the flavour of last several seasons with a political party morphing out of it and capturing power in Delhi in the winter of 2013. The party chief cum Chief Minister has now come out with the ‘rogue’s gallery’ of the most-corrupt who actually run India’s democracy-turned-kleptocracy. This is name-and-shame game, a typical anti-corruption campaign tool used as the last resort because it could attract retribution including criminal defamation. It also can severely damage the credibility of the accuser if not backed-up by cast-iron proof. The purpose is to put the ‘big-fish’ of corruption on the run.
One wonders why the serving Chief Minister of nation’s capital-state should resort to this ‘panic instrument’ country-wide. His first and foremost task should be to put the reptiles lurking in Delhi’s cesspool on the run by effective use of all instruments of governance. Since deeds speak far louder than words it is time Kejriwal puts action where his mouth is!
While so, the big question is: are the ‘big-sharks’ named-and-shamed anywhere near running? To find the answer one needs to go back to 2009 when UPA II formed the Government with Congress Party on a stronger position. This was when some serious cases of corruption and loot–Satyam scam, 2G scandal, Jharkand Mining-started surfacing. In its midst, big-guns boomed against ‘corruption-in-high-places’, creating an impression that at long last the debilitating cancer afflicting India’s governance and society, is meeting its nemesis and the aam aadmi can look forward to good and honest governance in the near future.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh himself led the charge. Addressing a conference of CBI and state anti-corruption officials he ‘thundered’: "High-level corruption should be pursued aggressively. There is a pervasive feeling that while petty cases get tackled quickly, the big-fish escape punishment. This has to change." Newspapers headlines promptly screamed: “PM on corruption-'Big-fish' must not escape punishment”.
Then came Chief Justice of India KG Balakrishnan firing on all cylinders. He sought confiscation of assets of persons convicted of offences under the Prevention of Corruption Act. Speaking at the national seminar on “Fighting Crimes Related to Corruption” organised jointly by the CBI and the National Institute of Criminology and Forensic Science he said: “The rationale behind the same is that if a public official amasses wealth at the cost of the public, then the state is justified in seizing such assets.”
Union Minister for Law and Justice went a step further and called for the amendment of Articles 309, 310 and 311 of the Constitution, thus removing protection and safeguards in prosecuting corrupt public servants saying “there is a feeling that the protection given to the public servants under Article 311 of the Constitution is being used to create obstacles for expeditious punitive action.”
As if in response to the cacophony, bigger and worse scandals-Common Wealth Games, Coalgate, ISRO-ANTRAX, Aircraft Carrier Gorshkov, TATRA Truck, Augusta-Westland, NSEL, Air-India purchase, resources loot-surfaced and many more were churning under the surface.
As it turned out the PM, CJI and Law Minister have been hypocritical to the core. PM’s charade against corruption was more of ‘image makeover’ to attract foreign investment and not any genuine efforts towards honest governance. He made it clear when he said: "Pervasive corruption in our country tarnishes our image. It also discourages investors, who expect fair treatment and transparent dealings”. The higher judiciary including the then CJI were themselves enmeshed in controversies over corruption and amassing huge wealth, denying access under Right to Information Act and attempted elevation of people accused of corruption and land-grabbing to India’s Apex Court. Law minister along with his trusted Attorney General was working overtime to suppress the scandals, even going to the extent of filing false affidavits in the courts of law. In the event ‘corrupt-Big-fish' were growing bigger and stronger without any remorse or restraint!
In the Indian context ‘big-fish’ comprise of ministers, members of parliament, judges, top-rung bureaucrats and other constitutional functionaries who wield enormous power and influence without corresponding accountability or rules to regulate their conduct. Institutions of Lokpal and Lokayukt were precisely aimed at reining in and punishing such big-foulers. There are already a plethora ‘vigilance’ bodies to discipline small fries.
