Tarun Vijay

2010 की आहट अजीब कुहासे भरी दिखती है। सूखती नदिया, सिकुड़ते ग्लेशियर और घटते जंगल एक ओर हैं तो दूसरी ओर गरीबी का विस्तार थम नहीं रहा। शहरों और गावों में गरीब न केवल बढ़े हैं, बल्कि उनका जीवन पहले से ज्यादा कष्ट साध्य हुआ है, जिसके सामने अमीरों का बढ़ता प्रभाव-विस्तार और सामाजिक-राजनीतिक विषमता देश को अतिवादी हिंसा तक ले जा रही है। कश्मीर से हिंदुओं के निष्कासन के दो दशक पूरे होने की तिथि जब निकट आ रही है तो घाव पर नमक के समान सगीर अहमद रपट लाकर कश्मीर को अजीब स्वायत्तता देने की चर्चा है। तब देश की एकता के लिए क्या फिर किसी श्यामा प्रसाद मुखर्जी के बलिदान की आवश्यकता होगी? सामाजिक स्तर पर न्याय, समृद्धि और उन्नत जीवन के अवसर केवल उन लोगों तक सीमित होते जा रहे हैं जो अंग्रेजी पढ़े लिखे और साधन संपन्न हैं। देश का अखिल भारतीय स्वरूप राजनीति और पत्रकारिता में सिकुड़ता दिखता है, एक के लिए वोट बैंक देश का प्रतिरूप है तो दूसरे के लिए वही क्षेत्र मिलकर देश बनाते हैं जहा उसका प्रभाव है। रुचिका कांड में न्याय का उपहास या तेलगाना के प्रश्न पर विभ्रम जनित अराजकता टुकड़ों-टुकड़ों में बंटी खंडित दृष्टि का परिणाम है। पुलिस से राजनेता अपने सही गलत सब कार्य करवाते हैं। पुलिस जनसेवक नहीं, तबादले-पोस्टिंग और कमाई के लिए नेताओं की हस्तक बनाई जाती है-फलत: ईमानदार अफसर सजायाफ्ता की तरह किनारे धकेले जाते हैं और राठौर जैसे हर मुख्यमंत्री की आख का तारा बन जाते हैं। जब सुरक्षा के प्रमुख ही आत्मकेंद्रित द्वीप हों तो जनता किससे उम्मीद करे? यही हाल पत्रकारिता का हो रहा है। मीडिया का मायाजाल सही-गलत के फर्क को ही धूमिल नहीं कर रहा, बल्कि चौथे स्तंभ के प्रति जन-आस्था को डिगा रहा है। पत्रकारिता जाबाज कलम-धर्मियों का क्षेत्र है, पर वह भी आत्मकेंद्रित द्वीप में बदल जाएगी तो भारत कहा छपेगा?

तेलंगाना में जनभावनाओं के साथ खिलवाड़ राष्ट्रीय एकता और समग्र भारतीय दृष्टि के लिए बेहद क्षतिकारक है। आखिर किसी भी प्रांत के उपक्षेत्र को अलग अस्तित्व बनाने की माग करने पर बाध्य ही क्यों होना पड़ता है? यह तब होता है जब द्वीप देश से बड़े होने का अहंकार पालने लगते हैं। नागालैंड या मणिपुर या लद्दाख से उनका नाता रिश्ता सिर्फ तभी तक रहेगा जब तक उनको वहा से कुछ मिलेगा? उनके लिए देश श्री अरविंद के शब्दों में साक्षात् जगत्जननी का स्वरूप नहीं, बल्कि एक प्लेटफार्म है, अपनी व्यक्तिगत वासनापूर्ति की रेलगाड़ी पकड़ने के लिए। जब ऐसे द्वीप-दृष्टि वाले सत्ता में आते हैं या प्रशासन और साहित्य में दखल देते हैं तो खंडित समाज का सृजन होता है। ऐसा मंडल के समय हुआ, राजेंद्र सच्चर कमेटी ने यही काम किया। गंगा सफाई अभियान में गड़बड़ करने वालों का भी यही पाप है तो उनका भी जो गंगा के अविरल प्रवाह को बाधित कर राष्ट्र की मूल धरोहर के साथ छल कर रहे हैं-तनिक अधिक आराम से रहने की खातिर वे अपने पूर्वजों द्वारा संजोयी विरासत को ही दाव पर लगा रहे हैं। यह भी द्वीपीय खंडित दृष्टि का फल है-सिर्फ मैं और मेरे इर्द-गिर्द का हित, बाकी की परवाह नहीं। हाल ही में एक फिल्म घोषित हुई है-माई नेम इज खान अर्थात मेरा नाम खान है। देश के लाखों दिलों के प्रिय अभिनेता शाहरुख खान इसके नायक हैं। खान होने के कारण उन्हें अमेरिका में जो कथित अपमान झेलना पड़ा उसका इसमें वर्णन है। इसके पहले एक पत्रिका को दिए साक्षात्कार में शाहरुख खान ने घोषित किया कि ‘वह इस्लाम के वैश्विक दूत’ यानी एंबेसडर हैं। अच्छी बात है। उन्हें उन अमेरिकी सुरक्षाकर्मियों ने जाच से गुजारा जो अपने देश में पुन: 9/11 नहीं होने देना चाहते थे। इसमें आपत्ति की क्या बात है? अगर आज ज्यादातर जिहादी आतंकवादी खान होने का दावा करते हैं तो शाहरुख साहब को उनके आतंक का शिकार होने वालों के साथ खड़े दिखना चाहिए या अपनी जाच को अपना अपमान मानकर उस पर फिल्म बनानी चाहिए? उन लाखों कश्मीरी देशभक्त भारतीयों के उजड़ने, कत्ल होने और स्वतंत्र देश में शरणार्थी बनने की व्यथा क्या शाहरुख की अमेरिकी पुलिस द्वारा जाच यानी जूता-जुराब उतारने से कम दुखदायी और इसलिए महत्वहीन है? शाहरुख खान आज ‘बादशाह’ क्या इस बदौलत हैं कि वह ‘इस्लाम के एंबेसडर’ हैं या इसलिए हैं कि वह बेहद अच्छे अभिनेता, अच्छे भारतीय हैं और इस कारण देश के लाखों-करोड़ों हिंदू भी उन्हें अपना प्रिय स्टार मानते हैं? उनके मन में खान के नाते खड़े होने के बजाय उस कौल या रैना या भट्ट के दर्द को साझा करने का विचार क्यों नहीं आया?

यह है द्वीप-दृष्टि जो भारत की समग्रता के महासागर को अपने भीतर समाने के बजाय उससे पृथक रहने में अपना भविष्य देखती है। देश ऐसे द्वीपों से नहीं बनते। देश बनते हैं एक राष्ट्रीयता, एक सामूहिक विराट स्वप्न, एक जन और संस्कृति के अधिष्ठान से, जहा के लोग एक दूसरे के सुख-दुख में अपना सुख-दुख महसूस करें। 2010 का वर्ष, हालाकि हमारा अपना भारतीय वर्ष तो चैत्र शुक्ल प्रथम, वर्ष प्रतिपदा के दिन ही मनाया जाएगा, भारत सहित विश्व में गहरे बदलाव लाने वाला है। ये बदलाव भाषा, तकनीक, राजनीतिक व्यवहार और मेहनतकश जनता के प्रति रवैये को भी प्रभावित करेंगे। आखिर क्यों विकास केवल शहर केंद्रित रहे और किसान आत्महत्याएं करें तो उसकी तुलना में बालीवुड की अभिनेत्री की शादी या राजनेता का सुपुत्र ज्यादा महत्व की सुर्खिया पाए? देश का युवा पुराने चोले को फेंकने, रंगरूप, मुहावरों और चलन का साथी बना है। जो यह पहचानेगा और समग्र भारतीय दृष्टि के साथ अपनी धुरी पर टिका रहेगा वही जीतेगा।

I am not Khan. My name bears a different set of four letters: K A U L. Kaul. As those who know Indian names would understand I happened to be born in a family which was called Hindu by others. Hence, we were sure, we would never get a friend like KJ to make a movie on our humiliations, and the contemptuous and forced exile from our homeland. It’s not fashionable. It’s fashionable to get a Khan as a friend and portray his agony and pains and sufferings when he is asked by a US private to take off his shoes and show his socks. Natural and quite justifiable that Khan must feel insulted and enraged. Enough Masala to make a movie.

