30 January 2012 :
The next few days are going to be tension-packed for the UPA Government as the Supreme Court is set to deliver several crucial judgments on 2G scam. These include order on a petition seeking CBI probe in the role of Home Minister P Chidambaram in the scam.
With Justice AK Ganguly of the 2G scam bench retiring on February 2, the bench comprising Justice GS Singhvi, is expected to pronounce four crucial judgements, any day before Thursday.
The Special Court on 2G Scam headed by Special Judge OP Saini has already set Saturday — February 4 — for judgement on whether to summon Chidambaram in the spectrum scam. Apart from the spectrum cases, on February 3, Army chief General VK Singh will start his legal battle against the Central Government in the apex court.
According to legal experts, the bench headed by Justice Singhvi and Justice Ganguly may deliver four judgements between Tuesday and Thursday. Judgments are reserved in all the four cases filed by Janata party president Subramanian Swamy and noted lawyer Prashant Bhushan. If the judges did not come before Justice Ganguly retire, the entire hearing process would have to re-start.
For the UPA Government, among the four cases, the most crucial one is on Swamy’s petition to probe Chidambaram’s role by CBI in the spectrum scam. This case shook the Government when Swamy placed before court Financial Minister Pranab Mukherjee’s note indicting Chidambaram. The judgement was reserved in October last year.
Judgement on Bhushan’s demand for creating Special Investigation Team (SIT) to help the Supreme Court in monitoring the CBI probe was also reserved in October last year. The petition cited several “dilly-dallying” by CBI and “political interventions” to save top corporate icons in the probe.
The all-important judgement the corporate world is watching relates to petition by Swamy and Bhushans to cancel the entire telecom licences granted by jailed former Telecom Minister A Raja. These licences were declared illegal by CAG.
Apart from cancellation, the petitioners demanded for court monitored auction of these licences to retrieve the lost money to the exchequer.
The fourth pending judgement is on Swamy’s first case against Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for not granting sanction for prosecuting Raja for the past two years. The case which was supposed to be infructuous after Raja’s resignation, unexpectedly hit the Central Government when the judges raised objections on the inordinate delay from Manmohan Singh’s office.
The court sent notice to PMO, but the Prime Minister got reprieve, when Swamy made a u-turn by filing an affidavit favouring Manmohan Singh, and putting blame on PMO officials and Law Ministry. While reserving judgement on January, last year, the apex court said that they would form future guidelines for applications on sanction for prosecution.
Source : Dailypioneer
Idol kept in London museum belongs to Bhojshala: Swamy
29 jANUARY 2012 :
Reviving the controversial Bhojshala issue, Janata Party president Subramanian Swamy on Saturday claimed that the shlokas in Sanskrit language were engraved at a place where idol of Waghdevi (Goddess Saraswati) was earlier installed in the sanctum-sanctorum.
“After visiting the Bhojshala and personally inspecting the place where the idol of Waghdevi was established by the Raja Bhoj, I found that shlokas in Sanskrit language were engraved at that place,” he said, adding that similar shlokas in Sanskrit language in the idol proves that the idol kept in London museum belongs to Bhojshala.
He was addressing a dharm sabha organised in Dhar on Saturday. Swamy said that he had proved in London court that the idol belongs to India. “I have proved this to the London court and archaeologists,” he informed.
He informed that the country needs to convince the London court on two more points which would create no hurdle in getting the idol back. The first point is that the idol should not be kept in museum after reaching India. On the contrary, it should be kept in Bhojshala only for offering prayers as sentiments of the people are connected to it.
Similarly, the Government needs to ensure that no dispute would take place over the installation of the idol. For the purpose, a letter of assurance from Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh would be submitted to the London court. For the purpose, he would go to London in April, he informed.
Swamy had filed a petition in the London court regarding return of the Waghdevi idol to India from London museum. Earlier, Swamy had won the case against destruction of Ramsetu in the US court. Similarly, with his efforts, devotees are able to visit Kailash Mansarovar that is in Chinese territory.
Source : Daily Pioneer
Reviving the controversial Bhojshala issue, Janata Party president Subramanian Swamy on Saturday claimed that the shlokas in Sanskrit language were engraved at a place where idol of Waghdevi (Goddess Saraswati) was earlier installed in the sanctum-sanctorum.
“After visiting the Bhojshala and personally inspecting the place where the idol of Waghdevi was established by the Raja Bhoj, I found that shlokas in Sanskrit language were engraved at that place,” he said, adding that similar shlokas in Sanskrit language in the idol proves that the idol kept in London museum belongs to Bhojshala.
He was addressing a dharm sabha organised in Dhar on Saturday. Swamy said that he had proved in London court that the idol belongs to India. “I have proved this to the London court and archaeologists,” he informed.
He informed that the country needs to convince the London court on two more points which would create no hurdle in getting the idol back. The first point is that the idol should not be kept in museum after reaching India. On the contrary, it should be kept in Bhojshala only for offering prayers as sentiments of the people are connected to it.
Similarly, the Government needs to ensure that no dispute would take place over the installation of the idol. For the purpose, a letter of assurance from Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh would be submitted to the London court. For the purpose, he would go to London in April, he informed.
Swamy had filed a petition in the London court regarding return of the Waghdevi idol to India from London museum. Earlier, Swamy had won the case against destruction of Ramsetu in the US court. Similarly, with his efforts, devotees are able to visit Kailash Mansarovar that is in Chinese territory.
Source : Daily Pioneer
Congress Govt.’s ‘Aurangzebi Fatwa’ in Bhagyanagar
Bhagyanagar (Hyderabad) :
Anti-Hindu Congress Government in Andhra Pradesh has banned ringing of bell in Sri Bhagyalakshmi Temple in Char Minar area in Bhagyanagar. The Government has also imposed ban on performing ‘Maha-aarti’ and has deployed police force to implement the ban. (This shows that Congress Govt. is trampling sentiments of Hindus only to appease Muslims. Today, there is ban on ‘aarti’, ban on ringing bells in temple; tomorrow, these Hindu-hater rulers of Congress will issue a ‘fatwa’ that Hindus should adopt Islam. How long are Hindus going to tolerate such Congress rulers who are making them experience how living in Pakistan would be. Now at least Hindus should unite and undertake a strong agitation, in lawful manner, against those imposing curb on their religious rights and save their existence ! – Editor SP)
Source: HinduJanjagrutiSamiti
Source: HinduJanjagrutiSamiti
Akbaruddin Owaisi, MLA of ‘MIM’, planning to convert Bharat into ‘Islamistan’
27 January 2012 :
Akbaruddin Owaisi, MLA of ‘MIM’ , a party which is planning to convert Bharat into ‘Islamistan’ spits venom
Says, ban should be imposed on processions taken out on ‘Ram-Navami’ and ‘Hanuman Jayanti’
Bhagyanagar (Hyderabad) : MLA Akbaruddin Owaisi of ‘MIM (Majalis Ittehadul Muslimin)’, a Muslim organization, has demanded to impose ban on processions taken out on Hindu festivals viz. ‘Ram-Navami’ and ‘Hanuman-Jayanti’. Hindu organizations are angered due to such demand by Owaisi. (In a country where Hindus are in majority, a Muslim MLA, demanding ban on processions taken out during Hindu festivals, indicates that Hindus are staying in Pakistan and not in India. Today, Muslims are demanding ban on Hindu processions; tomorrow, they will demand for demolition of Hindu temples and will, later, demand that Hindus should become either Muslims or leave their womenfolk behind. Lack of unity among Hindus is responsible for such situation and there is no alternative for Hindus to establish a Hindu Nation to change this situation. – Editor SP)
Owaisi’s anti-Hindu demand has been strongly condemned by Mr. Raja Singh, a councilor from Mangalhat area, Shiv Sena, all India Hindu Mahasabha, Janasangh Party, Ramrajya Parishad, ‘Shatdarshan’ Saints and religious leaders through releasing respective press releases. (Hindu organizations should not just stop at registering protest but they should form a strong expansive unification and create awe so that no Hindu-hater would dare to make such demand in future. – Editor SP)
On one hand, this anti-Hindu Muslim has made a demand to ban Hindu festivals and on the other hand, he has demanded assistance from the State Congress Government for celebration of ‘Milad-Un- Nabi’, a Muslim festival on large scale. Owaisi’s MIM party is a partner in ruling Congress-led front in A.P. Both the parties jointly rule Municipal Corporation of Bhagyanagar. (Owaisi seems to be quite sure that Congress Govt. in A.P. would take no action against him even if he does anything against Hindus; therefore, he can dare to say such things. In short, Hindus need to remember that under Congress regime, the way in which Hindus genocide took place in North, in the valley of Jammu and Kashmir, similar condition would be faced even in South. Hindus now need to unite for their survival. – Editor SP)
In old Bhagyanagar area, there is ‘goonda-raj (rule of criminals)’ of MIM. In this ‘goonda-raj’, Congress Govt. is playing equal part. Two years back, action of ‘MIM’ workers was the cause of riots in the old city. Mr. Raja Singh, the councilor of Bhagyanagar Municipal Corporation has stated that trying to create obstacles in processions of Hindus on ‘Ramnavami’ and Hanuman Jayanti by the Government will generate furor among Hindus and the Government would be responsible for the same.
Akbaruddin Owaisi’s statement has been strongly condemned by Shiv Sena, All India Hindu Mahasabha, Janasangh Party and Ramrajya Parishad in a joint meeting. If the Congress Government and MIM tried to cause obstacles, all organizations would take to road; but in any case, the procession would be taken out. No permission is required to be taken from anyone, says the joint circular letter issued by all parties. Mr. B. Mahesh Chander, the area-President of Shiv Sena chaired the meeting. The other participants of the meeting were B. Vishal Toshniwal, Bhagatram Agrawal, D. Devendra, Divyang Singh Lodh of Hindu Mahasabha, Damodar Reddy, Rajbhushan Rao, A. S. Prakash Rao and Pravin Soni etc.
Dr. Binduji Maharaj of ‘Shatdarshan Sant-Mahant Sangh’, a spiritual organization said in a meeting at ‘Nirmal Akhada’ of RSS that the demand made by Akbaruddin Owaisi was spreading venom in society and he should be arrested under National Security Act. Leaving such persons free, who are trying to provoke people, would disturb peace. Even during the program of ‘Milad-un-Nabi’, watch should be kept over Owaisi.
BJP has also protested against the statement made by Owaisi and has said, “Statement made by Owaisi will cause rift between minority and Hindus. The State Government should take stringent action against Owaisi.” (Hindus should note that none of the parties barring Shiv Sena and BJP, has protested against the statement of Owaisi. Congress rulers and Opposition party viz. Telugu Desam are keeping quiet on the issue. Even powerful Hindu organizations like VHP and RSS are also keeping quiet. Hindus should not expect anything from such parties and undertake a strong fight, in lawful manner, for protecting their rights; else their existence will be in danger. – Editor SP)
Source : HinduJanjagrutiSamiti
Akbaruddin Owaisi, MLA of ‘MIM’ , a party which is planning to convert Bharat into ‘Islamistan’ spits venom
Says, ban should be imposed on processions taken out on ‘Ram-Navami’ and ‘Hanuman Jayanti’
Bhagyanagar (Hyderabad) : MLA Akbaruddin Owaisi of ‘MIM (Majalis Ittehadul Muslimin)’, a Muslim organization, has demanded to impose ban on processions taken out on Hindu festivals viz. ‘Ram-Navami’ and ‘Hanuman-Jayanti’. Hindu organizations are angered due to such demand by Owaisi. (In a country where Hindus are in majority, a Muslim MLA, demanding ban on processions taken out during Hindu festivals, indicates that Hindus are staying in Pakistan and not in India. Today, Muslims are demanding ban on Hindu processions; tomorrow, they will demand for demolition of Hindu temples and will, later, demand that Hindus should become either Muslims or leave their womenfolk behind. Lack of unity among Hindus is responsible for such situation and there is no alternative for Hindus to establish a Hindu Nation to change this situation. – Editor SP)
Owaisi’s anti-Hindu demand has been strongly condemned by Mr. Raja Singh, a councilor from Mangalhat area, Shiv Sena, all India Hindu Mahasabha, Janasangh Party, Ramrajya Parishad, ‘Shatdarshan’ Saints and religious leaders through releasing respective press releases. (Hindu organizations should not just stop at registering protest but they should form a strong expansive unification and create awe so that no Hindu-hater would dare to make such demand in future. – Editor SP)
On one hand, this anti-Hindu Muslim has made a demand to ban Hindu festivals and on the other hand, he has demanded assistance from the State Congress Government for celebration of ‘Milad-Un- Nabi’, a Muslim festival on large scale. Owaisi’s MIM party is a partner in ruling Congress-led front in A.P. Both the parties jointly rule Municipal Corporation of Bhagyanagar. (Owaisi seems to be quite sure that Congress Govt. in A.P. would take no action against him even if he does anything against Hindus; therefore, he can dare to say such things. In short, Hindus need to remember that under Congress regime, the way in which Hindus genocide took place in North, in the valley of Jammu and Kashmir, similar condition would be faced even in South. Hindus now need to unite for their survival. – Editor SP)
In old Bhagyanagar area, there is ‘goonda-raj (rule of criminals)’ of MIM. In this ‘goonda-raj’, Congress Govt. is playing equal part. Two years back, action of ‘MIM’ workers was the cause of riots in the old city. Mr. Raja Singh, the councilor of Bhagyanagar Municipal Corporation has stated that trying to create obstacles in processions of Hindus on ‘Ramnavami’ and Hanuman Jayanti by the Government will generate furor among Hindus and the Government would be responsible for the same.
Akbaruddin Owaisi’s statement has been strongly condemned by Shiv Sena, All India Hindu Mahasabha, Janasangh Party and Ramrajya Parishad in a joint meeting. If the Congress Government and MIM tried to cause obstacles, all organizations would take to road; but in any case, the procession would be taken out. No permission is required to be taken from anyone, says the joint circular letter issued by all parties. Mr. B. Mahesh Chander, the area-President of Shiv Sena chaired the meeting. The other participants of the meeting were B. Vishal Toshniwal, Bhagatram Agrawal, D. Devendra, Divyang Singh Lodh of Hindu Mahasabha, Damodar Reddy, Rajbhushan Rao, A. S. Prakash Rao and Pravin Soni etc.
Dr. Binduji Maharaj of ‘Shatdarshan Sant-Mahant Sangh’, a spiritual organization said in a meeting at ‘Nirmal Akhada’ of RSS that the demand made by Akbaruddin Owaisi was spreading venom in society and he should be arrested under National Security Act. Leaving such persons free, who are trying to provoke people, would disturb peace. Even during the program of ‘Milad-un-Nabi’, watch should be kept over Owaisi.
BJP has also protested against the statement made by Owaisi and has said, “Statement made by Owaisi will cause rift between minority and Hindus. The State Government should take stringent action against Owaisi.” (Hindus should note that none of the parties barring Shiv Sena and BJP, has protested against the statement of Owaisi. Congress rulers and Opposition party viz. Telugu Desam are keeping quiet on the issue. Even powerful Hindu organizations like VHP and RSS are also keeping quiet. Hindus should not expect anything from such parties and undertake a strong fight, in lawful manner, for protecting their rights; else their existence will be in danger. – Editor SP)
Source : HinduJanjagrutiSamiti
Dhar : Govt. banned Celebrations of Basant Panchmi festival at Bhojshala l
27 January 2012 :
Police seized an Idol of Maa Wagha Devi
Bhopal/Dhar, Jan 27 (PTI) Notwithstanding the ban imposed by Dhar district administration, a right wing organisation is seeking to revive the controversial issue of 'Bhojshala' by taking out a Palki Yatra up to the ASI protected monument on the occasion of the Basant Panchmi festival tomorrow. 'Bhojshala' is an Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) protected monument where Hindus performs puja every Tuesday and Muslims offer Namaz every Friday. During the Basant Panchami festival, Hindus are allowed to perform puja at the monument from sunrise to sunset. The above arrangement was made by the ASI following regular disputes between the two communities over the issue of ownership of the monument. Hindu's feel that an idol of Waghdevi (Goddess Saraswati) existed at the Bhojshala and was removed by Muslim invaders, to be later taken away by the Britishers. Muslims treat the monument as Kamal Moula Mosque. The idol of Waghdevi is at presently housed at a museum at London. Hindutva organisations had asked Janata Party President Subramanian Swamy to take up the case of bringing back the idol from UK. The Palki Yatra was proposed to be taken out by the Maa Waghdevi Saraswati Janmotsav Samiti's organiser Navalkishore Sharma, a former RSS worker. He had observed a fast-unto-death over the issue of handing over a replica of Waghdevi in the custody of police for carrying it in the daylong procession on the occasion of Basant Panchmi festival. However, yesterday the administration forcibly ended his fast and referred him to Indore for treatment. The district administration had seized the replica of the Waghdevi idol at Gwalior, while it was being brought for the Basant Panchmi festival last year on the grounds that it may disrupt peace in the town. Dhar Collector BM Sharma said that only the Bhoj Utsav Samiti, another separate outfit, is authorised to celebrate the Basant Panchmi festival in the town. He said considering the sensitive nature of the proposed yatra by Navalkishore, the district administration has banned it. "The administration has banned the proposed Palki Yatra in the town, imposed section 144 (unlawful assembly of people) and deployed large number of security personnel in the sensitive town as a precautionary measure," he told PTI. Already, 20 persons have been arrested by police for disrupting peace in the town, he added.
