jabdakhata

What characterizes Narendra Modi is that he is a master politician, far above his counterparts in shrewdness, in audacity and in boldness, something his opponents and haters would never be able to fathom, nor emulate. Compared to him, Rahul Gandhi who is trying hard to position himself as his main opponent is a child, nay, a baby perhaps. Rahul's job is made harder by the fact that he is lifted up by a gang of sycophants and a herd of leftists, many of whom have little or no connect with grassroots, and of course even less concern for the national interests. Others who are actively positioning themselves as champions of secularism and also supporting him are one whose interests have been most affected by Modi's transparent policies - notably the corrupt politicians many of whom are busy sewing what they call as "Mahagathbandhan". TV channels and other sections of media are busy writing Modi off based on some flimsy pre election surveys or some by election results. B

On the occasion of National Youth Day there were two interesting blog posts on him. One was in Times of India and the other was in The Tribune. Both the blogs had one common theme, that how the brand Vivekananda has been usurped by the rising tide of militant right wing whose outlook they derisively call as "Hindutva". The term was coined possibly by the Times of India that takes pride in claiming itself as a "secular", "liberal" paper. They carefully chose to distinguish it from the "Hinduism". If you are a little bit knowledgeable about Sanskrit you will know that both the terms are actually same, Hindutva is tva pratyay added to the word Hindu, depicting the Hindu way of life. However in Times of India and "secular liberal" parlance it became equivalent  to a derogatory way of referring to the right wing extremists and they chose to depict the non right wing Hindu way of life with the English ending of "ism". Laughable per

One of the key trends that we see today in social media are that people are easily outraged by any incident that they associate with, in terms of their own beliefs, values and core ideologies, but remain mute, try to trivialize or just ignore when a similar incident happens with a segment or sub segment or individual that do not conform to their beliefs and values. This is also evident in case of mainstream media where stories are often described, blogs are written and editorials are posted on horrendous and nefarious crimes against humanity when that crime is committed to a selective group, while completely ignoring or downplaying possibly similar or more horrendous atrocities against other groups. There are actions and reactions. When atrocities evoke outrage from a group, the opposite  group tries to divert attention to a more vicious atrocity or similar incident, completely ignoring or forgetting the fact that by the very act they are acting in the same manner as they are accusin

Terror activities are a global phenomenon. Gone are those days when a few countries including India were victims of terrorism from across borders and everybody else would sit in their comfort zones and either empathize with or ridicule their claims. 9/11 in 2001 changed all that. Now every country on this earth is vulnerable from terror attacks and hence cannot sit comfortably. Everytime there is a terror attack in one part of the world its a grim reminder to others that their turn will also come. Nobody can now ignore the fact that terrorists are emboldened further and further by the success of their attacks to carry out another attack elsewhere. More innocent blood will spill and the usual reactions will come from all quarters - politicians, human rights activists, ordinary people. Some are angry reactions demanding the heads of all terrorists and finding who are behind all these, some will merely say terrorists have no religions, some will hold candle light vigils, some will appea

There is a certain Mr. Khan Who always blazes his gun He claimed one day In a vociferous way That assault on women is fun He justified his stance And did much song and dance Till the assaulters he supported were on run SHAME!!!

The prevailing situation of disharmony and dissension seems to be one created by vested interests of all hues. Before India got independence British policy of divide and rule had firmly taken roots among political classes and the new leadership who saw its vast potential in furthering their own design. The divide and rule was exploited by opportunists who sought power over anything else. Policies were partisan, favoring one group over other, further creating chasm. Of late that division seems to have increased multi fold. Its not at all coincidence that more India is trying to shed its baggage of the past, more it is being highlighted as to how nefarious its record is in maintaining harmony. In fact India is being portrayed by media in the same league or perhaps worse than Pakistan, Russia, China, and Sub Saharan Africa in ethnic cleansing and human rights violation. Terrorists who are on the verge of hanging for their crimes or who are killed on the battlefield in a legitimate encou

There are obviously some vested interests who are taking advantage of the publicity received by Netaji in the wake of the demand for classifying the files about him to resolve the mystery associated with his disappearance. Some have tried to portray him as a Japanese stooge, while others complain that he was "enamoured by Hitler" and therefore "sided with the Nazis". Some try to portray him as a fascist dictator who (contrary to popular perception) would have established a ruthless regime of dictatorship and Nehruvian socialism had saved India from such an eventuality. By censoring him therefore Gandhiji and the Congress did a favour to the nation is what these writers would want us to believe. Needless to say that their attempts are at best feeble and weak and at worst pathetic attempts to depict isolated events and speeches as the whole of Netaji and thereby justify all the injustice meted out to him by Congress. Not only Nehru, but even Patel was anti Subhas as

This is a tribute to Dr. Kalam. Coming from a very humble background he rose into prominence thus giving credence to Swamiji's assertion to Raja of Khetri Ajit Singh that life is the enfoldment and development of being under circumstances trying to press it down. His life story is now known to all Indians and is a source of inspiration to many. he has been glorified by many and strangely, has been vilified by a few as well, though he did nothing to deserve that. But sadly, this is India and there are always a section who would take great delight in vilifying greatness. even when he passed away a section of media and intellectuals gave almost the same attention to him, if not less, as to a terrorist who was hanged the following day. Some of them even went to extent for pleading for the terrorist's life for the sake of Dr. Kalam, strange as it may seem. Some of them did a lot of endeavour to highlight his religion, forgetting that fundamentalists actually don't like him muc