The First Lokpal Bill was introduced and passed in the fourth Lok Sabha in 1968/69. However, while it was pending in the Rajya Sabha, the Lok Sabha was dissolved, resulting in the first death of the Bill. It was revived in 1971, 1977, 1985, 1989, 1996, 1998, 2001, 2005 and 2008. Each time, after introduction the Bill was referred to some committee or other for ‘improvements’ and before the government could take a final call on the issue the house was dissolved.
Though Lokayuktas have been constituted in 17 states, their power, function and jurisdiction are not uniform. Deliberate lacunae have been left in legislation creating the office, apparently to keep the elected representatives outside meaningful jurisdiction of the Lokayukta, even when the laws appear to include them. Lokayuktas cannot take suo mottocognisance of even scandalizing corruption, have no independent investigative machinery and are dependent on the government agencies, thereby making these Ombudsman-type bodies virtually non-functional.
Even 45 years after its initiation, such eminent ‘watchdog institutions’ conceived as public bulwark against ‘corruption-in-high-places’ were either non-existent or non-functional. There were only seminars and speeches. In the event, while the venal and the corrupt strode this land like colossus, dominating its political, administrative, judicial and business spectrum, the conscientious and the honest shrunk and faded away! This was India’s true tragedy and the harbinger of state kleptocracy!
The recent struggle for Lokpal was started by Gandhian Satyagraha Brigade, the rejuvenated version of the Lok Sevak Sangh of Servants of the People Society founded by Lala Lajpat Rai in 1921 and inaugurated by Mahatma Gandhi. The struggle was led by nonagenarianShambhu Dutt of Quit India vintage, and stalwart of the JP Movement of the seventies. In fact after a frustrating crusade he had decided to offer the ‘supreme sacrifice’ by going on ‘fast-unto-death’ starting from 30th January 2010, Gandhi’s martyrdom day, but was promptly dissuaded. It was this struggle that was taken up by Anna Hazare, Swami Agnivesh, Prashant Bushan, Justice Santosh Hegde, Kiran Bedi and Arvind Kejriwal when they released the draft Jan Lokpal Bill in December 2010. The ‘India Against Corruption’ movement followed with lots of theatrics in full media glare.
The Lokpal Act that has come out of this glare stands testimony to India’s immense propensity for jugaad-dramatise things, but achieve nothing. The Act is in this category and is more of a farce. The institution as contemplated now is unwieldy, top-heavy, and the focus has been heavily diluted by including millions of Class III and Class IV government employees within its ambit. Ironically, Kejriwal-driven Delhi Jan Lokpal Bill also is in the same league-covering all public servants from Chief Minister to Group D employees making it as unfocussed as the Central Act. This serious aberration would protect the corrupt ‘big-fish’ who actually run India’s kleptocracy while chasing petty bribe-takers. In the event, the very purpose of setting up the high-profile Ombudsman stand defeated. That probably was the intention behind all the theatrics!
Also, there are desperate efforts to constitute the Lokpal in a tearing hurry by violating the provisions of law to facilitate appointment of ‘favourites’ as Chairman and Members. It looks as if Lokpal will be dismembered even before it is put together!
It is in this ‘ambience’ that the ‘Kejriwal List’ a la the infamous ‘Schindler's List’ is appearing.The latter had the ex-Nazis on the run. Will the former put India’s ‘kleptocrats’ on the run too? The jury is out.
[Writer is former IAS Officer and National Working Committee Member of Gandhian Satyagraha Brigade]
↧
Wendy Doniger & The Hindus. They will now speak -- Vamsee Juluru
I wish it becomes a reality that Hindus will now speak and tell the original or real story of the Hindus.
Some attempts are visible.
What have the Hindus done to speak?
The total signatures on a still-active online petition of Sarasvati Research and Education Trust which sparked the debate is 11,027 (as of Feb. 20, 2014).
A Whitehouse petition has crossed the first threshold of 30 signatures to stay active with 64 signatures (as of Feb. 20, 2014) and should thus make Office of Faith, Whitehouse to open a file on the subject.
