My Personal Experience with Mr Modi.

Dear Friends...

I received this mail about a personal experience author had with Mr Modi while she and her husband were residing in Gujarat in 2004-2006. 

All  their personal experiences about Gujarat, about Mr Modi are written in her article. 

She is pleased to share all that they both witnessed, experienced, heard from people , even from Muslims and were pleasantly shocked.. Not residing in Gujarat now and in no way connected with  politics or political party in any ways. 

A Simple, educated, non political South Indian lady speaks a lot about her contrary experience to what is propagated by media and political parties.  Her honest experience in Gujarat which she rightly thought  must be conveyed to people of India when section of the media and political parties are painting Narendra Mod as Fascist, Divisive and communal for their own self serving agendas. There has been a deliberate campaign against Mr Modi and the common people are not told the truth and the reality by even the popular media.

These non political observations by individuals are unbiased  and have much more credibility than the propaganda by the biased media which runs paid campaigns sponsored by political interests. I can assure you we are not paid to publish this. 

Please feel free to write your comments at the end in comment box.

Ajay Angre : Author, Writer, Publisher   

Personal Experience of Interaction with Modi

Author(s) : Dr Vathsala Mani

I’m a 72 year old South Indian Brahmin lady – not belonging to Narendra Modi’s caste, 

I must mention in these days of caste-ridden mindsets – just survived the attack of the Emperor of Maladies, cancer that I have been suffering from for the past two years.  I have no expectation from life for myself, even if Modi were to become the Prime Minister of the country. 

But I want the teeming millions of my compatriots, especially the younger generation, to learn that there is another side of the Modi story than the one they get bombarded with from anti-Modi industry.

The announcement of Mr. Narendrabhai Modi as BJP’s Prime Ministerial candidate for the 2014 elections in fact took me back to my Gujarat days 2004-2007. 

To begin with, I recall a conversation I had with the late Kiritbhai Rawal, the then Solicitor-General of India, whom I met in the company of my husband early in January 2004.  Kiritbhai was instrumental in getting my husband to Gandhinagar, Gujarat, to set up GNLU. 

I asked him why Modi was not replying to the many public criticisms, Kiritbhai replied: Modi would not waste his time replying them, as they would continue to crop up ad infinitude. But he would rather focus his attention and energy in developing Gujarat as no other state would, and that would be his way of answering the critics. 

It’s a pity that Kiritbhai is not alive today to watch the way Gujarat has developed.

Before my husband’s formal appointment to GNLU, he told me that he would decide on the offer only after meeting Modi (as he then had an opportunity to go abroad). 

Kiritbhai had said, the appointment would be formalized only after a meeting with Chief Minister Modi.  He soon arranged a meeting between my husband and Modi at Ahmedabad.  Besides, Kiritbhai, Modi was accompanied by two of his ministers. Towards the end of the meeting, my husband brought to the attention of Modi of his JNU background, and the fact that he had published a newspaper article on Gujarat (on the need for a law on genocide in India, published in The Hindu).  Modi’s reply was that my husband could hold any opinion he wanted, but Modi would like him to build the best law University for Gujarat.  He wanted a professional.  

My husband said, if he faced any problems on job, he would contact Modi’s office.  Modi replied: “Not my office, but me directly.”  So much for the so-called intolerance of Modi towards people who held views not agreeable to his.

My husband was impressed by the way he was treated and accepted the GNLU offer immediately.  I was happy he did so, for this brought me closer to Gujarat.  I really wanted to find out on the ground about the events leading to the 2002 riots, over which the media and political parties were going overboard. 

Also, I was earlier been snubbed badly by a senior teacher from Sambalpur, Odisha when I expressed my sincere condolences to him over the gruesome killings of Graham Steine and his children over religious intolerance.  He shouted at me: Madam, you sit in an ivory tower in Delhi and pass judgments without knowing the ground realities.  He said he felt sad human life was lost.  But what about joint families being broken up by misguided conversions?  His own family was one such victim eventually leading to coercive partition of family property for which he held the likes of Graham Steine responsible. 

How come, no media reported this side of the story?

