But first, to give credit where it’s due, the media morons outdid themselves in their historical stupidity by predicting 85-90 seats for the BJP, 70-85 for the Congress and rest to the JD(S) and proclaimed a hung verdict and spun yarns about kingmaking and similar tripe. Their reasoning? The BJP’s “pathetic performance in the past two years,” “crumbling infrastructure,” “power cuts,” “moral policing,” “closing pubs at 11:30 PM,” “failure on all fronts,” etc. And they further argued that infighting, and the Congress’ 5-decade hold over the city corporation gave it a “definite edge.” In other words, like always, the media was campaigning on behalf of the Congress party. And now that its pet party has woefully lost, it’s now supplying the same tired excuses on the Congress party’s behalf. Two samples:

Deccan Herald stoops to a record new low:

For the party, the result is the outcome of a carefully crafted political strategy. Firstly, it did not totally sideline long-time grassroot party workers while distributing tickets. As a result the BJP faced much lesser rebel trouble compared to its principal opponent, the Congress…Noticing that voters tend to tilt towards the party in power, the BJP worked out its electoral game plan – a slew of promises from easing traffic congestion to sops for slum-dwellers were announced…People might not have beleived what the leaders promised. But they decided to go with the ruling party probably hoping that it is better to have corporators belonging to the ruling party in the State…There was a sudden show of unity in the party during the run-up to the elections. Legislators campaigned fairly sincerely for the candidates in their respective Assembly segments. The CM went on a whirlwind tour of Bangalore and also criss-crossed the City outskirts.

The Slimes lives up to our expectations from it:

The low voter turnout of 44% seemed to have vindicated the Congress-JD(S) grievance of voter apathy. Both parties were banking upon the BJP’s attempts to defer the elections as the major plank for the voters to turn in their favour.

Overall, there has been no miraculous makeover of Bangalore in the past 22 months by the BJP government, but the sheer campaign of making the city better with a plethora of assurances seemed to have made the difference favouring their victory.

But here’s the thing: post elections, these selfsame media retards wrote triumphantly about how the low voter turnout might backfire on the BJP! And that’s a formulaic repetition: in case of a Congress victory, gloat about its superior strategy, good work, popular perception, etc and characterize a BJP victory as a negative victory. Which brings us to examine the real causes for a BJP win and simultaneously expose media myths.

• People aren’t blind: The past two years have seen frenzied infrastructure activity at a pace witnessed perhaps only during SM Krishna’s regime. And it’s not just the civic works but other areas as well. For example, the BMTC (local bus transport) has come in for exceptional praise on several counts: profitablity (the only profit making state-owned transport corporation in the whole country), innovative schemes (the Bus Day was a big success) and the like. Those cribbing about traffic woes need to note that they can’t have it both ways: a city that’s trying desperately to catch up needs its people to have patience for a better future. The newly-created semi-urban and rural wards have also seen work happening at a dizzying pace: drain works, (work in progress for) 24-hour water supply, good roads, door to door garbage collection, and the like. And no prizes for guessing that these wards come under BJP MLAs. Small wonder that this translated into BJP candidates winning the BBMP polls. And it’s equally unsurprising that the media hasn’t reported any of these developments lest it hurt its paymaster.
• Power Cuts: Power cuts have been a fact of life since time immemorial throughout India. The media that invariably paints SM Krishna’s rule as the Golden Age conveniently glosses over the fact that Bangalore faced power cuts even in that age. The point is any government would’ve inherited this problem but the media deception lies in portraying this as a BJP-created problem. Aside, the media also forgets the situation in neighbouring Maharashtra, which had surplus power just 15 years ago. Two and half successive Congress governments have propelled the state into a powerless abyss.
• Intra party politics: The Karnataka BJP has its own share of infighting but the media has displayed an obscene delight in blowing it out of proportion. Its obsession with the Reddy Brothers is quite astounding. I hold no candle for the Brothers but here’s the thing: had the Reddy Brothers been in the Congress camp, would the media spotlight be on them? We know the answer already: just look at Andhra Pradesh. YSR & Sons run a far more extensive mining empire and continues to use the foulest of methods to keep it well-oiled. Yet not one media eminence has dared to report on the extent of atrocities he has committed both on people and the environment. But it’s free run with Reddy Brothers.
• Strategic Campaigning: This media-supplied excuse tries to sound so naive that it stretches the limits of belief. What was the media/Congress party thinking? That the BBMP elections is some hide and seek game that children play? In reality, the Congress party must thank sheer luck or God or whatever for winning 65 seats given that it merely feigned an attempt at wooing voters. Nothing else can explain the loss of Govindarajnagar, its historically impregnable fortress. Out of the 9 wards in the area, the BJP swept 8 and the JD(s) bagged 1.
• Early closing of Pubs, etc: This is idiotic to say the least. Seriously, how many voters even consider this a vote-deciding issue? More importantly, what percentage of the pub-going population actually vote? But then you get this kind of “analysis” when you employ well-dressed retards at factories like the Slimes of India.
• Miraculous makeover of Bangalore in 22 months: Right. And pigs can fly. Well-dressed retards at work again who forget what happened post 2004. The political inertia between 2004-2008 is really responsible for the mess that Bangalore faces today. Besides, didn’t someone tell Slimes that it is bad practice to believe in miracles? The Slimes can’t have it both ways: if it blames the government for traffic woes because infastructure works are underway, it must STFU when no miraculous makeovers happen.