Since Hindus are now sizable minority in a position to influence decision-making in US Administration and Academe, I hope the Hindus will use avenues available to create lobbies in Capitol Hill. I am sure some concerned Hindus will take up the arguments provided in support of the Whitehouse petition.
I think the Hindus should also speak to the Academe directly posing questions on ethical social responsibility of the type raised here. The key questions raised are: 1. Is Wendy's book 'harmful material' as defined under Chapter 43 of US Penal code? 2. Shouldn't there be an ethical code for persons studying religions the way a Hippocratic Oath exists for medical practitioners? The answers to these questions may come if there is a joint effort by attorneys, history scholars, academics involved in religious studies and Capitol Hill insiders to deliberate further.
I don't know if it is the role of Office of Faith to facilitate such a joint effort. I will defer to guidance from scholars who have been involved with such efforts and from those who remember how Susan B. Anthony was able to propel Civil Rights as an issue which continues to dominate the value systems and educational institutions in the USA and Europe.
Kalyanaraman
The Scholars: An Alternative Story About Wendy Doniger and The Hindus
Vamsee Juluri USF professor; author, Bollywood Nation: India through its Cinema' Posted: Updated: Imagine this:
A book called The Women, written by a man who claims to be an expert on women.
A book called The Poor, written by a millionaire who read a few books on poverty (written mostly by other rich people).
A book called The Gays, written by a heterosexual who insists he loves them even if his subjects say he is quite homophobic.
Now consider a book called The Hindus.
It is written not by someone who grew up as a Hindu, in a Hindu household, or presumably, anything like a living Hindu cultural environment. It contains factual errors, as well as numerous arguably dubious interpretations. It appears to Hindu readers to be skewed, distorted, and even bizarre; even if one generously concedes that it is after all subtitled as an "alternative" history.
It may well have been the case that such a book would have been taken just about as seriously as a book called The Women by a pompous man who didn't know better orThe Poor by a one-percenter with no empathy at all.
But it isn't. The Hindus is the name of a real book, and has won the admiration and praise of real critics, writers, activists, and scholars. Is it a work of scholarship? To a certain extent, it is. It contains more references than most students of Hinduism, or even practicing Hindus would be aware of (though its author compares the task of looking at endnotes to dogs sniffing each others' backsides in a rather irreverentially un-Hindu approach to learning). It makes some good points, in theory, for tolerance, diversity, and recognizing the margins of history (though, like margin notes, much of these points are also made in a rather zig-zag fashion than in conformity to normal standards of academic writing). But the simplest reason that a book called The Hindus has been acclaimed as a work of great scholarship despite its flaws is perhaps because of its accident of privilege; of nationality, of class, and of race.
To paraphrase Edward Said, very simply, it does to Hindus what Hindus cannot do to the "scholars" who write about them.
Except that when they do try, they often end up looking, sounding, and sometimes, on rare occasion, really acting too like barbaric religious fundamentalists. The Hindus who try are probably law-abiding professionals and family members, devout, engaged, and increasingly assertive about their right to their own stories and representations. They are, in America at least, religious and cultural minorities. They feel doubly aggrieved; by their past, which bears the marks of their denigration by those of a different race, nationality and religion during colonialism, and by the present, where the promise of an equal, respectful society seems to be ever elusive when it comes to their faith, and their faith alone. They write angry emails. They sometimes throw eggs. A few call for worse things. They obviously span the spectrum of politics, ethics, and propriety.
But then, there are Hindus who throw no eggs, send no anger, and advocate no disenfranchisement of minorities in India. They do, however, decline to celebrate a lie. They refuse to participate in the oblivious celebration of racial, national, and class privilege that denies them their own voice. They do not share the academic and literary elite's admiration for a book like The Hindus. However, they too are supporting Professor Doniger's right to be published, even as they are maintaining their stand that they have a right to debate that which she publishes too. They are the future of Hinduism, and indeed a better world too; not those who blindly ban books, and also not those who blindly worship a flawed work without recognizing and critiquing the profound privileges that have helped elevate that work beyond its flaws to international celebration.