Source : IBNlive
Police seized an Idol of Maa Wagha Devi
Source : IBNlive
Dr Subramanian Swamy, Chandan Mitra, Ram Madhav, Bhaiyyuji Maharaj to speak at ‘Yugantar’ meet in Vadodara
25 January 2012 :
A three-day national level conference ‘Yugantar’ at Vadodara’s MS University will witness presence of Janata Party President Shri Subramanian Swamy, Rastriya Swayamsevak Sangh(RSS) spokesperson Shri Ram Madhav, Rajya Sabha member and senior journalist Shri Chandan Mitra and Maharashtra based sant Shri Bhaiyyuji Maharaj among others.
The conference organized by MS University and Samanvaya NGO will debate on the role of youths in sociopolitical changes.
The conference will be held at CC Mehta Auditorium of the MS University campus.
The conference will also witness presentation of research papers by students and faculty.
Vadodara MP Shri Balu Shukla, former Secretary General of Lok Sabha Shri Subhash Kashyap, IIM Lucknow Director Prof Devi Singh, Vice Chancellor of MS University Prof Yogesh Singh and Vice Chancellor of Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar Open University Shri Manoj Soni will also speak at the conference.
While Dr. Swamy is scheduled to address the conference on the opening day, Shri Chandan Mitra, Ram Madhav and Devi Singh will speak on Friday. Shri Bhaiyyuji Maharaj will address the valedictory session on Saturday.
“Chanakya”, a play directed and acted by Shri Manoj Joshi will be part of the conference.
12 young girls from Siswa Gram Panchayat who were unanimously elected will remain present in interactive session on 28 January along with other unsung heroes.
Source : Deshgujrat
The conference organized by MS University and Samanvaya NGO will debate on the role of youths in sociopolitical changes.
The conference will be held at CC Mehta Auditorium of the MS University campus.
The conference will also witness presentation of research papers by students and faculty.
Vadodara MP Shri Balu Shukla, former Secretary General of Lok Sabha Shri Subhash Kashyap, IIM Lucknow Director Prof Devi Singh, Vice Chancellor of MS University Prof Yogesh Singh and Vice Chancellor of Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar Open University Shri Manoj Soni will also speak at the conference.
While Dr. Swamy is scheduled to address the conference on the opening day, Shri Chandan Mitra, Ram Madhav and Devi Singh will speak on Friday. Shri Bhaiyyuji Maharaj will address the valedictory session on Saturday.
“Chanakya”, a play directed and acted by Shri Manoj Joshi will be part of the conference.
12 young girls from Siswa Gram Panchayat who were unanimously elected will remain present in interactive session on 28 January along with other unsung heroes.
Source : Deshgujrat
Do not let this happen to the Tricolour !
24 January 2012 :
O Bharatiyas ! Respect the National Flag !
* Hoist the National Flag at a height in a suitable manner
* Do not let small children use the National Flag as a toy
* Do not use the National Flag as a banner, bunting or for decoration
* Do not join cloth pieces to resemble the National Flag
* Take care that the National Flag is not trampled upon or torn or has fallen on the ground
* Do not use or buy plastic flags
* Do not use paper flags to pin up on shirt pockets etc.
Click to Join HJS Campaign
HJS has undertaken an important campaign to educate children in various schools, putting up appeals at public places and on notice boards, using the Internet to reach Bharatiyas. HJS has met Chief Ministers of some States and has demanded strict action be taken in cases of insult to the National Flag. HJS has also kept flag collection boxes in many cities to collect used flags. Such Flags will be respectfully disposed by burning or burial as per Flag Code of India, 2002.
(Courtesy & Ref. : www.HinduJagruti.org)
Celebrate Republic Day on 31st January, according to the Hindu Tithi !
Source : English Sanatan Prabhat
* Hoist the National Flag at a height in a suitable manner
* Do not let small children use the National Flag as a toy
* Do not use the National Flag as a banner, bunting or for decoration
* Do not join cloth pieces to resemble the National Flag
* Take care that the National Flag is not trampled upon or torn or has fallen on the ground
* Do not use or buy plastic flags
* Do not use paper flags to pin up on shirt pockets etc.
Click to Join HJS Campaign
HJS has undertaken an important campaign to educate children in various schools, putting up appeals at public places and on notice boards, using the Internet to reach Bharatiyas. HJS has met Chief Ministers of some States and has demanded strict action be taken in cases of insult to the National Flag. HJS has also kept flag collection boxes in many cities to collect used flags. Such Flags will be respectfully disposed by burning or burial as per Flag Code of India, 2002.
(Courtesy & Ref. : www.HinduJagruti.org)
Celebrate Republic Day on 31st January, according to the Hindu Tithi !
Source : English Sanatan Prabhat
Paper ballots are expensive, so faulty EVMs are fine. Right, EC?
24 January 2012 : On January 17, the Delhi High Court ruled that although the highly tom-tommed Electronic Voting Machines (EVM) used in our elections are NOT tamperproof, it is still not in a position to issue any directive to the Election Commission (EC). However, it added that since EVMs are the backbone of our election process, needful should be done to dispel doubts.
I am no technology expert but if one goes through the arguments made by Subramanian Swamy and the defence put up by the EC, they both seem to have a point. While Swami, and indeed experts all over, have been able to prove that EVMs can be tampered with, and it is for that reason that several technologically more advanced nations are loathe to try them out, EC too made it quite clear that tampering is extremely difficult and almost impractical to make any material difference to the final result.
I know a lot of people will be upset with this defence of EC, for, why should there be any ambiguity about a machine that the honourable courts too agree is the ‘backbone of our election process’. But what most seem to have let pass, bafflingly so, is not that, but the argument put forth by the EC’s counsel during the hearing.
In the middle of all submissions during the hearing, the counsel made a startling statement that although the EVMs can be tampered with, “returning to ballot papers would not be feasible as it would require immense expenditure as there are now 73 crore voters in the country.” Wow! Did he really say that? Apparently he did, and I am amazed none has taken it up and blasted the EC for this.
One can give the EC the benefit of doubt on the other technical arguments, but this? Since when has the world’s ‘largest functioning democracy’ decided that conducting elections are too expensive and thus it is willing to deploy a process that is less than fool proof? I am not saying we are a rich nation and should not be bothered about expenses. If anything, there is a crying need to curb the use of huge dirty money in elections, but that certainly does not extend to how the elections are organised. The bedrock of our democracy is elections, and if the very body that has been created for conducting them raises nonsensical arguments in courts, one needs to get worried. This is the body that, thanks to TN Seshan, has developed teeth and has demonstrated that it can bite too.
Over the past decade and a half it has repeatedly made it known to the world that our elections can indeed be held in a ‘by-and-large’ fair manner. Even now, post the HC ruling, it is trying out EVMs which will have a paper trail, which is good, but the silly utterances of the commission’s counsel in the courts, hit hard at that reputation.
Our EC is known for being impartial and conducting the largest voting exercise in the world with fairness, the least it can do is to censure its counsel that says things that hurt this enviable reputation. We all like the EVMs for bringing the results quickly once the elections are over, but that alone cannot be the reason to go with them.
Source : economictimes
I am no technology expert but if one goes through the arguments made by Subramanian Swamy and the defence put up by the EC, they both seem to have a point. While Swami, and indeed experts all over, have been able to prove that EVMs can be tampered with, and it is for that reason that several technologically more advanced nations are loathe to try them out, EC too made it quite clear that tampering is extremely difficult and almost impractical to make any material difference to the final result.
I know a lot of people will be upset with this defence of EC, for, why should there be any ambiguity about a machine that the honourable courts too agree is the ‘backbone of our election process’. But what most seem to have let pass, bafflingly so, is not that, but the argument put forth by the EC’s counsel during the hearing.
In the middle of all submissions during the hearing, the counsel made a startling statement that although the EVMs can be tampered with, “returning to ballot papers would not be feasible as it would require immense expenditure as there are now 73 crore voters in the country.” Wow! Did he really say that? Apparently he did, and I am amazed none has taken it up and blasted the EC for this.
One can give the EC the benefit of doubt on the other technical arguments, but this? Since when has the world’s ‘largest functioning democracy’ decided that conducting elections are too expensive and thus it is willing to deploy a process that is less than fool proof? I am not saying we are a rich nation and should not be bothered about expenses. If anything, there is a crying need to curb the use of huge dirty money in elections, but that certainly does not extend to how the elections are organised. The bedrock of our democracy is elections, and if the very body that has been created for conducting them raises nonsensical arguments in courts, one needs to get worried. This is the body that, thanks to TN Seshan, has developed teeth and has demonstrated that it can bite too.
Over the past decade and a half it has repeatedly made it known to the world that our elections can indeed be held in a ‘by-and-large’ fair manner. Even now, post the HC ruling, it is trying out EVMs which will have a paper trail, which is good, but the silly utterances of the commission’s counsel in the courts, hit hard at that reputation.
Our EC is known for being impartial and conducting the largest voting exercise in the world with fairness, the least it can do is to censure its counsel that says things that hurt this enviable reputation. We all like the EVMs for bringing the results quickly once the elections are over, but that alone cannot be the reason to go with them.
Source : economictimes
‘Why didn’t PC call Cabinet meeting?’
24 January 2012 :
In case former finance minister P. Chidambaram wasn’t “conspiring and colluding” with the 2G scam accused and ex-communications minister A. Raja on the spectrum pricing policy, he could have called for a Cabinet meeting as he is now doing to resolve the UID row, Janata Party chief Subramanian Swamy told a Delhi court on Saturday.
The court of Special CBI judge O.P. Saini was hearing Mr Swamy’s plea seeking prosecution of current home minister P. Chidambaram for his role in the alleged scam in which Raja, several officials as well as senior corporate honchos are accused. The order on Mr Swamy’s plea was reserved for February 4. “Put up for orders on February 4,” Special CBI judge O.P. Saini said asking Mr Swamy to put on record further documents if he wished to do so.
During the arguments, Mr Swamy said, “By going through all the documents and evidence that I have put forth, it is quite clear that Raja did not act alone — that legally by virtue of a Cabinet decision, both had to decide on the spectrum policy.” Mr Swamy said had there been differences of opinion between the two ministers, Mr Chidambaram had “plenty of time for his conscience to be pricked.”
He said that the evidence he had brought on court’s record prima facie show that Mr Chidambaram is equally culpable as Raja, who is facing trial in the 2G spectrum allocation scam.
“A. Raja and P. Chidambaram had committed the offence together. Prima facie Chidambaram had conspired and colluded with Raja to commit offence of criminal misconduct,” he said. He told the court that the evidence which he had bought before it was sufficient to show that Mr Chidambaram has prima facie committed offences.
Source : deccanchronicle
In case former finance minister P. Chidambaram wasn’t “conspiring and colluding” with the 2G scam accused and ex-communications minister A. Raja on the spectrum pricing policy, he could have called for a Cabinet meeting as he is now doing to resolve the UID row, Janata Party chief Subramanian Swamy told a Delhi court on Saturday.
The court of Special CBI judge O.P. Saini was hearing Mr Swamy’s plea seeking prosecution of current home minister P. Chidambaram for his role in the alleged scam in which Raja, several officials as well as senior corporate honchos are accused. The order on Mr Swamy’s plea was reserved for February 4. “Put up for orders on February 4,” Special CBI judge O.P. Saini said asking Mr Swamy to put on record further documents if he wished to do so.
During the arguments, Mr Swamy said, “By going through all the documents and evidence that I have put forth, it is quite clear that Raja did not act alone — that legally by virtue of a Cabinet decision, both had to decide on the spectrum policy.” Mr Swamy said had there been differences of opinion between the two ministers, Mr Chidambaram had “plenty of time for his conscience to be pricked.”
He said that the evidence he had brought on court’s record prima facie show that Mr Chidambaram is equally culpable as Raja, who is facing trial in the 2G spectrum allocation scam.
“A. Raja and P. Chidambaram had committed the offence together. Prima facie Chidambaram had conspired and colluded with Raja to commit offence of criminal misconduct,” he said. He told the court that the evidence which he had bought before it was sufficient to show that Mr Chidambaram has prima facie committed offences.
Source : deccanchronicle
2G scam: Court to deliver order on Subramanian Swamy's petition against Chidambaram on Feb 4
21 January 2012 (New Delhi):
A special Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) court today reserved its order on a plea by Janata Party president Subramanian Swamy to haul Home Minister P. Chidambaram to court in the 2G spectrum case.
"The order is reserved for Feb 4," said special CBI judge O.P. Saini.
Swamy had said, "This evidence reveals the connivance, collusion and consent of the then finance minister Chidambaram in the decision taken by the then telecom minister A. Raja on the matter of fixing prices of spectrum licences and the matter of permitting companies who received licences.
"Swamy said two companies which received the telecom licences sold their shares to others even before the rollout of their services. He had said the evidence brings on record a commission of offence under the Prevention of Corruption Act.
Chidambaram was the finance minister in the first United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government when the spectrum saga began.
Swamy sought to prosecute Chidambaram in the case, saying the decision on spectrum pricing was taken in 2008 jointly by him and Raja, who has been lodged in the Tihar Jail here since Feb 2, 2011. He alleged that Chidambaram and Raja were equally guilty of recommending spectrum prices based on 2001 rates.
Source : NDTV
"The order is reserved for Feb 4," said special CBI judge O.P. Saini.
Swamy had said, "This evidence reveals the connivance, collusion and consent of the then finance minister Chidambaram in the decision taken by the then telecom minister A. Raja on the matter of fixing prices of spectrum licences and the matter of permitting companies who received licences.
"Swamy said two companies which received the telecom licences sold their shares to others even before the rollout of their services. He had said the evidence brings on record a commission of offence under the Prevention of Corruption Act.
Chidambaram was the finance minister in the first United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government when the spectrum saga began.
Swamy sought to prosecute Chidambaram in the case, saying the decision on spectrum pricing was taken in 2008 jointly by him and Raja, who has been lodged in the Tihar Jail here since Feb 2, 2011. He alleged that Chidambaram and Raja were equally guilty of recommending spectrum prices based on 2001 rates.
Source : NDTV
Centre files application against Swamy's remarks
21 January 2012 :
The Centre on Friday filed an application in the 2G case taking exception to the allegations made by Janata Party president Subramanian Swamy against Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram and Congress president Sonia Gandhi during a lecture in Bangalore recently.
Senior counsel P.P. Rao, appearing for the Centre, mentioned the filing of the application before a Bench of Justices G.S. Singhvi and A.K. Ganguly and said the allegations were made even when judgment in the case was reserved by the Court.
The Bench, while asking Dr. Swamy to respond to the application, told Mr. Rao that it would consider during the course of hearing whether action should be initiated or not.
The Centre, in its application, said Dr. Swamy delivered a lecture titled ‘Hidden Facts about 2G Spectrum' organised by Youth against Corruption on October 19 last year even as the matter was sub judice and thereby interfered with the course of justice.
It wanted to place on record the speech and said: “The said speech shows that the sole object of Dr. Swamy is to malign and lower the image and prestige of public servants holding important offices in the Union government and Parliament.”
In his speech, Dr. Swamy had alleged that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh might have given Mr. Chidambaram a reprieve in the 2G spectrum case, but it was temporary and there was no way Mr. Chidambaram could escape from the long arm of law. Dr. Swamy also speculated that Ms. Gandhi would be in trouble.
Meanwhile, the Bench adjourned the hearing on the application filed by advocate Prashant Bhushan alleging Union Law Minister Salman Khursheed's interference in the 2G probe and slow progress in the probe against the former Telecom Minister, Dayanidhi Maran.
Source : The Hindu
The Centre on Friday filed an application in the 2G case taking exception to the allegations made by Janata Party president Subramanian Swamy against Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram and Congress president Sonia Gandhi during a lecture in Bangalore recently.
Senior counsel P.P. Rao, appearing for the Centre, mentioned the filing of the application before a Bench of Justices G.S. Singhvi and A.K. Ganguly and said the allegations were made even when judgment in the case was reserved by the Court.
The Bench, while asking Dr. Swamy to respond to the application, told Mr. Rao that it would consider during the course of hearing whether action should be initiated or not.
