काले धन पर लीपापोती

काले धन पर लीपापोती कई देशों में बैंक खुलेआम काला धन जमा करते हैं और गोपनीयता के नियमों की आड़ में जमाकर्ताओं की पहचान गुप्त रखते हैं। ऐसे देशों में स्विट्जरलैंड का नाम शीर्ष पर है। इसी प्रकार यूरोप के एक अन्य छोटे देश लिचटेंस्टीन के बैंक भी काला धन जमा करने में कुख्यात हैं। एक रिपोर्ट के अनुसार स्विट्जरलैंड के बैंकों में सबसे अधिक काला धन भारतीय जमा करते हैं। स्विस बैंकों में काले धन का मुद्दा मीडिया में तब उछला था, जब बोफोर्स तोप के सौदे में दलाली स्विस बैंक में जमा करने का खुलासा हुआ। दरअसल, विदेशी बैंकों में भारत का इतना काला धन जमा है कि इससे सरकार द्वारा चलाई जा रही सभी कल्याणकारी योजनाओं का वित्त पोषण हो सकता है। कुछ व्यक्ति तथा संगठन भारत सरकार पर चौतरफा दबाव बना रहे हैं कि वह विदेशी बैंकों में काला धन जमा करने वाले भारतीयों का नाम उजागर करे और काला धन वापस लाने के साथ ही जमाकर्ताओं के खिलाफ कड़ी कार्रवाई भी करे। इस संबंध में उच्चतम न्यायालय में भी एक जनहित याचिका दायर की गई है। संयुक्त राष्ट्र संघ का भ्रष्टाचार के विरुद्ध एक कन्वेंशन बना है। भारत ने भी इस पर हस्ताक्षर किए हैं। इस कन्वेंशन के तहत यह भारत सरकार की जिम्मेदारी बनती है कि वह भ्रष्टाचार को रोकने के लिए प्रभावशाली कदम उठाए। लेकिन सरकार काला धन जमा करने वालों का विवरण सार्वजनिक करने में कोई न कोई बहाना बनाकर टालमटोल कर रही है। सरकार की कार्रवाई ढुलमुल, प्रभावहीन और असंतोषजनक है। प्रश्न उठता है कि सरकार और उसके अधिकारी टैक्स चोरों की पहचान को छुपा कर क्यों रखना चाहते हैं, जबकि अन्य अपराधों में अपराधियों की पहचान प्राय: नहीं छिपाई जाती। विदेशों से काला धन वापस लाने और देश में काले धन के श्चोत पर अंकुश लगाने के उपाय सुझाने वाली कमेटी की रिपोर्ट के आधार पर वित्तमंत्री प्रणब मुखर्जी ने संसद में 21 मई, 2012 को एक श्वेत पत्र प्रस्तुत किया। श्वेत पत्र कई बिंदुओं पर निराशाजनक लगता है। श्वेत पत्र में ऐसा कोई संकेत नहीं है कि कितने भारतीय नागरिकों ने विदेशी बैंकों में काला धन जमा किया है। इसमें बैंकों में जमा काले धन की अनुमानित राशि या ऐसा धन जो बाजार में प्रयोग में आ रहा है या देश के अंदर बेनामी संपत्तियों में लगे धन के बारे में कुछ नहीं बताया गया है। काले धन का एक महत्वपूर्ण श्चोत ठेकों और आर्थिक लेनदेन में अनधिकृत कमीशन के रूप में होता है। इसके बारे में भी कुछ नहीं कहा गया है। जिन लोगों ने विदेशी बैंकों में काला धन जमा किया है या देश के अंदर अथवा बाहर बेनामी संपत्तियों में लगाया है, उनके नाम उजागर करने की कोई संस्तुति श्वेत पत्र में नहीं मिलती। श्वेत पत्र में काले धन को जब्त करने और दोषी व्यक्तियों को चिह्नित करके उन पर आपराधिक अभियोजन की प्रक्रिया की भी संस्तुति नहीं की गई है। दूसरी ओर इसमें काला धन जमा करने वाले व्यक्तियों द्वारा एकमुश्त टैक्स देकर स्वैच्छिक रूप से ऐसे धन को घोषित करने की संस्तुति की गई है। यहां तक कि ऐसे लोगों पर जुर्माना लगाने का भी प्रावधान नहीं किया गया है। ऐसी संस्तुति यदि क्रियान्वित की जाती है तो इससे और अधिक लोगों का काला धन पैदा करने का हौसला बढ़ेगा। कुछ साल पहले भी भारत सरकार ने एकमुश्त टैक्स अदायगी करके स्वैच्छिक रूप से काले धन को घोषित करने की नीति का निर्णय लिया था, लेकिन ऐसा निर्णय काले धन की बुराई को रोकने में पूर्णतया असफल रहा। श्वेत पत्र में काला धन जमा करने वाले बैंकों और संस्थाओं के विरुद्ध किसी प्रकार की कार्रवाई की बात नहीं की गई है। ऐसे बैंक काला धन बनाने की तथा टैक्स बचाने की गैरकानूनी क्रिया को बढ़ावा देते हैं और इसलिए उनके विरुद्ध भी आपराधिक अभियोजन की प्रक्रिया चलनी चाहिए। श्वेत पत्र काले धन पर अंकुश लगाने की सरकार की प्रतिबद्धता और इच्छाशक्ति के अभाव को ही दर्शाता है। जब तक सरकार द्वारा दोषियों पर जुर्माना और उनके विरुद्ध आपराधिक अभियोजन की प्रक्रिया के तहत कठोर कार्रवाई नहीं की जाती तब तक काले धन को कम करने या समाप्त करने की उम्मीद करना ही व्यर्थ है। काले धन पर रोकथाम लगाने के प्रयास पूरी दुनिया में हो रहे हैं। विशेष तौर पर अमेरिका ने इस संबंध में काफी प्रभावशाली काम किया है। अमेरिका ने स्विट्जरलैंड की सरकार और वहां के यूबीएस बैंक पर दबाव बनाया जिसके फलस्वरूप स्विट्जरलैंड के बैंक को अमेरिका के न्याय विभाग के साथ एक समझौते के तहत 4450 खातेदारों का विवरण देना पड़ा और इस मामले में आपराधिक अभियोजन की प्रक्रिया को टालने के बदले में 78 करोड़ डॉलर का जुर्माना भी देना पड़ा। वहां की सरकार का न्याय विभाग लगभग 11 अन्य स्विस बैंकों जैसे क्रेडिट स्विस, जूलियस बेयर, दि बॉसल कैंटोनल बैंक और ज्यूरिक कैंटोनल बैंक आदि के बारे में छानबीन कर रहा है। अमेरिकी दबाव में स्विस सरकार और वहां के बैंकों ने कुछ विवरण उपलब्ध कराए हैं। लेकिन यह समझा जाता है कि स्विस सरकार ऐसे समझौते की मांग कर रही है जिसमें अमेरिका उसके बैंकों के खिलाफ आपराधिक अभियोजन की प्रक्रिया न करे। अमेरिका इस प्रकार के समझौते के पक्ष में नहीं है। काले धन पर लचर कानून और श्वेत पत्र के अ‌र्द्धसत्य के सहारे पर्दा डालने के बजाय भारत को भी अमेरिका की तरह काला धन जमा करने वालों के खिलाफ कारगर कार्रवाई करनी चाहिए। (लेखक ट्रांस्परेंसी इंटरनेशनल इंडिया के सदस्य हैं)

Boycott of CJ of Pakistan award ceremony in London on forced conversion of Hindu girls case

Hyderabad(PAK): May 28, 2012. (Abbas Kassar) Sindhis living in UK including International Sindhi Women Organization and World Sindhi Congress has announced boycott of award ceremony which has been arranged in London to give award to chief justice Pakistan Iftikhar Muahammad Chowdhry on the grounds that chief justice Pakistan had handed over Hindu girl Rinkel Kumari Kumari two months back to a PPP MNA Pir Mian Mithoo who had married her forcibly to one of his relatives after kidnapping her. The girl when presented before supreme court was crying to be handed to her parents and had loudly said that she was forcibly married to a Muslim boy but chief justice did not listen her cries and handed her to Muslim boy who had kidnapped her on behest of MNA of ruling PPP Mian Mithoo and then married.
It may be mentioned here that kidnapping Hindu girls and then marrying them to Muslims after forcible conversion is common in Sindh but neither government nor judiciary can stop such love jihad atrocities with minorities in Pakistan.

