Padmanabha Temple treasure and British loot

Senthil

We are rediscovering the wealth of India. And the immense beauty in which it was gathered and preserved and protected for the common good in times of trouble is truly uplifting to our tired spirits. Suddenly this seems an exciting country to live in …

But, as the Supreme Court-ordered public accounting of hitherto unknown treasures in secret chambers in Kerala’s famed Padmanabha Temple gets underway, the Sanatana Dharma, the world’s oldest and greatest living civilisation, offers unprecedented insight into the integrity, consistency, and continuity with which its ancient rulers upheld its civilisation mores and values, and harvested and preserved wealth in trust for future generations. This should serve as a lesson in humility to the Western world, where bankers in connivance with unscrupulous politicians are busy robbing the common man so that the rich can continue their profligate ways, destroying all values of civilisation the world over.

This should serve as an antidote to the arrogance of the Marxist and anti-Hindu parvenus that Nehruvian Stalinism imposed upon the nation as ‘intellectuals’ as part of its determined quest to deconstruct Hindu Dharma as the nation’s foundational ethos and engineer a rootless, culture-less entity that could satisfy the arid intellect of the country’s first prime minister. We may call this the quest for what a former Polish communist writer designates as Homo sovieticus, a soulless denudation of all the values of a nation and nullification of all its glories and triumphs.

The Hindu king was a critical pillar of Hindu Dharma, its mainstay and defender. Is it any wonder that independent [Nehruvian] India’s intellectuals – funded and feted by the State to the exclusion of all other thinkers – never found merit in any of our erstwhile rulers, even when the kingdoms that they managed to hold on to during the British Raj where in so many respects superior in administration to the Crown-ruled provinces, and the subjects happier?

As we see in the case of the Padmanabha Temple, even though the Travancore royal family had lost political power, the ruler remained the official king of the Padmanabha Temple, which is deeply revered by the people of the region. And when the king and his successor kings feared that the loss of political power could translate into the loss of economic control over the immense wealth of the kingdom to the British who had come only to plunder and loot the nation, they swiftly and wisely transferred huge parts of the royal treasury into secret chambers in the Padmanabha Temple, whose priests then served as guardians of this public treasure. To their credit, they have upheld this trust. Mind you, the wealth thus hidden by the king would have been the kingdom’s surplus after paying the handsome tributes extracted by the British Crown!

In one royal stroke, the new-found wealth in the abode of Sri Padmanabha shatters the myth assiduously nurtured and propagated by Christian missionaries and their Western Christian mentors that India is and has ever been a poor country. Were that true, the White Man would have taken his rapacious presence elsewhere. When a small princely state could accumulate so much wealth – that too, on the basis of an agricultural economy, mind you – even after 150 years of British loot, then how much wealth would we have had in the original? It is a question worth pondering over.

A related issue that rises in my mind is that the missionaries always cite the ‘poverty of India’ as their justification for conversion. This stands exposed. And as the assets of the Christian missionaries are products of the loot of India by the British colonial regime (and the continuing neo-colonial world order), we may safely say that the wealth of missionaries rightfully belongs to Hindus.

The gold and precious jewels now being unearthed from underground chambers of the Padmanabha temple have conservatively been estimated at around Rs One lakh crore; their antique value will take much more time to evaluate. The temple is privately owned by the royal family of Travancore, just one of the small Princely states of India.

The question naturally arises – if this is just a portion of the wealth of one small, albeit immensely wealthy, state, what would be the true estimate of how much the British Raj had looted India? At independence there were more than 500 princely states, with some major kingdoms like Mysore, Jaipur, Gwalior, Jodhpur, and so on.

So when small princely states like Travancore had so much of wealth, how much would the British looted from all other Princely States, and the regions they governed directly under what they called British India? If we assume that on an average, 1/10th of this treasure (10,000 crore) was possessed by each of the 500 small Princely States, it comes around 500 x 10,000 crore = 50,00,000 crore. This is just as per current market value of the valuables; the antique value is unlimited. The temple jewels fall under the category of antiques, and hence the values are far, far higher.