In the end, the Congress party lost miserably because of these and several other minor reasons and must accept defeat with grace. The same goes for its media stooges who need to stop overestimating their imaginary strength. As for the JD(S), the woman with sticks on her head finally crumbled under its weight. But Deve Gowda must be commended for his audacity to dream that he’d win 30+ seats. The urban populace regards him with worse than contempt–calling a political rival a bastard and whore-son doesn’t fetch votes. Raking up the NICE issue proved a non-starter and in some cases, counterproductive: ask any Bangalorean why. Additionally, people aren’t amused when the former Chief Minister, HD Kumaraswamy asserts that it is okay to let criminals contest elections.

The BJP’s victory is well-deserved but it remains to be seen how it delivers on the mandate.

Tags: Bangalore Corporation Elections 2010, BBMP Elections 2010, BJP Victory BBMP Elections, BJP Victory BBMP Polls, Bruhat Bangalore Municipal Corporation, Commentary, Democracy, India, Indian Democracy, Indian Politics, Media Watch

Pune is just the name of another city because we’ve had a history of one attack in every six weeks: does it really matter where it happened and where it’ll happen next?

Needless, the usual charade followed this time as well: thundering media noise, outraged bloggers, shocked stars, a whimpering BJP, and the rest. It’s quite amusing actually. When 26/11 happened, India was under attack! and Mumbai (was) besieged! complete with the media copywriters’ semen stains on the headlines. But poor Pune has been robbed of such glamour. What the ugly assortment of politicians, penpushers, kingmakers, and the crown prince don’t realize–or don’t want us to know is the fact that India has been under attack for more than 1000 years. More on that after asking a rapid-fire round of questions:

• Dear Shahrukh Khan, this attack was done by your good neighbours. No. we’re not questioning your patriotism. We need honest answers. Your “good neighbour” remark might’ve been in the context of your IPL tomfoolery but Pakistan’s cricket team is NOT Pakistan. It’d do good for you to read this letter addressed to you. And next time, please don’t take Shakespeare’s “all the world’s a stage” too literally.
• Dear media, I know you’re already overworked with 24/7 spinning. And one of your Gin-sipping sisters has already speculated something about Sanathan Sanstha. Do us a service. Just STFU. We know operate largely in the space of cerebral vacuum but for once, don’t go overboard trying to prove it again and again. We know you won’t show the same spine you displayed in hammering the recent Shiv Sena hooliganism. Also do not spin the following:
• • Terror has no religion
  • Muslims are victims
  • This happened in <insert city of your choice> because Hindu fanatics are very strong here
  • The spirit of <insert city of your choice> will keep us going!
  • Shiv Sena and Taliban/JeM/LeT are the same
  • Secularism is under threat
  • Any and/or all of the above
• Dear fence-sitters and liberals, do not wax eloquent on the need for a “responsive” and “preventive” security apparatus, latest technology, advance warning signals, effective policing/Home ministry, international pressure, and similar nonsense.
• Dear Rahul Gandhi: where are you? The country needs you now! You can take a break from giving sleepless nights to those pretty university lasses.

What was limited to just Kashmir has merrily spread across the land in a space of just 6 years. A phenomenon familiar to anybody who has read Indian history–not the Romila Thapar version. To them, we’re a land of Kaffirs. Our eminent op-ed writers who try to explain this away are actually insulting the unblemished religious fervor of the perpetrators. These guys also harbour the illusion that Pakistan is really a democratic country–witness their several calls to “restore demoratic processes/norms/machinery” in Pakistan. Pakistan remains an Islamic theocracy. It’s even “purer” than Saudi Arabia in that it routinely vacuum-cleans non-Sunni Muslims (Ahammadiyas for example).

And because it is an Islamic theocracy, it is faithful to the Koran. Those who use the fancy military-jihadi complex need to consider this. What is the raison d’être for this military-jihadi complex? What propels and sustains it? The answer is uncomfortable but so is the truth. Military-jihadi is actually using the same word twice. If you are a pure Islamic country, your military exists not just to defend but to launch Jihad when the time is opportune. Also, Jihad essentially implies that you need to use military might to cleanse the world of infidels. There’s a reason why the likes of Kasab are given hardcore military training. To them, they are soldiers of Allah, sevants of the Prophet (PBUH). It’s therefore irrelevant if they are army regulars or freelancers. As history shows us, there’s no such thing as permanent peace in nations firmly under the sway of Islam. A current state of peace is simply preparations for the next Jihad. Which is why it is very important to use terms with full knowledge of their exact meaning. “Islamic terror” simply means Jihad. You cannot separate Islamic terror from its teachings. And it is the teachings that provide the justification for what’s known as the military-jihadi complex. People who call for a dismantling of this complex need to read the Quran and the Hadis first.

In the end, India has to take care of India’s interests. A friend might lend a supporting shoulder but you need to shed your blood and tears; he can’t do it on your behalf. Every country has its own methods to teach its enemies a lesson in a way they think is fit. Appealing to the US to mount pressure, etc won’t work. Pakistan’s relentless attacks against India is India’s problem. Talking international diplomacy and strategy is an optional next step. The first step is to grow a spine. (Vetoed! said Sonia).

Which city wants to go next?

Technorati : Congress Party, India, India Going to Dogs, Indian Politics, Islam Watch, Islamic Terrorism, Media Watch, Pakistan, Pseudosecularism, Pseudosecularism Hall of Shame, Pune, Pune Blasts, Terrorism, UPA
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About two months ago, I had posted about the dangerous, long-term outcome of what I called Love Jihad. This phenomenon ever since, is steadily receiving the attention it deserves. And no thanks to the Slimes for making it front page headlines for at least two days. The Slimes wouldn’t dare antagonize the Islamic lobby if its back wasn’t solidly protected.

