Victims of Secularism

Whew! That was really a looooooonnnng break from blogging! Got tied up in various things.... Anyways, what triggered this post was an excellent comment on an article that I was reading. The article has been written by Shashank Joshi, immediately after the terror attacks in Mumbai in July 2011. He claims that while the fingers are being pointed to Indian outfits, Pakistan still cannot be let off the hook as the ISI and its agents feed this terror in the country. While he has a point, he still goes on to the usual defence of why the Islamic network has flourished in India, post Babri and post Gujarat! So why am I talking about this article now, after so may months?

Well, a comment on this article by someone who calls himself "Marty Martel" exactly voices my thoughts. I reproduce the comment verbatim below...

India’s secular seclusion and a hara-kiri

Indians have nobody to blame but themselves for this Islamic terrorism because they reelected Sonia Gandhi’s Congress government in 2009 that thrives on pandering to Muslim minority at the expense of Hindu majority.

Under their policy of aligning with Muslim political parties, Sonia-Singh’s government tolerated Islamic jihadis who have turned peaceful India into their terror base. The Islamic jihadis have advocated, incited and abetted unlawful activities to “liberate Kashmir from India” and to encourage “hatred and contempt” towards the Government of India. The various terror-related incidents in India since 2005 were not stray cases of “misplaced anger of Muslim youth”, as certain activists would want the world to believe, but acts of violence carried out with meticulous planning with the diabolic intention of turning the whole country into the terror hub.

India, which has been at the receiving end of jihadi violence for centuries (since 712AD), is in deep slumber ... secular slumber. India, predominantly Hindu and targeted by the terrorists precisely for that reason remains suspended in secular seclusion! Any association of terror with the religion of a minority is taboo even when it is glaringly apparent and any invocation of Hindu culture or religion is dubbed communal even when it could actually strengthen India, as a rallying point.

It does not seem to occur to Indians that for them to be secular, they have to be alive first! So as bombs go off in crowded places with chilling regularity, a Pavlovian spirit of slavishness, slip-shod logic and self-defeating tolerance takes grip of everyone.

From the public to prime-time pundits to pen-pushers of the print to politicos, all are coy, confused and confounded about how to react.

The stoic leaders exhort the nation to be calm, as if it were raring to bark and bite like Bush. The media waxes eloquent on the country's resilience in the face of terror, forgetting that bombs or no bombs, those alive have to go to work for their daily bread. The world sheds tears and then advises restraint, a virtue they themselves have shelved in similar situations, while the killers for their part start preparing for their next brutal assault, cocksure that they can pick and choose their targets so sedated by secularism.

Add to that the imposed guilt of Babri Masjid and Gujarat being drilled into the Indian psyche day in and day out by rational intellectuals amidst the masses and the media, much to the Jihadis’ joy. Should Hindus not be paying an eternal price for those sins? Were not the Jihadis just lambs before that, tolerant to boot and lovers of 'kafirs'? What delusions!

Really, in a country inhabited and led by mere men of straw, no provocation can truly become the last straw.

Barring announcing themselves through neon signs, the Islamic terror network in India and specifically in Kerala, is as conspicuous as an over-bearing mother-in-law! Yet, the long arm of our law remains folded, in secular deference to minority sentiments. Even when it is apparent that the so-called moderates in them have no voice.

Government authorities are politically inhibited from raiding the numerous mohallas of terror right under their own noses! On the contrary, the rulers bend over backwards with bouquets of reservations and what not in a wishful fit of appeasement, reminiscent of a sheep's optimism when faced by wolves.

Now does a nation, so committed to hara-kiri, really need any other enemies?

The "NON" Congress Party!

In 1999, after Jayalalitha brough down the one and half year old Vajpayee Government by a single vote, the prospects of Sonia Gandhi (who is Italian Born) becoming the Prime Minister were real. Three Senior Congressmen, Sharad Pawar, Tariq Anwar and Purno Sangma, in a closed-door Congress meeting, raised objections to a foreign born person occupying the highest chair. (Whether Pawar’s objection was really to the foreign origin or whether this was merely a political ploy to bring himself centre-stage, one cannot say). Sonia was enraged at this affront to her authority (after all, who can offend a Gandhi in the Congress and get away with it?) and showed these three the door! The NCP, supposedly the “Nationalist” Congress Party, thus came into being!

Now, 10 years later, questions are being raised about the raison d’etre of the NCP! Let’s see why:

1) Just one year after its formation in 1999, the Congress and the NCP had no qualms about joining hands to form a coalition government in Maharashtra, which ran “successfully” for the entire term.
2) They then fought the 2004 Maharashtra Assembly elections together and again continued the Government for another five years.
3) And now, they are all set to fight the 2009 Assembly elections as well.
4) In the meantime, the NCP has also fought the 2004 and 2009 General Elections with the Congress and become an integral part of the UPA with Sharad Pawar becoming the Agriculture Minister in both the stints.
5) Now, Purno Sangma, who wants to make sure his next generation’s career is well taken care of, has apologized to Sonia for his misdemeanor 10 years ago. Obviously, after Sonia visits his son’s wedding and takes Agatha Sangma under her tutelage, he would be hard pressed to say such a thing.

