Power Struck in Goa

What do you think about the recent happenings in Goa assembly? Saying that "all parties are same" or "everyone does that", can't be an excuse. I congratulate the Hindustan Times for writing such a brilliant piece. Please go through this.

Hindustan Times

July 31, 2007

First Published: 23:25 IST(31/7/2007)

Last Updated: 23:26 IST(31/7/2007)

Going through [Link]

One would have thought that in a 40-seat assembly like Goa's, the temptation and the opportunities  to conduct democratic hanky-panky would be limited. After Monday's action in Panaji, one has to perish that thought. Goa Speaker Pratapsinh Rane's decision to disallow three MLAs from participating in the confidence vote was far too obviously a move to ensure that the incumbent Congress-led government survived. After the withdrawal of support for the Digambar Kamat government by the two Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party (MGP) legislators, Sudhin and Pandurang Dhavlikar, and the subsequent resignation of Congress MLA Victoria Fernandes over internal matters, Governor S.C. Jamir had directed the government to undertake a confidence motion.

Coming as the trust vote did 52 days after the last assembly elections, it seemed that Goa was on the brink of coming up with its 14th Chief Minister since 1990. But the tottering government was propped up by a six-time Congress Chief Minister of Goa and current Speaker. Without blinking an eyelid, Mr Rane put his party credentials out in the open and his job as an objective referee inside a closet by casting his, by-now crucial, vote in favour of the government. Mr Kamat could not have found a better saviour.

The truth is that there is no provision in the Tenth Schedule of the Constitution, which deals with anti-defection, that applies to restraining legislators from voting before ordering their disqualification according to the due legal process. And that due legal process had not been carried out on Monday. It was the two MGP and single Congress legislators shifting their loyalties to the Opposition that made Mr Kamat leave nothing to chance and democracy and made him carry out a travesty. To stay in power is an integral part of the political game. But to stay in power by throwing the rulebook into the Arabian Sea is something that will not reflect well on the Goa Congress. We have witnessed something disquieting in the state of Goa. It is up to Governor Jamir to contain the damage.

[Link]

Goa Crisis - Timeline

Goa crisis: GDA to file petition in SC

August 1, 2007

Goa CM wins floor test; Oppn cries foul

July 30, 2007

GDA to challenge vote of confidence in Supreme Court

July 30, 2007

BJP accuses PM, Sonia behind failed floor test

July 30, 2007

Goa CM Kamat remains confident in House

30 Jul 2007

BJP-led GDA leaders meet Goa Governor

30 Jul 2007

Goa crisis reaches Rashtrapati Bhavan

28 Jul 2007

Goa crisis: Rajnath to parade MLAs before Prez

July 28

Kamat asked to prove majority in Goa Assembly

28 Jul 2007

BJP-led alliance stakes claim to form govt in Goa

27 Jul 2007

Manohar Parrikar likely to be next Goa CM

26 Jul 2007

BJP to stake claim for govt in Goa

26 Jul 2007

Cong-led Goa govt reduces to minority

26 Jul 2007

Amarnath Yatra: A Holy Journey marred with Terror

Amarnath Yatra is one of the most sacred pilgrimages among Hindus. This year also, the Yatra has started. And so have started the attacks on the devotees. I am not sure, when we mention Amarnath, what comes to our minds first: Lord Shiva or the terror attacks?

Amarnath Yatra 2007: Attacks update:

Yatra Begins:           July 1, 2007.                                      [Link]

Attack # 1:                17 July, 2007. I dead, 19 injured     [Link1] [Link2]

Attach # 2:                21 July, 2007. 10 injured                 [Link1] [Link2]

Government Protects

The Amarnath Yatra has been a constant target for Pakistan sponsored militants. Every year, devotees wait for the Yatra to begin so that they could see the living God Amarnath. And every year, the trained militants wait, so that they could strike and kill the maximum possible. The areas which the Yatra touches are in control of the Indian Army; even then the strikes happen.

I won't compare the Amarnath Yatra with the Haj Pilgrimage, where our secular government subsidizes the travel and facilitates the journey, even to the extent of arranging special flights. On the other hand, the fate of Amarnath pilgrims seems to be in the hands of terrorists. In the year 2000, 30 devotees were brutally killed and many others injured. It seems the devotees to the Amarnath Yatra must pass the test of remaining devoted throughout the attacks and obstacles, and then only they will be blessed!

Enigma

Every year, around 4 lakh devotees reach the Amarnath temple which is reported to be 5000 years old. This is held during 45 day season around the festival of Shravani Mela in July-August, coinciding with the Hindu holy month of Shravan.

The mythology is that this is the cave where Lord Shiva told about the secret of life and eternity to His divine consort Parvati. This place holds a very important value to Hindus.

