Arun Shourie and the BJP

Being denied the right to voice his concerns and points in the BJP national executive, Arun Shourie was forced to make his voice heard through the print media where he has written a series of 4 articles in the Indian express on the fall of Indian political parties. Of course all the points he raises are meant for the BJP and its leaders.

Here are the articles,

http://www.indianexpress.com/news/on-the-way-down/488780/

http://www.indianexpress.com/news/the-end-of-ideology/489390/0

http://www.indianexpress.com/news/how-the-party-withers-away/489889/0

http://www.indianexpress.com/news/ring-out-the-old-ring-in-the-new/490631/

The response to these articles within the sangh and the BJP appears to be promising with the RSS looking forward to major changes in the leadership of the BJP,

http://www.indianexpress.com/news/RSS-for--larger-debate--on-issues-raised-by-Shourie/491060

http://www.telegraphindia.com/1090719/jsp/nation/story_11255371.jsp

"Sources say that Arun Shourie’s piercing critique of the party’s functioning has reinforced the Sangh perception that the BJP needs an overhaul. Some senior Sangh leaders have said the issues Shourie has raised should be thoroughly discussed, indicating they favour change.
The sources said many Sangh leaders had congratulated Shourie for his analysis, in his newspaper articles, of the leadership crisis in the BJP.
Although the BJP has dismissed the criticism as Shourie’s personal views, many leaders do support his offensive. "

Congress better?

Recently the BJP has been behaving totally wierd and it is possible that Congress rule might actually be better than BJP rule right now!

Firstly, the Karnataka BJP, increased Madrassa funding from Rs. 30 crores to 120 crores annually in the state budget!! Inspite of that the muslims in Karnataka gave a fatwa to vote against the BJP.

Turns out that even in Rajasthan, the BJP government gave a lot of money to madrassas for thei modernization. Giving computers is not modernizing them. They will only use it to further their Jehadi ideals!! Turns out that once Congress started ruling the state, the madrassas are not finded anymore.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Cities/Jaipur/Gehlot-govt-blamed-for-problems-of-state-madrasas/articleshow/4637726.cms

Also, now in Gujarat, 3 muslim boys kidnapped and raped a hindu girl. Immediately the state govt. detained 40-50 VHP people. It looks like Modi, is trying very hard to remove the communal tag that the pseudo-seculars and commies have given him.

http://deshgujarat.com/2009/06/12/3-muslim-youths-who-kidnapped-raped-a-girl-nabbed-in-surat/

http://www.indianexpress.com/news/Surat-gangrape--VHP-workers-detained/476583/

It was good to know that the locals beat up the rapists.

The Gujarat govt. has also started tapping phones of VHP personnell which is illegal,

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Cities/VHP-alleges-that-Guj-police-taps-their-phones-/articleshow/4663786.cms

BJP infiltrated

Sudheendra Kulkarni, an IIT-B graduate has been enjoying a lot of influence in the BJP acting as LK Advani's political advisor. What qualified him to be one is unknown. He took over the reins of the BJP's political campaign for the general elections in 2009. His pathetic performance resulted in the BJP facing a horrible defeat in one the the most important election that the nation has faced.

He is now putting the blame on all the others and especially the RSS. The fact that he chose "Tehelka" to write his opinion itself should indicate where his loylties lie. It is highly possible that he was planted in the BJP by the commies/missionaries to sabotage the BJP campaign. They certainly succeeded.

http://tehelka.com/story_main42.asp?filename=Ne130609hindu_divided.asp

Kanchan Gupta gave a short reply to his article ,
http://news.rediff.com/column/2009/jun/11/kanchan-gupta-on-why-the-knives-are-out-in-the-bjp.htm

A brilliant reply to Kulkarni's article is given by his classmate in IIT-B, Anil Chawla, where he exposes both Kulkarni as well as LK Advani as being highly selfish people who look after their own interests at the cost of the party.

http://www.samarthbharat.com/sudheendraletter.htm

Sudheendra Kulkarni also exposed himself by praising the Hindu-Christian inter faith dialogue which is a clear ploy to aid conversions in India.

I am no longer an admirer of Advani as he has proven beyond doubt that he is nothing but a self serving politician who only pais lip service to the hindu masses just to gain power. It is befitting that he did not become the prime minister.

All of Advani's coterie including Jaitley and Shushma Swaraj need to be booted out of the party. Jaitley is actually not so bad I guess but it was under Swaraj's tenure as communication minister that she allowed forrign direct investment in media thanks to which we now have the anti national CNN-IBN, IBN-Live, etc.


A very good analysis on why the BJP lost and what the BJP needs to do to has been written by a fellow blogger ZoomIndian,

http://zoomindianmedia.wordpress.com/2009/05/17/election-2009-analysis/


Dr. Togadia's brilliant piece in the organiser details how the BJP betrayed the very people who voted them into the single largest party.

http://www.organiser.org/dynamic/modules.php?name=Content&pa=showpage&pid=296&page=11

Instead of splitting the BJP or dissolving it to start anew, the people who do not believe in hindutva should leave the BJP and start their own party. Highjacking the BJP should not be allowed.

Thankfully the mess is not present throughout the party,

http://www.mynews.in/fullstory.aspx?storyid=19710

At least one MLA considers it his responsibility to educate the people of his constituency.

Critiquing the BJP

I have been an ardent supporter of the BJP for some time now, especially considering the alternative (The congress). Recently though, especially after the debacle in the elections there have been a number of eye opening articles written on the reason why the BJP is not able to win a majority in Parliament.

The more I read, the more I feel the BJP needs a huge overhaul.

http://www.outlookindia.com/full.asp?fodname=20090528&fname=puri&sid=1&pn=1

(This is a very good article by Rajinder Puri on his experience with the BJP.)

http://news.rediff.com/column/2009/may/29/bjp-lags-behind-but-rajnath-races-ahead.htm

(An insightful article exposing Rajnath Singh (never liked the feller) as a selfish and ambitious man who values his personal growth over the party)

http://intellibriefs.blogspot.com/2009/05/bjps-failure-unbiased-observation.html

(A very brilliantly written analysis of the the reason for BJP's failure.)

http://kanchangupta.blogspot.com/2009/05/locating-bjps-ideology.html

(Kanchan Gupta is currently analyzing the various reasons for the BJP debacle and all his posts make very interesting reading)

Analysis of the Indian elections

Found some excellent articles on the results of the Indian elections. Most of them are very revealing and has brought up very new thoughts on why the BJP failed. My opinions of Advani has also changed drastically and now feel that the BJP needs a complete overhaul if it expects to become popular once again.

Apparently the BJP has been highjacked by secularists who do not even understand why the BJP was established in the first place. People in the BJP who want the party to move away from hindutva should start a new party instead of making the BJP change its ideology! The BJP needs a purging of this muck, it seems.

http://www.vijayvaani.com/FrmPublicDisplayArticle.aspx?id=591
(Why hindus allow our enemies to choose our leaders?)

http://kanchangupta.blogspot.com/2009/05/three-myths-and-election.html
(Myths on the Indian election)

http://www.vijayvaani.com/FrmPublicDisplayArticle.aspx?id=590
(The downfall of Modi?)

http://www.vijayvaani.com/FrmPublicDisplayArticle.aspx?id=589
(Good analysis of Indian elections)

http://www.tehelka.com/story_main41.asp?filename=Ne300509mrs_gandhi.asp
(Tarun Tejpal's ass kissing editorial to Sonia)

http://www.vijayvaani.com/FrmPublicDisplayArticle.aspx?id=584
(Brilliant analysis of Advani's character)

Getting back India's black money

t and brings back There is apparently a lot of money in foriegn bank accounts by Indians who have tried to evade taxes and also with a lot of other illicit money.
The BJP has promised to bring back the money as soon as possible. The congress on the other hand has been trying to obfuscate the issue since most of the money must be owned by Congress people.

Here is an interview of S. Gurumurthy, a renowned chartered accountant, who is part of the task force to bring the money back,

http://election.rediff.com/inter/2009/apr/20/loksabhapolls-in-five-years-indians-stashed-rs-688000-cr-illegally.htm

"At that time Advaniji felt as the PM was attending the April 2 meeting, he should take up this issue. But our people remained silent at the G-20 preparatory meet.
See what India did. We didn't forcefully ask the Germans to give us the particulars. When Germany and France took up the matter in the OECD, we didn't welcome it. When they took up the matter in G-20 we did not support them or join them. So, from all this arose a big question, whether the government was at all interested in working against illicit Indian monies abroad. That is why Advaniji took up the matter. As the government did not take it up, the BJP had to take it up as an electoral issue."

Professor Vaidynathan is a well known faculty in IIM-B who is also a member of the task force the BJP has constituted to bring back the money,

http://election.rediff.com/interview/2009/mar/31/inter-swiss-black-money-can-take-india-to-the-top.htm

"It is not due to our pressure but that of US which will make them co-operate. When a family is in deep financial crisis then it tries to look at the small amount saved under the sugar jar by grandma. Same way developed economies are desperate for every dollar. Even if we do not act due to their efforts the list of crooks may be out, then we will be in a dangerous social situation since the who's who of India will be there. Instead we should get it and get the funds and decide on the steps to sterilise it. Otherwise, the world will laugh at us."