Love Jihad is just another variant of the Jihad, which Islamists have been waging against India on multiple fronts. This Jihad is increasingly finding support from within. Neither is it met with the iron handed response it deserves. Even sensible commentators have lapsed into using the safe, “terrorist” term instead of calling the phenomenon by name: Islam-inspired religious war against infidels.

Stephen Brown at FrontPage Magazine explores this in great detail. I’ve reproduced it in full here.

Read and weep.

The “Love Jihad”

To the “hard jihad” of Muslim terrorism and the non-violent, “stealth jihad” challenging Western societies, the oxymoron “love jihad” can now be added. But this latest form of Islamist aggression has nothing to do with love but rather, like its soulmates, with hatred for the infidel and women.

The love jihad’s modus operandi involves a heartless strategy of luring vulnerable girls and young women to convert to Islam by feigned love and promises of marriage. But instead of marital bliss, the girls unwittingly trapped in its deceitful web usually wind up in the hands of Muslim fundamentalist organizations.

The south-western state of Kerela in India is the latest place where this perverse practice has raised its ugly head. Authorities in this state of 32 million are holding in jail two young Muslim men who stand accused of “luring” two non-Muslim university students with promises of marriage “for the purpose of conversion.”

In court, both students testified the two men “trapped” them and forced them into converting. One told the court she fell in love with one of the men, a senior student at her college, and eloped with him. But instead of the expected marriage, she and the other woman were taken to a Muslim center where they were subjected to Islamic extremist propaganda.

The case has created such concern that Kerela’s High Court ordered the police to investigate the organization responsible for the conversions, the Campus Front, which serves as the student wing of the Muslim fundamentalist organization, the Popular Front of India. It is believed more than 4,000 Hindu and Christian young women in Kerela have converted to Islam in the last six months.

The Times of India reports that Kerela’s Hindu and Christian religious authorities are so alarmed at this development that they are cooperating to “combat the ‘social evil’ which. . .is hitting their respective communities hard.” It is suspected that college girls and working women are especially targeted.

“It’s shocking but it is happening. Many Christian families are getting affected,” said a member of the Kerala Catholic Bishops Council.

One report states the “jihad Romeos” in Kerela are given cell phones, bikes and fashionable clothes to accomplish their sinister mission. They have two weeks to find a girl of another religion and six months to convert her to Islam. If the girl shows no interest within two weeks, they are to leave her and find another.

For every conversion, the men also receive a monetary reward. The money for the “love jihad” in Kerala is reported to come from “foreign sources.”

If a recruiter does marry his convert, he is encouraged to have four children with her. Some believe this capability to bear offspring is the reason why young women are targeted. With conversion, their reproductive powers are taken away from a competing religion and increase instead the Muslim extremist demographic.

But while the term love jihad may be new, the tactic is already a known one. In the 1990s, Sikhs in England believed young women in their community were being targeted for conversion. Young Muslim men looking for prey were even thought to have attended parties for young Sikhs, while pretending to be Sikhs themselves.

Sometimes, however, the jihad Romeos in England used a more brutal approach. A story in the Daily Mail two years ago stated that police were targeting such Muslim extremists and working with universities against “aggressive conversions.” These involved Hindu and Sikh girls being beaten up and terrorized by the Muslim men they were dating until they converted.

The Hindu Forum of Britain, the story says, claimed hundreds of Sikh and Hindu girls were victims of such vicious intimidation. Some even had to leave their university to escape their tormentors.

“Some girls are petrified because they are constantly being phoned up, having their door knocked on,” a Hindu Forum member said at the time.

But the best evidence that this form of jihad has been in operation for some time comes from a former Muslim extremist, who converted to Christianity. In the book, Why We Left Islam, a compilation of testimonies by former Muslims who left their faith, the unidentified apostate gives a powerful account of his days as a jihad Romeo in Egypt who targeted Coptic Christian girls.

Like in Kerela, the former Muslim testifies that money was paid for conversions and that it came from outside the country. And the higher the educational and social status of the victim’s family, the more money the jihad Romeo received.

Unlike in India though, the recruiters would parade the converted girl through the streets, playing music and waving flags, while yelling “Allah Akbar.” The goal, he said, was to humiliate the Christians, especially the men, and dishonor their families in a country where the women are the family’s honor. But such parades were banned in 1985.

All kinds of tricks, he writes, were used to convert the girls. From outright expressions of love and attending their churches to trapping them in moral scandals, everything was fair game. In this, the extremists were often helped by young Muslim women who identified likely targets, encouraged the Christian girl in the “relationship,” and would even help set up the morally compromising situations.

While ruining the lives of others, the former Muslim states he thought he was serving his religion, since Muslims “were in a perpetual war with the ‘filthy infidels’.” He lived for three years with one woman he had converted, tormenting her mercilessly, while converting seven other Christian women during that time.

In essence, the love jihad is a form of demographic aggression. Like the “stealth jihad”, which employs political activism to achieve Islamist aims in Western societies, it employs deception and is viewed as a useful tactic in bringing about Islamic world domination. That, however, is of little solace to the many precious young women whose lives it has destroyed.

Technorati : Commentary, India, Indian Politics, Islam, Islam Watch, Media Watch, Personal Freedom, Politics, Pseudosecularism Hall of Shame, Secularism, Society & Culture
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The process of anointing YSR from Y S Rajashekhara Reddy to St. Samuel is underway with full steam.

