FEAR OF NON EXISTENT UNKNOWN :ONE YEAR OF MODI NINE FEATURES THAT DEFINE THE ' NEW NORMAL ' FOR MUSLIMS

SOURCE :
http://www.msn.com/en-in/news/national/one-year-of-modi-9-features-that-define-the-new-normal-for-muslims/ar-BBjYSn7


          







             FEAR  OF  NON EXISTENT 

                           UNKNOWN 




                       PART ONE OF TWO


             :ONE YEAR OF MODI 

- NINE FEATURES THAT DEFINE THE
     ' NEW NORMAL ' FOR MUSLIMS
                                 BY 
                         Ajaz Ashraf  

 

 

© Provided by Firstpost

In the scorching month of May 2014, the Muslims of India slipped into a dark mood of pessimism at the prospect of living under a BJP government swept into office with a decisive majority.

 

Over the course of the year, that somber mood has since been dispelled. This is not because the NDA-II has proved to be a different kettle of fish, but because Muslims have adjusted to what can be called the New Normal. This is the condition in which it is considered normal to have anxieties and fears triggered by political developments - and pessimism, to a degree, is deemed realistic.

To understand the New Normal, we need to rewind to May 2014.

When Modi ascended to office, Muslims feared they would be besieged by the Hindutva forces, which would bring to the front-burner the contentious Ram Temple and the Uniform Civil Code issues. Worse, it was thought Narendra Modi would trigger minor tsunamis to sweep the BJP into power in states where Assembly elections were due. To have a BJP government at the Centre and also in the states seemed akin to Muslims being caught in a pair of red-hot tongs.

 

 

MORE: Full coverage of Modi's one year in office as prime minister

 

 

Looking back some of the fears haven't thankfully materialized; for example, widespread riots haven't broken out. But it doesn't mean nothing has changed. For the religious minorities, life under the Modi government can be considered 'normal' only because the very definition of the word has been altered.

 

This New Normal has 10 distinct features.

Feature No. 1 of the New Normal is the absence of major rioting - this descriptor doesn't apply even to last year's communal conflagration in Saharanpur, Uttar Pradesh, where three persons died, scored were injured, and curfew imposed for days. Yet Saharanpur pales in comparison to the horrors we Indians are capable of inflicting on each other.

Horrifying rioting may not happen under the New Normal, but the communal cauldron is constantly kept simmering, brought close to the boiling point every time there is an election around the corner. This began during the byelections in Uttar Pradesh and stopped following the Delhi Assembly polls.

Feature No. 2 of the New Normal pertains to the methods of keeping the communal cauldron on a slow simmer. Over the past year, Sangh Parivar has enhanced social tensions through divisive programmes such as love jihad and ghar wapsi.

An additional ploy is to raise communally charged non sequiturs to spark furious debates.

Sample just two of these - since Muslims and Christians drink from the same fount of culture, why can't they call themselves Muslim Hindus or Christian Hindus? Since most Muslims and Christians were either compelled or lured into leaving Hinduism, why can't they be brought back into its fold?

These debates on non sequiturs leave not only the minorities aghast, but also many who are counted as Hindus. TV, newspapers, digital sites remind the BJP that it was voted to power for ushering in good governance and development, not for tearing apart the social fabric. The media clamour conveys a sense of social instability, turning citizens and investors apprehensive of the future. Perhaps it also enables the moderates in the BJP to mount pressure on the hardliners to retreat.

This kicks in Feature No. 3 of the New Normal. Commmunal rhetoric no longer dominates, the anxieties and fears of minorities ebb, and life seems as normal as when non-BJP governments rule at the Centre. Call it 'extreme normalcy' - for it defies credulity, feels illusory, and always seems on the verge of disappearing.

The Sangh scripts extreme normalcy periodically to  allay the fears of Hindus opposed to Hindutva. The liberal-left and rightwing secular among them then begin to debate issues material, not cultural or religious, in nature.

Over the last two months the nation has witnessed extreme normalcy, manifest in the discussions, say, over the land ordinance. In the weeks of extreme normalcy under the New Normal, members of the minority often begin to speculate on its duration, whether it has been crafted only because there is no election around the corner.

For instance, many Muslims have already begun to predict that extreme normalcy will end as soon as Nitish Kumar and Lalu Yadav cobble together an electoral alliance. Should they fail to reach an agreement, the period of extreme normalcy may be extended, but it is guaranteed to end sometime next year, in preparation for the battle for Assam and West Bengal in 2016 and Uttar Pradesh in 2017.

Feature No. 4 of the New Normal is the political marginalization of Muslims, which underlines in turn the diminishing importance of their vote. As I had written after the Lok Sabha elections, "If you were to look at the results from just the narrow perspective of victory and defeat, Muslims have been effectively disenfranchised: for the first time in India's electoral history, the Lok Sabha election has been won without their contribution." And not a single Muslim was elected on the BJP ticket to the Assemblies of Haryana, Maharashtra, and Jharkhand - all three states where the BJP captured power in recent months.

As the Muslim vote becomes less key to electoral victory, Muslims and their sentiments are not taken into account in controversial policy decisions. Hence, the expansion of the ban on cow slaughter to include bulls and oxens, and rewriting of history books to portray the Mughals as despicable bigots Rewriting of history is aimed at communalizing the past for demonizing the Muslims in the present.

 

Feature No. 5 of the New Normal is establishment double-speak, where RSS pracharaks and the Prime Minister speak in conflicting voices, a trend which originated under NDA-I.

RSS supremo Mohan Bhagwat will conflate India with Hindus, extol the superiority of their culture, and tacitly exhort them to assert themselves over others, besides taking potshots at Mother Teresa and her like. By contrast, the Prime Minister will speak of the supremacy of the Constitution, assert an Indian citizen's right to profess and propagate his or her faith. Since Bhagwat only heads a self-proclaimed (and self-attested) cultural organisation, we are asked to place our faith in the Prime Minister's words.

Yet Modi didn't publicly admonish the Hindutva footsoldiers engaged in the ghar wapsi and love jihad programmes, or when the churches in Delhi were vandalized or desecrated before the Assembly elections there. His strategic silence gives lie to that Red Fort speech, made early in his tenure, which included an appeal to citizens to put a 10-year moratorium on caste and communal violence. Muslims would have preferred Modi to speak against the ideological basis of such violence instead of appealing for a moratorium.