From the editorial of the Indian Express,

"Mystification” is how the additional solicitor general felt about a petition in the Supreme Court, filed by several eminent Indians, seeking recovery of perhaps Rs 70 lakh crore of black money in secret Swiss bank accounts. Gopal Subramaniam was mystified by the petition’s timing; he perhaps sees BJP prime ministerial candidate L K Advani’s promise of a 100-day plan to retrieve that black money as being an election gimmick.
His suspicions were echoed by the Congress party’s candidate for Leader of Opposition, Rahul Gandhi, who promised voters in Hyderabad an enquiry. “The BJP would forget their promises of unlocking the money from Swiss bank accounts because they know there was no such money anywhere,” young Rahul thundered, mystifying listeners about what exactly would be enquired — the very fact of black money or the BJP’s sincerity. In any case he did not promise to bring back any money from abroad.
Congress strategist Jairam Ramesh has gone from blue-eyed to cross-eyed over the amount that Advani claims was salted away between 2002 and 2006. Research by Advani’s task force suggests it could be Rs 70 lakh crore, the higher end of estimates in the Global Financial Integrity report of the Washington-based Centre for International Policy; Jairam cites the lower end of those estimates, about Rs 14 lakh crore. That still seems like a hell of a lot of money.
Jairam also coyly proposes that the negative flow in India’s capital account suggests a reversal of capital flight — meaning that people are stashing their black money in India. So that’s why we had participatory notes for foreign investors! Now it all makes sense. The UPA was trying to turn India into a nuclear-powered Swiss bank. Thank God for the global economic slowdown.
Even the man behind the PNs, P Chidambaram, whose IQ is higher than the Sensex (in contrast to those politicians whose IQs are lower than the current dollar price of crude oil per barrel) is mystified. He wondered in Sivaganga whether Advani’s 100- day action plan was a smokescreen: “I wonder whether he is unwittingly alerting those who have deposits abroad to re-arrange their affairs in the next four weeks before a new government is sworn in.” So Chidambaram is accusing Advani of both deliberation (by fiendishly setting up a smokescreen) and inadvertence (by unwittingly alerting those with foreign piles). He is like a sophist on steroids. Also, he should be careful lest someone alert his boss Sonia Gandhi that he is going around openly declaring that these are the Congress party’s last four weeks in power, and that the UPA will be handing the reins of government to someone else.
Congress spokesperson Kapil Sibal is another brainy guy, but he refuses to succumb to mystification. Rather, he scoffs at Advani’s plan as he believes that Advani does not know the legal procedure for getting black money back from Swiss banks.
That’s like saying that Advani cannot file his tax returns because he does not know how to fill out the form. It also appears to ignore one minor event in London at the beginning of this month: the G20 meeting.
You may recall that the G20 decided to crackdown on tax havens by agreeing to fix the loopholes that currently exist around hedge funds and tax havens. This has come shortly after America’s threats to UBS of Switzerland to reveal the estimated 52,000 accounts held by Americans. The US said that about $15 billion dollars of untaxed money were held in the Swiss bank. Our tax laws may differ from the USA’s, but it appears that there is a new global political will to end this convenience for the fabulously wealthy, and that there will be concerted legal action to do so. Even if India does not have the requisite legal tools, formulating new ones will not be difficult in the new global environment.
What is common to all the statements by this galaxy of Congressmen is the accusation that the BJP is looking to derive political mileage from the promise of a 100- day action plan; that the NDA government did nothing about recovering black money during its tenure; and that the retrieval of black money is a minor derivative issue, meant to detract from weightier issues that confront the nation.
It may well be that talk of recovery of such monies will not generate the wave of votes that can propel the BJP into power.
It appears that most voters, and even those who are paying attention, do not comprehend the enormity of the sum involved; eve n i f we see the number 7,00,00,00,00,00,000, we do not understand it. If they do not understand it, how can it become an emotive issue for them? Yet the reason that Advani has mooted it, and why Rahul is dismissive, is that for their parties these elections are a neck-andneck race. Every incremental gain is unquantifiable but necessary if the final tally of each party is to be pushed up, piecemeal, to 150 seats or more. Hence emotive or not, each issue is a worthwhile pursuit. The argument that it is politically motivated is nonsensical, because all policy initiatives in a democracy must be politically motivated.
Elections are the best time to test a policy proposal; it is when you have people’s attention, and when the politician’s patience with voters is inexhaustible. The world’s most successful politician currently is Barack Obama, and it was during his gruelling campaign that he fine-tuned or fleshed out many of his ideas and policy proposals. In this context, any accusation of gimmickry sounds more like “sour grapes”.
It is equally misguided to say that the BJP will drop its proposal on May 14, the day after the last round of polling, or to wonder why nothing happened during the tenure of A B Vajpayee. If the BJP does forget this promise, it will not be the first party in India or abroad to do so, but that seems unlikely given the kind of research already put in by Advani’s task force. As to why nothing happened during the Vajpayee tenure is tantamount to wondering why Vajpayee did not solve the Kashmir issue.
Whatever be the many reasons, does it mean Advani should not try to resolve it? Certainly there are weightier issues confronting the nation, but it appears that all parties have made their broad ideologies clear in these elections, and what remains are their details of proposed governance.
The BJP has promised to honour the nuclear deal with the USA, another issue that carries no emotional weight with voters (as evidenced by the Congress party’s campaign amnesia on Manmohan Singh’s single achievement in five years), but it is another detail that sharpens the image of the party in the voter’s mind. Congressmen may suffer mystification, but it is certain that the Indian voter does not.

editorchief@epmltd.com

About The Author:
Aditya Sinha is the Editor-in-Chief of The New Indian Express and is based in Chennai.

BJP in K'taka

The BJP in Karnataka, has tried hard to remove the tag of being "communal" a term foisted on it by traitors and anti-nationals. Instead of pooh-poohing it away and setting about its agenda, the BJP has fallen for the trap and involved itself in appearing secular in the eyes of those who despise the BJP and what it stands for. No matter what the BJP does it cannot remove the communal tag, so it is a wonder if the great minds in the party cannot see through this wateful endeavour.

One the main things that the BJP has highlighted in its achievements category in Karnataka has been the fact that they increased the funding to Islamic organizations (madrassa, mosques, etc) from 30 crores to 120 crores in the last state budget. In the effort to removing the "communal" tag the BJP in K'taka is actually becoming communal by giving hindu tax payers money to muslims. There is already enough money coming to the muslims from the middle east. Instead of taxing that money the stupid BJP is giving them more!!

Inspite of all that, the muslims in K'taka have decided to issue a fatwa against the BJP. When will the BJP learn that the worst thing they can do is to betray its main voter base.

http://ibnlive.in.com/videos/90827/karnataka-minorty-issue-fatwa-against-bjp.html

True colors of Sangliana

WHen HT Sangliana joined the BJP and won in Bangalore, I was very happy. Firstly, to see a christian accept the BJP ideology of loving the nation first and secondly to see a native of the north east being accepted in the heart of India.

But he disappointed me when he voted for the Congress on the shady nuclear deal and was subsequently disqualified as an MP and then suspended from the BJP. He is now a candidate for the congress in Bangalore and is now showing his true colors. I've always wondered if it is possible for converts in India to ever respect and love the nations culture and traditions and am realizing that it is not possible because if they did they would never have converted in the first place.

Sangliana was a great cop, its sad to see him go against the nation by joining the congress for his religious beliefs.

Here is an article that appeared in the Indian Express exposing Sangliana,

Contest wide open in Bangalore
Rajashekara S
First Published : 18 Apr 2009 09:45:49 AM IST
Last Updated : 18 Apr 2009 10:59:48 AM IST

