Why Haj subsidy should be allowed?

Subsidy for pilgrimages stayed

HYDERABAD, INDIA: A Division Bench of the High Court comprising Chief Justice Anil Ramesh Dave and Justice Ramesh Ranganathan on Wednesday directed the State government not to allot and spend money on religious pilgrimages. These interim orders were passed while hearing cases pertaining to the subsidised pilgrimage for Christians to Jerusalem, Bethlehem and proposed subsidies for Manasarovar Yatra in China.

The Bench was passing these interim orders in two writ petitions filed way back in November 2008. One case was filed by Satish Agarwal, a businessman from Bowenpally along with Raghava Reddy, president of the Devalaya Parirakshana Samithi. These two challenged the constitutional validity of G.O. 29 issued in July 2008 wherein the subsidised pilgrimage for Christians to Bethlehem and Jerusalem was ordered. The second case was filed by Gandra Mohana Rao, practising advocate, seeking subsidy for Hindu pilgrimages to various places.

The Bench prima facie felt that the Constitution does not permit this kind of subsidy for religious pilgrimages. It heard at length counsel for the petitioners as well as Additional Advocate-General A. Satya Prasad. The petitioners contended that the Article 27 of the Constitution prohibits collection of taxes for religious purposes.

They relied upon the judgment of a seven-judge Bench of Supreme Court delivered in 1954 wherein it was declared “what is forbidden by the Article 27 is specific appropriation of the proceeds of any tax in payment of expenses for the promotion or maintenance of any particular religion or religious denomination”.

The petitioners further averred that the subject of foreign pilgrimages is within the realm of the Union government and the State government could not have issued any G.O. or subsidised the pilgrimages. The Additional Advocate-General stated that this is a policy of elected government with a popular mandate. He reminded that the Haj pilgrimage for Muslims is being subsidised by the governments for several decades.

Interim orders

He said that the government was ready to subsidise pilgrimage to Manasarovar. The Bench did not appreciate the stand of the government. It felt that the balance of convenience is in favour of giving interim orders staying further expenditure by the government.

Let Church leave Hindus alone

Earlier this month, Kanchi Shankaracharya Swami Jayendra Saraswati engaged in a dialogue with Cardinal Jean-Louis Pierre Tauran, president of Vatican’s Pontifical Council for Inter-religious Dialogue.

The most significant outcome of the talks, held on June 12, was the Shankaracharya’s revelation that exactly one month before the Mumbai meeting, Pope Benedict XVI met the Chief Rabbinate of Israel in Jerusalem and agreed to cease all conversion activities among Jews. The Shankaracharya demanded a similar commitment from the Church for Hindus. When told conversions were mainly done by Protestants, he invited the Cardinal to return with all Christian denominations so that the issue could be permanently resolved.

Kanchi Perivaar politely reminded Cardinal Tauran of the Vatican’s evangelising agenda by recalling that in 1999, Pope John Paul II stated, on Indian soil, that the mission of the Vatican was to plant the Cross in Asia in the third millennium to facilitate the Christianising of the world, as this alone would cause the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. He sought an explanation for the First Coming of Jesus Christ, when there was no Christianity or Church to convert the world. Few Hindu leaders have spoken so firmly and effectively for Hindus in the post-independence era.

Politically, the Shankaracharya made the most significant intervention in public life when he denounced the US Commission on International Religious Freedom as “an intrusive mechanism of a foreign Government” to interfere in India’s internal affairs. He demanded that the USCIRF, which the UPA Government gave permission to visit India just prior to the general election, be disallowed to enter the country on this intrusive mission: “We will not allow external interference in our internal affairs.”

On June 17, the USCIRF announced in Washington, DC that it has been refused visas to visit India following criticism from Hindu conservatives (read Kanchi Acharya). The USCIRF is an American Government body; it commissioners are appointed by the US President. Its visit to India would be like Mr Manmohan Singh sending the National Human Rights Commission to investigate racist attacks on Indians in Australia.