The martyrdom frenzy that the media is whipping up is a worse epidemic than Swine Flu. Only, this time, the focus is a (dead) human being. The verdict is unanimous: St. Samuel, St. Samuel, St. Samuel! There’s absolutely no scope for an iota of dissent, no space to dissect this man’s past…but there are some unalterable universals like the evil that men do lives after them… Only, we fail to detect a trace of the public good that YSR did over his long political career.

This superbly-researched piece (link thanks: Ravikiran) written when he first became the CM of Andhra YSR’s reveals some drops of the blood he had on his hands. Just the bits that trace his bloody rise to power.

The man is anything but a vendor of humane visages. His rise in politics has been accompanied by more bloodshed than that of any other politician in this state. Not bloodshed for some avowed ‘higher cause’, but bloodshed for the narrowest possible cause: the rise of one individual to political power and prominence. The recent elections may very well have meant many things in terms of popular aspirations, and one has no desire to be cynical on that score. But in the matter of the change of helmsmen, it has merely replaced a man who would find nothing too crooked if it is in his political interest, with one who would find nothing too brutal…Today YSR wishes to be seen as a politician who has responded to the needs of farmers and is determined to do well by them, but in the nearly three decades of his political life, he has not been instrumental in adding one acre of assured irrigation to the parched lands of the constituency that has again and again returned him or his brother (when YSR chose to go to parliament instead) to the state sssembly.

But the foundation stone was laid by his father, Raja Reddy.

Cuddapah has deposits of the mineral barytes, which was once upon a time not a highly priced mineral. One of the mining leases was held by Venkatasubbaiah of the balija caste. Raja Reddy joined him as a junior partner/supervisor (it is not clear which), reportedly because Venkatasubbaiah believed he would be useful in controlling the workmen. Round about the mid-1970s, however, it was discovered that barytes has use in petroleum refining, and its price shot up. Raja Reddy wanted Venkatasubbaiah to hand over the mining lease to him and go. A prominent CPI leader and writer, Gajjela Malla Reddy, brokered a deal whereby Venkatasubbaiah would take Rs 11 lakh and leave the mining lease to Raja Reddy. Venkatasubbaiah refused, and was killed. The mining lease, passed into YSR’s hands.

For many years in the later half of the 1980s and the early half of the 1990s, YSR’s barytes mining operation was the subject of one scandal after another. Lease – or sub- lease, after barytes mining became formally the monopoly of the A P Mineral Development Corporation, only to be sub-leased to the same previous lessees – would be taken for a certain extent, but many times more land around would be mined…. a villager, Vivekanandam, whose private land of 1.8 acres was also sub-leased to YSR by the Corporation. Though that man went to court and obtained an injunction against the sub-lease, YSR continued with the mining and took away mineral worth Rs 5 crore. The maternal uncle of the said Vivekanandam, a retired government employee, Rajagopal, set out to Hyderabad, to express his protest to the then chief minister Janardhan Reddy, and to move the high court again. The old man was set upon by a gang in the middle of the state’s capital, and had his hands and legs broken. This was as recently as 1992.

The article piles detail upon detail of YSR’s atrocity-ridden rise in politics, which I recommend you read in full. “Swaminomics” Aiyar had also written a similar “profile” of YSR, drawing copiously from this same piece.

But today, this is how the Indian Express documents the “rise of YSR.” Perhaps the most barefaced lie lies in this paragraph that talks about his “achievements.”

Reddy developed the Cuddapah region by pumping in funds and creating a solid infrastructure, making the constituency its neighbors’ envy.

The infrastructure is so solid that even after three decades of YSR rule there, not one acre of land can be irrigated and/or tilled in Cuddapah. Truly the subject of envy. It takes tremendous guts for the Indian Express to impute stupidity to its readers. But then, the Slimes can’t be far away. Although it hasn’t fudged facts as openly as the Spindian Express, it has honoured him with various epithets such as people’s leader, colossus of Andhra Pradesh, and so on. The less said about CNN-IBN, NDTV, and similar party organs, the better.

What exactly generated this rabid media mania is common knowledge: YSR was perhaps the favourite of HQ. He “revived” the Congress party’s fortunes and finances with the stunning 2004 victory and showed consistently high performance, enough to warrant a sufficiently orgasmic obituary. Andhra Pradesh holds the record for garnering maximum central funding ever received thanks to this tireless (recently deceased) leader of the masses. Even if you excuse the media for its sloppy reporting and complete ignorance and/or suppression of YSR’s violent past, why does it conceal his more recent transgressions? From corruptions too numerous to count to his son’s brazen usurping of land, the Satyam scandal (where his family was allegedly involved), mining scam, and his attempts to break the back of Ramoji Rao.

But monetary scams are pretty mild in YSR’s long list of evils. He was, true to the Congress tradition, a communal Chief Minister. Andhra Pradesh is one of the few states to still retain very strong Hindu ethos. As soon as YSR took over, he showed what Samuel Reddy was capable of. From undamming a flood of Evangelism across the state to trying to inject Evangelist poison in Tirupathi to successfully selling temple lands in the Godavari region to banning the Da Vinci Code to making Christian pilgrimages at taxpayer expense, Samuel Reddy displayed exemplary communal behaviour. I’m merely speculating, but perhaps this is also one of the reasons he earned the special graces of Our Lady from Rome living in Delhi. Which is why the entire apparatus of the Indian state was instantly summoned to frantically locate YSR the moment he went missing. Wish they had acted with even 10% of YSR-aroused speed, efficiency, and effectiveness when Bombay was besieged. An indicator of sorts that some mentalities will never change: post-YSR’s crash, our leaders want Satellite phones in the flight/chopper each time they embark on such “flying” visits. Again, at taxpayer expense.