In the initial years Gujaratis working in our Government-allotted house and also at GNLU were reluctant to open up.  Later on as mutual confidence grew, they found me friendly and helpful, and then they began to be more informal.  What they narrated to me showed that the media, particularly, English language media were lapping up one-sided news portraying Modi as the Demon and all his opponents angels. 

They told us about the earlier riots in which the Hindus were mostly at the receiving end. There were several instances of stone-throwing on Hindus passing through Muslim dominated areas of Ahmedabad.  The governments of the day kept a blind eye to all this. All the suppressed passions broke loose at the Godhra carnage, and no government, Modi or no Modi, could have stopped what followed – despicable and condemnable as both the Godhra and post-Godhra killings were.

The Teen Darwaza area is always abuzz with people jostling with one another, with mostly Hindus customers of all classes visiting shops offering all kinds of wares, mostly owned by Gujarati Muslims.  I was a regular visitor and took my friends and relatives for shopping for saris and gorgeous children’s dresses.  

A Muslim shop keeper told me once that Gujarati Muslims were all peace-loving, but the Muslim immigrants from other parts of the country often created trouble here. This was also confirmed to my husband by a sociology professor of JNU origin, from Gujarat University.

   

Since 2002, there has been peace and progress in the State. This is probably due to Modi’s policy of “justice for all and appeasement of none.”  

Pampering one community at the cost of another only leads to public resentment, perpetuation of communal divide.  On the ground, practices of religions are not mutually exclusive.  I was pleasantly surprised an array of Muslim traders and hawkers selling flowers and other puja samagris near Hindu temples in Ahmadabad – again the Bhadrakali temple near Teen Darwaza stood out. The hundreds of boatmen ferrying Hindu pligrims from Dwarka to Bed Dwarka and back are Muslims who earn their living by facilitating Hindu pilgrimage.

The common people were happy with Modi as he was accessible to them for a hearing. 

Modern technology made it possible for Modi to personally reach out distant villages – he even spoke to them, identified them by video-conferencing on a regular basis. People could attend government functions without any security hassles.  My housemaid told me that in not so distant past, womenfolk had to walk long distances to fetch water and return the same distances with pitchers on the head one over the other, but after Modi came the Narmada water reached their villages to their doorstep.  In terms of the luxury of getting uninterrupted electricity (I have a house in Gurgaon), Gujarat was unrivaled.

After we arrived in Gandhinagar, we were allotted a government house in Sector 22, Gandhinagar.  

Being an old construction, it needed some repairs and electrical rewiring.  The local works department office sent some electricians for the job.  When they finished the work fast and to my satisfaction, I was pleased and gave them some money by way of tips.  They were most unwilling to accept it, yet I persuaded them.  It was just a token of my appreciation of their hard work. Finally they accepted it reluctantly.  In the afternoon, to my utter surprise, two senior officers visited my house and asked me whether I paid any money to the workers and why.  I said, yes, as I was pleased with their work. It was not a bribe and I really wanted to show my appreciation.  The officers said, Madam,  you are getting us into trouble: “if Modi Saab came to know of this, we would be taken to task.”  They wanted to return the money, but I refused to take back the money.  They said, don’t do this again and put them into trouble.

This was clean, bribery-free administration for a housewife to experience.

As for the much criticized “Hindutwa” of Modi, here is food for thought.  

After the Bhoomipoojan of the GNLU campus in mid-2005 and installation of an Ashok Pillar at the entrance of the future campus, my husband happened to be a party to a discussion at the CM’s Chambers, Gandhinagar Secretariat.  The then Law Minister suggested that in the future GNLU campus there should be a Saraswati temple, just across the Ashok Pillar.  Modi killed the proposal in the bud by instantly asserting that the university was a public body to be constructed on government money.  You can’t have a temple there, as the State must be non-religious.

Further, if Modi were a ‘kattar Hindu vadi,”  why did he allow demolition of many Hindu temples that stood in the way of expansion and modernization of roads by the Gujarat Roads and Buildings Department?  Some of these temples stood in the middle of some main roads in Ahmadabad. I particularly remember a very popular Shani Dev Mandir standing in the middle of a main road, and this had to be removed.