Until and unless that happens, there is no justification for an American body to investigate religious freedom in Gujarat and Orissa. Indeed, this singling out of two States suggests the extent to which US-funded evangelists are active therein; it is shameful a national Government could even countenance inviting a foreign body to so blatantly support politico-religious conversions in non-Christian nations.

The USCIRF uses its annual reports to interfere in India’s internal affairs. It delayed its 2008 report in the hope of getting permission to visit India and make direct inroads into civil society and Government agencies. The 2007 report is outright offensive; it lauds the advent of a Congress-led coalition in 2004, implying this furthered an evangelical agenda! Certainly the commission revoked its 2002 designation of India as a “country of particular concern” in 2005. It openly attacks BJP State Governments for not permitting Christians to freely convert the poor and needy.

The USCIRF is enraged by anti-conversion laws in some States, most notably Madhya Pradesh, Orissa, Chhattisgarh and Arunachal Pradesh. It falsely claims only BJP Governments have passed anti-conversion laws, but is unable to explain why Congress-ruled Himachal Pradesh suddenly rushed through a similar law in December 2006.

After clashes in Kandhamal on December 24, 2007, the USCIRF issued a statement on January 10, 2008, condemning the violence in which five persons died. The clashes followed a near lethal attack on Swami Laxmanananda Saraswati (who finally succumbed to gunfire on August 23, 2008); there was also the provocation of Christians erecting religious statues at a Hindu religious site, a common occurrence all over south India. Yet Western Christian nations feel Hindus have no right to defend their faith from imperialistic religions which convert people for the political goal of world dominion.

Given the misuse of foreign funds for conversions, Kanchi Perivaar proposed that the monies sent to India, ostensibly for Church charity work, be used only for social causes like health and education, and not for religious conversion. He proposed the funds be distributed to all organisations doing such charitable work, irrespective of religious affiliation, and a Committee formed to distribute and monitor the usage of these funds.

While this is an excellent idea, I believe the time has come for the Government of India to put an end to the ‘poverty tourism’ that is a public humiliation of our poor, and consider a ban on foreign donations for so-called social causes. India’s NGO sector has evolved into a money-minting industry; most professional NGOs comprise Left-leaning (read anti-Hindu) activists who are well networked with the national (even international) bureaucracy, and hence not lacking in funds. They also corner the lion’s share of the Governments’ ever-increasing outlays for social schemes.

These NGOs should be re-designated as a service industry and taxed, so they can make profits openly. Everyone knows the old concept of voluntary social service was replaced by paid social work only to garner funds and profits. Traditional Hindu bodies like the Arya Samaj and Sangh Parivar outfits raise their monies from society. Organisations that take Government money to do social work (that is, run Government projects) should be treated at par with municipal contractors; if nothing else this will drive the IAS and IPS babus out, and leave those with genuine delivery skills in the sector. Restrictions on foreigners and external funds will also curtail the new and growing menace of sexual abuse of minors, mostly poor children.

Calling upon religions that entered India from outside to respect Hindu dharma and not subvert or destroy it, Kanchi Perivaar observed that most Western, Muslim, and even Asian countries nationally resolve to protect and defend the culture and the religion from which their cultures derive. India alone officially promotes “an irreligious and un-spiritual creed called secularism”. Designating secularism as an administrative quality and not the soul of the nation, which is religious and spiritual, he advised the Government to affirm its commitment to protect the soul of the Indian nation. He strongly endorsed the move by the Buddhist Mahasangha and Joint Committee of Buddhist Organisations to press the Sri Lankan Government to pass a national anti-conversion Bill.

Kanchi Perivaar has summed up the agenda for any national Government in India. The onus is upon the UPA Government to prove whether or not it is up to the task.

Clarification by Shri Sudheendra Kulkarni on statement participating in NDTV’s ‘Big Fight’ deb

A misleading impression has been created by erroneous news reports about my statement, in the course of a TV debate on Friday, that the BJP does not consider the Congress party to be “political untouchable”. It has been reported in section of the press today that I advocated the BJP and Congress working together to form a stable government. This is completely untrue and preposterous.