But unfortunately I am a Kaul. I am not a Khan.

Hence when my sisters and mothers were raped and killed, when six-year-old Seema was witness to the brutal slaughtering of her brother, mother and father with a butcher’s knife by a Khan, nobody ever came to make a movie on my agony, pain and anguish, and tears.

No KJ would make a movie on Kashmiri Hindus. Because we are not Khans. We are Kauls.

When we look at our own selves as Kauls, we also see a macabre dance of leaders who people Parliament. Some of them were really concerned about us. They got the bungalows and acres of greenery and had  their portraits  were worshipped by the gullible devotees of patriotism.

They made reservations in schools and colleges for us. In many many other states. But never did they try that we go back to our homes. They have other priorities and ‘love your jihadi neighborhood’ programmes. They get flabbier and flabbier with the passing of each year, sit on sacks of sermons; issue instructions to live simply and follow moral principles delivered by ancestors and kept in documents treated with time-tested preservatives.

They could play with me because my name is Kaul. And not Mr Khan. I saw the trailer to this fabulous movie, which must do good business at the box office.

There was not even a hint that terror is bad and it is worse if it is perpetuated in the name of a religion that means Peace. Peace be upon all its followers and all other the creatures too.

So you make a movie on the humiliation of taking off shoes to a foreign police force which has decided not to allow another 9/11.

The humiliation of taking off the shoes and the urge to show that you are innocent is really too deep. But what about the humiliation of leaving your home and hearth and the world and the relatives and wife and mother and father? And being forced to live in shabby tents, at the mercy of nincompoop leaders encashing your misery and bribe-seeking babus? And seeing your daughters growing up too sudden and finding no place to hide your shame?

No KJ would ever come forward to make a movie, a telling, spine-chilling narration on the celluloid, of five-year-old Seema, who saw her parents and brother being slaughtered by a butcher’s knife in Doda. Because her dad was not Mr Khan. He was one Mr Kaul.

Sorry, Mr Kaul and your entire ilk. I can’t help you.

It’s not fashionable to side with those who are Kauls. And Rainas. And Bhatts. Dismissively called KPs. KPs means Kashmiri Pandits. They are a bunch of communalists. They were the agents of one Mr Jagmohan who planned their exodus so that Khans can be blamed falsely. In fact, a movie can be made on how these KPs conspired their own exile to give a bad name to the loving and affectionate Khan brothers of the valley.

To voice the woes of Kauls is sinful. The right course to get counted in the lists of the Prime Minister’s banquets and the President’s parties is to announce from the roof top: hey, men and ladies, I am Mr Khan.

The biggest apartheid the state observes is to exclude those who cry for Kauls, wear the colours of  Ayodhya, love the wisdom of the civilisational heritage, dare to assert as Hindus in  a land which is known as Hindustan too and  struggle to live with dignity as Kauls. They are out and exiled. You can see any list of honours and invites to summits and late-evening gala parties to toast a new brand. All that the Kauls are allowed is a space at Jantar Mantar: shout, weep and go back to your tents after a tiring demonstration. Mr Kaul, you have got a wrong name.

A dozen KJs would fly to take you atop the glory – posts and gardens of sympathies if you accept to wear a Khan name and love a Sunita, Pranita, Komal or a Kamini. Well, here you have a sweetheart in Mandira. That goes well with the story.

And you pegged the movie plot on autism.

I wept. It was too much. I wept as a father of a son who needed a story as an Indian. Who cares for his autistic son, his relationship with the western world, his love affair with a young  sweet something as a human, as someone whose heart goes beyond being a Hindu, a Muslim or a proselytizing Vatican-centric aggressive soul. Not the one who would declare in newspaper interviews: “I think I am an ambassador for Islam”.  Shah Rukh is Shah Rukh, not because he is an ambassador for Islam. If that was true, he could have found a room in Deoband. Fine enough. But he became a heartthrob and a famousl star because he is a great actor. He owes everything he has to Indians and not just to Muslims. We love him not because he is some Mr Khan. We love him because he has portrayed the dreams, aspirations, pains, anguish and ups and downs of our daily life. As  an Indian. As one of us.

If he wants to use our goodwill and love for strengthening his image as an ambassador for Islam, will we have to think to put up an ambassador for Hindus? That, at least to me, would be unacceptable because I trust everyone: a Khan or a Kaul or a Singh or a Victor. Who represents India represents us all too, including Hindus. My best ambassadorship would be an ambassadorship for the tricolour and not for anything else because I see my Ram and Dharma in that. I don’t think even an Amitabh or a Hritik would ever think in terms Shah Rukh has chosen for himself.  But shouldn’t these big, tall, successful Indians who wear Hindu names make a movie on why Kauls were ousted? Why Godhra occurred in the first place? Why nobody, yes, not a single Muslim, comes forward to take up the cause of the exiled and killed and contemptuously marginalized Kauls whereas every Muslim complainant would have essentially a Hindu advocate to take on Hindus as fiercely as he can?

If you are Mr Khan and found dead on the railway tracks, the entire nation would be shaken. And he was also a Rizwan. May be just a coincidence that our Mr Khan in the movie is also a Rizwan.

Rizwan’s death saw the police commissioner punished and cover stories written by missionary writers. But if you are a Sharma or a Kaul and happened to love an  Ameena Yusuf in Srinagar, you would soon find your corpse inside the police thana and NONE, not even a small-time local paper would find it worthwhile to waste a column on you.  No police constable would be asked to explain how a wrongly detained person was found dead in police custody?

Because the lover found dead inside a police thana was not Mr Khan. No KJ would ever come forward to make a movie on ‘My name is Kaul. And I am terror-struck by Khans’.

