I clearly remember the first time I held my four hour old daughter and she grabbed my finger and held on to it. A bond had been formed. Bholenath had bestowed upon me a gift beyond value and I and had to love and protect her. That was twelve years ago. Even today her tears completely break my heart. If I could, I would fall sick or get injured in her place. I am sure that most fathers out there empathize with me.
So when I read about all these rapes of young girls, some as young as five, I do not know what to think. In fact I cannot think clearly about it because it confuses and angers me greatly. I don’t know what those fathers must think or feel. There is no cure for that kind of pain even if these fathers were allowed to torture and kill the rapists.
But as part of a civilized society, we must find a way to protect our children. I don’t know if such cases are on the rise or people are no longer willing to keep such heinous acts under wraps for honor purposes but a pattern seems to be developing here and that has to be dealt with a great deal of urgency. Now as much as I enjoy seeing Congress and their minions getting squeezed, I don’t think that the police can protect each and every child out there. Much like the lone wolf terrorist cannot be stopped; these sick perverts who keep their proclivities hidden cannot be stopped. Law and order can only bring the criminals to justice but cannot prevent them from committing the act. Those of you who read our blog know that we feel very strongly about it. For the new readers we will try to give links to earlier blogs on the same topic.
I think that this problem is a social problem. Pedophiles are not your usual criminals or perverts. A guy getting drunk and raping a girl is one kind of rape. A guy who seeks victims and rapes then is a serial offender and thus a different kind of rapist. He is the one with psychological problems (not that the date rape guy is sane but we are talking semantics here). However, these guys who are going around raping children are criminally insane and thus need to be caught and removed from the society permanently.
So why is this social problem? It is because these diseased creatures do not and cannot exist in vacuum. They have a support system and often people in that support system choose to ignore their sickness. Moreover, these guys were not born this way. Most of them were abused themselves by people around them. Most pedophiles were abused children themselves. However, once created, these victim turned monsters need to be stopped. One of the rapists who raped and nearly killed that five year old girl (the doctors had to remove foreign objects from her insides – imagine that level of perversity) is married to a girl he had raped. Clearly his parent knew about it and colluded with others in the society to deal with that crime by marrying this guy to her like some medieval Islamic society. If those parent and others who knew about the rape had reported that or at least sought professional help may have saved this child (and her family) from going through hell. Now this guy will certainly get death or worse (killed by inmates) and they lose their son in a worse way.
If people know or hear of someone with a problem of this kind, if a wife knows about her husband who has this kind of proclivity or a parent who knows something about their son then it is their responsibility to God and society to deal with the problem by either reporting it to law or seek psychiatric help. That way, they will save future victims as well as their loved ones. Of course this is easier said than done but short of something like this, I do not know what to think.
We as a society are clearly moving away from the spiritual and towards the material and instant gratification. I gotta have it and have it now or I am special or the world owes me something for being born or I am a guy so submit to me kind of attitudes are becoming more and more prevalent in our society. Greed and shameless / false sense of superiority are turning women into objects and girls into liabilities. Until the Indian society accepts their foibles and start to work towards a solution, unless we treat women and girls with the same degree as we do our devis, unless we move closer to the Hindu tenets of life and away from selfish materialistic pursuits, we should prepare ourselves for more news of this kind.
Our posts on this and similar topics are as follows:
There are two leftist written biographies of Modi out there. The first one is Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay (referred to as L1 in the rest of the post) and the other is Kingshuk Nag (L2). L1 is described as Based in Delhi for most of his professional career, he is known for his biting analysis on contemporary Indian politics with specialization on 'Hindu politics' in India. L2 is the editor of the Hyderabad edition of TOI (a tabloid pretending to be a newspaper in my humble opinion). Since they have not been able to bring Modi down, they are trying something subtle just like green snakes in the grass. They are claiming to have written fair and balanced biographies but their disdain comes through loud and clear. In my opinion, L1 should focus on political luminaries from his home state and leave the wretched Hindu nationalists alone. He can sing paeans to Communist stalwarts and Mamata Bannerjee but alas, as he also knows, no one will buy it. Ditto for L2 who is even less of a journalist than L1. Both of them have written these books to make money and besmirch a tall leader by innuendos knowing full well that Modi will not step outside to dispute any of their claims. If he does, then they get even more publicity and they win again.