It was my feeling that L.K.Advani was not exactly popular in his constituency in Gandhinagar.  My husband narrated to me a conversation that took place in a barber shop at the Sector 19 market on one fine morning. The shopkeeper was sharing with someone his disenchantment with Advani.  He recalled his enthusiasm to lend support for an Advani election meeting in the small open space in front of his shop.  Advani promised the audience to return to the constituency after elections and inquire about their welfare. This never happened until the next election. Two elections on, the people in the constituency had no glimpse of Advani.  Someone asked the shopkeeper, why then did he continue to vote for Advani?  

The answer was “I was supporting Modi.”  So, I don’t know who should be grateful to whom – Modi to Advani, or Advani to Modi.

Once we were returning from Junagarh after attending a function in a school.  It was around midnight by the time we reached Gandhinagar. To my utter disbelief (I was so used to Delhi), I saw girls/women walking along the road in singles or in groups, perhaps after a mid-night shift in the nearby factories. I asked our driver about safety of girls and women in Gujarat.  

The driver announced proudly that they were safe and that they could move about in the night in any part of Gujarat.

Modi also ensured poor people’s access to justice, by streamlining the administration in the Secretariat.  I was told, during Keshubhai’s time and before, the officers were not found on their seats even by 11 am, and they would nowhere be found in Gandhinagar by 3 pm.  After Modi took over, the same officers were suddenly found on their seats 9 am to 5 pm, for fear of being reported to Modi, by the people with grievances to resolve.

Access to Modi was facile to common people.  

A student of GNLU told me once that she wanted to complain against a Minister and she could walk straight into Modi’s office and submit a petition. No wonder, an employee of  GNLU – a staunch Congress supporter – said without hesitation, she would vote for Modi, if Modi were to contest from his constituency!

I have heard instances of Modi putting down some of his relatives who tried to exploit their relationship with Modi. 

Till this day, no allegation of corruption sticks on him.

The above reminiscences bring out the multifaceted personality of Modi.  He was known to be blunt and straight mincing no words – quite ‘unIndian,’ would you say? While he gave patient hearing to the needy, he had no time for sycophants, or for frivolous talk.

The purpose of this write up, however, is to warn the younger generation against being swayed by the biased and motivated anti-Modi reports. 

To a non-partisan like me, Modi has all the qualities to make him the Prime Minister of India.

Author(s) : Dr Vathsala Mani

Prime Minister.. its time to Go!

The author Avay Shukla retired from the Indian Administrative Service in December 2010.
By: Avay Shukla  August 28, 2013

Dear Prime Minister

 Its time for You to Go ! 

 

The government headed by you has already taken the country back to 1990 in sheer economic terms, and in terms of other social and public values we have reached the nadir of the Dark Ages.

The country had great hopes from you when it voted you to power in 2004, 

 

And even higher expectations when it renewed your mandate in 2009 after your sterling display of vision and courage in the nuclear deal. But you only flattered to deceive, and for reasons which are now becoming obvious, relinquished any pretense of leadership or governance.

You were never a politician- a positive for most of the voters – 

 

and the two qualities that made us repose our trust in you were your honesty and your acknowledged status as an eminent economist. Today, both lie in tatters- you have betrayed our trust, not substantially but wholly, and therefore you must go.

 

A person who allows others to loot cannot be honest. A Manager who does not raise his voice when illegalities are being committed by his subordinates cannot be honest.

 

A law maker who protects criminals cannot be honest. And a Prime Minister who does all this simply to remain in power cannot be honest. Your honesty has already cost the country dearly, 

 

Mr. Prime Minister, and we cannot sustain this cost any longer.

 

You had everything going for you when you took over in 2004– an economy growing at 8-9%, a Current Account SURPLUS of US$ 10.56 billion, Foreign Exchange reserves in excess of US$ 400 billion, a comfortable net INFLOW of Foreign Direct Investment.

 

After nine years of your being at the helm, the growth rate is down to 5% and falling. The Rupee has reached an exchange rate of 65 to the dollar. Nobody believes Chidambaram anymore, and continue to maintain your sphinx-like silence.

