Times of India
25 November, 2010
AP Samachar - 25 November 2010
Laksha Galarchana (Mass Recital by One lack voices) of Hanuman Chalisa on 27th November in Hyd
The Pioneer
Times of India
Times of India
24 November, 2010
AP Samachar - 24 November 2010
The Website of Jagriti Weekly,
opend by Sarkaryavahji Ma.Bhayyaji Joshi
 |
Deccon Chronicle
22 November, 2010
AP Samachar - 22 November 2010
Inexcusable inaction
The New Indian Express
First Published : 21 Nov 2010 11:27:00 PM IST
Last Updated : 21 Nov 2010 11:45:16 PM IST
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has sought refuge in rhetoric as his office indulges in the classic passing of the buck to explain his silence on the 2G scam. The good doctor has reiterated for the nth time his promise to take action against anyone who was guilty of any wrong, all sufficiently vague to let every crook off the hook. The PMO has in a detailed affidavit to the Supreme Court blamed the Union law ministry for the silence, citing long procedural red tape to explain the total silence and inaction by the prime minister. Unfortunately, neither the rhetoric nor the excuses are working in that former telecom minister A Raja has been in the news since 2008, and senior leaders like Sitaram Yechury and Subramanian Swamy brought it to the prime minister’s notice as did other MPs, political leaders and sections of the media over the months.
The inaction is inexcusable and Singh must realise that there is nothing more crippling for a prime minister than to be seen as weak. His promises, thus, are not convincing as it is clear that he does not have the power and the authority to bring erring ministers on line, let alone take action against them. A Raja was left alone to have his way, just because of the supposed compulsions of coalition politics and the Congress fear that the DMK would withdraw support. It thus, allowed the situation to deteriorate to a point where the scam assumed unprecedented proportions and finally the party gave the nod to the government to act against its minister.
The DMK has accepted the action, its cadres putting a token show of defence of the sacked minister. The point here is that honesty that Prime Minister Singh professes cannot be restricted to just himself. As the head of government he has to ensure probity and the ostrich like approach whereby he sticks his head in the sand whenever corruption stares him in the face, only makes him complicit to the act. The Supreme Court has recognised this, and therefore asked for the explanation. It will be interesting whether it accepts the long winded explanation in the affidavit whereby procedural delays and the law ministry are held responsible for the inaction by the PMO. As the Prime Minister of India Manmohan Singh is the last word on government, and like an ordinary citizen he definitely cannot pass the buck.
The New Indian Express
19 November, 2010
AP Samachar - 19 November 2010
The New Indian Express
Selective freedom of expression
Balbir Punj
Selective freedom of expression
Balbir Punj
First Published : 18 Nov 2010 12:22:00 AM IST
Last Updated : 19 Nov 2010 01:34:06 AM IST
Civility in public discourse is one of the prerequisites for a vibrant democracy. It is in this light that both the RSS and the BJP distanced themselves from former RSS chief K S Sudarshan’s remarks on Sonia Gandhi. Sangh leader M G Vaidya has gone to the extent of asking the Congress to file a defamation suit against the octogenarian RSS leader. But can maintaining decorum in public discourse be a one-way street? And what has been the Congress record in this respect so far? The party, along with communists, has been in forefront in pasting labels, making slanderous allegations and in carrying out smear campaigns against its political opponents.
Take Sudarshan’s charge of Sonia Gandhi being a CIA agent. During Indira Gandhi’s regime, especially when the communists were her allies in the ’70s, a climate of CIA agents under every bed and in every political corner was fostered. This went to such absurd extent that a mosquito research project supported by American institutions was scuttled after reports circulated that the CIA was planning to exterminate the population of India.
Leading Congressmen went hammer and tongs against America with this story and little attempt was made from the government to nip the theory in the bud. Soon Indira Gandhi’s storm troopers were on the street linking Lok Nayak Jayaprakash Narayan and the entire Opposition leadership to CIA. This flame was fanned by reports of CIA agents being located at every turn and CIA money funding the growing anti-dictatorship campaign. It helped the Congress to damn the Opposition and then clamp Emergency and put them all behind the bars.