The Centre, in its application, said Dr. Swamy delivered a lecture titled ‘Hidden Facts about 2G Spectrum' organised by Youth against Corruption on October 19 last year even as the matter was sub judice and thereby interfered with the course of justice.
It wanted to place on record the speech and said: “The said speech shows that the sole object of Dr. Swamy is to malign and lower the image and prestige of public servants holding important offices in the Union government and Parliament.”
In his speech, Dr. Swamy had alleged that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh might have given Mr. Chidambaram a reprieve in the 2G spectrum case, but it was temporary and there was no way Mr. Chidambaram could escape from the long arm of law. Dr. Swamy also speculated that Ms. Gandhi would be in trouble.
Meanwhile, the Bench adjourned the hearing on the application filed by advocate Prashant Bhushan alleging Union Law Minister Salman Khursheed's interference in the 2G probe and slow progress in the probe against the former Telecom Minister, Dayanidhi Maran.
Source : The Hindu
Pending judgements in 2G cases
21 January 2012 :
In the Supreme Court, Subramanian Swamy and noted lawyer Prashant Bhushan reminded the bench headed by Justice GS Singhvi and Justice AK Ganguly about the pending judgements in the spectrum scam cases.
Since Justice Ganguly will retire on February 2, it is expected that crucial judgements in four pending cases will be delivered soon. The cases pending are: Cancellation of all licences issued by Raja and conduct of auction; Swamy’s petition for probing the role of Chidambaram in spectrum allocation by CBI and guidelines on sanction for prosecution; and Bhushan’s petition for creation of Special Investigation Team (SIT) to help the Supreme Court in monitoring the probe.
Source : Daily Pioneer
In the Supreme Court, Subramanian Swamy and noted lawyer Prashant Bhushan reminded the bench headed by Justice GS Singhvi and Justice AK Ganguly about the pending judgements in the spectrum scam cases.
Since Justice Ganguly will retire on February 2, it is expected that crucial judgements in four pending cases will be delivered soon. The cases pending are: Cancellation of all licences issued by Raja and conduct of auction; Swamy’s petition for probing the role of Chidambaram in spectrum allocation by CBI and guidelines on sanction for prosecution; and Bhushan’s petition for creation of Special Investigation Team (SIT) to help the Supreme Court in monitoring the probe.
Source : Daily Pioneer
New voting machines to have paper trail: BEL
20 January 2012 :
Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) will henceforth generate paper trail of the ballot cast through it, making the election process safer and tamper-proof, defence PSU Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL), making the EVMs said here today.
"EC has given us its requirement for EVMs and work is going on to incorporate new features", BEL Chairman and Managing Director Anil Kumar said, addding the machines would be ready for use in another six months.
"The software in the EVM will be modified and a printer will be attached to it. When you cast a vote, the serial number and some data will be generated in the form of a printout. It is to ensure that there is no malpractice in the voting system," Kumar said.
The printouts will be used later to cross check the voting data stored in the EVMs.
Kumar said the proposal is still at the trial stage and next round of tests would take place in the coming months.
"We have already conducted the second round of trials, we will be seeing the response and it will be further modified. It could be ready in another six months time," he said.
On whether some of the new machines would be used or tested in the coming elections, he said "these will not be used in the coming elections. We got the proposal about five months back and first time there was a malfunctioning because of the temperature."
Talking about other features in new EVMs, he said the machines will be more rugged and smaller in size but with more computing power.
Source : business-standard
"EC has given us its requirement for EVMs and work is going on to incorporate new features", BEL Chairman and Managing Director Anil Kumar said, addding the machines would be ready for use in another six months.
"The software in the EVM will be modified and a printer will be attached to it. When you cast a vote, the serial number and some data will be generated in the form of a printout. It is to ensure that there is no malpractice in the voting system," Kumar said.
The printouts will be used later to cross check the voting data stored in the EVMs.
Kumar said the proposal is still at the trial stage and next round of tests would take place in the coming months.
"We have already conducted the second round of trials, we will be seeing the response and it will be further modified. It could be ready in another six months time," he said.
On whether some of the new machines would be used or tested in the coming elections, he said "these will not be used in the coming elections. We got the proposal about five months back and first time there was a malfunctioning because of the temperature."
Talking about other features in new EVMs, he said the machines will be more rugged and smaller in size but with more computing power.
Source : business-standard
Censorship at Harvard Comes as No Surprise by Harvey Silverglate
20 January 2012 :
Academics and observers of the academy have for several weeks
now been professing shock at what even one of the perpetrators has called unprecedented at Harvard – the Faculty of Arts and Sciences’ striking of uncontroversial economics courses taught by now-controversial Indian politician Subramanian Swamy, without even inviting him to defend himself. But we should not be surprised. Punishment for uttering politically incorrect ideas, often with little regard for fair procedure, has plagued Harvard students, faculty members, and even, in the eyes of some, one now-former Harvard president over the past two decades. The disgraceful action taken against Professor Swamy is par for the course.
The controversy began this past summer, when in response to the July 13th terrorist attacks in Mumbai, Swamy penned an op-ed describing a radical prescription for “how to wipe out Islamic terror.” Swamy argued that “[t]errorist masterminds have political goals and a method in their madness…an effective strategy to deter terrorism is to defeat those political goals and to rubbish them by counter-terrorist action.” Swamy’s strategy to counter terror was six-fold: he called for the settlement of Indian soldiers in Kashmir, the removal of mosques located on certain Hindu holy sites, compulsory teaching of Sanskrit, prohibition of conversion away from Hinduism, annexation of part of Bangladesh in compensation for illegal immigration, and, finally, the renaming of India “Hindustan” and the prevention of non-Hindus from voting unless they “proudly acknowledge that their ancestors were Hindus.”
Very soon after the publication of Swamy’s op-ed, Harvard summer-school students began circulating a petition calling for his removal. In response, Harvard spokesperson Linda Cross stated that “It is central to the mission of a university to protect free speech, including that of Dr. Swamy and of those who disagree with him.” The controversy seemed at an end with the pronouncement of this quite common sense – indeed, essential – defense of academic freedom, until the faculty got involved this winter. In a meeting on December 6th, the Faculty of Arts and Sciences voted to take the unprecedented step of stripping Swamy’s courses from the upcoming summer school curriculum, effectively firing him. Professor Diana Eck led the charge:
Freedom of expression is an essential principle in an academic community, one that we fully support. Notwithstanding our commitment to the robust exchange of ideas, Swamy’s op-ed clearly crosses the line into incitement by demonizing an entire religious community, demanding their disenfranchisement, and calling for violence against their places of worship.
Professor Eck called Swamy’s column incitement; she was clearly incorrect as far as constitutional law is concerned, but the majority of her colleagues did not care any more than she did. They voted to ban Swamy’s courses: barring a sudden change, Subramanian Swamy will not be coming back to Harvard because he has unpopular and controversial ideas.
Harvard’s modern move towards political viewpoint censorship dates at least to 1992, when publication of a law student-authored parody of the austere Harvard Law Review landed the student humorists in hot water. The students privately circulated a faux article mocking the HLR’s publication of an expletive-laden, postmodern feminist draft article by a professor who had been tragically murdered before finishing piece. The Law School’s Administrative Board tried the parodists and acquitted them only because, the Board announced, the school did not yet have a speech code. The law faculty promptly adopted sexual harassment guidelines to prevent a repetition of such politically toxic humor.
A decade later, the law school erupted again when a first-year student used the word “nig” as shorthand in his publicly posted course outline discussing a famous Supreme Court opinion that invalidated racially restrictive covenants on real estate deeds. Professor Charles Nesson attempted to turn the ballooning controversy into a teaching moment and suggested having a mock trial of the student, with Nesson playing the role of his defense attorney. Nesson was summarily punished and pressed into giving up for the rest of the semester a course he was teaching.
Nor was Harvard’s Business School immune from the university-wide habit of censorship. An HBS student newspaper editor resigned in protest in November 2002 after a verbal warning from the administration for publishing a cartoon that called career services administrators “incompetent morons.” Only after pressure from the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (where I serve as Board Chairman) did the Business School relent.
And Harvard’s undergraduate college has also prioritized institutional notions of comfort over discomforting academic incorrectness. In 2002, the English department bowed to the “heckler’s veto” and canceled a lecture and poetry reading by a Northern Irish poet due to his controversial pro-Palestinian views. Such actions are likely to continue; this past year, the college’s Dean of Freshmen, Thomas Dingman, pressured members of the freshman Class of 2015 to sign an oath pledging themselves to the imposed virtues of “respect,” “inclusiveness and civility,” and “the exercise of kindness” which, the pledge asserts, “hol[d] a place on a par with intellectual attainment.” Only sustained criticism by proponents of academic freedom and individual conscience, led by former college dean Harry Lewis, caused Dingman to back down and withdraw the policy of publicly revealing, in the entryway of each dorm, whether or not each student had signed the pledge. The pledge remains in every entryway (albeit without signatures), and Dingman has promised to revisit the “kindness” initiative next year.
More familiar to observers nationwide was the speed with which Harvard President Lawrence Summers was driven out of office after a 2005 academic conference speech in which he offered a controversial explanation for the lack of women in prominent scientific positions. A month later the Faculty of Arts and Sciences—the same group that voted to ban Swamy’s classes—gave the President a vote of “no-confidence.” In 2006 Summers resigned. Some at Harvard believe that Summers was forced out for a number of reasons, including a personality that rubbed many overly-sensitive souls the wrong way. But the mere fact that the flap over women and science is so widely believed to be a major reason—if not the major reason—for Summers’ departure belies something very disturbing about the health (or lack thereof) of academic freedom on that campus.
In 2010, the Law School again acted as Harvard’s chief moral censor. Some months earlier, third-year student Stephanie Grace had sent a private e-mail to her colleagues expressing her desire to see more research on the link, if any, between race and intelligence. “I think it is bad science,” she wrote, “to disagree with a conclusion in your heart, and then try … to find data that will confirm what you want to be true.” Her crime was stating that she was “not 100% convinced” that there was no such link.
When the e-mail later became public, it landed in the hands of law dean Martha Minow. Minow publicly admonished the student for daring to consider the question of race and intelligence, and falsely charged that the student had “suggested that black people are genetically inferior to white people.” While making the obligatory obeisance in theory to “freedom of expression,” Minow insisted that such freedom “must be accompanied by responsibility” since the law school was “dedicated to [both] intellectual pursuit and social justice.” (This is an example of the infamous refrain: “I’m in favor of free speech, but….”) She assured everyone that the school was “especially dedicated to exposing to the light of inquiry false views about individuals or groups,” all the while shaming a student for attempting to raise such inquiries. Grace apologized for the “pain” and “harm” she had caused by expressing even “a doubt” about the issue of race and intelligence. As a reward for the student’s public humiliation and confession of error, Dean Minow took no further action against her; rather, in her e-mail, Minow stated that she was “heartened to see [Grace’s] apology,” apparently satisfied that Grace no longer felt free to speak frankly and controversially on taboo topics.
All of this raises the urgent question of whether and when Harvard’s powerful governing board, known as The President and Fellows of Harvard College, will begin to undertake a long-overdue study of the state of academic freedom and freedom of speech and conscience at one of the nation’s most important universities. But we have little reason to be confident that change will come soon: after all, notwithstanding so many disturbing and visible violations of academic freedom and freedom of speech and conscience at Harvard in recent years, the highest echelons of power at the university have been silent, at least publically. Perhaps they are not listening; or, worse, perhaps they are not disturbed by what is happening. The betting is that Harvard Summer School students, this coming summer, will not have a choice to study under Professor Swamy.
Harvey A. Silverglate, Harvard Law School Class of 1967, is a Boston lawyer, the co-author of The Shadow University: The Betrayal of Liberty on America’s Campuses (Free Press/Simon & Schuster, 1998; HarperPerennial paperback 1999), and Chairman of the Board of The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (www.thefire.org). Daniel Schwartz, a FIRE program associate, contributed to this essay.
Source : forbes
Academics and observers of the academy have for several weeks
The controversy began this past summer, when in response to the July 13th terrorist attacks in Mumbai, Swamy penned an op-ed describing a radical prescription for “how to wipe out Islamic terror.” Swamy argued that “[t]errorist masterminds have political goals and a method in their madness…an effective strategy to deter terrorism is to defeat those political goals and to rubbish them by counter-terrorist action.” Swamy’s strategy to counter terror was six-fold: he called for the settlement of Indian soldiers in Kashmir, the removal of mosques located on certain Hindu holy sites, compulsory teaching of Sanskrit, prohibition of conversion away from Hinduism, annexation of part of Bangladesh in compensation for illegal immigration, and, finally, the renaming of India “Hindustan” and the prevention of non-Hindus from voting unless they “proudly acknowledge that their ancestors were Hindus.”
Very soon after the publication of Swamy’s op-ed, Harvard summer-school students began circulating a petition calling for his removal. In response, Harvard spokesperson Linda Cross stated that “It is central to the mission of a university to protect free speech, including that of Dr. Swamy and of those who disagree with him.” The controversy seemed at an end with the pronouncement of this quite common sense – indeed, essential – defense of academic freedom, until the faculty got involved this winter. In a meeting on December 6th, the Faculty of Arts and Sciences voted to take the unprecedented step of stripping Swamy’s courses from the upcoming summer school curriculum, effectively firing him. Professor Diana Eck led the charge:
Freedom of expression is an essential principle in an academic community, one that we fully support. Notwithstanding our commitment to the robust exchange of ideas, Swamy’s op-ed clearly crosses the line into incitement by demonizing an entire religious community, demanding their disenfranchisement, and calling for violence against their places of worship.
Professor Eck called Swamy’s column incitement; she was clearly incorrect as far as constitutional law is concerned, but the majority of her colleagues did not care any more than she did. They voted to ban Swamy’s courses: barring a sudden change, Subramanian Swamy will not be coming back to Harvard because he has unpopular and controversial ideas.
Harvard’s modern move towards political viewpoint censorship dates at least to 1992, when publication of a law student-authored parody of the austere Harvard Law Review landed the student humorists in hot water. The students privately circulated a faux article mocking the HLR’s publication of an expletive-laden, postmodern feminist draft article by a professor who had been tragically murdered before finishing piece. The Law School’s Administrative Board tried the parodists and acquitted them only because, the Board announced, the school did not yet have a speech code. The law faculty promptly adopted sexual harassment guidelines to prevent a repetition of such politically toxic humor.
A decade later, the law school erupted again when a first-year student used the word “nig” as shorthand in his publicly posted course outline discussing a famous Supreme Court opinion that invalidated racially restrictive covenants on real estate deeds. Professor Charles Nesson attempted to turn the ballooning controversy into a teaching moment and suggested having a mock trial of the student, with Nesson playing the role of his defense attorney. Nesson was summarily punished and pressed into giving up for the rest of the semester a course he was teaching.
Nor was Harvard’s Business School immune from the university-wide habit of censorship. An HBS student newspaper editor resigned in protest in November 2002 after a verbal warning from the administration for publishing a cartoon that called career services administrators “incompetent morons.” Only after pressure from the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (where I serve as Board Chairman) did the Business School relent.
And Harvard’s undergraduate college has also prioritized institutional notions of comfort over discomforting academic incorrectness. In 2002, the English department bowed to the “heckler’s veto” and canceled a lecture and poetry reading by a Northern Irish poet due to his controversial pro-Palestinian views. Such actions are likely to continue; this past year, the college’s Dean of Freshmen, Thomas Dingman, pressured members of the freshman Class of 2015 to sign an oath pledging themselves to the imposed virtues of “respect,” “inclusiveness and civility,” and “the exercise of kindness” which, the pledge asserts, “hol[d] a place on a par with intellectual attainment.” Only sustained criticism by proponents of academic freedom and individual conscience, led by former college dean Harry Lewis, caused Dingman to back down and withdraw the policy of publicly revealing, in the entryway of each dorm, whether or not each student had signed the pledge. The pledge remains in every entryway (albeit without signatures), and Dingman has promised to revisit the “kindness” initiative next year.
More familiar to observers nationwide was the speed with which Harvard President Lawrence Summers was driven out of office after a 2005 academic conference speech in which he offered a controversial explanation for the lack of women in prominent scientific positions. A month later the Faculty of Arts and Sciences—the same group that voted to ban Swamy’s classes—gave the President a vote of “no-confidence.” In 2006 Summers resigned. Some at Harvard believe that Summers was forced out for a number of reasons, including a personality that rubbed many overly-sensitive souls the wrong way. But the mere fact that the flap over women and science is so widely believed to be a major reason—if not the major reason—for Summers’ departure belies something very disturbing about the health (or lack thereof) of academic freedom on that campus.
In 2010, the Law School again acted as Harvard’s chief moral censor. Some months earlier, third-year student Stephanie Grace had sent a private e-mail to her colleagues expressing her desire to see more research on the link, if any, between race and intelligence. “I think it is bad science,” she wrote, “to disagree with a conclusion in your heart, and then try … to find data that will confirm what you want to be true.” Her crime was stating that she was “not 100% convinced” that there was no such link.