In the meantime inflation continues unabated, jobs are being lost by the millions , Indian industry prefers to take its money abroad, infrastructure projects languish somewhere between Messers Jaiswal, Jyotiraditya Scindia and Montek Singh Ahluwalia, and a liter of cooking oil now costs more than two liters of beer!

 

And this is at the precise time when the rest of the world is coming out of its downturn! No, sir, you and your forty thieves have been so busy with your petty politicking, with ensuring the survival of a particular dynasty, securing the financial well being of future generations of your party colleagues and allies, dividing communities and classes, that you have had no time for planning and taking decisions.

 

The only decisions you HAVE taken boggle the mind. 

 

We are already spending 75,000 crores every year on our Public Distribution System: every single survey indicates that at least 40% of this, or 30,000 crores is siphoned off by politicians, bureaucrats and middle-men. And now your govt. is determined to pour another 50,000 crores into this bottomless pit through the Food Security Act! 

 

What for? Why only to please your high command?

And that too at a time when you have no money for infrastructure development or health and education ( in both of which we now lag behind even Sri Lanka and Bangladesh!). Is it worth destroying a country just so your motley crew can win another election?

Had it been only the economic downturn, we could perhaps have been more generous. For economics, as we all know, is not only a dismal science, it is also an uncertain one: as they say, even if one were to lay down all economists end to end, we still wouldn’t reach a conclusion!

You have systematically sought to destroy every fiber of the democratic fabric of this nation. Constitutional authorities have been attacked publicly by your minions and sought to be humiliated at every turn: remember the diatribes against Vinod Rai and the Central Information Commissioner?

Statutory authorities like the CBI and the office of the Attorney General have been subverted and made to fall in line, your party’s line. 

 

Your oath of office demanded that you protect them, but you remained mute.

You have shown contempt for the orders of the Supreme Court even. The Court’s judgments, instead of being respected and seen as a matter for serious contemplation, are publicly criticized and sought to be by-passed by the collation of a consensus of those affected by the judgments (!) and a brute legislative majority.

So criminals can continue in Parliament.  

 

Merit will find no place in the selection of Doctors (at the senior most, Professor, level) even in Super specialty disciplines; minorities will get reservations in government jobs even though the Constitution forbids it.

You behave as if the Opposition is not part of the democratic process, 

 

that it is a nuisance that is best ignored; consequently, all communication between the two has now snapped, and the nation is a helpless witness to a Parliament that resembles a rugby locker room in both language and action and is in a permanent state of adjournment.

It is your party which laid down the rules of engagement. 

 

By refusing to walk the extra mile to accommodate even the legitimate demands of the Opposition, and by sabotaging time and again the Committees of Parliament, you have eviscerated this vital organ of democracy which under you has become as vertiginous and irrelevant as your appendix.

Practically no legislative work has been done in the last two years: 

 

There are 116 bills pending in both Houses, of which 19 and 21 relate to financial and educational reforms, respectively, two of the areas that need immediate attention.

But your lack of concern is matched only by your shocking sense of priorities: instead of trying to push these bills, you have instead chosen to concentrate your fading energies on two other amendments that can only make politics murkier and more criminalized: 

 

removing the disqualification of convicted legislators, and exempting political parties from the RTI Act!

Perhaps the biggest price for your incompetence and your colleagues’ venality is being paid by our defense forces: all three are many years behind in terms of armaments and weaponry ( because another ” honest” Minister, Mr. Antony, will neither effect purchases from abroad nor allow FDI in defense production) and their very capacity to defend the country has been seriously eroded.

Who will defend our borders in such a scenario, Mr. Prime Minister- 

 

the lethal barbs of Mr. Manish Tewari, or the boomerangs of Mr. Digvijay Singh or the IEDs of Mr. Mani Shankar Iyer? Even worse, you have demoralized our armed forces by the constant interference of your Ministry and completely taken away their operational and tactical independence.

Under you we have become a whining nation- we whine when Pakistani troops shoot our soldiers, we whine when Chinese troops camp on our territory for weeks on end, we whine when Italian marines shoot our sailors, we whine when the Sri Lanka navy arrests our fishermen, we whine when our ex-President is frisked at an American airport.