In 1857, the British destroyed innumerable rajyams and took over their treasuries. The estimate of this loot is beyond comprehension, and is not included in this article. What we may do well to remember, however, is that the British created a class of civil servants whose main responsibility was to extract revenue from our thriving agriculture (hence, Collectors), and levy tax on everything else they could think of, like the humble salt. So the loot from British India would closely parallel the loot from Princely India.

Some pertinent questions arise:

· The temple is under the control of the Travancore Royal Family. It would prima facie seem that the treasure found in the temple belongs to them. If the Government of India forcefully acquires these treasures, what is the difference between colonial loot and the present government loot?

· Or did the royal family transfer the wealth considering it as State Wealth, a trust held on behalf of the subjects as it derived from the tax revenues of the subjects?

· Was there a clear distinction between the Royal Treasury as an institution of the Kingdom and the personal property of the ruler? Did members of the Royal Family derive specific monthly or annual incomes from the Treasury, which could be called their personal money? (I recall that in the larger princely kingdoms, certain articles of jewellery were the private property of the royal queens and princesses; but large quantities of very precious jewellery were not assigned to individuals, but held in the Treasury separately. The reigning king’s spouse could select items to wear by signing a register, and these had to be scrupulously returned to the treasury thereafter).

· Then, who is Sunderrajan who has filed a petition before Supreme Court seeking Government takeover of the wealth. This seems malicious, and it would be interesting to know the religious denomination and locus standi of the petitioner, and the motives behind filing the petition.

· Given the fact that the wealth has resided for over a century in the safe possession and custody of the Padmanabha Temple, should not this wealth now be considered the legitimate possession of the Temple?

· Can we protect this wealth as owned by the Temple but belonging to the people of State and indeed the entire Nation by declaring that it cannot be sold under any circumstances?

· Can we use it to generate wealth for the Hindu people to whom it ultimately belongs by housing it in a special ultra-safe museum and earning income from the proceeds of the display?

· Can we ensure that the wealth is not misused to benefit non-Hindu communities with the agenda to destroy the Hindu nation and its religion, culture and customs?

· The petitioner before the Supreme Court has alleged that the temple management is not proper. I think the irony today is that the Government and the Judiciary are scam-ridden and tainted with corruption. What makes them better custodians of wealth that they did not even know existed? Historically, we have always found that native Indian kings governed their region more efficiently than any colonial or national government.

· Padmanabha temple presents a perfect case study to judge who is the rightful owner of a temple. Sri Padmanabha Swamy Temple belongs to the royal family, and it is they who have been maintaining this rajya temple for generations. It is they who decide whom to allow and whom NOT allow inside the temple. The Temple is NOT public property. The public can worship there, but cannot claim any rights over it.

· It must be clarified here that a Temple is NOT like a church. While a church is a place of gathering for worship [the Christian god lives in heaven], a temple is the residence of the God Himself; hence the sanctity of the temple has to be maintained. Neither Government nor courts have any business to meddle in its affairs.

In non-monotheist cultures, the king is the protector of dharma. Kings always governed our country far, far better than the rest of the world. As distinct from western culture, the king is subservient to the presiding deity of the kingdom, as we find at places like Puri and also the Padmanabha temple. The Travancore kings calls themselves Padmanabha dasa (Servant of Padmanabha). When they commit wrong, the presiding deity will restore dharma. Thus, they are not absolute monarchs, nor dictators of the kind we commonly find in the West. This is true of most Indian kings; we find instances of such rajya temples in all desams. Modern Indian intellectuals need to understand that there is no dharma without a king.

Unlike the modern westernised urban ghettos (which we call towns, cities, metros) the temple is the centre of our bharatiya nagaras, around which the nagara is designed and built. I do not know the old architecture of the city of Tiruvananthapuram, or even the history of the Padmanabha temple, but the whole city was administered and regulated by the royal family before independence and Tiruvananthapuram seems to be a planned city. The present colonial Indian Government seized control from them after independence, and left the city to degrade itself. This is how our culture and our religion had declined, which Hindu (Marxist and fellow travellers) intellectuals are refusing to understand.

I strongly feel that the temple jewels should remain in the custody of the Royal Family and the Royal Temple. The wealth it generates must be used as per dharma. This means that Hindu temple wealth cannot be used to finance Hajj or repair churches, as in Karnataka. Any effort to seize the Temple by the government must be strongly resisted.