During the 19 months of Emergency, JP was pilloried as a CIA agent. In 1980, when Congress returned to power, the witchhunt against JP and several Gandhian institutions was resumed and an inquiry commission was set up to nail every Gandhian activist, including JP who was dead by then. The so-called Kudal Commission report became the political Bible of the Congress and it recommended persecution of Gandhian institutions for years to come.
If calling patriotic Indians CIA agents is not bad enough, now, jihadi nomenclature is being invoked by the Congress to tar the Sangh Parivar. Rahul Gandhi publicly equated the RSS to the SIMI. Another powerful general secretary Digvijay Singh made an equally outlandish statement saying there was no difference between the LeT and the RSS. Many may differ with the RSS’ ideology but few or none will dispute the robust nationalism of its members and its leaders.
Linking Sonia Gandhi to the unfortunate assassination of either Indira Gandhi or Rajiv Gandhi is unacceptable. The Congress has for the last over 60 years sought to reassert its false propaganda about the RSS being responsible for Gandhiji’s assassination. That is despite the highest court in the land absolving it of any such action or intent. Gandhiji’s assassination had been seen by hundreds of the people who came to his prayer meeting that fateful day. The man responsible had himself justified his action.
The initial ban on the RSS was lifted thereby silently admitting that the government was wrong in imposing it. The conspiracy behind this had been unearthed and the small group that conspired to do it had been rightly punished for its unacceptable act. The investigators not only could not produce any evidence linking it to the RSS but also unearthed all the participants in the conspiracy, none of them from the RSS. Yet, the Congress has propagated this alleged link for over half a century now.
On the other hand when the security agencies unearth suicide bombing or other type of terrorist action by a group at Azamgarh in UP, and arrest some of the lead conspirators, top Congressmen make a beeline to the area and express sympathy for the arrested, as if terror is a condonable offence, if the perpetrators are from a particular community. To cap it all, the thread of irresponsible statements in political parlance come from the Union home minister who coins the usage ‘saffron’ terrorism.
Even though there was widespread condemnation of his irresponsible attempt to tar the entire RSS with such linkage, he has not till date withdrawn his remarks. Some Congress leaders were even offering sympathies publicly to the associates of the terrorists shot in the Batla House encounter in Delhi. Not satisfied with this sympathy they went to the extent of blaming the police officers who dared to trace these terrorists and later the ones whose timely action helped catch Kasab in the 26/11 attacks. No Congress leader of stature has condemned this demonstrated sympathy for terrorists by the partymen and the condemnation of police officers who lost their lives in saving the country.
There has been a spate of violent protest by Congressmen outside RSS offices all over the country in the wake of Sudarshan’s remarks. This sort of outrage is rare for Congressmen who generally ignore even the most blasphemous comments against Bharatmata or other national icons.
None of the Congress leaders chose to protest against the anti-India rantings by Arundhati Roy on the Kashmir issue. M F Husain, who had insulted Hindu gods and goddesses by painting them nude, was defended on the plea that he was using his right of freedom of expression. How come Sudarshan does not enjoy the freedom which is available to the likes of Roy or Husain?
So, it would be no surprise if the dragon seeds that the Congress has sown against its political opponents some time return to harass it. The responsibility to keep the political soil free from such false accusations is a joint responsibility of the political class. It is more so of the Congress for it is the largest political formation in the country and has been in power for most part of the last 60 years. For a change, why not the present Congress chief apologise for the false propaganda that was unleashed on, if not the RSS, at least on JP and Gandhian institutions by previous Congress regimes.