Participating in NDTV’s ‘Big Fight’ debate, I had said that the so-called “secular unity” mooted by the Congress and Left parties is nothing but an opportunistic ploy to isolate the BJP. The Congress-communist combine has used this bogus concept as an ideological justification to preach and practice political untouchability towards the BJP. They did so in 1996 when, despite the BJP having emerged as the largest single party in the Lok Sabha with 162 seats, other parties were mobilized on the plank of “secularism” to form two United Front governments propped up by the Congress, which destabilized both in quick succession.

I said that the BJP does not believe in practicing political untouchability, and quoted Shri L.K. Advani’s oft-repeated affirmation — “If untouchability is wrong in the social sphere, it is equally wrong in the political sphere.” The anchor asked me if the BJP considered the Congress to be untouchable. My answer was “No”. When he questioned me if the BJP would work together with the Congress, my response was: “Yes, if the nation’s interests demand so at some time in the future.”

Congress is the BJP’s principal adversary in the elections to the 15th Lok Sabha. Along with our allies in the NDA, we have campaigned vigorously for the defeat of the Congress. We are confident that the people will give a decisive mandate for change and in favour of a BJP-led NDA government. As such, the question of the BJP and Congress working together in the post-May 16 scenario is simply unthinkable.

The BJP has grown in strength by consistently fighting the anti-people, corrupt and dynasty-controlled Congress party. We have succeeded in transforming India’s polity into an essentially bi-polar system by ending the Congress’ single-party domination. More and more sections of the Indian society have supported us, and an increasing number of political parties have allied with the BJP, in spite of the Congress-communist combine’s ceaseless demonisation of the BJP as a “communal party”. Clearly, the Congress-communist combine’s stratagem of isolating the BJP has resulted in their own growing isolation.

Any future possibility of the BJP and Congress working together in the nation’s interests hinges on the Congress party eschewing its attitude of “political untouchability” towards the BJP

Chargesheet against Sonia (Maino) Gandhi and Her CongressParty

Shocking collection of data:

* In the last five years, Sonia (Antonia Maino) Gandhi, the President of Congress Party, and UPA Chairperson, has emerged as a very powerful woman in India. She is a devout Catholic Christian. To the dismay and disenchantment of Hindus, instead of adopting Hinduismafter her marriage to Rajiv Gandhi, she / her family allegedly made it a pre-condition of her marriage that Rajiv Gandhi convert to Catholicism. Or at least that her children (Raul aka Rahu Gandhi and Bianca aka Priyanka) be raised as Christians.

* Because of her belief rooted in the Christian faith that her religion is superior to the native Hindu Dharma, she feels herself more comfortable in the company of non-Hindus. It is thus natural that she surrounds herself with mostly the Christian and Muslim advisors. For that reason, she is very close to Ahmed Patel, A. K. Anthony, Oscar Fernandes, Abdul Rahman Antulay, E. Ahmed, Y. S. Rajasekhara Reddy (a Christian), Dr. Shakeel Ahmad, Shafi Qureshi, John Dayal, Mohammad Hamid Ansari, and Ambika Soni (also a Christian).

* During the Congress rule in the last five years, the condition of Hindus has gone from bad to worse. The worst form of repression has been unleashed on Hindus. Hindus today feel helpless, rudderless, leaderless and under an invisible asphyxiating hold. Hindu icons have been arrested (Shankaracharya of Kanchi Sri Jayendra Sarasvati), Hindu saints (Swami Laxmananda Saraswati) murdered, Hindu Sadhvis (Pragya Singh) tortured, patriotic Hindus treated like hard-core criminals (Col. Purohit), armed forces weakened and demoralized (Batla House incident), Hindu Dharma vilified and demonized (Ram Sethu), and the minorities pampered at the cost of national security (Afzal Guru).

* In addition, under the “Muslims-First” program initiated by the robot Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, “sites for Haj houses, waiver of loans to the tune of Rs. 500 crore for Muslims in Andhra Pradesh alone, Rs. 140 crore worth scholarships to Muslim boys and girls in Andhra Pradesh, payment of Rs. 200,000 per year for 20,000 Muslims students studying engineering and Rs. 50,000 per year for several thousand Muslims studying medicine” (Dr. T.H. Chowdhary in Organizer) – even pension to the children of terrorists – have been announced!