Under you a once-proud nation is being kicked around by even a Maldives or a Bhutan. What in God’s name have you done to our image?

In communal terms, we have always been a fractured society. But true leaders have in the past tried to bridge these fissures. To you, however, will go the dubious credit of widening and deepening these cracks between communities and castes.

In order to survive, your party has countenanced the retrograde decisions of allies that can only raise the confrontational pitch: earmarking of state budgets for a religious minority, reservations in jobs for the same community (which goes against the express provisions of our Constitution), reservations in promotions (which has been struck down by the courts), setting up of a central Commission to review the (criminal) cases of suspects of one community only.

It is your party which has put communalism at the center of the campaign for next year’s election, not the BJP or Mr. Modi. 

 

The former has consciously down played the Ram Mandir issue, and Modi had made it clear that development was going to be his plank. But this did not suit you, since your party couldn’t possibly debate him on this plank, what with your miserable record of the last five years.

So you deliberately inserted the communal element,  

as did your allies, by harping only on the 2002 Gujarat riots. To his credit, Mr. Modi has so far not agreed to stoop so low, and I do not think your strategy will work.

But you have in the process vitiated the atmosphere for a long time to come, reopened old wounds that were beginning to heal, and provided a legitimate space for hot heads on both sides of the divide.

How much damage to the country is one Parliamentary seat worth, Mr. Prime Minister? How many more Partitions will you recreate to satisfy your party’s lust for power?

Your opportunistic creation of Telangana has sown the seeds of disputes and blood-letting in all parts of the country that will sorely test the federal integrity of our country for many years to come. There are twenty one more statehood specters waiting in the wings and by the time they are exorcised we may have ceased to exist as one nation.

Do I need to refer to the endemic corruption that your government has been indulging in these last ten years? And to your pathetic attempts to distance yourself from them, even though it is gradually becoming clearer with each passing day that you were aware of what was happening and did nothing to stop it? Why?

Your deafening silence on all these matters-you have spoken in both houses of Parliament only fifty times in ten years-defies logic and conventional wisdom. And that leads me to speculate whether we are underestimating you.

Is there, after all, a method in your madness? Could it be that you are reconciled to losing the next elections and are therefore deliberately implementing a scorched earth policy?

That you will leave behind as a legacy for the next government an India that is bankrupt, ungovernable, riven by caste and communal conflicts, all its institutions destroyed?

An India that will soon be on its knees, begging for your party- the lone horseman riding in from the sunset, in Rahul Gandhi’s words, don’t forget-to take over the reins again, and save the country from perdition

Your party has stripped this country like a cloud of locusts. You have sown every type of poisonous seed known to your ilk and we shall be reaping the bitter harvest for many years hence. You have engendered an atmosphere of uncertainty, venality, indecision, communal ism, opportunism, criminalization and defiance of constitutional and statutory institutions which cannot be allowed to continue, for that way lies certain disaster.

Elections are nine months’ hence but we cannot allow this conception to come to full term: the seed sown by you can only destroy this country and must be aborted. 

 

The time has come for you to go, Mr. Prime Minister, and to go immediately.

Call for elections now, end the uncertainty, let us get on with our lives, give this country a chance to redeem itself. 

Do one last service to this nation, sir- stand not upon the order of your going, BUT GO!

Written By Avay Shukla

 

PM: I am not a lameduck!

Dear Fellow citizens, 

Our Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh has decided on the advise of  his core team ministers like Kapil Sibal, Pranab Daa, and his close colleagues from his cabinet, to interact with media on frequent basis and the first press meet was arranged with senior editors of five newspapers last week.

What questions were asked by the senior editors to PM is a matter of question but the PM briefed himself senior editors and all of them came out of the press conference with full satisfaction on whatever PM said. 

Kumar Ketkar when  asked by the electronic media how was the meet, he said it was good. Why was it good? Kumar Ketkar said, PM talked on all the issues and explained his side from LOKPAL BILL to 2G scams, and all other issues people are concerned about.

And what else did he say? 

