The Great Indian Political Drama - 1 (Oct 2017 - Mar 2018)

[abhijit]

To be fair to Modi, there is no mention in BJP manifesto in 2014 about protection, preservation of indian culture, festivals and tradition. There is no mention of RTE etc either. Whatever mentioned in the manifesto most of it seems BJP is working towards it. It may not have achieved everything but is working, perception or reality whatever.

So all our angst discussed in this thread about diwali etc etc is misplaced and misguided as far as BJP is concerned. Technically they are not answerable to our requests if we argue 'hey but you are hindutwavadi party'. They can very well say the party is but government isn't.

So my suggestion is, in next election, everyone (including me) who are jumping up and down on issues like diwali, jallikatu, dahi handi etc, please check the manifesto and then and ONLY THEN decide to vote. If that is very important for you/us.

[abhijit]

BTW, and just in time pertinent to our discussion on how maybe RSS is party to Modi sarkar's inaction on the HIndu issues front...

Mohan Bhagwat raises issues of RTE exemption to Minority schools

Demands the same for "bahusankhyak" or majority/ Hindu-run schools too.

And why bl00dy not, eh?

Let go this time. It has to go into manifesto next election. BJP and RSS cannot game voters like us by talking something and walking different. If it is important to them then it has to go into their manifesto. Otherwise this is like "longo ko vote ke liye bhadkaneka magar kam kuchh aur karneka." It unnecessarily raises expectations and ends up in heart burn.

In 2014 manifesto BJP has clearly mentioned "Ensure effective implementation of the Right to Education, Right to Food Security Act". Taking meaning out is anybody's guess. But technically they did not say they will change it but they will implement it efficiently. So there you go.

[Mahakala]

They're efficiently ensuring closure of tens of thousands of hindu run schools.

And its not like this is something new. This was passed in 2004. 3 years after your own govt has done nothing is not when rss should pipe up.

[Marten]

You are expecting this chewing gum to be a priority over walking or at least on par. RSS drives the agenda. And your own subsequent post shows which will be picked as a pending issue for 2019 or done just in time for the elections. Feel free to be as let down as you wish but I would prefer they get back to power first and then do whatever else is on the shortlist. Feel free to disagree. Feel free to list these issues and chase own man on his app. I can assure you a response will come. It may not be the one you want though.

[Sridhar k]

I agree with Marten but at least avoid bloating over hits on Hindus like the cracker ban like Harshvardhan did.

The earlier environmental minister Dave was more Indic and after his death, seems quite a few NGO agenda are being driven by the ministry. first the cattle fair issue and now this

[Hari Seldon]

Let go this time. It has to go into manifesto next election. BJP and RSS cannot game voters like us by talking something and walking different. If it is important to them then it has to go into their manifesto. Otherwise this is like "longo ko vote ke liye bhadkaneka magar kam kuchh aur karneka." It unnecessarily raises expectations and ends up in heart burn.

+1, sirjee.

Which is why even back on BRF and here, consistently, I've been asking that our party (i.e., BJP) at least pay lip service to our concerns by including them in their statement of intent, a.k.a. manifesto.

Maybe they won't. Theek hai.

I and people like me will still bl00dy end up voting for them, however. At which point any incentive on part of the BJP to do anything for people like us, 'cept take us for granted, is zilch. What to do only.

[Schmidt]

Just to be clear , a manifesto is not some enforceable contract

And who even remembers the manifestos of various parties ?

[abhijit]

Just to be clear , a manifesto is not some enforceable contract

And who even remembers the manifestos of various parties ?

Yes but at least you can hold them accountable and send grievance.

Why people are expecting BJP to change RTE when before they vote BJP clearly mentioned it will not.

[SRoy]

The first significant crowd to desert the BJP will be the gung-ho "Vikas only" crowd.
BJP has bungled up implementation of GST and demonetization, and in addition formal sector jobs are on down slide for last few years. When it comes to evaluate what's on my table monetarily at the end of the month, BJP has nothing to show.

[svenkat]

https://swarajyamag.com/politics/ending ... te-anymore

Tamil Nadu politician Dr K Krishnasamy has demanded that the Devendrakula Vellalar community be taken off the list of scheduled communities.

This bold step can set a precedent for other minority communities to operate from a position of strength rather than victimhood.

Dr K Krishnasamy, the leader of Puthiya Tamilagam party, convened a meeting on 6 October in Chennai which drew 25,000 people from the Devendrakula Vellalar community, also known as Pallar in the mainstream media.