BANGALORE: It took five years for ‘super cop’ H T Sangliana to find that the BJP is “communal and anti-national,” before switching sides to the Congress on the floor of the House to nurture his political career.
The Indo-US nuke deal gave him a perfect opportunity to “hop” onto the Congress bandwagon and Sangliana has been rewarded with a ticket to contest as the party candidate from the newlycarved out Bangalore Central Lok Sabha constituency. In fact, he was considered by the party high command by refusing the ticket to seasoned leader and former union minister C K Jaffer Sharief, whom the former Bangalore City Police Commissioner defeated in 2004 from Bangalore North LS constituency, on a BJP ticket.
Soon after his retirement from the police department, Sangliana - hailing from Mizoram - surprised everyone when he joined the BJP stating that he “was inspired by Atal Behari Vajpayee.” After making controversial statements like terming the BJP as Bharatiya Jesus Party, Sangliana could not gel with the local BJP leaders and started distancing himself from the rank and file within a few months after getting elected.
Now, as a Congress candidate, Sangliana has the Herculean task to first establish a rapport with the Congress workers and leaders and second to get re-elected.
Denial of ticket to Sharief in Bangalore Central could prove to be a thorn in the poll prospects of Sangliana. This apart, Sangliana’s earlier charges against former chief minister S M Krishna, when he was a BJP MP may boomerang on him. Sangliana had supported the now convicted, former ASP Sangram Singh, when Singh had levelled charges against Krishna and other Congress leaders, of allegedly accepting money from stamp paper racket kingpin Abdul Karim Telgi, to secure the release of Dr Rajkumar from the clutches of forest brigand Veerappan.
As a result, Krishna turned down the request of Sangliana to campaign for him. Bangalore Central has four Congress MLAs and four BJP MLAs, representing its eight Assembly segments.
But lack of necessary support by Cong ress MLAs has proved to be a handicap for Sangliana to some extent.
On the other hand, BJP candidate P C Mohan and JD(S) nominee B Z Zameer Ahmed Khan have been aggressively campaigning.
Known for his “honesty and integrity” during service, Sangliana is a poor match when it comes to spending money for the polls, vis-a-vis Khan and Mohan, who are established businessmen.
Other than money bags, Khan is depending on the goodwill that he enjoys among Muslim voters besides the huge Vokkaliga population in the constituency.
Khan had offered to stay out of the contest, if Sharief were to contest from Bangalore Central to avoid division of “secular votes.” This has turned out to be a boon in disguise for the JD(S) as Sharief himself is understood to have sent a message to the community to stand behind the proprietor of the National Travels.
Sangliana, however, expresses confidence of winning the constituency and is pinning hopes on the good work done by him as an MP in the previous term.
In fact, he is one of the few MPs from the state who judiciously utilised the MPLAD fund to take up development works in the constituency.
But his recent public support to “everything Christian,” seems to have taken a toll on his otherwise clean image. More than Mohan’s influence and image, BJP is hoping for a repeat of the 2004 results when its then candidate Sangliana surprised all by trouncing a senior leader Sharief. Then, the party managed to win because of the split in minority votes between the JD(S) which had fielded C M Ibrahim and Sharief.
This time, the saffron party is hoping a similar split in votes between Sangliana and Khan.
On the whole, the contest appears to be equally matched as Sangliana is set to get almost the full chunk of Christian votes, which are around 1.5 lakh, while Khan could bag nearly 80 to 90 per cent of the Muslim votes. BJP, on the other hand, is keeping its fingers crossed waiting for a split in the minority votes.
With no particular wave in anyone’s favour and the general disenchantment among the electorate, it has made it difficult and uncertain for all three main candidates who can never take victory for granted, until the last vote is counted.

Why I like Modi

Narendra Modi, the CM of Gujarat, is much vilified by the pseudo-secular ELM but he is one man who is just so high in stature and character that all the the shit they throw at him just lands on their own faces!

Here is one of his superb interviews he has given to rediff. He is one of the very few people who gives perfect interview and who the ELM cannot frustrate however hard they try.
Here are some excerpts,

Do you think the development debate in this country has turned pro-business? And that ordinary people are feeling left behind?

You've asked a very good question, and I will be pleased to answer this one.
In my Gujarat I hold the Vibrant Gujarat global investor summit once in two years, on January 13-14. Some 700-800 government officers of mine are involved in it, and I invite industrialists and businessmen to come for the summit and invest in the state.
Also in my state, for one month every year, we hold an agricultural festival in which about a lakh government servants go to the villages in May-June, braving the 44 degree temperatures, sit down with the farmers and work towards agricultural development. You remember what we do for two days out of two years, but where the government travels to the countryside for a month every year and promotes agriculture, you are not interested.

Is it because of rural migration to the cities?
Not because of rural migration. In my Gujarat we have the Jyoti Gram Yojana thanks to which rural migration to cities has ended, all arrangements have been made. Very few of our villagers go to cities, which is a very interesting development about Gujarat.
If you provide urban amenities in villages, they will not go to the cities.

Isn't the nuclear deal an achievement?
The issue is, India has uranium. Earlier the government would make budgetary allocation for uranium exploration. What was the reason for Dr Manmohan Singh, as finance minister, to make it zero budgeting for uranium exploration?
What was the reason when he became PM to halt research into uranium? And what is the reason for him enter into a restrictive agreement with foreign nations for the same uranium? Now the question arises.

Will you deny that you have no ambition whatsoever to become the prime minister?
I have a mission, not ambition. I was not born to become something, I was born to do something.
I did not have a desire to become somebody when I was a child, I don't have it now, nor will I have it in the future.
I have a dream, to do something. I want to do something for the nation. I am part of the mission, not ambition.
Ambition doesn't inspire me, mission does.

Swamy on Vajpayee

I am impressed by the scholarship of Dr. Subramanian Swamy, who quit from a position of faculty in Harvard to join active politics in India. I enjoy listening to him speak on various issues concerning India. What does bother me about him is his tendency to change sides. I wonder if it is because of his love for truth or something else! He once was completely against Jayalilitha (and was nearly killed for that) and then he became her personal confidant. He appears to be a Hindutva supporter but is against the BJP. He is a very unpredictable person which must be the reason that he is called the "Captain without a ship".

Here is an excerpt from Dr. Swamy's article on his association with Moraji Desai in which he questions the character of ex-prime minister A.B. Vajpayee. I wonder what truth there is to this. One thing is for certain, Dr. Swamy has no qualms in questioning someones character.

http://janataparty.org/articledetail.asp?rowid=10

"From that day on wards, even if Morarji did nothing much for me politically, he was always on my side helping me where he could and I remained his friend till his last breath. When his Cabinet was formed, it was widely thought that I would be made a Cabinet Minister for my role in the Emergency, but Atal Behari Vajpayee, who had played a disgraceful role of writing an apology letter to Mrs.Gandhi during the Emergency - to come out on parole out of jail, - controlled 91 Jan Sangh MPs. Vajpayee was given to tremendous jealousy, and it is the root cause of the mess BJP is in today. He found my "Emergency Hero" status unbearable especially since he wanted to hide his own surrender shame. He therefore prevailed upon Morarji to offer me only a Minister of State with independent charge. Morarji also thought that at the age of 37, a Cabinet Ministership was too early."

"Morarji helped me to break the ice with China. Vajpayee as Foreign Minister blocked my visit for one year, but in 1978, Morarji saw that I went first to China. He accepted my view about China, and rejected Vajpayee's, who was keen to keep the Soviet Union pleased. Even on Israel, Morarji accepted my view and invited Moshe Dayan to visit India." - It must be mentioned that Vajpayee is credited with opening relations with China.

"Because of the factionalism in the Janata Party, during his tenure as PM, he could not make me a Cabinet Minister. Delhi was always abuzz with the rumour that he was about to induct me as Foreign Minister because he was fed up with Vajpayee's drinking habits whenever he went abroad or his indiscretion with women. But the 91 MPs of the Jan Sangh group was Vajpayee's strength, so Morarji kept postponing the date. Then there was the Raj Narain nuisance. However in June 1979, Raj Narain was expelled from the Janatha Party, and everything was under control-- or so it seemed. It was then I was confidently told by insiders that Morarji would bring me into the Cabinet in the September 1979 re-shuffle. That re-shuffle never came because Morarji quit office in July 1979. But the greatness of Morarji was exhibited in those trying moments when he was betrayed by colleague after colleague, each trying to become Prime Minister. Some got a bad name for it such as Charan Singh, but the real culprits were Vajpayee and Ramakrishna Hegde who pushed Morarji into a confrontation with Charan Singh, and then let Morarji down.

Provoked by what he mistakenly took as Morarji induced insults, Charan Singh broke the party, and the Janatha Party lost majority. Then Vajpayee and Hegde produced a list of 279 MPs of which 23 MPs signatures were forged. The President Mr.Sanjiva Reddy was alerted to it by the IB, and he made it public. Morarji gallantly took the blame and quit public life. It should have been Vajpayee and Hegde who should have quit, but they left Morarji holding the bag and owning responsibility! Such was their character."

I am a supporter of the BJP but at the same time I do realize that it is not a perfect party and has its shortcomings. Here is another of Swamy's retorts against the BJP.

http://www.mid-day.com/news/2005/sep/119551.htm

"While the Bharatiya Janata Party demanded action by the UPA government regarding the KGB revelations against Congress leaders being bribed by the Russian spy agency, it had failed to take action when NDA was in power.

The party, in an aggressive mode lead by deputy leader of opposition in Lok Sabha, V K Malhotra, demanded that action be taken against Congress and CPI leaders who were allegedly on the KGB payroll, as revealed by agent Vasili Mitrokhin in a book.

However, the BJP failed to take action against Congress leader Sonia Gandhi and others who were reportedly being paid by the KGB. Janata Party leader Subramanian Swamy, who has been raising this issue, questions the silence of the BJP, when it was in power during Prime Minister A B Vajpayee era.

Jaswant Singh, the BJP leader in Rajya Sabha, admitted to Swamy in a letter that the issue was raised when he was the external affairs minister during the NDA regime. The MEA had approached the KGB through the Indian Embassy in Moscow to get the details. The KGB informed the Indian Embassy that it could only correspond with the Indian spy agency, the Research and Analysis Wing, under the Prime Ministers office.

According to Singh, the information was received by the RAW but expressed his inability to recall the outcome of the KGB information.
Interestingly, Swamy had informed the PMO, when Vajpayee was PM, through the proper channels. He wrote to MoS Vasundara Raje Scindia on March 3, 2001.

In his letter, Swamy mentioned how Sonia Gandhi appointed the managing director of Maruti Technical Services Private Limited in the presence of two shareholders Sanjay Gandhi and Maruti Heavy Vehicles Private Limited.
The KGB had said that it paid money to certain Congress leaders and a company funded by the Gandhi family.

According to a letter written by KGB chief Viktor Chebrikov, in 1992, to the Central Committee of Communist Party of Soviet Union, the family of Rajiv Gandhi had expressed gratitude for the help being received by them through commercial deals of an Indian firm controlled by them with Soviet foreign trade organisations.