Physical demonstration by Swayamsevak

Concluding ceremony of Sangha Sikshya  Barga was held at Blasore with a huge audience. It was the training camp of eastern Jone . successful camp run under the guidance of khetriya adhikari and some prantiya adhikari to build national human wealth in the name of swayamsevak .swayam sevak was demonstrated their physical technique in front of the public.

भाजपा का भविष्य

                             

दिनांक २४ मई को भारतीय जनता पार्टी (भाजपा) के कार्यकारी मंडल ने, लगातार दो बार, अध्यक्ष पद पर एक ही व्यक्ति रह सकती है, ऐसा संविधान संशोधन किया. इस कारण, विद्यमान अध्यक्ष नीतीन गडकरी को आगामी तीन वर्ष के लिए अध्यक्ष पद पर बने रहने का मौका मिला है. श्री गडकरी के वर्तमान अध्यक्ष पद की अवधि दिसंबर २०१२ को समाप्त हुई होती. अब वे २०१५ तक अध्यक्ष पद पर रह सकेंगे. अर्थात् आज तो यह संभाव्यता ही माननी चाहिए. कारण, यह संविधान संशोधन, पार्टी की आम सभा ने मंजूर करना चाहिए; और महत्त्वपूर्ण यह है कि गत बार के समान गडकरी का अविरोध चुनाव होना चाहिए. यह दोनों बातें संभावना के दायरे में होने के कारण ही, श्री गडकरी २०१५ तक पार्टी के राष्ट्रीय अध्यक्ष रहेगे, ऐसा माना जा रहा है.

पार्टी से व्यक्ति श्रेष्ठ?

राष्ट्रीय कार्यकारिणी ने यह प्रस्ताव पारित करने के पूर्व एक घटना घटित हुई. कार्यकारिणी के एक सदस्य श्री संजय जोशी ने अपनी सदस्यता से त्यागपत्र दिया. यह त्यागपत्र उन्होंने अपनी मर्जी से नहीं दिया, यह सूर्यप्रकाश के समान स्पष्ट है. उन्हें वह देना पड़ा. क्यों? - एनडीटीव्ही पर इस विषय पर की चर्चा मैंने सुनी. चर्चा में भाग लेने वालों में से एक ने ऐसा मत व्यक्त किया कि, गडकरी ने अध्यक्ष पद प्राप्त करने के लिए संजय जोशी की बलि दी. मुझे यह अभिप्राय गडकरी पर अन्याय करने वाला लगा. लेकिन यह सच है कि, गुजरात के मुख्यमंत्री श्री नरेन्द्र मोदी को खुश करने के लिए संजय जोशी को जाना पड़ा. वे त्यागपत्र न देते, तो क्या होता? श्री मोदी मुंबई की राष्ट्रीय कार्यकारिणी की सभा में नहीं आते. शायद गुजरात से कोई भी नहीं आता. लेकिन उससे क्या बिगड़ता? क्या संविधान संशोधन नहीं होता? संभावना नकारी नहीं जा सकती कि, वह एकमत से नहीं होता. पार्टी में फूट दिखाई देती. जनतांत्रिक व्यवस्था माननेवाली पार्टी के संदर्भ में यह अप्रत्याशित नहीं है. मुझे लगता है कि, नरेन्द्र मोदी का अंहकार संजोने के लिए ही संजय जोशी की बलि दी गई है. यह अयोग्य है. पार्टी की अपेक्षा एक व्यक्ति को श्रेष्ठ सिद्ध करने का यह प्रकार है, ऐसा खेदपूर्वक कहना पड़ता है.

षड्यंत्र

मोदी-जोशी के बीच की दूरी का सब संदर्भ मुझे पता है. जोशी को बदनाम करने का एक गंदा षड्यंत्र गुजरात में रचा गया था. एक अश्‍लील सीडी बनाई गई थी. उसका प्रसारण भी दूरदर्शन की एक वाहिनी से किया गया था. लेकिन बाद में ध्यान में आया कि, वह सीडी बनावटी है. देश में की और विदेशों में की फॉरेन्सिक प्रयोग शालाओं ने वह सीडी बनावटी होने का प्रमाणपत्र दिया है. इस गंदी राजनीति में श्री मोदी का यत्किंचित भी संबंध नहीं था, ऐसा छाती ठोककर कहा जा सकता है? यह कलंक जब तक दूर नहीं होता, तब तक कोई भी पद स्वीकार नहीं करूंगा, ऐसा जोशी ने निश्‍चित किया था और उस पर वे कायम रहे. उनके निष्कलंकत्व के बारे में यकीन होने के बाद ही गडकरी ने उन्हें फिर कार्यकारिणी का सदस्यत्व अर्पण किया. उन्हें त्यागपत्र देने के लिए बाध्य कर, अपना मत परिवर्तन हुआ है, और वे जोशी को निष्कलंक नहीं मानते, ऐसा अप्रत्यक्ष ही सही, सबूत गडकरी ने इस मामले में दिया है, ऐसा किसे ने कहा, तो उसे दोष नहीं दिया जा सकता.

अनुचित नीति

कोई एक व्यक्ति बाजू हट जाती है, तो पार्टी की बहुत बड़ी हानि होती है, ऐसा नहीं. श्री मोदी नाराज रहते, मुंबई की बैठक में नहीं आते, या और आगे जाकर भाजपा छोड देते, तो भी अधिक से अधिक गुजरात में भाजपा की सत्ता जाती. इसी वर्ष अक्टूबर-नवंबर में वहॉं विधानसभा का चुनाव है. भाजपा पराभूत भी होता. लेकिन क्या भाजपा यह पार्टी ही समाप्त होती? २००८ तक राज्यस्थान में भाजपा की सत्ता थी. २००८ के चुनाव में भाजपा का पराभव हुआ. क्या राज्यस्थान में की भाजपा समाप्त हुई? हाल ही हुए विधानसभा के चुनाव में उत्तराखंड में भाजपा का पराभव हुआ, क्या वहॉं भाजपा समाप्त हुई? एक व्यक्ति की राजी-नाराजी के लिए, न्याय-अन्याय का विचार न करना, यह नीति, न नैतिक दृष्टि से, और न ही व्यावहारिक दृष्टि से उचित नहीं कही जा सकती.

चारित्र्यसंपन्न उम्मीदवार

श्री नीतीन गडकरी के पुन: अध्यक्ष पद पर आने की इस प्रक्रिया को लगे धब्बे के बारे में अधिक कुछ लिखना आवश्यक नहीं. श्री गडकरी पुन: तीन वर्ष के लिए अध्यक्ष पद पर बने रहेगे, यह अब, करीब करीब निश्‍चित है. यह अच्छी बात है. २०१४ का लोकसभा का चुनाव उनके कार्यकाल में होगा. वे किसी एक गुट से संलग्न न होने के कारण और उनका अपना भी कोई गुट न होने के कारण, उम्मीदवारों का चुनाव करते समय व्यक्तिनिष्ठा, गुटनिष्ठा की अपेेक्षा उनका चारित्र्य और उनकी पार्टीनिष्ठा को प्राधान्य रहेगा, ऐसी आशा है. २०१४ के चुनाव में उम्मीदवारों के चरित्र और चारित्र्य को, अन्य चुनावों की तुलना में अधिक महत्त्व रहेगा. श्री अण्णा हजारे, हाल ही में नागपुर आये थे; उस समय उन्होंने सार्वजनिक रूप में कहा कि, ‘‘अच्छे उम्मीदवार दो. हम उनका प्रचार करेंगे.’’ अण्णा के शब्द और कृति को वजन है, यह भूलना नहीं चाहिए. हम ऐसी भी आशा करे कि, भाजपा के उम्मीदवारों में युवा उम्मीदवारों की संख्या अच्छी रहेगी.

तीसरा मोर्चा?

