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Cracks in Hindutva camp spells doom for doctrine (Comment)
By Amulya Ganguli

The saffron brotherhood has generally been known for its unity. The reason is despite its long history - the Hindu supremacist Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) was founded in 1925 - its constituents have been late entrants to the corridors of power. As such, they did not have to contend with the pulls and pressures of competitive politics or internal personality clashes. It is only now that they have started experiencing such problems, which led to the split in the Shiv Sena in Maharashtra.

It is this rupture that is behind the present confrontation between the RSS and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on one side, and the Shiv Sena and the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) on the other.

At its root is the politics of one-upmanship between the Shiv Sena and the MNS. Since both use street violence as their main political tactic, they need different enemies. The Shiv Sena’s targets have been the Muslims. The MNS, however, has chosen the north Indians, mainly the Biharis, as its adversaries, presumably to underline its difference from the parent organisation.

Herein lies the basic reason for its confrontation with the RSS-BJP since a large proportion of the latter’s base of support is in the Hindi belt. There was no way, therefore, for the RSS to keep quiet while the Biharis lived in fear of being attacked in Mumbai. The BJP was largely silent in the initial phases, evidently hoping the MNS would see reason or turn to some other community to vent its ire.

But the forthright manner in which the RSS, the head of the Sangh Parivar, stepped into the fray with its strident criticism of the MNS left the BJP with no option but to fall in line. This assertiveness of the RSS bears the distinct stamp of its new chief, Mohan Bhagwat, who is also believed to have selected the BJP’s new president Nitin Gadkari.

Apart from the dangerous antics of the MNS, other issues too have cropped up such as the inclusion of Pakistani cricketers in the Indian Premier League, which has been strongly articulated by Bollywood star Shah Rukh Khan. The Shiv Sena has been more vociferous on this matter because of the Muslim factor. But the clash between the two sections of the saffron camp is mainly over the targeting of Biharis.

Since there is no meeting ground between the two - as on the issue of castigating Muslims, for instance - there is little immediate chance of a resolution. For the MNS, there is no question of a retreat because of the political gains it has been able to make in the Mumbai area because of his aggressive espousal of the cause of the Marathi manoos or people.

It is a classical fascistic way of garnering support by blaming the immigrants for all the social and economic woes of the locals. The suspicion that MNS leader Raj Thackeray has succeeded in hitting the right chord among a section of Marathis, especially the lower middle class, explains why the Congress-led coalition government of the state has been reluctant to take tough action against the rabble-rouser and his hoodlums.

This permissive attitude of the state government is not a new development. The Shiv Sena, led by Raj’s uncle Bal Thackeray, had also succeeded in striking roots in the 1960s because of the indulgence shown by the then Congress government, which used it to intimidate the communist trade unions.

The ruling Congress might have continued to be soft on the uncle and nephew (particularly the latter since he helps to divide the saffron vote) if Rahul Gandhi had not stepped in with his criticism of the MNS. The state government is also facing a court case charging it with inaction.

But any toughness it may show will be resented by the Congress’s coalition partner, the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), an essentially Maharashtra-based outfit which has no option but to play the parochial card.

While the involvement of Rahul Gandhi and Shah Rukh Khan has enlivened the scene, the entry of the RSS-BJP duo into the fray has queered the pitch for the Hindutva brigade. As long as the Muslims were the common enemies of the RSS-BJP and the Shiv Sena, as during the communal riots of 1992-93, they could act in unison. Their alliance also brought them to power in the state in 1995 for four years.

But now that they are virtually on a collision course, it is bad news for the saffron lobby. For one, the division of the far right vote will ensure a safe passage to the Congress. For another, the fallout from the rupture in the Hindutva camp will not remain confined to Maharashtra alone.

The departure of the Shiv Sena and the MNS from the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) will be yet another occasion when a partner of the NDA will have left the alliance in recent months - the others being the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) of Orissa and the Trinamool Congress of West Bengal.

However, the fact that unlike the BJD and the Trinamool Congress, the Shiv Sena and the MNS are avowedly saffronites means that even the Hindutva camp has started to disintegrate, thereby marking the end of the Hindu nationalist campaign which began with the Ramjanmabhoomi movement two decades ago. Nothing can be more disheartening for the BJP after its defeat in two successive general elections.

But beyond the parting of ways in Maharashtra, what is noteworthy is how the pursuit of sectarianism leads to more and more divisive policies by targeting different communities. The BJP’s political advance was based on the whipping up of anti-minority sentiments. As that wave started to recede with the electorate becoming wise to the party’s cynical mixing of religion and politics, the cracks in the Hindutva camp in Maharashtra have virtually rung the death-knell for the conflict-ridden doctrine.