However, the Delhi debacle prompted Modi to speak at a Church function about the "undeniable right" of people to "adopt or retain the religion" of their choice without coercion. Weeks later, he reiterated to Time magazine his government's intention to provide "total protection" to all communities.

Modi's interview to Time magazine, unwittingly, underscored

 

Feature No. 6 of the New Normal, when he said,

 "My Government will not tolerate or accept any discrimination based on caste, creed, and religion. So there is no place for imaginary apprehensions with regard to the rights of the minorities in India."

Thus, under the New Normal, Muslims' fear of the Hindutva projects are dismissed as plain paranoia. This also entails pumping journalists with statistics suggesting that the communal situation under Modi is the same as it was under his predecessor, Manmohan Singh. Genuine fears and anxieties of a community that can never be captured or communicated through the curvy lines of graphs are dismissed as baseless.

The severe drubbing the BJP received in Delhi has belatedly resulted in Feature No. 7 - that it is possible for minorities to hope for change under the New Normal. For one, it shattered Modi's aura of invincibility. Two, the Delhi debacle could prompt the BJP to rethink its strategy of Hindu consolidation. After all, its attempts to trigger communal tension didn't yield a rich harvest of votes for it.

Three, since there are no permanent majorities in democracy, Muslims and other minorities will stive to align with other segments of the electorate to vanquish the BJP. For instance, in the 2013 Assembly elections, the Congress bagged five out its eight seats from Muslim-dominated constituencies. All these five constituencies voted overwhelmingly in favour of AAP in Feb. In this sense, the New Normal is no longer about adjusting to the existing reality. It is also about striving to reconfigure it.

The Sangh's policy of menacing Muslims spawned the tendency among Muslim voters - who have largely chosen to vote mainstream non-BJP outfits since 1950 - to rally behind parties anchored in Muslim identity. This possibly explains the success of Asaduddin Owaisi's AIMIM in Maharashtra recently. It has been the factor behind Badruddin Ajmal's AIUDF in Assam performing extremely well. This trend is likely to be arrested byAAP's spectacular victory in Delhi.

 

 

 

Feature No. 8 of the New Normal pertains to periodic reminders to Muslims that there are issues other than threats to their religious-cultural identity. For instance, their own experience of agrarian distress is similar to that of Hindus; the fear of dispossession the land ordinance has triggered grips them as it does others as well.

This could become the basis for consolidation cutting across caste-religious divides. Under the New Normal, even as the Sangh presses on with the Hindutva issues, Muslims will therefore also feel the pull of the politics of interests. They will therefore feel the pressure of choosing between parties predominantly focussed on their religious insecurities and those more inclined to promoting material interests. Their choices will determine the electoral impact in rural areas having substantial Muslim peasantry - for instance, in west UP, which has become a veritable Hindutva laboratory. (Nor prescriptive any more, I hope)Feature 9 of the New Normal entails religious minorities keeping their fingers crossed in the hope communal relations don't deteriorate to the point where their anxieties and fears are enhanced beyond the current levels. For instance, that could happen in case the BJP launches a vigorous movement for building the Ram Temple in Ayodhya before the UP Assembly elections, as is widely feared; or roads having Muslim names are changed. That would, for sure, lead to redefining the New Normal. Watch this space next year.

 

(Ajaz Ashraf is a journalist from Delhi. His novel, The Hour Before Dawn, published by HarperCollins, is available in bookstores. Email: ashrafajaz3@gmail.com)

                                  
                PART TWO  OF TWO


SOURCE:
http://www.tribuneindia.com/news/comment/listening-to-the-sounds-of-silence/82224.html




         LISTENING TO THE SOUNDS
                                  OF
                           SILENCE
                                  BY
                  SHIV VISVANATHAN  



 May 19 2015



Whether Muslim or Christian, Indians who have felt Indian and believed they were Indian citizens are now being forced to reach out to their minority status for protection. There is a new insecurity, a ghettoisation of the mind taking place














 

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Children attend a class at a madrassa in a relief camp for displaced Muslim residents in Muzaffarnagar. Threat perception and fear have put the minorities on the defensive. The drumbeat of a new patriotism creates a brutal majority

REPORT cards are liturgical rituals, acts of trusteeship. There is something about report cards that gives citizens and experts a sense of empowerment. For that moment, one feels in control or command of a process of history. But this time the report cards of the Modi regime speak a different language. It is not his “Make in India” as a world of manufacture one wants to talk about. It is the unmaking of another India that one waits to record.

Vision of the Future

 

 

Every regime tries to build a positive vision of the future but to build such a favourable future, one must exorcise the past. The past was a double burden for the adherents of the Bharatiya Janata Party because the past as history is read as being unfair to them. Secondly, the categories of the past, the idioms of secularism articulated the logic of a world the majority in India felt uneasy with. They wanted a world which was less English, more modern, a world where the secular and the minoritarian strip-mined their lives asking them to deny their inner selves. Therefore, the majoritarian self was a repressed self and when the BJP won, an order of repressions was domesticated into the everydayness of policy.



The BJP as an electoral majority represented an array of dangers. Firstly, it equated electoral majoritarianism with democracy. Instead of democracy being syncretic and plural, the majority acquires a new role in history. Its dominance is physical and threatening and when paradoxically a dominant class behaves as if it has been victimised, it becomes doubly repressive. It wants to rectify history and teach the minorities a lesson. In fact, in majoritarian regimes like the BJP, politics becomes the fine art of changing minority responses. It has been decided that the minority must be cut to size and taught its sense of place.

Assertions of Ethnic Identity

 

Muzaffarnagar was a classic example of such a political pedagogical act that the media hardly confronted.

The BJP over the year has done this act of bullying in a wonderfully distributed way. Its political leaders ask Muslims to accept the duties of citizenship and join the mainstream. This allegedly subtle hint is actually a coercive way of warning the minorities that assertions of ethnic identity are not welcome. While the legislature seeks uniformity, the other incarnations like the RSS, the VHP, even the Shiv Sena, seek to rectify history and purify identity. Culture becomes the basis of contestation and majoritarian culture asserts their primacy twice. This asserts the language of loyalty to the nation-state, calling patriotism the new secularism because for the RSS the state is the secular god.