So, the issue is, why is NCP still alive?

If the foreign origin issue, raised so evocatively by Pawar and his cohorts in 1999, was such an important issue, then pray, why didn’t they pursue it? When in 2004, Sonia was all set to become PM, did we hear any murmur from the NCP?

The other day, when Praful Patel was asked the question about the continuation of the NCP, he deflected it by giving a standard vague reply that they were partners in secularism or something to that effect. Pray, what has secularism got to do with this? Do they need to exist as a separate entity just to promote secularism? If that were the objective, wouldn’t it be better if they unite and form a single entity? Why struggle and try to find a feature distinctive from the Congress?

I’ll tell you why!

If NCP merges with the Congress, Sharad Pawar loses his bargaining power. Today, whenever he senses that the Congress is on a weak wicket, he can always try and flirt with the third front, fourth front, fifth front and so on, like he did during the 2009 election campaign. That way, he can remain in power whichever combination comes to power. (He is rumoured to have even been in talks with Bal Thackeray by playing the Marathi PM card).

And by

a) wooing Agatha Sangma, Purno Sangma, Tariq Anwar,

b) putting the CBI after Padmasinh Patil,

c) getting the IPL matches played outside India and

d) making the media raise questions about the NCP’s existence,

Sonia is trying to nullify exactly that – Pawar’s bargaining power!!!

Does CEC mean Congress Election Commissioner?

The Chief Election Commissioner (as also the Election Commissioners) of the country is privy to a lot of information on political parties and the election process and has tremendous powers to use or misuse this. In a situation where there is a neck to neck fight between two major political formations, a slight tweaking of a ruling or decision can tilt the scales in one way or the other.

Therefore, it is important that the post of the Chief Election Commissioner is occupied by a person who is not only unbiased and neutral, but also conveys this attitude through his behaviour, words and policies.

However, some of our “respectable” ex-CECs have some question marks on their head, based on their post-retirement careers.

Take the case of Mr. M.S. Gill. Yes, insiders always knew that he was a Congress stooge, but the man kept a neutral face on the outside. God alone knows how many decisions and policy matters he must have tweaked in order to aid the Congress. Of course, post-retirement he has joined the Congress and was well rewarded for his services during his tenure as the CEC with a plum ministry job.

Even as Sports Minister, there was no hint of any neutrality that might have creeped in during his years as a “neutral” CEC. After the sharpshooter, Abhinav Bindra, won the Gold medal at the Beijing Olympics this year, the ex-CEC was so crass in his anti-BJP approach (having shed all pretense of neutrality which he was showing during his CEC years), that he advised the sportsman to visit only Sonia and not Advani.

If one stooge was not enough, now we have the famous James Michael Lyngdoh, who was the CEC during the 2004 General Elections which gave the Congress a slight edge and led to the formation of the present disastrous UPA. His activism during the Gujarat polls of 2002 (after the riots) and his run-in with the BJP loudmouths is well known. We also know how the usual suspects rushed to his defence at that time. While he maintained a straight face when he was accused of being a “Congress agent”, what was startling was his sharing of the dais with Rahul Gandhi at Amritsar on 18th November.

Finally all doubts have been put to rest. Whether he formally joins the party or not, only time will tell. But where his loyalties lie, we all know. Tell me, as a supposedly neutral ex-CEC, would he be willing to share the dais with say, Advani?

And last but not the least, don’t we all know the background of incumbent Election Commissioner, Navin Chawla, whom the Congress is banking upon to see it through in the forthcoming General Elections?

POTA or Abracadabra?

Terrorist attacks come and go and we are back to the same tapes being replayed. The BJP has once again demanded the revival of POTA, while the PM has rejected Mr. Advani’s appeal. His logic is, “The attacks on parliament and Akshardham temple took place when Pota was in force. There is no dearth of laws in the country to deal with terrorism”.

Oh Mr. PM, is it? But the fact is none of those laws seem to be having any impact. For the record, the attack on Parliament took place on December 13, 2001 and the POTA was notified only on 28.03.2002.

Even this apart, no law is magic that you enact it and lo! The terrorist attacks stop. If the PM thinks like this, something is seriously wrong with his intelligence. Or is it that he thinks we are all stupid?

Laws like POTA need to be in place for a long period of time, they have to be implemented with a single minded determination to weed out terrorists, sleeper cells, informers, etc. This will take some time, it will involve some excesses, but it will be far less than the number of innocent lives lost in terrorist attacks.