 २०१४ के चुनाव में भाजपा को सत्ता में आने के लिए परिस्थिति अनुकूल होगी. आज की सत्तारूढ कॉंग्रेस पार्टी, भ्रष्टाचार, अकर्तव्यता और दिशाहिनता के आरोपों से ग्रस्त और त्रस्त है. महंगाई भी तेजी से बढ़ रही है. हाल ही में पेट्रोल की कीमत में की गई बड़ी वृद्धि के कारण कॉंग्रेस के विरुद्ध जनक्षोभ फूंट पड़ा है. आंतरराष्ट्रीय क्षेत्र में रुपये का मूल्य, अभूतपूर्व कम हुआ है. कॉंग्रेस के लिए २०१४ का चुनाव जीतना या आज के समान दो सौ सिटें कायम रखना असंभव है. जनता को दूसरा विकल्प स्वीकारना ही होगा; और वह विकल्प भाजपा ही है. अखिल भारतीय स्तर पर अन्य पार्टियॉं नहीं है. वाम पार्टियों की स्थिति भी कमजोर हुई है. केरल और प. बंगाल इन दो राज्यों में उनकी सरकारे थी. वे दोनों राज्य उनके हाथों से निकल चुके है. केवल त्रिपुरा इस छोटे राज्य में उनकी सरकार है. वे तीसरा मोर्चा बनाने का प्रयास करेगे. लेकिन यह मोर्चा बनाना आसान नहीं है. प. बंगाल, ओडिशा, तामिलनाडु, पंजाब इन राज्यों में प्रादेशिक पार्टियॉं सत्ता में है. उनमें से कोई भी कम्युनिस्टों को अपने पास फटकने देने का विचार भी नहीं कर सकती. उत्तर प्रदेश में की समाजवादी पार्टी कॉंग्रेस की ओर मुडी दिखाई देती है. फिर शेष रहती है दो ही प्रबल प्रादेशिक पार्टियॉं. (१) मायावती की बहुजन समाज पार्टी (बसपा) और (२) चंद्राबाबू नायडू की तेलगू देसम् पार्टी. ये दोनों वाम दलों के साथ गये, तो भी वह मोर्चा मजबूत नहीं होता. लेकिन, तृणमूल कॉंग्रेस, बिजू जनता दल, अद्रमुक, बसपा, सपा, तेलगू देसम् यह पार्टियॉं, कॉंग्रेस और भाजपा इन दोनों को भी सत्ता से दूर रखने के इरादे से एक हुई, और उन्होंने सत्ता स्थापन करना तय किया, तो वाम पार्टियॉं उन्हें बाहर से समर्थन दे सकती है. ऐसा हमारे देश में इसके पहले हुआ है. १९८९ में विश्‍वनाथ प्रताप सिंग, १९९६ में देवेगौडा और १९९७ में इंद्रकुमार गुजराल की सरकारे गठबंधन की ही सरकारे थी. उन्हें अन्य पार्टियों ने बाहर से समर्थन दिया था. विश्‍वनाथ प्रताप सिंग की सरकार को तो भाजपा और वाम दलों का समर्थन था, तो देवेगौडा और गुजराल की सरकारों को कॉंग्रेस का समर्थन था. इनमें से एक सरकार में तो राईटिस्ट  कम्युनिस्ट पार्टी का एक मंत्री भी शामिल था. लेकिन इनमें की एक भी सरकार एक वर्ष से अधिक समय नहीं टिकी.

भाजपा ही विकल्प

यह बताने का प्रयोजन यह है कि, जनता स्थिर सरकार पसंद करेगी. और वह कॉंग्रेस पार्टी की नहीं होगी या तीसरे मोर्चे की भी नहीं होगी. मतलब भाजपा की ही होगी. यह सच है कि, इसमें भाजपा को मिलने वाले सकारात्मक मतों (Positive votes) के साथ नकारात्मक मतों (Negative votes) का प्रमाण भी लक्षणीय होगा. कॉंग्रेस नहीं फिर कोई भी चलेगा, इस मानसिकता में, बहुत बड़ी संख्या में भारत की जनता आई है. और उसकी पसंद भाजपा ही होगी. लेकिन ५४३ सदस्यों की लोकसभा में बहुमत के लिए २७२ सदस्यों की आवश्यकता होती है. भाजपा, अपने बुते पर उस संख्या तक पहुँचने की संभावना आज तो दिखाई नहीं देती. भाजपा के नेतृत्व में भी आज एक गठबंधन विद्यमान है. इस गठबंधन में जनता दल (युनाईटेड), शिरोमणी अकाली दल और शिवसेना शामिल है. एक समय इस गठबंधन में अद्रमुक, बिजू जनता दल और तृणमूल कॉंग्रेस भी शामिल थे या उनके करीब थे. वे पुन: भाजपा के नेतृत्व में के राष्ट्रीय जनतांत्रिक गठबंधन (राजग) में आ सकते है. इससे, राजग की सत्ता में आने की संभावना और भी मजबूत होती है.

एक खतरा

लेकिन गठबंधन बनाते समय एक खतरा होता है. भाजपा अपनी विशेषता, अपनी अस्मिता और अपना अलग अस्तित्व खोने का खतरा है. १९९८ तक के चुनावों में भाजपा अपने घोषणापत्र पर चुनाव लढ़ती थी. लेकिन १९९९ का चुनाव, उसने राजग के घोषणापत्र पर लढ़ा. लाभ केवल दो सिटों का हुआ. १९९८ में १८० सिटें जीती थी, तो १९९९ में १८२. लेकिन इससे भाजपा का बुहत नुकसान हुआ. उसने अपना कार्यक्रम ही छोड दिया. जिस कार्यक्रम के आधार पर, उसे जिनके मत निश्‍चित मिलते थे, वे ही मतदाता तटस्थ बने. मुझे यह सूचित करना है कि, भाजपा को अपनी मूल ताकद कायम रखनी होगी, इसके लिए उसका अगल घोषणापत्र होना चाहिए. गठबंधन में की पार्टियों के साथ सिटों के बारे में समझौता करने में हरकत नहीं. लेकिन सिद्धांत और कार्यक्रमों के बारें समझौता नहीं होना चाहिए. १९९९ में भाजपा ने अपने मूल सिद्धांत छोड़ने का प्रमाद किया. इस कारण, पक्के तटस्थ हुए और पराए चंचल हाथ ही नहीं लगे. यह स्वाभाविक ही मानना चाहिए. एक सुभाषित यही बताता है :

                  यो ध्रुवाणि परित्यज्य अध्रुवं हि निषेवते |

                  ध्रुवाणि तस्य नश्यन्ति अध्रुवं नष्टमेव च ॥

अर्थ : जो, जो निश्‍चित है उसका त्याग कर चंचल के पीछे लगता है, उसका निश्‍चित नष्ट होता है और चंचल तो हाथ ही नहीं लगता.

मूलभूत सिद्धांत

भाजपा का मूलभूत सिद्धांत ‘हिंदुत्व’ का है. हिंदुत्व का व्यापक आशय, उसकी सर्वसमावेशकता, उसमें अध्याहृत विविधता का सम्मान, पंथ निरपेक्ष राज्यव्यवस्था का भरोसा, यह सब भाजपा को ‘डंके की चोट पर’ बताते आना चाहिए. एक बार नहीं बार बार. अपनी सही पहेचान बताई, तो तथाकथित अल्पसंख्य हमसे दूर जाएगे, यह भ्रम है. रा. स्व. संघ का अनुभव ऐसा नहीं. इस संदर्भ में, गोवा के नए मुख्यमंत्री मनोहर पर्रीकर का उदाहरण अपनाने जैसा है. ‘इंडियन एक्सप्रेस’ने ली विस्तृत मुलाकात (दि. १३ मई २०१२) में एक प्रश्‍न के उत्तर में उन्होंने कहा कि, ‘‘मैं संघ से संबंधित हूँ. संघ ने मुझे अल्पसंख्यकों का द्वेष करना नहीं सिखाया. ...संघ ने मुझे जैसे अन्य धर्मों का आदर करना सिखाया, उसी प्रकार मेरे हिंदू होने का अभिमान धारण करना भी सिखाया. संघ के इन तत्त्वों पर मेरा विश्‍वास है.’’

''I am from the RSS and it did not teach me hatred for minorities. RSS taught me to respect other religions but to be proud of being Hindu. I still believe in those principles.''

दूसरे एक प्रश्‍न के उत्तर में उन्होंने कहा, ‘‘हमने हमारी कृति से अल्पसंख्यकों के बीच विश्‍वास निर्माण किया. कॅथॉलिक ईसाईयों के साथ हमारे संबंध हरदम अच्छे रहे; और उनके साथ ही मुसलमानों में भी मेरे अनेक मित्र है.’’ भाजपा के केन्द्रीय नेताओं को भी ऐसी ठोस भूमिका सार्वजनिक रूप में लेते आनी चाहिए. व्यापक हिंदुत्व की यह भूमिका स्वीकार की तो फिर अपने आप जाति, पंथ, भाषा इत्यादि संकुचित निष्ठा छूट जाती है.

भाजपा का घोषणापत्र

भाजपा के घोषणापत्र में निम्न कुछ बातों का समावेश रहना चाहिए.

१) काश्मिरी पंडितों का पुनर्वसन.