Patriotism Unbound

 

When patriotism is equated with national development and national purpose, any challenge to growth in terms of social justice or ecological cost is termed as sedition. In fact, a new hybrid of minority-dissent is seen as threatening law and order. One of the first and most publicised acts of the regime was to attack sustainability advocates on grounds of security. Civil society groups which objected to mines destroying soils, or to pollution or displacement were defined and treated as anti-national. Green and Red became brothers under the skin, when Green Peace and Naxalism were treated as equivalent threats. Dissent and minoritarianism both become threats to law and order.

The BJP as a majoritarian regime operates at four different levels. Firstly, it treats patriotism and citizenship as sacred-thread ceremonies, often denying such rite or rights to people from Kashmir or the North-East. Instead of citizenship being part of the taken for granted, it begins as part of a politics of suspicion.

No Pampering

 

 

Secondly, it feels minorities should not be pampered on grounds of ethnicity but be part of the secular citizenship of the majoritarian society. The BJP regime has not gone as far as the French regime of Sarkozy, which denied citizenship to the Romany people turning them homeless or by disallowing the veil in schools and other public places. In fact, it has campaigned for Muslims to join the party. Whether this is fatalism on part of the Muslims or a temporary tactic is difficult to decipher.

Thirdly, the majoritarian community operates in terms of the politics of hurt. Hurt is an all-encompassing word in the majoritarian glossary. Hurt is an injury, damage, disrespect, real or imagined, to the identity, integrity, ego, the respectability of the group, to its history or to its collective identity. Such a broad view of hurt has virtually created an epidemic of politicians who specialise in hurt. A Dalit might find it troublesome to establish humiliation but hurt is like a mimosa plant, it triggers even at an imagined wound. The politics of hurt has been used to ban, censor, silence authors,who d writers, musicians, painters who not suit the majoritarian imagination.

Surveillance Corridor

 

Such majoritarianism which creates a surveillance corridor to police history, culture, also becomes a form of moral policing. One witnesses this in the activists of groups like Bajrang Dal which harass young couples holding hands in Manipal Beach. There is an attempt to domesticate sexuality, creating a tacit understanding between populist groups and police while harassing minorities and women. Any Muslim boy dating a Hindu girl becomes a target of harassment. The hoardings installed on the beach are clear. It says: “Be educated, do not hold hands.” The moral policy of majoritarian groups is almost like pollution ritual, a cordon sanitaire, protecting the majority from being “infected”. Antics like moral jihad were slapstick illustrations of this policy.

Fourthly, the RSS and its cohorts feel that the syllabus should be a part of politically correct and approved history. Dinanath Batra and other self-styled educationist and historians become peripatetic Savonarolas deciding which books do not fit the official space. Syllabus reform and censorship becomes two forms of thought rectification.

Indifference of Middle Class

 

The inner circles of hysteria by which majoritarianism keeps real and imagined threats at bay has an outer penumbra of indifference. The middle class as an aspirational class is indifferent to many forms of suffering. Its indifference to farmers committing suicide shows that growth is a greater value than suffering, that casualties are an acceptable consequence of development. One must admit that in many cases of majoritarianism brutality, the regime does not participate actively. By threat, by intimidation, by symbolic manipulation, the regime and the majority create a tacit constitution of categories, taboos, fear, preferences which literally create a fence around thought. Various forms of dissent, eccentricity, minoritarianism and radicalism remain outside the fold. It is this tacit constitution which envelops the formal constitution and makes it feel effete and meaningless. The state as a policing apparatus and the informal economy of coercion both combine to create a structure of threat which minorities feel uneasy with.Whether Muslim or Christian, Indians who have felt Indian and believed there were Indian citizens are now being forced to reach out to their minority status for protection. There is a new insecurity, a ghettoisation of the mind taking place. Old words like pseudo-secularism now sound effete and harmless as the majoritarian judgement moves ruthlessly.

If the minority or the dissenter is less Indian than others, the diaspora with its long-distance nationalism is seen as doubly patriotic. For the majority, this is the great Indian ideal, to be Hindutva with an American style of consumption, to belong both to one of the oldest civilisations and to one of the most modern of nations and claim an authenticity from both. It is a win-win situation that every aspiring Indian dreams of.



Demise of the Nehru Era

Deep down, the victory of electoral majoritarianism and its repressions has allowed the demise of the Nehru era. In seeking to create a Congress Mukta Bharat what the BJP sought was a Nehru Mukta Bharat void of minority sensitivity, pluralism and secularism. In a way the first year of the regime has cleared the way for this new era.

In fact, while Modi and his regime talk of communication, what one senses starkly is the silences of the regime. In fact, one is reminded that progress is articulated through the noisy rhetoric of development, while suffering exists in an ecology of silence. In such a regime, citizenship and its entitlement, speech is only available to those who accept a majoritarian code. 

The elliptical imaginations of radicalism, dissent, minority, the availability of eccentricity is lost in the drumbeat of a new patriotism which creates a brutal majority. Accompanying this is a religion of the nation-state, an uncritical acceptance of science, an attempt to exorcise history. Given this, it is not speech that marks the regime but silences pregnant with meaning that promise critique but refrain from it.

Politics of Majority

• The BJP equated electoral majoritarianism with democracy. Instead of democracy being syncretic and plural, the majority acquires a new role in history.

• Its dominance is physical and threatening and when paradoxically a dominant class behaves as if it has been victimised, it becomes doubly repressive. It wants to rectify history and teach minorities a lesson.

• In fact, in majoritarian regimes like the BJP, politics becomes the fine art of changing minority responses. It has been decided that the minority must be cut to size and taught its sense of place.

• One must admit that in many cases of majoritarianism brutality, the regime does not participate actively. By threat, by intimidation, by symbolic manipulation, the regime and the majority create a tacit constitution of categories, taboos, fear, preferences which literally create a fence around thought.

 

 





Christians participate in mass prayer to protest against the attack on Delhi churches, in Bhopal. AFP/PTI



The writer calls himself a social sciences nomad

DEFENCE PREPAREDNESS: WHO IS RESPONSIBLE?

DEFENCE PREPAREDNESS: WHO IS RESPONSIBLE?