Simply put, we can all have our bumper sticker moments now that the answer to a book you disagree with is not a ban on the book but still more books. Writers, publishers, and readers would all love that. But the fact remains that not everyone gets anything remotely resembling equal time or shelf-space with a book backed by 500 years of colonial and post-colonial privilege. At least in an Indian bookstore, you will find dozens of books on Hinduism as Hindus (or "the Hindus" if you will) see it, live it, and indeed critically shape it, from one generation to another. You will see traditional compilations of the Vedas and Upanishads, and newer and new-age-ier explorations of what the myths all mean to the modern Indian soul. You will see books on Hinduism and Buddhism and Islam and Sikhism and Jainism and Islam and Christianity. You will see India and the world in its microcosm. You will not miss anything because of the presence of one experimental hippy-trippy toke-toke giggle-giggle sprawl in there. It needs no ban.
But it is in America, this bastion of privilege, and possibility, this dream of the world, that the real consequences of misrepresentation play out. You will find in all your bookstores and journals and hallowed pulpits, that "alternative" story, often becoming the only story. There is no room here for Hindus, only an "expert" on "The Hindus." Look at the India shelves. Look at the op-ed pages of the papers of record. You will see no Hindus except by token of name perhaps. You will find top of the line seculars who will equate any critique of racism and orientalism against Hindus with Hindu fundamentalism. You will find, reflected back and forth in the words of the four or five authors who have been chosen to portray 1.5 billion people to America, the same malignant fantasy as the old colonizers about Hinduism. It is mitigated, perhaps, by a streak of anti-colonial idealism, a great anguish for the poor, the minorities, the oppressed of the world. But their view of Hinduism is limited. They either did not know it in their lives, or knew no affection for it. They hallucinate a bogey-man in it and blame it for all of India's ills, with a straight face. They think that when Hindus get angry it is because of their "mythology" and when others kill people it is because they are poor and oppressed. They think that Hinduism has nothing good in it, just borrowed from other faiths. They think that Hinduism has been responsible for every bad thing in India, and then also think that Hinduism doesn't really exist. They have no clue. And if they did not have the privilege that Hinduphobic orientalism has given them, their lack of academic depth and integrity would have been called out a million times over by now. There is no mainstream history of "The Hindus" in hegemonic center stage in North America. There is just one "alternative," which makes little sense, frankly, even as an alternative too. It is just an old hegemony by a disingenuously counter-hegemonic name, and has nothing to with Hindus.
But those who are today merely silenced and fantasized about as The Hindus will one day have their history, and their own alternatives too. For the Hindus already have their own liberalism, secularism, and pluralism, way beyond the watered-down double-standard versions offered by the self-appointed prophets of the same. They will welcome debate, dissent, and a reasonable criticism of their own ways, from within and without. They have after all not traditionally found a need to defend their philosophies or beliefs with walls of privilege, of a theocratic or secular kind. They will do what Hindus have done best, which is to live well with others, and even better with others' diverse visions of God. They will also assert what religion is really about in time, even if the present moment seems to bear only the voices of those "Hindu nationalists" who include both more and less than what they are made out to be. They will take Hindu and nation beyond the limits of both. They will restore the love in religion, and the truth. They will welcome and celebrate the scholars and critics both from within and outside its traditional and geographical folds. They will make sure that a book about The Hindus will have at least something to do with the Hindu religion, as in a group of peoples' ways of engaging with the divine, as opposed to merely throwing about their alleged recipes for human sacrifice, dismemberment, and oppression. The Hindus will live, let live, and most of all, they will now speak.
It is The Scholars who will have to learn to listen.