२) जम्मू में के जिन नागरिकों को लोकसभा के लिए मताधिकार है, लेकिन राज्य विधानसभा के लिए वह अधिकार नहीं, उन्हें वह प्राप्त करा देना.

३) गंगा नदी प्रदूषणमुक्त करना.

४) सबके लिए विवाह और तलाक का समान कानून बनाना.

५) अयोध्या में राम-मंदिर बनाना.

६) आर्थिक अनुशासन लगाकर अर्थव्यवस्था पटरी पर लाने के उपाय बताना.

१९९९ से २००४ इन पॉंच वर्षों के अपने कार्यकाल में, भाजपा के नेतृत्व में के राजग ने, पहले दो मुद्दों की ओर अक्षम्य दुर्लक्ष किया. उस समय जम्मू-काश्मीर में सत्तारूढ नॅशनल कॉन्फरन्स, राजग की घटक पार्टी थी. उस पार्टी का प्रतिनिधि केन्द्रीय मंत्रिमंडल में समाविष्ठ था. फिर भी राजग यह दो प्रश्‍न हल नहीं कर पाया, इतना ही नही, वह उसके लिए प्रयास करते भी नहीं दिखा, इसका आश्‍चर्य है. लाहोर को बस लेकर जाने की अपेक्षा यह प्रश्‍न निश्‍चित ही अधिक महत्त्व के थे.

भाजपा के घोषणापत्र में, समान नागरी कानून का मुद्दा रहता था. १९९९ के घोषणापत्र में वह गायब था. संपूर्ण नागरी कानून फिलहाल बाजू में रख दे. लेकिन कम से कम, सबके लिए विवाह और तलाक का समान कानून बनाया ही जाना चाहिए. इसमें कोई सांप्रदायिकता नहीं. हमारे संविधान की धारा ४४ ने ही यह जिम्मेदारी राज्यों पर सौपी है. मेरा विश्‍वास है कि, शिक्षित मुस्लिम और ईसाई महिलाओं के भी भाजपा को बड़ी संख्या में मत मिलेंगे. अयोध्या के राम-मंदिर का प्रश्‍न, अलाहबाद उच्च न्यायालय के फै सले से आसान बन गया है. मुसलमान समाज के नेताओं के साथ संवाद साधकर मसजिद के लिए अन्यत्र जगह देने का प्रस्ताव उपयुक्त सिद्ध होगा.

किमत चुकाने की तैयारी

कोई प्रश्‍न करेगा कि, भाजपा को अपने बुते पर पूर्ण बहुमत नहीं मिला और उसे अन्य पाटिर्यो की मदत लेनी पड़ी और उन्हें यह मुद्दे मान्य नहीं होगे तो क्या करे? मुझे लगता है कि भाजपा अपने मुद्दों पर दृढ रहे. सरकार नहीं बना पाए तो भी चलेगा. दुसरे किसी की सरकार बनी, तो भी वह नहीं टिकेगी. पुन: चुनाव की नौबत आई, तो सत्ता के मोह में न पड़कर, सत्तात्याग की कीमत देकर भी, अपने मूलभूत सिद्धांतों पर दृढ रहे भाजपा को पहले से भी अधिक सिटें मिलेगी. जो अपने शुद्ध आचरण के लिए किमत चुकाते है, वे ही किसी भी जीवन-मूल्य की प्रतिष्ठापना करते है यह सार्वत्रिक अनुभव है. हमें मूल्यनिष्ठ भाजपा चाहिए. गंगा गये गंगादास, जमुना गये जमुनादास - ऐसी बेहुदी राजनीतिक पार्टी किस काम की?

- मा. गो. वैद्य

babujivaidya@gmail.com

VHP welcome AP HIGH COURT judgement scrapping 4.5% Muslim Resrevation – Dr. Togadia

VHP International Working President Dr Pravin Togadia Welcomes AP High Court judgement scrapping 4.5% Muslim Resrevation. High Court criticises AP and Central Govt and asked 'How Muslims are Backward?' High Court told that Muslim resrevation is violation of Constitution Article 15 & 16. It was forth time AP High Court scrapped Muslim reservation. This time it was referred by Supreme court.

        VHP demands that in view of AP High Court judgment Central Govt should immediately withdraw 4.5% Muslim reservation from OBC quota, otherwise VHP will exercise judicial option as well as Pubic Agitation to cancel Muslim Reservation by Central Govt.

"doctor togadia"

Temple should be the pivot of social transformation --Ashok Singhal

Two-day national conference of temple executives in Delhi

Temple should be the pivot of social transformation

--Ashok Singhal

Akhil Bharatiya Mandir Prabandhak Parishad formed to make temples autonomous centre of worship, spiritual fulfillment and social services

“Temples have always been the prominent centre of social transformation in our country. The government move to take over some of the Hindu temples now is basically aimed at grabbing the huge money offered by the devotees to the deities. Wherever the governments took over the Hindu temples the social activities being carried out by those temples earlier have adversely been affected. This must be arrested. We have to protect our temples at any cost and should make them the pivot of social transformation as per the Hindu traditions,” said veteran VHP leader Shri Ashok Singhal. He was addressing a gathering of temple executives assembled at a national conference organised in New Delhi on May 5.

The two-day conference was jointly organised by Badri Bhagat Jhandewala Temple Society and Indraprastha Vishwa Hindu Parishad from May 5 to 6. The conference was inaugurated by president of Shri Sanatan Dharma Pratinidhi Sabha, Delhi, Swami Raghwananad, Mahamandaleshwar of Shri Akhand Paramdham Mandir, Delhi, Swami Anubhutanand Giri, VHP general secretary Shri Champatrai, VHP general secretary (organisation) Shri Dinesh Chandra, chairman of Badri Bhagat Jhandewala Temple Society Shri Navin Kapur.  Swami Krishnanand Saraswati of Maniramdas Chhawani, Ayodhya, was also present on the occasion.

A total of 60 executives representing various prominent temples of the country including Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, West Bengal, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Punjab, Delhi, etc attended the conference. Prominent among the temples represented were Shri Adyakatyayani Shakti Peeth, Chhatarpur (Delhi), Shri Swaminarayan Temple (Delhi), Shri Durgyana Temple, Amritsar (Punjab), Shri Akhand Paramdham (Delhi), Shri Balaji Temple, Chiklur (Andhra Pradesh), Shri Jwaladham Shaktipeeth, Umaria (Madhya Pradesh), Shri Dudheshwar Nath Math Mandir, Ghaziabad (Uttar Pradesh), Shri Valmiki Mandir (Delhi), Shri Sidhpeeth Hanuman Mandir (Delhi), Shri Shamlaji Vishnu Mandir, Banaskantha (Gujarat), Shri Durgadevi Devsthan, Nagpur (Maharashtra), Shri Mahavir Mandir, Patna (Bihar), Devitipally, Mahaboobnagar (Andhra Pradesh), etc.

Addressing the delegates, Shri Ashok Singhal further said temples are only money making machines for the government while for the Hindus they are the foundation of preserving and promoting the Hindu culture and samskars. “This work cannot be done by governments. The only social activity for the government is opening schools or dispensaries. But there are more than 50 kinds of other activities also that have to be carried out by the temple like pujari training, providing Hindu samskars, cow protection, etc.,” he said adding that it is need of the hour that arrangements in the temples should be in perfect shape. For this objective, it is necessary that the executive bodies of the various temples should be in touch with each other and this work should be done under a particular banner. He pointed out that this work is going on smoothly in many counties outside India.

He said a big conference of various Hindu temples of America will be organised in USA from August 17-18. The objective of the conference is to strengthen and uphold the traditional standards of worship in Mandirs, involve and integrate youth to the temples, create leadership continuity to achieve Hindu unity, create a support network for all temples, and support the World Hindu Congress to be organised in India in 2014.

Speaking at the inaugural session, Shri Dinesh Chandra warned the governments which are spending temple money on non-Hindu activities. Describing it an onslaught on the Hindu society, he said it would not be tolerated at all. He also warned that if the government did not reconsider its policy of taking over the Hindu temples, the Hindu society would not sit silent. At the same time he stressed the need to make the temples the centre of various social awakening activities. “Temples have been the prime centre of our social samskars. They also played a key role in educating the Hindu society on various vital issues. This work should continue,” he added.

Swami Raghwanand said the saints, literature and temples are the symbol of Hindu identity and all these are on the target of alien forces. He called upon the Hindu society to come forward for protection of all these three things.