He wrote, They (Mainos Sonias paternal family name) informed that a major part of these resources were used to support the party of Mr Rajiv Gandhi.

This information was available to Vajpayee and the PMO, who failed to take action. On Tuesday, the BJP general secretary demanded a thorough probe. An Intelligence Bureau official said the information was available to the Vajpayee regime but failed to take action.

However, Swamy, fighting a legal battle in the Delhi High Court, faced a hurdle from the NDA government when the court asked the Central Bureau of Investigation to record a FIR in the case. However, the NDA government did not give permission to the CBI and the matter languished for four years.

On January 10, 2001, home minister L K Advani was appraised of the reported funding of the Congress leaders by KGB, but no action was taken, according to sources. Now the issue is in the Supreme Court and comes up for hearing on October 24, 2005.

The Congress and the CPI have rubbished the claims and former West Bengal chief minister Jyoti Basu said that the Americans had paid money to Indira Gandhi and the Congress to curb the communists in India. "

EC crossing limits again

Ashok Sahu is a retired Police Officer contesting from the Kandhamal region in Orissa. He has been slapped with an EC notice which has also directed the District Magistrate (DM) to book cases against him that would lead to his arrest. The reason for this is said to be because of his "hate" speech.

http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/holnus/000200904122025.htm

"The Election Commission on Sunday asked the authorities in Orissa to add two more sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) in the criminal case filed against Ashok Sahu, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate from the Kandhamal Lok Sabha constituency, who has been booked for an inflammatory speech.

The Election Commission, which examined a CD recording of Mr. Sahu's speech, also issued notice to him for violating the model code of conduct and asked him to reply by 3 p.m. April 15.

"The Election Commission today directed the Kandhamal district magistrate that in the criminal case filed by him against Ashok Sahu for adding two more sections 505 and 295 of IPC along with existing 125 of RPA and 153 IPC," the commission said in a statement here.

"This decision was taken after examination of the CD today," it said.

While section 505 of the IPC deals with the "statements conducing to public mischief", section 295 deals with "injuring or defiling place of worship with intent to insult the religion of any class".

At a public meeting at Raikia town on April 5, Mr. Sahu had accused the church of indulging in conversion.

Kandhamal district superintendent of police S. Praveen Kumar said on Saturday that a case was registered against Mr. Sahu and the matter was under investigation.

Kandhamal district, about 200 km from Bhubaneswar, witnessed widespread communal violence after the murder of a Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) leader in August 2008."

In what way is stating the fact that the church is involved in conversions qualify as "hate" speech?!!!

The EC has not bothered to direct the DM's to arrest Congress, Smajwadi party, RJD, Commies, MDMK................ leaders who have threatened to kill and seccede from India!!

Indian Media Bias

Found a good post on one of topics (Understanding media bias and other white lies) in L.K. Advani's website forum made by a person called "TheRightIndian" questioning the Indian Media

"I’ve been struggling to understand the media bias against the BJP. I have spent painful days and nights just trying to understand what these so called media fellows and the purported ‘progressives’ really represent. I always failed, simply because the test of reason and logic did not seem to work with them. So, what does it mean? Does it mean that these ‘progressive Jhollawalahs’ and media folks are anti national? This question has troubled me for many nights. How can I sleep knowing that the fourth pillar of our democracy has been compromised? Why do they have such a hatred towards India being ‘itself’?

Advani does'nt stand for the 'founding principles' ??!!!!

As I was watching a TV program tonight, I heard one of those Congress spokespersons speak that Mr. Advani does not stand for what India is about and does not stand for the ‘founding principles’ on which this country was ‘founded’. That really set me thinking. Yeah? Oh really? Is that how it is? Then the realization just struck me like a thunderbolt:

It is very simply because these media folks and the JNU fellows believe that India came into existence in 1947!! They don’t think that India was ‘liberated’ from ‘external’ powers in 1947. They think it was ‘born’ in 1947! For them, (the nowadays, often quoted term) the ‘Idea of India’ occurred in 1947! AND THEREFORE THEY PROPOSE ALL THE OTHER JUNK AS A COROLLARY TO THIS HYPOTHESIS. They suffer from a civilizational and cultural amnesia compounded and abetted by their alien education.


Were we an Australia or a US of A? Where there was no human inhabitation (or whatever was existing, was conveniently extinguished), and the conquerors got to phrase the ‘founding principles’ in a piece of paper in 19th / 20th century. Is that what our country is? A piece of barren land in 1947? A clean slate that could be written on in 1947? Did the millions in our country offer that clean slate to Congress/Nehru? They just don't realize that India has existed for as long as one can remember. And the 'founding principles' of India are much more ancient, pervasive and pervasive than what a few English educated lawyers could articulate in 1940s and 50s.

Thousands of years of history and achievements in every field of human progress including (but not limited to) art, literature, medicine, astronomy, mathematics, political science and spirituality becomes ‘mythical’, ‘surreal’ and ‘supposed’ at the ‘stroke of a midnight’! And imitating the past aggressors in their dressing, world view, shallowness of intellect and abhorrence of spiritualism (which did not exist in either of the two aggressive systems) has become contemporary, modern, secular and more than anything else fashionable!

Can thousands of years of history, culture, values and accomplishments be rubbished as dust on the slate one fine day? Can hundreds of years of external aggressions, wars, religious crusades, submission and subjugation be wiped out by ‘mere stroke of the midnight’ and made available to ‘tryst with destiny’? Is that it?

If the Hindu society can offer amends, offer apologies, constitutionalised affirmative action and reprieve to our Dalit brothers who were wronged (from) hundreds of years back and if the contemporary German society can do the same for the (recently wronged) Jews, is it not fair to expect that aggressors against Hindu civilization do the same? At least do not completely deny that those atrocities ever took place! That’s not just denial but negationism.

An ancient pluralistic civilization with rich culture was plundered by two quasi-political, quasi- religious regimes for hundreds of years, and today we are told that to represent and believe in that age-old pluralism is being ‘communal’ or worse ‘fascist’ ! What a farce!

I am no big fan of Karl Marx. But he’s spoken a prophetic line :

History always repeats itself. First time as a tragedy and the second time as a farce!

Who should we blame? The ‘progressive media’ Jaychands? Or the even the Prithiviraj Chauhans who forgave Mohamad Ghori 18 times? (Only to be cheated by him the 19th time!)

Say both?

Another post in reply to a person exhibiting the typical dhimmi attitude he gives a very nice analogy of the Indian situation.

"China captured Tibet in the 50's. The Buddhist monasteries are thousands of years old and are an inseparable part of Tibetan identity. Now suppose (god forbid), Chinese government, to intimidate and humiliate the Buddhists, destroys those magnificent monasteries as it believes in atheism and builds Communist party offices there. The people of Tibet are terribly humiliated and upset but helpless in front of the Chinese might. Their very identity is shattered to smithereens. The Chinese stay in power for many many years. And then, India (hopefully) captures Tibet. By this time, Tibet is made up of mostly Buddhists and some communists (apparently the Chinese converted quite a few Buddhists into Communism). To stay in power, and to not to disturb the equilibrium, Indians do not touch the issue of monasteries and maintain status-quo for for many many years. Because of a freedom movement in Tibet and India's own other pressures, India decides to give freedom Tibet. But the minority communists do not want to be part of Tibet; they want their own country 'Communistan'. India agrees and Tibet is divided.The communist majority northern Tibet is made into a new country 'Communistan' and the Buddhist majority Tibet is now free. A new 'Tibetan' government is formed. The Tibetan Buddhists are kind hearted people. They don't want to impose their religion on the remaining communists and other minorities. Therefore the country adopts a secular constitution. But the Tibetan Buddhist identity has been severely dented because of the destruction of their most sacred monasteries and then by the partition of their beloved motherland. It is now demanded by many Tibetans that the monasteries be rebuilt at the same place and if the communist offices need to be preserved for archeological reasons, those communist offices can be 'scientifically shifted' in toto ( yes, it is possible) to some nearby location.

Now what should the Tibetan government do ? Two options :

1. Agree to the demand, rebuild the monasteries, restore the Buddhist pride, restore the place for the millions of Buddhists to pray and perform their other religious ceremonies. Shift the communist offices elsewhere.

2.Take the pitch of

"And why do we want to destroy structures because we believe it is standing on something else that existed at the same spot in the past? For that matter, everywhere that we are standing or sitting, we are doing so on some history!!"

, and keep staring at those communist offices everyday.

(As I type, there's a third ,very very Indian option that comes to mind)
3. Question the existence of Buddha. Ask for his birth certificate. Write history text books which do not talk about the destruction of monasteries by the communists. Ask for proof that monasteries once stood there. Create a media culture where those Tibetans asking for the monasteries to be rebuilt are branded as 'communal' and fascists. Create a political culture where the minority communists are appeased to the extent of giving subsidy to the communists for their pilgrimage to Beijing!! Blame the Tibetans totally for everything that happened in the past (Remember?, it's because of disunity among Tibetans that the Chinese and the Indians were able to gain control over Tibet !!).

Which of the above three options suits Tibet the best? I leave it to the readers to decide.

Christian deceit - Benny Hinn

Found an interesting documentary on Benny Hinn on Youtube made by CBS.



It is a 5 part series and is a must watch.

Another video is,


It is so funny to watch the antics of this joker on stage!! It is shocking that there are so many people who actually believe in such trash!