↧
Another milestone by Shiksha Bachao Andolan Samiti -- Pramod Kumar. No right to defame -- Monika Arora
“Freedom of expression does not mean freedom of defamation” – Monika Arora, legal counsel for SBAC against Penguin India
“It may be news for you and everyone else but for us it was a simple case,” Monika Arora says with an almost bemused smile, “I simply cannot understand why there is such a big hue and cry.” It is roughly a week after news first broke of Penguin India’s agreement to withdraw copies of Wendy Doniger’s book, “The Hindus: An Alternative History” and Arora seems genuinely surprised at the volume of attention this story was given, both by the national as well as the international media.
Arora was the legal counsel for the Shiksha Bachao Andolan Committee (SBAC), the orgnaisation that had first approached courts in 2010, following the publication of Doniger’s book. The SBAC had claimed that portions of the book were defamatory, untrue and insulted the religious beliefs of the plaintiffs. The relief sought by the SBAC was the deletion of those portions of the book that were untrue and defamatory.
Four years later, while the trial was at the stage of cross-examination, Penguin India agreed to completely withdraw the book from the Indian market, something that Arora and the SBAC had never asked for. Once this agreement was made public, it evoked some strong reactions, with Penguin author Arundathi Roy writing an open letter asking Penguin to identify what “terrified” the publisher.
“The problem is that Hindu bashing sells,” says Arora, the measured pace of her words belying her apparent irritation. She minces no words when it comes to the likes of Roy, claiming that “leftist intellectuals” are prone to mistake “Hindu bashing” for secularism. “Had a similar book been written about any other religion,” she says, “I wonder if these intellectuals would have supported it.” As for worries that this spoke poorly of India’s committement to the freedom of expression, Arora counters it with the argument that freedom of expression does not include the freedom of defamation.
“Doniger has a history of defaming Hindus,” says Arora, “and the book is filled with factual errors but just because she is white, we don’t question these things.” Some of the errors that SBAC had sought to remove from the book include the statement that Rani Jhansi was loyal to the British, that Mahatma Gandhi advised people to eat beef, and that the shiv lingam was a representation of the erect male sexual organ. And it is at this point that Arora appears to become truly upset, “Doniger’s book is nothing but porn.”
It was not only Arundathi Roy who chose to issue a public statement on this issue. Wendy Doniger also made a public statement, stating that the real culprits were neither the SBAC nor Penguin India but rather the Indian law that, “that jeopardizes the physical safety of any publisher”
And it is with this particular contention that Arora has a problem with.
“This law has existed since way before 2009,” she says in reference to Section 295A, “it certainly didn’t deter international publishers then so why is it suddenly being raised now?”
“Rule of law mandates that no one should be above the law,” she adds, “and if this is what [S.295A] states than what is all this hue and cry for?”
Another aspect that Arora has taken a strong exception to is the manner in which her clients have been portrayed. “My clients have been called fascists, Modi-supporters and this is ridiculous!” she says, “I mean just because you talk about Hindusim doesn’t automatically mean you belong to a certain political camp!” Worse, as per Arora, her clients were educated, law-abiding citizens. “One of them is a former Ambassador, another an academician, the third a historian,” and her voice appears to be tinged with pain, “they are not some illiterates who retaliate with violence.”
Arora has had a fairly interesting career of her own. As a student, she was the Secretary (and later the President) of the Delhi University Students Union. “This gave me the confidence to speak I suppose,” she says about her student days, “there were times when I was addressing an audience of lakhs.” It may have been this stint that pushed her towards law, and she took up the law degree from Delhi University.
More than a decade into the profession, she seems to have found her passion. “Law allows you to get relief for any person wronged by law,” she says, “and that is what is so fascinating about law.” Over the years, she has appeared in a number of public interest litigations, including litigations against the Delhi Bar Council, Delhi University and the Delhi government. “Anything of public interest,” she says, “inspires me to work.”
Comment
Madam,
Ask any MAN in India, how he lives with the fear of False Molestation/sexual harassment complaints.
Ask any MAN in India, how he lives with the fear of False Molestation/sexual harassment complaints.