 

Lt Gen PG Kamath (Retd)

 

 

If one has read the CAG’s report on the state of Ammunition that was reported in all dailies on 9 May 2015, that should set alarm bells ringing; and ringing loudly.  The report mentions that the Armed Forces have ammunition for just 20 days of intense war.  125 of the 170 types of ammunition is below the ‘minimum acceptable risk levels’; and 50% of the total types of ammunition; the holding was critical and insufficient even for 10 days battle.  Which war the CAG has in his mind?  A two front war against China and Pakistan; or, a single front war against China or Pakistan? What about the trouble likely to be caused by foreign aided terrorists, who will certainly fish in troubled waters? The country needs to equip for a two front war against China and Pakistan and the CAG needs to be more specific about his observations, so that the Prime Minister has a correct picture on the state of our Defence preparedness.

 

Such perpetual shortage has always been a bane on our war preparedness and no one seems to be much concerned about this serious security lapse.  Now let us look at the Constitution of India to pin point who is responsible for this sordid state of affairs?  The Supreme Commander of Indian Armed Forces is the President of India.  However other than being the holder of this onerous position the constitution does not assign him any specific role. The President can always ask for accountability for the dismal state, should he perceive himself to be even symbolic head of the Armed Forces.  As the President does not feel obliged, the mantle should then fall on the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) – the supreme security policy making body of the Government.  The CCS comprises the PM, RM, Minster for External Affairs, Finance Minister and Home Minister.  Please note the three Service Chiefs are not members of CCS.  Thus the CCS is not privy to professional advice on Military matters institutionally.  Now let us delve further into our constitutional provisions to hold some one accountable for the security lapse?

 

First Schedule of Government of India (Allocation of Business) Rules, 1961 (Clause 3 of Art 77 of Constitution of India) states that the Business of Government of India would be conducted by the Departments mentioned in the First Schedule.  Please note none of the Service Headquarters are Departments of The Ministry of Defence and all the Departments of the Ministry of Defence are headed by secretaries who are bureaucrats.  Hence the three Service Chiefs and the three Service Headquarters are not authorised to conduct the business of the Government of India.  It has to be done through the Departments i.e. Secretaries (Babus) who are responsible to the Raksha Mantri and head the Department of Defence, Department of Defence Production, Department of Defence Research and Development and  Department of Ex-Servicemen Welfare.

 

The Second Schedule states the distribution of subjects among the Departments. Now let us look at the Department of Defence. The Department of Defence that is directly under the Defence Secretary is responsible for “Defence of India and every part thereof including preparation for Defence and all such acts as may be conducive in times of war to its prosecution and after its termination to effective demobilisation”.  Hence the Defence Secretary, is responsible for the Defence of the Country.  It means that he is responsible to keep manpower, arms & ammunition, conduct of operations and prosecution of war including demobilisation after the war.  Pray please tell me: My Dear Prime Minister and Defence Minister, as to why are you not holding him accountable for the miserable state of ammunition and equipment state in the Armed Forces? What action has the PM or RM have taken in the past 67 years of the country’s existence against the Defence Secretary?

 

In 1962, after the humiliating defeat of the country, our great civilisation was brought down to our knees by a hostile neighbour.  Now let us look what happened to whom all?  Let us start from the top: Prime Minister Nehru was so humiliated that he lost his stature and lost his will to live and died in next year and half.  The RM, the Army Chief and the Corps Commander resigned.  The Defence Secretary was Mr Pulla Reddy, who had been the Defence secretary for the last four years and master minded the defeat to the nation; and constitutionally responsible for the Defence of the country; went on a routine posting a month after RM resigned. 

 

Gen VK Singh out of sheer disgust wrote a letter to the PM in Mar 2012 regarding cavernous hollowness in the Indian Army.  The Air force was and is nearly 33% depleted and a spate of accidents in Indian Navy has shown to the world its poor state.  The submarine fleet is on life support system; and the IAF has the dubious distinction of having the same aircraft in the museum and on the runway.  Who is responsible for this? Whom has the PM or RM held accountable for this grave anti- national act of omission or commission?

 

Now let us look at the last three Defence secretaries who are solely responsible for this disastrous state of our armed forces?  Mr Pradeep Kumar after retirement was appointed as the CVC for masterminding the hollowness in the Armed Forces.  Mr Shashi Kant Sharma ironically is the CAG who is finding fault on himself in his new avatar.   Look at the irony of our system as to how we reward bureaucrats with higher constitutional appointments for carving out hollowness in the Armed Forces; and thus aiding our adversaries. Does it not amount to treachery? The present Defence Secretary has been in the MoD for ages at different levels; and is probably already looking forward for one of the higher appointments after his retirement.

 

Life goes on in the MoD in the same nonchalance pace as they have the authority without accountability; and the Service Chiefs who have the responsibility are without authority, as told to the press by Admiral DK Joshi, who took moral responsibility for the accidents in the Indian Navy and put in his papers.  The public should not forget that Anthony and the Defence Secretary instead of owning up responsibility, worked at lightning speed to get the Admiral’s papers through and send him home. The legal machinery that worked for Salman Khan’s bail application however quick, can take a page or two from the MoD.

 

 

Lt Gen PG Kamath was commissioned into Madras Regiment in 1973 and retired as Commandant Army War College.  During his forty years of service he has served in most operational areas and also served in several command and staff appointments.  He is a graduate of Defence Sevices Staff College, Wellington and National Defence College, New Delhi.   Presently he has retired and settled in Bangalore and gives lectures and writes on current issues on Defence and Leadership.

 

Source :
http://www.tribuneindia.com/news/sunday-special/perspective/unearthing-the-saraswati-mystery/81447.html

• Chandigarh molestation row: All school buses in tricity to remain off roads from Monday

             Unearthing the Saraswati Mystery

                                        By

              Naveen S Garewal  &  Shi K Sharma

May 17 2015

Work is on in Yamunanagar to dig up what’s being claimed is the ancient Saraswati. Denying any nationalistic agenda, Haryana’s BJP government says its faith in the project to revive the ‘lost river’ is backed by science. The myth, it adds, is now a reality. In the minds yes, but the mystery remains. The truth is still out there

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar, who’s sanctioned Rs 50 crore for the river revival project, says after completion of the excavation work, there would be a flowing Saraswati.