punjbk@gmail.com
06 November, 2010
AP Samachar - 6 November 2010
Rammadhavji Press Statement from Hyderabad
RASHTRIYA SWAYAMSEVAK SANGH
Andhra Pradesh West
PRESS NOTE
Date : 6-11-2010
The 3-day meeting of the Akhil Bharatiya Karyakari Mandal of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), concluded on 31st Oct at Jalgaon (Maharashtra), has decided to hold nationwide MASS DHARNA on the 10th of November at all the state and district head quarters to protest against the vindictive and politically motivated anti-Hindu and anti-RSS canards being spread by some leaders of the ruling establishment. Misleading charges of ‘Hindu’ and ‘Saffron’ terror, sinister designs to malign Hindu saints and Hindu organizations and attempts to wrongly implicate functionaries of the RSS in some bomb-blast cases in the recent times suggest a deep-rooted conspiracy to silence patriotic and nationalist vioces in the country.
It is wellknown that the RSS is an organisation committed to imparting character, discipline and patriotism in the society. In the last 85 years the RSS has made yeomen contribution to our national life. At the ideological level the RSS has always displayed zero tolerance to terrorism of all varieties - Jehadis, Maoists, North East insurgents, Kashmiri terrorists and others. In the process the RSS has lost many of it's important cadres, especially in States like J&K, Jharkhand, Chattisgarh, Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, Tamilnadu, North Eastern states etc. It is an irony that the victim of terror is today being portrayed as a perpetrator of terror by self-seeking politicians.
As part of the investigations into some cases of bomb blasts in the country during 2007 and 2008 the agencies have arrested some individuals and charged them with certain accusations that need to be established in the courts. One of the accused happened to be an RSS Vibhag Pracharak at the time of his arrest. The Sarkaryavah of the organisation Ma. Sri Bhayyaji Joshi had immediately issued a statement extending full cooperation to the investigations. The accused functionary was immediately relieved of his responsibilities.
Standing by the commitment given to the agencies the activists of the organisation have extended all possible cooperation to the investigating agencies like the ATS, Rajasthan; ATS, Maharashtra and the CBI. During the course of the investigation when the some junior officers of the agencies used unacceptable methods like physical and mental torture against several of it's activists in states like Jharkhand and Madhya Pradesh the organisation took it in its stride that some indiscretions of the agencies may be overlooked in the interest of fair investigation.
However the charge sheet filed by the ATS, Rajasthan projects every accused as an RSS activist while the fact remains that none, except the said Vibhag Pracharak Sri Devendra Gupta, had anything to do with the RSS for last several years. Similarly the way the name of a senior RSS functionary Sri Indresh Kumar has been dragged into the charge sheet citing a meeting in which the accused were allegedly present and he allegedly addressed the same smacks of a sinister conspiracy only. The charge sheet neither presents any evidence about the said meeting nor makes any specific charges against him. It clearly shows that there is some conspiracy to implicate Sri Indresh Kumar in this case thus damaging his own reputation and that of the organisation as well.
As soon as the charge sheet was filed some senior and responsible leaders of the Rajasthan Government and the Congress Party have gone overboard making irresponsible statements against Sri Indresh Kumar and the RSS. There was also an attempt to revive the bogey of an Oxymoron called Hindu/Saffron Terror. In fact the credit for giving birth to this Oxymoron goes to Union Home Minist himself who had raised this bogey in a speech a couple of months ago.
We would like to remind the hon'ble Prime Minister that the his own Government had earlier held HuJI and LeT responsible for the bomb blasts at Ajmer, Hyderabad and in Samjhouta Express. The US State Department has held Arif Qasmani, the chief coordinator for Lashkar-e Tayyiba's (LET) as involed in the Mumbai suburban train blasts of July, 2006, and in the Samjautha Express blast of February 2007. On August 6, 2010, the US State Department made public notifications designating the Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami (HUJI) of Pakistan as a Foreign Terrorist Organisation and Ilyas Kashmiri belonging to it as an international terrorist. Similar action has been taken on US advice by the anti-terrorism sanctions committee of the UN Security Council the same day. But now our Government says that it was Hindu terror.