On a personal note, a predictable but immediate retort I’ve received today for pointing out YSR’s past is this: even Narendra Modi is a murderer but you praise him for his achievements in Gujarat’s development. This argument is non-contextual, baseless, and hypocritical both factually and logically. As I’ve noted earlier in this blog, every investigation against Modi has actually yielded lesser and lesser chances of culpability in the 2002 riots. Even if he was culpable, how does it erase YSR’s bloody past? If you so easily close your eyes to judgments and reports showing Modi in positive light, why do you find it so tough to digest YSR’s record of brualities? While Gujarat’s remarkable economic achievements are well-documented and verifiable (see this solid post), YSR’s “development projects” are infected with mutations of the same Congress garibi hatao virus. Besides, compared with the central government aid that Modi and YSR have each garnered, Andhra Pradesh hasn’t attained growth remotely comparable to that of Gujarat. Blind hatred of Modi yields nothing except heads nodding in approval in charmed circles.

Hardly a few hours since YSR’s death was confirmed, the disgraceful but expected succession battle has begun. Again, entirely faithful to the Congress party’s culture. Family loyalists (not the First Family) have already decided to anoint his son, Jagan Mohan Reddy as the CM-in-waiting. Blood is waiting to be spilled. Also, the son is not even a member of the AP assembly. Exciting times await Andhra Pradesh.

Perhaps the ugliest footnote on YSR’s death is the decision to rename the Kadapa (or Cuddapah) district as YSR district in his “honour.” Kadapa is a corruption of the Telugu word, Gadapa, meaning threshold. Geographically, Kadapa is surrounded on three sides by the Nallamala and Palakonda hills and acts like a gateway (or threshold) from the north to Tirupathi. This region, which witnessed spectacular prosperity under the Vijayanagar rule, abounds with spiritual richness, and is home to people like Mahayogi Vemana, Annamacharya, and Potuluri Veerabrahmam will now be renamed in the “honour” of a ruthless murderer who mowed down innocent people in his quest for personal power.

YSR isn’t worth our tears.

Technorati : AP, Andhra Pradesh, Christian Lobby at Work, Congress, Congress Party, Conversions, Cuddapah, India, Indian Politics, Kadapa, Media Watch, Pseudosecularism Hall of Shame, Samuel Reddy, Sonia Gandhi, UPA, Y S Rajashekhara Reddy, YSR, YSR Dead
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The Kerala High Court on Friday released two girls, who were allegedly detained for religious conversion, to their parents…In the petition, Jacob Thomas of Pallikkal, Kottarakkara, and K Madhavan of Peroorkada, the parents of the girls, alleged that their daughters were detained by one Shehansha of Pettah, Pathanamthitta….They had left their homes and had informed their parents that they were going to convert into Islam. In the petition, the parents alleged that the girls were illegally detained and they were being forced to convert.

Apparently, there’s also another, similar incident in the Ernakulam district. From the same news report,

In a similar incident, A J Joy of Kalamassery has approached the High Court, alleging that his wife and three children were being detained by the Mounathul Islam Association, based at Ponnani, for religious conversion.

Three Muslim students, who were staying in Joy’s house, had interactions with Joy’s wife Smitha. On August 10, Smitha went to her house. Later, Smitha’s brother informed Joy that she was missing with her three children.

But then this is India and this happened in Kerala, and the media is too busy safeguarding Shahrukh Khan’s stardom and making Swine Flu a national catastrophe. Equally, the BJP and the Sangh Parivar are busy quarrelling among themselves.

When incidents like this occur far too often, they’re rightly discarded into oblivion. An incident like this a few decades ago would have led to some clash or protest indicating a society that was responsive to such outrages. But we’ve been outraged far too many times to even notice: as long as it doesn’t happen to us, etc

In plain language, this is Love Jihad and shows what Islam will do if it perceives that it’s superior in strength. Love Jihad is typically one of variations of the sacred Taqqiya tactic for conversion, among other things. But in this case, it’s violent Taqqiya, a sort of contradiction of the doctrine. Mention Love Jihad in the secular-liberal circles, and you’ll be laughed off your head in characteristic disbelief. The fact that “misguided” Muslim youth are abducting Hindu girls and marrying them to keep the Islamic baby factory well-oiled is real. No amount of secular discourse will make this go away. Thus far, these kidnappings were restricted to Hindu women but Kerala has broken new ground. Which brings us to the other dimension: the stirrings of a clash of monotheisms. The combined nexus of Islam, Christianity & Marxists have historically posited a united front to quell and browbeat Hinduism. Thus, all Hindu organizations are criticized by this nexus in the same tone, tenor, and with the selfsame self-righteousness. In this case, Islam has “tresspassed” the sacred quarters of Christians by (allegedly) abducting unsuspecting Christian girls. But the links are confusing and run deeper.

Example: Mounathul Islam Association (MIA), which has a pretty colourful past. The Christian quarter had in the past (link thanks: JK) unearthed some dirt about MIA.

Six schools in the state which had availed of Rs 30 lakh from the central funds meant for the uplift of educationally backward minorities are missing… The money was transferred to the minority community agencies by the deputy directors of education in the respective districts by bank drafts. The Mounathul Islam Association had availed of a total of Rs 15 lakh in two instalments of Rs 7.5 lakh each.