* In order to garner the Moslem votes, a staggering sum of Rs. 550 corers has been allocated in the next Five Year Plan for promotion of an Urdu televisionchannel. [http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/NEWS/India/Efforts_on_to_promote_Urdu_channel_Govt/articleshow/811680.cms].

* In this connection, it should be noted that during Islamic rule in India, Tipu Sultan had imposed Urdu on Karnataka Hindus and Nizam of Hyderabad had done the same on Telegu speaking Hindus.

* In a step closer to imposing the Islamic legal system, Sharia, in largely Hindu India, the India’s Human Resources and Development (HRD) Ministry is now all set to treat the madrasa certification as being equivalent to the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE).

* In order to further accelerate the Islamization of India, the Ministry of Home Affairs has instructed the Central Para-military Forces to make certain that 20 percent of their recruitment is made from the Muslim community.

* With a clear view to appease Muslims, the Government of India led by the Congress Party has consistently avoided executing the orders of the Supreme Court to hang Mohammed Afzal Guru, the convicted mastermind of the vicious armed attack on Indian Parliament in December 2001.

* “There are approximately 207,000 Hindu temples in Karnataka with a total income of about 72 crores. Out of these, the (Congress) government spends merely 6 crores on the upkeep of temples; the rest, though collected from the Hindu devotees, is recklessly spent on Muslim madrasas and Christian churches; a phenomenal Rs 50 crores on madrassas and Rs 10 crores on churches”. (Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, India Today, in 2003)

* The government control of Hindu temples in secular India is a blatant violation of religious freedom in the country. In Andhara Pradesh alone, the 85 percent of the temple revenues from The Tirupati Devasthanam –- a whopping Rs. 3,100 crores –- are transferred into the state exchequer, which then are freely spent on Muslim and Christian causes.

* On encouragement of the local Congress Rajya Sabha member, the converted Christian tribals who recently joined Maoist groups had Swami LakshmanandaSarasvati and his four disciples murdered in the State of Orissa.

* Instead of expelling the Bangladeshi Muslim infiltrators, the Congress government’s anti-Hindu stance came to fore when 1,500 Hindu refugees from Bangladesh, now settled in Kendrapara district of Orissa, were issued the Quit India notices!

* The Congress Party government at the Center made a big blunder by repealing the Prevention of Terrorist Activities Act (POTA). This action emboldened the Islamic terrorists to ravage and batter with impunity the 20 million people of Mumbai on November 26, 2008, thereby killing over 200 Indian citizens and humiliating the entire nation in front of the whole world. What a disgrace!

* Then, as if to sprinkle salt on the wounds of Indians (read Hindus) recovering from the shock of Mumbai massacre, the India’s Minister of State for External Affairs E. Ahmed , a fundamentalist Islamist and the President of Indian Union Muslim League, had the temerity to force India’s Consul General Prabhu Dayal in New York to celebrate the Eid festivity at the Consulate within weeks of the terrible carnage. 

* Mumbai Police Commissioner admitted on February 12, 2009, that 14 to 16 Indian Muslims too were involved in the 26/11 Mumbai attacks, besides the Pakistani attackers. But UPA government led by the Congress party Chairperson Sonia Gandhi keeps misleading the nation by saying that all jihadists were Pakistanis.

* The Central Human Resources and Development Minister, Shri Arjun Singh has concluded an agreement with Saudi Arabia under which a few billion dollars will be given to the Islamic universities in India for the purpose of establishing Islamic Centers. This is a very dangerous development. We firmly believe that this ill-conceived move is not onlyanti-Hindu and anti-India but it also is treacherous activity designed to pull India fast into the vortex of World Pan-Islamic movement.*

* While the Foreign Minister Pranab Mookerjee has been exhorting on Pakistan to shut down the terrorist training centers in their country, no drastic steps are taken in our own country – Azam Garh, in U.P., and in the State of Kerala – to stop the jihadists from transforming India into a trainingground for the home-grown terrorists.