He spews venom like no on else and talks complete gibberish, typical of evangelists.

What disappoints me greatly is the way the Indian media has covered his visit to India. Also shocking was the support the Congress people gave by attending his "service"!! Only the BJP spoke against his bullshit.

http://www.indiasalvationcrusade.com/

Barkha Dutt beats a retreat

This is from a discussion on the nuclear deal that the UPA government passed through parliament without giving out any details on the deal and also paid crores of rupees to buy votes from opposition MP's!

This video is a must watch to understand what the controversy over the nuclear deal was all about.

Shourie very nicely cuts Barkha Dutt down to size and puts her in her place! 8 minutes into the discussion he tells Barkha to stop shouting and tells her to first read the document and questions her on her stupid comments. She quickly beats a retreat saying its not her comments but the oppositions.

Shouries arguments are so well thought out and detailed that it is a joy to listen to him analyze the nuclear deal.

Arun Shourie on how the Indian media lies

Here is a brilliant article from Arun Shourie, I found on the hindu vivek kendra website on showing how the Indian media fabricates lies and twists the truth to fit their nefarious designs. Willing collaborators are the Indian communists who hate anything indigeneous.

Title: Fabrications On The Way To The Funeral
Author: Arun Shourie
Publication: India Connect website
Date: June 27, 1998.

"Rational vs. National," screams the headline of the new pall-bearer of secularism, the magazine Outlook. "Fresh evidence available with Outlook," the story announces, "reveals that not only has the ICHR [the Indian Council of Historical Research] been packed with 'sympathizers' but a new statement of objectives or resolution [sic.] has been added, changing certain keywords from the original Memorandum of Association of1972, legitimised by an Act of Parliament. While the original Memorandum of Association states that ICHR's aims would be to give 'rational' direction to historical research and foster 'an objective and scientific writing ofhistory', the new resolution, which will be included in the Gazette of India, states that ICHR now seeks to give a 'national' direction to an 'objective and national presentation of history'. So, 'rational' has been changed to 'national', and 'scientific' too has been changed to 'national'...."

"Tampering with history," proclaims the old pall-bearer, The Hindu. "Apprehensions of this kind [that the fabled 'Sangh parivar' is out to rewrite history] have been substantiated by a related decision. The resolution by the Ministry of Human Resource Development -- nodal Ministry under which the ICHR comes -- that details the new nominations carries with it an amendment to the Memorandum of Association by which the ICHR was setup; while the institution was set up 'to foster objective and scientific writing of history such as will inculcate an informed appreciation of the country's national and cultural heritage,' the new Government's mandate is that the ICHRwill give a 'national direction' to an objective and national presentation and interpretation of history'. This amendment is certainly not just a matter of semantics. Instead, one can clearly see in this an intention on the part of the BJP-led Government to rewrite history...."

The next issue of the CPI(M) mouthpiece, Peoples Democracy, reproduces this editorial ! And carries with it an article by one of the ring-leaders, K. N. Panicker."Saffronization of historical research," proclaims the heading. Panicker repeats the charge of the word "rational" having been replaced by "national". He adds another : the Memorandum of Association of the ICHR mentions five objectives, he says, but the Resolution put out by theSaffron-brigade mentions only two.

Thus, the charge rests on three bits of "evidence" :that the Memorandum of Association of the ICHR has been changed; second, that a word -- "rational" -- in the Resolution announcing the new members of the ICHR hasbeen surreptitiously replaced by another word -- "national"; third, that while the original Memorandum of Association specifies five objectives for the ICHR, the new Resolution cuts out three of these.

Having been educated by The Hindu that the "nodal ministry" for the matter is the Ministry of Human ResourceDevelopment, I ring up the Secretary of that Ministry. Has the Memorandum of Association of the ICHR been changed?, I ask. No, he says. It has not been changed, he says.

And then about the Resolution announcing the new members. The allegation, you will recall, is that the aim which in the Memorandum of Association is, "to give a national direction to an objective and RATIONAL presentation and interpretation of history....," has been altered in the Resolution to read, "to give a national direction to an objective and NATIONAL presentation and interpretation of history...."

I have before me the statement of the Ministry ofHuman Resources Development [No. F 30-28/86-U3] dated 6th October, 1987, that is of eleven years ago. It gives the text of the Resolution of the Government of India announcing the new members -- announcing, among otherthings, that Irfan Habib is being appointed as Chairman with retrospective effect from 9 September, 1986. Thecorresponding expression in it is, "to give a national direction to an objective and NATIONAL presentation and interpretation of history...."

I have before me the statement of the Ministry of Human Resources Development [No. F. 30-13/89-U3] dated15th May, 1991. It gives the text of the Resolution of the Government of India announcing the new members --announcing, among other things, that Irfan Habib is being re-appointed as Chairman with retrospective effect from 12 March, 1990. The corresponding expression in it is, "to give a national direction to an objective and NATIONAL presentation and interpretation of history...."

To test my hypothesis yet again, I look for and obtainthe immediately preceding statement of the Ministry. It bears the number F. 30-3/94-U.3, and is dated 8th September, 1994. Like the others, it furnishes the text of the Resolution of the Government of India announcing the new members -- announcing, among other things, thatRavinder Kumar, another "historian" of the same hue, is being appointed as Chairman with retrospective effect from 8 September, 1990. The corresponding expression in it is,"to give a national direction to an objective and NATIONAL presentation and interpretation of history...."

That is how far I am able to get on my own. I request the Secretary of the Ministry : can he please request someone to look up the Resolutions of the earlier years, and see whether they contain anything different ? Can he help me trace when this "alteration" got made ?

Till the time of my dispatching this article, the Secretary has been able to trace Resolutions going back upto 1978 -- that is, twenty years. Each of them carries the very same words !

The research of the Secretary and his colleagues establishes that -- to reproduce the word the Secretary uses-- the whole mystery has arisen from a "typographical error" : some typist banging away on his typewriter sometwenty-odd years ago typed "rational" as "national". As each typist, when asked to type out the subsequent Resolution, copied the preceding one, that word continued to be typed as "national" year after year. The leftists inferred no conspiracy. But, lo and behold, now that a BJP Government is in power, inferring conspiracies -- to use their favourite phrase -- is a historical necessity. It is objective history ! It is progressive methodology ! Perhaps they will put on their Sherlock Holmes caps again, and establish that the Governments of Mrs. Indira Gandhi, of Rajiv Gandhi, of V. P. Singh, of Narasimha Rao have all been in league with the RSS, and therefore parties to this grave conspiracy !

I then ring up Mr. Vinod Mehta, the editor of Outlook. "But the reporter says she has the text and everything," he says. I narrate what I have found. He promises to check and get back to me. When we talk again he says he has sent me the text of the Resolution. But that is the current one. My point was that the "change" which Outlook had built its story on has existed in all Resolutions for at least twenty years. He says he will get back to me.That is where matters stand.

The exact same thing holds for that fabrication of K.N. Panicker : about five objectives having become two. In every single one of the Resolutions -- including the 1994 Resolution under which this man was himself nominated tothe ICHR, a Resolution he can find printed at page 342 ofThe Gazette of India, October 22, 1994 -- the exact samesentences are used : only those objectives are mentioned as are mentioned in the Resolution issued this year ! And another thing : if an RSS publication publishes even an interview with me, that is further proof of my being communal; but so tough are the hymen of these progressives that, even when they contribute signed articles to publications of the Communist Party, their virginity remains in tact !

The Truth behind Kandhahar

Recently with the election about to start there has been a lot of mud-slinging against the BJP with Congress falsely accusing the BJP of many things it is not guilty of. One such accusation is that the BJP government succumbed to the hijackers of the Indian Airlines plane and therefore they do not have any right to talk against the Congress on their bad performance on terrorism.

This article by Kanchan Gupta is eye opening as to what really happened.

The truth behind Kandahar

Kanchan Gupta

Was it really an ‘abject surrender’ by the NDA Government?

There have been innumerable communal riots in India, nearly all of them in States ruled by the Congress at the time of the violence, yet everybody loves to pretend that blood was shed in the name of religion for the first time in Gujarat in 2002 and that the BJP Government headed by Mr Narendra Modi must bear the burden of the cross.

Similarly, nobody remembers the various incidents of Indian Airlines aircraft being hijacked when the Congress was in power at the Centre, the deals that were struck to rescue the hostages, and the compromises that were made at the expense of India’s dignity and honour. But everybody remembers the hijacking of IC 814 and nearly a decade after the incident, many people still hold the BJP-led NDA Government responsible for the ‘shameful’ denouement.

The Indian Airlines flight from Kathmandu to New Delhi, designated IC 814, with 178 passengers and 11 crew members on board, was hijacked on Christmas eve, 1999, a short while after it took-off from Tribhuvan International Airport; by then, the aircraft had entered Indian airspace. Nine years later to the day, with an entire generation coming of age, it would be in order to recall some facts and place others on record.

In 1999 I was serving as an aide to Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee in the PMO, and I still have vivid memories of the tumultuous week between Christmas eve and New Year’s eve. Mr Vajpayee had gone out of Delhi on an official tour; I had accompanied him along with other officials of the PMO. The hijacking of IC 814 occurred while we were returning to Delhi in one of the two Indian Air Force Boeings which, in those days, were used by the Prime Minister for travel within the country.