It is also no coincidence that the MIA is located in Ponnani, which boasts of itself as the “small Mecca of South India.” Tipu Sultan, after ravaging the Malabar recognized its importance and made it a thriving center for Islamic studies. In any case, when I dug around a bit, here’s what I found. The PDF copy of the Kerala Gazette confirms that MIA had indeed swindled the government of about 15 Lakh Rupees. And now the same MIA faces the charge of forcibly detaining non-Muslim girls so it can convert them to the Religion of Peace. Can we link the swindling and the use the MIA has put the money to? How many other MIAs are lurking or roaming around undetected?

More importantly, how many such girls remain locked up never to be discovered again?

Technorati : Commentary, India, Indian Politics, Islam, Islam Watch, Media Watch, Personal Freedom, Politics, Pseudosecularism Hall of Shame, Secularism, Society & Culture
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http://in.youtube.com/watch?v=iLiDTX5xhv8

That kind of explains some things in the Kunte episode.

Tags: Barkha Dutt, Barkha Dutt Threatens Kunte, Bloggers, Blogging, Free Speech, NDTV’s Legal Notice to Chyetanya

Every single Hindu I know has been deeply disturbed and more than a little ashamed by the recent violence against Christians. As it is, we are still to recover from the grief we felt when Graham Staines and his children were burned to death and our subsequent humiliation when the loonies of the Bajrang Dal glorified his killer and exulted in the bloodshed.

The last time I heard, there was not a single voice from the mass of the Lord’s World speaking against the illicit nature of inflicting cultural/civilizational murder. That is the exact nature of conversions. Mass violence against any community should be condemned. But does it arise in a vacuum? As for Graham Staines’-inspired grief, he was not exactly an angel but we have seen that several times in the past so we’ll let that pass.

And then, some spiel on the relationship as to the nature of violence and superpowerdom.

At a time when the world is looking at India as a potential 21st century superpower, such barbarism is deeply embarrassing. It reminds us that beneath our gleaming high-tech, IIT-engineered façade, there lurk medieval forces, full of hatred and bloodlust.

This is true for all societies/nations. Let’s recount the wanton mayhem unleashed in New Orleans during Katrina. Or the ethnic violence in France. Both the US and France fall in the category of superpowers. There’s nothing medieval about hatred and bloodlust: it is as old as humanity. Perhaps I’m missing the point. Does Sanghvi want to re-hammer India’s image as an underdeveloped country where “caste and communal passions run rampant, that there are two Indias, this medieval India needs to be redeemed, <insert your favourite cliche here>?” Given that Hindu groups have attacked Christians, it is keeping with the narrative. I spoke too soon. There’s still redemption for Hindus for he says:

Worse still, it shames all Hindus. Many of us want to say to the world: look, this is an aberration; these people are crazy; Hinduism is not like this; it is not only one of the world’s oldest religions, it is also based on an ancient tradition of non-violence, liberalism and tolerance.

Non-violence, that precept, which was so badly mauled by Mohandas Gandhi that its roots are barely recognizable. Today it means something slightly better than cowardice. Gandhi’s twisted non-violence and tolerance template is in many ways at the root of our foreign policy, and especially our slavish overtures towards Pakistan. Boom goes a Pakistani bomb in our towns and cities, and boom goes a paper bomb from the Prime Minister seeking peace. Never mind. Sanghvi’s real point is that Hindus are supposed to meekly accept assaults on their culture simply because his reading of Hinduism prohibits legitimate calls for justice on the pretext of non-violence and tolerance. Nice.

Sanghvi then meanders on a journey whose route is a maze because it has no destination. Nevertheless, he reaches a sort of destination.

Push many Hindus to the wall and they will not dismiss, out of hand, the idea that conversions should be banned. Is it really necessary, they will ask, for us to sit back and watch helplessly while foreigners use wealth from overseas to lure people away from Hinduism? Surely, we can put a stop to this!

Well, yes and no.

But here’s the thing: ban conversions and you destroy the idea of India.

At the root of our notion of who we are as a nation is that we are a secular, liberal democracy. This means not only that religion and politics will be kept separate but that we will afford complete freedom of belief in both areas.

We know where he is getting at. But it is necessary to clear the befuddling cobwebs. We are not a liberal democracy. Certainly not by Sanghvi’s assertion that religion and politics are are kept separate in India. What keeps India going as a functioning, physically united nation is the thread of civilizational unity still inherent in the national consciousness. Needless to say, Hinduism provides this unifying thread. Any other geography with even half of India’s diversity would have been splintered in no time. Europe is a good example of how people didn’t learn to live in harmony for several centuries. India’s tragedy is that we adopted the Westminster-style of parliamentary democracy but implemented it with no heed to history or heritage or as they say, “local conditions.” Sanghvi’s assertion is therefore goes beyond being ridiculous. For a nicer/more caustic analysis of the charade of India as a democracy, see Atanu Dey’s blog.

Sanghvi further meanders–this time, in circles to say just one line: freedom of choice exists in India. To prove this, he cites literature of various political parties but cannot resist saying:

I may have been a Trotskyite in my youth but could decide on reflection that Hindu fascism seems much more attractive. In our liberal democracy, it is entirely appropriate for me to change my mind, even this involves a 180 about turn.

And then he applies this freedom-of-choice analogy to religion. And trips horribly.

