No! No! Not M.K. Gandhi, but Varun Gandhi – grandson of Indira Gamdhi. Before delving into the issue, let me clarify that the Gandhi family (i.e. Indira, Rajiv, Sonia, Rahul, Sanjay, Maneka, Varun etc) are in no way connected to Mahatma Gandhi, not even ideologically. Due to some political complicacies, Indira’s husband took up ‘Gandhi’ as his last name, which kind of stuck and also proved great for their political careers. Varun is son of Sanjay Gandhi, younger son of Indira Gandhi.

Now the issue at hand is of Varun being castigated by secular Indian media and even by India’s Election Commission. The media is trying to brand him as hate-monger, muslim basher, and very very un-secular. Leading the front is …. of course our beloved, most secular (read Hindu-hater) news channel NDTV. So let us see what Varun said that infuriated our secular type brethren.

At the crux of his speeches are two things -
1. Stop cow-slaugther.
2. If anyone does anything against Hindu community, Varun claims, swearing by Gita that he’ll chop their hands off.

So, what in those statements is against Muslims? or Christians? or any against any other specific religion or community? In fact, if Muslim leaders are taking objection to above two then I wonder is there something about Muslim community that I don’t know about? Have they been slaughtering cows and attacking Hindu communities, hence mere mention of it makes them think the statements are against them!

However, to be fair, I personally haven’t seen any Muslim objecting to Varun’s statement. It is primarily so called secular Hindus only who have been up in arms about this and have been claiming that Varun was talking about Muslims. Surprising indeed!

I personally do not see anything wrong in Varun’s statement. He is just standing up for his community, which all have right to do so. In fact, we do it all the time. We claim similar things when someone threatens our family, friends, or even nation. It is of course impractical, may be even theatrical, but its common and we might have done it too. So if it can be said about any other thing, then why not for Hindu community? Varun was getting verbally aggressive to anyone or anything against Hindu culture, be it an individual, a group, a nation, or even those who are Hindus themselves!! Compare this with political leader in other religious community and left-leaning parties, who publically spit their venom against Hindus, Indian government and anything between. However, in latter cases, media prefers showing weather report than covering their speeches. Yeah right, saviours of democracy!!

Here is something which made me smile as well as gave a glimpse of patriots in muslim community in India. I don’t know much about Maulana Madani, but he sure blasted off Musharraf and to General’s embarrassment, got good round of applause.

I would like to add two things though, pertaining to this video -
1. What does the term “indian muslim” imply? Without going in-depth into that, I think we should use “muslim indian” instead.
2. In indian context, is muslim community the only community with problems? Obviously no! then why do politicians and leader talk so much about problems in muslim community? Hmmmm… I wonder if ‘vote-bank’ is the key to answer.

So then what is the difference between Afzal’s death sentence and others? How come the same commoner hastily puts his/her point about granting mercy to Afzal but demands harshest punishment for other similar criminals, say Santosh Singh? How come media is asking for death sentence for Jessica Lal’s murderers but cries foul when Afzal is meted out due punishment? Despite Dhananjaya’s very poor economic status and photos showing his family members plight, why no one gives ear to his friends and family’s desperate pleas? Did any of us get any petition against all these death sentences, except for Afzal’s? Why dont we see pictures of mothers and relatives of these other criminals in news media?
One very esteemed columnist claims that its because ‘for all other crimes, a face of victim was put forward. Victim was young, beautiful, innocent girl with whom every mother, brother, father, sister can identify and empathize’. However, in case of Afzal, victims were unknown soldiers – people without faces, people who fell while doing their duty (protecting a nation).
Very valid point indeed. Who remembers or even ever heard name of any of those soldiers who died in this despicable plot of Afzal? I tried to lookup on net for pictures and the names of all who laid there life, only in vain. Although Afzal’s brother himself claimed that Afzal is a terrorist, the so called liberals find saving Afzal’s neck worthier than keeping the honor of our fallen heroes. If media is failing in its responsibility to put forward the faces of such heroes, at least we should not fail them too. Least we should do is not support the traitors and trivialize the life and death of our own soldiers.
‘If a nation does not respect its heroes, past or present, a time will come when it will have none!’.