* Most of the newspapers in India are controlled by the Government and are the classic example of suppressio veri or the concealment of truth (e.g. the attack by Muslim goons on Telegraph Newspaper in Kolkata was blacked out) and suggestio falsi or a statement of a falsehood amounting to being a fraud (e.g. negative publicity was given to attack on pubs in Bangaluru with a mal-intent to slander the Hindu groups).

* Now, a few words about Aam Admi, the Sonia Gandhi’s pet political expression to describe the country’s common man… 

* According to M.J. Akbar’s article in The Pioneer, when the present Sonia government came to power in year 2004, there were 270 million people in country below the poverty line. The number of the poorpeople, however, has increased by 55 million, or 20% – a horrifying rise.

* In the past India was ruled by Muslims and Christians. It is a matter of shame and disgust that India is still being ruled by the minorities. Hindus cannot count on the UPA government to protect their interests, life and property. Since Hindus make up about 83% of the total population, it is obligatory on them to be more vigilant and circumspect. 

* Hindus should galvanize the public distrust of Gandhi dynasty. They should throw out the eminences grise (persons exercising power orinfluence without holding an official position) of India in the next general elections and reclaim political power for the majority population. If

* Hindus shed their centuries old torpor, and work in unison, the artificially assembled UPA government will fall like ninepins.

Congress Secularism and Terrorist Dogma

Conceding the ideological turf

An earlier article on this blog had sought to establish by empirical data  that  the Congress party and its secular allies were soft on terrorism of the jehadi variety . Their record in apprehending and punishing such terrorists when in power is woefully miserable. What bodes grave ill for the integrity of the Indian State however  is the base rationale and motivation  for  the seeming reluctance to confront this sovereignty-debilitating problem with the steely resolve that it demands. That rationale has two facets: a Machiavellian motive to be a permanent contender for power at all costs by nurturing and indulging a Muslim vote bank coupled with a dangerous—even if correct –assumption that the community would take grave offence to the extent of withdrawing its electoral support to even its most ardent political benefactors if any of its members were punished for perpetrating terrorist acts. This second facet leads to an irresistible inference that secular parties are soft on terrorism on account of their belief  that there is sympathy among a majority of  Muslims for jehadi terrorism. Even if ,however,this eminently disputable premise were true that secular parties should only too readily accept it is both shameful and depressing. It at once indicates that our secular parties have neither stomach nor inclination to wage and win  a war of ideas against those who propagate jehadi violence and simultaneously discloses that our secular politicians would sacrifice long-term national interest for immediate power or that alternatively for love or money are themselves seduced by the jehadis.

Consider  Congress’s feeble handling of Dawood Ibrahim, ever since he was first identified as being one of the masterminds of the 1993 blasts that ripped through Mumbai.Its governments have never sought either his extradition from Pakistan where he undeniably resides in splendid luxury and enjoys state protection nor of any of his co-conspirators who dispersed not only to Pakistan but to other parts of the world.

In October 1993  the Vohra Committee which was established in the wake of the March 1993 blasts in Mumbai published its report on the political/bureaucratic-mafia nexus in the country .That report ,on the basis of evidence and confidential material placed before it came to the unambiguous conclusion that there existed an alarming political-mafia nexus in several states in the country and that there was a dire need for the creation of a nodal agency of various intelligence gathering outfits in the country to weed out this unholy nexus. While the findings of the committee were made public the materials and evidence disclosing the names of  those with criminal links were withheld. What however is in the public domain is statements of witnesses recorded in the 1993 blasts investigation. These disclose that Dawood Ibrahim enjoyed close links with several prominent politicians particularly from Maharashtra at least one of whom even today occupies ministerial office. Congress reluctance to implement the recommendations is accordingly not surprising in the least.