We may recall that Janata Party president Subramanian Swamy and Tamil Nadu chief minister Jayalalithaa have in the past publicly accused Congress president Sonia Gandhi of stealing antiques from India. The present move in the Supreme Court appears to be a grim conspiracy to steal the assets of Padmanabha Perumal. His devotees must resist with all their might.

Notes

· The findings reported so far include gold coins dating back thousands of years; gold necklaces nine feet long and weighing about 2.5 kg each; one tonne of the yellow metal in the shape of rice trinkets; sticks made of the yellow metal; sack full of diamonds; gold ropes; thousands of pieces of antique jewellery studded with diamonds and emeralds; crowns and other precious stones in chamber ‘A’.

· 17 kgs of gold coins dating back to the East India Company period; 18 coins from Napolean’s era; precious stones wrapped in silk bundles; over 1,000 kg of gold in the form of coins and trinkets and a small elephant made of the yellow metal.

· Sovereigns bearing the 1772 seal indicating the reign of then native king Karthika Thirunal Rama Varma.

· With chamber ‘B’ and ‘E’ yet to be opened, the shrine would pip Tirupati Balaji, assessed at over Rs 50,000 crore.

The writer is a software professional engaged in grassroots study of native traditions in the south

Courtesy : http://www.vijayvaani.com/

Anna stir – a balance sheet

S Gurumurthy

So after the first fast of Anna the Congress virtually dictated the agenda. Meanwhile Team Anna got Anna, who had first praised Narendra Modi, to talk against him so as to move the Anna movement further away from the BJP. This was the setting for the second Anna fast.

But the simple Anna proved increasingly difficult. He demanded a JLP Bill that included the PM down to everyone in the net. The Congress raised the plea that Anna could not dictate to the Parliament and got the BJP into the trap again. It got the constitutionalists in the BJP to endorse its view, again clubbing the BJP with itself!

But, the Congress strategy to handle Anna like it handled Swami Ramdev failed miserably with the media, which had no other headlines, focussing on Anna 24x7. With the media screaming ‘Anna’ and ‘Anna’ all the time, the Congress was on the run. Alas the BJP also found itself running with the Congress, against Anna. But, RSS workers enthused by Anna’s cry of “Vandemataram” and “Bharat Mata ki Jai” – both branded as RSS slogans – joined the movement in large numbers forcing the BJP president Nitin Gadkari to disregard the BJP Parliamentary Party and write to Anna offering support to his demands.

This forced the BJP Parliamentary Party also to side with Anna, rationalising the shift as the “evolving” stand of the BJP! This tilted the scale in Anna’s favour. But again the Congress would not leave the BJP. It joined with the BJP in the ‘Sense of the House’ exercise. The media claimed victory for Anna and for itself.

Here is the balance sheet of the Anna movement as of date. The BJP bracketed with the Congress loses; the Congress does not. The Congress cannot take Anna for granted; Anna cannot trust the Congress. The nation waits for what the Parliament will do about JLP Bill. The RSS is pleased that the two slogans “Bharat Mata Ki Jai” and “Vandemataram” long ostracised by Secular India have been secularised by Anna.

The writer is a well-known commentator on political and economic issues.

E-mail:comment@gurumurthy.net

Rahul Gandhi largest beneficiary of Commonwealth Games Bribe: Dr. Swamy

Here is the excerpt of the very important press release issued by Dr. Subramanian Swamy on 11 Aug. 2010 in Chennai which states that Rahul Maino is the main beneficiary of CWG bribes.

But surprisingly neither any Congress man dared to file a defamation case against Dr. Swany and everyone is mum including the "secular" press of India.

This is a must read for all patriotic Indians.

-----

Dr. Swamy's statement reads:

While abroad recently I was informed by my reliable sources that of the Rs.40000 crores spent to date on Commonwealth Games preparations, about Rs.15000 crores have gone as bribes under cover of payments to consultants and contractors. The recipient of the largest share of the bribe delivered in London is Rahul Gandhi, a Congress MP and son of Sonia Gandhi. In London Mr.Gandhi is known under an alias as Raul Vinci. The Indian High Commission employee in London who has denied his letter of recommendation now, acts as a valet for Mr.Gandhi whenever he visits London, which is at least once a month. Mr.Gandhi is accompanied by his undeclared wife, Colombian girl Veronique.