When the e-mail later became public, it landed in the hands of law dean Martha Minow. Minow publicly admonished the student for daring to consider the question of race and intelligence, and falsely charged that the student had “suggested that black people are genetically inferior to white people.” While making the obligatory obeisance in theory to “freedom of expression,” Minow insisted that such freedom “must be accompanied by responsibility” since the law school was “dedicated to [both] intellectual pursuit and social justice.” (This is an example of the infamous refrain: “I’m in favor of free speech, but….”) She assured everyone that the school was “especially dedicated to exposing to the light of inquiry false views about individuals or groups,” all the while shaming a student for attempting to raise such inquiries. Grace apologized for the “pain” and “harm” she had caused by expressing even “a doubt” about the issue of race and intelligence. As a reward for the student’s public humiliation and confession of error, Dean Minow took no further action against her; rather, in her e-mail, Minow stated that she was “heartened to see [Grace’s] apology,” apparently satisfied that Grace no longer felt free to speak frankly and controversially on taboo topics.
All of this raises the urgent question of whether and when Harvard’s powerful governing board, known as The President and Fellows of Harvard College, will begin to undertake a long-overdue study of the state of academic freedom and freedom of speech and conscience at one of the nation’s most important universities. But we have little reason to be confident that change will come soon: after all, notwithstanding so many disturbing and visible violations of academic freedom and freedom of speech and conscience at Harvard in recent years, the highest echelons of power at the university have been silent, at least publically. Perhaps they are not listening; or, worse, perhaps they are not disturbed by what is happening. The betting is that Harvard Summer School students, this coming summer, will not have a choice to study under Professor Swamy.
Harvey A. Silverglate, Harvard Law School Class of 1967, is a Boston lawyer, the co-author of The Shadow University: The Betrayal of Liberty on America’s Campuses (Free Press/Simon & Schuster, 1998; HarperPerennial paperback 1999), and Chairman of the Board of The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (www.thefire.org). Daniel Schwartz, a FIRE program associate, contributed to this essay.
Source : forbes
Sonia bears personal hatred for Ramdev: Subramanian Swamy
20 January 2012 :
Janata Party leader Subramanian Swamy has alleged Congress chief Sonia Gandhi saying that she carries personal hatred for yoga guru Baba Ramdev.
Speaking on the occasion of releasing a book written by BJP leader Saryu Rai,in Jharkhand capital Ranchi Swamy said, “Sonia Gandhi has person hatred for Baba Ramdev because he wears saffron robes which the Congress chief doesn’t like. Due to this hatred, she allowed police crackdown against Swami Ramdev and his supporters in June last year.”
Praising Swami Ramdev for his fight against corruption, The Janta Party leader added, “Baba Ramdev is spreading mass awareness against corruption and we are trying to ensure prosecution of those who are involved in the acts of corruption.”
Subramanian Swamy has also launched a legal battle against union Home Minister P Chidambaram to ensure his prosecution for his role in 2 G scam.
Source : CVB
Janata Party leader Subramanian Swamy has alleged Congress chief Sonia Gandhi saying that she carries personal hatred for yoga guru Baba Ramdev.
Speaking on the occasion of releasing a book written by BJP leader Saryu Rai,in Jharkhand capital Ranchi Swamy said, “Sonia Gandhi has person hatred for Baba Ramdev because he wears saffron robes which the Congress chief doesn’t like. Due to this hatred, she allowed police crackdown against Swami Ramdev and his supporters in June last year.”
Praising Swami Ramdev for his fight against corruption, The Janta Party leader added, “Baba Ramdev is spreading mass awareness against corruption and we are trying to ensure prosecution of those who are involved in the acts of corruption.”
Subramanian Swamy has also launched a legal battle against union Home Minister P Chidambaram to ensure his prosecution for his role in 2 G scam.
Source : CVB
Subramanian Swamy questioned in inflammatory article case
16 January 2012 (New Delhi) : Janata Party president Subramanian Swamy was on Monday questioned by Delhi Police in connection with a case of writing an “inflammatory article” in a newspaper.
Mr. Swamy, accompanied by lawyers, reached the inter-state cell of Delhi Police’s Crime Branch here at around 11 a.m.
The Janata Party chief has been granted interim protection till January 30 by the Delhi High Court against his possible arrest in the case.
The Delhi High Court had on Friday last granted interim protection to Mr. Swamy and asked him to give an undertaking that he would not write such articles in the future. The court also issued notice to the Delhi Police, seeking its response to Mr. Swamy’s anticipatory bail plea.
Delhi Police had on October 3 registered a case of spreading enmity between communities against Mr. Swamy for his remarks suggesting revoking of voting rights of Muslims.
The Crime Branch registered a case under Section 153A (spreading enmity between communities) of Indian Penal Code for his newspaper article in July this year.
The Harvard-educated economic scholar had suggested in the article that Indian Hindus collectively respond to terror acts.
Source : The Hindu
The Janata Party chief has been granted interim protection till January 30 by the Delhi High Court against his possible arrest in the case.
The Delhi High Court had on Friday last granted interim protection to Mr. Swamy and asked him to give an undertaking that he would not write such articles in the future. The court also issued notice to the Delhi Police, seeking its response to Mr. Swamy’s anticipatory bail plea.
Delhi Police had on October 3 registered a case of spreading enmity between communities against Mr. Swamy for his remarks suggesting revoking of voting rights of Muslims.
The Crime Branch registered a case under Section 153A (spreading enmity between communities) of Indian Penal Code for his newspaper article in July this year.
The Harvard-educated economic scholar had suggested in the article that Indian Hindus collectively respond to terror acts.
Source : The Hindu
Delhi CM funded Ramdev inkman's NGO: Subramanian Swamy
16 January 2012 (RANCHI): Janata Party leader Subramanian Swamy 
has accused Delhi chief minister Shiela Dixit of funding the NGO named "Real Cause" operated by Kamran Siddique who splashed black ink on Baba Ramdev in Delhi on Saturday.
Swamy, a petitioner in 2G spectrum scam who was addressing a joint press conference with Ramdev at Constitution Club in Delhi on Saturday when the ink incident took place, was here on Sunday to release a book. He said Siddique ran an NGO that received a donation of Rs 25 lakh from Dixit.
"This has been proved beyond doubt that Siddique has links with the Congress and he tried to silence Yoga guru because he was speaking against corruption and black money," the Janata Party leader said.
He announced to address a programme in Delhi along with Baba Ramdev on February 4 and ridiculed Congress's Digvijay Singh for linking Siddique with the BJP-RSS. "A lay man can understand which party is being aggrieved by the campaign against black money and corruption and now Siddique's whereabouts are in the open," he said.
Swamy clarified that in course of initial investigation it had been found that Siddique was released from jail about a fortnight back. "If a person is released from jail by an executive order and then he enters a press conference venue to throw ink on a crusader against corruption, any lay man can link the dots to guess the brain behind," he said.
Commenting on Digjijay Singh's statement, Swamy said, "The man is either suffering from brain cancer or has lost his mental balance. He should visit Kanke for treatment otherwise he would continue to speak absurd things."
Expressing support for movements spearheaded by Anna Hazare and Ramdev, the Janata Party president said while a group of people believe in strong Jan Lokpal bill, he affiliated himself to the club of people who believe in power of institutions and existing law. "I have used the existing laws to push Raja behind the bars and now awaiting a similar fate for Union home minister P Chidambaram," he said.
Swamy stressed that Chidambaram was accused of similar charges under which dalit leader A Raja had been sent to jail. "We are waiting for the apex court's decision pending on Chidambaram slated for January 21," he said adding that Koda was also an escape goat like Raja who had been sent to jail for being a tribal.
Without taking names, Swamy said behind Raja and Koda, a mastermind was sitting as " queen" in Delhi who must be brought to book under the existing laws and constitutional institutions.
Swamy, a petitioner in 2G spectrum scam who was addressing a joint press conference with Ramdev at Constitution Club in Delhi on Saturday when the ink incident took place, was here on Sunday to release a book. He said Siddique ran an NGO that received a donation of Rs 25 lakh from Dixit.
"This has been proved beyond doubt that Siddique has links with the Congress and he tried to silence Yoga guru because he was speaking against corruption and black money," the Janata Party leader said.
He announced to address a programme in Delhi along with Baba Ramdev on February 4 and ridiculed Congress's Digvijay Singh for linking Siddique with the BJP-RSS. "A lay man can understand which party is being aggrieved by the campaign against black money and corruption and now Siddique's whereabouts are in the open," he said.
Swamy clarified that in course of initial investigation it had been found that Siddique was released from jail about a fortnight back. "If a person is released from jail by an executive order and then he enters a press conference venue to throw ink on a crusader against corruption, any lay man can link the dots to guess the brain behind," he said.
Commenting on Digjijay Singh's statement, Swamy said, "The man is either suffering from brain cancer or has lost his mental balance. He should visit Kanke for treatment otherwise he would continue to speak absurd things."
Expressing support for movements spearheaded by Anna Hazare and Ramdev, the Janata Party president said while a group of people believe in strong Jan Lokpal bill, he affiliated himself to the club of people who believe in power of institutions and existing law. "I have used the existing laws to push Raja behind the bars and now awaiting a similar fate for Union home minister P Chidambaram," he said.
Swamy stressed that Chidambaram was accused of similar charges under which dalit leader A Raja had been sent to jail. "We are waiting for the apex court's decision pending on Chidambaram slated for January 21," he said adding that Koda was also an escape goat like Raja who had been sent to jail for being a tribal.
Without taking names, Swamy said behind Raja and Koda, a mastermind was sitting as " queen" in Delhi who must be brought to book under the existing laws and constitutional institutions.
'Madhu Koda's firm tried Nasdaq listing'
16 January 2012 (RANCHI): Former chief minister Madhu Koda, who is in jail in connection with multi-crore money-laundering scam, had plans to register his company with the world's premiere stock exchange Nasdaq and he had even completed necessary formalities for that, says a book authored by former BJP MLA Saryu Rai.
Rai said on Sunday that his book "Madhu Koda Ka Loot Raaj" was a chronological collection of events and summation of Koda's journey from an MLA to a chief minister and from there to jail. "Every line in the book is backed by sufficient evidence collected by the investigating authorities like the enforcement directorate and income tax authorities," Rai said.
The book depicts Koda regime as a three-tier system. "Initially, he started converting his black money to white by giving in cash and obtaining cheques from different parties in Ranchi, Jamshedpur and Kolkata. Later, he had links with Mumbai-based Hawala traders to invest money in different parts of the country," Rai has mentioned in the book further clarifying that Koda approached a Swedish company and within one year opened more than 100 firms. "He had completed the formalities to get his company registered with Nasdaq which warrants not less than a capital value of $500,000 million," Rai said.
Expressing doubt over the disproportionate assets worth Rs 3,300 crore as unearthed by the income tax department, the book gives an insight into the loopholes of governance. Speaking on behalf of the publishers, Piyush Kumar of New Delhi-based Prabhat Prakashan said democracy can function properly only when corruption is nipped at the bud.
Releasing the book in a ceremony chaired by former DGP R R Prasad, Janata Party president Subramanian Swamy congratulated Rai for documenting the history of ore scam. "Koda was just the flag-bearer who has been pushed forward like A Raja of Tamil Nadu to bear the brunt," Swami said indicating to bigger players working from behind the curtains to reap benefits. He said the contents in the book had been well researched. "Had there been two-three more chapters, I would have awarded doctoral degree to Rai for his research work," he said.
Expressing faith on existing law Swamy said people must learn to cast vote without being influenced by money or cast feelings.
Predicting mid-term parliamentary polls by end of the year, he said crusaders must fight against corruption in every walk of life.
" Anna Hazare, Baba Ramdev have been spearheading a fight whereas I have been using the law to nail the culprits and Rai has come up with a book to educate masses about the role of corrupt leaders in the system," he said. giving an equal score to every small bit of effort made to fight corruption in the system.
Source : TOI
Rai said on Sunday that his book "Madhu Koda Ka Loot Raaj" was a chronological collection of events and summation of Koda's journey from an MLA to a chief minister and from there to jail. "Every line in the book is backed by sufficient evidence collected by the investigating authorities like the enforcement directorate and income tax authorities," Rai said.
The book depicts Koda regime as a three-tier system. "Initially, he started converting his black money to white by giving in cash and obtaining cheques from different parties in Ranchi, Jamshedpur and Kolkata. Later, he had links with Mumbai-based Hawala traders to invest money in different parts of the country," Rai has mentioned in the book further clarifying that Koda approached a Swedish company and within one year opened more than 100 firms. "He had completed the formalities to get his company registered with Nasdaq which warrants not less than a capital value of $500,000 million," Rai said.
Expressing doubt over the disproportionate assets worth Rs 3,300 crore as unearthed by the income tax department, the book gives an insight into the loopholes of governance. Speaking on behalf of the publishers, Piyush Kumar of New Delhi-based Prabhat Prakashan said democracy can function properly only when corruption is nipped at the bud.
Releasing the book in a ceremony chaired by former DGP R R Prasad, Janata Party president Subramanian Swamy congratulated Rai for documenting the history of ore scam. "Koda was just the flag-bearer who has been pushed forward like A Raja of Tamil Nadu to bear the brunt," Swami said indicating to bigger players working from behind the curtains to reap benefits. He said the contents in the book had been well researched. "Had there been two-three more chapters, I would have awarded doctoral degree to Rai for his research work," he said.
Expressing faith on existing law Swamy said people must learn to cast vote without being influenced by money or cast feelings.
Predicting mid-term parliamentary polls by end of the year, he said crusaders must fight against corruption in every walk of life.
" Anna Hazare, Baba Ramdev have been spearheading a fight whereas I have been using the law to nail the culprits and Rai has come up with a book to educate masses about the role of corrupt leaders in the system," he said. giving an equal score to every small bit of effort made to fight corruption in the system.
Source : TOI
Swami Vivekananda’s Rousing call to Hindu Nation -
As per Hindu Panchang today Paush krushna Saptami (i.e. 15 Jan)is the Swami Vivekanand’s Jayanti. Let us pay obeisance to this invaluable son of Bharat.
Here We present Swami Vivekanand's Exclusive thoughts on Hindu Nation to our readers. Let us make resolve to follow the path of Swami Vivekanand on his Birth Anniversary.
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Compiled by Girish (Blog Author)
Then and then alone you are a Hindu:
Then and then alone you are a Hindu when you will be ready to bear everything for them, like the great example of your great Guru Govind Singh. Driven out from this country, fighting against its oppressors, after having shed his own blood for the defense of the Hindu religion, after having seen his children killed on the battlefield - ay, this example of the great Guru, left even by those for whose sake he was shedding his blood and the blood of his own nearest and dearest - he, the wounded lion, retired from the field calmly to die in the South, but not a word of curse escaped his lips against those who had ungratefully forsaken him!
Mark me,
Every one of you will have to be a Govind Singh, if you want to do good to your country. You may see thousands of defects in your countrymen, but mark their Hindu blood. They are the first Gods you will have to worship even if they do everything to hurt you, even if everyone of them send out a curse to you, you send out to them words of love. If they drive you out, retire to die in silence like that mighty lion, Govind Singh. Such a man is worthy of the name of Hindu; such an ideal ought to be before us always.
… Swami Vivekanand
Do your Swadharma; this is the truth of truths:
Heroes only enjoy the world. Show your heroism; apply, according to circumstances, the fourfold political maxims of conciliation, bribery, sowing dissensions, and open war, to win over your adversary and enjoy the world - then you will be Dhârmika (righteous). Otherwise, you live a disgraceful life if you pocket your insults when you are kicked and trodden down by anyone who takes it into his head to do so; your life is a veritable hell here, and so is the life hereafter. This is what the Shastras say.
The great irony:
See the irony of it. Jesus Christ, the God of the Europeans, has taught: Have no enemy, bless them that curse you; whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also; stop all your work and be ready for the next world; the end of the world is near at hand. And our Lord in the Gita is Rousing Call to Hindu Nation saying: Always work with great enthusiasm, destroy your enemies and enjoy the world. But, after all, it turned out to be exactly the reverse of what Christ or Krishna implied.
The Europeans never took the words of Jesus Christ seriously. Always of active habits, being possessed of a tremendous Râjasika nature, they are gathering with great enterprise and youthful ardor the comforts and luxuries of the different countries of the world and enjoying them to their hearts' content.
And we are sitting in a corner, with our bag and baggage, pondering on death day and night, and singing:
"Very tremulous and unsteady is the water on the lotus-leaf; so is the life of man frail and transient" -with the result that it is making our blood run cold and our flesh creep with the fear of Yama, the god of death; and Yama, too, alas, has taken us at our word, as it were - plague and all sorts of maladies have
entered into our country!
