Interfaith Dialogue – a synonym for cowardice and conspiracy

Update:

Eminent writer Mrs. Radha Rajan had written an article in vijaivaani.com regarding this USCIRF.  The article can be accessed at the following URL.

http://www.vijayvaani.com/FrmPublicDisplayArticle.aspx?id=629

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It has been a fashionable statement to see reports in newspapers about interfaith dialogue.  People, particularly Indian middle class, would think, that this is an attempt and opportunity for different religions, to come together and understand each other.  Added to that, the parties who initiate this, would advertise this effort as an attempt to establish religious peace.

However, not all that glitters are gold.  The interfaith dialogue is mostly initiated by christian missionaries, and recently by catholic pope.  However, we have to note that point, that it is the christian missionaries who spread venom and hatred, under the guise of service to poor, that they often insult the other religions as pagans, false religion, false god, and particularly towards hinduism, they had been vehemant in calling hindu gods as satans, and those hindus who worship idols as prostitutes.

Where is the logic in such a body or institution, who doesnt respect other religions, and in whose holy book is stated that “Jesus is the only true god”, calling for an interfaith dialogue.

What actually are they going to discuss in that dialogue, when their very scripture is an extreme ideology, intolerant of other religions.

IF we consider a typical dialogue b/w a christian missionary and a hindu, the hindus will agree that Jesus is also a god to be reverred, while the church will say (either directly or indirectly), that jesus is the only true god (which by implicit means all other gods are false), and that man can get salvation only by worshipping jesus.

To a common sense, its not an interfaith dialogue..  Rather a bullshit..  an attempt to intimidate the other religious leaders, and through soft persuasion, to collapse the resistance of the other religious leaders in opposing conversion activity of the christian missionaries.

When a person really wants to understand others, there are lot of ways or sources to understand (in this internet age).  Its very silly to say, that i will understand christianity only through a dialogue.

Please read the following press briefings  by kanchi sankaracharyar, highlighting very important points.

Opposition by Kanchi Sankaracharya – a press briefing:

1. Exactly one month ago to the date, the Pope went to Jerusalem where Jesus was born, for a similar dialogue that the Vatican had undertaken with the Chief Rabbinate of Israel. At the end of that meeting when the Pope and Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi Yona Metzer jointly addressed the Press and Media, the Chief Rabbi thanked the Pope for assuring the Chief Rabbinate that the Catholic Church would desist and cease from all missionary and conversion activities among the Jews. This is construed as endorsed and agreed by the Pope since he was present in the press meet. We need a similar commitment from the Church for Hindus.

2. After such inter-faith meetings, the points agreed have to be faithfully abided. Otherwise there will be no point in holding such meetings. Unless the Church reassures Hindus that it will not conduct itself in a manner that wounds Hindu sensibilities and follows up on those assurances, such inter-faith meetings, no matter how frequently they are held will be futile and will not serve any meaningful cause.

3. In 1999, Pope John Paul II had stated that the mission of the Vatican was to plant the Cross in Asia in the third millennium to facilitate the Christianize of the world which alone would cause the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. The Pope must tell us the rationale for the First Coming of Jesus Christ when there was no Christianity or the Church to undertake the mission to Christianize the world.

4. We see the USCIRF (US Commission on International Religious Freedom) as an intrusive mechanism of a foreign government to interfere in the internal affairs of this country. The USCIRF which has been permitted to visit this country to hold meetings with our people to ascertain religious freedom in our country must no longer be permitted to enter this country on this intrusive mission. We will not allow external interference into our internal affairs.

5. We know that very large amounts of money come into this country for Churches and Christian groups, ostensibly for charitable work. These funds should be used only for social causes like health, education etc and should not be used for religious conversion. During these dialogues, it should be agreed that the funds should be distributed to all Organizations who do charitable work irrespective of the organizations’ religious faith. A common pool should be created and a Committee formed to distribute and monitor the usage of these funds.