Curiously, the initial information about IC 814 being hijacked, of which the IAF was believed to have been aware, was not communicated to the pilot of the Prime Minister’s aircraft. As a result, Mr Vajpayee and his aides remained unaware of the hijacking till reaching Delhi. This caused some amount of controversy later.

It was not possible for anybody else to have contacted us while we were in midair. It’s strange but true that the Prime Minister of India would be incommunicado while on a flight because neither the ageing IAF Boeings nor the Air India Jumbos, used for official travel abroad, had satellite phone facilities.

By the time our aircraft landed in Delhi, it was around 7:00 pm, a full hour and 40 minutes since the hijacking of IC 814. After disembarking from the aircraft in the VIP bay of Palam Technical Area, we were surprised to find National Security Adviser Brajesh Mishra waiting at the foot of the ladder. He led Mr Vajpayee aside and gave him the news. They got into the Prime Minister’s car and it sped out of the Technical Area. Some of us followed Mr. Vajpayee to Race Course Road, as was the normal routine.

On our way to the Prime Minister’s residence, colleagues in the PMO provided us with the basic details. The Kathmandu-Delhi flight had been commandeered by five hijackers (later identified as Ibrahim Athar, resident of Bahawalpur, Shahid Akhtar Sayed, Gulshan Iqbal, resident of Karachi, Sunny Ahmed Qazi, resident of Defence Area, Karachi, Mistri Zahoor Ibrahim, resident of Akhtar Colony, Karachi, and Shakir, resident of Sukkur City) at 5:20 pm; there were 189 passengers and crew members on board; and that the aircraft was heading towards Lahore.

At the Prime Minister’s residence, senior Ministers and Secretaries had already been summoned for an emergency meeting. Mr Mishra left for the crisis control room that had been set up at Rajiv Bhavan. In between meetings, Mr Vajpayee instructed his personal staff to cancel all celebrations planned for December 25, his birthday. The Cabinet Committee on Security met late into the night as our long vigil began.

Meanwhile, we were informed that the pilot of IC 814 had been denied permission to land at Lahore airport. With fuel running low, he was heading for Amritsar. Officials at Raja Sansi Airport were immediately alerted and told to prevent the plane from taking off after it had landed there.

The hijacked plane landed at Amritsar and remained parked on the tarmac for nearly 45 minutes. The hijackers demanded that the aircraft be refuelled. The airport officials ran around like so many headless chickens, totally clueless about what was to be done in a crisis situation.

Desperate calls were made to the officials at Raja Sansi Airport to somehow stall the refuelling and prevent the plane from taking off. The officials just failed to respond with alacrity. At one point, an exasperated Jaswant Singh, if memory serves me right, grabbed the phone and pleaded with an official, “Just drive a heavy vehicle, a fuel truck or a road roller or whatever you have, onto the runway and park it there.” But all this was to no avail.

The National Security Guards, whose job it is to deal with hostage situations, were alerted immediately after news first came in of IC 814 being hijacked; they were reportedly asked to stand by for any emergency. The Home Ministry was again alerted when it became obvious that after being denied permission to land at Lahore, the pilot was heading towards Amritsar.

Yet, despite IC 814 remaining parked at Amritsar for three-quarters of an hour, the NSG commandos failed to reach the aircraft. There are two versions as to why the NSG didn’t show up: First, they were waiting for an aircraft to ferry them from Delhi to Amritsar; second, they were caught in a traffic jam between Manesar and Delhi airport. The real story was never known!

The hijackers, anticipating commando action, first stabbed a passenger, Rupin Katyal (he had gone to Kathmandu with his newly wedded wife for their honeymoon; had they not extended their stay by a couple of days, they wouldn’t have been on the ill-fated flight) to show that they meant business, and then forced the pilot to take off from Amritsar. With almost empty fuel tanks, the pilot had no other option but to make another attempt to land at Lahore airport. Once again he was denied permission and all the lights, including those on the runway, were switched off. He nonetheless went ahead and landed at Lahore airport, showing remarkable skill and courage.

Mr Jaswant Singh spoke to the Pakistani Foreign Minister and pleaded with him to prevent the aircraft from taking off again. But the Pakistanis would have nothing of it (they wanted to distance themselves from the hijacking so that they could claim later that there was no Pakistan connection) and wanted IC 814 off their soil and out of their airspace as soon as possible. So, they refuelled the aircraft after which the hijackers forced the pilot to head for Dubai.

At Dubai, too, officials were reluctant to allow the aircraft to land. It required all the persuasive skills of Mr Jaswant Singh and our then Ambassador to UAE, Mr KC Singh, to secure landing permission. There was some negotiation with the hijackers through UAE officials and they allowed 13 women and 11 children to disembark. Rupin Katyal had by then bled to death. His body was offloaded. His widow remained a hostage till the end.

On the morning of December 25, the aircraft left Dubai and headed towards Afghanistan. It landed at Kandahar Airport, which had one serviceable runway, a sort of ATC and a couple of shanties. The rest of the airport was in a shambles, without power and water supply, a trophy commemorating the Taliban’s rule.

On Christmas eve, after news of the hijacking broke, there was stunned all-round silence. But by noon on December 25, orchestrated protests outside the Prime Minister’s residence began, with women beating their chests and tearing their clothes. The crowd swelled by the hour as the day progressed.

Ms Brinda Karat came to commiserate with the relatives of the hostages who were camping outside the main gate of 7, Race Course Road. In fact, she became a regular visitor over the next few days. There was a steady clamour that the Government should pay any price to bring the hostages back home, safe and sound. This continued till December 30.

One evening, the Prime Minister asked his staff to let the families come in so that they could be told about the Government’s efforts to secure the hostages’ release. By then negotiations had begun and Mullah Omar had got into the act through his ‘Foreign Minister’, Muttavakil. The hijackers wanted 36 terrorists, held in various Indian jails, to be freed or else they would blow up the aircraft with the hostages.

No senior Minister in the CCS was willing to meet the families. Mr Jaswant Singh volunteered to do so. He asked me to accompany him to the canopy under which the families had gathered. Once there, we were literally mobbed. He tried to explain the situation but was shouted down.

“We want our relatives back. What difference does it make to us what you have to give the hijackers?” a man shouted. “We don’t care if you have to give away Kashmir,” a woman screamed and others took up the refrain, chanting: “Kashmir de do, kuchh bhi de do, hamare logon ko ghar wapas lao.” Another woman sobbed, “Mera beta… hai mera beta…” and made a great show of fainting of grief.

To his credit, Mr Jaswant Singh made bold to suggest that the Government had to keep the nation’s interest in mind, that we could not be seen to be giving in to the hijackers, or words to that effect, in chaste Hindi. That fetched him abuse and rebuke. “Bhaand me jaaye desh aur bhaand me jaaye desh ka hit. (To hell with the country and national interest),” many in the crowd shouted back. Stumped by the response, Mr Jaswant Singh could merely promise that the Government would do everything possible.

I do not remember the exact date, but sometime during the crisis, Mr Jaswant Singh was asked to hold a Press conference to brief the media. While the briefing was on at the Press Information Bureau hall in Shastri Bhavan, some families of the hostages barged in and started shouting slogans. They were led by one Sanjiv Chibber, who, I was later told, was a ‘noted surgeon’: He claimed six of his relatives were among the hostages.

Dr Chibber wanted all 36 terrorists named by the hijackers to be released immediately. He reminded everybody in the hall that in the past terrorists had been released from prison to secure the freedom of Ms Rubayya Sayeed, daughter of Mufti Mohammed Sayeed, while he was Home Minister in VP Singh’s Government. “Why can’t you release the terrorists now when our relatives are being held hostage?” he demanded. And then we heard the familiar refrain: “Give away Kashmir, give them anything they want, we don’t give a damn.”

On another evening, there was a surprise visitor at the PMO: The widow of Squadron Leader Ajay Ahuja, whose plane was shot down during the Kargil war. She insisted that she should be taken to meet the relatives of the hostages. At Race Course Road, she spoke to mediapersons and the hostages’ relatives, explaining why India must not be seen giving in to the hijackers, that it was a question of national honour, and gave her own example of fortitude in the face of adversity.

“She has become a widow, now she wants others to become widows. Who is she to lecture us? Yeh kahan se aayi?” someone shouted from the crowd. Others heckled her. The young widow stood her ground, displaying great dignity and courage. As the mood turned increasingly ugly, she had to be led away. Similar appeals were made by others who had lost their sons, husbands and fathers in the Kargil war that summer. Col Virendra Thapar, whose son Lt Vijayant Thapar was martyred in the war, made a fervent appeal for people to stand united against the hijackers. It fell on deaf ears.

The media made out that the overwhelming majority of Indians were with the relatives of the hostages and shared their view that no price was too big to secure the hostages’ freedom. The Congress kept on slyly insisting, “We are with the Government and will support whatever it does for a resolution of the crisis and to ensure the safety of the hostages. But the Government must explain its failure.” Harkishen Singh Surjeet and other Opposition politicians issued similar ambiguous statements.

By December 28, the Government’s negotiators had struck a deal with the hijackers: They would free the hostages in exchange of three dreaded terrorists — Maulana Masood Azhar, Mushtaq Ahmed Zargar and Ahmed Omar Sheikh — facing various charges of terrorism.