Who are following the teachings of the Gita? – The Europeans. And who are acting according to the will of Jesus Christ? -The descendants of Shri Krishna! This must be well understood.
Europe shook off Christ and was saved:
It is only the Vedic religion which considers ways and means and lays down rules for the fourfold attainment of man, comprising Dharma, Artha, Kama, and Moksha. Buddha ruined us, and so did Christ ruin Greece and Rome! Then, in due course of time, fortunately, the Europeans became Protestants, shook off the teachings of Christ as represented by Papal authority, and heaved a sigh of relief.
The Hindu Character:
The Hindu says that political and social independence are well and good, but the real thing is spiritual independence - Mukti. This is our national purpose; whether you take the Vaidika, the Jaina, or the Bauddha, the Advaita, the Vishishtâdvaita, or the Dvaita — there, they are all of one mind. Leave that point untouched and do whatever you
like, the Hindu is quite unconcerned and keeps silence; but if you run foul of him there, beware, you court your ruin. Rob him of everything he has, kick him, call him a "nigger" or any such name, he does not care much; only keep that one gate of religion free and unmolested.
Look here, how in the modern period the Pathan dynasties were coming and going, but could nor get a firm hold of their Indian Empire, because they were all along attacking the Hindu's religion. And see, how firmly based, how tremendously strong was the Mogul Empire. We have seen that our vigour, our strength, nay, our national life is in our religion
Even if you have not the same faith that I have in our religion. You are bound by it, and if you give it up, you are smashed to pieces. That is the life of our race and that must be strengthened.
‘Somnath’ will teach you volumes of wisdom:
You have withstood the shocks of centuries simply because you took great care of it, you sacrificed everything else for it. Your forefathers underwent everything boldly, even death itself, but preserved their religion. Temple alter temple was broken down by the foreign conqueror, but no sooner had the wave passed than the spire of the temple rose up again. Some of these old temples of Southern India and those like Somnâth of Gujarat will teach you volumes of wisdom, will give you a keener insight into the history of the race than any amount of books. Mark how these temples bear the marks of a hundred attacks and a hundred regenerations, continually destroyed and continually springing up out of the ruins, rejuvenated and strong as ever! That is the national mind, that is the national life-current.
I do not mean to say that political or social improvements are not necessary, but what I mean is this, and I want you to bear it in mind, that they are secondary here and that religion is primary.
Why disown Hinduism? Let us swim or sink together:
Why should you, Hindus, want to separate yourselves from the great common fold? Why should you feel ashamed to take the name of Hindu, which is your greatest and most glorious possession?
This national ship of ours, ye children of the Immortals, my countrymen, has been plying for ages, carrying civilization and enriching the whole world with its inestimable treasures. For scores of shining centuries this national ship of ours has been ferrying across the ocean of life, and has taken millions of souls to the other shore, beyond all misery. But today it may have sprung a leak and got damaged, through your own fault or whatever cause it matters not. What would you, who have placed yourselves in it, do now? Would you go about cursing it and quarrelling among yourselves!
Would you not all unite together and put your best efforts to stop the holes? Let us all gladly give our hearts' blood to do this; and if we fail in the attempt, let us all sink and die together, with blessings and not curses on our lips.
Take a vow to devote your lives for the cause:
It is not the work of a day, and the path is full of the most deadly thorns. But Parthasarathi is ready to be our Sârathi - we know that. And in His name and
with eternal faith in Him, set fire to the mountain of misery that has been heaped upon India for ages - and it shall be burned down. Go now this minute to the temple of Pârthasârathi, (Shri Krishna as Sârathi, charioteer, of Pârtha or
Arjuna.) and before Him who was friend to the poor and lowly cowherds of Gokula, who never shrank to embrace the Pariah Guhaka, who accepted the
invitation of a prostitute in preference to that of the nobles and saved her in His incarnation as Buddha - yea, down on your faces before Him, and make a
great sacrifice, the sacrifice of a whole life for them, for whom He comes from time to time, whom He loves above all, the poor, the lowly, the oppressed.
Vow, then, to devote your whole lives to the cause of the redemption of these three hundred millions, going down and down every day.
Faith in yourselves:
Come then, look it in the face, brethren, it is a grand task, and we are so low. But we are the sons of Light and children of God. Glory unto the Lord, we will succeed. Hundreds will fall in the struggle, hundreds will be ready to take it up. I may die here unsuccessful; another will take up the task. You know the disease; you know the remedy, only have faith. Do not look up to the so-called rich and great; do not care for the heartless intellectual writers and their cold-blooded newspaper articles. Faith, sympathy - fiery faith and fiery sympathy! Faith,
faith, faith in ourselves, faith, faith in God – this is the secret of greatness.
Worship through service:
Have Vairagya. Your ancestors gave up the world for doing great things. At the present time there are men who give up the world to help their own salvation. Throw away everything, even your own salvation, and go and help others.
Let all other vain gods disappear for the time from our minds. This is the only god that is awake, our own race - "everywhere his hands, everywhere his feet, everywhere his ears, he covers everything." All other gods are sleeping. What vain gods shall we go after and yet cannot worship the god that we see all round us, the Virât? When we have worshipped this, we shall be able to worship all other gods. Liberation is only for him who gives up everything for others, whereas others who tax their brains day and night harping on "my salvation", "my salvation", wander about with their true well-being ruined, both present and prospective.
What is needed is Chittashuddhi, purification of the heart. And how does that come? The first of all worship is the worship of the Virat - of those all around us. Worship It. Worship is the exact equivalent of the Sanskrit word, and no other English word will do. These are all our gods – men and animals; and the first gods we have to worship are our countrymen.
Men of renunciation and service – need of the hour:
The national ideals of India are RENUNCIATION and SERVICE. Intensify her in those channels, and the rest will take care of itself. The banner of the spiritual cannot be raised too high in this country. In it alone is salvation.
What I want is muscles of iron and nerves of steel, inside which dwells a mind of the same material as that of which the thunderbolt is made - Strength, manhood, Kshatra-Virya and Brahma-Teja. Our beautiful hopeful boys - they have everything, only if they are not slaughtered by the millions at the altar of this brutality they call marriage. O Lord, hear my wails!
Let a few stand out and live for God alone and save religion for the world.. Be honest and say, "I see the ideal but I cannot yet approach it"; but do not pretend to give up when you do not. If you give up, stand fast. If a hundred fall in the fight, seize the flag and carry it on. God is true for all that, no matter who fails. Let him who falls hand on the flag to another to carry on; it can never fall.
A hundred thousand men and women, fired with the zeal of holiness, fortified with eternal faith in the Lord, and nerved to lion's courage by their sympathy for the poor and the fallen and the downtrodden, will go over the length and breadth of the land, preaching the gospel of salvation, the gospel of help ,the gospel of social raising-up - the gospel of equality.
Pride in being a Hindu:
When a man has begun to be ashamed of his ancestors, the end has come. Here am I, one of the least of the Hindu race, yet proud of my race, proud of my ancestors. I am proud to call myself a Hindu, I am proud that I am one of your unworthy servants. I am proud that I am a countryman of yours, you the descendants of the sages, you the descendants of the most glorious Rishis the world ever saw.
Let the life-current flow unobstructed:
We Indians … have been invaded by a vast amount of foreign ideas that are eating into the very vitals of our national religion. Why are we so backwards nowadays? Why are ninety-nine per cent of us made up of entirely foreign ideas and elements? This has to be thrown out if we want to rise in the scale of nations.
Therefore, make way for the life-current of the nation. Take away the blocks that bar the way to the progress of this mighty river, cleanse its path, dear the channel, and out it will rush by its own natural impulse, and the nation will go on careering and progressing.
Disease attacks only a weak body:
Materialism, or Mohammedanism, or Christianity, or any other ism in the world could never have succeeded but that you allowed them. No bacilli can attack the human frame until it is degraded and degenerated by vice, bad food, privation, and exposure; the healthy man passes scathe less through masses of poisonous bacilli. We know that there must be two causes to produce a disease, some poison germ outside, and the state of the body. Until the body is in a state to admit the germs, until the body is degraded to a lower vitality so that the germs may enter and thrive and multiply, there is no power in any germ in the world to
produce a disease in the body. In fact, millions of germs are continually passing through everyone's body; but so long as it is vigorous, it never is conscious of them. It is only when the body is weak that these germs take possession of it and produce disease. Just so with the national life. It is when the national body is weak that all sorts of disease germs, in the political state of the race or in its social state, in its educational or intellectual state, crowd into the system and produce disease. To remedy it, therefore, we must go to the root of this disease and cleanse the blood of all impurities. The one tendency will be to strengthen the man, to make the blood pure, the body vigorous, so that it will be able to resist and throw off all external poisons. Brethren, we know to our shame that most of the real evils for which the foreign races abuse the Hindu nation are only owing to us. We have been the cause of bringing many undeserved calumnies on the head of the other races in India.
You will understand better with you biceps stronger:
I know where the shoe pinches. I have gained a little experience. You will understand the Gita better with your biceps, your muscles, a little stronger. You will understand the mighty genius and the mighty strength of Krishna better with a little of strong blood in you. You will understand the Upanishads better and the glory of the Atman when your body stands firm upon your feet, and you feel yourselves as men.
We speak of many things parrot-like, but never do them; speaking and not doing has become a habit with us. What is the cause of that? Physical weakness. This sort of weak brain is not able to do anything; we must strengthen it. What we want is vigour in the blood, strength in the nerves, iron muscles and nerves of steel, not softening namby-pamby ideas.
Quarrelling with brothers and kneeling before foreigners:
There is yet another defect in us. …….excuse me, but through centuries of slavery, we have become like a nation of women. You scarcely can get three
women together for five minutes in this country or any other country, but they quarrel. Women make big societies in European countries, and make tremendous declarations of women's power and so on; then they quarrel, and some man comes and rules them all. All over the world they still require some man to rule them.
We are like them. Women we are. If a woman comes to lead women, they all begin immediately to criticise her, tear her to pieces, and make her sit down. If a man comes and gives them a little harsh treatment, scolds them now and then, it is all right, they have been used to that sort of mesmerism. In the same way, if one of our countrymen stands up and tries to become great, we all try to hold him down, but if a foreigner comes and tries to kick us, it is all right. We have been used to it, have we not?
Secret of power lies in unity and organization:
Before my mind rises one of the marvelous verses of the Rig-Veda Samhitâ which says, "Be thou all of one mind, be thou all of one thought, for in the days
of yore, the gods being of one mind were enabled to receive oblations10." That the gods can be worshipped by men is because they are of one mind. Being of one mind is the secret of society.
Why is it, to take a case in point, that forty millions of Englishmen rule three hundred millions of people here? What is the psychological explanation? These forty millions put their wills together and that means infinite power, and you three hundred millions have a will each separate from the other. Therefore to make a great future India, the whole secret lies in organization, accumulation of power, co-ordination of wills.
And the more you go on fighting and quarrelling about all trivialities such as "Dravidian" and "Aryan", and the question of Brahmins and non-Brahmins and all that, the further you are off from that accumulation of energy and power which is going to make the future India. For mark you, the future India depends entirely upon that. That is the secret - accumulation of will-power, coordination, bringing them all, as it here, into one focus.
No destruction of religion is necessary to improve the Hindu society:
I claim that no destruction of religion is necessary to improve the Hindu society, and that this state of society exists not on account of religion but because that religion has not been applied to society as it should have been. This I am ready to prove from our old books, every word of it. This is what I teach, and this is what we must struggle all our lives to carry out. The first work that demands our attention is that the most wonderful truths confined in our Upanishads, in our Scriptures, in our Puranas – must be brought out from the books and scattered broadcast all over the land, Every improvement in India requires first of all an upheaval in religion.
Before flooding India with socialistic or political ideas, first deluge the land with spiritual ideas. In this land of charity, let us take up the energy of the first charity, the diffusion of spiritual knowledge. And that diffusion should not be confined within the bounds of India. After preaching spiritual knowledge, along with it will come, that secular knowledge, along with it will come that secular knowledge and every other knowledge that you want; but if you attempt to get the secular knowledge without religion, I tell you plainly, vain is your attempt in India, it will never have a hold on the people.
Unification of religion:
The first plank in the making of a future India, the first step that is to be hewn out of that rock of ages, is this unification of religion.
All of us have to be taught that we Hindus have certain common ideas behind us, and that the time has come when for the well-being of our-selves, for the well-being of our race, we must give up all our little quarrels and differences. National union in India must be a gathering up of its scattered spiritual forces. A nation in India must be a union of those whose hearts beat to the same spiritual tune.
What our country now wants, are muscles of iron and nerves of steel, gigantic wills which nothing can resist, which can penetrate into the mysteries and the secrets of the universe, and will accomplish their purpose in any fashion, even if it meant going down to the bottom of the ocean and meeting death face to face. That is what we want, and that can only be created, established and strengthened, by understanding and realizing the ideal of the Advaita, that ideal of the oneness of all. None can regenerate this land of ours without the practical application and effective operation of this ideal of the oneness of things. The truths of the Upanishads are before you. Take them up, live up to them, and the salvation of India will be at hand.
All the social upheavalists, at least the leaders of them, are trying to find that all their communistic or equalizing theories must have a spiritual basis, and that spiritual basis is Vedanta only. No amount of force or government, or legislative cruelty will change the conditions of a race, but it is spiritual culture and ethical culture alone that can change wrong racial tendencies for the better. Go back; go back to old age, when there was strength and vitality. Be strong once more, drink deep of the fountain of yore, and that is the only condition of life in India.
Men - sincere men – are wanted:
Where are the men? That is the question. Men, men, these are wanted: everything else will be ready, but strong, vigorous, believing young men, sincere to the backbone, are wanted.
My faith is in the younger generation, the modern generation, out of them will come my workers. They will work out the whole problem, like lions. I have formulated the idea and have given my life to it. If I do not achieve success, some better one will come after me to work it out, and I shall be content to struggle.
Have that faith, each one of you, in yourself – that eternal power is lodged in every soul - and you will revive the whole of India. Ay, we will then go to every country under the sun, and our ideas will before long be a component of the many forces that are working to make up every nation in the world. We must enter into the life of every race in India and abroad; shall have to work to bring this about. Now for that, I want young men. "It is the young, the strong, and healthy, of sharp intellect that will reach the Lord", say the Vedas.
This is the time to decide your future - while you possess the energy of youth, not when you are worn out and jaded, but in the freshness and vigour of youth. Work - this is the time; for the freshest, the untouched and unsmelled flowers alone are to be laid at the feet of the Lord, and such He receives. Let us therefore take up a great ideal and give up our whole life to it. Let this be our determination, and may He, the Lord, who "comes again and again for the salvation of His own people", to quote from our scriptures - may the great Krishna bless us and lead us all to the fulfillment of our aims!
Arise, awake and stop not till the goal is reached.
Uplift of Women:
If the women are raised, then their children will by their noble actions glorify the name of the country- then will culture, knowledge, power and devotion awaken in the country.
History and the Puranas, religion, arts, science, house-keeping, cooking,sewing, hygiene – the simple essential points in these subjects ought to be taught to our women. It is not good to let them touch novels and fiction. But only teaching rites of worship won’t do; their education must be an eye-opener in all matters. Ideal characters must always be presented before the view of the girls to imbue them with devotion to lofty principles of selflessness. The noble examples of Sita, Savitri, Damayanti, Lilavati, Khana and Mira should be inspired to mould their own lives, in the light of these.
Along with other things they should acquire the spirit of valour and heroism. In the present day it has become necessary for them also to learn self-defense. See how grand was the Queen of Jhansi ! With such an education women will solve their own problems. We must see to their growing up as ideal matrons of home in time. The children of such mothers will make further progress in the virtues that distinguish the mothers. It is only in the homes of educated and
pious mothers that great men are born. By their examples and through their endeavors to hold the national ideal before the eyes of the people, a revolution in thoughts and aspirations will take place.
So shall we bring to the need of India great fearless women- women worthy to continue the tradition of Sanghamitta, Lila, Ahalya Bai, and Mira Bai – women fit to be mothers of heroes, because they are pure and selfless, strong with the strength that comes of touching the feet
of God.
STAND UP IN DEFENSE OF YOUR RELIGION:
―My dear Sinha, if anybody insulted your mother what would you do?
―I would fall upon him, sir, and teach him a good lesson! Well said, but, if you had the same positive feeling for your religion, the true mother of country, you could never bear to see any Hindu brother converted into a Christian. Nevertheless, you see this occurring every day, yet you are quite indifferent! Where is your faith? Everyday Christian missionaries abuse Hinduism to your faces, yet how many are there amongst you who will stand up in its defense, whose blood boils with righteous indignation at the fact?
Man-Making of Workers:
We want fiery young men - intelligent and brave, who dare to go to the jaws of Death, and are ready to swim the ocean across. We want hundreds like that, both men and women. Try your utmost for that end alone. Make converts right and left, and put them into our purity drilling machine. Start centers at places, go on always making converts.