And how do I know whether to change my mind? In almost exactly the same way as I know which party to support. I must have complete access to information and yes, people from every religion (and rationalists and atheists even) must have the right to lobby me on their own behalf.

In both politics and religion, take away the right to be lobbied, to be persuaded and yes, to be converted, and you destroy the whole notion of secular, liberal democracy.

Fair enough. Everybody should have a right to lobby, persuade others to his/her viewpoint. But in India, that exists merely in theory. How does it work in practical life? The persuasion methods of Evangelists are widely documented and too well known. Does Vir Sanghvi accept coercion, allurement and denigration of other religions as legitimate forms of lobbying? The attacks against Christians/Churches stem from these very reasons. There’s no other reason.

Sanghvi then proceeds to characterize Hinduism as a missionary religion. His attempt at this impossible fait accompli involves some amount of historical fraud or outright lying if you will.

All of India was not always Hindu. Many Indians worshipped animist faiths before Hinduism came along. At some stage, ancient people must have stopped listening to their old priests and accepted the virtues of Hinduism. And somebody must have propagated those virtues.

Notice that he doesn’t give a single evidence to support this, his mere fantasy. On what basis did he conclude that Indians worshipped animist faiths? If yes, what were those animist faiths? And when did this “Hinduism” suddenly emerge? And who is this “somebody?” No definite answers just “must haves,” a casting of probabilities in a wide field. Reminiscent of the techniques of eminent history-writing. Followed by more lies.

Similarly, Buddhism swept India for several centuries till Hinduism made a comeback and reconverted the Buddhists.

Reconverted the Buddhists? Perhaps Sanghvi would care to tell us how exactly this “reconversion” happened. The only way in Hinduism to “convert” is to switch over to either Islam or Christianity. The said “conversion” to Buddhism or vice versa was merely a change in adherence to one school of philosophy within Hinduism to another. This change wasn’t easy or quick: it involved philosophical debate and counter-debate until the person was convinced of the “superiority” of one philosophical school over the other. What happened in the process was that the converted would accept it wholeheartedly. No Evangelist snake-in-the-grass techniques had any play in the process. But these are perhaps Sanghvi’s minor errors compared to what follows.

Who did the conversions? Hindu missionaries, obviously.

Our problem is that all this happened several centuries ago. For over a thousand years, Hinduism has not actively converted people. And so, we regard conversions as something that only other people do. But if no religion had ever converted people all around the world, then all us would still be worshipping trees and tigers.

Give me one evidence of something called a “Hindu missionary” Vir Sanghvi. In fact the term itself is an oxymoron. Used again, without a shred of proof. As the next paragraph makes it clear, Sanghvi’s mission is to equate Hinduism with fanatical cults. Hence he doesn’t bother with pesky things as evidences, etc. Notice: if no religion had ever converted people all around the world, then all us would still be worshipping trees and tigers Viola! Thus we can conclude that Hindu missionaries had converted people of other faiths! Perfectly logical.

And on this flimsy, fraudulent premise, Sanghvi triumphantly asks:

But despite my disdain for those who seek to convert, I do not find them threatening.

And that eventually, is the question we need to ask ourselves. Yes, the missionaries may well be preying on poor people but do they represent any threat to India?

This really doesn’t need an answer unless you are blind to the fate of the North East, and now Orissa and Karnataka. But Sanghvi’s deception really lies in the fact that he justifies these destructive conversions with a : yeah, they convert, so what? In other words, wink and pretend all is well. That is not all, he reserves the worst for the last.

It’s harder still to argue that Hinduism, which survived centuries of Buddhist influence, Muslim rule and the British empire, faces any significant threat from the activities of missionaries in Orissa, Madhya Pradesh or Karnataka.

Why then is there violence against Christians?

Well, why did the Nazis massacre the jews? Why do jihadis want to kill infidels? Why is there so much racism in the world?

The truth is there will always be people who hate those who are different, whether they are Nazis, jihadis or Bajrag Dalis. That is the way of the world.

This kind of rot qualifies as opinion pieces in India. Which is unsurprising given that far worse passes off as scholarship.

So here’s my open challenge to Vir Sanghvi: show me evidences for your assertions about “animist” and Hindu-Buddhist conversion that you say took place historically. Or say openly that Hindu sentiments/Hinduism itself doesn’t matter. I’d appreciate your honesty at least.

Outlook, you can argue is a secular-fundamentalist rag, or the pall-bearer of secularism. Other media folks are no better.

The Hindustan Times, which was cold-shouldered by the Congress party about two years ago doesn’t want to be left out. It hopes to level the pitch by fishing out the amazing testimony of exactly one person. Read it if you must, but here’s the gist: terrorists are terrorists because the Indian state is the Indian state. I didn’t check the other papers but past experience says this will be the general drone of “analysis.”

Narendra Modi-absolvement in this hour of the year is perhaps the worst tiding to ever hit the “secular forces.” The 6-year-long media-political campaign against Modi has turned in Modi’s favour rather dramatically and at the most inopportune moment. Even an engineered petition to stop the Nanavati report from becoming public proved futile, thanks to the Supreme Court. The entire secular spectrum is thus hurriedly wiping the eggshells off its face. The aforementioned pieces are festinated exercises in damage control.

The Nanavati panel has not released the entire report–we only have the first part, which clearly absolves Narendra Modi. While it is too much to expect an apology from the political class, let’s turn to what India’s top bloggers and journalists say. We meet silence. Those that were quick to thunder, revile, mock, and in general pour scorn over Modi at every turn are now speechless. Do they have the courage to at least say, we were hasty, we got carried away in the general media hysteria? Those that talk about understanding nuances, or those that repeatedly call for justice for “murdered Indians.”