Sometime after the chargesheet in the 1993 terrorist attack case was filed Dawood offered to surrender to the investigating authorities in India on certain terms. The two chief of these was that he be tried only for the 1993 case and that he be placed under house arrest as opposed to being held in custody in jail for security reasons. This audacious offer by an absconding accused in a trial with substantial evidence against him was clearly a bluff made in the confident belief that the Indian  authorities would not bite his bait. Again, not surprisingly, the Congress government then in power rejected his offer on the specious ground that they could not accord him preferential treatment. The immense advantage in securing  the prime conspirator’s presence in India, the information that could have been obtained from him particularly as regards Pakistan’s role in that heinous attack on India’s sovereignty, his conviction and sentence in that case and the consequent elimination of his potential for similar attacks in future were all strangely lost on the then administration. Dawood’s bluff was never called;his interrogation could expose  his many allies in India. Significantly a few years later the NDA government after relentlessly pursuing Abu Salem in Portugal secured his extradition to India from that country on 2 conditions: 

that he be investigated and tried only in respect of the 1993 case and that in the event of his conviction the death sentence be not imposed upon him since Portugal did not recognize that sentence. The Congress,then in opposition did not raise the faintest protest on the ground of  preferential treatment.

The NDA government in sharp contrast pursued the extradition of Dawood Ibrahim from Pakistan with missionary zeal.The then Home Minister Mr LKAdvani in particular made the extradition of Dawood by Pakistan  almost a precondition for the improvement of Indo-Pak relations at the Agra summit of 2001, an insistence which irked Musharraf in the extreme and led him to blame Mr Advani by insinuation for the breakdown of talks. Undeterred, Mr Advani pressed the issue with U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell during his visit to the U.S. in January 2002.His efforts were finally rewarded in October 2003 when  the United States designated Dawood Ibrahim as a global terrorist having links with Al QAEDA and financing activities of LeT and other terrorist organisations.

So why then is the Congress so meek and indeed almost indulgent in its attitude towards Dawood  and his known acolytes like Sunjay Dutt? The answer is not far to seek. The party believes that the poor,uneducated Muslim who constitutes a significant majority of that community largely because years of Congress rule has consigned him to that condition privately regard Dawood and his ilk as icons of justice where the Indian state has failed them in their hour of need. Rather than disabuse adherents of this presumed view within the community by deterring terrorists through their capture and conviction the Congress prefers to let the law meander aimlessly forever so that its inaction earns it the electoral harvest of a grateful community’s votes. Meanwhile, the nation burns as the undeterred merchants of terror unleash their next vicious attack.

That Congress has capitulated abjectly to fundamentalist and extremist ideologues in the Muslim community is most clearly established by its passionate support for SIMI.  The party and its spin doctors in the media have actually given this demonstrably pernicious outfit  a clean bill of health in the face of both the organisation’s unabashed adherence to and espousal of  jehadi violence for the purpose of subversion of the Indian State  and its well established involvement in several terrorist attacks across India.

The Student’s Islamic Movement of India (Simi)  is a fundamentalist organisation of Muslim youth founded in Aligarh in 1977. Its aim is “the liberation of India” by converting it to an Islamic state. Simi has declared jehad against India the aim of which is to establish Dar-ul-Islam by forcefully converting all Indians to Islam or by extermination. Simi is opposed to democracy, nationalism and secularism and thus to the Constitution of India. For Simi, Osama bin laden is an Islamic hero and not a terrorist. Further, Simi does not regard Jammu and Kashmir as an integral part of India.                 

     

As if its credo was not seditious enough for any mainstream political party to at least maintain a healthy distance from the organisation if not roundly condemn it, the Congress party and its secular allies have staunchly championed its cause. Worse, their support of Simi has been in the face of overwhelming evidence of the organisation’s active participation in terrorist activities.

On the 26th of March 2002 at a specially convened Parliamentary session to enact POTA, Sonia Gandhi shockingly opposed the Act on the ground that it was being introduced only to target Simi which was not a terrorist organisation. This in spite of the fact that the Home ministry on the basis of Intelligence Bureau reports had justified the ban on the ground that the outfit had strong links with Al Qaeda, the Taliban and the LeT. She was supported amongst others by Prakash Jaiswal  whom the UPA appointed as Minister of State for Home on its assumption of the reins of power in 2004.

Since then the role  of Simi in  the perpetration of terrorist activities through the length and breadth of India is well-documented history. The Institute of Conflict Management headed by KPS Gill has catalogued over 100 incidents from the year 2000 to July 2008 that characterized Simi as a terror outfit.