Let Mahavira be the ideal:
You have now to make the character of Mahavira your ideal. See how at the command of Ramachandra he crossed the ocean. He had no care
for life or death! He was a perfect master of his senses and wonderfully sagacious. You have now to build your life on this great ideal of personal service. Through that, all the other ideals will gradually manifest in life. Obedience to the Guru without questioning, and strict obedience of Brahmacharya – this is the secret of success. As on the one hand Hanuman represents the ideal of service, so on the other he represents the leonine courage, striking the whole world with awe. He has not the least hesitation in sacrificing his life for the good of Rama. A supreme indifference to everything except the service of Rama, even to the attainment of the status of Brahman or Shiva, the great World-Gods! Only the carrying out of Shri Rama‘s behest is the one vow of his life! Such whole-hearted devotion is wanted.
Sannyasins the need of the hour:
Let a few stand out and live for God alone and save religion for the world. …If you give up, stand fast. If a hundred fall in the fight, seize the flag and carry it on. God is true for all that, no matter who fails. Let him who falls hand on the flag to another to carry on; it can never fall. What will the poor householders do, with their little bits of life? It is for the Sannyasins, Shiva's demons, to rend the skies with their shouts of "Hara! Hara! Shambho!
…My hope of the future lies in the youths of character, intelligent, renouncing all for the service of others, and obedient – good to themselves and the country at large. Otherwise, boys of the common run are coming groups and will come. Dullness is written on their faces – their hearts are devoid of energy, their bodies feeble and unfit of work and minds devoid of courage. What work will be done by these? If I get ten or twelve boys with the faith of Nachiketa, I can turn the thoughts and pursuits of this country in a new channel. Among those who appear to me to be of good caliber, some have bound themselves by matrimony; some have sold themselves for the acquisition of worldly name, fame or wealth; while some are of feeble bodies. The rest, who form the majority, are unable to receive any high idea….…Of course…. by the will of God, from among these very boys may arise in time great heroes of work and spirituality who will in future work out my ideas.
My prayer to Sri Ramakrishna:
Now I pray to that world-teacher, Shri Ramakrishna, the Preacher of the gospel of universal synthesis, to manifest himself in the region of your heart, so that, having attained the consummation of your desires,
you may with an undaunted heart try your best to deliver others from this dreadful ocean of infatuation.
May you be ever possessed of valour! It is the hero alone, not the coward, who has liberation within his easy reach. Gird up your loins, ye heroes, for before you are your enemies - the dire army of infatuation.
It is undoubtedly true that "all great achievements are fraught with numerous impediments"; still you should exert your utmost for your end. Behold, how men are already in the jaws of the shark of infatuation! Oh, listen to their piteous heart-rending wails.
Advance, forward, O ye brave souls, to set free those that are in fetters, to lessen the burden of woe of the miserable, and to illumine the abysmal darkness of ignorant hearts! Look, how the Vedanta proclaims
by beat of drums, "Be fearless!" May that solemn sound remove the heart's knot of all denizens of the earth.
O ye Hindus, de-hypnotize yourselves:
Let us proclaim to every soul: Arise, awake, and stop not till the goal is reached. Arise, awake! Awake from this hypnotism of weakness. None is really weak; the soul is infinite, omnipotent, and omniscient. Stand up, assert yourself, proclaim the God within you, do not deny Him! Too much of inactivity, too much of weakness, too much of hypnotism has been and is upon our race.
O ye modern Hindus, de-hypnotize yourselves. The way to do that is found in your own sacred books. Teach yourselves, teach everyone his real nature, call upon the sleeping soul and see how it awakes. Power will come, glory will come, goodness will come, purity will come, and everything that is excellent will come when this sleeping soul is roused to self-conscious activity.
Rejuvenated glorious Bharat:
I do not see into the future; nor do I care to see. But one vision I see dear as life before me: that the ancient Mother has awakened once more, sitting on Her throne rejuvenated, more glorious than ever. Proclaim Her to all the world with the voice of peace and benediction.
Source : Girish (Blog Author)
Here We present Swami Vivekanand's Exclusive thoughts on Hindu Nation to our readers. Let us make resolve to follow the path of Swami Vivekanand on his Birth Anniversary.
Then and then alone you are a Hindu:
Then and then alone you are a Hindu when you will be ready to bear everything for them, like the great example of your great Guru Govind Singh. Driven out from this country, fighting against its oppressors, after having shed his own blood for the defense of the Hindu religion, after having seen his children killed on the battlefield - ay, this example of the great Guru, left even by those for whose sake he was shedding his blood and the blood of his own nearest and dearest - he, the wounded lion, retired from the field calmly to die in the South, but not a word of curse escaped his lips against those who had ungratefully forsaken him!
Mark me,
Every one of you will have to be a Govind Singh, if you want to do good to your country. You may see thousands of defects in your countrymen, but mark their Hindu blood. They are the first Gods you will have to worship even if they do everything to hurt you, even if everyone of them send out a curse to you, you send out to them words of love. If they drive you out, retire to die in silence like that mighty lion, Govind Singh. Such a man is worthy of the name of Hindu; such an ideal ought to be before us always.
… Swami Vivekanand
Do your Swadharma; this is the truth of truths:
Heroes only enjoy the world. Show your heroism; apply, according to circumstances, the fourfold political maxims of conciliation, bribery, sowing dissensions, and open war, to win over your adversary and enjoy the world - then you will be Dhârmika (righteous). Otherwise, you live a disgraceful life if you pocket your insults when you are kicked and trodden down by anyone who takes it into his head to do so; your life is a veritable hell here, and so is the life hereafter. This is what the Shastras say.
The great irony:
See the irony of it. Jesus Christ, the God of the Europeans, has taught: Have no enemy, bless them that curse you; whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also; stop all your work and be ready for the next world; the end of the world is near at hand. And our Lord in the Gita is Rousing Call to Hindu Nation saying: Always work with great enthusiasm, destroy your enemies and enjoy the world. But, after all, it turned out to be exactly the reverse of what Christ or Krishna implied.
The Europeans never took the words of Jesus Christ seriously. Always of active habits, being possessed of a tremendous Râjasika nature, they are gathering with great enterprise and youthful ardor the comforts and luxuries of the different countries of the world and enjoying them to their hearts' content.
And we are sitting in a corner, with our bag and baggage, pondering on death day and night, and singing:
"Very tremulous and unsteady is the water on the lotus-leaf; so is the life of man frail and transient" -with the result that it is making our blood run cold and our flesh creep with the fear of Yama, the god of death; and Yama, too, alas, has taken us at our word, as it were - plague and all sorts of maladies have
entered into our country!
Who are following the teachings of the Gita? – The Europeans. And who are acting according to the will of Jesus Christ? -The descendants of Shri Krishna! This must be well understood.
Europe shook off Christ and was saved:
It is only the Vedic religion which considers ways and means and lays down rules for the fourfold attainment of man, comprising Dharma, Artha, Kama, and Moksha. Buddha ruined us, and so did Christ ruin Greece and Rome! Then, in due course of time, fortunately, the Europeans became Protestants, shook off the teachings of Christ as represented by Papal authority, and heaved a sigh of relief.
The Hindu Character:
The Hindu says that political and social independence are well and good, but the real thing is spiritual independence - Mukti. This is our national purpose; whether you take the Vaidika, the Jaina, or the Bauddha, the Advaita, the Vishishtâdvaita, or the Dvaita — there, they are all of one mind. Leave that point untouched and do whatever you
like, the Hindu is quite unconcerned and keeps silence; but if you run foul of him there, beware, you court your ruin. Rob him of everything he has, kick him, call him a "nigger" or any such name, he does not care much; only keep that one gate of religion free and unmolested.
Look here, how in the modern period the Pathan dynasties were coming and going, but could nor get a firm hold of their Indian Empire, because they were all along attacking the Hindu's religion. And see, how firmly based, how tremendously strong was the Mogul Empire. We have seen that our vigour, our strength, nay, our national life is in our religion
Even if you have not the same faith that I have in our religion. You are bound by it, and if you give it up, you are smashed to pieces. That is the life of our race and that must be strengthened.
‘Somnath’ will teach you volumes of wisdom:
You have withstood the shocks of centuries simply because you took great care of it, you sacrificed everything else for it. Your forefathers underwent everything boldly, even death itself, but preserved their religion. Temple alter temple was broken down by the foreign conqueror, but no sooner had the wave passed than the spire of the temple rose up again. Some of these old temples of Southern India and those like Somnâth of Gujarat will teach you volumes of wisdom, will give you a keener insight into the history of the race than any amount of books. Mark how these temples bear the marks of a hundred attacks and a hundred regenerations, continually destroyed and continually springing up out of the ruins, rejuvenated and strong as ever! That is the national mind, that is the national life-current.
I do not mean to say that political or social improvements are not necessary, but what I mean is this, and I want you to bear it in mind, that they are secondary here and that religion is primary.
Why disown Hinduism? Let us swim or sink together:
Why should you, Hindus, want to separate yourselves from the great common fold? Why should you feel ashamed to take the name of Hindu, which is your greatest and most glorious possession?
This national ship of ours, ye children of the Immortals, my countrymen, has been plying for ages, carrying civilization and enriching the whole world with its inestimable treasures. For scores of shining centuries this national ship of ours has been ferrying across the ocean of life, and has taken millions of souls to the other shore, beyond all misery. But today it may have sprung a leak and got damaged, through your own fault or whatever cause it matters not. What would you, who have placed yourselves in it, do now? Would you go about cursing it and quarrelling among yourselves!
Would you not all unite together and put your best efforts to stop the holes? Let us all gladly give our hearts' blood to do this; and if we fail in the attempt, let us all sink and die together, with blessings and not curses on our lips.
Take a vow to devote your lives for the cause:
It is not the work of a day, and the path is full of the most deadly thorns. But Parthasarathi is ready to be our Sârathi - we know that. And in His name and
with eternal faith in Him, set fire to the mountain of misery that has been heaped upon India for ages - and it shall be burned down. Go now this minute to the temple of Pârthasârathi, (Shri Krishna as Sârathi, charioteer, of Pârtha or
Arjuna.) and before Him who was friend to the poor and lowly cowherds of Gokula, who never shrank to embrace the Pariah Guhaka, who accepted the
invitation of a prostitute in preference to that of the nobles and saved her in His incarnation as Buddha - yea, down on your faces before Him, and make a
great sacrifice, the sacrifice of a whole life for them, for whom He comes from time to time, whom He loves above all, the poor, the lowly, the oppressed.
Vow, then, to devote your whole lives to the cause of the redemption of these three hundred millions, going down and down every day.
Faith in yourselves:
Come then, look it in the face, brethren, it is a grand task, and we are so low. But we are the sons of Light and children of God. Glory unto the Lord, we will succeed. Hundreds will fall in the struggle, hundreds will be ready to take it up. I may die here unsuccessful; another will take up the task. You know the disease; you know the remedy, only have faith. Do not look up to the so-called rich and great; do not care for the heartless intellectual writers and their cold-blooded newspaper articles. Faith, sympathy - fiery faith and fiery sympathy! Faith,
faith, faith in ourselves, faith, faith in God – this is the secret of greatness.
Worship through service:
Have Vairagya. Your ancestors gave up the world for doing great things. At the present time there are men who give up the world to help their own salvation. Throw away everything, even your own salvation, and go and help others.
Let all other vain gods disappear for the time from our minds. This is the only god that is awake, our own race - "everywhere his hands, everywhere his feet, everywhere his ears, he covers everything." All other gods are sleeping. What vain gods shall we go after and yet cannot worship the god that we see all round us, the Virât? When we have worshipped this, we shall be able to worship all other gods. Liberation is only for him who gives up everything for others, whereas others who tax their brains day and night harping on "my salvation", "my salvation", wander about with their true well-being ruined, both present and prospective.
What is needed is Chittashuddhi, purification of the heart. And how does that come? The first of all worship is the worship of the Virat - of those all around us. Worship It. Worship is the exact equivalent of the Sanskrit word, and no other English word will do. These are all our gods – men and animals; and the first gods we have to worship are our countrymen.
Men of renunciation and service – need of the hour:
The national ideals of India are RENUNCIATION and SERVICE. Intensify her in those channels, and the rest will take care of itself. The banner of the spiritual cannot be raised too high in this country. In it alone is salvation.
What I want is muscles of iron and nerves of steel, inside which dwells a mind of the same material as that of which the thunderbolt is made - Strength, manhood, Kshatra-Virya and Brahma-Teja. Our beautiful hopeful boys - they have everything, only if they are not slaughtered by the millions at the altar of this brutality they call marriage. O Lord, hear my wails!
Let a few stand out and live for God alone and save religion for the world.. Be honest and say, "I see the ideal but I cannot yet approach it"; but do not pretend to give up when you do not. If you give up, stand fast. If a hundred fall in the fight, seize the flag and carry it on. God is true for all that, no matter who fails. Let him who falls hand on the flag to another to carry on; it can never fall.
A hundred thousand men and women, fired with the zeal of holiness, fortified with eternal faith in the Lord, and nerved to lion's courage by their sympathy for the poor and the fallen and the downtrodden, will go over the length and breadth of the land, preaching the gospel of salvation, the gospel of help ,the gospel of social raising-up - the gospel of equality.
Pride in being a Hindu:
When a man has begun to be ashamed of his ancestors, the end has come. Here am I, one of the least of the Hindu race, yet proud of my race, proud of my ancestors. I am proud to call myself a Hindu, I am proud that I am one of your unworthy servants. I am proud that I am a countryman of yours, you the descendants of the sages, you the descendants of the most glorious Rishis the world ever saw.
Let the life-current flow unobstructed:
We Indians … have been invaded by a vast amount of foreign ideas that are eating into the very vitals of our national religion. Why are we so backwards nowadays? Why are ninety-nine per cent of us made up of entirely foreign ideas and elements? This has to be thrown out if we want to rise in the scale of nations.
Therefore, make way for the life-current of the nation. Take away the blocks that bar the way to the progress of this mighty river, cleanse its path, dear the channel, and out it will rush by its own natural impulse, and the nation will go on careering and progressing.
Disease attacks only a weak body:
Materialism, or Mohammedanism, or Christianity, or any other ism in the world could never have succeeded but that you allowed them. No bacilli can attack the human frame until it is degraded and degenerated by vice, bad food, privation, and exposure; the healthy man passes scathe less through masses of poisonous bacilli. We know that there must be two causes to produce a disease, some poison germ outside, and the state of the body. Until the body is in a state to admit the germs, until the body is degraded to a lower vitality so that the germs may enter and thrive and multiply, there is no power in any germ in the world to
produce a disease in the body. In fact, millions of germs are continually passing through everyone's body; but so long as it is vigorous, it never is conscious of them. It is only when the body is weak that these germs take possession of it and produce disease. Just so with the national life. It is when the national body is weak that all sorts of disease germs, in the political state of the race or in its social state, in its educational or intellectual state, crowd into the system and produce disease. To remedy it, therefore, we must go to the root of this disease and cleanse the blood of all impurities. The one tendency will be to strengthen the man, to make the blood pure, the body vigorous, so that it will be able to resist and throw off all external poisons. Brethren, we know to our shame that most of the real evils for which the foreign races abuse the Hindu nation are only owing to us. We have been the cause of bringing many undeserved calumnies on the head of the other races in India.
You will understand better with you biceps stronger:
I know where the shoe pinches. I have gained a little experience. You will understand the Gita better with your biceps, your muscles, a little stronger. You will understand the mighty genius and the mighty strength of Krishna better with a little of strong blood in you. You will understand the Upanishads better and the glory of the Atman when your body stands firm upon your feet, and you feel yourselves as men.
We speak of many things parrot-like, but never do them; speaking and not doing has become a habit with us. What is the cause of that? Physical weakness. This sort of weak brain is not able to do anything; we must strengthen it. What we want is vigour in the blood, strength in the nerves, iron muscles and nerves of steel, not softening namby-pamby ideas.
Quarrelling with brothers and kneeling before foreigners:
There is yet another defect in us. …….excuse me, but through centuries of slavery, we have become like a nation of women. You scarcely can get three
women together for five minutes in this country or any other country, but they quarrel. Women make big societies in European countries, and make tremendous declarations of women's power and so on; then they quarrel, and some man comes and rules them all. All over the world they still require some man to rule them.
We are like them. Women we are. If a woman comes to lead women, they all begin immediately to criticise her, tear her to pieces, and make her sit down. If a man comes and gives them a little harsh treatment, scolds them now and then, it is all right, they have been used to that sort of mesmerism. In the same way, if one of our countrymen stands up and tries to become great, we all try to hold him down, but if a foreigner comes and tries to kick us, it is all right. We have been used to it, have we not?