All this convinces us that there is some sinister political conspiracy to defame the RSS in particular and the Hindu movement in general. This is an old game by vote hungry politicians. Everytime they chase religious vote banks of the minorities they try to project the RSS as anti-Minority.
The Hindu movement created by the RSS and several other organisations has become a thorn in the flesh for many anti-national and anti-Hindu forces like the religious proselytisers. The RSS Swayamsevaks have played a very important role in launching movements to defeat the designs of these forces. Amarnath movement, movement for protecting Tirupati shrine's sanctity, protecting Ram Setu from certain destruction are some recent examples.
In fact in the last few years the country has witnessed a sustained campaign by these anti-Hindu forces against saints, temples and the Sangh. Slanderous campaign against eminent Hindu saints like Pujya Jayendra Saraswati of Kanchi Mutt, Sri Sri Ravi Shankarji and Asharam Bapu and the heinous murder of Swami Lakshmanananda Saraswati in Kandhamal suggested some deep-rooted conspiracy.
The Sangh seems to be on the target of these anti-Hindu and anti-national forces as it has emerged as the biggest impediment in their designs.
It is a sad commentary on our Government that it stands helpless in front of the Naxal marauders and venom-spitting anti-nationals like Gilani and Susanna Arundhati Roy whereas it is overzealous in harassing patriotic organisations like the RSS.
The nation is very well aware of the evil politics of the sections of the political establishment. For the sake of political power they have continuously sabotaged national interests. In the last 6 decades they have made several unsuccessful attempts to attack the RSS. But with the love, trust and confidence of the people of the country the RSS has bounced back much stronger from every such evil conspiracy. It may also be noted that every time the nation has punished the conspirators mercilessly. We are certain that the present conspiracy to defame the RSS and Hindu movement too will meet the same fate and the conspirators will pay the price for for their evil intentions and acts.
The proposed Dharna is intended to create public awareness by exposing the baseless charges against Sangh and the politically motivated conspiracy of defaming Hindu beliefs and Hindu sentiments. We appeal to the patriotic people of our country to join and support this protest Dharna in a big way.
04 November, 2010
AP Samachar - 4 November 2010
Ill-informed attack on RSS
November 04, 2010 9:13:54 PM
Swatantra Vaartha
The Pioneer
November 04, 2010 9:13:54 PM
Prafull Goradia
Politicians who accuse the RSS of ‘terrorism’ have got their facts all wrong. Zakir Hussain famously said that Muslims should learn mutual love, cooperation and organisation-building from RSS. Even Jawaharlal Nehru praised the Sangh’s spirit of revolution. Maligning the RSS is a recent phenomenon to appease extremist elements in the Muslim community
The attempt by Congress leaders to deflect attention from corruption by seeking to tar the image of the RSS does not come as a surprise. For long years, self-styled secular politicians have criticized the RSS as a communal organisation. Few of the critics take the trouble to find out what precisely it stands for. Since the run-up to the 1957 general election, the RSS has been widely used as a whipping boy to convince the Muslims that the critic is a secularist. With the Uttar Pradesh Assembly election, not far away, the odd prominent but ignorant politician has gone to the extent of calling it a terrorist set-up like the banned SIMI whose many members are now known to operate under the label of Indian Mujahideen. They have claimed responsibility for the 2008 blasts at Ahmedabad, Jaipur and New Delhi.
True, Jawaharlal Nehru was critical of the RSS most of his political life except after the 1962 China war. He then said that “given the spirit, even the Lathi could successfully face the bomb”. He especially invited an RSS contingent to participate in the Republic Day Parade of 1963!
On November 3, 1977 at Patna, at the RSS training camp, Jaya Prakash Narayan said: “I have great expectation from this revolutionary organisation which has taken up the challenge of creating a new India. I have welcomed your venture whole-heartedly.”
On November 20, 1949, Zakir Hussain told a Milad Mahfil in Monghyr, “the allegations and hatred against the Muslims are wholly false. Muslims should learn the lesson of mutual love, cooperation and organisation from RSS.”