Give me back my identity as an Indian, Mr. Khan and I would have no problem even wearing your name and appreciating the tender love of an autistic son.

http://blogs.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/indus-calling/entry/my-name-is-not-khan

बैंकाक नगर में चारों तरफ जिस भाषा और बौद्ध पंथ के दर्शन होते हैं उनमें भारत झलकता है। गणपति घर-घर में पूजे जा रहे हैं। कुछ वर्र्षो से गणेश चतुर्थी का उत्सव भी काफी धूमधाम से मनाया जाता है। यहां के अंतरराष्ट्रीय हवाई अड्डे का नाम शुद्ध संस्कृत में सुवर्ण भूमि रखा गया है और राजा को तो रामनवम् की पदवी से अलंकृत किया गया है, क्योंकि वहां राम के नाम पर शासन करने की राज परंपरा में गणपति, शिव, हनुमान, कार्तिकेय, लक्ष्मी आदि देवी-देवताओं की पूजा का प्रचलन भी बढ़ा है। इसी परंपरा में चीनी मूल की अत्यंत प्रसिद्ध सिद्ध योगिनी समान थाई बौद्ध भिक्षु ने अपने कायरें से थाईलैंड में अद्भुत कीर्ति अर्जित की है। अस्सी वर्षीया इस बौद्ध भिक्षु का नाम है क्यों सोंग है, जिन्होंने गत चालीस वषरें से निरंतर अपनी साधना के बल पर विराट बौद्ध मंदिर बनवाए और उनमें शिव का प्रमुख स्थान रखा। वह शिवभक्त हैं। बौद्ध मंदिर के अलावा एक पृथक अत्यंत विशाल शिव मंदिर भी उन्होंने बनवाया है जो थाईलैंड में हिंदू दर्शनार्थियों के अलावा स्थानीय थाई बौद्ध मतावलंबियों के लिए वृहद आकर्षण का केंद्र बना है। लगभग सौ फीट ऊंची शिव प्रतिमा, त्रिशूल और नंदी सहित थाई मंदिर के भीतर हजार शिवलिंग विशाल भवन में एक रोमांच पैदा करते हैं। वहां सबसे पहले मुझे मेरे मित्र दिनेश दुबे ले गए और वहां जाकर देखा कि माताजी ने अपनी शिष्या के रूप में शरण्या और एक बेटी के नाते तनुश्री को मातृवत वत्सलता से अंतरंग बनाया हुआ है। थाई देश की इस महिमावान माता का भारत प्रेम निष्छल और निर्मल है। वह अपने मंदिर की ओर से अनेक अनाथ बच्चों की शिक्षा तथा लालन-पालन की भी पूरी व्यवस्था करती हैं। उनके मंदिर तथा आश्रम में केवल शुद्ध शाकाहारी भोजन मिलता है। गत सप्ताह उनकी चालीस वर्षीया साधना के परिणामस्वरूप एक बहुमंजिले पगोड़ा की प्राण प्रतिष्ठा का अनुष्ठान संपन्न हुआ, जिसमें शाही राजकुमारी ने भाग लिया। इन पगोड़ा में दस हजार बुद्ध प्रतिमाएं स्थापित की गई हैं। मुख्य प्रतिमा देवी दुर्गा के सहस्त्र हाथों वाली है, जिसे अवलोकितेश्वर का उमा रूप माना जाता है। उसकी यहां पूजा होती है और बौद्ध मंत्रों में भी उमा देवी के नाम का जाप किया जाता है। इस पगोड़ा की इक्कीस मंजिलें हैं और प्रत्येक मंजिल पर विश्वभर से लाए गए बुद्ध, गणेश, शिव, लक्ष्मी, काली, दुर्गा आदि देवताओं की सुंदर कलात्मक शिल्पकृतियां रखी गई हैं। उल्लेखनीय तथ्य यह है कि इस संपूर्ण महिमावान कृति को राज परिवार और राजनेताओं का सीमा रहित समर्थन प्राप्त है। एक बौद्ध देश में महायान के माध्यम से बौद्ध भिक्षुणी की तपस्या का यह विराट रूप किसी भी दर्शनार्थी को प्रथमदृष्ट्या अभिभूत कर देता है। उनकी जीवनकथा भी बहुत रोमांचक है। बचपन में उनका विवाह हुआ था, दो बेटे हैं और पांच पोते-पोतियां। उनके पतिदेव ईसाई थे, परंतु अपनी पत्नी की अपार बुद्ध भक्ति देखकर उन्होंने बौद्ध मत का अनुशीलन किया और कालांतर में स्वयं बौद्ध भिक्षु बन गए। उनके देहांत के बाद माता सी कुंगसेन ने अपना सारा जीवन बौद्ध मत के प्रचार और थाईलैंड के बच्चों की शिक्षा के लिए समर्पित कर दिया। वह उत्तरी थाईलैंड के वनवासी बच्चों में स्कूल और संस्कार केंद्र भी चला रहीं हैं। राजकुमारी चुलाभरन के कैंसर रिसर्च सेंटर के लिए भी वह सहायता दे रही हैं। रोचक बात यह है कि उनके शिष्यों में मुस्लिम भी हैं। बहुत कम लोगों को यह जानकारी होगी कि थाईलैंड में मुस्लिम समाज में अरबी नाम रखने का रिवाज नहीं है। वे थाई भाषा के नाम रखते हैं, जैसे कंचना सुवाभुम एक मुस्लिम महिला अधिकारी हैं, जो इन थाई माताजी की प्रिय शिष्या हैं। उनका कहना है कि माताजी का व्यवहार ही ऐसा है कि उनको उसी में ईश्वर के प्रेम की अनुभूति होती है। थाई माताजी का अब अगला स्वप्न है कैलास मानसरोवर यात्रा पर जाना और शिव-शक्ति के दर्शन करना। वे इस आयु में भी एक तरुण युवती की भांति सक्रिय और सदा कार्यरत रहती हैं। उनको अचानक शिवभक्ति का कैसे ध्यान हुआ? इसके उत्तर में उनका कहना है कि कुछ वर्ष पूर्व उनको स्वप्न में शिव दर्शन हुए थे, तभी से उनके हृदय में शिवजी के प्रति गहन श्रद्धा उमड़ आई। उनके जीवन का एक अंतिम स्वप्न यह भी है कि इस शिवमंदिर में वह कैलास मानसरोवर की साक्षात प्रतिकृति बनवाएं, ताकि जो लोग स्वयं कैलास पर्वत के दर्शन नहीं कर सकते वे यहां आकर उनके रूप की पूजा कर सकें। थाई माताजी की साधना के कारण थाईलैंड में हिंदू तथा बौद्ध समन्वय का असाधारण अभूतपूर्व अध्याय रचा गया है जिससे भारत को भी प्रेरणा लेनी चाहिए और जो लोग धर्म के नाम पर हिंदू-बौद्ध समन्वय तोड़ने का प्रयास करते हैं उनको इन महान थाई माताजी के करुणामय तथा सर्व समन्वयवादी दृष्टिकोण से शिक्षा लेनी चाहिए।

Copenhagen pundits rushing from poor countries are the same as who once adorned the Mughal durbar. Never thinking or doing what they actually need to, but following what they are told. The mad rush of articles and a craze to be seen and counted with the western sahibs with very serious and very gloomy faces is just hilarious.

True, we have got to save our planet and rivers and water and mountains and the good earth. But today India needs much more than that to save humans from dying on footpaths. Reducing carbon emissions is fine. But should it be reduced before we reduce the levels of corruption, illiteracy and terrorism?

We may allocate a thousand crore rupees after  Copenhagen for addressing issues handed over to us by those who have been actually responsible for the climatic mess we find ourselves in. Still, all that would go down the drain if we keep on living with high corruption levels, widespread rural and urban illiteracy and unimaginable poverty amid islands of stinking wealthy sections who organize seminars on Kyoto protocol.

India needs immediately to address the highly inflammable issues of terror, improve the public health system and spread literacy on a war footing. Everything else will work better afterwards. If we try to copy blindly a highly literate and prosperous west and set our priorities accordingly, we shall be doomed. Look at the messy preparations for the Commonwealth Games, the billions wasted on the Ganga cleansing project, Yamuna turned into a nullah and the agricultural scene presenting suicidal tendencies with Maoists cashing in on the resultant unrest. What have we done seriously on these issues that suddenly a Copenhagen jamboree took overwhelming everything else?

The problems created by the gora-lands can’t be our burden like Kipling’s Ramu. Time is ripe for the Asian power centres to lead the west rather that offering to be led by their misplaced priorities.