I have not read either books and do not plan to but true to their nature, these two cannot keep their unsanitary traps and have been giving interviews all over the place. L2 has said the following:
It can be safely predicted that the last of this matter has not been heard. The ghosts of Gujarat 2002 are likely to haunt Narendra Modi till his last days.
L1 on the other hand has made some whoppers here:
He has pre-fixed views on the issue of religious minorities and believes that minorities need to adhere with the beliefs and value systems of the majority community.
Of course he will change the face of India. My only problem is that the new face will not be to my liking.
On an impertinent note, I will say Modi likes people agreeing with him and dislikes if they do not.
Modi fears losing power and the spectre of defeat and political isolation makes him nervous. But he is a hard fighter and does not give up in moments of adversity.
Modi devolves specific tasks to different people. Barring him, no one has a complete knowledge and vision of what he is doing.
In a sentence -- the belief in his abilities, the confidence he exudes and the power he exhibits. People like a strong-willed and decisive political leader like they once plugged for Indira Gandhi.
Now most of Modi’s criticisms can be applied to any politician. Any man who claims that he is qualified to lead a country has to have a streak of megalomania. People with self doubts have no room at the top. Criticizing him for ambition is akin to criticizing a movie star for narcissistic tendencies. In order to make this a “balanced book”, he has had to compliment him. While he has been effusive in his criticism, clearly L1 has had to get creative with words when it came to grudgingly accept anything positive.. Instead of calling Modi honest, this man says the following:
I did not find evidence of Modi amassing personal wealth.
All this from a guy who claims that his book does not come with any ideological baggage. The hypocrisy is staggering. But should we expect anything but puerility from hacks of this kind? NO. So why am I upset? It is the claim the Mukhopadhyay makes when he says:
There is also a consensus in the view that the events of 2002 benefited Modi politically and he became what he is today because of the fallout of the Godhra carnage.
I have said earlier and will repeat: If it had not been for Godhra, Modi would have been history because the BJP in all likelihood would have lost the polls in 200 when they were due.
In one fell swoop this rotten human being has managed to insult a swath of Indian population. This man is no better than Shakeel Ahmad who claimed that the bombing in Bangluru will help the BJP (insinuating that there exist a chance that the BJP themselves blew up that bomb). Modi has won three terms because of his performance and no other reason. If Hindutva were the only reason for winning elections, Advani would be the PM and Katiyar the Home Minister. Insulting the sage voters of Gujarat (as opposed to the voters of UP and West Bengal who repeatedly vote against their own interests because of decades of brain washing) L2 is insinuating the worst. I would like to tell this jerk that Godhra is a baggage that Modi has been carrying around. It is not a trophy.
In fact if it were not for Godhra we would be only be talking of Modi’s performance. If it were not for Godhra, secularism would still be a western term, used to separate church and state rather than becoming an invective to be used for Hindus by the leftists. If it were not for Godhra, the entire left wing of the Indian polity and journalism will not a stick to wave around. Modi did not benefit from Godhra. The entire left wing of India benefitted from Godhra. If it were not for Godhra, this entire anti Modi cottage industry would not exist. Without Godhra, Modi would still be here talking of development but people like Mukhopadhyay and Teesta Setalvad would have to slither under their rocks.
I am surprised that Modi let this jerk near him. In fact L2 is equally surprised. He says the following:
The fact that despite having written so critically of him in the past, he allowed me to write the biography, gave access to himself, agreed with the manuscript not being shown before publication and made no effort to prevent it despite knowing that several parts of it would be critical of him.
This is what you get for trusting a leftist around you. I dare this guy to write a similar biography of Mamata Bannerjee or any of the commies and then promote it in West Bengal.