Sarvapalli Radhakrishnan, then Vice Chancellor, Banaras Hindu University, happened to take a delegation of foreign dignitaries to an RSS shakha which continued to be conducted despite the heavy rain. The visitors were immensely pleased and Radhakrishnan was impressed to meet research scholars, lecturers, graduate and postgraduate students participating in the shakha.
Above all, Gandhiji first visited an RSS camp on December 24, 1934 at Wardha along with Mira Behn and Mahadev Desai. On watching the parade organised in his honour, he said: “I am tremendously pleased. Nowhere in the country have I seen such a spectacle.” He was much impressed with the absence of caste differences including that of untouchability. He readily vacated his tent for Keshav Hedgewar and at the end of his visit, he declared that he saw no shortcomings in what he saw of the RSS. “From all points of view you are doing excellent work. If there is any shortcoming at all it is that this organisation does not admit people of other religions”. By the next day, Hedgewar had arrived in Wardha and he responded to Gandhiji’s invitation and answered all questions and clarified whatever issues about the organisation that were raised.
All these are opinions and incidents expressed and witnessed with different leaders of society. They reflect the perception of the RSS outside the Sangh parivar over the decades. It is equally important to get a glimpse of what the various law Courts have adjudicated in the cases filed by citizens against Government orders. Hereunder follow a gist of several judgements, reported by Sahitya Sindhu Prakashana, Bangalore, 3rd Edition, 2000.
Since Independence, the Congress Governments, from time to time, barred the entry of persons into Government service who were at any time associated with the RSS. All those victimised by the Government had approached the courts and in all cases the state orders were set aside.
Between 1955 and 1993, 15 cases were decided by various courts. Of these, verdicts in respect of 13 were delivered by High Courts, one by the Unlawful Activities Tribunal and one by the Supreme Court in 1983. The earliest case was decided by the High Court of Madhya Bharat at Indore in 1955. The services of a Government clerk were terminated as he was alleged to be a member of the RSS. The Court held that the order was contrary to Article 311(2) of the Constitution of India and it was quashed. In 1959, Guru Golwalkar was convicted by the Session Judge of Darbhanga (Bihar) for having delivered a speech which promoted enmity between different religious communities. On the contrary, the Court held that the ingredients of the offence under Section 153A of the Indian Penal Code had not been established and the conviction was set aside.
In 1961, a sub-Postmaster at Nagpur was suspended for being associated with the RSS. His participation was considered prejudicial to national security. The Court inter-alia observed that the RSS was not considered subversive. The notice was quashed by the court.
In 1980, the State of Madhya Pradesh went in appeal to the Supreme Court against the judgement of the High Court which had held that the order of termination served on Ramashankar Raghuvanshi, a teacher employed in a Municipal School, was against the provisions of Article 311 of the Constitution and quashed it. The termination had been ordered because Ramashankar had earlier taken part in RSS activities. The apex court dismissed the special leave petition. While dismissing the State petition Justice Chinnappa Reddy had observed that neither the RSS nor the Jan Sangh is involved in any subversive or other illegal activity.
In December, 1992, the Central Government constituted a Tribunal to decide whether or not there is a sufficient cause for declaring Rashtriya Swaymsewak Sangh, Vishwa Hindu Parishad and Bajrang Dal to be unlawful. The Chairman observed that the Central Government had mainly relied on the evidence showing that the VHP and the Dal are front organisations of RSS. The Tribunal held that there appears to be no material to prove the grounds mentioned. The Chairman cancelled the declaration made by the Government.
Does not the aforesaid prove the boundless ignorance of the politicians who have compared the RSS with SIMI? And their lack of education which allowed them to make such a defamatory statement without checking the facts? What must worry us is that such politicians happen to wield a great deal of influence in our public life.
Swatantra Vaartha
The Pioneer
03 November, 2010
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