6. It has become easy for the Missionaries to convert Hindus. All Hindu Organizations and Associations should work together to educate Hindus and eradicate the conversion activity.

7. Hindu dharma is by nature diverse and so all different panths and sampradayas co-exist on this bhumi without seeking to destroy the others. Hindu dharma has nurtured and supported all faiths and religions because that is the way of dharma. We expect that religions which have come into this bhumi from other lands will respect this vital characteristic of Hindu dharma and not do anything to subvert or disturb the sense of nationhood of this country. Hindu dharma and the Hindu people welcome Christians and Muslims, Parsis and Jews to make this land their home. We expect from these religions that they will not seek to destroy our faith, our religion and wound our religious sensibilities. We encourage all religions to live with mutual respect and harmony in a shared sense of nationalism which should bind us all as one nation. Nationalism should come first.

8. We are aware of the preaching that they will cure diseases and ailments if the individual converts to their faith. This is illegal as per the DRUGS AND MAGIC REMEDIES ACT 1954.

9. Most of the countries in the world (USA, UK, Japan, Middle-east nations, Pakistan, Sri Lanka etc.), adopt national resolutions and statements of intent proclaimed by their governments and their tallest religious bodies affirming their determination to protect and defend the culture and the religion from which their cultures derive. In India alone we pass resolutions which officially and legally promote an irreligious and nonspiritual creed called secularism. Secularism is an administrative quality; it cannot be the soul of this nation. The soul of this nation is religious and spiritual. We call upon our government and other important religious bodies to recognize this truth and affirm their commitment to protect the soul of this nation.

10. The Buddhist Mahasangha and the Joint Committee of Buddhist Organizations have declared its intention to get the Sri Lankan government to pilot and pass a national anti-conversion Bill and make it law. We welcome this move and strongly endorse this measure.

11. The Church in India must stop forthwith the use of Hindu religious words, phrases and symbols like Veda, Agama, Rishi, Ashram, Om and other such in what is referred to as ‘inculturation’ tactics but which are only intended to deceive the vulnerable sections of our people who are the intended targets for religious conversion. This is also insulting to and wounding the religious sensitivities of Hindus. Similarly it has been brought to our notice that some churches are scripting a new Bible for the new converts by usurping sections of our sacred Vedas, Upanishads and Puranas and incorporating them into the Bible. This must stop immediately and all such Bibles must be withdrawn from circulation. We urge the Indian government to look into the issue and do the needful.

Press briefing by Sri Kanchi Sankaracharya

Remote Controlling EVM – Manufacturing Election Result

A realistic Perspective of the Mass EVM Fraud:

In my earlier posts, i just gave a wild prediction of how EVMs could be hacked.  And as the discussion goes on further, we get a realistic picture of how this fraud could have happened.

Let me put up my views on such possibilities again.

Insertion of Trojan:

Many people claim that this possibility is low, as the number of persons involved in this process would be high, and that there are possibilities that it might be leaked out.  While their point is valid,  we can also consider the sivaganga constituency, where the result is changed at the last minute, but the news has been completely blocked. So, even if there is more number of people involved, the news might be prevented from leaking out.

The important stage of this Software hacking process is to insert a trojan code in to the Control Unit software, right at the manufacturing stage.  The EC claims that, since the same EVM is used in more than one election, and that the candidate serial number is not known at the time of manufacturing, this trojan software could not be effectively used.

However, this is not a FOOL PROOF method.  What the trojan software needs to know is the exact button assigned to the beneficiary party.   This button may vary from constituency to constituency.  So there may be series of key combinations, to make the software know the button assigned for the particular beneficiary party.  For example, if the congress is assigned the 3rd button in a particular constituency, that button is held for a particular time period (say some 30 seconds to 1 minute), in combination with other buttons. By this, the software will come to know of the button assigned to the beneficiary party, and use this for diverting the votes from other parties.