As I have said before, this is going to get uglier and uglier because these guys are not going to let up. What Modi, BJP and the voters need to do is to tune these guys out and let them blab. We have a bigger mission i.e. to see Modi as PM and enable him to take India into her rightful place. Of course Mukhopadhyay won’t like that vision because then he and his ilk become irrelevant.
The articles about the two biographies can be read at:
http://www.rediff.com/news/slide-show/slide-show-1-modi-is-considered-either-a-mass-murderer-or-a-messiah/20130412.htm
http://www.firstpost.com/living/the-ghosts-of-gujarat-2002-will-haunt-modi-till-his-last-days-706296.html
Salman Khurshid said the following in an interview: As far as the criticism goes -- that he did not address crucial issues -- remember, Gandhi is the Congress vice-president, and not the prime minister. Within the party, he gives us his views... But for public statements, he chooses what to speak and the platform where to speak from. He is addressing important issues on specific public occasions.
This is a loaded statement. He is trying to defend Gandhi’s limp performance as it is being compared with that of Narendra Modi. He is also trying to tell people that Rahul is not Congress’ PM candidate so he cannot be compared with Modi as the media has been doing.
In a typical Indian political party which Congress is, the most powerful person is the MP candidate. Look at Modi. He is the most qualified man for the job but since he does not have the power to influence the core of the party or RSS, he is going through an agnipareeksha on a daily basis. On the other hand, power of Rahul Gandhi in Congress in undeniable. The family was brought back from a self imposed hiatus at the end of 1990s to save Congress. The really did rally Congress and took credit for bringing Congress back to power. Ever since then, Rahul Gandhi has been the crown prince which was obvious to all but the blind and the ignorant. He was their star campaigner, vote-getter (or so they thought) and the magnet that drew the media and voters alike. I don’t remember Congress mandarins like Khurshid and others making statements of this kind when the media was lapping ever word this guy was uttering and capturing every gesture and gushing over his enthusiasm and youth. Congress was only too happy to see their rajkumar be given the treatment fit for rajmata’s son.
Successive defeats at state levels and various gaffes later, the sheen started to wear off. Rahul began to look positively human and a plebian one at that. Still, he was the crown prince. Sonia Gandhi’s big dream is to see him the PM’s chair. Why else would a decade long campaign was undertaken to put him in that position? If we are wrong then why wasn’t any other young leader (Pilot or Scindia) groomed for this job? Congress spokespersons (Jayanti “landscam” Natrajan, Abhishek “sex for judgeship” Singhvi or Manish “we don’t know yet” Tiwari) have gone hoarse defending this guy. Defending incompetence is a thankless job. The Congress wants to benefit from Gandhi’s so called charisma and win an election riding his coattails and when he bungles up, they want to hide him, making excuses.
The media has done the right thing for wrong reasons. IT IS A MODI VERSUS GANDHI RACE. There are no doubts about it. Media has started the comparison not because they are fans of Modi or his performances but because it makes for good TV thus TRP ratings. This maybe the first presidential style election for us (where the race is between two people rather than two parties) and thus direct comparisons between Modi and Gandhi should be made. Congress cannot have it both ways. They cannot hide him when he falters but hope to benefit from the false image they have created for him.
The BJP seems to have decided that Narendra Modi is the leading man of their movie. Now it is up to Congress to decide whether Rahul Gandhi is their hero or an item song.
The Salman Khurshid interview can be read at: http://www.rediff.com/news/slide-show/slide-show-1-rahuls-critics-must-know-hes-cong-vp-not-indias-pm-khurshid/20130414.htm
Recently Delwar Hossain Syeedi of Bangla Desh and an ardent follower of the religion of peace was charged with crimes against humanity for his role during the 1971 genocide in that country. Even after 40 years they managed enough charges (imagine the ones they could not find witnesses to) to get him the death sentence. There are no crimes that this sweetheart of a man did not commit. This is what Wikipedia says about him:
The tribunal charged him with twenty counts of crimes against humanity, including murder, rape and arson, during the liberation war. Some of the charges are
(a) passing secret information on the gathering of people behind the Madhya Masimpur bus-stand to the Pakistan Army, and leading the Army there, where 20 unnamed people were killed by shooting;
(b) abducting and killing of government officials
(c) identifying and looting the houses and shops of people belonging to the Awami League, Hindu community, and supporters of the Liberation War
(d) leading an operation, accompanied by Pakistan Army, to burn 25 houses of the Hindu community at Umedpur village
(e) leading the group who abducted three women from the house of Gouranga Saha of Parerhat Bandar and handed them over to the Pakistan army for raping.