Even so, when Simi challenged the latest ban on it imposed by the UPA regime in February 2008, the Home Ministry  manned by Shivraj Patil and Prakash Jaiswal wilfully or otherwise presented its case so abysmally that the Delhi High Court was compelled to quash the ban on Simi on the ground that the government had not furnished any evidence to indicate that Simi was involved in any terrorist activities since the previous ban. It was only the vociferous criticism of the opposition and particularly the anger and protests of the police forces in various states including  Congress –run states(the State of Maharashtra for example was at pains to point out that Simi was responsible for two major terrorist acts since the earlier ban—the train blast of 11th July2006 and the Malegaon explosions in September the same year) that the UPA government appealed to the Supreme Court which promptly restored the ban. 

The purpose of this treatise is not to flay Congress’s avowed secular credentials. In a polity as diverse as India the road to power for a political party   necessarily consists  in championing sectional interests while feigning to be “truly national “ in order to maximize its electoral appeal. The real danger is when a political party in fact begins to accept its propaganda as gospel. Once before in 1975 the Congress seduced by its own propaganda that it alone could guarantee stability subverted this country’s  democracy and declared an unconstitutional Emergency. Today its only badge of pride is the appropriation to itself of the coveted title of all those who seek the Muslim vote bank: keeper of the secular ideal. On available  evidence  the Congress seems to believe  that the title behoves it to encourage separatist ideas, jehadi doctrines and an Islamic theocracy in India. This election is the time to put a mirror before Congress eyes, disabuse the party of its dangerous misconceptions about secularism and relieve it from the responsibity of office before it cedes India to a barbaric culture as effete rulers have so often done in the past.

Gujarat Fake Encounter Case - Lopsided Morality exposes Political Bias

According to an affidavit filed by DIG CID Rajnish Rai in the Supreme Court, more arrests are soon likely in the fake encounter case in Gujarat. In a startling confession, Gujarat government on Monday told the Supreme Court that Kausar Bi, wife of fake encounter victim Sohrabuddin Sheikh was killed by being burnt to death. In a new twist to row over the killing of Soharabuddin Sheikh in a fake encounter, a senior police officer today said the Gujarat police had tried to cover it up in 2006 by not taking cognizance of recommendation for a CID probe into it after the victim’s brother filed a case. Three IPS officers, including one from Rajasthan, were arrested on April 23 after a CID (crime) probe revealed that Sohrabuddin was killed in a fake encounter by a team of Gujarat and Rajasthan Police. The three officers - D G Vanjhara (DIG border range), Rajkumar Pandiyan (SP intelligence bureau) and Dineshkumar M N (SP Alwar, Rajasthan) are in the custody of CID. The media has been casting aspersions on Minister of State for Home Amit Shah, known to be close to one of the arrested officers D G Vanjhara for being linked to the cover up.

Offstumped examines the reportage on this issue in the mainstream media to expose the lopsided morality and political bias underlying it.

First to gain a perspective on the issue of fake encounters and custodial deaths, Offstumped turned to the National Human Rights Commission, that tax payer funded conscience keeper for the nation.

The NHRC for all its activism in keeping the citizens (its sponsors) informed about how its managing their collective conscience has been rather slack in releasing its annual reports. The last report available online is for 2004-2005, nevertheless it makes for interesting reading. The report amongst other things covers custodial deaths and encounters.

As regards the deaths which occurred in the police custody in the course of the year 2004-2005, the report indicated that there was a noticeable decline in such cases vis-à-vis the previous year in the States of Bihar, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Assam, Rajasthan,Tamilnadu and West Bengal. There was, however, an increase in the deaths in police custody n the States of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Orissa, Delhi, Jharkhand and Uttranchal.

Well thats something the mainstream media will not bother to tell you. Now the present media outrage is all about encounters so let us look at what the NHRC has to say about encounters.