Tamil Nadu has recently seen many community and caste conferences. The most prominent among them have been those of communities like Thevar (or the Mukkulathor people) and Vanniyar. These conferences often turn into militant discourses advocating violence, mostly verbal and psychological, and sometimes physical against either the establishment or a competing community.

n such an environment, Dr Krishnasamy has shown that a community conference can be positive and can aim for social harmony rather than confrontation. The two main demands of the conference were that there should be an official notification stating the change of the community name from Pallar to the original, traditional one – Devendrakula Vellalar, and that the community should be taken off the list of scheduled communities.

These demands are not new – they have a long history spanning decades. Dr Krishnasamy had pointed out that it was the British, who in 1926-27 made the community SC – based solely on their deprived economic status. Here, he is perhaps providing a valuable hint to researchers in history who are open-minded for free frameworks. Historian Mike Davis in his book, Late Victorian Holocausts, writes about how the British rule disrupted “a complex network of social production including communal irrigation”.

A few generations back, the Devendrakula Vellalars were the custodians of this crucial component of agriculture in the villages of Tamil Nadu. It was with the complete colonial overhaul of agricultural land ownerships that the community seemed to have suffered grave economic setbacks and subsequently categorised as a scheduled community. Antagonistic and inhuman attitudes of some of the communities that emerged dominant did not help the situation either.

The British also played their cards cleverly. They created fault lines by placing the Kallar community in criminal tribes and Devendrakula Vellalar in the scheduled community list. The ensuing enmity had gone on for almost a century and the dominant ‘progressive’ narrative put the blame on ‘Brahminical Hinduism’, resulting even in Islamist mass conversions in 1980s that shocked India. Except Dr M G Ramachandran, the Dravidian polity also perpetuated the fault lines created by the British. This often resulted in criminal and tragic loss of human lives, particularly of people belonging to Devendrakula Vellalar community.

In 1999, under the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) government, the police opened fire at estate labourers who were demanding maternity leave and that their daily wages be fixed at Rs 100 a day. In the incident which is now known as ‘Thamiraparani river massacre’, 18 people including two women and a two-year-old child died. In 2011, under the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) regime, seven men were shot dead by police during a rally against the detention of a community leader. Thus the path through which the community travelled even in the current decade has been one of thorns.

Yet the community has been keen on reclaiming its cultural and spiritual roots. The demand for name change shows that the community is equipped with exhaustive documentation of inscriptional evidence, ritual connections to major temples with special honours reserved for the community for centuries, and so on. It is said that even during the colonial period, an attempt was made by the then economically marginalised community to regain their original name, which was brushed aside by a certain Dravidian ideologue, who was then monopolising and dominating the social reform scene.

Also, by requesting to take the community out of the reservation list, Dr Krishnasamy seeks to address the problem of community development through affirmative programme based on economic criterion. He had asked the state and central governments to place his community under the ‘most backward castes (MBC)’ – which is an assertion that the community is culturally homogenous with the rest of Hindu community, and what is to be addressed is the economic backwardness.

What we are witnessing in the historic decision of Dr Krishnasamy and Devendrakula Vellalar community is the process of merging of a social minority community that had faced abuse and discrimination for almost a century, with the social majority. In this, one should say, Dr Krishnasamy and his community have placed great faith and hence a very great responsibility on the other Hindu communities of Tamil Nadu. When successful, this phenomenon will set a model for other communities now listed as scheduled communities to seek their original and respectful place in the cultural matrix, which has been denied by social stagnation and reinforced by colonial policies.

......

As expected, the old media have been quick to bury their hands in the sand and tried to wish away this process, which goes against their ideological and political vested interests. There have been personal attacks against Dr Krishnasamy by Marxists and Dravidianists. However, Dr Krishnasamy has been bravely charting a course for the emancipation of his people from the prisons of victimhood mentality by walking against the tide.

[jamwal]

http://www.firstpost.com/india/delhi-cm ... 36643.html
Arvind Kejriwal's blue Wagon R stolen outside Delhi Secretariat; car was being used by AAP's Vandana Singh

Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal's blue Wagon R car has been stolen from outside the Secretariat, say news reports.

Delhi: Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's Blue Wagon R stolen near Secretariat

— ANI (@ANI) October 12, 2017
The car was reportedly stolen around 2 pm on Thursday. Kejriwal had been using the car since he was an activist, according to Times Now.

The blue Wagon R, which became synonymous with Kejriwal's aam aadmi image, was presently being used by AAP's media coordinator Vandana Singh.