Sultan Ahmed Howlader, the fourth prosecution witness in the trial, testified that, during the liberation war, Sayeedi and his associate Moshleuddin confined Bipod Shaha's daughter Vanu Shaha at Parerhat, Pirojpur district and regularly raped her.
Even after committing all these and definitely more crimes, he went on to become something of a hero in Bangladesh. The following are some of the quotes attributed to him. Especially read the one about Hindus fleeing Bangladesh.
"Dhaka the city of mosques has become the city of Hindu temples."
"Why should we feel sad when the Hindu brothers choose to leave our country? Do we mourn when we have indigestion and materials leave our bodies?"
Delwar Hossain Sayeedi recently called for banning Professor Humayun Azad's books under the
Blasphemy Law.[Author & Professor Humayun Azad was later stabbed multiple times by unknown assailants in an attack alleged to be inspired by Sayeedi's hate speech. Azad later died in Germany.]
Of course none of this surprises me. I would not expect any less from someone like him. Hell, in Saudi Arabian law, crimes against a Hindu are the least of the crimes. For a true blue Muslim, we are the lowest form of life (worse than Jews because at least they are “hum kitaab” i.e. share a book). The only Hindus who do not realize this are the ganja smoking leftists or the booze swilling pseudo-secular elites. I don’t care what Muslims in other countries think of Hindus. Cannot help it so why bother?
However what is really disheartening is the show of strength of Syeedi’s fans and followers in West Bengal (which I believe is still in India). Apparently, sixteen Islamic organizations came together at the second largest public ground in Kolkata in protest against ongoing trials against war crimes, against Shahbag sit ins and in support of Syeedi. Yes. The aforementioned gem of a human being has supporters in India and a lot of them at that. A frustrated Begali, Dr. Anirban Ganguly writes the following in his touching article:
But most shocking was their brazen support for Sayeedi, a known vocal anti-India preacher, a rabid anti-Hindu who has been active in organising pogroms against minorities in Bangladesh over the years and one of the most avid collaborators in Pakistan’s genocide against fellow Muslims. They openly declared their support for Sayeedi saying that a death sentence for Sayeedi in effect meant a death sentence for the Koran and Islam. These speakers chose to ignore the fact that Sayeedi was being tried for killing in cold blood their fellow religionists. It was for the first time that such a mobilisation took place in Kolkata and it simply reinforced an emerging mindset which has begun trying to consolidate a pan-Bengal Islamic identity.
Of course there was no outrage in India save a smattering of articles written by helpless conservatives. Mamata Bannerjee who is never at a loss of words did not say anything about this. The leftist traitors who supported illegal immigration to fatten up their votebanks and are thus responsible for this abomination were characteristically quiet. None of the Karats or Yechury or anyone was seen opening their unsanitary traps about this. Of course, the media which is slave to pro-Muslim liberal causes did not see any merit in reporting this. But should any of this surprise me? I guess not.
What can people of Bengal do? The Hindus there like Hindus elsewhere are peace loving people (as a rule not exceptions) and are thus not ready to oppose terror with force. I can understand that. But why do they behave as if they only have the Communists or Mamata Bannerjee to choose from? When they are alone in the voting booth, who is threatening them? Who is stopping them from voting for the Hindu Conservative party, i.e. BJP? In the last elections, Mamata won but the communists were not too far behind in vote percentage. If the Bengalis deliberately ignore the third option then they are responsible for Islamists running wild in their state. Right now the Muslims are burning small communities of Hindus. What is next?
