Fake Gandhis

Why do parents name their kids after personalities who they think are great? I have rich experience on this subject. I’ll quote two examples. When I was at my grade 6 there was this guy whose name was Sashi Kumar whose father was a judge, this was in Cuddapah, Andhra Pradesh. Suddenly to my surprise one fine morning in school this guy told all his friends that from now on his name is Nelson Nehru. I asked him what the matter is. He replied that he has no idea, as suddenly his father has changed his name. Though I did not get it at that tender age, I could guess what motivated my friend’s father to suddenly change his name to Nelson Nehru, this could possibly be due to his new found love with Nehru & Nelson Mandela? That is an educated guess. 

Another experience was with a guy called Mohammed, he is from Tondiarpet, Chennai who has four male kids and the names of all end with Castro. One thing I know for sure is that his last son who was newly born I recall Mohammed naming him King’s Castro.  Then I asked him a rhetorical question, will it not lead to confusion? I.e., naming all kids with a similar name. He replied that it shows how much he loves Cuba’s Fidel Castro. This Mohammed was an electrician who was working for a daily wage of Rs.110. It is entirely a different matter whether those who were named after such personalities actually live up to the expectations of their parents.

One would wonder as to what would have forced Jawaharlal Nehru to name his daughter Indira as Indira Gandhi, because from then on Feroz Khan has become Feroz Gandhi and their son Rajiv Gandhi and so on. There could be two reasons. One reason could be Nehru would have wanted his kids to emulate the character of the personality (Gandhi, in this case) on whose name he named his daughter. Second possible reason could be that he wanted to appropriate the legacy of the person on whose credentials the whole congress organization stood and turn it in to a family run enterprise; current day congress is exactly that, family run enterprise.

Mahatma Gandhi was the only original Gandhi that Congress party ever had; everyone else is a fake Gandhi. Raul Vince will not become Mahatma Gandhi just because he goes by his another name called as Rahul Gandhi in public. To think otherwise is a great insult to the intelligence of an ordinary Indian citizen. So all that mellow dramas through orchestrated speeches will not change anything on the ground, you are what you are.

BJP’s Romance with Islamists

Imagine Hamas & Likud party of Israel entering in to a political alliance to govern Palestine. That is unthinkable even for a naive political observer. In a similar vein BJP’s alliance with an Islamist party of Kashmir valley is unsustainable. Who are Islamists anyway?  I would consider the old definition of Associated Press “Supporter of government in accord with the laws of Islam. Those who view the Quran as a political model encompass a wide range of Muslims, from mainstream politicians to militants known as jihadi”, not all Islamists are necessarily extremists.

Islamists are experts in obscuring their intentions by routinely talking about Justice, Human rights and other lofty concepts. In principle they are no different than Islamic Extremists barring the usage of violence to meet their political ends. They often dupe the voters by religion and get themselves elected democratically so that the international community cannot call them undemocratic. Muslim Brotherhood is one such example, though it is a known Islamist organization no one thought that it would be so quick and adamant in implementing Islamist agenda. The point here is once Islamists have legitimate political authority they shall implement Islamist agenda through legal means. Somehow Mohammed Morsi of Egypt was removed as people did not approve his actions.

But the danger in Kashmir is due to the longing of Muslims to be ruled by Islamists. The victims of such desire are minorities or non-Muslims. What forced BJP which is otherwise ideologically in opposite pole to ally with an Islamist party PDP as a junior partner is not known because of the result of secret diplomacy through which BJP & PDP have reached an understanding in the run up to forming a government in the state of Jammu & Kashmir. We cannot settle with Common Minimum Program.

Releasing Islamist Masarat Alam from jail, Hoisting Pakistan Flag, objecting to the return of Kashmiri Pandit’s return to the valley are actions which prove that PDP is keeping to its schedule of implementing Islamist agenda. Re arrest of Masarat Alam on fresh charges is no relief. To assume that the issue has subsided because the prime time TV shows have stopped talking about it is tantamount to misunderstanding.

Things won’t change unless Muslims of the valley are willing to change. After all when Kashmir Pundits were slaughtered and driven out most of the killers or abettors were neighbors, so we need to appreciate the truth. BJP is in a fix. It is already reaping the results of entering in to an unholy alliance. The Common Minimum Program is no consolation and that will not stop the Islamists from what they want to do.

Though steps like abolishing Art:370 & implementing Uniform  Civil Code could keep Islamists at bay not only in Kashmir but in general, but if we have to think about implementing something immediately it is to initiate the discussion on re-drawing the assembly constituencies in the state of Jammu & Kashmir so that Jammu region is also at par with valley. It is unbecoming of BJP to claim that it has abolished the untouchability that prevailed so far where Nationalist parties like BJP could not rule Jammu & Kashmir. That should not be the motivation. We know there are some great thinking heads in the larger parivar who might have a Plan B. 

Responding to a Misleading Article - " Why Christianity failed in India ? "

My feeling after reading this:  Whoever wrote that piece appears to be under serious pressure of meeting monthly conversion targets.

Few facets of the arguments mentioned were deliberately given a spin to meet some perverted desires of the writer.  It would appear as if Missionaries are doing this job because they are trying to bring heavens on the earth by next month and this is being obstructed by Hindutva Groups.

I am not discussing on this entire article, but only on few segments.

1. Comparison of Hindu population in UK with that of the Christian population in India by %age is an attempt to fool the gullible reader. Are we comparing two countries one being India which has a billion plus population and UK which has a population of 64 Million? 2% of 64 million is not as same 2% of billion. The writer is well advised to take some statistics classes instead of hiding behind percentages.

2. Proselytizing as such is not the issue. But when you do it at an industrial scale by fooling uninformed but good hearted people by giving those crumbs and preaching them to abuse Hindu culture to prove the worthiness of Christianity is an issue. The whole North-East insurgency is directly linked to Christian-Missionary activities. Additionally the writer is well advised to read about the views of Ambedkar & Gandhi on Christian missionary activities.

3. On the question of whether Hinduism was also proselyted or not. It is not in the culture of a Hindus to slit the throats of people belonging to other cultures either because they have not converted or did not agree with Hinduism. The bloody history of Christianity is an open secret and is there for all of us to see. We have had Popes splitting the world in to two giving one part to Portuguese and the other to Spain as if they have inherited it from their grandfathers. Hindus believed in global commons. Long before the world knew who Jesus was we have had a thriving civilization in India which is still on.

4. On Hinduism's spread in South East Asia - People have voluntarily accepted Hinduism. Nobody was slaughtered to accept Hinduism.

5. The emergence of Buddhism only proves the Liberal qualities of Hinduism. For Hindus Buddha is another yogi, another rishi who attained salvation. There are hundreds of such accomplished yogis in Hindu culture. Hinduism is a religion of thousand prophets. Hindus have never felt the need to go around lying and giving money & other allurements to convert a poor guy in to Hinduism for the purposes of political control. Another advise for the writer is to know how Adi Shankara brought India from Buddhism to Hindu fold with out raising a finger, but through debates and arguments.

6. In post-colonial world Christianity is a tool to spread Imperialism. Its only business is Political Power. Hence it assists in the spread of imperialism in a benign way as the papacy believes that it cannot hold inquisitions or slaughter millions just like it did in USA for the purposes of conversion any more.

7. Hindutva is only a reaction to the murderous activities of missionaries, be it Christianity or Islam. It urges Hindus to organize politically so as to save themselves from the cheap tricks of Christian missionaries and Islamists.