The cave is situated at a height of 4175 m, about 141 km from Srinagar. Devotees generally take the 45 km pilgrimage on foot from town of Pahalgam onwards and cover the journey in 4 to 5 days. Devotees worship the naturally formed (ice) Shiva lingam. They also get to worship the naturally formed representations of Ganesha and Parvati. The Amarnath cave is high and shallow, and extended up to 40 m.

Putting a Full Stop

A poet named Nikhil Parekh has written "Love versus Terrorism", a collection of anti terror poems. [Link]. Anti terrorism books are also finding good market [Link].  

I haven't heard of any book in our religion, dealing in anti-terrorism. Have you? It proves that terrorism needs to be tackled in any other way than writing about it. Therefore, I stop.

PS: Let us hope and pray that remaining Amarnath Yatra concludes without any trouble.

My views on Presidential Elections – 2007

In a nutshell, my views on presidential elections 2007 are like this:

Ms. Pratibha Patil may be an intellectual and a very mature lady, or may be Shree Bhairon Singh Shekhawat have more experience of handling high and delicate posts. But the first thing that strikes me when I think of these presidential elections is Why election? Why are the elections being held?

In present state of affairs, the public, specially the younger generation is getting disillusioned from the politics and the politicians. Politics has really become a dirty word. The need of the hour is to keep politics and politicians as distant and separate as possible from the day to day life of Indians. Because of this reason, I think that even the posts like BCCI chief should be occupied by non-political people. The post of President of India has long been occupied by aging politicians, and the present generation thinks that this post should not be for rewards, as the ruling UPA (read Congress) is going about it. Keeping non-political persons on this post will pacify the rage that is running in the countrymen against the lot of the politicians.

Also, there is a bigger evil the tendency of the UPA government of not accepting anything that the previous government did. This happened with Dr. Venugopal of AIIMS earlier and this is happening with APJ Abdul Kalam this time. This tendency is not healthy for our democracy.

In my opinion, present President APJ Abdul Kalam has brought dignity to the post of the president. He has lived his vision, inspired millions of students and made us believe that an honest person can reach the highest post in our country without any unethical means.

I still think that APJ Abdul Kalam is the best candidate for the President of India.

Popular Decision may not be the Right one

One of my friends sent this case to me: 

A group of children were playing near two railway tracks, one still in use while the other abandoned. Only one child played on the disused track, the rest on the operational track.

One train is coming, and you are just beside the track interchange. You can make the train change its course towards the abandoned track and save most of the kids. However, that would also mean the lone child playing by the disused track would be sacrificed. Or would you rather let the train go its way?

Let’s take a pause to think what kind of decision we could make…………….

Most people might choose to divert the course of the train, and sacrifice only one child. You might think the same way, I guess. Exactly, I thought the same way initially because to save most of the children at the expense of only one child was rational decision most people would make, morally and emotionally.

But, have you ever thought that the child choosing to play on the disused track had in fact made the right decision to play at a safe place? However, he had to be sacrificed because of his ignorant friends who chose to play where the danger was. This kind of dilemma happens around us everyday. In the office, community, in politics and especially in a democratic society, the minority is often sacrificed for the interest of the majority, no matter how foolish or ignorant the majority are, and how far-sighted and knowledgeable the minority are. The child who chose not to play with the rest on the operational track was sidelined. And in the case he was sacrificed, without any concern who was right and who was wrong.

The great critic Leo Velski Julian who told the story said he would not try to change the course of the train. We should not sacrifice right at the luring of a popular decision. “What’s right isn’t always popular; and what’s popular isn’t always right.”

After reading this piece about making bold right decisions, I thought about another two real life cases: Nathuram Godse killed Mahatma Gandhi and Rajiv Goswami killed himself (although he was saved, he died afterwards because of the injuries).

One important question that comes to me is; who should have died, if it was necessary for one of them to die, in order to solve a problem. Nathuram Godse killed Gandhiji, because he thought him responsible for the massacres of Indians during partition riots. If Gandhiji didn't give his consent for partition of India, there won't be any partition on religious lines, and so no communal riots and no molestations of women. But here again we miss to reach the basic question: who was the creator of this partition? Was it Mahatma Gandhi or was it Muhammad Ali Jinnah? For how many years, either within or out of the Indian National Congress, did Jinnah demand the formation of a separate Muslim state [Link1][Link2]? Was not Jinnah fundamentally responsible for the partition? Any attempt by Gandhiji to stop that communal partition would have resulted in communal riots any way, in order to support their demands of a separate state. Therefore, if Nathuram was real patriot, why didn't he kill that root cause in 1946 instead of sacrificing that Mahatma in 1948?