(06-02-2010-Amulya Ganguli is a political analyst. He can be reached at aganguli@mail.com)

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Why are Indian students being targeted in Australia?
By Lohit Shandilya

I have lived in Melbourne for over seven years and there is no doubt that the situation has changed for Indians here. Denying racism in Australia is like denying casteism and dowry in India. But there is more to this issue then just blaming the Australian government.
I would like to define the term which has been used again and again, “Indian students”. Who are these students and how are so many of them here all of a sudden? When we talk of overseas students, what comes to mind are students of engineering, bio-physics, medicine, MBA, PhD or some research work.

But this is not the case here. Unlike in the US or Britain, the majority of Indian students in Australia are enrolled in vocational courses in hospitality, cookery, hair design etc. I am sure this comes as a surprise to many, as it did to India’s foreign minister on his recent visit.

International students are worth $13 billion to the Australian economy each year. After coal and iron ore, education is the country’s third biggest industry.

But Australia was not a popular destination for Indian students until education here was linked to permanent residency.

Most come here to get residency and the easiest way to do so is by enrolling as a student in some course. There has been a significant increase in the number of vocational colleges and students, especially Indian students whose number grew a whooping 161 percent in 2006 and 94 percent in 2008.

Indians were 31 percent of the new admissions in Australian universities in 2008, according to the umbrella body Australian Education International.

There are people who lure students into this immigration racket via the vocational colleges. These agents promise them permanent residency and provide them admission in the cookery institutions run mostly by Indian or other Asians. They also provide them services of migration agent or lawyers, again mostly Indians.

These institutions are like cattle markets. In a class meant for 100 there are intakes of 500 students. Recently quite a few of these privately run institutes have been shut down by the government. There have been many cases where false documents were provided to get admission and later residency.

As a result, visa applications from India are now scrutinised more rigorously by immigration authorities, who have rejected 33.2 percent of the 21,120 student visa applications from India between July 1 and Oct 31, 2009, a considerable rise from 6.5 percent in the same period in 2008.

Most of the Indian students in these vocational courses come from villages and small towns, having taken large loans for the purpose and hoping to recoup the money by earning in Australia after gaining permanent residence rights.

From day one they start looking for work. They work as taxis drivers, in laundries, as security guards, petrol pump attendants and in call centres. Most of them are night jobs.

The desperate Indian students get the worst shifts and in shady locations. Being new in Australia, they don’t know which suburbs to avoid. While going for the night shifts they catch the last train, bus or tram. And they become easy targets. Muggers know Indians, being new to the country, are less likely to resist.

Also, a lot of Indian students don’t retaliate due to the fear that a police case might hamper their chance to get residency.

Friday and Saturday nights the crowds on the streets are high on alcohol and drugs and not at all friendly crowd. The Indian students have to deal with them in convenience stores, as security guards and taxi drivers.

There are also groups of teenagers of local and different ethnicity roaming the streets with pack mentality. They are always in good numbers and look for easy targets and assault innocent victims for sheer fun and to prove their machismo to their peers.

Even the cops stay away from them. There have been instances of abuse and assault on cops too. Indian students are among their easiest targets. The recent attack in Melbourne on the eve of Australia Day Jan 26 was by a group of four-six Asian teenagers.

So we can see the chain reaction: - billion dollar education business - mushroom growth in shady vocational training institutes to make quick bucks - poor loan-burdened Indian students desperate for work picking up risky jobs - easy targets.

The world is no different from a class room. The more you cry, the more you are bullied. Now it has become a fashion to assault Indian students. The more we react the more we become the victim. For the locals, bashing an Indian make them overnight sensations and they enjoy all the publicity and hype in the media. Even if they are arrested and charged the damage is already done.

But I am hopeful things will change, once the immigration slows down.

(31-01-2010- Lohit Shandilya can be contacted at lohitsinghster@gmail.com)

US-based NRI hotelier Sant Singh Chatwal on Tuesday remained unfazed over BJP’s demand to the government that the Padma Bhushan awarded to him be taken back in the wake of his controversial financial dealings.
Chatwal, who was earlier chargesheeted by the CBI for an alleged $9 million fraud case connected with the State Bank of India, said he was thrilled and “grateful” to the Indian Government that after such a long time they have really recognised his services towards strengthening Indo-US ties.