Nothing much. But he spoke to all of us very frankly and assured us, all the issues our nation is facing for some reasons will soon be solved and solutions will be found.  Kumar Ketkar. 

So what was the message he wanted to give to the nation?

Nothing. He said everything is fine and nothing to worry and we also were convinced with his honesty to have a frank discussion with all of us.

So what the nation should understand from this hi profile meeting?

Well, everything is fine. Media is making stories with sensational Breaking News. So media must act more responsibly and not like gossipers. Kumar Ketkare said.

This is all a creation of media about Prime Minister`s silence on all the scams and so called exposes... which are all baseless and the PM assured all of us on corruption issues that the truth will surface soon from this dirty waters. We all editors felt relived with his assurances and enjoyed snacks and 10 course Buffet lunch arranged for us. The Buffet was delightful, personally PM had selected dishes for all the senior Editors. 

Now only last question to Kumar Ketkar.

Did honorable Editors got White Envelops from PM for being supportive? Hello!!! Kumar Ketkar!??? Where are you??? Please tell us how does section of media and few journalists are supporting Congress and running a prapoganda against BJP and Mr Modi???

Please tell us that.

 

A Letter to The Editor of The Hindu Daily.

This is a open letter written by Dr Mrs Hilda Raja, Vadodara, about MF Husain objectionable work that hurt sentiments of many Hindus. Aleeter addressed to Senior Editor Mr Ram, of The Hindu Daily. It is her perspective about the unnecessary bravado expressed  on the canvas by a well reputed Master of paintings and offended sentiments of many religious Hindus.  Was it all justified?

Ajay Angre, 
Author, Writer. Publisher.  


Dear Ram,
 
I have taken time to write this to you Ram-for the simple reason that we have known you for so many years- you and The Hindu bring back happy memories Please take what I am putting down as those that come from an agonized soul. You know that I do not mince words and what I
have to say I will-I call a spade a spade-now it is too late for me to learn the tricks of being called a ‘secularist’ if that means a bias for, one, and a bias against, another.


Hussain is now a citizen of Qatar-this has generated enough of heat and less of light. Qatar you know better than me is not a country which respects democracy or freedom of expression. Hussain says he has complete freedom-I challenge him to paint a picture of Mohammed fully clad.


There is no second opinion that artists have the Right of Freedom of expression. Is such a right restricted only to Hussain? Will that right not flow to Dan Brown-why was his film-Da Vinci Code not screened? Why was Satanic Verses banned-does Salman Rushdie not have
that freedom of expression? Similarly why is Taslima hunted and hounded and why fatwas have been issued on both these writers? 

Why has Qatar not offered citizenship to Taslima? 

In the present rioting in Shimoga in Karnataka against the article Taslima wrote against the
tradition of burqua which appeared in the Out Look in Jan 2007.No body protested then either in Delhi or in any other part of the country; now when it reappears in a Karnataka paper there is rioting. Is there a political agenda to create a problem in Karnataka by the intolerant
goons? Why has the media not condemned this insensitivity and intolerance of the Muslims against Taslima’s views? 

When it comes to the Sangh Parivar it is quick to call them goons and intolerant etc. Now who are the goons and where is this tolerance and sensitivity?


Regarding Hussain’s artistic freedom it seems to run unfettered in an expression of sexual perversion only when he envisages the Hindu Gods and Goddesses. There is no quarrel had he painted a nude woman sitting on the tail of a monkey. The point is he captioned it as Sita. Nobody would have protested against the sexual perversion and his orientatation to sexual signs and symbols. But would he dare to caption it as ‘Fatima enjoying in Jannat with animals’?

Next example-is the painting of Saraswati copulating with a lion. Here again his perversion is evident and so is his intent. Even that lets concede cannot be faulted-each one’s sexual orientation is each one’s business I suppose. But he captioned it as Saraswati. This is the
problem. It is Hussain’s business to enjoy in painting his sexual perversion. But why use Saraswati and Sita for his perverted expressions? Use Fatima and watch the consequence. 

Let the media people come to his rescue then. Now that he is in a country that gives him complete freedom let him go ahead and paint Fatima copulating with a lion or any other animal of his choice. And then turn around and prove to India-the Freedom of expression he enjoys in Qatar.