Secret of power lies in unity and organization:
Before my mind rises one of the marvelous verses of the Rig-Veda Samhitâ which says, "Be thou all of one mind, be thou all of one thought, for in the days
of yore, the gods being of one mind were enabled to receive oblations10." That the gods can be worshipped by men is because they are of one mind. Being of one mind is the secret of society.
Why is it, to take a case in point, that forty millions of Englishmen rule three hundred millions of people here? What is the psychological explanation? These forty millions put their wills together and that means infinite power, and you three hundred millions have a will each separate from the other. Therefore to make a great future India, the whole secret lies in organization, accumulation of power, co-ordination of wills.
And the more you go on fighting and quarrelling about all trivialities such as "Dravidian" and "Aryan", and the question of Brahmins and non-Brahmins and all that, the further you are off from that accumulation of energy and power which is going to make the future India. For mark you, the future India depends entirely upon that. That is the secret - accumulation of will-power, coordination, bringing them all, as it here, into one focus.
No destruction of religion is necessary to improve the Hindu society:
I claim that no destruction of religion is necessary to improve the Hindu society, and that this state of society exists not on account of religion but because that religion has not been applied to society as it should have been. This I am ready to prove from our old books, every word of it. This is what I teach, and this is what we must struggle all our lives to carry out. The first work that demands our attention is that the most wonderful truths confined in our Upanishads, in our Scriptures, in our Puranas – must be brought out from the books and scattered broadcast all over the land, Every improvement in India requires first of all an upheaval in religion.
Before flooding India with socialistic or political ideas, first deluge the land with spiritual ideas. In this land of charity, let us take up the energy of the first charity, the diffusion of spiritual knowledge. And that diffusion should not be confined within the bounds of India. After preaching spiritual knowledge, along with it will come, that secular knowledge, along with it will come that secular knowledge and every other knowledge that you want; but if you attempt to get the secular knowledge without religion, I tell you plainly, vain is your attempt in India, it will never have a hold on the people.
Unification of religion:
The first plank in the making of a future India, the first step that is to be hewn out of that rock of ages, is this unification of religion.
All of us have to be taught that we Hindus have certain common ideas behind us, and that the time has come when for the well-being of our-selves, for the well-being of our race, we must give up all our little quarrels and differences. National union in India must be a gathering up of its scattered spiritual forces. A nation in India must be a union of those whose hearts beat to the same spiritual tune.
What our country now wants, are muscles of iron and nerves of steel, gigantic wills which nothing can resist, which can penetrate into the mysteries and the secrets of the universe, and will accomplish their purpose in any fashion, even if it meant going down to the bottom of the ocean and meeting death face to face. That is what we want, and that can only be created, established and strengthened, by understanding and realizing the ideal of the Advaita, that ideal of the oneness of all. None can regenerate this land of ours without the practical application and effective operation of this ideal of the oneness of things. The truths of the Upanishads are before you. Take them up, live up to them, and the salvation of India will be at hand.
All the social upheavalists, at least the leaders of them, are trying to find that all their communistic or equalizing theories must have a spiritual basis, and that spiritual basis is Vedanta only. No amount of force or government, or legislative cruelty will change the conditions of a race, but it is spiritual culture and ethical culture alone that can change wrong racial tendencies for the better. Go back; go back to old age, when there was strength and vitality. Be strong once more, drink deep of the fountain of yore, and that is the only condition of life in India.
Men - sincere men – are wanted:
Where are the men? That is the question. Men, men, these are wanted: everything else will be ready, but strong, vigorous, believing young men, sincere to the backbone, are wanted.
My faith is in the younger generation, the modern generation, out of them will come my workers. They will work out the whole problem, like lions. I have formulated the idea and have given my life to it. If I do not achieve success, some better one will come after me to work it out, and I shall be content to struggle.
Have that faith, each one of you, in yourself – that eternal power is lodged in every soul - and you will revive the whole of India. Ay, we will then go to every country under the sun, and our ideas will before long be a component of the many forces that are working to make up every nation in the world. We must enter into the life of every race in India and abroad; shall have to work to bring this about. Now for that, I want young men. "It is the young, the strong, and healthy, of sharp intellect that will reach the Lord", say the Vedas.
This is the time to decide your future - while you possess the energy of youth, not when you are worn out and jaded, but in the freshness and vigour of youth. Work - this is the time; for the freshest, the untouched and unsmelled flowers alone are to be laid at the feet of the Lord, and such He receives. Let us therefore take up a great ideal and give up our whole life to it. Let this be our determination, and may He, the Lord, who "comes again and again for the salvation of His own people", to quote from our scriptures - may the great Krishna bless us and lead us all to the fulfillment of our aims!
Arise, awake and stop not till the goal is reached.
Uplift of Women:
If the women are raised, then their children will by their noble actions glorify the name of the country- then will culture, knowledge, power and devotion awaken in the country.
History and the Puranas, religion, arts, science, house-keeping, cooking,sewing, hygiene – the simple essential points in these subjects ought to be taught to our women. It is not good to let them touch novels and fiction. But only teaching rites of worship won’t do; their education must be an eye-opener in all matters. Ideal characters must always be presented before the view of the girls to imbue them with devotion to lofty principles of selflessness. The noble examples of Sita, Savitri, Damayanti, Lilavati, Khana and Mira should be inspired to mould their own lives, in the light of these.
Along with other things they should acquire the spirit of valour and heroism. In the present day it has become necessary for them also to learn self-defense. See how grand was the Queen of Jhansi ! With such an education women will solve their own problems. We must see to their growing up as ideal matrons of home in time. The children of such mothers will make further progress in the virtues that distinguish the mothers. It is only in the homes of educated and
pious mothers that great men are born. By their examples and through their endeavors to hold the national ideal before the eyes of the people, a revolution in thoughts and aspirations will take place.
So shall we bring to the need of India great fearless women- women worthy to continue the tradition of Sanghamitta, Lila, Ahalya Bai, and Mira Bai – women fit to be mothers of heroes, because they are pure and selfless, strong with the strength that comes of touching the feet
of God.
STAND UP IN DEFENSE OF YOUR RELIGION:
―My dear Sinha, if anybody insulted your mother what would you do?
―I would fall upon him, sir, and teach him a good lesson! Well said, but, if you had the same positive feeling for your religion, the true mother of country, you could never bear to see any Hindu brother converted into a Christian. Nevertheless, you see this occurring every day, yet you are quite indifferent! Where is your faith? Everyday Christian missionaries abuse Hinduism to your faces, yet how many are there amongst you who will stand up in its defense, whose blood boils with righteous indignation at the fact?
Man-Making of Workers:
We want fiery young men - intelligent and brave, who dare to go to the jaws of Death, and are ready to swim the ocean across. We want hundreds like that, both men and women. Try your utmost for that end alone. Make converts right and left, and put them into our purity drilling machine. Start centers at places, go on always making converts.
Let Mahavira be the ideal:
You have now to make the character of Mahavira your ideal. See how at the command of Ramachandra he crossed the ocean. He had no care
for life or death! He was a perfect master of his senses and wonderfully sagacious. You have now to build your life on this great ideal of personal service. Through that, all the other ideals will gradually manifest in life. Obedience to the Guru without questioning, and strict obedience of Brahmacharya – this is the secret of success. As on the one hand Hanuman represents the ideal of service, so on the other he represents the leonine courage, striking the whole world with awe. He has not the least hesitation in sacrificing his life for the good of Rama. A supreme indifference to everything except the service of Rama, even to the attainment of the status of Brahman or Shiva, the great World-Gods! Only the carrying out of Shri Rama‘s behest is the one vow of his life! Such whole-hearted devotion is wanted.
Sannyasins the need of the hour:
Let a few stand out and live for God alone and save religion for the world. …If you give up, stand fast. If a hundred fall in the fight, seize the flag and carry it on. God is true for all that, no matter who fails. Let him who falls hand on the flag to another to carry on; it can never fall. What will the poor householders do, with their little bits of life? It is for the Sannyasins, Shiva's demons, to rend the skies with their shouts of "Hara! Hara! Shambho!
…My hope of the future lies in the youths of character, intelligent, renouncing all for the service of others, and obedient – good to themselves and the country at large. Otherwise, boys of the common run are coming groups and will come. Dullness is written on their faces – their hearts are devoid of energy, their bodies feeble and unfit of work and minds devoid of courage. What work will be done by these? If I get ten or twelve boys with the faith of Nachiketa, I can turn the thoughts and pursuits of this country in a new channel. Among those who appear to me to be of good caliber, some have bound themselves by matrimony; some have sold themselves for the acquisition of worldly name, fame or wealth; while some are of feeble bodies. The rest, who form the majority, are unable to receive any high idea….…Of course…. by the will of God, from among these very boys may arise in time great heroes of work and spirituality who will in future work out my ideas.
My prayer to Sri Ramakrishna:
Now I pray to that world-teacher, Shri Ramakrishna, the Preacher of the gospel of universal synthesis, to manifest himself in the region of your heart, so that, having attained the consummation of your desires,
you may with an undaunted heart try your best to deliver others from this dreadful ocean of infatuation.
May you be ever possessed of valour! It is the hero alone, not the coward, who has liberation within his easy reach. Gird up your loins, ye heroes, for before you are your enemies - the dire army of infatuation.
It is undoubtedly true that "all great achievements are fraught with numerous impediments"; still you should exert your utmost for your end. Behold, how men are already in the jaws of the shark of infatuation! Oh, listen to their piteous heart-rending wails.
Advance, forward, O ye brave souls, to set free those that are in fetters, to lessen the burden of woe of the miserable, and to illumine the abysmal darkness of ignorant hearts! Look, how the Vedanta proclaims
by beat of drums, "Be fearless!" May that solemn sound remove the heart's knot of all denizens of the earth.
O ye Hindus, de-hypnotize yourselves:
Let us proclaim to every soul: Arise, awake, and stop not till the goal is reached. Arise, awake! Awake from this hypnotism of weakness. None is really weak; the soul is infinite, omnipotent, and omniscient. Stand up, assert yourself, proclaim the God within you, do not deny Him! Too much of inactivity, too much of weakness, too much of hypnotism has been and is upon our race.
O ye modern Hindus, de-hypnotize yourselves. The way to do that is found in your own sacred books. Teach yourselves, teach everyone his real nature, call upon the sleeping soul and see how it awakes. Power will come, glory will come, goodness will come, purity will come, and everything that is excellent will come when this sleeping soul is roused to self-conscious activity.
Rejuvenated glorious Bharat:
I do not see into the future; nor do I care to see. But one vision I see dear as life before me: that the ancient Mother has awakened once more, sitting on Her throne rejuvenated, more glorious than ever. Proclaim Her to all the world with the voice of peace and benediction.
Source : Girish (Blog Author)
2G: Will make PM co-accused, if he defends Chidambaram-Swamy
14 January 2012 :
The Janata Party Subramanian Swamy who is baying for the blood of Home Minister P Chidambaram in 2G spectrum allocation case has now said that he won’t even spare the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh if he comes to Chidambaram’s rescue.
Swamy threatened that he would make Manmohan Singh a co-accused in 2G case “if he continues to defend him”. He also took a swipe on the UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi saying that she is responsible for corruption in the country.
The entire UPA it may be recalled is going all out to defend Chidambaram against NDA- led opposition and Swamy’s tirade. Swamy a few days back had deposed as witness seeking Chidambaram prosecution. He said that all the decisions taken by the former telecom minister A Raja regarding fixing of spectrum pricing had the backing of Chidambaram who was minister of finance at that time.
Source : telecomtiger
Swamy threatened that he would make Manmohan Singh a co-accused in 2G case “if he continues to defend him”. He also took a swipe on the UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi saying that she is responsible for corruption in the country.
The entire UPA it may be recalled is going all out to defend Chidambaram against NDA- led opposition and Swamy’s tirade. Swamy a few days back had deposed as witness seeking Chidambaram prosecution. He said that all the decisions taken by the former telecom minister A Raja regarding fixing of spectrum pricing had the backing of Chidambaram who was minister of finance at that time.
Source : telecomtiger
Democracy at crossroads, silent majority should speak up: CAG
New Delhi, Jan 13 (PTI):
Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) Vinod Rai, who has won many foes after a number of scams were unearthed by his watchdog, today said the democracy was at the "crossroads" and it was time for the "silent majority" to speak up.
Hinting that the pro-active nature of CAG had not gone down well with many, he said, that work done by his institution had taken a toll on his friendships. "Democracy is at crossroads today and each one of us assembled here needs to contribute to debunk the myth of the silent majority," Rai said addressing his Hindu college-mates at a function where he received the 'Alumunus of the Decade' award. "The time has come for the majority not to be silent because it is a minority which speaks on the behalf of the majority," the CAG added. Rai has come under severe attack from various quarters in the government, with some even suggesting that he was over-stepping the mandate that the CAG has. The CAG particularly courted controversy in its assessment of 2G spectrum allocation, with its calculation of Rs 1.76 lakh crore loss being questioned repeatedly. Surrounded by his alma mater, Rai said in the lighter vein, "The pace at which I am losing friends, this award better came this year. Next year you may probably not even decide to give this award to me." The CAG said his friends "in bureaucracy and otherwise have stopped even acknowledging me everytime they are on my wrong side or I am on their wrong side." Janata Party chief Subramanian Swamy, another Hindu College alumnus who has played a key role as a whistle-blower in various scams including 2G spectrum allocation, was also honoured with 'Distinguished Alumnus' award along with Congress Leader Rao Inderjeet Singh.
Source : ibnlive
Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) Vinod Rai, who has won many foes after a number of scams were unearthed by his watchdog, today said the democracy was at the "crossroads" and it was time for the "silent majority" to speak up.
Hinting that the pro-active nature of CAG had not gone down well with many, he said, that work done by his institution had taken a toll on his friendships. "Democracy is at crossroads today and each one of us assembled here needs to contribute to debunk the myth of the silent majority," Rai said addressing his Hindu college-mates at a function where he received the 'Alumunus of the Decade' award. "The time has come for the majority not to be silent because it is a minority which speaks on the behalf of the majority," the CAG added. Rai has come under severe attack from various quarters in the government, with some even suggesting that he was over-stepping the mandate that the CAG has. The CAG particularly courted controversy in its assessment of 2G spectrum allocation, with its calculation of Rs 1.76 lakh crore loss being questioned repeatedly. Surrounded by his alma mater, Rai said in the lighter vein, "The pace at which I am losing friends, this award better came this year. Next year you may probably not even decide to give this award to me." The CAG said his friends "in bureaucracy and otherwise have stopped even acknowledging me everytime they are on my wrong side or I am on their wrong side." Janata Party chief Subramanian Swamy, another Hindu College alumnus who has played a key role as a whistle-blower in various scams including 2G spectrum allocation, was also honoured with 'Distinguished Alumnus' award along with Congress Leader Rao Inderjeet Singh.
Source : ibnlive
Dr. Swamy gets interim protection from Delhi High Court
January 13 2012 :
Janata Party chief Subramanian Swamy was on Friday granted interim protection till January 30 by the Delhi High Court against his possible arrest for writing an allegedly “inflammatory” article.
Justice M.L. Mehta granted interim protection to Dr. Swamy on an undertaking by him that he would not write such articles in the future and issued notice to the Delhi Police for its response on Dr. Swamy’s anticipatory bail plea.
While hearing Dr. Swamy’s plea, Justice Mehta observed, “We are a secular country and we should respect the system which we have.”
The court said, “It is not a European country like Britain. We have a diversity and we should be proud of it.
“If you (Swamy) give an undertaking that you will not write anything based on the book, I’ll grant you the relief,” the judge said.
The court’s observation came after Dr. Swamy’s counsel, senior advocate K.T.S. Tulsi, argued that as he (Swamy) has exposed 2G scam against the government, this case has been lodged to harass him.
The counsel also said that Dr. Swamy had written the article based on a book, which he had written six years ago, but no untoward incident had happened after that and suddenly the police registered a case against him soon after he exposed the 2G scam.
Dr. Swamy had moved the high court on Thursday seeking anticipatory bail in the case filed against him in October last year by the Crime Branch of Delhi Police for writing an article in a newspaper in July last year which, it said, tended to spread communal enmity.
Dr. Swamy, however, has denied all charges levelled by Delhi Police in the FIR. The matter will now come up on January 30.
Source : The Hindu
Janata Party chief Subramanian Swamy was on Friday granted interim protection till January 30 by the Delhi High Court against his possible arrest for writing an allegedly “inflammatory” article.
While hearing Dr. Swamy’s plea, Justice Mehta observed, “We are a secular country and we should respect the system which we have.”
The court said, “It is not a European country like Britain. We have a diversity and we should be proud of it.
“If you (Swamy) give an undertaking that you will not write anything based on the book, I’ll grant you the relief,” the judge said.
The court’s observation came after Dr. Swamy’s counsel, senior advocate K.T.S. Tulsi, argued that as he (Swamy) has exposed 2G scam against the government, this case has been lodged to harass him.