Shri Sondara Rajan of Balaji Temple, Chiklur, described the government control on temples as a cancer, which needs immediate surgery. He said the secular governments are bent upon destroying the Hindu temples, which should not be tolerated. He said the priority of the charitable activities to be started on behalf of the temples has to be decided by the Hindu society keeping in view the needs of the society and it cannot be left at the whims and fancies of the government officials. “There are thousands of temples in the country which need renovation. But this work cannot be expected from the government officials who are managing some of the temples. Similarly, the gousewa, is another prominent task which has to be taken up by the temples. But we cannot expect it too from the governments. Opening health centre of schools can be a priority for the government, but there are so many other priorities which are of utmost prominence for the Hindus,” he said.

Shri YD Venkat from Adi Katyayani Shaktipeeth appreciated the move to create a platform of the coordination among the temples. He said the government move to take over the temples has to be opposed tooth and nail by the entire Hindu society.

In the beginning, chairman of the Badri Bhagat Jhandewala Temple society Shri Navin Kapur formally welcomed all the temple executives and hoped that the conference would prove a mile stone in protecting the temples from the government evil eye and also enhancing the temple administration.

In the last session, the conference unanimously adopted a resolution declaring the formation of a national body called the Akhil Bharatiya Mandir Prabandhak Parishad to make the temples autonomous centres of worship, spiritual fulfillment and social services devoid of any sort of governmental control.

“The Akhil Bharatiya Mandir Prabandhak Parishad will be a friend, philosopher and guide to cooperate and coordinate to make each and every Mandir to be fully independent, sovereign, autonomous, self-reliant and self-sufficient in dispensing spiritual, religious, national, social and cultural, etc. responsibilities of the Hindu society and to be fully free from all kinds of governmental control in their establishment, functioning, development and administration. The Parishad will strive ardently to achieve the goal of preservation of Mandirs by making them totally immune from the perils of commercialisation and politicisation and also from the deviant attitude and improve competency of the pujaris and other karmacharis,” the resolution said.

According to the resolution, the proposed Akhil Bharatiya Mandir Prabandhak Parishad would work to make the temples a confluence of social service activity in the sectors of education, health, employment, empowerment of women and children, create social harmony, eradication of social evil, environmental protection, housing, feeding of the poor etc. “The Parishad will start Refresher Courses for education, training and enlightenment of pujaris and archakas and all others vested with the rights and duties of performance of ritual and other aspects of the inner discipline of Mandir with the aim of enhancing the knowledge and understanding of the scriptures, mantras, tantras, etc. It will also cooperate in highlighting and disseminating the recent trends of government decontrol in the southern states by amending the relevant legislation and thereby recognising the autonomy of the temple which can be an eye-opener and a deterrent to the state governments in other parts of the country and to the Central Government as such,” the resolution added.

According to Shri Umashankar Sharma, Akhil Bharatiya Math Mandir Pramukh of Vishwa Hindu Parishad, only the temples which are managed by the society through various trusts, etc. would be part of the proposed Parishad and those temples which are being managed by various Mahants Akharas or the government agencies would not join the Parishad. He said the executive committee and the team of office bearers of the proposed Parishad would be announced shortly after consultation with the member temple bodies.

Krishna urges Pakistan to protect minorities

External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna on Wednesday appealed to Pakistan to protect the constitutional rights of its minorities by ensuring their safety, security and wellbeing.

He hoped that Islamabad would discharge its constitutional duties towards its minority communities in view of the purely humanitarian nature of this issue.

The Minister was making a statement in the Lok Sabha regarding the alleged ill-treatment of Hindus — particularly women — in Pakistan, an issue that was raised by senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader Murli Manohar Joshi on May 2 in the House.

He said though the 1972 India-Pakistan Shimla Agreement specifically provided for non-interference in each other's internal affairs, “nevertheless, based on the reports of persecution of minority groups in Pakistan, India has taken up the matter with Pakistan in the past.” Pakistan had said that it was fully cognisant of the situation and looked after the welfare of all its citizens, particularly the minorities.

Recently, in separate incidents, three Hindu girls in the Sindh province had reportedly been abducted and married against their will to Muslim men, after being forcefully converted to Islam, the Minister said and referred to a Pakistan government press release which had stated that the Pakistan President had taken serious note of the reports of the kidnapping of a Hindu girl from Mirpur Mathelo in Sindh and alleged forceful conversion.

The Pakistan President had called for a report from the provincial government. “The President also called for transparent and expeditious investigations in the matter and to take action in accordance with the law regardless of the influence and status of anyone involved in criminal activity,” Mr. Krishna said, quoting from the release.

In November 2011, on the killing of three Hindu doctors in Sindh, the President of Pakistan had called for a report on the incident and directed immediate arrest of the culprits. He had said it was the moral and legal responsibility of the government to protect members of the minority community against vandalism and atrocities.

Mr. Krishna said that while speaking on the occasion of Minorities' Day in Pakistan, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani had, in August 2011, said: “Unfortunately some extremist elements with a view to advancing their own narrow and bigoted agendas have targeted the minorities. The government, however, stands fully committed to foiling the designs of these extremist elements. The perpetrators of crimes against the minority community anywhere in Pakistan must be brought to justice and they will be.”

Keywords: Pakistan miniority freedom, Pakistan Hindus, Krishna's appeal

The Congressional Constitutional Committee will consider the request of Imran Firasat to ban the Koran in Spain

By

Laxman Bhawsinghka laxmanbhawsinghka@gmail.com

Imran Firasat, a Pakistani national with legal residence in Spain as a political refugee, has accomplished what at first seemed impossible: his petition to ban the Koran in Spain will be discussed in the Constitutional Committee of the Spanish Congress, as shown by the document displayed above, which is reproduced exclusively here at the Minuto Digital website.

A few weeks ago Imran handed over a formal document to the Ministry of the Presidency, the Congress of Representatives, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of the Interior, in which he presented 10 points to back his request:

1. The Quran is not a sacred and religious book, but a violent book, full of hatred and discrimination.

 

2. The Quran is a horrible book which provokes a community it calls Muslims to undertake Jihad, kill innocent people and destroy the peace of the world.

 

3. The Quran is responsible for all the terrorism we have seen in recent years in which thousands of people lost their lives.

 

4. The Quran is a book which contains evil teachings and forces its believers to capture the entire world and total power at any price.

 

5. The Quran is a book which legally permits and incites hatred and violence, and for that reason it is not compatible with the modern world, including Spain.

 

6. The Quran is a book which directly discriminates between human beings.

 

7. The Quran is a book which does not allow either freedom of expression or religious freedom.

 

8. The Quran is a book which causes women to suffer and be tortured through the totality of its injustice and macho laws.

 

9. The Quran is a book which, rather than teaching unity, teaches disunity, and in this way does not allow its believers to form friendships with those who are not Muslims, because in the eyes of Quran they are infidels.

 

10. The Quran is a major threat to the free society of Spain. A book which clearly preaches the messages of jihad, killing, hate, discrimination and revenge. For that reason it cannot be compatible with the Spanish system in any sense. It is a book totally contrary to what the law and constitution of Spain say, and it incites hatred and violence in our countr

Slay the idolaters wherever you find them.
Original: فَإِذَا انسَلَخَ الأَشْهُرُالْحُرُمُفَاقْتُلُواْ الْمُشْرِكِينَ حَيْثُ وَجَدتُّمُوهُمْ وَخُذُوهُمْ وَاحْصُرُوهُمْوَاقْعُدُواْ لَهُمْ كُلَّ مَرْصَدٍ فَإِن تَابُواْ وَأَقَامُواْ الصَّلاَةَوَآتَوُاْ الزَّكَاةَ فَخَلُّواْ سَبِيلَهُمْ إِنَّ اللّهَ غَفُورٌ رَّحِيمٌ

The Qur'an (القرآن), Sura 9:5
Christians and Jews are perverse. Allah himself fights against them.
Original: وَقَالَتِ الْيَهُودُ عُزَيْرٌ ابْنُ اللّهِ وَقَالَتْ النَّصَارَىالْمَسِيحُ ابْنُ اللّهِ ذَلِكَ قَوْلُهُم بِأَفْوَاهِهِمْيُضَاهِؤُونَ قَوْلَ الَّذِينَ كَفَرُواْ مِن قَبْلُ قَاتَلَهُمُاللّهُ أَنَّى يُؤْفَكُونَ

The Qur'an (القرآن), Sura 9:30
Those who oppose Allah and His messenger will burn in the fire of hell.
Original: أَلَمْ يَعْلَمُواْ أَنَّهُمَن يُحَادِدِ اللّهَ وَرَسُولَهُ فَأَنَّ لَهُ نَارَ جَهَنَّمَ خَالِداً فِيهَاذَلِكَ الْخِزْيُ الْعَظِيمُ