Similarly, there was a single person vastly responsible for implementing the caste based reservation system in the name of Mandal commission report VP Singh. But the over enthusiastic young man, Rajeev Goswami, took the extreme step and burnt himself. He was not a single case, as in the anti-reservation protests, several other young students all over India attempted this extreme step of suicides in order to force the government to stop implementing Mandal commission's caste based reservations. But why did Rajeev sacrifice himself? It goes without saying that a right sacrifice in this condition should have been the person fundamentally responsible for the condition. After all:

“What’s right isn’t always popular; and what’s popular isn’t always right.”

There is another decision which stands apart: the decision by LTTE to kill India‘s former PM Rajiv Gandhi. It is important to note that the Indo-Sri Lanka Accord, which introduced Indian peacekeeping force in the north Sri Lanka and devastated the LTTE, was signed by Rajiv Gandhi along with Sri Lankan President JR Jayawardene. LTTE incurred huge losses. Whom to blame for this loss? Think from the mind of a terrorist. If they had to kill at least one, whom they would choose to kill? A Sri Lankan President or an Indian former PM? Sri Lankan Presidents may come and go; they will continue fighting the LTTE. But Rajiv Gandhi was more responsible, and killing him would have sent a message to the nearest neighbor India for generations to come. Therefore, while Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated, JR Jayawardene died a natural death at the age of 90 [Link]. This decision of the LTTE has gone down well. No subsequent Indian government has been dare-devil enough to get its hands into the Sri Lankan affairs.

Could we think of any more such right decisions? Of course there are many.

Please note that the interpretation of these cases and the manner of comparison with the case of children playing on the track is my personal opinion. There has been no attempt to glorify the act of killings or suicides which are extreme steps and should be avoided at any cost.

Open letter to MF Hussain

You must be feeling bad because you are out of India for a long time. India is as much your motherland as much she is mine. Therefore, you have equal right to represent it, talk and write about it, paint about it, and respect it.

But to be honest, I am not happy with the way you have painted some of your paintings. Please understand that I am not attempting to dictate you what to paint and what not to, I am just telling you how I feel when you paint about a particular set the Hindu Gods. For example, your paintings include these:

Goddess Durga in sexual union with Tiger

Goddess Lakshmi naked on Shree Ganesh’s head

Naked Saraswati

Naked Shri Parvati

Naked Draupadi.

Naked Lord Hanuman and Goddess Sita sitting on thigh of Ravana

Full Clad Muslim King and naked Hindu Brahmin.

These pictures are available at this website: [Link]. They have got these pictures from a book by Daniel Alan Herwitz and published by California State University. Now this is bad; this was between you Vs Hindus and you involved those Americans also? I have noted that on many of your nude pictures of Hindu Goddesses, you have written 'Durga', 'Saraswati', i.e. the names of the respective Gods. I wonder, have you done this keeping in mind the real purchasers of these paintings? An English diplomat who will purchase your painting and pay in Euros, will definitely like the name of the Goddess there on the painting, so that he can target collecting the whole set of Hindu Goddesses in his drawing room! Do you feel happy about it?

You have recently been selected for Raja Ravi Varma Award by the Kerala government [Link]. There is a protest letter on this website also, which the public can send to CM, and Cultural Minister, Kerala, with CC to Prime Minister of India and the President of India. [Link]. I have sent a protest letter through this website. But a one-to-one letter is always better. Therefore, I am writing to you here.

Shashi Tharoor has called you the Picasso of India [Link]. I am happy that the artists in India are getting their due respect. But why are you outside India? Shashi Tharoor has also lived outside India for a long time. That helps, in losing our roots and thinking ourselves as intellectuals. And why should an intellectual like Mr. Tharoor think like a common man; particularly on this issue?

I would like to tell you about a Muslim guy. On Orkut, there was a forum where people discussed whether you are a human being or an anti-national element. The guy wrote this: "Nude paintings of Gods and respected religious figures will definitely attract criticism from the public. And when a Muslim paints a Hindu God in the nude, it is surely going to hurt a lot of people. Even I, a Muslim, don't support Hussain when he paints Hindu Gods in this way". I thanked that guy from my heart for his honest comments. This spirit of the real Indians makes me proud. And your spirit to paint like this makes me sad. A lot of people have asked you to apologize. You know very well that if you apologize and stop painting Hindu Gods in nude (Is any Hindu God remaining, by the way?), you can return back to India. After all, Indians are so kind hearted. But you may be happy there, as a non resident Indian, and may not want to return back. When you die and meet Allah, you will get to see all the Hindu Gods within the very image of Allah, and they will not look exactly as you have painted them in your paintings; I am sure.