The plan of UPA to protect Mr.Gandhi from expose and prosecution in this CWG scam is to blame it all on Suresh Kalmadi and Shiela Dikshit. The Prime Minister must show boldness now because corruption at the public person level has attained Himalayan heights bringing disgrace to the nation and the economy performing below our potential.

I demand therefore constituting an open Commission of Inquiry under a sitting Supreme Court judge with CBI as it's investigating arm. The public and whistle blowers should be invited to depose before Commission.

-----

Reference:
http://www.janataparty.org/pressdetail.asp?rowid=59

Rahul Gandhi – an epitome of corruption? - IS IT GAGGING OF THE PRESS? OR GAGGING OF NEWS BY THE PRESS?

by V.SUNDARAM I.A.S.

On 11-August-2010 Dr. Subramanian Swamy, President of Janata Party convened a Press Conference at Chennai. As the All India General Secretary (Ideology) of the Janata Party, I am presenting below a copy of the Press Note issued by Dr. Subramanian Swamy to the Press on that day which speaks for itself.

In the Press Note, Dr. Subramanian Swamy has stated that Rahul Gandhi is indulging in Himalayan corruption and that he is the recipient of the largest share of the bribe of about Rs.15,000 Crores in London under cover of payments to Consultants and Contractors under the ongoing Sonia Congress mega-fraud of Congresswealth (definitely not Commonwealth) Games Programme.

The Correspondents of all the major English and Tamil Newspapers in Chennai attended the Press Meet convened by Dr. Subramanian Swamy. I was shocked to see that not one of the correspondents raised any question regarding the Saga of Mega Corruption of Crown Prince Rahul Gandhi. I have the following questions regarding the sphinx-like silence of the Press in regard to the corruption charges leveled by Dr. Subramanian Swamy against Rahul Gandhi:

a) Who is gagging the Press in India in general and Tamil Nadu in particular?

b) Is it true that the gagging of the Press emanates from the evangelical Residence of firangi memsahib Sonia Gandhi in New Delhi?

c) Is it true that the comrade-in-arms of Sonia Gandhi in this antinational and antisocial act of gagging of the Press is that known Islamic Political wheeler-dealer Ahmed Patel who became famous in 2008 when the Sonia Congress Party started purchasing MP’s from opposition Parties to garner support for the Indo-American Nuclear Deal?

d) Is not gagging of news BY the Press in Chennai a direct consequence of the gagging OF the Press starting from the residence of the firangi memsahib Chairman of the UPA Coordination Committee in New Delhi?

e) Are we living in an undeclared State of Emergency today? Why are newspapers nervous about publishing news about firangi memsahib and her son and other members of her family? Are they afraid that they would get picked up in the night by plain clothed policemen sent by the Congress Bureau of Intimidation (CBI)?

f) Do you want a society in which newspapers have to operate under the fear of being put to sudden death by the Sonia Congress Government?

g) Do you want a society in which the larger public does not know what is taking place in vital parts of our apex national governance in New Delhi?

h) Why are the nervous men in the Press worshipping the False Gods of Material Success and Shallow Fame Today? Are they not ashamed of their ever quaking fear of the ruling cabal? Do they think that shame is “communal” and shamelessness is “secular”?

Please think about all these vital questions. If your answer is “NO, I don’t want that kind of Sonia Congress Society”, THEN FIGHT LIKE HELL EVERY INCH OF THE WAY. At 69 years, I still see Fearless Journalism as a noble and ennobling profession. It ought not to be a petty, creeping and crawling, shameless, and unabashed prostitution in search of Government advertisement revenues and financial bottom lines. It does not consist of begging of complimentary gifts like suitcases (deftly filled with debauched and debased Indian Currency notes, Liquor Bottles of Indian and Foreign vintage and such other sought after gifts) by the corrupt men in the psedo-secular mafia of mass media-both print and electronic.

Truth and knowledge about crucial national issues can function and flourish only if mega-corruption of maha-criminals masquerading as mighty national leaders may freely be exposed without fear of favour. And corruption may go unchallenged if the current stage-managed dogma, no matter how widely accepted or clearly held, may not be questioned.

