Redefining BJP

The deliberations in the BJP are becoming murkier with each passing day. The knives are out and senior leaders are raising inconvenient questions. The party did not do as well as expected in the last polls and the PM-designate Advani offered to step down as leader of Opposition. This should not have come as a surprise since Advani had launched a personal campaign of vilification against PM Manmohan Singh calling him ‘weak’, ‘nikamma’ and accused him of having degraded the office as never before by taking commands from elsewhere (read Sonia Gandhi). However, he was persuaded to stay on till the organizational elections were over. The real reason seemed to be that there was no natural successor. Advani acted cleverly and appointed two persons considered close to him- Jaitley as Leader of the Opposition in the upper house and Sushma Swaraj as his deputy in the lower. It meant his continuing hold and appeasement of those wanting younger leaders to take charge to counter the emergence of Rahul and Varun Gandhis on the political horizon. This was resented by senior leaders like Jaswant Singh, Yashwant Sinha and their likes who felt that those responsible for the party’s poor showing were being rewarded. The target, Arun Jaitley, who was the chief campaigner, remained away enjoying the T 20 World Cup in London.

The opinions about BJP’s poor showing have predictably been varying. Those close to RSS feel that it happened because BJP strayed from the path of Hindutva. The senior leaders mentioned above felt that those who have never won an election (read, Jaitley) called the shots while sitting in Delhi. There were simmering voices criticising the way a negative and personal campaign was carried out by Advani and Modi, which put people off. There is yet another group, led by the party’s chief, which feels that BJP has not done badly at all with its hundred plus strength in Lok Sabha. The party spokespersons have reiterated its position that it would stick to the liberal, tolerant Hindutva as its core ideology.

There lies the problem. Most Hindus do not have a problem with Hindutva but with the brand followed by it. It is neither liberal nor tolerant. BJP has come to be identified with pulling down of Babri Masjid at Ayodhya, murderous attacks on Christian churches and missionaries in Orissa and Karnataka, moral policing resulting in assaults on women in Mangalore’s and courting couples on Valentine’s Day across the Hindi heartland. The little men and women owing allegiance to it have even tried to enforce dress codes. These acts are sometimes carried out by little known organizations which mushroom around polls and can be conveniently disowned. So Advani can condemn attacks on women, describe demolition of Babri Masjid as the saddest day of his life, praise Jinnah as a secularist and try to garner votes in the name of Hindutva at the same time. You dissociate yourself from Varun Gandhi’s communal comments and retain him as a candidate. Varun wins his seat but costs BJP many more.

To sum up, the BJP’s Hindutva has never been the tolerant, liberal, all-inclusive faith that Hindus have always prided themselves of and to which its spokespersons allude today. The party has actually brought the great faith into disrepute and disgrace by giving it a dimension akin to Islamic jihad. The trishuls distributed by it to all and sundry misrepresent the essence of Hinduism. Hinduism is all about conquering evil within ourselves. It is about freeing one of opposites in the form of pleasure and pain, success and failure, victory and defeat. It is about controlling our senses, overcoming worldly desires, managing anger lest it cause despair and loss of judgement leading to our ultimate ruin. It is about doing our karma or duty for the larger good of mankind in the name of God without worrying about results. Hinduism is a synonym of compassion and service to mankind. Let BJP return to its fold and see the difference it would make.

Justice for Aung San Suu Kyi

Aung San Suu Kyi served as the figurehead for Burma's struggle for democracy since 1988, and is one of the world's most renowned freedom fighters and advocates of non-violence. Born on June 19, 1945 to Burma's independence hero, Aung San, Suu Kyi was educated in Burma, was a student at LSR College, University of Delhi, India, and in the United Kingdom. Her father was assassinated when she was only two years old.

In 1988, she returned to Burma to nurse her dying mother, and was plunged into the nationwide uprising that had just begun. Joining the newly-forming National League for Democracy political party, Suu Kyi gave numerous speeches calling for freedom and democracy. The military regime responded to the uprising with brute force, shooting and killing up to 10,000 demonstrators – including students, women, and children – in a matter of months. Unable to maintain its grip on power, the regime was forced to call for a general election in 1990. As Suu Kyi campaigned for the NLD, she and many others were detained by the regime. Despite being held under house arrest, the NLD went on to win a staggering 82% of the seats in parliament. The regime never recognised the results.

Suu Kyi has been in and out of arrest ever since. She was held from 1989-1995, and again from 2000-2002. She was again arrested and placed behind bars in May 2003 after the Depayin massacre, during which up to 100 of her supporters were beaten to death by the regime's cronies. She moved from prison back into house arrest in late 2003 and has been held there ever since. She has won numerous international awards, including the Nobel Peace Prize, Sakharov Prize from the European Parliament, United States Presidential Medal of Freedom, and the Jawaharlal Nehru Award from India. She has called on people around the world to join the struggle for freedom in Burma, saying "Please use your liberty to promote ours."