Talking about Freedom of Expression-this is the Hussain who supported Emergency-painted Indira Gandhi as Durga slaying Jayaprakas Narayan.


He supported the jailing of artists and writers. Where did this Freedom of Expression go? And you call him secularist? 

Would you support the jailing of artists and writers Ram –would you support the abeyance of the Constitution and all that we held sacred in democracy and the excessiveness of Indira Gandhi to gag the media-writers- political opponents? 

Tell me honesty why does Hussain expect this Freedom when he himself did not support others with the same freedom he wants? 

And the media has rushed to his rescue. Had it been a Ram who painted such obnoxious, degrading painting-the reactions of the media and the elite ‘secularists’ would have been different; because there is a different perception/and index of secularism when it comes to Ram-and a different perception/and index of secularism when it comes to Rahim/Hussain.


It brings back to my mind an episode that happened to The Hindu some years ago.[1991]. 

You had a separate weekly page for children with cartoons, quizzes, and with poems and articles of school children. In one such weekly page The Hindu printed a venerable bearded man-fully robed with head dress, mouthing some passages of the Koran-trying to teach children. It was done not only in good faith but as a part of inculcating values to children from the Koran. All hell broke loose. Your office witnessed goons who rushed in-demanded an apology-held out threats. 

In Ambur,Vaniambadi and Vellore the papers stands were burned-the copies of The Hindu were consigned to the fire. A threat to raise the issue in Parliament through a Private Members Bill was held out-Hectic activities went on- I am not sure of the nature and the
machinations behind the scene. But The Hindu next day brought out a public apology in its front page. 

Where were you Ram? How secular and tolerant were the Muslims?


Well this is of the past-  today it is worse because the communal temperature in this country is at a all high-even a small friction can ignite and demolition the country’s peace and harmony. It is against this background that one should view Hussain who is bent on abusing and insulting the Hindu Gods and Goddesses. Respect for religious sentiments, need to maintain peace and harmony should also be part of the agenda of an artist-if he is great. If it is absent then he cannot say that he respects India and express his longing for India.


Let’s face it-he is a fugitive of law. Age and religion are immaterial. 

What does the media want- that he be absolved by the courts? Even for that he has to appear in the courts-he cannot run away- After all this is the country where he lived and gave expression to his pervert sadist, erotic artistic mind under Freedom of Expression. I simply cannot jump into the bandwagon of the elite ‘secularist’ and uphold what he had done. With his brush he had committed jihad-bloodletting.


The issue is just not nudity- Yes the temples-the frescos in Konarak and Kajhuraho have nude figures- But does it say that they are Sita, Sarswati or any goddesses? 

We have the Yoni and the Phallus as sacred signs of Life-of Siva and Shakthi- take these icons to the streets, paint them -give it a caption, it become vulgar. Times have changed. Even granted that our ancients sculptured and painted naked forms and figures, with a pervert mind to demean religion is no license to repeat that in today’s changed political and social scenario and is not a sign of secularism and tolerance. I repeat there is no quarrel with nudity-painters have time and again found in it the perfection of God’s hand craft.


Let me wish Hussain peace in Qatar- the totalitarian regime with zero tolerance 

May be he will convince the regime there to permit freedom of expression in word, writing and painting. For this he could start experimenting painting forms and figure of Mohamed the Prophet-and his family And may I fervently wish that the media-especially The Hindu does not discriminate goons- let it not substitute tolerance for intolerance when it comes to Rahim and Antony and another index for Ram.


I hope you will read this in the same spirit that I have written. 
All the best to you Ram.




Dr Mrs Hilda Raja, Vadodara

Dear Prime Minister...

Is this government of the people
and for the people?

Dear Citizens...
  

The arrogance of ruling class is growing. The way their ministers are talking in public,

the cheap language they are using against Anna Hazare and other members of civil the
society is annoying.

The remarks by politicians like Kapil Sibal, Digvijay Singh, Renuka Chaudhari, 
Shaqil Ahemed and many others are utterly arrogant and uncivilized.

 

And that is why it is serious, unacceptable and condemnable.