The EC also claims, that the each chip has a unique code assigned, and that replacing with any other chip will make the EVM crash.  This is again a vague reasoning, because, it will not be difficult, to manufacture the same chip with same unique number when a determined fraud is happening.

One more claim by the EC is that most of the EVM’s are manufactured long time back.  But that doesnt explain the possibility of replacing the chip with another identical one, just before this election.

Embedding of Minute Wireless Transmitter/ Receiver in EVM Chip:

Most of the technical persons might be aware of the rapid advancement of Nano Technology, where the size of the electronic componenet is highly miniaturised.   Today is the era of embedding everything in to single chip.  And i strongly raise the this question; Why dont the Controlling Unit of the EVM’s be embedded with a wireless transmitter/receiver, for remote access?

The embedding of wireless Transmitter/Receiver inside the control Unit of the EVM machine is highly possible, and can be done without being detected.  I believe, this form of manipulating EVMs through remote control is indeed the most sophisticated, easier, and advanced way to manipulate the results accurately.

For those, who are rejecting this very idea, please refer the following article in BBC.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/5186650.stm

The above news is about a HP chip, that stores 100’s of pages, and transmitts them via wireless, using bluetooth or other Radio Frequency.

And can you believe the size of that chip?

So, its entirely possible to embed such a wireless transmitter/receiver inside the control circuit of the EVM’s, and they can be controlled from any part of the world.

Before, i move on, please read the following articles too.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/03/090310084844.htm

A full fledged bluetooth wireless featured embedded in a single chip.  (antennas, transmitter, receiver, all within chip).

http://embedded-system.net/bluetooth-chip-with-gps-fm-radio-csr-bluecore7.html

Another HP article, that describes about the minute wireless chip that they had designed.
http://www.hp.com/hpinfo/newsroom/press/2006/060717a.html

An article in 2002, reporting about a wireless feature embedded within a chip.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2002/05/020530073010.htm

A quote at the end of the above article, would give a brief idea on use of embedded wireless devices.

“In other potential applications, the military has expressed interest in pairing wireless chips with tiny sensors such as microphones. The idea is to drop thousands or even hundreds of thousands of these devices in a region to eavesdrop over a wide area. The chips would form a listening network by themselves, and the military monitor the system as needed.”

when a tiny wireless chip is dropped in hundreds to eavesdrop, it means, the chip is capable of transmitting data back to the control station.  This point is very important and has to be noted to understand the issue further.

Nano Technology in US Military:

http://mae.pennnet.com/articles/article_display.cfm?article_id=294946

How the EVMs Could have been manipulated through remote control:

To discuss this possible scenario, We need to assume that the wireless transmitter/emitter had been embedded in right at the manufacturing of the Chip itself.  (Note:  THe chip manufacturing happens at a different place, well before EVM production)

There is a unique ID assigned to each EVM, and each of the EVM could be contacted separately, using this unique ID.

Can such a wireless component be detected or traced?

• The wireless componenet in a chip, cannot be detected, unless, it transmits or emits signals.  The Chip might have been programmed to transmit data only upon receiving certain command through specific frequency.    In this case, the receiver component might be in listen mode, waiting for a particular command, known only to a core expert group.  So, in a normal circumstance, this wireless component will be in hidden mode.

Can the architecture of the CHIP be verified?

• To my knowledge, a chip’s internal circuitry cannot be verified after it is manufactured.  In our case, the expert committee had verified only the approved architecture for use in production.  However, it doesnt gaurantee, that all the Chips manufactured there are as per the original design.
• The current architecture might have been obtained by the hackers, and additional wireless component introduced, and this new modified architecture might be produced at some different place and then used during the assembly of EVMs.
• The size, apperance, and even the Unique ID of the Chip would be emulated as it is, and thus it is extremely difficult to verify, if the current Chip components used is indeed the original one.

The EVMs are all despatched to the respective constituencies, and the high level “Rigging / hacking team”, will ensure that the EVM’s with wireless component is delievered to the appropriate constituency.