A NATIONAL PUBLIC FIGURE OF DR. SUBRAMANIAN SWAMY’S EMINENCE CANNOT SPEAK OR WRITE FREELY, REPOSING INVINCIBLE FAITH IN THE STELLAR ROLE OF A VIRILE AND INDEPENDENT PRESS, THEN ALL IMPORTANT PUBLIC FIGURES (NOT THE ARTIFICIAL, HOLLOW, STUFFED AND PUFFED UP MEN AND WOMEN LIKE DR MANMOHAN SINGH AND FIRANGI MEMSAHIB!) WOULD CEASE TO THINK OR TALK FREELY. It is the inalienable, indivisible, inexorable and immutable right of every responsible citizen in India to challenge the Himalayan corruption and gargantuan public misdeeds of these petty men and women of straw, not merely by silent impotent thought.

Thought like other human instincts will atrophy unless formally and regularly exercised. IF GAGGING BY THE PRESS PREVENTS INDEPENDENT, COURAGEOUS AND PUBLIC SPIRITED MEN FROM SPEAKING OR WRITING FREELY ON VITAL NATIONAL AND PUBLIC ISSUES, THEN THEY WILL ALSO CEASE TO THINK FREELY. THE TEST OF REAL FREEDOM OF SPEECH IS READINESS TO ALLOW IT EVEN TO MEN WHOSE OPINIONS SEEM TO YOU TO BE WRONG AND EVEN DANGEROUS. Freedom of Speech and Freedom of Assembly will be empty phrases if their exercise must yield to unreasonable fear.

THOSE GREAT MEN AND WOMEN IN THE MEDIA WHO FOUGHT FOR OUR INDEPENDENCE FERVENTLY BELIEVED THAT THE FINAL GOAL OF THE MEDIA WAS TO MAKE MEN FREE TO DEVELOP THEIR FACULTIES; AND THAT IN THIS GIGANTIC TASK THE DELIBERATIVE FORCES SHOULD PREVAIL OVER THE ARBITRARY. They valued Liberty both as an End and as a Means. They believed Liberty to be the Secret of Happiness and Courage to be the Secret of Liberty. They believed that Freedom to Think as you will and to Speak as you Think are the Means indispensable to the discovery of Political truth; that without free speech and Assembly, Discussion would be futile; that with them, Discussion affords ordinarily adequate protection against the dissemination of noxious doctrine; that the greatest menace to Freedom is an inert people; that Public Discussion is a Political Duty and that this should be the Fundamental Principle of the Indian Government in Post-Independent India. All these values cherished and upheld by our bold, fearless and intrepid pressmen in British India have been given a go-by by our slavish, supine and invertebrate pressmen in the media today. Their daily prayer for mean, mendacious and sordid living seems to be this today:

“Lead us from Mahatma Gandhi to Sonia Gandhi,

From Guru Gobind Singh to Dr Manmohan Singh,

From Rajaji to Karunanidhi,

From Manliness to Unmanliness,

From Communal Chastity to Secular Prostitution,

From Truth to Untruth,

From Democracy to Dictatorship,

From Courage to Cowardice,

From Liberty and Freedom to Servility and Slavery,

From Knowledge to Ignorance,

From Wisdom to Folly,

From Light to Darkness,

From Immortality to Sonia Congress Death!

The myriad millions of India have come to realize that they can get no justice at all from the servile, banal and stupid mass media — both print and electronic. The irresponsible Indian Press is steeped in its commitment to drivel, duplicity and demeaning programming. Our pressmen seem to be no longer interested in the relentless pursuit of Truth, Information and Enlightenment. Like an alcoholic drunkard chasing alcohol everyday, our vicious men in the media seem to be in the hot pursuit of Misinformation, Disinformation, Dissimulation, Untruth and wholesale promotion of degrading public ignorance.