"The car was parked outside the Delhi Secretariat. It went missing around 1 pm," a senior police official said. The car was donated to Kejriwal by Kundan Sharma, a software engineer, in January 2013.

Mandeep Randhawa, Deputy Commissioner of police told CNN-News 18, “We received the complaint at around 3.30 pm on Thursday after which we started investigating into the case,”

[AmoghaVarsha]

On one hand, I feel like showing a finger to this ban and burn up whatever fireworks I can gather. But as a citizen, I feel it is my duty to follow the law of land, irrespective of my personal beliefs. So this is a real dharm sankat for me.

When Law Becomes Repression, Resistance Becomes Duty.

If our fathers and Grandfathers had accepted Emmergency and not resisted it where would be we today?

Uthistha Bharata

[shravanp]

Fully agree. However the ban is on sale, and not burning. So you could still buy it from outside and burn them.

The way I look at it is, the ban would decrease burning of fireworks since only the real enthusiasts would actually make an effort or purchasing them outside.

[jamwal]

I went to fireworks market in old Delhi today. All shops were closed

[crams]

Guys, DDM is having headlines like BJP juggernaut stopped because Congoons swept some civic polls in Maharashtra. Can the gurus comment on this? Whats the significance of this loss on BJP?

[Atish]

If everybody starts choosing what they will and will not accept from the SC and the Constitution there will be complete anarchy. I accept whatever the SC says on Constitutional issues even if I think its an insane judgement. There is nothing stopping Delhi govt from enacting a law that supersedes the SC judgement. I highly doubt the SC will strike down such a law.

[Marten]

They're efficiently ensuring closure of tens of thousands of hindu run schools.

And its not like this is something new. This was passed in 2004. 3 years after your own govt has done nothing is not when rss should pipe up.

To be honest, my shortlist has only the three items including this. However, Smritiji was busy fighting social media battles. Javdekar saab is also on the same lines. I don't think we get anything but soundbytes from that exercise. They need to first address the minority only approach of the act.

Every thing else will fall into place within a year. Most folks outside these august forums do not have a long memory and care only about the previous budget. A populist budget is most probably in the pipeline going by the war chest they are building *low inflation, low deficits, lower borrowing rates, etc.

As I understand it from multiple posts here, even lip service would be helpful. I do not think another namami gange project will be helpful. A clear rewrite of the act will take more time. Anti corruption moves with charges etc would be ideal too. However, arrests or traction depends on the judiciary and as such, these timelines are beyond MAD control. Therefore, they are continuing to work with the dials and knobs they have within reach. Whether RTE or Diwali ordinances are part of those is the question...

[Primus]

.................

When I try and explain that this is a thousand year long civilizational war, they laugh and drink their beer. I can do nothing but think how their (and mine) grand children and their children will be brutally hounded & killed 200 years from today and how they will curse their ancestors.

I've often wondered how our ancestors lost everything to the marauding forces of Islam all those centuries ago. Having looked at this issue in some detail, I suspect to some extent it was because of ignorance of the huge threat that was coming their way, with poor preparation for a conflict that was overwhelming in scale.

We must maintain a constant vigil, more so now than ever before. Cannot afford to repeat the same mistakes again, now that there is a pro-Indic leadership in place.

[Primus]

Facebook blocks user for sharing donation appeal to Civil Liberties group (Op India)

But but BIF forces indulge in some more daylight thuggery ...

Shefali Vaidya‏Verified account
@ShefVaidya
Following Following @ShefVaidya
More
My FB account is under a block 4 a week coz I shared the appeal of support for @indiccollective. Wonder how it affects FB 'community stds'?

They have also tweeted out their Bank Account details, if anyone wished to help them in their activism

Time to put money where mouth is and support them financially, virally (by spreading their message), legally perhaps (am sure yagnasri garu and other legal eagles here can chip in) and so on. I intend to donate, for sure. Other PIFs here, folks, kindly spread the good word and chip in as you can, plz!

Only.

Just goes to show how powerful the BIF are and any slippage in support of the BJP will lead us back into the quagmire of Congoon rule again. 2019 is a must-win for AS and NM.

Sadly, the site does not accept any donations from abroad since they do not have an FCRA license. Wish there was another way to help.

[shravanp]

Guys, DDM is having headlines like BJP juggernaut stopped because Congoons swept some civic polls in Maharashtra. Can the gurus comment on this? Whats the significance of this loss on BJP?

Congoons actually retained Nanded. Nothing more.

DDMs are hardly talking about BJP sweeping gram panchayats across Maharashtra. DDMs are being the best at what it is - bunch of idiots. Marathi patrakars making it sound as its a huge comeback whereas Nanded was always a Congress bastion. Huge population of peacefools there.