Now, the election would be conducted regularly, and the EVMs are stored in a highly secured location in each constituency.

Now, the core hacking team comes in to picture.  We know that there are two days b/w last phase of voting and counting.  In that time interval, the following is possible.

• Using specially designed device, the core hacking team, can connect to each of the EVM’s through satellite connection, and obtain the voting data in to its computer.  This is possible, since each EVM has a unique ID, and using that ID, they can connect to each and every EVM accurately.
• All the data would be downloaded to a computer, according to EVM’s.
• Now, in the selected constituencies, the votes are adjusted in each EVM’s used there, to increase the tally of the ruling party.  Suppose, if there are 1500 boths in a constituency, and each booth having 1000 voters, with an average voting of 750 votes.  If we could adjust, atleast 50 votes in each booth, it comes around 45,000 votes in all the 1500 booths.  And this 50 votes need not be taken from any single party.   For example, in a particular constituency, 20 votes from ADMK, 10 votes from DMDK, 5 votes from 4 other small parties/candidates, will total 50 votes.  And these small adjustments are extremely difficult to detect and prove.
• After the adjustments, these data could be uploaded to the corresponding EVMs automatically through an appropriate devices.
• To give a familiar view of this process, its possible, to download all the data in an excel sheet along with EVM ID, adjust the values, and then upload these data back to the EVM, from this excel sheet itself.  This is very much possible.  Through automation,  any number of EVMs could be manipulated in a short time.
  

we have seen how the remote controlling of EVM’s can be done by a small group of 5 to 10 expert group.  I cannot prove that this is what could have happened, but i am pointing out, that this is largely possible, with current technological advancement, no matter, what amount of safegaurds we have.

Imagine, if atleast 25% of the EVMs are embedded with such wireless component, the result can be manipulated in atleast 25% of the constituencies.   That comes around 136 constituencies of india, where the results can be adjusted remotely from anywhere in the world.  THis is not a small number to ignore.

What the political Parties (Mainly the opposition parties) can do now?

First of all, it would be difficult to prove that a rigging has been happened, because of the secrecy of the votes.  The political parties can analyse the voting patter in the booth where they are strong, and then take a mock survey.

The next thing is that the opposition parties can fight to ban use of EVMs in the coming elections, and return to paper ballot mechanism.  This is very important, and can be argued strongly, citing the numerous possibility of hacking electronic devices.  Also, the possibility of Rigging elections on a mass scale, like use of automated software, wireless technology etc, undermines the very purpose of election.  In Paper Ballot, although some amount of rigging take place, it cannot be done at a mass scale secretly.

And if the parties fail to do that, then Indian elections would always be a “Match Fixing”.  The parties will continue to spend large amount of money and effort in fighting elections, and atlast lose the elections, without being aware that a core group would sit inside an A/C room (either in Delhi or in Newyork), and manipulate the results to make a particular party to win.

For those who dont accept, or reject this as non-sense, i can confidently bet, that in the current world of electronics, Nothing is impossible.

Imagine, if the US could detect the location of Osama Bin Laden, through his cell phone signals, its not Impossible to remote control the EVM’s through satellite.

PS: The US and Britain had a direct stake in the current indian election, mainly because of the nuclear deal they had done.  They can get the full co-operation (or perhaps, the servitude, slavery and subjugation) only from the congress party, and that they had the larger interest in making congress win.  So, we cannot neglect the role of the US, in architecting such a large hi-fi election rigging, using a small core group of hackers.

Tampering EVMs – Some references

In my last post i wrote about the possibilities of EVM’s being tampered.  And i was surprised to see a similar views expressed in Indian express by Satinath Choudhary.

http://www.indianexpress.com/storyOld.php?storyId=45296

“In the above news, satinath says Tampering EVMs is a child play.   He further quotes as below.Computer chips that control the EVMs can be easily programmed to do all kinds of improper manipulations. For example, after a certain number of people (perhaps hundreds) have voted, the rest of the votes may be channeled to a chosen candidate. This is just one among many mischievous tricks possible.”