You correctly wrote against freedom of defamation. Anti - men laws do not allow naming women who make false complaints. But Media depicts Man as a Rapist/Molestor thereby defaming him.
Madam, where were u all these days, when innocent Men were named under false molestation cases? Why did u not write some article in favour of Men?
↧
↧
The bravery of a soldier's mother -- Ashlesha Athavale
1 February 2014
After her son was killed in Kashmir, Anuradha Gore made it her life’s mission to have other youngsters join the Army
http://www.openthemagazine.com/article/nation/the-bravery-of-a-soldier-s-mother
↧
Fables of a sick mind -- Gen. VK Singh. Highest seat of power, quit politics. Sharma, quit being CAG.
Top General speaks: Def Secy summoned me late night, said highest seat of power was worried, troops must go back quickly
SUMMARY
Confirmation comes after almost two years of denial by both the government and the Army of any such incident, which was first investigated and reported by The Indian Express on April 4, 2012.
Defence Minister A K Antony called the report absolute rubbish while General V K Singh called it “fables of a sick mind”. (PTI)
LT-Gen A K Choudhary, who was Director General of Military Operations in January 2012, has confirmed that there was alarm at the highest levels of the UPA government in mid-January 2012 over themovement of two Army units near New Delhi. So much so that then defence secretary Shashi Kant Sharma summoned him shortly before midnight and told him that he “had just come back from the highest seat of power and that they are worried”.
Choudhary says he was told to immediately send the troops back and file a report to the government which he did the very next day.
This confirmation comes after almost two years of denial by both the government and the Army of any such incident, which was first investigated and reported by The Indian Express on April 4, 2012.
That report in The Indian Express was called “absolute rubbish” by Defence Minister A K Antony; the then chief, General V K Singh, speaking to The Hindu on April 7, 2012, called it “fables of a sick mind” and claimed that “no clarification was sought by the government”.
Speaking to The Indian Express in Patna Thursday, three weeks after his retirement as Bengal Area Commander, Choudhary said that the confusion was created due to increasing distrust “between two individuals” and “immaturity” on both sides. And that the entire situation could have been avoided if there was proper communication. “I did feel bad because I am in touch with the defence ministry on an hourly basis and, still, they didn’t raise this with me earlier,” he said.
Choudhary admitted that the troop movements “could have been avoided” if it was known that V K Singh was approaching the Supreme Court on the matter of his date of birth against the government on the same day — January 16, 2012.
Choudhary has confirmed (read his interview), that he was called in by then defence secretary to explain the movement of a mechanised infantry unit from Hisar and a paratroopers detachment from Agra late at night on the same day.
Choudhary has revealed that a day before his meeting with the defence secretary, he (Choudhary) had come to know about the movement of the Hisar unit near Delhi after a senior officer in charge of formations near the capital called him, alerting about concerns of intelligence agencies.
Choudhary said he had ordered this unit to halt and turn back a day before the defence secretary called him.
Describing his meeting with Sharma on January 16, the top officer said: “At around 11 pm, I got a call to come to office. The defence secretary had called me. I first informed the chief (V K Singh) and then went to meet the defence secretary. He (defence secretary) said he had just come back from the highest seat of power and that they are worried. He said bataiye kya ho raha hai. (Tell me what’s happening). I told him that this was an exercise and I have already told them to stop and take a different route. He said to me that they should be told to go back quickly. I said that they will go as per the drill as there is method to their movement and in any case they would have gone back after the exercise.
“He (Sharma) then asked about the para movement (para commando troops from Agra) also. I was initially not aware of it. They had been coming for training and going back. They used to come and go from that area in the past also. After the meeting, I also told them to carry out no further movement and asked them to go back in smaller groups.”