Just have a bird’s eye view of what they have ‘gifted’ us so far. Massacred aborigines in the Americas, New Zealand, Australia etc, and then created endowments to study their ‘rich’ culture, put the original owners into reservations and asked the rest of the world to come and see them as tourist attractions.

They wanted the whole world look, worship and behave like them, the way they would understand and appreciate and hence began the wars first, second, the atom bombs and Hiroshima and Vietnams. Then they began a movement to stop nuclear proliferation, compel us to sign the CTBT, which they won’t do themselves. Start peace missions and grab all the Nobel peace decorations rejecting Gandhi purely on racist basis.

They send armies to foreign lands to kill people, including children (reported as accident), create an atmosphere where large populations are devoid of progress and food unless they accept their hegemony and then ask us to clean up the dirt in Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq making friends with Beijing, giving it the ‘responsibility’ to get Kashmir crisis resolved. Wow! Isn’t it a wonderful mechanism of neo-world order of the old colonialist mind?

They destroyed the largest hectares of rain forest, built huge monstrous dams, angered nature and now ask us to come to Copenhagen forgetting our national priorities and sign on papers they have prepared.

Good that we have a Jairam. One can only hope he will do what India needs and not what the western conceptualisers of new anxieties dish out for us.

In our part of the world more people die and will continue to die, unless immediate action is taken, of hunger, poverty, terrorism, unavailable or bad healthcare, political and administrative corruption.

We get sick of these daily doses of high levels of carbonized inactions and see nauseatingly a group of disconnected mediapersons and politicians eating out of the hands of Copenhagen’s starlets. They must focus on environmental issues more seriously and in a committed way. That alone is going to bring about the change, nothing else.

The tricks they crack on us are not new. Remember the Y2K scare just before the new millennium began? All the machines would crash, time zones would mismatch, stock exchanges would collapse and all that blah-blah. It was fun to awake in the first morning of 2000 without anything bad happening. Not that pollution or drying up rivers and changing climate is a false scare like that. But this is just an example of the western attempt to confuse and misguide the rest of the world setting our agenda.

In fact, we just don’t need a Copenhagen to make us work for addressing our issues. We are responsible for polluting Dal lake, making most of the water bodies in districts disappear, seeing Gangotri glacier receding and shackling Ganga in a most horrendous way – with unbelievable thoughtless action to produce more hot money than generating power for the poor. It all happens because of a callous administration unawakened masses, huge socio-political divide that thrives on corruption. Climate change is not an isolated issue to be resolved through rich men’s papers. It’s our own creation and hence needs a domestic cleanup first. The money we have to spend on security because of the two nuclear-powered hostile countries around and to tackle insurgencies and terrorism, supported by the enemies looking down our necks is too enormous and has to be saved through an invincible defence and a ruthless mechanism to end internal insecurity. What’s our response on this front? Can any leader or even a middle-level bureaucrat think of going to a government hospital in times of an emergency? If not what right these dummies have to talk of an issue that a common Indian will take years to understand? Why can’t we prioritize issues that make his life better and address the other issues in a different way, the way our domestic needs guide?

Fifty-six newspapers in 45 countries taking the unprecedented step of speaking in one voice through a common editorial was a good idea. But for those whose stomachs were full and had access to read a news sheet. What about those who were far away from these ‘luxuries’ and have to face the brunt of the climatic change more than anyone else? Who loses land, finds polluted rivers unusable for agriculture, unavailable schools and wells filled with industrial waste? Not those who write special edits and have  access to mineral water bottles? Should they decide what the majority needs?

I had visualized a 26/11 anniversary befitting the solemnity of the occasion with all parties’ leaders led by Manmohan Singh and Ratan Tata at Gateway of India paying homage to the innocent victims, saluting the security personnel and resolving in unison to never let such an incident happen again. After all,  the nation is greater than party politics and ideological differences.

But 24 hours before the deadly date I feel defeated as an Indian, by my own fellow men, who were supposed to lead us to a more secure future, while seeing a blank and a shallow 26/11 anniversary. A billion nice people, condemned to have ugly leaders with an eye on personal aggrandizement and glory deserved better.

See what are the two most important stories hogging the space on our channels and newspapers on the eve of 26/11. One is about Shilpa’s marriage reception and the other is a reception hosted by Obama in Washington for our PM.

If the opposition is confusedly mired in the dud dirty linen of another Manmohan, who gave a report that could have well have been released at the AICC headquarters , the ruling clique is eyeing the next elections and the enthronement of its prince charming hence the preparations for repeating the Hindu-Muslim division game have begun in right earnest.

The only hope lies in the people’s power and passionate regards for their dead and honest. While we may have a few words of empathy and assurances delivered by a failed CEO of the country who thought it wise to spend the anniversary of an attack on India in Washington, rather than spending a quiet day with those who suffered and comfort the nation with his presence, the people are emotionally observing the day with an angst in their heart and homage to the dead who fell on this day last year to the bullets of the most cowardly savages.

Nobody can forget that while the security personnel were fighting a battle with less professional weapons and instruments, the leaders were making a tamasha of the incident. Hence the shame brought to them by a media and people’s all-pervasive anguish had the home minister and the chief minister’s head rolling with the state home minister too following suit.

The year post-26/11 saw Maoist killings on an extraordinary rise.Unparalleled Chinese incursions.LeT overactivated with a Pakistan refusing to listen to us or even accept our evidences.India losing moral ground as a biggest target of terror on this planet and forced to talk economy with the US in times of facing multifaceted terror wars without any conceivable joint action plan with so-called avowed friends to eliminate murder machines.

And we continued with Rahul’s roadshows, dalit hut stopovers, Koda fumblings, Vande Mataram opposed in presence of the home minister, ‘Mee Marathi’ chauvinism, a traitor in the valley invited Chinese intervention, Liberhan’s 17 years of no-consequence deadwood, a fratricidal opposition and churning of shallow political gossip which they call journalism.

That was the year we saw after India was shaken up by 10 mad lads. And we say we shall try to convince Obama to eliminate terror for us. Ha!

The much-touted Force One’s first demo fizzling out as a laughing stock and a year later, the same party is in governance, not because people thought it’s a better option but because the opposition failed to prove its credentials. The same state home minister is again installed. Not a single guilty man has been punished. Taj decided to have its own security arrangement rather than depend on the khaki that remains a victim of lack of professional preparedness due to lethargic political support to provide latest equipments. The martyrs, who were promised a lot last year by the paan-chewing politicos, have yet to receive the help, and the wives of Karkare and Saluskar had to travel to Delhi to meet Sonia, a year later. Not that the state governors could go to their houses, offer apologies and have the formalities for help completed at the convenience of the families of the martyred .

No, it couldn’t be done. Neither the better, lightweight bulletproof jackets nor the better firepowered machines have been procured. Kasab is on the front pages daily like a masala providing Page 3 material. Policeman gave their lives so that a Kasab is caught alive but their colleagues find themselves in a no better environment to work.

The will to fight and defeat the enemy is dead. It’s the biggest casualty in this system. Washington’s convenience of dates to host a dinner for Manmohan Singh was more important than to observe the first anniversary of 26/11 at home and resolve decisively to annihilate the terror outfits through a non-partisan collective effort.

There is no security alert that could be trusted to thwart a repeat of 26/11. If in the last 12 months, there has been no attack; it’s not because the home minister had made the security arrangements foolproof, but perhaps the attackers have not yet decided.

While there is an all-round systemic failure, the tide of change is too dim and challenged. The king’s failings must make masses to take up the challenge to rejuvenate the public life and throw out the fossils, paving the way for a secured land and a responsive regime.