What is neighbouring India, which boasts of being the largest democracy and the rest of the world doing to secure justice for her?

Free Aung San Suu Kyi now! Down with Myanmar’s military junta!

Speaking Malayalam-Nursing a Job

Caught speaking Malayalam, Apollo nurses asked to resign. IE, May 26

The news report dealt with how two nurses were asked to resign when they were overheard speaking to each other in their native tongue, Malayalam. It is perfectly common for people belonging to the same community or region to break into their familiar lingo, especially in a different world. It not only gives them a sense of identity but also a collective anonymity, bordering on superiority, as others around them gape at them blankly. This need not always turn into loss of a job unless you are working for Apollo. My senior R. narrated two experiences, which were quite to the contrary.

R. had a deft hand and drew cartoons with a felicity envied by many. His favourite pastime was to ask small children to draw any line and he would turn it into a figure of their choice. S his fame spread, All India Radio hired his services to illustrate Akashvani, its official journal. He rid its contents of drabness over a period of time. As he entered its office on Delhi’s prime location, Parliament Street, to collect a cheque for the services rendered, he found himself facing a lady from his home State, Kerala. I must add here that R. had grown long hair, which were quite a rage then, and spoke chaste Hindi. His features too did not betray his roots and he was often mistaken to be from the Hindi heartland.

The lady was quite justified when she said to him, ‘Kahiye?’

‘Ji, mujhe apna cheque lena hai’, Rajan explained.

He was offered a seat and asked to wait after he had provided relevant information. Then dropped the bombshell. The lady pretended to be absorbed in work, switched to Malayalam and called out the name of a colleague seated in the same room and said to her, ‘Have you seen this joker sitting before me?’

Rajan got a jolt but composed himself and kept looking around blankly.

‘Why? What is special about him”, the other lady enquired.

‘Jesus! Look at his hair. And he must be thinking he is looking very smart”

“Why is he here?”

‘For money. But he should be given scissors in lieu of that!’

Thankfully the cheque arrived by then and Rajan signed a register to get it. Having collected it, he turned to the lady smilingly and asked in chaste Hindi, ‘Aap ko mere baal pasand nahin aaye?

The other incident was quite hilarious. On a visit to a ward in Willington Hospital in New Delhi, he discovered that the patient he was looking for was not to be found on the allotted bed. A little concerned, he rushed to the nursing station where the petite Malayali girl was on the intercom. ‘Ek minute’, she said to which Rajan responded with a nod. And then she went on uttering choicest obscenities in Malayalam, which brought beads of perspiration on R.’s forehead in winter. When she hung up after what seemed to be eternity and asked my friend, ‘Bolo’, Rajan asked gleefully about the missing patient but in Malayalam. The nurse turned pale, vanished from the scene and sent someone else to answer the query.

Better than losing a job, anyway!

Destination Australia!

Incidents involving mugging and stabbing of Indian students in Australia, especially in Victoria, are a matter of grave concern. Many Indians have been robbed in the past but the increasing numbers of students- estimates vary between 1 to 1.5 lacs- have led to racist attacks bordering on culpable homicide to attempted murder. The frequency of vicious assaults on those who have legally sought admission there and are shelling out hefty fees averaging 2 lacs in Indian rupees have caught everyone’s attention. Routine diplomatic steps like summoning the Aussie envoy in New Delhi and phone calls by PM to his counterpart raised some hope that the matter will be resolved. However, excessive use of force by the police on Indian protestors on a sit-in shows that racism pervades even the police force there.

What should India do? India should take steps that hurt Australia. They can't make money from our students and then stab them with screwdrivers or hurl petrol bombs at them. Indian govt. should issue an advisory against travel to that country, whether for study or for tourism. Once billions of dollars, which are being earned by Australian educational and travel industry, go away, their government would understand that racism against Indians cannot be taken lightly. Banks should refuse study loans if the destination is Australia. We should derecognize Australian degrees unless those holding them clear equivalence tests here in India.

It is a pity that our students are forced to study abroad. This is largely due to reckless introduction of reservation in admissions as well as teaching. Though advocates of social justice refuse to accept it, yet merit surely takes a backseat. The admission opportunities to quality technical institutes in India must be increased. This could be done by introducing paid seats in elite institutions and the money thus raised can be used to set up more facilities here. In short, stop patronising foreign universities and improve educational infrastructure here. With stringent regulation by UGC and AITEC, it should be possible to open private universities and provide educational avenues to those who have the means to pay for them.