Controversy about installing Periyar’s statue right in front of Srirangam temple is already in news. We must have have heard how some Hindus took matters in their hand and broke the statue. However, the story does not ends here. Another blog has a very detailed report on the temple, statue and media-censored aftermath.
A friend of mine commented, “Hindus shouldnt have broken the statue!”. Well, to understand the ground realities read about the aftermath. It will prove the indifference of media as well the law when it comes to acts of terrorism against Hindu society on the land of Hindus. There were complaints lodged at all level against DK’s statue inauguration ceremony only in vain. It is no surprise that local residents had to do what they did with Periyar’s statue.
In any case, the Indian English media once again proves its bias against Hindu society by blackening out the reports of terror against Hinduism while printing pages on Periyar’s statue incidence.

Another event which has taken quite a limelight recently is the case of Afzal and Supreme Court’s verdict for him. To refresh our memory – Afzal was arrested and charged for his involvement in the attack on Indian parliament. The charge claims he was among those who devised the plan to blow up the seat of Indian democracy – the parliament along with elected representatives of the nation. Afzal was sentenced to death by all levels of judiciary including the Supreme Court of India. Right now he is pleading for clemency to the head of Indian government, the President.
Those unaware of whole event might think, oh! so a case of debate between pro- and anti-capital punishment is about to unroll. Well, yes but not without a hint of secularism! It seems that while this case (a terrorist versus a nation) is worthy of nation-wide protests, debates on all levels, dharna, drama etc but the other cases (like that of Dhananjaya Chatterjee, given death penalty for rape of a minor, or of Santosh Singh to be hanged for rape and murder of Priyadarshini Mattoo) hardly made a blimp. So if protesters were against capital punishment then there should have been same amount of hullabaloo for Dhananjaya’s punishment too as they both committed ‘rarest of rare’ crimes. Unless of course they find war on a nation not as serious crime as a rape of a minor, which I am sure they do.
So then where lies the difference?
(to be continued)

A new book by a professor in Virginia Tech about media bias in US, in favor of the Bush administration . The author claims that mainstream media in US is biased in favor of Republicans. There also has been great hue and cry in various blogs as to how the Republicans control news etc.
Now switch the context to India. Interestingly, the so called liberals in India (i.e. Congress, UDA, Leftists, etc) dominate the media while the right wing (RSS, BJP etc) are always at loss when it comes to media. The so-called liberals of India have very deftly censored/inserted news for long and have now mastered this art. I wonder if someday some professor/journalist in India will also take a unbiased critical look at it.

This article appeared in the Indian Express on Nov 22, 2006. Twelve acres of land were sold to a tribal woman in 1993 and despite a declaration by the Govt that no non-Hindu activity shall be entertained in temple lands, a Christian school has encouraged some people to encroach these lands forcibly and do construction. No action has been taken yet, which is usual in our secular country. The worst part about the article in Indian Express is that it never mentions that Christian missionaries encroached this land. It merely mentions “a religious organization” has encroached the lands.
One can claim that Indian Express doesn’t wants to create tension between two sections of society by mentioning the name. However, the same newspaper wont leave any stone unturned had it been any Hindu organization which had encroached the land. The newspaper also knows that the yardstick should be same irrespective of religion, caste or creed. But then if they won’t show bias against Hindu, how will they be tagged ’secular’! Hmmm, good job ’secular’ Indian Express.

A guide to be secular in India:
1. Anything which bears tag of ancient India is bad. Criticize it, deny it, negate it.
2. Always oppose Indian contributions to society prior to British raj.
3. Never ever utter the ‘H’ word (Hindu). If need be balance it with equal mention of other religions.
4. No matter how anti-national, anti-social a person or act might be, if it is from minority section always praise it.
5. Bear in mind – Pakistan, Bangladesh, and China are an ideal nation. India should learn from them. Always stand in their support and to gain their support hurl all sort of accusations on India.
6. Finally, all religion are equal, however, Hinduism is not a religion hence should not be treated equally.