The same view is expressed by me in my last post.  The author further says that tampering cannot be detected, as it requires more than 100 votes to be polled to detect any deviations or tamperings.

Interestingly  he had filed a PIL in supreme court few years back, demanding release of the EVM software code and also hardwarde design publicly as open source.

http://www.linuxjournal.com/article/7561

in the above link, it is quoted as

“The reliability of the EVMs manufactured by the (Indian) public sector Bharat Electronics Limited and the Electronics Corporation of India Limited is doubtful. The software and circuits embedded in the EVMs could very well contain numerous flaws or deliberate backdoors for tampering,” commented Ravi Visvesvaraya Prasad, writing in the prominent Delhi-based newspaper ‘Hindustan Times’.”

the above link also says

“How does the EVM work? Frankly, we don’t know. (A professor from the one of the prestigious Indian Institute of Technology who explained its working on TV) could only test the EVMs as a black box. A proper scrutiny of the EVM is possible only when the source code of the EVM is public,” argued Ashhar Farhan on the tech-oriented India-GII mailing list, which focuses on Internet and technology issues. The list is hosted on the servers of the network of the Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility, the oldest non-profit, mass membership organization working on social impacts of computer technology.”

So its evident that no one knows what is the software that runs inside the EVMs and also the hardware that is available.  In such a scenario, what is the gaurantee, that the EVM’s are NOT manipulated, and the software that runs in it are genuine?

Some experts say, its easy to write a self-destructing trojan, where it deletes itself after the election is over.  But those who are in the IT and electronics fields, will know that sky is the limit with software and hardware and no matter how hard we strive to protect, there is always a way.

Rajeev srinivasan, a columnists, has posted his views in the rediff.com

http://election.rediff.com/column/2009/may/17/loksabhapoll-after-the-counting-and-other-stories.htm

The Indian voter is not stupid, and is exquisitely sensitive to things that affect his wallet. Therefore it is a little surprising that the average voter drank the UPA’s Kool-Aid.

There is, of course, the possibility that the average voter did not in fact fall for the UPA’s charms, and that this election was subject to massive fraud. I am talking about Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs). Having spent many years in the high-tech world, I do not trust computers, especially embedded systems. Researchers in the US have shown how easy it is to break into EVMs, which is why they have not adopted them. They have realised how important it is to have a paper audit trail, hanging chads and all.

It would not be extraordinarily difficult to install a programme with a Trojan Horse in it. To outward appearances and to ordinary testing, the programme would appear normal. However, when it is fed a sequence of keystrokes by the agent of the party committing the fraud, the Trojan Horse wakes up, and then, regardless of what buttons the voter actually presses, it can assign a certain (non-suspicious-looking) percentage (not 90% but, say 45%) to the preferred party. The Trojan Horse can even be programmed to quietly delete itself when the voting is over. Nobody would know any better, as there is no paper trail.

Let me emphasise that I do not have any evidence that this happened in 2009, but it is worth investigating. There were too many surprising — almost miraculous — victories by certain candidates whom the casual observer would have written off. By Occam’s Razor, the simplest explanation is fraud. I would like to note in passing that in 2004, expecting the NDA to commit fraud, an Indian Communist in the US had prepared a suit alleging EVM fraud. Therefore it is clear that the thought has occurred to various people that there could be EVM fraud.

Reports of EVM tampering in the past:

EVM’s tampered in orissa
http://orissamatters.com/2009/04/23/1389_evm/

Jayalalitha against the EVM.

http://news.in.msn.com/national/article.aspx?cp-documentid=1784728

What other countries had to say on this..
http://news.idg.no/cw/art.cfm?id=003AE63C-17A4-0F78-31DDDC0DCFA62609
http://www.wvcag.org/news/fair_use/2004/07_01e.htm
http://arstechnica.com/old/content/2004/05/3721.ars
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2006-06-26-e-voting_x.htm
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/226/story/64711.html

Is india doomed forever? a review on 2009 election results

Now the long expected election results is out.  Contrary to the popular views, the results was a shock to everyone, both to the winning UPA and to the losing NDA.  The reason is that this result is unexpected, and in some sense, unfeasible, considering the so much of anti-incumbency and confusion that existed in the past few months.