 

Rigveda, the oldest of the four ancient Hindu texts, mentions the “mighty” Saraswati 45 times. When NDA’s former Culture minister Jagmohan ordered excavation in Haryana to trace the course of this mythical “lost river” in 2002, he faced criticism of pushing the Sangh Parivar’s agenda of equating the supposed pre-Vedic Harappan era with Hindus in the garb of promoting religious tourism. A related charge was of trying to establish the indigenousness of Hinduism while discounting the Aryan invasion theory, and making it appear as a continuing 5,000-year-old civilisation centered around the Saraswati.

Denying giving Saraswati a civilisational virtue or aiming to revive Brahmanism and the sanctity of Vedas, he said it was not important whether the river was found or not. “However,” he pointed out, “in the course of the research, a certain consciousness will find its way into the minds of the people... that it was not a mythological desert river.”

That consciousness seems to have seeped in. The Saraswati river as a reality has still not won the day, but it being a myth is losing ground as the earth is being dug up since April 21. At Rohlaheri village in Yamunanagar, fresh water has been found not far below at 7 feet, bringing a flood of outsiders and locals to the excavation site. Such is the rush that a community kitchen (bhandara) has been set up in the vicinity. Some are simply inquisitive, but there is a sprinkling of those who want to immerse themselves in the “holy goddess”. The Ramayana, Mahabharata, Brahmanas and Puranas all talk of Saraswati, some even calling it Brahma’s sacred daughter Ikshumati — the greatest of mothers, greatest of rivers and greatest of goddesses.

Locals say a number of seasonal rivulets in the area are dotted with small temples, alluding to the notion that the river has always existed — in their minds, at least. It was March this year that Haryana’s BJP government announced excavation of the Saraswati river from Adi Badri, the point from where it is said to have originated. The digging is to be spread over 43 villages of Yamunanagar district starting from Rohlaheri (Bilaspur tehsil) to Uncha Chandna (Mustafabad sub-tehsil), a distance of 50 km.

The government says the “revival of the ancient river” will take a couple of years, but to begin with, a 7-km water channel will be dug up. This, it claims, will act as a link for a dam and reservoir to be built subsequently over 1,000 acres. What will become of such plans is best left to the travails of time. Can an  extinct river be revived by bringing underground water to the surface?

The work is being executed under the rural job guarantee scheme and around 400 families have been entrusted with the task. Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar has announced Rs 50 crore for the project, though the administration is yet to receive this money.

The Development and Panchayats Department says it has conducted the demarcation by using satellite imagery. Another claim is that advanced technology resulted in the discovery of water “from Saraswati” at Mughalwali village. Water gushing out is no myth, 2,500-3,000 people paying a visit daily and some taking the “holy water” too is a fact. But is this the fabled Saraswati, or just a seasonal channel? 

Marwa Khurd village resident Sohan Lal, 70, can’t understand what the confusion is. “I have seen Saraswati flowing near Bilaspur (in the area of Kakroni village) for many years. The goddess has always existed,” he says, referring to one of the many seasonal rivulets. The myth is a reality in his case. No confusion. “Saraswati is our cultural heritage and we are working on the path shown by satellite images. Water being found from the site has proved its past. The excavation is going on and after completion of the work, there would be a flowing Saraswati,” says a confident Khattar.

Former Congress state secretary Satpal Kaushik exercises caution. “I am not questioning the existence of Saraswati in Yamunanagar. But, it is a fact that the water that came out in Mughalwali is not that of the Saraswati. It may be ground water,” he says, adding that the excavation will create a new problem for farmers as it will divide the land.

District Development and Panchayat Officer (DDPO) Gagandeep Singh has a bigger picture in mind. He says the Saraswati revival project has multi-dimensional aspects such as water conservation, water harvesting, ground water recharging, flood protection, improvement in ecological balance, flourishing of flora and fauna and development of eco-tourism, recreation tourism and pilgrim tourism. Is this long list for real?  

Going Back and Forth

 

Hindu mythology refers to Saraswati as the goddess of wisdom and knowledge, manifesting itself in the form of a river. “Ganga, Jamuna, Saraswati” find a common mention in many theological and cultural contexts. The Rig Veda refers to Saraswati as the mighty river flowing from the high mountains to the sea. In fact, the Vedas lay more importance to Saraswati than Ganga.

French scholar Michel Danino in his book The Lost River: On the Trail of Sarasvati suggests that Saraswati was no mythological river. He says there is strong evidence to suggest that the Saraswati of yesterday could be the Ghaggar of today.

A major proponent of making the Indus civilisation and the Rigveda compatible has been BB Lal, former Director-General of the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI). He claims that the Rig Vedic Saraswati and the present-day Saraswati-Ghaggar combine, which flows through Haryana and Punjab and dries up near Sirsa, are the same. His theory thus refutes the Aryan invasion theory.

Indus and Saraswati, Danino writes in his book, were the lifeline of the Indus Valley and Harappan civilisation (between 3,500 and 1,900 BC). Ancient Sanskrit texts as well as maps plotted by the British some 200 years ago indicate that Saraswati was the Ghajjar-Hakra river (Ghaggar in India and Hakra in Pakistan) that passes through Haryana.

Archaeologist Marc Aurel Stein recorded in 1880s that the easternmost tributary of Ghaggar was still known as Sarsuti at that time, which he said was a corruption of the name over a period of time. Richard Dixon Oldham, an officer of the Geological Survey of India, suggested around the same time that geological changes and tectonic movement were responsible for the Saraswati changing course and finally drying up. He suggested that Sutlej and Yamuna were tributaries of Ghaggar-Hakra. Geological changes diverted Sutlej towards the Indus and Yamuna towards the Ganga. As a result, Saraswati did not have enough water to reach the Arabian Sea and it dried up in the Thar Desert that extends from Rajasthan into some portions of Haryana, Punjab and the Rann of Kutch in Gujarat.

 

What Science Offers, and The Critique

Research conducted by various institutions, including the Indian Space and Research Organisation (ISRO), has suggested the course of the Saraswati. Satellite images have unearthed the hidden course of what could be the Saraswati river below the sands of Thar Desert in Rajasthan. As per an ISRO report, the mapped course of the river is 4-10 km wide, passing through Haryana, Punjab, Rajasthan and Gujarat, confirming the findings of Oldham.