Our newsmen seem to be no longer interested in proper news gathering and responsible reporting. They are only interested in propaganda which is that branch of lying which often deceives their friends without ever deceiving their enemies. All the major English newspaper owners and editors are interested in printing and publishing only PAID NEWS. The correspondents in their bonded labour are interested only in disseminating their own personal political views and prejudices, totally divorced from terrestrial reality and objective reporting, as BASIC GROUND-LEVEL NEWS. Their daily frivolous reporting is nothing but cheap propaganda which again is a monologue which seeks not any response but only an echo. What is public is only their propaganda, what is secret is their serious moral corruption.

The double charge against the Indian Press may thus be stated: “Its calculated failure to inform the public better than it does is the evasion of its responsibility. Its failure to educate and elevate the public taste rather than following that taste like a blind, wallowing dinosaur is an abuse of its freedom.”

Thus our FOURTH ESTATE is in a state of utter moral disarray, spiritual collapse and irretrievable ruin today. Sonia Gandhi is monitoring this tottering Press everyday, every minute through her ill-gotten wealth and money power.

Why the future belongs to India

By Guru Charan Das


In preparing for a much publicised debate in London on the motion ‘The future belongs to India, not China’, I was reminded of a conversation with my mother. She had asked, what is the difference between China growing at a rate of 10% and India at 8%? I replied that the difference was, indeed, very significant. If we were to grow at 10% we could save twenty years. This is almost a generation. We could lift a whole generation into the middle class twenty years sooner. She thought for a while and then said gently, 'we have waited 3000 years for this moment. Why don't we wait another twenty and do it the Indian way?'



She had understood that the cost of democracy is the price the poor pay in the delay of their entry into the middle class. She did not elaborate the 'Indian way' but it must include taking a holiday on half a dozen New Years Days! It is easy to get mesmerized by China's amazing progress and feel frustrated by India's chaotic democracy, but I think she had expressed the sentiments of most Indians who will not trade off democracy for two per cent higher growth.

In referring to the 'Indian way', my mother meant that a nation must be true to itself. Democracy comes easily to us because India has historically 'accumulated' its diverse groups who retain their distinctiveness while identifying themselves as Indian. China has 'assimilated' its people into a common, homogeneous Confucian society. China is a melting pot in which differences disappear while India is a salad bowl in which the constituents retain their identity. Hence, China has always been governed by a hierarchical, centralized state-a tradition that has carried into the present era of reform communism. China resembles a business corporation today. Each mayor and party secretary has objectives relating to investment, output and growth, which are aligned to national goals. Those who exceed their goals rise quickly. The main problem in running a country as a business is that many people get left out.

India, on the other hand, can only manage itself by accommodating vocal and varied interest groups in its salad bowl. This leads to a million negotiations daily and we call this system 'democracy'. It slows us down--we take five years to build a highway versus one in China. Those who are disgruntled go to court. But our politicians are forced to worry about abuses of human rights, whereas my search on Google on 'human rights abuses in China' yielded 47.8 million entries in 13 seconds! Democracies have a safety valve-it allows the disgruntled to let off steam before slowly co-opting them.

Both India and China have accepted the capitalist road to prosperity. But capitalism is more comfortable in a democracy, which fosters entrepreneurs naturally. A state enterprise can never be as innovative or nimble and this is why the Chinese envy some of our private companies. Democracy respects property rights. As both nations urbanize, peasants in India are able to sell or borrow against their land, but the Chinese peasants are at the mercy of local party bosses. Because India has the rule of law, entrepreneurs can enforce contracts. If someone takes away your property in China, you have no recourse. Hence, it is the party bosses who are accumulating wealth in China. The rule of law slows us down but it also protects us (and our environment, as the NGOs have discovered).

We take freedom for granted in India but it was not always so. When General Reginald Dyer opened fire in 1919 in Jallianwala Bagh killing 379 people, Indians realised they could only have dignity when they were free from British rule. The massacre at Tiananmen Square in 1989, where 300 students were killed, was China's Jallianwala Bagh. China today may have become richer than India but the poorest Chinese yearns for the same freedom.

Because the Indian state is inefficient, millions of entrepreneurs have stepped into the vacuum. When government schools fail, people start private schools in the slums, and the result is millions of 'slumdog millionaires'. You cannot do this in China. Our free society forces us to solve our own problems, making us self-reliant. Hence, the Indian way is likely to be more enduring because the people have scripted India’s success while China’s state has crafted its success. This worries China’s leaders who ask, if India can become the world’s second fastest economy despite the state, what will happen when the Indian state begins to perform? India's path may be slower but it is surer, and the Indian way of life is also more likely to survive. This is why when I am reborn I would prefer it to be in India.