On a lighter vain, this is a good piece of article from Washington Post.  I have often wondered through my interaction with Americans as to how much self centred a Nation can be. The ignorance of most of the Americans about affairs in other parts of the world is appalling. Most of them are totally ignorant about world history. One supposedly educated American once asked me which came to India first - Hinduism or Buddhism. So it is no wonder that American media and its followers British and European media would exaggerate every other incident occurring in the rest of the world and downplay the incidents in their own turf. They would still like to view the world with the attitude of "I am holier than thou", forgetting that most of the ills plaguing the world today were creations of an erstwhile imperial Europe and its ruthless exploitation of the world's riches for its own selfish gains. Americans have their world view through the prism of their own media and hence of

Shudra Jagaran was Swami Vivekanananda's dream. He advised the elites to retire and give way to shudras who would be the next world force to reckon with. He predicated that Indians would rise from every nook and corner of villages and slums, would aspire after the best in the world and then the world would begin to take serious notice of India which they have so far mocked and derided as a country of illiterate and obnoxious casteist Hindus. They are right to do so. For this is how India's elite had painted India for generations, esp. in the last twenty years or so. The so called liberals and the mainstream media had gone overboard in painting India as a country of either dead woods who understand nothing or hardened fundamentalists who would fall for something which they derisively termed as "Hindutva". The rest, the gang of elites, the most intelligent, most liberal and so on, are secular, whatever that word means.  This is however not a unique situation in In

Another trend that we see worldwide is the decline of the geniuses, extra ordinary merits. In every sphere esp. in science, there are very few ground breaking ideas. So the decline in culture which Swamiji described as one of the chief traits of the coming of the age of the Sudras is probably already evident. There are not literature well worth speaking, no art that can command respect. Innovations are mostly in the commercial realms. Life expectancies and medical cares have increased but so is the need of the persons providing such services, i.e. Sudras, the serving classes. The service industry is growing exponentially and the mainstay of the jobs for a large number of people, again by definition they are Sudras. There are no charismatic leaders and military expeditions are less and less. On a global scale rise of China is an extra ordinary event as China was reduced to a deplorable state in the nineteenth and early twenthieth century. There are a billion people out there whose ris

Do we see today that such a stage has set in? We see some indications in the social and economic circumstances of the present world. The financial crisis caused by housing bubble is taking a pretty long time to heal. None of the world economies are in a sound state. There is a risk of collapse of currencies and the so called financial stability to blow apart. At the micro level there are insecurities associated with job and life more than ever before. We also see some grave indications in the social system. We see that today political leadership in many states in India is driven by people from the so called humble backgrounds. The elites who have often jeered others with humble backgrounds are fast getting eclipsed. One such sneer was at aimed at one leader who possibly sold tea at some stage of his career. The politics based on entitlements and endolements are not clicking because people are fed up with the elitist attitudes. They are not happy with the feudal mindset. Instead they

Now let us see what Swamiji has to say w.r.t the different rule. In a letter to Mary Hale he writes: Human society is in turn governed by the four castes — the priests, the soldiers, the traders, and the labourers. Each state has its glories as well as its defects. When the priest (Brahmin) rules, there is a tremendous exclusiveness on hereditary grounds; the persons of the priests and their descendants are hemmed in with all sorts of safeguards — none but they have any knowledge — none but they have the right to impart that knowledge. Its glory is that at this period is laid the foundation of sciences. The priests cultivate the mind, for through the mind they govern. The military (Kshatriya) rule is tyrannical and cruel, but they are not exclusive; and during that period arts and social culture attain their height. The commercial (Vaishya) rule comes next. It is awful in its silent crushing and blood-sucking power. Its advantage is, as the trader himself goes everywhere, he is a

In the early twentieth century however the influence of the British waned, as a result of the two world wars declared earlier and  Europe  was changed beyond recognition. Instead, America emerged as the new Vaishyas. The freedom it offered in matters of pursuing one’s goals made it a prominent destination for talents and it leveraged the talents to increase its commercial dominion.  Warfare  continued throughout twentieth century but the reasons were mainly commercial and not  surprisingly  America was in the centre for most of them. The class struggle at first had shown signs of hope with Russia being pitted against Americas and with the rise of China as a potential power, but soon Communist blocks fell like a pack of cards one after another and Soviet Union became a mere Russia. The powers that had promised establishment of dictatorship for  proletariat  had actually established dictatorship for a privileged few, an oligarchy, which ruled over the masses there. However it was e

Did the Kshatriya rule do any good to common men? Swamiji did not think so. In his words, Even if the kings be of as godlike nature as that of Yudhishthira, Ramachandra, Dharmashoka, or Akbar under whose benign rule the people enjoyed safety and prosperity, and were looked after with paternal care by their rulers, the hand of him who is always fed by another gradually loses the power of taking the food to his mouth. His power of self-preservation can never become fully manifest who is always protected in every respect by another. Even the strongest youth remains but a child if he is always looked after as a child by his parents. Being always governed by kings of godlike nature, to whom is left the whole duty of protecting and providing for the people, they can never get any occasion for understanding the principles of self-government. Such a nation, being entirely dependent on the king for everything and never caring to exert itself for the common good or for self-defence, becomes gr

If we look back to India once again, we’ll see that a very great and enlightened itinerant monk named Sankara had been able to resist the general decline of the values of the society and almost dispelled a decadent Buddhism from the soils of India and reestablished semblance of the order and social harmony, but he did not attempt in changing the prevailing social system of dominance of the  Kshatriyas . Instead he helped in raising the status and power of the Brahmins through his reformist measures which infused new life into a moribund India. Thus worldwide class struggles had resulted in the establishment of Kshatriya power, which, ruled for a considerable period of time, aided by the Brahmins or the priestly class, who were contented to share that power and influence. This period saw the establishment of large empires across the world, and not merely smaller kingdoms. The large empires were testimonies of the Khastriya powers and  might . At this stage Kshatriyas treated Vaish