The CCS met frequently, several times a day, and discussed the entire process threadbare. The Home Minister, the Defence Minister and the Foreign Minister, apart from the National Security Adviser and the Prime Minister, were present at every meeting. The deal was further fine-tuned, the Home Ministry completed the necessary paper work, and two Indian Airlines aircraft were placed on standby to ferry the terrorists to Kandahar and fetch the hostages.

On December 31, the two aircraft left Delhi airport early in the morning. Mr Jaswant Singh was on board one of them. Did his ministerial colleagues know that he would travel to Kandahar? More important, was the Prime Minister aware of it? The answer is both yes and no.

Mr Jaswant Singh had mentioned his decision to go to Kandahar to personally oversee the release of hostages and to ensure there was no last-minute problem. He was honour-bound to do so, he is believed to have said, since he had promised the relatives of the hostages that no harm would come their way. It is possible that nobody thought he was serious about his plan. It is equally possible that others turned on him when the ‘popular mood’ and the Congress turned against the Government for its ‘abject surrender’.

On New Year’s eve, the hostages were flown back to Delhi. By New Year’s day, the Government was under attack for giving in to the hijackers’ demand! Since then, this ‘shameful surrender’ is held against the NDA and Mr Jaswant Singh is painted as the villain of the piece.

Could the Kandahar episode have ended any other way? Were an Indian aircraft to be hijacked again, would we respond any differently? Not really. As a nation we do not have the guts to stand up to terrorism. We cannot take hits and suffer casualties. We start counting our dead even before a battle has been won or lost. We make a great show of honouring those who die on the battlefield and lionise brave hearts of history, but we do not want our children to follow in their footsteps.

We are, if truth be told, a nation of cowards who don’t have the courage to admit their weakness but are happy to blame a well-meaning politician who, perhaps, takes his regimental motto of ‘Izzat aur Iqbal’ rather too seriously.

B. Raman on Varun Gandhi episode

This is a very good article by the former intelligence chief B. Raman on the Varun Gandhi Saga.

http://election.rediff.com/column/2009/mar/25/guest-ec-should-have-given-varun-gandhi-a-hearing.htm

"As I read the late night communication of the Election Commission to Varun Gandhi, son of Sanjay and Maneka Gandhi and grandson of Indira Gandhi, and his reply to the Election Commission, I was reminded of the exchange of midnight missives between his illustrious grandmother and the so-called syndicate in the Congress before the Presidential elections in the late 1960s in which V V Giri, supported by her, was elected and Sanjiva Reddy, supported by the syndicate, was defeated.

Indira Gandhi rightly viewed the machinations of the syndicate as an attempt to marginalise her in the Congress party and put a stop to her political aspirations. She fought back ferociously and ultimately prevailed. The syndicate did not forgive her for this. When the Congress lost the elections after the lifting of the Emergency in 1977, the syndicate had its moments of revenge. It got Sanjiva Reddy elected as the President and sought to humiliate her in every way possible. She ferociously fought back again and returned to power in 1980. Nobody remembers the syndicate. Its members have been consigned to the dustbin of history. Everybody remembers Indira Gandhi.

A grand-son of Indira Gandhi is now fighting ferociously against what he apparently sees as an attempt by a syndicate of so-called secularists to discredit him and crush his political aspirations even before he could take his first firm steps in politics. He has every right to fight against what he perceives to be the denial of the right of natural justice to him.

The extremely objectionable remarks alleged to have been made by Varun Gandhi during two pre-election meetings in the Pilibhit constituency should be strongly condemned by all right-thinking persons as distasteful, irresponsible and unworthy of a political leader if it is established that he did make those remarks.

If he had not contested those remarks and, on the contrary, if he had tried to justify them, there would have been no need for a further enquiry before condemning him. But he has contested the remarks which he is supposed to have made and he has not justified them. He has challenged the genuineness of the tapes and alleged that the tapes have been doctored.

In TV interviews, he has given a number of arguments as to why he contended that the tapes had been doctored. Many of his arguments could be dismissed as after-thoughts but not one, namely, his contention that in a tape he is shown as referring to a sister of his whereas he had no sister. If what he says about the contents of the tapes is correct, there is a serious mistake of fact in the remarks which he is shown as making. Where there is such a serious mistake of fact, there is a presumption of innocence in favour of the accused. He has not been given the benefit of this presumption.

There are certain procedural infirmities in the way the Election Commission has passed its order of March 22 against Varun. The first infirmity arises from the fact that the commission has passed an ex-parte order without giving Varun an opportunity to appear before the commission and explain his conduct. An ex-parte order is permissible if a person against whom an inquiry is being made was given an opportunity to appear and explain his conduct, but he did not do so. When a person fails to respond to a summons to appear before an inquiry body and explain his conduct, he is presumed to be avoiding the due process of the rules or the law. There is an automatic presumption of guilt against him.

All of us, including the distinguished members of the EC, had served as bureaucrats. We had all done our training before we started our career. We had all attended courses in how to hold an inquiry and about the importance of being fair in an inquiry. There are detailed departmental orders in the government of India and the states as to how to hold a fair inquiry. All these orders lay down that every person against whom an inquiry is held has a right for a personal hearing before the inquiry officer twice -- before the inquiry starts and again before an adverse ruling is pronounced by the inquiry officer. If Varun Gandhi is to be believed, these dos and don'ts of a fair inquiry were not followed in his case.

The second infirmity arises with regard to Varun's contention that the tapes seem to have been doctored. The Election Commission has held that it was for him to prove this. How could he have explained to the commission as to why he thought that the tapes might have been doctored if he was not given an opportunity for a personal hearing. There are two ways of proving that a tape must have been doctored -- forensically or by pointing out serious mistakes of fact in the contents of the tape, which are glaring and could not have been made by him. It would have been but fair that he was given an opportunity to appear before the commission and explain why he contended that the tapes must have been doctored.

Priyanka Gandhi, another grand-child of Indira Gandhi, has reportedly advised Varun to read and understand the Gita better. She should too. In fact, all of us, who consider ourselves proud Hindus, should. In the Gita, Lord Krishna advises and convinces Arjun as to why one should sometimes fight even against one's kith and kin if there were strong moral grounds for doing so.
That is why Indira Gandhi fought ferociously against the syndicate of the Congress.
If Varun thinks that he should emulate his illustrious grand-mother and fight ferociously against what he sees as the unfair attitude of the syndicate of so-called secularists against him, he has every right to do so. "

B Raman

Varun Gandhi

Here is a good and objective editorial on the media hungama on Varun Gandhi's speech.

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/Editorial/Thrown-to-the-wolves/articleshow/4295119.cms

"Someone should have told the poor boy. How was he to know that saying those electioneering things would mean such a brouhaha? Here he was, a young man with an impressive, though troubled lineage, phoren-returned, simply seeking to make his mark politically, much as so many others have done before him.

And suddenly, Varun Gandhi is neck-deep in shifty stuff like EC notices and CDs and tamperings and what not. Not for nothing was his first amazed reaction the ‘what’d I do wrong?’ sort.

Haven’t we all seen so many of them leaders say worse things and make a career out of it? And since the pseudo-secular camp was already taken, what choice did he have but to join the other gang and speak up in defence of the defenceless, downtrodden majority of the nation?

And out there, in the dusty heartland, where PC chat is hardly de rigueur, he naturally assumed this was the best way to get some enthusiasm going among the locals. Sure, he seems to really have been the target of a conspiracy.

Why else, pray, would suddenly he be blamed for saying things which others have said so often, and so much more forcefully? It isn’t also the case that he just made a minute miscalculation. The chap was told things were this way, and he merely proceeded.

Then, even more insidiously, someone seems to have advised him to take a ‘so what if I did’ stand. Probably told him it’d mean nice bouts of publicity and also gather the requisite flock around. When he did do that, the party he was supposedly running for now seems to have done a Pontius Pilate.

Make no mistake, what we are witnessing is no case of a wannabe leader quoting publicly what his (supposed) party oft ideologises. This is a clear case of a normal young man, full of perfectly acceptable aspirations being thrown to the wolves.

Of being abandoned after never being informed that there might well be something wrong with what he was saying, or even led to think. Sigh. Can we all not pretend this was just youthful passion at work? "

Media against BJP -Varun Gandhi

The latest media campaign against the BJP seems to be gaining speed. Varun Gandhi's alleged communal remarks are being brought into centerstage, again as a distraction from actual poll issues.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4jCRSzD01xI

(Why are statements where someone says I will protect Hindus reminiscent of a villian in a B grade movie?!! Also, the commentator Rupashree Nanda calls the Islamic threat - Imaginary persecution!!!)

It is actually not surprising that this was released by Sardesai's CNN-IBN (a rabidly anti hindu news channel). These news media people need a sound verbal thrashing if not a public whipping!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6cBRi9cwi2E&feature=related

(Another disgustingly narrated news piece by some freak anchor (Ranjit Mishra) spewing crap in highly exagerrated (typical of low grade hindi news) and very irritating Hindi making a mockery of a very serious issue facing the Hindus in Philbit)


http://www.ndtv.com/convergence/ndtv/story.aspx?id=NEWEN20090088063&ch=3182009103900PM

"I am proud of my faith and not apologetic about it. I am a Gandhi, Hindu and an Indian in equal measure," said Varun Gandhi, Leader, BJP."Hindutva embraces tolerance with justice, compassion with courage and inclusivity with insight. Nothing I have ever said or done has been intended to insight hatred. I am pro India not anti-anybody. Since, the UP assembly elections, the Pilibhit constituency and the entire of central UP, which is about 20 districts, has been witness to a number of communal and provocative incidents," Varun added.