Just work to bring that moment with a candle for the 26/11 martyrs. That’s the only way to sincerely observe the first anniversary of the black day and to have it as the last incident

India will have to fight its own battles. It cannot expect the US to help us fight them.

Two kinds of people are complaining about Barack Obama’s Asia tour. One, those Americans who have been seeing America in the George W Bush mould for too long. They get depressed about a placid president and hence describing his Asia visit as ‘timid’ or too yielding to China.

They would have loved an Obama chiding the Chinese and demanding a human rights commission on Tibet . Obama didn’t oblige them. He needed a facelift for the US and tried his best.

In the second category of people, we stand out brightly. We like others to do our unfinished jobs. It is not amazing to see Indian cry babies complaining too much that Obama didn’t do enough for us. We forget he is the president of the United States and his first and foremost duty is to serve her interest and not ours.

And he did well for the US in his first Asia tour that took him to Japan, Singapore, China and South Korea in nine days — with the maximum time being spent in China, the Asian superpower who spoke to the White House with an erect spine and received a warm hug.

In fact, Obama is the first US president after a long time who presented the image of an amiable, friendly and accessible head of a superpower that had otherwise become synonymous with crude diplomacy laced with military adventurism during the Bush era.

In Japan Obama won a standing ovation when he presented his Pacific connection story — a very personal and a touching one indeed. And in China his descent from Air Force One alone holding an umbrella amidst Shanghai’s first rains won him instant fans.

If Obama has won another friend for Washington, why should we complain if our leaders are on a spree to lose all and bend backwards for an audience with a queen or an alien benefactor?

Americans are a patriotic people who elect leaders with a spine, never compromising national security and always honouring their security forces.

If we don’t do that, should we be complaining about it to the White House? Or should we set our own house right?

Here is a nation that doesn’t honour its soldiers and keeps negotiating with traitors. We are a State that doesn’t care about its farmers till they block Delhi’s roads. We get enmeshed in hot money pursuits stashed in places like Laos and Liberia, and no one believes the culprit will ever get punished.

Who knows if a Koda or a Reddy will get 20 plus MPs in the next election and be inducted as the Cabinet minister in charge of internal security?

We kow-tow disoriented before the most horrendous of jihad sponsors and keep inviting murderers for talks and talks and then again talks for decades without resolving the main issues of contention.

Then, one fine morning, when we see the leader of a strong nation discussing our problems with his counterpart, we feel oh, why has he not helped us solve our problems with China? And with Pakistan? And while we have signed a nuke deal, why should it put pressure on us to sign the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty too?

The US did what it did because that is what it thought was good for it. Obama is not ruling the US to ensure India benefits. Is that clear?

And look how our leaders, the great, patriotic, democratic representatives of this land behave. Here is a ‘certificate, which I quote from a national daily: ‘Vice-chief of the Indian Air Force, Air Marshal P K Barbora, said, “Politicians cutting across party lines are upsetting armed forces modernisation and procurement programmes.” He further added, “The fact remains that the IAF’s fleet of fighter aircraft is getting depleted. The navy’s submarine strength is dwindling and the army has not added a new gun to its heavy artillery in more than 20 years. The weapons, ammunition and systems with the armed forces are getting outdated faster than the government is able to replace them. Irresponsible politics over the years, sometimes when a party is in government or sometimes when it is in the Opposition — it has all along been seen that whenever the government of the day clears something, the Opposition says no. This badly impinges (on the preparedness) of the defence (forces),” he said.’

Do we need more to complain to Obama?

Now that our prime minister is in the US, guess what the ‘biggest’ secret that the wizards of the PM’s media advisors doled out just before Dr Singh left for the US was. Some gems from a news agency report: ‘As the silence fuelled speculation, the White House finally broke the silence to let out the closely guarded secret saying that the dinner would be held under the massive tent instead of the ornate state dining room. The tent option has been picked up as the guest list mushroomed and instead of 120 which the ornate room can accommodate, the Obamas are inviting close to 400 people for their first state dinner on November 24.’

That’s all we need. Khana peena aur ghoomna (food, drink and travel). Be happy that Obama is giving a lavish dinner to not just 120, but to 400 of all the important, leading Indian lights of American life. Is that a mean achievement?

The US and China know what they want. China made the US accept its significant role in Asia, turned India into an area to be watched, controlled and helped to stay calm while remaining friendliest with Pakistan.

Both the US and China do not recognise Kashmir as a part of India. They look at the area as an unsettled matter, help Pakistan with dollars and military help, turn a blind eye towards Pakistan using their arms and grants against us, have done nothing to help India post 26/11, have refrained to tell Islamabad to stop its patronage to anti-India elements.

One of them attacked India in 1962; the other had remained a silent spectator then. Even so our analysts and Washington watchers feel at least now the US should help us. Wow!

When we are left to our own, we do better.

Obama postponed his meeting with the Dalai Lama before his China visit. We stood firm and allowed the Dalai Lama to go to Arunachal Pradesh. We trusted the US, inked a controversial nuke deal and hence invited China’s bitter reaction expressed through its Arunachal raga, almost reminding of a cold war. The US did not even smile as if this doesn’t concern it. And naturally so. Why should our spondylitis make the US lie low?

We have got to deal with the US on our own strength and de-link relations with China from Washington and the Dalai Lama. If we have to save Arunachal, it would be done on the shoulders of leaders in Delhi who have a spine and a will to raise the military strength to a winnable level. Not that we have to increase the numbers of fighter jets and submarines and nuke bombs to what Beijing possess.

Wars are not won by exchanging lists, but by the fierce resolve to destroy the enemy with a first strike mental make-up.

As one American commentator put it succinctly, ‘Overall, Obama’s Asia policy has been largely driven by events and domestic priorities rather than by an over-arching strategic vision. The Obama team had to closely coordinate with China on financial matters in response to the financial crisis.’

Hence, Obama won’t care about India’s case on Kashmir or rescuing Aung San Suu Kyi, leave aside helping the Dalai Lama to get back to Tibet honourably. His priorities are different.

Feeling euphoric seeing Obama hiring a few Americans with Indian faces on his team make no sense. They would be overburdened to ensure nobody blames them emotionally helping India crossing lines of American interest.

After all, Washington didn’t allow Indian intelligence officers to question David Coleman Headley arrested by the Federal Bureau of Investigation on charges of plotting terror attacks in India though India had allowed the FBI to interrogate Ajmal Kasab, the lone terrorist held in the 26/11 Mumbai attacks.

The US hasn’t yet taken Indian companies, including the Indian Space and Research Organisation, off the blacklist prohibiting US agencies dealing with them. It is pressurising India to sign the CTBT without considering that we are surrounded by two nuke powers hostile to us.

The US didn’t help us in 1962, bullied us in 1971, put hurdles in our way to punish Pakistan post Kargil, thus helping Islamabad’s dictator, didn’t take up our case post 26/11.

Washington — or for that matter any superpower — respects those who have strength and show an unyielding attitude.

Till we have such rulers who choose a date like 26/11 to be in Washington, rather than being in Mumbai comforting the nation, we can’t stop greater powers meddling in our region and affairs.

The night before President Obama’s first Asian tour began, he was trying to comfort an America deeply in shock after Maj Nidal Malik Hasan killed 13 American soldiers who were bound for Afghanistan. Yet, Obama’s nine-day tour, which took him to Tokyo, Singapore, Shanghai, Beijing and Seoul, was marked more by economics than a consolidation of the Asian powers against terrorism. That’s how he is trying to assure Americans  — bringing back buoyancy to the US markets, reducing unemployment and making Asians buy more American goods rather overfilling American bazaars with Asian goods.