The counsel also said that Dr. Swamy had written the article based on a book, which he had written six years ago, but no untoward incident had happened after that and suddenly the police registered a case against him soon after he exposed the 2G scam.
Dr. Swamy had moved the high court on Thursday seeking anticipatory bail in the case filed against him in October last year by the Crime Branch of Delhi Police for writing an article in a newspaper in July last year which, it said, tended to spread communal enmity.
Dr. Swamy, however, has denied all charges levelled by Delhi Police in the FIR. The matter will now come up on January 30.
Source : The Hindu
12 Jan : Dr. Subramanian Swamy challenges Digvijay Singh in his statement
January 12 2012 :
Statement of Dr. Subramanian Swamy on 12 January
It is surprising that the Congress General Secretary Mr. Digvijay Singh has held his own Party’s choice for the Union Home Minister, namely, Mr. P. Chidambaram, responsible for denying a probe into the Batla House encounter. Mr. Digvijay Singh, however, has been silent all these years on the genocide of Muslim youths in Hashimpura, (Meerut district) during May, 1987 when the Provincial Armed Constabulary of U.P. deliberately selected 40 Muslim youths of the Hashimpura area at around midnight, and trucked them to a canal called Gang Nehar near Moradnagar, and then shot each of them individually and threw their bodies into the canal. At that time the Union Minister of State for Home affairs, Mr. Chidambaram, a day before the genocide action had aerially surveyed the area with the then U.P. Chief Minister Mr. Veer Bahadur Singh. When I demanded an inquiry, it was refused to hide that it was a State sponsored genocide. Thereafter, in August 1987, I went on an indefinite fast at the Boat Club, which lasted seven days, before the then Prime Minister (and my good friend Rajiv Gandhi) acceded to my demand for inquiry.
I challenge Mr. Digvijay Singh to similarly sit on a fast unto death, for holding of a Commission of Inquiry, to find out the facts into the Batla House incident. Today, the people want action, not words for the press in such issues of human rights. Time has arrived for Mr. Digvijay Singh to prove his bonafides. We have had enough of his speeches. As an office bearer of a ruling party, he has no moral right just to emit hot air on such sensitive issues.
( SUBRAMANIAN SWAMY )
Statement of Dr. Subramanian Swamy on 12 January
It is surprising that the Congress General Secretary Mr. Digvijay Singh has held his own Party’s choice for the Union Home Minister, namely, Mr. P. Chidambaram, responsible for denying a probe into the Batla House encounter. Mr. Digvijay Singh, however, has been silent all these years on the genocide of Muslim youths in Hashimpura, (Meerut district) during May, 1987 when the Provincial Armed Constabulary of U.P. deliberately selected 40 Muslim youths of the Hashimpura area at around midnight, and trucked them to a canal called Gang Nehar near Moradnagar, and then shot each of them individually and threw their bodies into the canal. At that time the Union Minister of State for Home affairs, Mr. Chidambaram, a day before the genocide action had aerially surveyed the area with the then U.P. Chief Minister Mr. Veer Bahadur Singh. When I demanded an inquiry, it was refused to hide that it was a State sponsored genocide. Thereafter, in August 1987, I went on an indefinite fast at the Boat Club, which lasted seven days, before the then Prime Minister (and my good friend Rajiv Gandhi) acceded to my demand for inquiry.
I challenge Mr. Digvijay Singh to similarly sit on a fast unto death, for holding of a Commission of Inquiry, to find out the facts into the Batla House incident. Today, the people want action, not words for the press in such issues of human rights. Time has arrived for Mr. Digvijay Singh to prove his bonafides. We have had enough of his speeches. As an office bearer of a ruling party, he has no moral right just to emit hot air on such sensitive issues.
( SUBRAMANIAN SWAMY )
Janata Party leader Subramanian Swamy moves HC for bail
New Delhi, Jan 12, (PTI):
Janata Party leader Subramanian Swamy today moved the Delhi High Court seeking anticipatory bail in the case filed against him for writing an allegedly "inflammatory" article.
Swamy's plea, filed through counsel Maheen Pradhan, will be heard by Justice M L Mehta tomorrow.
In October last year, the Crime Branch of Delhi Police had registered an FIR against Swamy for writing an article in a newspaper in July last year which police said tended to spread enmity between communities.
However, Swamy has denied all the charges levelled by the Delhi police in the FIR.
Source : deccanherald
Janata Party leader Subramanian Swamy today moved the Delhi High Court seeking anticipatory bail in the case filed against him for writing an allegedly "inflammatory" article.
Swamy's plea, filed through counsel Maheen Pradhan, will be heard by Justice M L Mehta tomorrow.
In October last year, the Crime Branch of Delhi Police had registered an FIR against Swamy for writing an article in a newspaper in July last year which police said tended to spread enmity between communities.
However, Swamy has denied all the charges levelled by the Delhi police in the FIR.
Source : deccanherald
पुणे आंतरराष्ट्रीय चित्रपट महोत्सवमें म.फि. हुसेनका उदात्तीकरण करनेवाला चलचित्र प्रदर्शित नहीं किया जाएगा । - महोत्सवके आयोजकोंका हिंदु जनजागृति समितिको आश्वासन
पुणे, १० जानेवारी (वार्ता.) -
१२ जनवरीसे पुणेमें संपन्न हो रहे दसवें ‘पुणे आंतरराष्ट्रीय चित्रपट महोत्सव’में हिंदुद्वेषी चित्रकार म.फि. हुसेनका उदात्तीकरण करनेवाला ‘थ्रू द आईज ऑफ पेंटर’ यह चलचित्र प्रदर्शित किया न जानेके संदर्भमें आज हिंदुत्ववादीयोंने इस महोत्सवके आयोजक संतोष उनेछाको निवेदन दिया । हिंदु जनजागृति समितिके मुंबई, ठाणे एवं रायगड जनपदके समन्वयक श्री. शिवाजी वटकरने मुख्य आयोजक जब्बार पटेलको दूरभाषद्वारा यह चलचित्र प्रदर्शित न करनेकी मांग की । चर्चाके अंतमें पटेलने यह लघु चलचित्र प्रदर्शित न करनेका आश्वासन श्री. वटकरको दिया । इस चित्रपट महोत्सवमें कुल २४० चित्रपट प्रदर्शित किए जानेवाले हैं । उसमें हिंदु देवतओंके नग्न चित्र आरेखित करनेवाले म.फि. हुसेनको श्रद्धांजलीके रूपमें हुसेनका उदात्तीकरण करनेवाला यह चलचित्र प्रदर्शित किया जानेकी जानकारी हिंदु जनजागृति समितिको प्राप्त हुई । तद्नुसार समितिसहित अन्य हिंदुत्ववादी संगठनोंकी ओरसे हिंदूंओंकी धार्मिक भावनाओंको ठेस पहुंचानेवाले चित्र आरेखित करनेवाले हुसेनका चलचित्र इस महोत्सवमें प्रदर्शित किया न जाए, इस आशयका निवेदन आयोजक उनेछाको दिया गया । इस समय स्वातंत्र्यवीर सावरकर स्मृति प्रतिष्ठानके श्री. विद्याधर नारगोलकर, समस्त हिंदु आघाडीके श्री. मिलिंद एकबोटे, अभिनव निर्माण प्रतिष्ठानके श्री. श्री बोडके, हिंदु जनजागृति समितिके श्री. सुनील घनवट, श्री. विलास गायकवाड आदी उपस्थित थें ।
Source : Hindu Janjagruti Samiti
Source : Hindu Janjagruti Samiti
2G : Unitech rings bells on Telenor's Pakistan connection
January 12 2012 :
NEW DELHI: The bitter feud between the partners of mobile phone company Unitech Wireless, that offers services under the 'Uninor' brand, has taken a fresh twist with the minority partner raking up Telenor's Pakistan connection and the underlying security concerns associated with it.
The Norwegian telecoms major has a majority stake of 67.25% in Unitech Wireless, while realty firm Unitech owns the rest. Unitech, has now raised concerns on Telenor's alleged failure to disclose the full extent of its operations in Pakistan. This issue has also been listed in the agenda of Unitech Wireless' next board meeting scheduled for January 12. ET reviewed the agenda note.
In November 2011, the foreign investment promotion board, the apex government body that approves all major investments from abroad, had cleared a proposal from Unitech Wireless' for a rights issue of Rs 8,250 crore. Both partners have been involved in an acrimonious spat over the last couple of months, as Unitech has opposed the rights issue. Telenor, in its proposal had also told the FIPB that plans to increase its holdings in Unitech Wireless to 74%, and induct other 'resident Indian shareholders' if its JV partner failed to subscribe to the rights issue.
The realty firm is now of the view that FIPB would not have cleared the proposal if Telenor had disclosed complete details on its Pakistan operations, executives aware of the developments told ET. In their defence, they also pointed out that the FIPB had cleared the deal despite the home ministry (MHA) had raising security concerns about Telenor's holding in Pakistan.
The Unitech spokesperson declined to comment. The Telenor spokesperson said that group was 'not surprised at both the nature and timing of such innuendos, coming as they do in the midst of a shareholders' dispute'.
"In India, we are governed by the Indian laws which Telenor Group off course complies to. Our investments in Uninor have been thoroughly and extensively tested by the authorities earlier through an elaborate FIPB process. We have now applied for permission to invest further in India. We would like to add that despite such diversions, the core issue remains that of securing Uninor's funding, where we believe both owners must discharge their obligations and put in their own funds in the absence of bank loans to secure Uninor's long term funding. We continue to persuade our partner to meet its obligation just as we are," Telenor said in a written reply to an ET query.
In 2009, the FIPB had first cleared Telenor's application to pick up a majority stake in Unitech Wireless on the condition that none of the staff who have worked inTelenor Pakistan -100% owned by the Telenor group - are employed here. This was because intelligence agencies such as IB and RAW were highly suspicious about the security implications of Telenor's presence in Pakistan through a 100%-owned subsidiary of the Norwegian parent company.
In September 2011, Telenor's group CEO Fredrik Baksaas had told ET that it would look at inducting another partner for its Indian operations if Unitech 'does not meet its obligations and participate in the rights issue'. After this, the Unitech group Telenor to the company law board (CLB) citing 'gross mismanagement' by the Norwegian telco, marking a new low in the deteriorating relations between both partners, who are also involved in an arbitration process in Singapore.
Unitech had also offered to buy out Telenor's 67.25% stake in their JV for Rs 269 crore, escalating hostilities between the two. The offer was made in their petition before the CLB which it accused Telenor and its executives of 'oppressive and mala-fide actions'.
Source : economictimes
NEW DELHI: The bitter feud between the partners of mobile phone company Unitech Wireless, that offers services under the 'Uninor' brand, has taken a fresh twist with the minority partner raking up Telenor's Pakistan connection and the underlying security concerns associated with it.
The Norwegian telecoms major has a majority stake of 67.25% in Unitech Wireless, while realty firm Unitech owns the rest. Unitech, has now raised concerns on Telenor's alleged failure to disclose the full extent of its operations in Pakistan. This issue has also been listed in the agenda of Unitech Wireless' next board meeting scheduled for January 12. ET reviewed the agenda note.
In November 2011, the foreign investment promotion board, the apex government body that approves all major investments from abroad, had cleared a proposal from Unitech Wireless' for a rights issue of Rs 8,250 crore. Both partners have been involved in an acrimonious spat over the last couple of months, as Unitech has opposed the rights issue. Telenor, in its proposal had also told the FIPB that plans to increase its holdings in Unitech Wireless to 74%, and induct other 'resident Indian shareholders' if its JV partner failed to subscribe to the rights issue.
The realty firm is now of the view that FIPB would not have cleared the proposal if Telenor had disclosed complete details on its Pakistan operations, executives aware of the developments told ET. In their defence, they also pointed out that the FIPB had cleared the deal despite the home ministry (MHA) had raising security concerns about Telenor's holding in Pakistan.
The Unitech spokesperson declined to comment. The Telenor spokesperson said that group was 'not surprised at both the nature and timing of such innuendos, coming as they do in the midst of a shareholders' dispute'.
"In India, we are governed by the Indian laws which Telenor Group off course complies to. Our investments in Uninor have been thoroughly and extensively tested by the authorities earlier through an elaborate FIPB process. We have now applied for permission to invest further in India. We would like to add that despite such diversions, the core issue remains that of securing Uninor's funding, where we believe both owners must discharge their obligations and put in their own funds in the absence of bank loans to secure Uninor's long term funding. We continue to persuade our partner to meet its obligation just as we are," Telenor said in a written reply to an ET query.
In 2009, the FIPB had first cleared Telenor's application to pick up a majority stake in Unitech Wireless on the condition that none of the staff who have worked inTelenor Pakistan -100% owned by the Telenor group - are employed here. This was because intelligence agencies such as IB and RAW were highly suspicious about the security implications of Telenor's presence in Pakistan through a 100%-owned subsidiary of the Norwegian parent company.
In September 2011, Telenor's group CEO Fredrik Baksaas had told ET that it would look at inducting another partner for its Indian operations if Unitech 'does not meet its obligations and participate in the rights issue'. After this, the Unitech group Telenor to the company law board (CLB) citing 'gross mismanagement' by the Norwegian telco, marking a new low in the deteriorating relations between both partners, who are also involved in an arbitration process in Singapore.
Unitech had also offered to buy out Telenor's 67.25% stake in their JV for Rs 269 crore, escalating hostilities between the two. The offer was made in their petition before the CLB which it accused Telenor and its executives of 'oppressive and mala-fide actions'.
Source : economictimes
Protest : Pune International Film Festival to pay tribute to M F Husain
January 11 2012 :
Appeal to devout Hindus. http://www.hindujagruti.org/news/13309.html
Government of Maharashtra and Pune Film Foundation is going to organise Pune International Film Festival (PIFF) at Pune from 12rd January to 19rd January 2012. As per the list of movies to be screened at PIFF, they are going to screen a documentary directed by Anti-Hindu painter M F Husain in 1967 to pay homage to M F Husain, who passed away in June 2011 at London. M F Husain had drawn nude paintings of Hindu Deities and Bharat Mata and hurt religious and patriotic sentiments of billions of Hindus and Indians. Now, it is the duty of all devout Hindus and patriotic Indians to protest lawfully against PIFF organisers and demand cancellation of documentary being screened as part of homage to Anti-Hindu and Anti-National painter M F Husain; because he does not deserve such respect.
Official website of PIFF : http://www.puneinternationalfilmfestival.com/
The schedule of PIFF in which M F Husain's program is included : http://www.puneinternationalfilmfestival.com/pdf/piff-10/movie-list.pdf
Devout Hindus and Patriotic Indians are protesting lawfully on following Contact details :
Pune International Film Festival
Mailing Address
Dr. Jabbar Patel, Director
Pune International Film Festival
Marathon Bhavan, near Mitra Mandal Colony,
Opp: Parvati Post-Office, Parvati,
Maharashtra, Pune- 411 009
India
Tel: +91 20 24424545/ 6
Fax: +91 20 24428788
Email: piff.india@gmail.com
Website: www.puneinternationalfilmfestival.com
Festival Office
1. Mr. Santosh Unecha, Associate Director
Source : Hindu Janjagruti Samiti
Appeal to devout Hindus. http://www.hindujagruti.org/news/13309.html
Government of Maharashtra and Pune Film Foundation is going to organise Pune International Film Festival (PIFF) at Pune from 12rd January to 19rd January 2012. As per the list of movies to be screened at PIFF, they are going to screen a documentary directed by Anti-Hindu painter M F Husain in 1967 to pay homage to M F Husain, who passed away in June 2011 at London. M F Husain had drawn nude paintings of Hindu Deities and Bharat Mata and hurt religious and patriotic sentiments of billions of Hindus and Indians. Now, it is the duty of all devout Hindus and patriotic Indians to protest lawfully against PIFF organisers and demand cancellation of documentary being screened as part of homage to Anti-Hindu and Anti-National painter M F Husain; because he does not deserve such respect.
Official website of PIFF : http://www.puneinternationalfilmfestival.com/
The schedule of PIFF in which M F Husain's program is included : http://www.puneinternationalfilmfestival.com/pdf/piff-10/movie-list.pdf
Devout Hindus and Patriotic Indians are protesting lawfully on following Contact details :
Pune International Film Festival
Mailing Address
Dr. Jabbar Patel, Director
Pune International Film Festival
Marathon Bhavan, near Mitra Mandal Colony,
Opp: Parvati Post-Office, Parvati,
Maharashtra, Pune- 411 009
India
Tel: +91 20 24424545/ 6
Fax: +91 20 24428788
Email: piff.india@gmail.com
Website: www.puneinternationalfilmfestival.com
Festival Office
1. Mr. Santosh Unecha, Associate Director
Source : Hindu Janjagruti Samiti