Geological studies carried out to ascertain the existence of a palaeo-channel — remnant of an inactive river or stream channel that has been either filled or buried by younger sediment — in the north-western alluvial plains by the Department of Geology, Kurukshetra University, highlight the presence of a river system in the area demarcated for excavation.

Prof Dr AR Chaudhri, chairman, KU’s Department of Geology, says studies have indicated that Saraswati boosted the development of Vedic civilisation. “The sedimentological characteristics of the alluvium in Kalayat and palaeo-riverbed near Kurukshetra point to the presence of a trans-Himalayan river system. The channel, which is being excavated in Bilaspur area of Yamunanagar district, is along the palaeo-path of the erstwhile river which has been identified as per the official revenue record of British era,” he says. 

Saraswati, it is believed, got lost due to tectonic movement. “Satellite images obtained from ISRO prove palaeo-channels of the lost river still exist below the ground,” says Darshan Lal Jain, president, Saraswati Nadi Shodh Sansthan, who’s been advocating the revival of the Saraswati since 1999.

Those claiming that Saraswati is no more a myth cite research in the fields of archaeology, geology, hydrology, glaciology, remote sensing and ground water technology. Even revenue records with entries that mention the Saraswati are given as evidence.

In revenue records, Saraswati travels from Adi Badri of Yamunanagar district to Pehowa in Kurukshetra district. Along this site are several historical temples. One such place believed to be the dry basin of Saraswati is where Lord Krishna is said to have delivered preachings of the Gita. It is believed that the battle of Mahabharata was also fought on the dry bed of Saraswati river.

There is a folklore associated with this site. Wherever the river flows, there are shamshan ghats (cremation grounds) on the embankment. The locals do not go to Haridwar for immersion of ashes in the Ganga. They treat Saraswati as an equally holy river and immerse the ashes in the open fields, believing that the river flows there. “When we were young, the water (believed to be of Saraswati) flowed in our village. After the cremation, the villagers would immerse the ashes in the water of the river,” claims Ram Narain of Rohlaheri village.

However, there are historians who say the Saraswati might not have been a mighty perennial river. They say remote-sensing and satellite imagery of palaeo (past) channels begin in the north, move towards Rajasthan and then get lost. There is hardly any proof, they claim, of these images being that of the Saraswati. They also point out how remote-sensing does not reveal the antiquity of the images, is not capable of dating and is ineffective on moist soil. 

 

Looking Back, Ahead

 

GN Srivastva, Superintending Archaeologist, Chandigarh circle, has collected samples of pebbles and earthen pottery from Mughalwali. “The earthenware is of the Rajputana period from the eighth to the 12th century. The Saraswati river passage found in Yamunanagar and Kurukshetra has links to Prachi-Saraswati of Pehowa (Kurukshetra),” he says. “The Prachi-Saraswati river is mentioned in the stone inscription of the time of King Bhoj of Pratihar dynasty, ruling in the 9th century AD.”

A report of the Central Ground Water Board for Yamunanagar prepared in 2007 says the three blocks of Bilaspur, Mustafabad and Radaur have moved in the category of dark zone due to over-exploitation of underground water and mismanagement of ground water. The report recommends construction of a reservoir in the Kandi belt to enhance ground water and underground water quality and quantity.

Several agencies are involved in the Saraswati project and the Haryana government has hired the Water and Power Consultancy Services (India) Limited (WAPCOS) to prepare a detailed project report for revival of the river. Other agencies to be involved include the United Nations Development Programme, NABARD and Asian Development Bank. 

Director (Exploration), Oil and Natural Gas Corporation, Dr NK Verma, has also helped in narrowing down the location for drilling of deep borewells for tapping of the Saraswati river palaeo-channels. The ONGC has committed to carry out drilling of deep borewells in the “Saraswati river course”.

Deputy Commissioner Dr SS Phulia says the “ONGC has identified three points in Yamunanagar district and one each in Kurukshetra, Kaithal and Fatehabad districts to install tubewells in the Saraswati river course”.

So, it is the fabled Saraswati? It is not a no. It’s not a convincing yes either.

               COUNTING THE GAINS

                                      OF

             RIVER REVIVAL PROJECT

• Yamunanagar Deputy Commissioner Dr SS Phulia claims the excavation will help in preventing flooding in the area. He says crores are spent on flood protection works on the Somb river every year.

 

• The project, he says, will help in reclaiming thousands of acres of land that is rendered unusable during monsoons. The administration has associated the revival of Saraswati with construction of a dam, artificial reservoir and channelising untamed drains during monsoons, he adds.

 

 

• The reservoir to harness rainwater is expected to be more than double the size of Sukhna Lake at Chandigarh. 

 

• A recreational water park, botanical garden and zoo will also be constructed. The Chief Minister has announced an express highway along the Saraswati Revival Project which will start from Kalka (Panchkula) and run up to Kalesar (Yamunanagar).

 

• A temple of Goddess Saraswati is proposed on the embankment of the reservoir. A historical gurdwara (Rampur Kamboyan) already exists. But the work regarding the construction of the dam and the reservoir will start only after project reports. The project is expected to be executed in two years.

 

LOTS TO SAY ABOUT THE RIVER

• Rigveda calls Saraswati the seventh river of the Sindhu-Saraswati river system, hence the name Saptsindhu for the region bound by rivers: Saraswati in east, Sindhu (Indus) in west.

• Ancient texts say the Saraswati springs from Himalayan glaciers in Har-ki-dun in Uttarakhand and emerges at Adi Badri, 30 km north of Jagadhri (Haryana), through the foothills of Shivalik ranges. About 5,000 years ago, it traversed 1,600 km, through Himachal, Haryana, Punjab, Rajasthan and Gujarat.

• Around 3,500 years ago, tectonic changes caused river migration and its desiccation.

• Modern quest for the Saraswati began in the 1970s when American satellite images showed traces of water channels in northern and western India that had disappeared long ago.  

• The finding of Saraswati river disproves the Aryan invasion theory, which states that Aryans who originally lived in central Asia migrated to India in around 1,500 BC attacking the local Dravidians and moving them south. 