Hence, more than any other country China became the most significant stopover, and longest too — three nights and three days beginning Sunday evening, November 15. To make the Chinese receptive he refused a meeting with the Dalai Lama in Washington, and remained noncommittal whether he would raise issues of Tibet and human rights violations with his Chinese counterpart. Though an overcautious China provided all the reasons to Obama for a Tibet remark  when its foreign ministry spokesperson raised the issue via Abraham Lincoln , referring  to Obama — he is black, he admires Abraham Lincoln, so he, of all people, should sympathize with Beijing’s effort to prevent Tibet from seceding and sliding back into what it was before its liberation by Chinese troops: a feudalistic, slaveholding society headed by the Dalai Lama.

But Obama may not necessarily oblige Dalai supporters as he wants to project a different image of America — a suave , conciliatory nation that can be talked to. His message to China from Tokyo was warm and friendly, wanting to build strong ties and not taking the rise of China as a threat. And he introduced himself as a pacific president with such personal history that the audience in the Suntory hall of Tokyo gave him a standing ovation. He said: “I am an American president who was born in Hawaii and lived in Indonesia as a boy. My sister Maya was born in Jakarta and later married a Chinese-Canadian. My mother spent nearly a decade working in the villages of Southeast Asia, helping women buy a sewing machine or an education that might give them a foothold in the world economy.” “So,” he added, “the Pacific rim has helped shape my view of the world.”

America needs a supportive Chinese market and wants China to move towards a market-based value for its currency. So Obama’s meeting with President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao would concentrate more on economic issues and yes, AfPak policy, which affects the regional power balance but won’t touch any controversial issues. As New York Times put it, he is clearly seeking to avoid alienating Beijing on the eve of his inaugural visit to China.

That’s a big morale booster to China specially it is engaged in a wordy duel with India on border issues that reached a ‘cold war’ level during the Dalai lama’s Arunachal visit. Hence a natural corollary to Obama’s China visit would be how it will affect India-China ties. Observers say the recent Chinese ‘war of words’ with India and Chinese government-run media’s xenophobic reactions and commentaries against Indian positions — reminding us not to forget 1962, can also be attributed  to the growing India-US closeness symbolized in the Bush era’s nuke deal. That has made China feel threatened by an India-US alignment. Hence the pressure on India has been building up. Another factor is the increasing US influence in Asia, which China has never liked.  China thinks that India, which had kept a genuine non-aligned relationship with Washington has now completely gone into the US camp after the nuke deal. Indira Gandhi’s regime and Vajpayee’s strong nationalist stand post-Pokaran 2 showed India independent.

No more now, is the Chinese perception. This has put India under a bigger strategic burden and complexity. We are not sure if the US will help us during a skirmish with our northern neighbour, as US-China ties would be more important to Washington than  help to Delhi. Obama’s Asian tour doesn’t seem to have taken India as an Asian power, and Obama would meet Indian Prime Minister and the President at Washington, and not in Delhi. Just before Obama left for China, the US administration refused to allow Indian intelligence officers to interrogate American national David Coleman Headley, arrested by the FBI on charges of plotting a major terror attack in India at the behest of Pakistan-based LeT, though India had given the FBI  permission to interrogate Kasab in Mumbai. The US will also put pressure on Indian leaders to sign the CTBT and accept the US position on carbon emissions. It has also not changed its ‘black list’ that bans trade in sensitive technology for some Indian companies, including a dozen key government entities like the Indian Space Research Organization. Though the US continues such trade with countries like North Korea, Pakistan and China that have a record of proliferation.

So a warmer confidence-building between the US and China may not necessarily mean an easing of the pressures on India. We will have to fight our battle on our shoulders alone.

That apart, a better US-China relationship would certainly be a development having its soothing effect on the region, as South Asia has increasingly seen geopolitical tensions rising on account of a bitter US-China rivalry and their efforts to curb each other’s influence. Pakistan, which receives charitable grants and military help from, amazingly, both the rival countries, is in a state of a multi-control towers with non-state players as much powerful as the state authority dependent on US doles. A closer US-China relationship is not seen changing the status quo. China is a hard bargainer and long back it began building up its case against what it terms ‘unfair’ policies of the US. Its state-controlled newspapers published public opinion polls showing public anger against Washington on economic matters. One of them said: “The unprecedented and increased trade protectionism measures the US has launched against China recently have triggered a strong fury of protest among the Chinese public. A recent survey conducted by huanqiu.com shows that more than 90 percent of web users believe the US is seriously ruining the principle of freedom of international trade.”

Ultimately it’s the Chinese strength and military power coupled with its strong economy that has seen world leaders recognize its might and seek its cooperation rather than get into conflict with it. Obama’s visit also underlines the same truth of diplomacy. As one American analyst succinctly tried to put the matrix of the US China relations, ‘the most important division will be between centers of order and centers or sources of disorder, it is vital to American interests that China remain a center of order. America needs to handle a rising China the way Britain handled a rising America, not a rising Germany.’

We dont bomb the country we adopt

Mr. Tarun Vijay, a former editor of Panchjanya, the official publication of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), which is an old Hindu nationalist organisation, made a telling distinction between India and some of its neighbours at the last meeting of the Club.
Significantly, the meeting was held at the poolside of the Taj Mahal Hotel where the worst carnage by terrorists in India’s recent history was initiated just a year ago, on November 26, 2008.
Mr. Tarun Vijay said that over the last few centuries Indian scholars, saints and seers went to several countries in Asia carrying the message of love and compassion and of a caring and affectionate God. In return, those countries feted their guests, honoured them and adopted Sanskrit names for themselves and for their landmarks.
Not only were they proud of their heritage, they were often surprised by the modern-day Indians’ lack of knowledge about their glorious culture and heritage.
It was this respect for ancestry that had led to the new international airport in Bangkok (the biggest and most sophisticated in the world) being named Suvarnabhumi, a chaste Sanskrit term. In fact, the first visual to strike one on entering the premises was that of a 150-foot-long mural of sagar-manthan, or the mythical churning of the oceans.
Similarly, the present King of Thailand was known as Rama Navam (or Rama the Ninth). A brief chat with the Rajguru, the King’s teacher, revealed that the country followed the legacy of King Rama and that all kings were known after him.
The full name of the present King of Thailand was Bhumidol Adulyadej, also a Sanskrit name, and it was he who had christened Bangkok airport as Suvarnabhumi, showing that the Thais were proud of their heritage.


‘People in East Asia are often surprised that Indians are largely ignorant of their culture and heritage’