The Qur'an (القرآن), Sura 9:63

Fight the disbelievers and hypocrites. Be harsh with them. They are all going to hell anyway.
Original: يَا أَيُّهَا النَّبِيُّ جَاهِدِ الْكُفَّارَ وَالْمُنَافِقِينَ وَاغْلُظْ عَلَيْهِمْوَمَأْوَاهُمْ جَهَنَّمُ وَبِئْسَ الْمَصِيرُ

The Qur'an (القرآن), Sura 9:73

Christians are disbelievers for believing in the divinity of Christ.
Original: لَّقَدْ كَفَرَ الَّذِينَ قَآلُواْ إِنَّ اللّهَ هُوَ الْمَسِيحُابْنُ مَرْيَمَ قُلْ فَمَن يَمْلِكُ مِنَ اللّهِ شَيْئاً إِنْ أَرَادَأَن يُهْلِكَ الْمَسِيحَ ابْنَ مَرْيَمَ وَأُمَّهُ وَمَن فِيالأَرْضِ جَمِيعاً وَلِلّهِ مُلْكُ السَّمَاوَاتِ وَالأَرْضِوَمَا بَيْنَهُمَا يَخْلُقُ مَا يَشَاءُ وَاللّهُ عَلَى كُلِّ شَيْءٍ قَدِيرٌ

The Qur'an (القرآن), Sura 5:17

Disbelievers will have a painful doom.
Original: إِنَّ الَّذِينَ كَفَرُواْ لَوْ أَنَّلَهُم مَّا فِي الأَرْضِ جَمِيعاً وَمِثْلَهُ مَعَهُ لِيَفْتَدُواْ بِهِ مِنْعَذَابِ يَوْمِ الْقِيَامَةِ مَا تُقُبِّلَ مِنْهُمْ وَلَهُمْ عَذَابٌ أَلِيمٌ

The Qur'an (القرآن), Sura 5:36

Those who make war with Allah and his messenger will be killed or crucified, or have their hands and feet on alternate sides cut off, or will be expelled out of the land. That is how they will be treated in this world, and in the next they will have an awful doom.
Original: إِنَّمَاجَزَاء الَّذِينَ يُحَارِبُونَ اللّهَ وَرَسُولَهُ وَيَسْعَوْنَ فِي الأَرْضِفَسَاداً أَن يُقَتَّلُواْ أَوْ يُصَلَّبُواْ أَوْ تُقَطَّعَ أَيْدِيهِمْوَأَرْجُلُهُم مِّنْ خِلافٍ أَوْ يُنفَوْاْ مِنَ الأَرْضِ ذَلِكَلَهُمْ خِزْيٌ فِي الدُّنْيَا وَلَهُمْ فِي الآخِرَةِ عَذَابٌ عَظِيمٌ

The Qur'an (القرآن), Sura 5:33

Disbelievers will want to come out of the Fire, but will not. Their will be a lasting doom.
Original: يُرِيدُونَ أَن يَخْرُجُواْ مِنَ النَّارِ وَمَا هُم بِخَارِجِينَ مِنْهَاوَلَهُمْ عَذَابٌ مُّقِيمٌ

The Qur'an (القرآن), Sura 5:37

The Qur'an (القرآن), Sura 5:45

Jews and Christians are evil-livers.
Original: قُلْ يَا أَهْلَ الْكِتَابِ هَلْ تَنقِمُونَ مِنَّا إِلاَّأَنْ آمَنَّابِاللّهِ وَمَا أُنزِلَ إِلَيْنَا وَمَا أُنزِلَ مِن قَبْلُ وَأَنَّ أَكْثَرَكُمْفَاسِقُونَ

The Qur'an (القرآن), Sura 5:59

Christians will be burned in the Fire. Original: لَقَدْ كَفَرَ الَّذِينَ قَالُواْ إِنَّ اللّهَ هُوَالْمَسِيحُ ابْنُ مَرْيَمَ وَقَالَ الْمَسِيحُ يَا بَنِي إِسْرَائِيلَ اعْبُدُواْاللّهَ رَبِّي وَرَبَّكُمْ إِنَّهُ مَن يُشْرِكْ بِاللّهِ فَقَدْ حَرَّمَ اللّهُعَلَيهِالْجَنَّةَ وَمَأْوَاهُ النَّارُ وَمَا لِلظَّالِمِينَ مِنْ أَنصَارٍ

The Qur'an (القرآن), Sura 5:72

Muslims that make friends with disbelievers will face a doom prepared for them by Allah.
Original: تَرَى كَثِيراً مِّنْهُمْيَتَوَلَّوْنَ الَّذِينَ كَفَرُواْ لَبِئْسَ مَا قَدَّمَتْ لَهُمْ أَنفُسُهُمْأَن سَخِطَ اللّهُ عَلَيْهِمْ وَفِي الْعَذَابِ هُمْ خَالِدُونَ

The Qur'an (القرآن), Sura 5:80

Disbelievers will be owners of hell-fire.
Original: وَالَّذِينَ كَفَرُواْ وَكَذَّبُواْبِآيَاتِنَا أُوْلَـئِكَ أَصْحَابُ الْجَحِيمِ

The Qur'an (القرآن), Sura 5:86

Those who disbelieve will be forced to drink boiling water, and will face a painful doom.
Original: وَذَرِ الَّذِينَ اتَّخَذُواْدِينَهُمْ لَعِباً وَلَهْواً وَغَرَّتْهُمُ الْحَيَاةُ الدُّنْيَا وَذَكِّرْ بِهِأَن تُبْسَلَ نَفْسٌ بِمَا كَسَبَتْ لَيْسَ لَهَا مِن دُونِ اللّهِ وَلِيٌّوَلاَ شَفِيعٌ وَإِن تَعْدِلْ كُلَّ عَدْلٍ لاَّ يُؤْخَذْ مِنْهَا أُوْلَـئِكَالَّذِينَ أُبْسِلُواْ بِمَا كَسَبُواْ لَهُمْ شَرَابٌ مِّنْ حَمِيمٍ وَعَذَابٌأَلِيمٌ بِمَا كَانُواْ يَكْفُرُونَ

The Qur'an (القرآن), Sura 6:70

Laxman Bhawsinghka laxmanbhawsinghka@gmail.com

 

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The austerity of the affluent

P. Sainath

A rural Indian spending Rs. 22.50 a day would not be considered poor by a Planning Commission whose Deputy Chairman's foreign trips between May and October last year cost a daily average of Rs. 2.02 lakh

Pranab Mukherjee's stirring call for austerity tugs at the national tear ducts. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has pleaded for it in the past and watched his flock embrace it creatively. With the Finance Ministry even acting on Dr. Singh's call in 2009 (economy class air travel, spending cuts), we are now in the fourth year of our noble quest.

There are, of course, several kinds of austerity. My pick would be the variety practised by Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia. No one can challenge Dr. Ahluwalia's commitment to austerity. Look at the way he's stood up to the populist demand for a poverty line that makes sense. No pampering people here. Spend Rs. 29 a day in urban India or Rs. 23 in rural India and you are not poor. He's even asked the Supreme Court to uphold the imposition of such rigour on hundreds of millions of his fellow citizens. One affidavit filed by the Planning Commission defended a line of Rs. 32 (urban) and Rs. 26 (rural) a day. Since then, the Padma Vibhushan awardee and some of his colleagues have stuck their necks out to lower that further.

RTI queries

That Dr. Ahluwalia practises austerity himself is evident from two RTI queries. Both fine examples of RTI-based journalism, but failing to get the attention they deserved. Both exploring the anatomy of his austerity. One was a story in India Today (covering Dr. Ahluwalia's foreign trips between June 2004 and January 2011) by Shyamlal Yadav. This journalist (now with The Indian Express), has done outstanding RTI-based stories in the past as well.

The other, in February this year, came from The Statesman News Service (reporter unnamed). This one took out details on Dr. Ahluwalia's global forays between May and October 2011. In that period, he undertook “four trips covering 18 nights [which] cost the exchequer a sum of Rs. 36,40,140, an average cost of Rs 2.02 lakh a day,” says the SNS report.

At the time this happened, that Rs. 2.02 lakh would have been worth $4,000 a day. (Gee! Lucky for us Montek was into austerity. Imagine what his expenditure might have been otherwise). That is a daily spend almost 9,000 times greater than the 45 cents cut-off point at which rural Indians would be doing okay, in his view. Or over 7,000 times greater than the 55 cents cut-off point for urban Indians that Dr. Ahluwalia would find “normatively adequate.”