• Saraswati Heritage Project was started in 2002 by NDA. It was dropped by the UPA after a parliamentary panel termed it an unscientific quest.

• CPM’s Sitaram Yechury, former panel head, said the project’s justification was mythological, not archaeological.

• Some believe monsoon-fed Ghaggar-Hakra river, which flows through northwest India before entering Pakistan, is a remnant of the Saraswati.

 

Next in Perspective

‘Nabbing Pak boat shows synergy of agencies’

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

O. R. O. P. : BREAKING NEWS

SOURCE :
http://www.ndtv.com/india-news/one-rank-one-pension-cleared-in-principle-pm-modi-to-take-final-call-sources-763827





                    O. R. O. P. : BREAKING NEWS



    CENTRE GOVERNMENT CLEARS OROP

 HAVE PATIENCE & WAIT FOR FURTHER

                                 DETAILS

One Rank One Pension Cleared in Principle, PM Modi to Take Final Call: Sources

 Written by Sudhi Ranjan Sen May 17, 2015

 

New Delhi:  The Centre has in principle cleared the 'One Rank One Pension' scheme for retired armed forces personnel, sources have told NDTV. The government has made a provision for an additional Rs. 8,300 crore for this purpose.

The scheme, which seeks to ensure that a uniform pension is paid to defence personnel who retire at the same rank with the same length of service, irrespective of their date of retirement, has been a long-standing demand of the over 20 lakh ex-servicemen in the country. Majority of Defence personnel hang up their boots much before 60 years. Also, over the years the disparity in the pension drawn by personnel of same rank who retired for instance a decade ago and those who retire now is substantial.

Demand for One Rank One Pension has been an emotive issue with defence pensioners for long. And, between 2008- 2010 veterans have on several occasions marched to Rashtrapati Bhavan to return their gallantry medals.

Sources say once Prime Minister Narendra Modi is back on May 19 from his three-nation tour, a final round of discussions will take place with him. The official announcement is likely to be made later this month, coinciding with the first anniversary celebrations of the NDA government.

The government has already made it clear that One Rank One Pension will be implemented with effect from April 1, 2014.

 

 

Related

• 'One Rank One Pension' Scheme to Cost Exchequer Rs. 7,500 - 10,000 Crore
• One Rank One Pension to be Approved by April End: Army Chief
• Process on to Implement One Rank One Pension Scheme

Story First Published: May 17, 2015 18:08 IST

 

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BOFORS : TRIALS A HIT DESI BOFORS OUTGUNS SWEDISH ORIGINAL

SOURCE :
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Trials-a-hit-desi-Bofors-outguns-Swedish-original/articleshow/47076413.cms?intenttarget=no&utm_source=TOI_AShow_OBWidget&utm_medium=Int_Ref&utm_campaign=TOI_AShow

                  BOFORS :Trials a Hit,

         Desi Bofors Outguns Swedish Original

                                       By

                           RAJAT PANDIT

 

28 Apr,2015 .

 

The Army is now getting set to induct the first battery of six Dhanush guns, which will be the first 155mm howitzers to be acquired by the force since the infamous Bofors scandal torpedoed all its artillery modernisation plans in the mid-1980s. 

 

  This is one 'Make in India' defence project that is now finally booming. The desi howitzer, christened Dhanush, can outgun the original Swedish Bofors 155mm artillery gun in range, accuracy, reliability, angle of fire and shoot-and-scoot capabilities.

The Army is now getting set to induct the first battery of six Dhanush guns, which will be the first 155mm howitzers to be acquired by the force since the infamous Bofors scandal torpedoed all its artillery modernisation plans in the mid-1980s.

Recurring scandals in artillery procurement projects kept it derailed thereafter, with the infamous Bofors ghost looming large over attempts to plug the Army's operational gaps in long-range, high volume firepower.

Ironically enough, it's the original Bofors gun that came to the rescue of the beleaguered force. The Army-DRDO-OFB team kicked off work on the long-forgotten original designs, obtained under transfer of technology provisions in the infamous Rs 1,437 crore Bofors contract of 1986, a few years ago. It has led to the electronically upgraded Dhanush howitzer now

  




Defence minister Manohar Parrikar told the parliamentary consultative committee on defence on Monday that the 155mm/45-calibre Dhanush howitzers had "successfully met all technical parameters" during the winter and summer trials at Sikkim and Pokhran. Dhanush incorporates "many improved features" over the Army's existing artillery guns, he added.

While the first battery of guns would be ready "in a couple of months", the Ordnance Factory Board (OFB) is stepping up its manufacturing line for "bulk production" at the Jabalpur Gun Carriage Factory from 2016 onwards.

"The first order for 114 guns worth Rs 1,260 crore, already indented by the Army, would be completed in a three-year timeframe. The production capacity will go up to 30-35 guns a year. The Army has said it eventually requires 414 such guns," said a source.

The desi howitzer has been upgraded to 45-calibre from the 39-calibre of the original Bofors gun to extend its strike range to 38 km with "extended range, full-bore" ammunition. Costing around Rs 14 crore apiece, the Dhanush is about 83% indigenous. "The ore to steel for the gun barrel is made by the OFB. The only imported parts are the auxiliary power units, electronic dial sights and some others," said the source.

There was a major hiccup in the project when a Dhanush prototype's barrel burst during firing trials at Pokhran in August 2013. But a detailed analysis showed the problem was due to the usage of 12-year-old ammunition rather than the howitzer itself. "The trials took around two years to reach this stage," he added.

The Dhanush, however, will plug just a small operational gap. The overall artillery modernisation plan for 155mm/52-calibre guns, worth around Rs 1 lakh crore, envisages the induction of 814 mounted, 1,580 towed, 180 wheeled and 100 tracked guns, among others.




























 

                  

 

PAKISTAN : THE GREEDY STATE

SOURCE : 
http://www.msn.com/en-in/news/weekendreads/the-greedy-state/ar-BBjQ21m?li=BBifYH6




       PAKISTAN : THE GREEDY STATE
                                     By
                             Khaled Ahmed




What if Pakistan is a purely greedy state? If so, then any policy of appeasement may in fact aggravate the problems that Pakistan poses to regional and international security. 