[Vrish]

And why is Robert Vadra not in jail yet ??

Have they even framed charges ??

A clear case of nepotism , conflicts of interest , bending of land certification rules to accommodate him , even tax evasion and money laundering

Still no forward movement in prosecuting the slimy narcissistic bugger with a terrible fashion sense to boot ( he and his pink trousers )

My understanding is the bloke and his files are kept for election time (2018 in runup to 2019). For BJP, all the RaGa, NaHerald, Vadra stuff is just for politicking. They dont intend to send any of these blokes to the slammer, which is where the INC is completely different and actually treats this as a conflict. If not for Modi, I wouldnt have been surprised if many BJP guys had also become arrogant and corrupt.

[hanumadu]

^ Baloney.

There's going to be no new alternative to BJP emerge on a national level anytime soon.

BJP's own ascent was thanks to decades of painstaking groundwork by RSS and Hindutva cadre, which NM leveraged as a force-multiplier in 2013-14.

"Our" (as in the Hindu identity voters) best chance as of now is to pressurize BJP from within to move towards a less indifferent stance towards Hindu issues than is the case at present.

All avenues (from grassroot cadre to soc media luminaries to RSS functionaries who have the party's ear) must be explored and recruited for this effort, ideally.

More than NM, I think Amitbhai Shah, free of Govt responsibilities, can act as a pressure point and spokie for our views within the appropriate fora to move GoI to bring about a level playing field for our besieged community. Or so I hope.

+1. We moved from Vajpayee to Modi. The next generation (Yogi) is even more unabashedly Hindu. Hopefully, Modi will push the Hindutva bar considerably higher for the next generation to follow.

[hanumadu]

It's not as if Namo has done nothing for the core voter base. He has slowly been cleaning up the ecosystem like reducing the students intake into social sciences at JNU. With time we can replace the faculty with indic faculty. Appointments to Indian Council of Historical Research etc are Indics. Over many years, these will do a lot to create a level playing field for Hindus.

More than UCC or Ram Mandir, I prefer demographic control and ghar wapsi. If we fail in demographics every other gain will be squandered in no time. Cutting funds to madrassas, deradicalisation of muslims and population control should be way higher up in the priority list for Hindus than Mandir or UCC. We have to take their power to influence elections in any significant way. All political parties will fall in line once that happens.

[Hari Seldon]

^ No disagreement there, saar.

One important must-do to prevent demographic leakage from the Indic fold to that of imported ideologies is to steadily even if slowly (but preferably speedily) enable Hindu institutions (schools, most importantly but shrines and their assets, endowments etc too, at some point) to operate with some measure of autonomy from overbearing state interference and whimsical/discretionary plunder.

Nobody's saying zero has been done on FCRA for instance. Just that more could/should have been done or at least intent communicated. Right now, BIF is on rampage and we Indics are perennially on backfoot only.

How I loved the sight the NaMo doing the ganga-aarti post 16-may - an unapologetic celebration of Indigenous culture, native traditions, faith and way of life.... Sooo novel for Nehruvian India that it seemed radical only! BTW, did it cost him much in time, money, votes? Why not at least continue to celebrate Indic culture publicly and often? Reaffirm our faith that you are who you said you were. Post-26-may when he took oath, he seemed to have changed. Par for the course perhaps.

Which is why this BJP mantris and now CMs (chattisgarh, MH) cheerleading brazen discrimination against one of our core festivals feels like a shocker. At least say you understand our sentiment even if your hands are tied (and why are they tied, again?) At least stop your mantris from stomping all over Yindoo sentiment with over-the-top media statements celebrating the verdict...

P.S. I understand NM couldn't constitutionally do anything when JihaDidi in WB banned Bengali Hinduism's biggest festival - Durgo Pujo - from culminating its mutri immersion on the prescribed day. Federal structure and all that. But in Delhi??

But well, the argument goes back to square one and rotates in circles. Will stop here. Let the rah-rah-infalliable-Modi crowd have the last say and the last laugh. Peace.

My last on this Diwali issues.

[dsreedhar]

^^ +100
Building of indic base is taking place at diff levels. A good interview by SS and RM in Washington DC this week -
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nVw7qK8I5V8[/youtube]

Interview hosted by Prannay Roy with Sadhguru, Shashi Taroor. Sadhguru came out pretty good vs others. He openly mentions about fears of demographics.
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X1vbTZ8Zmu0[/youtube]