Choudhary recalled how he had discovered the movements of mechanised columns a day earlier. “On the evening of January 15 (a day before I was called by the Defence Secretary), I got a call at about 11-11.30 pm from one of the senior officers in charge of a formation looking after Delhi Area, inquiring about some troop movements. He must have been asked by some intelligence fellows. I told him I did not know, and said let me find out. I then asked the Corps Commander (1 Corps) concerned, who said there was nothing and that they were just doing an exercise that had been discussed in the past. May be, he had discussed this with the Chief and other senior officers. From what I gathered, they were checking out the time its takes to move these troops.”
According to the former DGMO, he asked the officer concerned about their proximity to Delhi. “I asked him about why they had come this close? He said that the route was like that only. Since some people said there are some problems, I asked them to halt there and told them that they should take a different route the next day. However, they said they could not stop there as the location had shops on both sides, so they will stop at a day harbour (a place where a military convoy halts during daytime) 15-20 km ahead. As a result, the convoy kept moving for 45 minutes more and then halted.”
Choudhary said that behind the confusion was the deepening trust deficit between the government and the Army. “I think the (Defence) Ministry and the IB (Intelligence Bureau) got excited and made their impression on the basis of the last five to six months when things had gone to a level where there had been distrust among people —- two individuals. There was immaturity on both sides. Immaturity on the part of the commanders I don’t know, if he knew about the dates (court) or had he had thought on these lines, he could have stopped it. But I don’t think he thought on those lines.” he said.
On the lessons learnt, Choudhary said that the Army submitted a written report detailing the troop movements on January 17 and explained in detail that the troops were moving as part of a planned exercise. He further said that a few months down the line, instructions were passed that the government needs to be informed of all army movements near the national capital.
↧
Ancient harbour discovered in Trikonamalai -- BD Jude Mendis
The harbour, the second largest natural harbour in the world, its entrance is guarded by two headlands. The Portuguese, Dutch, French, and the English, each held it in sea-battles to shape the history of Sri Lanka.
Kalyanaraman
Ancient harbour discovered in Trincomalee
An excavation in the Illankathurai area in Trincomalee has lead to the discovery of the remains of an ancient harbour that had global relations in its time.
The excavation had been carried out under the supervision of Senior Lecturer of the Postgraduate Institute of Archaeology of Keleniya University, Prof. Arjuna Thanthilage.
Prof. Arjuna Thanthilage stated that they had discovered remains of goods and a large amount of beads belonging to foreign nations.
Speaking to Newsfirst, Prof. Thanthilage said that they speculate the harbour might have been constructed because of a copper deposition in the area.http://newsfirst.lk/english/2014/02/ancient-harbor-discovered-trincomalee/21260
Ancient harbour found in Trincomalee
February 21, 2014 6:11 am
By Chrishanthi Christopher
An ancient harbour, dating back to 800 AD, has been discovered in Trincomalee by the Department of Archaeology during one of its field expeditions.
Head of the Post Graduate Institute of Archaeology, Kelaniya, Dr. Anura Thantilage, told Ceylon Today that, during a field search for ancient copper metallurgy, they had come across evidence to indicate the existence of an international port in Seruwila. "We found ruins of stone pillars and large ponds indicative of a port having functioned here," he said.
Dr. Thantilage said the artefacts found during the excavation, adjoining the port site, indicated that they were copper productions dating back to the zero AD era. "We also found Chinese ceramics, foreign glass and mineral beads which pointed to the trading that took place during that era," he added.
Dr. Thantilage said that carbon dating has been done on the copper finds and it has been proved that it belongs to the zero AD Century. "The copper may have been used for the production of weapons and statutes during that time," he said, and added that the Weragala and Abhayagiri stupas, which had belonged to that era, may have the copper metal in them.
Dr. Thantilage said that the copper, which is in the form of copper magnetite, is very important locally and regionally, as geographically, the metal is not available up to the middle regions of South India. However, he said that the metal at the site has been completely exhausted and advanced technology is needed to extract whatever that might be remaining.
http://www.ceylontoday.lk/16-56601-news-detail-ancient-harbour-found-in-trincomalee.html
↧
AMOL
February 18, 2014 - 7:27pm