If this government as it claims had serious charges against Baba Ram Dev, against

his team, his properties, his companies, businesses, his financial matters, it is entirely Govt.
business, the law of the land will decide how to deal with the guilty.

But the question today is different, and it is about fundamental rights of the people staging
peaceful protest. Let us not divert the issue in question this episode has raised.

Why should innocent citizens be beaten up to settle the score with Baba Ram Dev?

At 1 o'clock in the midnight? The people at the venue were all ordinary citizens and not 
terrorists nor gangsters. They were sleeping, not armed, and not  even a threat to law and order.

Why the spinal cords, skulls, legs, arms of the ordinary people were broken?
When it was not their fault?  And why the force of 5000 jawans from Rapid force was used
against innocent  men, women, old men, children and young girls ?

How is it justified? How Prime minister and Home Minister justifies this brutal action?

The fact is, Government had grand plans for using and misusing Baba Ram Dev

against Anna Hazare and his team to split civil society. And as a part of this plan, Baba was
given red carpet welcome at the airport by four senior ministers which was a well planned
political move to demolish Anna Hazare and his crusade against corruption because 

it was becoming increasingly difficult to deal with tough people on the team of Anna Hazare.

So the smart move was planned by few senior Congress ministers to demolish this whole 

movement and Baba walked in the Congress trap. Anna Hazare had warned Baba though.
But the bigger question is not about Congress playing game, it is about ...

After the brutal attack, 40/50 people got injured, some are serious and still struggling with
life in the hospital. But Delhi Police commissioner came on national TV channels and

denied use of excessive Lathee charge on the people when the live TV visuals cleary had
captured the brutal attack on the innocent people on 4th midnight. Camera's do not lie.

Then... what is this massive cover-up going on by the senior Congress ministers
of Manmohan Singh?
 

There is no regret felt at all ,not even by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. And in the
yesterday's press conference by Home minister, there was a crude attempt made to prove
how the police action was justified with some RSS stories. But the Home minister who
gave some intelligence reports from 2009, never explained the connection between the
reports and the beating of innocent unarmed citizens at 1 in the midnight.

Trying to justify the ACT of excesses on innocent people? Brutality on innocent ?

This government has become insensitive and arrogant.

Even British Empire was not so insensitive and had set up a committee against Gen. Dire
who was responsible for brutal firing on unarmed peaceful gathering at  Jalianwalah Baug.
The British administration did not spare Gen Dire in condemning his brutal, uncalled for act.

But then, Britishers were invaders and foreigners ruling over India. Today, in Independent

India, we are beaten up in our sleep, tear gassed, lathee charged, shot at, crushed by
our own elected government? By our elected representatives? And the act is justified too !!
What a shame??

Isn't it a mockery of our democracy? That few arrogant politicians have started thinking
this country is owned by few politicians, their families, their sons and daughters,
in-laws and ordinary people have no stake in the ownership, no rights whatsoever in the
governance and in ruling, once they get elected.

What a mockery of our democratic rights given by our constitution?

This is a dangerous situation and very similar to 1974 emergency when the same

Congress ruling class had reacted arrogantly and disrespected High court verdict against
then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and emergency was introduced for enjoying political powers.

The same Congress who showed its fascists, ugly face in 1974, disrespected court

verdict then, misused intelligence and police. Arrested hundreds of opposition leaders like 

Jayaprakash Narayan and threw them in the jail. Throttled media by banning news broadcast
all over. Today, this Congress is telling civil society shamelessly that you have fascist agenda?

Dear Citizens... Don't get sucked in.

Today. you make a mistake of misjudging, miss reading this political situation created
once again by same ruling congress,  who wish that, in this democratic independent India,
there should not be a word of opposition to their rule, no protest march, no Uposhan
against their miss governance, their corrupt rule, corrupt politicians, and their collective
loot of this country, YOU will be making a big mistake.

TODAY... Stand behind Anna Hazare firmly once again to protest against the assault
on our democratic and constitutional rights.

Make no mistake, Let the people's power be seen, heard and felt.

Ajay Angre
Author, Writer, Publisher
U-Said-It_Right