The Ganguly article can be read at: http://www.rediff.com/news/column/a-rally-for-war-criminals-why-are-tmc-left-silent/20130403.htm
The Wikipedia information can be read at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delwar_Hossain_Sayeedi
The most shocking thing about the Rajiv Gandhi revelation (as a weapons middle man) is the lack of shock in the Indian media. In fact Modi’s speech was the bigger news (not to nitpick). We have become completely numb to incompetence and corruption. Everything goes. All this can be attributed in large part to the dynastic rule. I will try to build my case here.
Those of us who read about American politics are aware of the way George Bush won the 2000 elections. His so called victory was due to a Supreme Court ruling where the Republican nominated judges voted in his favor. Two of these judges were nominated when Bush’s father was the VP and two when he was the president. The latest is that Bush’s younger brother will run for the office in 2016. Power of the family put a decidedly less competent George Bush in the White House. Similar thing was observed in the 1960’s When John F Kennedy’s father used every dirty trick in the book to ensure a victory. If Al Gore were the president maybe he would not have gone into an unnecessary war with Iraq. World may be a different place right now. Margaret Thatcher’s son was involved in an attempted coup in Equatorial Guinea. Thank god this jerk did not enter politics.
Of course as with everything else (especially criminal or negative in nature), we Indians take it to the next level. When it comes to the dynastic politics, Loksabha has essentially become a “Zamindaari” where the seats are given to family members. Patrick French writes the following:
- A shocking 100% of Indian MPs under the age of 30 are hereditary
- Two-thirds of Indian MPs under the age of 40 are from political families
- Less than 10% of MPs over the age of 70 are hereditary
- 27 MPs are classified as ‘hyperhereditary’, and 19 of them are in the Congress party.
By hyperhereditary, we mean that they have multiple family connections, and several family members who have made a career out of politics.
This is a serious problem because the real talent gets left behind while incompetent sons and daughters take the lead. If Narendra Modi were in Congress, he will never ever get to achieve anything because he is an outsider who can outshine the incompetent sons and daughters. In regional parties it is worse than it is in Congress. Look at DMK and the soap opera that is Karunanidhi’s family. It would be funny if Tamilnadu’s well being was not at stake.
The bigger problem is that this also leads to extreme corruption. Why do you think Saab Scania approached Rajiv Gandhi to play middleman to get the deal? It is because when you have a dynastic rule, you may as well paint a sign over the scion’s head “please deposit bribes here”. For the dynasty to grow they need money. To get money they need power. To keep power they need to institutionalize the corruption. NV Subramanian writes well when he says:
But the dynastic impulses of the Congress party are a two-way process. For exalting the Nehru-Gandhis, saving and insulating them from harm, the Congress leaders get to enjoy power and the forbidden fruits it brings, especially in the form of corruption. The nine years of Manmohan Singh have been the most corrupt in India’s history. How did that happen? Manmohan Singh’s reputation for personal honesty gave cover to the corrupt. And the Nehru-Gandhis used their name to get the corrupt to power twice. So why would the corrupt Congress have it differently?
Is there a way out of this? Of course. The voters have to become less selfish (think of the state and then nation rather than their own caste or worse) more mature in their choices. We cannot repeat the whole “India is Indira and Indira is India” kind of stupidity.
The Patrick French article can be read at: http://www.theindiasite.com/family-politics/family-politics-how-nepotistic-is-the-indian-parliament/
NV Subramanian can be read at: http://newsinsight.net/CorruptionAndtheCongress.aspx#page=page-1
Judging by the noise coming out of UP (Mulayam and Advani bonhomie) and the recent statement by Vijay Goel who is the Delhi BJP chief (he said that Advani will form the next government), it has become clear that LK Advani has become the kind of pain that does not go away easily. It is also clear despite of the recent reorganization of the BJP that there still exist pockets of resistance to Narendra Modi’s ascension to the national stage. All these are minor irritants and will be dealt with by Rajnath Singh and Amit Shah. Modi needs to ignore this.