Now his spend of Rs. 3.6 million (or $72,000) in 18 days might well have been his personal stimulus to global tourism in that year. After all, the industry in 2010 was still recovering from the ravages of 2008-09, as the United Nations World Tourism Organisation points out. The U.N. agency found, on the other hand, that 2011 saw global travel revenues cross $1 trillion. The largest revenue increases were seen in the U.S. and Europe (where most of those 18 days were spent). The Indian public can rejoice over its money playing a humble part in that recovery even while scorched by austerity at home.

The stats from the Shyamlal Yadav's RTI are fascinating. To begin with, his findings show Dr. Ahluwalia made 42 official foreign trips and spent 274 days overseas during a seven-year tenure. That is “one in every nine days” abroad. And that's excluding travel days. The India Today story found that his excursions cost the exchequer Rs.2.34 crore. However, it points out that they received three different estimates of the costs of his trips and charitably went with the lowest. Also, said the India Today story, “it is not clear whether the figures include the expenses incurred by Indian embassies abroad on frills such as hiring limousines. The actual costs could be a lot higher.”

Since the post he holds does not require so much foreign travel — all of it done, though, with “the permission of the Prime Minister” — this is puzzling. That 23 of the 42 trips were to the U.S., which does not believe in planning (but then, perhaps, neither does Dr. Ahluwalia), is even more puzzling. What were these trips about? Spreading global awareness on austerity? If so, we'll have to spend more on his travel: look at those revolting Greeks killing the Cause on the streets of Athens. And even more on his trips to the U.S. where the austerity of the affluent is striking. CEOs in that country took home billions in bonuses even in 2008, the year Wall Street tanked the global economy. This year, even the media journals of the super-rich in the U.S. write about CEOs destroying their companies, jobs and more — and gaining personally from it. Millions of Americans, including many who suffered home mortgage foreclosures, saw a different kind of austerity. The kind the French increasingly fear and have voted against.

When Dr. Singh pleaded for austerity in 2009, his Cabinet rose handsomely to the call. Each member added a modest million rupees a month thereafter, on average, to his or her assets over the next 27 months. All the while, hard at work as Ministers. (“The Union Cabinet gets healthier,” The Hindu, September 21, 2011). Praful Patel excelled, adding on average, half-a-million rupees to his assets every 24 hours in that period. Workers in Air India, under a Ministry he headed much of that time, struggled to get their salaries for weeks on end. Now with Pranab cracking the whip, there'll be even more austerity going around.

Note the bipartisan spirit of this austerity: in the past few years, Praful Patel (UPA-NCP) and Nitin Gadkari (NDA-BJP) have hosted two of the costliest weddings ever, with far more guests than seen at any IPL final. Gender-balanced Spartanism, too. That was for Mr. Patel's daughter and Mr. Gadkari's son.

Their corporate counterparts take it further. Mukesh Ambani with his 27-floor (but higher than 50 storeys) costliest residence in living memory. And Vijay Mallya — whose employees in Kingfisher struggle for their salaries — who tweeted on May 5: “Having dinner at Atmosphere on the 123rd floor of the Burj Khalifa in Dubai. Never been so high up in my life. Awesome view.” That's probably higher than Kingfisher is flying right now. Both own teams in the IPL. Which body has received public subsidies (by way of entertainment tax waivers, for example). That is, until the matter went to the Bombay High Court. There are other public-funded austerities linked to the IPL — watch this space.

Wall Street model

The corporate world here generally follows the austerity model of Wall Street. There, nine banks including Citigroup and Merrill Lynch “paid $32.6 billion in bonuses in 2008, while receiving $175 billion in taxpayers funds,” reported Bloomberg in 2009. It quoted New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo's report on the subject: “When the banks did well, their employees were paid well. When the banks did poorly, their employees were paid well. When the banks did very poorly, they were bailed out by taxpayers and their employees were still paid well. Bonuses and overall compensation did not vary significantly as profits diminished.”

Note that Pranab's austerity prayer last week saw the soothsayers of the super-rich raging on TV that the deficit was all due to “one populist measure after another.” That is, stupid things like trying to give people work, reduce hunger or send children to school. No mention of the Plutocrat Populism which saw about Rs. 5 lakh crore (roughly $100 billion at the time) being gifted mostly to the rich and the corporate classes by the same Pranab budget in concessions on Corporate Tax, Excise and Customs Duties. (See “To fix BPL, nix CPL,” The Hindu, March 26, 2012). Sitaram Yechury pointed out in Parliament that these write-offs for the super-rich exceeded the fiscal deficit by Rs. 8,000 crore. But it is the ‘populist measures' aimed at the poor that get panned.

Amartya Sen (The Hindu, Jan. 7, 2012) ruefully asks “why there is hardly any media discussion about other revenue-involving problems, such as the exemption of diamond and gold from customs duty, which, according to the Ministry of Finance, involves a loss of a much larger amount of revenue (Rs.50,000 crore per year) than the additional cost involved in the Food Security Bill (Rs.27,000 crore).”

Indians outside the charmed circle of the meritorious know a different austerity. Food inflation in double digits. Vegetable prices rising 60 per cent in a year. Child malnourishment double that of sub-Saharan Africa. Families cutting back sharply on milk and essentials. Massive increases in health costs bankrupting millions. Farmers unable to afford inputs or access credit. A drinking water scarcity for many, as more and more of that life-giving substance gets diverted for other purposes. How much nicer to practise the austerity of the elite.

WILL SOCIAL MEDIA BREAK THE NEXT SCAM, TRUMPING TV AND PRINT?

WILL SOCIAL MEDIA BREAK THE NEXT SCAM, TRUMPING TV AND PRINT?

May 5, 2012
By R Vaidyanathan

A Lok Sabha member of Parliament, Meenakshi Natarajan, was to introduce the Print and Electronic Media Standards and Regulations Bill 2012.The bill provides, among others things, for a regulatory authority with sweeping powers, including powers to ban or suspend coverage of an event or incident that may pose a threat to national security from foreign or internal sources. It even provides for a fine of up to Rs 50 lakh, suspension of a media organisation’s licence for up to 11 months and cancellation in some cases.
Natarajan, a first-time MP representing Mandsaur in Madhya Pradesh, is an All-India Congress Committee secretary and a member of Rahul Gandhi‘s core team of youth leaders. The bill, incidentally, was not introduced since she was absent on the day it was taken up. “The bill was based on her (Natarajan’s) views.  These are not the views of Rahul Gandhi. Neither are these his views or nor has she got his consent to this bill,” Congress General Secretary Janardhan Dwivedi said.

Courtesy: Getty Images
Earlier, Press Council of India Chairperson, former Supreme Court Justice Markandey Katju, called for regulating social media, saying it would prevent unpleasant material from making it into the public domain. “Social media like Facebook and Google need to be regulated as a lot of dirty and filthy material is available on these sites and these affect the minds of the younger generation,” Katju said during an interaction with women journalists at the Indian Women Press Corps. Katju also supported some kind of regulation for media, and especially electronic media.
“Everybody should have self-regulation. I was scared when I was the high court judge that if I took a bribe I would be impeached by Parliament. A lawyer’s licence can be cancelled by the Bar Council of India and similarly a doctor’s licence can be cancelled by the Medical Council of India for any medical negligence. So everybody is accountable except the media, especially the electronic media. They say we will have self-regulation. Then everybody should have self-regulation, why should there be laws? The very fact that you have laws is that society realises that self-regulation is not all that sufficient. There should be some fear among media,” he said (Read here).
According to Katju, Indian media has been playing a very irresponsible role. “I am not against the media and fight for their rights as nobody else would have. I am not calling for controlling media but regulating them. Maybe a separate committee should be constituted and the media fraternity should be a part of framing its guidelines,” he said.