In complete contrast, said Mr. Tarun Vijay, the barbarians who attacked the city on 26/11 came armed with sophisticated weapons and other armaments to kill people – never mind that they did not know any one of the people whom they had come to kill, or the fact that among them were women, children and the aged, all of them unarmed and harmless, leading normal lives in their own country.
Mr. Tarun Vijay, who gave a talk on “Global mission of India”, was introduced by Tarjani Vakil who said that he was the Director of the Dr. Shyama Prasad Mukherjee Research Foundation, a centre for civilizational values and policy research and an ideological think-tank based on the nationalist school of thought at the headquarters of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in New Delhi.
A prolific writer both in English and Hindi, he had written over 2,000 articles and was a regular columnist for The Times of India, Dainik Jagran, Maharashtra Times and so on. He had launched a peace initiative between India and Pakistan along with the Daily Jung, a major newspaper in Pakistan. That initiative had been appreciated on both sides of the border.
And, as Nanik Rupani revealed later, it was Mr. Tarun Vijay who had put the ancient town of Ladakh on the tourist map by organising the “Sindhu Darshan” programme that had gone on to become a popular event. That one initiative had changed the entire economy of Ladakh.
Mr. Tarun Vijay started his talk by pointing out that it was a rishi from India who went to Cambodia 1,200 years ago, married a local and settled down there who gave the country a name, “Kamboj” (whence Cambodia), which later became a part of the Srivijaya Empire.
The biggest temple of Hindus was not in India but in Angkor Vat in Cambodia. Even after the advent of communism, Communist Cambodia remembered its Hindu and Indian heritage with respect and honour.
A UNESCO publication on that country showed how Indians who left the shores of their land established their global footprint on the basis of love, friendship and scholarship.
After referring to the naming of Bangkok airport as Suvarnabhumi by Thailand’s King Bhumidol Adulyadej, he said, “That is the footprint of your ancestors, a legacy of your forefathers who spread out and impressed the people with the power and the strength of knowledge and character, the two major aspects of the Indian footprint… That is the global vision of India, the global message of India even today”.
Mr. Tarun Vijay said that the third chief of the RSS, the late Prof. Rajendra Singh, who was the Head of the Department of Physics at Allahabad University, had said to him in the course of his last interview that he did not want to see India as a brutal military power or as a dehumanised, prosperous country. On the contrary, he wanted India to be known for its knowledge and character.
Speaking about his experiences in China where he is a Fellow of the Sichuan University, he said when he went to see the Leshan Buddha in Chengdu, he came across the largest Buddha sculpture in the world. It was about 250 feet tall and had been made from one solid rock – an entire mountain had been sculpted into a sitting Buddha.
And the very first statue visible on entering the campus was that of Samantabhadra, another Sanskrit name. When he asked about Samantabhadra, his interlocutors said it was surprising that he did not know about him.
The official accompanying him (in a China ruled by the Communist Party) then told him that Samantabhadra was a rishi from North India who crossed snow deserts and the Himalayas and survived to live in Chengdu some 950 years ago. He learned the Chinese language and started communicating with the King and the people.
Such was the influence of his brilliance, intellect and scholarship that everyone started believing in Buddha and he was able to inspire the people of Chengdu to build the Leshan Buddha sculpture.

“Even in the year 2009, it is the biggest Buddha sculpture in the world. And it was done by your ancestors, by those Indians who were brave and courageous and who never wanted to subjugate or colonise other people.
“They took dharma with them. They were not ashamed of their civilization, they were not ashamed of their past, of their glorious heroes and of the great men and women who loved their language; they translated the entire literature of China and East Asia into Sanskrit and from Sanskrit into their language.”
Mr. Tarun Vijay said the Rajguru of China was Kumarajiva whose father was from Sinkiang and mother from Kashmir. When he went there, the Han King of Beijing gave him the title, “Teacher of China”.
It was Kumarajiva who started the finest method of translating the classics from Sanskrit to Chinese and from Chinese to Sanskrit with a 17-tier arrangement. It started with literal translation, followed by the first step of checking; next, ensuring that the main spirit of the text was conveyed, and so on. It was only after 17 steps that the final text of the original text from Sanskrit into Chinese and from Chinese into Sanskrit was available.
Recently, when visiting the Indian Embassy in Beijing, he met a man called Vijay Choudhary, a small trader from Jhunjhunu in Rajasthan. This man revealed that he employed 1,000 Chinese in his diamond-cutting factory in Kunming!
That was the distance that India had travelled – from Samantabhadra to Vijay Choudhary – and neither of them had used a gun to befriend the Chinese. Rather, they had won them over with the help of mutual respect and understanding.
The Chinese cared for Vijay Choudhary because he was bringing a lot of money into China and giving employment to the rural people there.
This case, too, represented the spirit of India whose teachers, professors, technologists and engineers were respected icons of knowledge, scholarship, integrity and character.
And there was also the story narrated by Mr. L.K. Advani of a Malaysian whom he had met in Kuala Lumpur. The man lived in New York where he had his office and establishment. But what was he doing in Kuala Lumpur?
He told Mr. Advani that he had to undergo a heart surgery. When he learnt that an Indian doctor in Kuala Lumpur was the best in the field, he had travelled from the USA to be operated by that Indian doctor in Malaysia.
“We don’t bomb the country that we adopt. That’s what everyone says about Indians. Everyone loves and accepts Indians. Even if an Indian is a British, German or American passport-holder, they trust him 100% – that he won’t bomb their land. He will work for the country, fight for the country and will never ditch it.
“That is your achievement, the blessings of your ancestors; and that’s the Indian footprint all over the world, that of character, honesty, integrity.”
Turning to Nanik Rupani, Mr. Tarun Vijay said it was worth pondering over that several leaders from all over the world happily came to India to accept awards presented by his Priyadarshini Academy. This was no mean achievement and an endorsement of brand India.
The speaker next referred to the aftermath of the “discovery” of America by Columbus who had actually set out in search of India. He could not find India but reached the land that was now called America.
“What happened after Columbus reached America? More than four crores of the original inhabitants of the land, who were known as American Indians, were brutalised, massacred. It was a holocaust. And the originator of that holocaust was Columbus.”
He had wanted to proselytise, to find gold, to grab land, to get slaves, to subjugate the people; to take over their land and to build his own buildings.
In comparison, the Taj Mahal Hotel was a symbol of the indomitable, invincible Indian spirit represented by the tricolour. For it was here that the mission of the barbarians who had attacked Bombay on 26/11 was defeated.

Would we respect Rama or celebrate Diwali had he played peacenik and allowed his wife to be taken away? asks Tarun Vijay

“Ask yourself, what kind of people must they have been (those who attacked Bombay on 26/11). Compare your civilization and the work done by your ancestors in the earlier years which gave you the Hindu civilization, the Indus civilization, which left imprints all over the globe, from Japan to Cambodia, Thailand, Vietnam, Laos, Korea, Brazil, New Zealand. (You will find) respect and understanding for a different viewpoint.
“You will find a solid belief in pluralism, in democracy and diversity. We are not those who want everything to be uniformly same, who want all people speaking one language, reading one book, wearing the same attire. No, we love diversity.
“Let a million flowers with a million fragrances bloom; if there can be any such place in the world, then that is Hindustan. No other country can boast of this kind of legacy which is so supportive of pluralism, respecting different viewpoints. We never had a Galileo hanged for his beliefs.”
Taking a dig at the growing tribe of peaceniks, Mr. Tarun Vijay said Rama did not compromise with Ravana, telling him that he could take Janaki to Colombo. And he, as a pace-loving person, would return to Ayodhya where the people would be so happy that he had played peacenik and left his wife behind, that they would welcome him and celebrate his return as Diwali.
On the contrary, Rama cautioned Ravana and when the latter remained adamant, he vanquished Ravana. That was the legacy of India, that of not compromising with the wicked.
Narrating another experience, Mr. Tarun Vijay said that the renowned businessman and philanthropist, Mr. Bob Harilela, had told him that he never cared about India when he was a little boy. In fact, he hated the heat and the poverty that he saw when he came here at the age of 13.
But his mother told him that whatever he did and wherever he went, he would not be able to erase the fact that he was an Indian – it was “written” on his face. In course of time Mr. Harilela bought an apartment in Bombay and now his largest spend on charity was in India. He spent his vacations in India and had taught his children to respect their heritage.
The children would always remain Indian, but “not on the basis of a gun, or of gun powder” or colonisation.
“No one will remember a Gen. Dyer in India with respect, or even Queen Elizabeth. But Bhagat Singh, who was only 23 years old when he went to the gallows? Yes… This land has always respected those who have stood with their heritage, with their civilization, and those who have stood up at times of crisis to fight the enemy, to fight the barbarians so that peace, pluralism and democracy can be saved.”
On a visit to Riyadh in Saudi Arabia, he saw that not a single shop in the markets had a portrait of Osama bin Laden because violence, extremism and uncivilized behaviour never won respect. History only remembered those who spread the message of love and compassion and it was such people who were respected down the ages.
Buddha was “still alive” in spite of the fact that his sculpture in Bamiyan had been bombed out by the Taliban.
“The global vision of India cannot be anything but to spread the message that the gun never achieves success or does any good for the people. It is the power of love, compassion and character that does so. And that’s what I have learned in my organisation, in the RSS.”
Finally, Mr. Tarun Vijay quoted a couplet by Akbar Allahabadi:
Tere lab pe hai Iraqo Shamo Misro Romo Cheen
Lekin apne hi watan ke naam se waqif nahin
Arre sabse pehle mard ban Hindustan ke wastey
Hind jag uthe to phir saare jahan ke wastey