----The writer is speaking in a debate in London on 12 May 2009 in support of the motion ' The future belongs to India, not China'-----

Courtesy: http://gurcharandas.blogspot.com/2009/05/why-future-belongs-to-india.html

Liberal Fascists: An article by RAM MADHAV

This is an old technique of our pseudo-intellectuals. Attack and abuse.. but never engage in a debate or discussion over the issues raised or the arguments made.

Sesham Kopena Poorayet…. goes an old adage. What remains when you run out of arguments is anger and abuse.

What Dr. Subramanian Swamy had written in an article titled “How to wipe out Islamic terror in India” are his views. One may or may not agree with his views. The article was found fit for publication by the editor of a prestigious Mumbai-based English daily.

Ideally our intellectuals should have responded by countering Dr. Swamy’s arguments and opinions. Instead what we hear are endless invectives. I am not giving any opinion on the content of the article here. But how can I or anybody else deny Dr. Swamy his right to articulate his views?

In fact the political mission of many Islamists is under scrutiny all over the world. Tons of literature can be found in US and Europe over political Islam. In the most liberal parts of the world issues relating to Islam and its political ambitions are debated freely and opinions freely expressed. But in our country it is a complete taboo.

I am not surprised about the reactions from politicians like Digvijay Singh. In fact we can ignore them. For, they are just merchants of votes, rather unscrupulous. They don’t read books that they go to release. We don’t need to imagine that they had read Dr. Swamy’s piece before condemning him. They are knowledge-proof and information-proof. All that they know is to cynically exploit every opportunity for their narrow vote-bank politics. In fact they must be cribbing and wallowing that ‘Osamaji’ had not telephoned to them before getting killed so that they could have declared a grand nexus between the CIA and the RSS in eliminating ‘Osamaji’ – ‘part of a global anti-Muslim conspiracy’. Ignore them.

But what about our intellectual brigade that lungs out choicest sobriquets at Dr. Swamy for daring to write that article? What about our Minority Commission which is ‘seriously considering’ taking legal action against him?

Don’t forget these were the very same people who vigorously defended using their full vocal might M.F. Hussain when he painted Durga Mata, Sita Mata and Bharat Mata in the nude and obscene. That was described as ‘artistic freedom’. And these were the ones who were defending seditious bellows of Arundhati Roy and Jeelani etc. That was freedom of expression. Why then can Dr. Swamy not enjoy that freedom?

But that is how our pseudo intellectuals operate. They did it before too, several times, with several others. When Syed Shahabuddin was attacking Js. Krishna Aiyer on Shahbano judgment or when he was haranguing against Salman Rushdie – remember, without even reading the book Satanic Verses - these intellectuals were not seen anywhere to stop him. They were mute spectators to the fundamentalist Muslims’ targeting of Taslima Nasreen and their hurling of choicest invectives at her. Even to this day she runs from pillar to post every six months to ensure that the Indian Government doesn’t throw her out under the pressure of the fundamentalist groups.

In all these cases the refrain of these pseudo intellectuals is that the sentiments and sensitivities
of the Muslims must be kept in mind. Let me recall that when Ayatollah Khomeini declared fatwa of death against Rushdie the great American Democrat and former President Jimmy Carter didn’t ask for the Ayatollah or the Muslims to show greater sensitivity to the right to freedom of expression of other people. Instead he only called for greater Western sensitivity to Muslim feelings. So did Margaret Thatcher of the UK.

Our pseudo intellectuals don’t bother when a Derek van Gogh is murdered or a Geert Wilders is made to make umpteen number of rounds of the courts or a Scandinavian magazine office becomes a target of repeated attacks for an ordinary cartoon depicting the Prophet or an Ayan Hirsi Ali is hounded out of Netherlands. Their freedom of expression doesn’t count. They pounce on Dr. Swamy in the similar manner for using a platform to express his views. He must be thrown out of Harvard; he must be prosecuted.

Now are they not the real Fascists – the Liberal Fascists?

Source: ram-madhav.blogspot.com