In the eighties, it was the print media which was in the forefront of exposing corruption and other misdeeds of government and political leaders. But by the beginning of this century TV has overtaken print media in terms of “Breaking News” – whether it is the Adarsh scam or Commonwealth Games or the 2G spectrum scandal. TV as a medium has become the main stream. The print media is struggling to function as a pure news media since TV pre-empts it the previous night. Printed newspapers are thus trying to focus on analysis and backgrounders to stories. TV is focusing on combining views and news bundled into one.
But a significant change has come about with the advent of social media such as Twitter and Facebook. They have captured the imagination of youth, especially since they are fully democratic – with no owner or editorial control. In print and mainstream media, owners appoint editors who vet the news and views to be published. So is the case with TV media.
But in the social media everybody has an equal chance and all are kings and the speed of dissemination is unbelievable. It is not constrained by a sense of controlled partisanship or private agenda because for every viewpoint there are 100 counterviews.
There is a general perception that the print and electronic media are run by Left liberals in our country who do not provide opportunities for other views to surface. This could be due the fact that most of the journalists have been brought up in the Nehruvian tradition of Left liberalism and the Columbia School of Journalism. Even the local journalism schools encourage such points of view. Many an editor has come out of these schools of journalism. So, to that extent, Right-wingers, both of the economic and religious varieties, have found the social media to be an effective tool to counter the perceived Left liberal  print and TV medium bias.
Since they are not bothered about being “insiders” or “consensus builders” and they are unpaid part-timers, they focus sharply on the rightist point of view. They also are in the forefront to expose wrongdoing by the ruling establishment.
Two recent examples highlight their success and provide clues to the shape of things to come.
For instance, when the Abhishek Manu Singhvi (AMS) CD hit the social media they circulated it far and wide. In Twitter jargon, AMS was “trending” for many days. This made the case not only popular but also difficult to be ignored. The issue was his alleged sexual dalliance with a middle-aged lawyer in his chambers during day-time and the insinuation is that he promised to help make her a judge. His driver, who was allegedly unhappy with him, was supposed to have made the recording.
The video was removed from some locations on Youtube, but enterprising persons managed to put it in several different locations, some which can be censored and some which were not easily amenable to censorship for technological reasons. The Delhi High Court had given an injunction based on AMS’s petition. But neither the court nor government had the wherewithal to prevent the videos from being distributed globally.
The TV channels, by and large, were silent, and, by doing that, they actually worsened the situation for Singhvi. It was perceived that the mainstream media protects the high and mighty, particularly if they belong to the “narrow elite” of Delhi compared to, say, small town leaders.  Both TV and print media were suddenly talking about privacy and consenting adults.
But social media quoted the Swami Nithyananda case and argued that you cannot have different yardsticks for different individuals. It was reasoned that Nityananda was a private individual while AMS was not. Actually AMS was chairman of the standing committee of Parliament and spokesperson for the ruling party. When the mainstream media published his denials and his version of the story, it increased the curiosity of the average reader/viewer. The advantage of social media is that it has millions of writers who are also editors unlike mainstream media, where a bunch of senior editors try to decide what is good for their readers/viewers.

Another important case is the supposed “land grab” by the present president in constructing a palatial residence in Pune for constructing a post-retirement home. As the supreme commander of the armed forces, Pratibha Patil was perceived as misusing her position since the said land was meant to be used by army personnel. The issue was first exposed by Vinita Deshmukh, a staff of MoneyLife (a financial journal from Mumbai) and soon Twitter carried it far and wide.

It appears that the president tried to influence army officers in Pune through some influential people, but even that was highlighted by the social media. In this entire episode, mainstream media was circumspect, as in the case of the AMS videos. The mainstream carried largely denials from the office of the president. The denizens of social media saw this as yet another example of mainstream media not taking up substantive issues involving the powerful elite. When the president finally announced that she would be giving up the Pune residential plans, it was, in a sense, a victory for social media.


So it seems that we are moving from the print era to TV and social media. Social media may not be powerful enough to move voters, but it is already able to take on the powerful. It is interesting to observe that social media participants always ask about sources and verification before jumping to conclusions, With the Right to Information (RTI) Act available in India, social media may begin to get their own feeds using RTI.
In other words they need not get news only from print or electronic media. They are not controlled by business houses or by political parties. In other words, we are entering an interesting era of millions of editors in cyberspace, unpaid and driven by agendas that also include the social good. These social media participants are slowly turning out to be unpaid guardians of our Republic.
Of course, there is talk of regulating or controlling the social media – like Justice Katju wants. It is also interesting to note that he was on Twitter for a short period, but has since wound up his account. Those who talk of controlling the social media know not what they are talking about both from a technological point of view and from the intellectual evolution point of view. It is actually real power in the hands of the middle class captured from the narrow ownership-driven agendas of the elite.
So don’t be surprised if the next major scam is exposed by the social media rather than the mainstream media.
R Vaidyanathan is professor at the Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore. Views are personal 

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Anti Modi Campaigning is planned by Teesta with Sanjiv Bhatt...

Ahmedabad, 9 May 2012

In a shocking revelation, the Special Investigation Team(SIT) report on Gujarat riots says that Times of India journalist Manoj Mitta was instrumental in arranging/drafting of the (anti-Modi)affidavit filed by Sanjiv Bhatt in the Supreme Court. The SIT report clearly mentions that Sanjiv Bhatt first sent a draft of his proposed affidavit to Manoj Mitta who later advised Bhatt to add a few more paras drafted by him. Bhatt added those apras in his final affidavit as suggested by Mitta.

The SIT report says: That Ms. Teesta Setalwad, her lawyer Shri Mihir Desai and Journalist Shri Manoj Mitta of Times of India were in constant touch with Shri Sanjiv Bhatt, IPS and were instrumental in arranging / drafting of the affidavit for filing the same in honerable Supreme court. Vide email dated 10-4-2011, Shri Bhatt solicited “Co-ordinates” from Ms. Teesta Setalwad, who had also arranged for a meeting with her lawyer Shri Mihir Desai at Ellis bridge Gymkhana, Ahmedabad. Shri Sanjiv Bhatt sent the first draft of his proposed affidavit to Shri Manoj Mitta on 13-4-2011, after meeting Shri Mihir Desai, Advocate and invited his suggestions. Shri Manoj Mitta advised Shri Sanjiv Bhatt to incorporate a few more paragraphs drafted by him which were incorporated by Shri Sanjiv Bhatt in his final affidavit sent to honorable Supreme Court of India as suggested by Shri Mitta. (In photo:Shri Manoj Mitta)

तिब्बत की स्वतंत्रता से जुडी हुई है भारत की सुरक्षा

कटक । जब तक तिब्बत स्वतंत्र नहीं होगा तब तक भारत का उत्तरी सीमांत असुरक्षित रहेगा । इसलिए तिब्बत की स्वतंत्रता भारत की सुरक्षा से जुडी हुई है । भारत- तिब्बत सहयोग मंच के राष्ट्रीय कार्यकारी अध्यक्ष डा कुलदीप चन्द अग्निहोत्री ने यह बात यहां शताब्दी भवन में आयोजित एक कार्यक्रम में कही । भारत तिब्बत सहयोग मंच के ओडिशा इकाई द्वारा यह कार्यक्रम आयोजित किया गया था ।

डा अग्निहोत्री ने कहा कि देश के प्रथम प्रधानमंत्री पंडित नेहरु के अदुरदर्शी नीति के कारण तिब्बत की समस्या उत्पन्न हुई और चीन ने तिब्बत को निगलने के बाद 1962 में भारत पर हमला कर दिया और हजारों वर्ग मील भारतीय जमीन चीन की कब्जे में चला गया है । इस भूमि को वापस लेने के लिए संसद ने संकल्प प्रस्ताव पारित किया है लेकिन दुर्भाग्य से इसके लिए कोई प्रयास नहीं हो रहे हैं । उन्होंने कहा कि भारत का शक्तिशाली बनने से ही हम अपनी जमीन वापस ले सकेंगे और तिब्बत स्वतंत्र हो सकेगा।

कार्यक्रम में पूर्व केन्द्रीय मंत्री ब्रज किशोर त्रिपाठी ने कहा कि तिब्बत को भारत सरकार समर्थन करना चाहिए और भारत की विदेश नीति में परिवर्तन किये जाने चाहिए ।

कार्यक्रम में सम्मानित अतिथि पूर्व सांसद एम.ए. खारबेल स्वाईं ने कहा कि चीन भारत का कभी दोस्त नहीं हो सकता । इसलिए हम चीन से संबंध सुधारने के लिए जितने भी प्रयास करें, उसका लाभ नहीं होगा । उन्होंने कहा कि तिब्बत के संबंध में भारत की विदेश नीति में खामियां है तथा इसमें परिवर्तन की आवश्यकता है । कार्यक्रम की अध्यक्षता करते हुए विशिष्ट शिक्षाविद डा. नारायण महांति ने कहा कि तिब्बत के मुद्दे पर जन जागरण किये जाने की आवश्यकता है । कार्यक्रम में स्वागत भाषण दीपक कुमार महांत ने किया जबकि सभा का संचालन गौरी शंकर साहु ने किया ।