“I have really no idea about BJP’s objection. I love my country and have been working for the past 30 years. I don’t care for the parties. They will come and go,” said Chatwal, considered close to former US President Bill Clinton and his wife and US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

BJP’s Deputy Leader in the Lok Sabha Gopinath Munde had written a letter to the President and Prime Minister expressing disapproval over the government’s decision to bestow the third highest civilian honour on Chatwal.

Munde alleged that due to Chatwal’s controversial financial dealings he did not deserve the honour and it should be taken back.

In the wake of the BJP demand, Congress said the Home Ministry decides the awards and they might have their reasons for it. Congress spokesman Shakeel Ahmed however said that in general the party wants these awards to be given to people who enhance its prestige and not to those with a taint.

Chatwal said he was grateful to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh who has recognised “my efforts and services for this award.”

Chatwal is one of the 13 Non-resident Indians to be given Padma awards on the occasion of the Republic Day. He had recently announced that his Hampshire Hotels chain would set up 25 hotels in India by 2011.
see also:
http://news.rediff.com/report/2010/jan/25/sant-chatwal-rubbishes-concerns-against-him.htm

Why is this craze for giving and receiving awards among American Malayalees?
It has become like a virus in the community.
If you want to promote your friends, the best way is to declare an award.
Peter Neendoor in an article laughed at these calling for a ‘Kozhi Thooval Award.”
Unlike in earlier times, even in Kerala’s villages there are facilities to conduct a mini convention and awards event. So it is not a very expensive thing too.
How to stop this mania?

A year after Barack Obama made history as America’ s first black president, US voters are less optimistic about his ability to succeed and no longer favour keeping the Democrats in control of Congress, according to a new poll.
The trends shown by the new Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll point to an increasingly difficult political climate for Obama as he hopes to push his domestic agenda beyond health care and to preserve his party’s majorities in the House and Senate.

The survey results show that Obama’s personal popularity remains high across a large swath of the electorate, but they also chronicle a decline in the high support for his agenda that Democrats enjoyed when he was sworn into office a year ago, the Wall Street Journal said.

Nationally, voters now are evenly split over which party they hope will run Capitol Hill after the November elections-the first time Democrats haven’t had the edge on that question since December 2003.

Moreover, Republicans are far more excited than Democrats to turn out and vote in November: 55 percent of Republican voters said they were “very interested” in the election, compared with 38 percent of Democrats.

The new poll shows, for the first time, a majority of voters disapprove of the job he is doing on health care.

Three-quarters said they liked Obama. But just 22 percent said they were “optimistic and confident” about his presidency-a 10-point decline from a year ago. By comparison, 27 percent were “pessimistic and worried” about his presidency, compared with just 9 percent a year ago, when many hoped he would lead the nation into an economic recovery.

Overall, 48 percent said they approved of the job Obama is doing, while 43 percent disapproved-about the same as last month but down sharply from approval ratings in the 60 percent range in his early months in office.

Perhaps most troubling for Obama and the Democrats is that independents are souring on them. That bloc backed Democrats in 2006 and 2008. Now, by a nearly 2 to 1 margin, independents said they would prefer Republicans to control Congress after November.

Still, distaste for Democrats isn’t translating into more love for the Republicans. Just 30 percent of voters felt positively about the Republican Party, compared with 39 percent for the Democratic Party.