"It is a crime to be called Hindu in this country why should I apologise? The slaughtered remains of cows have been found in homes, no action has been taken. Thousands and thousands of people from the Hindu community have been placed under arrest in NSA. Three temples have been vandalised in the block in which I am supposed to have given this speech. Village Pradhans have been threatened daily.My attempt has been to boost confidence of a community which has been under siege in its own country. When things are seen out of context, there is always a danger of misunderstanding. India is a big country, with a big heart. There is room in it for all to live in goodwill. That is my sincere hope and effort."

http://www.indianexpress.com/news/cd-tampered-claims-varun-but-admits-rousing-speech/435953/

“If you ask me, I would say yes, it was a rousing speech, a strong speech. May be I should not have been so aggressive; may be, I should not have used the words which I did. However, certain expressions attributed to me have been distorted from what I spoke and one of the two CDs containing my speech has been doctored.”

“What people should realize is that I was speaking at a village where four girls had been raped. When I spoke, I wanted to instil confidence among victims, I wanted to offer hope to the hopeless. I don’t care about a warrant (for arrest) but what bothers me is that I should not be hurting anyone and, believe me, my intent was not to hurt anybody,” Varun said.

“You must appreciate the fact that in my area, there has been persecution of Hindus in a particular belt. There have been 11 cases of rape in the last one year. People have been thrashed and threatened. There has been communal tension in this belt for one year. While I don’t want to cement it (tension), I cannot wish it away either.”

“My mother (Menaka Gandhi) has been elected to Lok Sabha from Pilibhit in seven consecutive elections, but the constituency has never witnessed a communal riot, not even in the Ram Janmabhoomi movement phase. But during the last one year, things have been different. Many of our people, including former minister Ram Saran Verma, have been arrested under the National Security Act,” he said.

“What I referred to was ‘galat tatva’ (wrong elements) and not any community in one of the lines that has been described as inflammatory. How does it have any communal overtone? The second CD in circulation is doctored,” Varun said.

In a press release issued later, he said: “In the instance, where I have taken oath in the name of the Gita (which is standard court procedure), I have sworn to protect Hindus against any ‘galat tatva’ or bad elements. This was said in the context of two young Hindu girls having been recently raped in a village. The object of the speech was to instil confidence in a badly-scarred and shaken community. I never mentioned a word against or said anything derogatory against any community.”

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/India/Ive-been-a-victim-of-political-conspiracy-Varun-Gandhi/articleshow/4280751.cms

"If anyone raises a finger towards Hindus or if someone thinks that Hindus are weak and leaderless, if someone thinks that these leaders lick our boots for votes, if anyone raises a finger towards Hindus, then I swear on Gita that I will cut that hand."
(I wonder what is wrong or communal in this statement?)

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/India/BJP_doublespeak_as_Varun_unapologetic/articleshow/4282580.cms

The Media here asks a question to Venkaiah Naidu which insinnuates that being proud of Hinduism is a crime to be ashamed of!!

"On Varun Gandhi remaining unapologetic with assertions that he was a Gandhi, Hindu and an Indian in equal measure, Naidu asked, "so what is wrong in being a Hindu?""

Instead of putting light on the situation in Philbit and giving a complete picture to the whole episode, the media has once again chosen to show just one side of the story to suit their political rquirements!

Also, this is something that one person might have said in one constituency. What is the need for the Media to make this into a huge national level issue? They did not seem to mind when the Congress and communists make communal and seccessionist statements!!

Indian media at it again -The Chaplain Saga and Karan Thapar

Many people must have read about the differences of opinion between Arun Jaitley and Sudhanshu mittal/Rajnath Singh. The media has gone to town saying that the BJP is breaking apart and are trying hard to make this an important issue in the polls. Add to this the Charlie chaplin controversy emanating out of Karnataka! The truth shows that the media was involved in creating this baseless story. Now these so called "eminent" personalities of the art and literature circles threaten to carry out a protest march! It must be mentioned that all these people whose names are in the article are known hindu-baiters.

One can only conclude that the media is trying hard to distract the public from the reall issues of Christian separatist terrorism in the North-East, Islamic jehadi terror all over India, Christian missionary attacks on hinudism, Bad economy, Poor foreign policy, Corruption................

Here is an interview of Ravi Shankar Prasad by the great pseudo-secular Karan Thapar. I think Devils advocate is a very appropriate name for this segment!

http://ibnlive.in.com/news/india-will-recall-ndas-governance-vote-us-back/87765-37.html

The questions he asks are very disappointing and borders to scolding a child as to why he behaved in a certain way! Ravi Shankar Prasad keeps his cool (just barely) and this just gets more on Thapar's nerves.

Sample this,

1. Karan Thapar: The reason he took that drastic step was because at no point during the negotiation did the BJP do what was the rational, sensible and logical thing to do: which is to say to him we understand you want a reallocation of seats, this is the minimum we can live with.
You never indicated what your minimum was, instead delayed, you prevaricated, you added anger and concern to his already frustration, you misread him and you mishandled the negotiation as a result.
Ravi Shankar Prasad: I am afraid Mr Karan Thapar, we do not need to have negotiations to please Karan Thapar. (Brilliant answer) We are old handlers of allies. As far as Mr Navin Patnaik is concerned, we have fought the Lok Sabha together and the assembly elections together, and therefore we trust each other. These kind of hagglings keep going on in the initial state. And finally we comes to a stage when we find a way out. That way out was not allowed to be found out! That happened because of pressure from the allies, his friends in his party who were keen to break up the alliance for their own sake. Navin Patnaik would reject the same.

(Thapar acts as if BJP is responsible to him)

2. Karan Thapar: Are you saying to me that today, when the BJP has become a story itself on the frontpage, has it not done any damage to your image?
Ravi Shankar Prasad: No, I can only tell you this. One cannot be very happy about it, to be very honest with you. But the way in which you are presenting it, is something that I do not buy at all. There are issues and they will be addressed. There is no problem.

(Now, who is responsible for making it front page news?!!!)

3.Ravi Shankar Prasad: I do grant you the flourishes of your English.
(Good retort)

4.Karan Thapar: When? You keep saying that they will be addressed.
Ravi Shankar Prasad: I am not supposed to be accountable to Karan Thapar.

A very good counter interview by Arun Jaitley!

http://ibnlive.in.com/news/role-reversal-devils-advocate-in-the-dock/81786-3-p0.html

Arun Jaitley: Survive to do what? Five-year ago if a television carried a programme which was critical about my party, I will be deeply concerned but today the credibility is going down. There are such a large number of channels these days that an individual channel doesn’t matter, what really matters in news content of a large number of channels is - cinema, cricket, crime, occasionally some crisis and even in those crisis there will some shallow tangential news which will be passed off as a breaking news and therefore the credibility of that news even of that survived or commercially driven channel is not very high.

Arun Jaitley: Are we rushing to instant conclusions because they make more attractive headlines, I think politicians have conventionally went for this kind of populism, but is media also going for it?

Arun Jaitley: I’ll give you two or three illustrations which have deeply disturbed me. Five or six months ago, we had a severe situation in Jammu and Kashmir, a province that matters a lot to India - you had the land row at the Amarnath Shrine Board, you had a reaction in the valley and you had a counter agitation to a counter agitation - now you had serious journalists commenting that the time has come that we must think seriously if Kashmir goes, it goes and then five or six months later you have elections which are perceived to be fair elections. How do you explain what was being written by serious political commentators six months ago?

(Thapars answer shows he is a Kashmir Separatist sympathizer)

Arun Jaitley: Come recently, you had campaigns over the last few years on how strong the anti-terror steps are against a particular community. And suddenly after the Mumbai attacks of 26/11, the same set of serious channels of electronic media started deflecting from the real issue. They whipped up anti-politician sentiment, whereas the issue was how India can tackle terror. Now is that a serious approach to journalism which mainstream media can have?

Arun Jaitley: I can quite understand media informing, media educating, media holding a mirror to the society and to individual politicians. But media doing such u-turns takes the credibility from one of the strongest limbs of Indian democracy.

Arun Jaitley: Of course. Take for instance the headlines on electronic media. Till 25/11, the Malegaon incident was Hindu terror. And 26/11 the slogan was - terror has no religion.

Arun Jaitley: Coming to another point. You’ve interviewed a large number of Pakistani politicians and representatives. Watching you interviewing them, (reading) your columns, I’ve always got the distinct impression that you’ve stood for making borders irrelevant and a greater cooperation between the two countries. How do you as a political commentator - post 26/11 - see the situation today?

Check out the webiste for Thapar's answers. I only wish Jaitley was more prepared with facts and news paper cut outs and taken Thapar to task on his partisanship instead of letting him go so easily!

For someone who wants to know the ideology of Mr. Karan Thapar, here is an article by him stating his stand very clearly,
http://www.hindustantimes.com/StoryPage/StoryPage.aspx?id=de847806-8ec0-4ed2-aff5-e9317f5539d3

A befitting reply is given here

http://www.blogs.ivarta.com/Response-Hindustan-Times-Article-Whos-real-Hindu/blog-153.htm