Here is the full text (downloadable PDF) of the Nanavati report.

But Barbar Indian’s post points at something really dangerous. The Slimes must deserve the honour of nakedly parading the politics-media nexus. We wish they hadn’t done it so crudely.

Barbar Indian’s exhibit of the cached page (the original news report) opens with:

3 Oct 2008, 1407 hrs IST,PTI

Thirty-nine days after a nun was allegedly raped during the Kandhamal riots…

The report that finally made it has framed the language thus:

4 Oct 2008, 0007 hrs IST,TNN

After dragging its feet for 38 days, the state government finally woke up to media reports and outrage across the country and abroad to arrest four suspects and suspend the inspector in-charge of Baliguda police station in Kandhamal, where the rape took place.

I don’t need to explain the glaring goof-up in the count of the number of days. Let’s forgive this as plain shoddiness. But, as Barbar Indian says, there’s a drastic, sinister alteration. While the original report said

“The woman was medically examined and the report received by us suggests possibility of rape,” Kandhamal Superintendent of Police Praveen Kumar told.
According to the report of the nun’s medical examination, there was no external or internal vaginal injury, but semen was found inside.

The modified report is headlined 38 days later, Orissa govt admits nun’s rape. This report features on today’s front page. I wonder how the Slimes crossed the chasm between possibility of rape and a pronouncement of certainty! It is also interesting that the first report lays down everything in a reporting-the-fact manner while the second report is laden with editorializing. The wise judges at the Slimes have pronounced the Orissa government guilty! Very convenient given that the usually-lamblike Manmohan Singh has thundered that Orissa has “affected” India’s image. Let’s also recall a similar roar when Manmohan Singh called the Gujarat riots a holocaust. While we are at it, let’s hear all the Prime Ministerial roars: this time, the roar has reverberated down South, in Karnataka. And we are forced to discern a connection: what do these three states have in common? Well, make that two states, realistically.

Now, to head off in an entirely different but related direction. We suddenly hear the confession of a top Maoist leader from Orissa.

One of Orissa’s most wanted Maoist leaders has claimed responsibility for the Aug 23 killing of a Hindu leader that triggered anti-Christian attacks in the state in which at least 35 people have been killed and thousands forced to flee to the jungles to escape rampaging mobs.

Sabyasachi Panda, leader of the Orissa unit of the Communist Party of India-Maoist (CPI-Maoist), has said on television that his group killed Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) leader Swami Laxmanananda Saraswati and four others in Jalespata Ashram in Kandhamal district.

And as we behold, we wonder at this miracle. Why was he silent for 38 or 39 (according to the Slimes’ almanac) days? His reasons for the gruesome murder of Swami Lakshmananda Saraswati are rather amusing.

“Swami Laxmanananda was a leader of the VHP and was working to bring back Brahminism that was almost disappearing. He was supported by unscrupulous traders who were exploiting poor people,” Orissa TV, a local television channel, showed Panda as saying Sunday.

“Hindu organisations such as the Vishwa Hindu Parishad are targeting minorities, mainly Christians, attacking them, killing them and burning their homes,” said Panda, secretary of the Orissa state committee of the CPI-Maoist.

Like his white-collared Communist party colleagues, he doesn’t care to define what Brahminism is. Never mind, other tidings beckon us. The fact-finding team of National Commission for Minorities, fresh from a visit to Karnataka has declared that “there is no evidence of even a single religious conversion in Karnataka…” Kudos to the speed and efficiency of the fact-finders in an age where it took more than a decade to announce the names of the perpetrators of the 1984 anti-Sikh pogrom. Now, we wonder whether the seers and Swamijis of various Hindu sects in Karnataka were out of their minds to petition the state government to stop conversions in the state.

Swamijis of about 30 Maths, who marched from Basaweshwara circle to Raj Bhavan, submitted a memorandum to the Governor Rameshwar Thakur, demanding that action be taken immediately to book those who indulged in disturbing peace and harmony in the society. The seers demanded a legislation to stop “forced conversions”.

Back to the Slimes. Its offspring in Bangalore is called the Bangalore Mirror, a full-blown, 40-pages-heavy page 3 tabloid that assaults us everyday. This paper, over the past 2 weeks has been running a rather innocent-sounding campaign on its front page. The theme: Jesus Saves and variations thereof. About 2 weeks ago, it featured a lady belonging to the Kuruba community (a backward community) who “forced a Priest” to convert her. Bangalore Mirror reported her saying that because of her prayers at the Church, she was cured of some incurable ailment. The report also added that her pleas for help from Hindu organizations/community leaders fell on deaf hears but Jesus healed her. In almost the same vein, today’s Slimes’ front page report carries a Gujarat-like photo of the nun who was allegedly raped. Remember the Gujarat riots poster boy? If the Slimes plays its cards well, this nun might well become the Orissa poster girl. Check it out. The photo is not particularly spectacular. What follows it is.

Entitled the “Times View,” it contains a “communal harmony” sermon. More significantly, it sounds like it is written by a pastor. 

But when Christians are hacked to death and their homes and churches are torched, state governments have to be goaded to even take notice. 

It reads less like a “view” than a judgement. We marvel at the Slimes’ coverage of Swami Lakshmananda Saraswati’s murder.

Or is there something more than what meets the eye?

Seriously, I’m wasting my breath even writing this. The fact of an Indian Mujahideen points to something really sinister. Think about it.