Church portals open for Ayyappa devotees
Alappuzha: A 16th century Catholic Church built by Portuguese missionaries in a coastal hamlet near here stands out as a model of religious harmony with a tradition of hosting Hindu pilgrims returning after worshipping Lord Ayyappa at the famous Sabarimala temple.
It has for long been a custom for the St Andrew’s Church at Arthunkal in Alappuzha District to receive the pilgrims, who take out their string of beads worn as part of the ritual during the period of vow preceding the trip to the hill shrine by paying respect before the idol of Saint Sebasitan.
During November-January, when the Mandala and Makaravilakku season of the Sabarimala temple takes place, devotees visit the sea-side church.
Traditionally, the pilgrims wear a ‘mala’ (string of beads) to mark their devotion and period ‘vrata’ or renunciation of wordly pleasures. Many visit the church to take out the ‘mala’ marking the end of their ‘vrata’. After removing the ‘mala’, the devotees take a bath in a tank in the church premises or a dip in the sea. The church also serves meal or snacks to the
pilgrims and arrange for lodging for those wishing to stay for a day or two.
Legend has it that one of the early priests of the church was a friend of Lord Ayyappa, the adopted son of the King of a small principality called Pandalam, now in Pathanamthitta District, Church Vicar Fr Pius Arattukulam said.
The visit of the pilgrims commemorates the bond between Lord Ayyappa and the priest, Fr Pius said. According to Parish records, the Church was built by the Portuguese missionaries, who came to Kerala in the 16th century following the arrival of famed explorer Vasco da Gama at Kozhikode on the Malabar coast in 1498. When the missionaries came to parts of Travancore they happened to meet a large number of St Thomas Christians.
Syrian Christians in Kerala claim they are descendants of the families converted by St Thomas the Apostle, who landed at Crangannore (now Kodungallur) in AD 52 to preach the Gospel. Though they had been following the faith for generations, they were not under the control of Vatican and its hierarchical structure till medieval period.
However, the Portuguese missionaries, mostly Jesuits, brought large sections of them under the Catholic structure and as part of the process built churches and sent priests to look after the spiritual needs of the community. As part of this process, a Jesuit priest, Manuel Texeira visited Arthunkal in 1579 AD and appointed Fr Gasper Pius as the vicar of the community in 1581. Members of the community, well-integrated in the social fabric, gained permission from Muthedath Raja to build a church with thatched roof and wood.
“It is said that the Raja visited the church on completion of the construction and asked the priest to retain it always as a House of God.
Since then, people professing all faiths used to visit the church to pay homage to St. Andrew, the patron of the parish.
“These historical facts and legends associated with the church show that religious harmony of the place could be traced back to centuries,” Fr Pius said.
After the death of the first priest, a new vicar named Fr Jacomo Fenicio, also a Jesuit, became the vicar of the church in 1584, to whom the legend linking Sabarimala and Arthunkal Church has been attributed.
“He was loved greatly by the local people and they believed that he had some holy powers to heal diseases. He was called Arthunkal Veluthachan (fair-skinned father) and he installed a statue of St. Sebastian in the Church”.
According to church lore, Fr Fenicio was a friend of Ayyappa. So devotees started visiting Arthunkal also after paying homage to Ayyappa. “There are records to prove that Fr Fenicio had deep interest in Hindu culture, rituals and martial arts like Kalarippayattu. He had also penned a book on those subjects in Latin. Though much of the rituals had been given up over the centuries, the spiritual bond between Sabarimala and Arthunkal Church is still preserved.
“The church authorities have not faced any objection even from the most conservative sections of the parish for giving space to the Hindu devotees.
The coastal hamlet is still a shining example of religious harmony in all its meaning. There is even a practice of organising joint cultural fests by the church and nearby temples in the locality,” Fr Pius said.

Drugs, gangs and bad friends. Some of uour youngsters have fallen to such vices. They drop out from school and become a headache to family.
How to prevent such things? What went wrong?
Write your comemnts and suggestions.

Is it true that Kerala Marxists do not allow those practising religion in their fold?
Marx said religion is the opium of the mass. He also advocated rationalism rather than beliefs in religion.
But in Kerala, most Marxists go to church, temple or masjid and actively particiape in the activities.
Nobody objected to that.
But suddenly Abdullakutty and KS Manoj ex MP say that religion is not allowed in CPM. How far true is this?
When they joined CPM, they knew at least the basics of Marxism. Then why is the new revelation?

Writer theatened by CPI-M youth activists
Payyannur (Kerala), Jan 10 (IANS) Writer and journalist Paul Zachariah was Saturday night allegedly threatened by activists of the Democratic Youth Federation of India (DYFI) - the youth wing of the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) - after he made critical remarks against it at a function.
Zachariah told IANS that he was here to take part in a book release function and in his speech had mentioned the manner in which the DYFI activists had trapped Congress leader Rajmohan Unnithan with a woman activist.

“The meeting got over around 6.30 p.m and I had reached the hotel where I was staying. And around 8 p.m, along with few other friends of mine, I was about to get into a car to go to the railway station when a group of DYFI activists surrounded us and started abusing us,” he said.

According to the writer, they took away the car key and pushed him around, threatening him that if he ever dared to step into Payyannur again, he would not go back alive.

“I kept quiet and after showering us with abuses and heckling us, they left,” he added.

Zachariah is considered one of the state’s best known fiction writer and is recipient of several awards. He worked as a journalist in Delhi in the late 1980s and 1990s.

Speaking to a TV channel later, he said that he does not intend to file a complaint because he sees “no point in it”.

“One thing what we all learned is the real face of the DYFI. It has become more clear what they are and what stuff they are made of,” Zachariah, who is now a popular columnist, added.