A lot is being made of the recent speech made by Rahul Gandhi. I am sure that everyone has heard or read about it by now. Comparisons are being made between Rahul’s speech and the two speeches made by Modi. Comparing Rahul Gandhi and Narendra Modi is akin to comparing an alley cat and a lion. Clearly they both belong to the same biological family of cats (because they are both politicians). But that is where the comparison ends. Modi needs to ignore all this and tune the cacophony out.
So far Narendra Modi has addressed a college campus in New Delhi and invited guests at a conclave. While important, these are still small steps. What he needs to do is to get out and start addressing crowds in the states that BJP must win like UP, Bihar, MP, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Andhra and other such states. In my opinion, the most important speeches of Modi’s political career are going to be made at campuses in Lucknow, Allahabad, Agra, Aligarh and other cities in UP. The reason for this is that he needs the youth of UP to hear of his vision first hand and not through the media’s biased eyes. They need to feel the power of the man. They need to hear a different kind of speech – one where action is emphasized over rhetoric. Once the youth get energized, they will be able to convince people around them. It seems that energized youth voters in the US convinced their grandparents to vote for Barak Obama which was amazing. Modi is already shaping this to be a campaign in the mold of a presidential election. He needs to take pages out of the Obama’s hand book who won despite of obvious prejudices and difficulties. Under George Bush, economy had become so bad that people were clamoring for change. It was up to Obama to use exploit that sentiment and win despite of his race.
There exists a similar situation in India. No one outside of a Congress meeting thinks that things are alright in the country. Manmohan Singh may say that he is open to a third term (which may still happen if the Indian voters do not unite) but it is clear to all that this man has been a total disaster. Anything that Congress is trying to offer is a rehash of their disastrous policies. India is waiting for something new. That is what Modi’s biggest advantage is. He already has established himself to be a performer. He does not need to convince the entrepreneurs and the business class. They are aware of his prowess. What he needs to do is to step outside of Gujarat and address the youth and the women of India and convince them that he can duplicate the Gujarat experience for the entire country. Women of India need to hear how he is going to make it easy for them to run their households. Youth of India needs to hear about how their future is going to be made safe by actionable policies and good governance. And of course by youth and women I do not mean people from New Delhi or Mumbai. I mean regular voters from the bylanes of Lucknow and galis of Varanasi. Voters form dusty tehsils and parched farmlands. Voters from riot prone areas and forgotten areas from the Maoist / naxalite belt. Hopeless Hindu voters from West Bengal and Kerala and Muslim voters from UP who have been victimized by the pseudo-secular votebank politicians of SP and BSP. Those are the people who need to hear Modi . There is no use trying to convince idiots from JNU and other leftist outpost of our misfortune. The next election is about India and her sons and daughter of the soil. Those are the people who need to hear Modi and become aware of existence of such a politician.
It gladdens my heart that steps are being taken to do just that. Fellow conservative Shashi Shekhar writes the following about the BJP Foundation Day speeches in Gujarat:
First the speeches signalled that the BJP is now in campaign mode and that it will not shy away from pulling punches. Second, that the BJP is no longer trapped in the negativist mindset of the past many years with even Rajnath Singh speaking a new language, floating a Big Idea on “radical devolution of power to the States”. Third, that while the BJP may be concentrated in a few States its main leadership has its sights set on even marginal States like Kerala and West Bengal with the hope of breaking new ground. Fourth, that the BJP will take the Congress head-on over its abuse of institutions for political leverage. Last, that Narendra Modi has assumed the mantle of not just being the de facto ‘first among equals’ leader but also that of the Chief Motivator for the rank and file of his party.
That is what I call as good news. It is a long road but as the saying goes - A journey of a thousand miles starts with one step.
The first step has been taken. Knowing the kind of warrior Modi is, I am sure that he has this thing planned out. It is up to his supporters outside of Gujarat to get out and campaign for him.
Shashi Shekhar's article can be read at: http://www.niticentral.com/2013/04/06/modi-signals-gloves-are-off-62753.html