(A loose translation: The names on your lips are those of Iraq, Egypt, Rome and China, but you don’t seem to be acquainted with the name of your own country; the first thing you need to do is to become a man for Hindustan, and once you rouse Hindustan, then become a man for the whole world.)

Answering questions, Mr. Tarun Vijay told Trilochan Sahney that he did not agree that India was always populated by invaders. In fact, even the theory of “the Aryan invasion of India” had been proved false, what with American scientists finding that the genes of the Aryans and the Dravids living in India since ancient times had a lot in common.
On the contrary, India had always given shelter to those refused shelter elsewhere and to every persecuted community in the world. No other country could boast of such a record.
But he agreed that Hindu society was fractured by the caste system. In this context the speaker quoted Swami Vivekananda who had said that the only ideal before Hindu society was the ideal of Guru Govind Singh.
Sitaram Shah pointed out that the word Hindu did not appear in any literature. Where had the word come from? Secondly, all that the speaker had said in praise of Hinduism was being maligned by the very people who were talking of Hinduism.
Mr. Tarun Vijay said that the word Hindu came from the Greeks. At that time Indians were called “Aryas”, “Vedics”, or “Sindhuputras” . But since the Greeks had difficulty pronouncing certain consonants, it so happened that Sindhus came to be called Hindus.
However, changing the name of a city or a land could not change the basic character of the people who inhabited that place.
“And the basic character of this land, beyond the Indus, is that they love nature, they don’t condemn it. When Bachendri Pal became the first Indian woman to reach the summit of Mount Everest, she did not set foot on it till she had placed vermillion and rice on it as a ritual offering, thanking the goddess mother for giving her the strength to reach the summit.
“On the other hand, Western mountaineers write that they ‘conquered’ Mount Everest; the word ‘conquered nature’ does not appear in the Indian language. This is the basic difference in the worldview of our people. We have respect for parents, for family values, for pluralism. That makes us different people. You may call them Hindus, Indians, Bharatiyas, whatever, it means the same thing,” Mr. Tarun Vijay added.
The vote of thanks was proposed by Nanik Rupani.

When the nation is facing grave threats from the Maoists and the Lashkar-e-Taiba’s Islamist mad-heads, and discussing how to counter the Chinese arrogance, suddenly mullahs living in a frozen Arabian time zone have cried that they won’t sing “Vande Mataram”.

Are they concerned about the people? People whose lives they think they govern through some fatwas and scriptural instructions? Do they realize that hardly any educated Muslim with his head firmly positioned where it should be, listens to them leave aside “obeying” their dictates? Still they make some noises to get media attention and register their political presence.

What was the compulsive necessity for making such an announcement while the home minister was there to have a plateful of appeasement biryani in hope of garnering their votes for a 21st-century government?

One explanation that has come to us through Deoband observers is frighteningly pregnant with serious consequences to our already strained social fabric. The Congress wants to create another monster out of Muslim fanatics to further erode Mayawati’s vote bank and simultaneously distract public attention from its failure on the Maoist front and keep the public debate away from the price rise. These are the issues it couldn’t handle; hence, the distraction was immediately needed. And the way fanatics helped the British before India was vivisected, the maulvis have obliged the party in power. It’s advisable not to get trapped in this political lunacy, but then the media will be taking it up in a big way for certain unexplained reasons and there will be obvious reactions and diatribes from both sides to keep the issue alive.

Public memory shouldn’t be too thin. Remember how Bhindranwale was created, the statements about his “saintliness”, the permission to his brigands to roam free through Delhi’s roads brandishing AK-47s on top of buses. And then only too recently, Raj Thackeray was propped up to counter Shiv Sena-BJP’s growth in the Maratha land.

They forget that a Bhindranwale and a Raj results in self-defeat, a defeat for the national unity and collective goals of economic prosperity. The Deoband mullahs have never helped their community in making economic, social and educational progress. At any moment of a social crisis among Muslims, they have delayed any decision or taken a retrograde stand. The “shining” examples of their fossilized mentality were too visible during the Shah Bano case, Gudiya’s tragic story and equal right to Muslim women. They kept a studied silence when five lakh Hindus were driven out of their homes in the Kashmir valley, after announcements were blared out on the dreadful night of January 11,1989, asking Pandits to get out and leave behind their women. Jammu & Kashmir is the only Muslim-majority state in India and if Deoband is “concerned” about Islam’s peaceful, and humanitarian face, why should it not try to influence the terror groups operating in the name of their religion and in turn, as the maulvis say, bringing bad name to their great message of universal brotherhood?

But never will one find them engaging the “bad elements” and issuing a fatwa against their “anti-Islamic” action. All they would do is to irritate Hindus and punch the patriotic people belonging to all denominations with untimely and out of context pronouncements like the one they made while the “man with a mission” Chidambaram was in their midst.

They know very well that “Vande Mataram” is a song celestial for a patriotic Indian no matter to which stream of faith he belongs. It’s a song that inspired Bhagat Singh and Ashfakullah alike and is more popular with an electrifying affect than any other song. An A R Rahman refashioned it and offered a beautiful rendering of it with Bharat Bala making its universal appeal more thrilling. Millions of Indians, Muslims, Hindus, Christians and all denominations sing it with pride and confidence. It was the song which united India against the British repression that had caused the death of millions in Bengal creating an unnatural famine .The original song appears in the famous novel of Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay named “Anand Math” which describes a revolution against the foreign yoke led by ochre-robed monks. The deity is Mother India, the song is in praise of the Mother and it’s accepted as a national song by the Constitution. No organization can be given an option to denounce or reject the icons representing the national ethos and the spirit of the freedom struggle. If they don’t belong to us, they don’t have a right to enjoy the fruits of a pluralist society, democracy and a Constitution that gives them more than their ilk offers to any non-Muslim anywhere. Instead of making an Indian identity stronger and helping their community to join the national mainstream endeavouring for a happy and progressive life, they are, at a time when an average Indian is more concerned about dal roti and security, more concerned about a song that was opposed in the same manner by Pakistan seekers pre-1947.

Then to which country these Deobandis and Jamiat’s big-mouths belong? What’s their problem?
It’s not the song they are opposing. The message is loud and clear that they don’t want to forge a sense of unity with the national life. They want to create a divide on the lines of a Muslim Indian and an Indian Muslim for political leverage. P Chidambaram is certainly not a scholar of Islamic theology that they invited him for a religious discourse. The home minister was there on a political mission. The home minister of India must have made them sing an Indian song rather than emboldening them to oppose it.

Their Arabian-night fever must be brought to an end with the firmness of a united Indian patriotism symbolized in our Constitution and the ever victorious tricolor.