122 intimations were received from the various State Governments about killings in encounters during the year 2004-2005. These included 66 such intimations from the State of Uttar Pradesh, 18 intimations from Andhra Pradesh, 9 from Delhi and 5 each from Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh. Separately, the Commission also received 84 complaints about alleged killings in fake encounters.

Here is another interesting statistic from NHRC on fake encounter cases disposed during 2004-2005. Gujarat had just 1 fake encounter case while congress ruled AP had 5, SP ruled UP had 54, congress ruled Haryana had 4. While Gujarat only 5 encounter cases pending, Congress ruled AP had 21, Congress ruled Maharashtra had 29, SP ruled UP had 175, the National Capital Delhi had 18 despite Sonia Gandhi and Manmohan Singh at the helm and Congress ruled Uttaranchal had 14.

So when one sees the head over heels moral outrage in the mainstream media over the Gujarat Fake encounter case, one is left bewildered over why the media has its conscience pouring all over its newsprint over a hardened criminal when far many more cases in other states presumably many involving innocent law abiding citizens are pending.

Looking at all this outrage one is forced to ask the question - what moral underpinnings does this outrage stem from ? Is it about what ails Criminal Justice ? Is it about why our law enforcement has lost faith in the Judicial System that it tends to find violent and murderous solutions outside the ambit of law ? Is it about why there are such a large number of encounters and fake encounters in some specific states ? Or is it about how Criminal Justice and Law enforcement are so easily prone to political pressures that they tend to be misused for political purposes ?

If the outrage over Sohrabuddin’s fake encounter death was secular and moral it would be asking all of the above questions. It would have focused the debate on the widespread secular nature of this malaise that afflcits our law enforcement and criminal justice system. But then thats not what the public debate on Soharbuddin has been about. It has instead been about how a Muslim man and his wife were wronged by the Police in BJP’s Narendra Modi ruled Gujarat. Nothing exemplifies the media’s hollow morality and political bias than this comment by congress hack Pankaj Vohra in the Hindustan Times

Sheikh’s death is another case of the Modi government’s high-handedness. Thankfully, the country has a good judicial system and it will never allow fascist designs to succeed. Recent incidents and especially those concerning Gujarat have shown beyond doubt that the BJP is losing its moral fibre slowly and surely

Mr. Vohra conveninently ingnores that YSR’s Andhra and Vilasrao Deshmukh’s Maharashtra are far ahead by leaps and bounds on the NHRC’s scale of high handedness and fascism. So what then of the Congress’ moral fibre or is that it never had one to begin with !

Sohrabuddin was a hardened criminal and the fact remains that he got more justice in his death than he probably ever dealt to his many victims in life. By framing the public debate on his religion the media stands guilty of communalization doing little to either Human Rights or to Secularism.

Pseudosecularism

Uploaded on authorSTREAM by netguru

No end to Secularists' Hypocrisy !

Sikhs getting slaughtered in thousands = A MISTAKE.

Hindus getting tortured and killed in Kashmir = Political problem.

Muslims & Hindu getting killed in Post Godhra riots = Communal Anti- Muslim riots.

Poor protestors getting shot in leftist-ruled WB = Misunderstanding.

Banning Parzania in Gujarat = Communal.

Banning Da Vinci Code, Rushdie’s book, and Jo Bole So Nihaal = Secular.

Kargil Attack = Government failure.

Chinese invasion in 1962 = Unfortunate betrayal.

Fake encounters in Gujarat [Sohrabuddin] = BJP Communalism.

Fake encounters under Cong-NCP in Maharashtra [Khwaja Younus] = Oh, that’s just police atrocity.

Talking about Hindu interest = Communal. 

Talking about Vaticanization = Secular.

BJP freeing 3 terrorists to save 200 Indian hostages = Shameful.

Congress freeing 4 terrorists to save just 1 life of Mufti Mohd Saeed’s daughter in Kashmir [Rubiya Sayed] = Natural Political dilemma.

Attack on Parliament = BJP ineptitude. 

Not hanging Afzal Guru despite Supreme Court orders = Humanity and Political dilemma.

BJP worshipping Ram = Communal.

Congress questioning Lord Ram's existence = Secular.

Is there any end to secularists' hypocrisy?