C. Christine Fair’s book Fighting to the End: The Pakistan Army’s Way to War (2014) will put off most Pakistanis. But let it be said that Pakistan has not trashed it after publication last year by OUP, Pakistan, forgivably replacing the more attractive original cover illustration with a staid photograph of the Pakistan army’s insignia. Fair writes with authority, quoting reliable Pakistani sources. It’s a pity that her final verdict had to be so negative:

 

Pakistan is a

                 “greedy state”

                                     that will not self-correct.

 

 

 

She leans on General (retired) Kamal Matinuddin’s 1994 book, Tragedy of Errors: East Pakistan Crisis, 1968-1971, Abdurrahman Siddiqi’s The Military in Pakistan: Image and Reality (1996), and the classic study of the Pakistan army by Shuja Nawaz, Crossed Swords: Pakistan, its Army and the Wars Within (2008), to formulate her well-argued thesis on how the state has been pushed into unbending irredentism and how the army has punished attempted course-corrections by civilian rulers, only to effect marginal trimmings under its own rule to appease an offended world community. The mainstay is her scrutiny of the army’s in-house publications where officers are allowed regurgitations of their ill-digested manuals. Pakistan should be used to this, as its own scholar, Aqil Shah, in his The Army and Democracy: Military Politics in Pakistan (2014) too has unveiled some of these amateurish outpourings from the officers most likely to rule Pakistan.

 

 

 

 

 

There was a time no one could write a factual book on the Pakistan army and live in peace. Hasan Askari-Rizvi, who wrote The Military and Politics in Pakistan: 1947-1997 (2000), was an early scanner who used to say that all the “dangerous facts” are concealed in the footnotes, “which nobody reads”. Ayesha Siddiqa faced tough times because of remote-controlled non-state actors, but one can’t ignore the fact that such truth-telling books are still published in Pakistan.

 

 You can get away with stuff in English for which, in Urdu, you can get yourself shot.

 

 

 

Pakistan has heard its top-brass loonies like Generals Mirza Aslam Beg and Hameed Gul and the “enigmatic” Ashfaq Parvez Kayani selling “strategic defiance” and “strategic depth” to unbelieving audiences in Islamabad. But the variant view is always there. Ex-foreign secretary Riaz Muhammad Khan, in his significantly titled book Afghanistan and Pakistan: Conflict, Extremism and Resistance to Modernity (2011), trashed the “depth” folly when its purveyor, Kayani, was still in the saddle. Indian scholars have independently arrived at the conclusions in Fair’s critique, as in T.V. Paul’s The Warrior State: Pakistan in the Contemporary World (2014), and are sold well in Pakistan, now that India-centric Pakistani nationalism is distracted by violence inflicted on Pakistanis by terrorists.

 

 

 

 

Does the army exercise control over knowledge and information? Unfortunately, it is difficult to pick apart the early formulation of Pakistani nationalism, its shaping by the “fear of India” after the first Kashmir war, and the mindset of the Pakistan army. It is certain, however, that when the army acts, it is supported by the school textbook that connects India-centrism with jihad. What distracts is the English discourse, where Fair’s book is accepted as rational argument. She wonders: “Pakistan presents an example of how more than six decades of ossified historical inaccuracies and distortion can resist the sanitising effect of the global information technology revolution and the resulting expansion of access to abundant — if, alas, low quality — information.”

 

 

 

 

© Provided by Indian Express what if Pakistan is a purely greedy state? If so, then any policy of appeasement may in fact aggravate the problems that Pakistan poses to regional and international security. 

 

In 2015, Pakistan is getting an airing of the global discourse against terrorism through an army used to running the country from behind the scenes. But will this lead to a “correction” in military publications? Fair lists them and latches on to General Javed Hassan’s seminal book, India: A Study in Profile(Services Book Club, 1990): “Lieutenant Colonel Javed Hassan, who studied more than 2,000 years of Indian history for the army’s faculty of research and doctrinal studies, claimed that

‘India has a poor track record at projection of power beyond its frontier and what is worse, a hopeless performance in protecting its own freedom and sovereignty’ (although Hindus show “incorrigible militarism”).

 

 

In addition, India has not been able to ‘resort to the warfare of the weak’ and lacks ‘revolutionary fervour’. India has thus ‘displayed consistent failure’ in the ‘use of violence as a means to the achievement of the aim’.”

 

 

Thereby hangs a tale. In 2013, Lieutenant General (retired) Shahid Aziz wrote his rebellious memoir in Urdu, titled Yeh Khamoshi Kahan Tak? (how long this silence), with a telltale subtitle, Ek Sipahi ki Dastan-e-Ishq-o-Junoon (the story of the passion and madness of a soldier), and disclosed that the Kargil fiasco in 1999 was owed, among others, to “Commander Force Command Northern Areas, Lt Gen Javed Hassan”. The book touched all hearts because it detailed conspiracies against Islam through history, from the Freemasons to “The Protocols of the Elders of Zion”.

 

 

Fair asks the final question: “The current and past US policy approaches to Pakistan have assumed that Pakistan is a state that is motivated largely by security concerns that can be satisfied with some territorial concession and [is] thus capable of abandoning its revisionism with the appropriate allurements. But what if Pakistan is a purely greedy state, as the evidence I present intimates? If so, then any policy of appeasement may in fact aggravate the problems that Pakistan poses to regional and international security. If Pakistan is a purely greedy state, driven by ideological motives, then appeasement is in fact the more dangerous course of policy prescription.”

 

 

Pakistan has always avoided serious course-correction after reversals because of global and regional strategic rivalries.

 

 

It chose America during the Cold War and was proved right when the Soviet Union collapsed; now it is choosing China, but in a totally different environment, and once again gaining sustenance. The world is no longer black-and-white and it is talking trade routes and investments and telling Pakistan to mend its ways or become a “black hole” state like Afghanistan and Somalia. Islam is “scorched earth”, as evidenced by Syria and Yemen, and states with money to spend are no longer interested in “state-building” where states are imploding.

 

 

Fair’s book is instructive and she will be surprised that it is gaining traction in Pakistan. The course-correction is on, but has to remain subtle, given that the national narrative is still buried in textbooks guarded by non-state actors who remain to be tamed.

 

The writer is consulting editor, ‘Newsweek Pakistan’.