I strongly believe, that this election result appears to be highly artificial, and that some external/internal forces had acted on it to alter the verdict, to the non-popular italian lady and the rubber stamp Manmohan Singh.  While i could not specify exactly the kind of riggings/manipulations that have happened, i just wanted to list down the possibilities and the reasons why i believe the results could be largely manipulated.

I would analyse this point NOT on NDA’s strength, but rather on the position of UPA before the polls.

Status of the Parties in the Pre-Poll Scenario:

Its clearly evident, that UPA was running on a heavy anti-incumbency factor, and was in a state of confusion, with infighting among its UPA partners.  The Congress was continuously losing the state elections since 2004, except for few states like rajasthan and delhi.  Even in rajasthan, congress won only because of BJP’s rivalries and it could not secure a comfortable majority.

And then the famous UPA parliamentry scam, where a group of opposition MP’s were bought by the ruling congress (but the principal architect being the US).  Congress earned a bad name after that scam, and its popularity further plunged, because of the simultaneous bomb blasts in major indian cities, within weeks after the vote for cash scam.  (While this is widely believed to be handiwork of congress and its american masters to cover up the rumbles raised by the opposition over the Vote for cash scam).

The congress also announced series of freebies, like the 60,000 crore loan waiver for farmers etc, which ultimately did not create any positive impact on it.  The situation further worsened with skyrocketing price rises where a kg of rice peaked from Rs.20 to Rs. 40 at the time of polling.

The other UPA partners also doesnt seems to doing well.  The DMK was itself at heavy anti-incumbency, while the congress had all sort of issues with other UPA allies, like RJD, paswan and Sharad Pawar.  Most of the UPA constituents  fielded candidates against congress in many places.

In tamilnadu, Jayalalitha was riding at her peak, with even some of the pro-congress news channels giving her a sweep of tamilnadu.  People were disgusted at DMK’s rampant corruption and inactiveness and mainly its double standard over Lankan tamil issue.  The people were so angry that they were of the opinion that other than DMK & Congress, any other party can be voted.

In such a scenario, the outcome of the POLLS is highly shocking and unbelievable.

Analysis of the Poll Outcomes:

Let me start with Tamilnadu.  The DMK has won 18 seats, while the ADMK won only 9.  This itself is unbelievable, considering the electoral alliance.  The DMK had only congress and VCK, while the ADMK camp has MDMK, PMK, and the communists.

Also, the winning margins of DMK candidates are very high, which again raises the suspicion.  Such high margins are possible only when there is a wave in favor of DMK, which clearly is absent in TN.

Also the finance minister P. Chidambaram was trailing till the last round, but suddenly declared as winner.  Expecting more details on this.

At the national level too, there was NO wave in favor of congress, to attain such big victory.  It got around 200 seats on its own, which is beyond its capability in a genuine contest and also in terms of its position and popularity, it is beyond its reach.

In andhra pradesh, the opposition had put up a strong alliance, and PRP remained a third front.  It seems the congress is nearing majority, which again is very difficult considering the grand alliance and also its anti-incumbency.  The TDP really had a favorable position, along with the support of communists and the TRS.

Is there any behind the scene riggings & Manipulations?

Those who are from tamilnadu, will immediately say “YES” on seeing the outcome.  But on the national level, its really difficult to say so, in a generic way.  But i believe, something has taken place to bring out the outcome.

The main reason for my prediction is that the way the congress projected itself in medias, and the way it was confident of 200 seats, and the relaxing posture from it, all make me suspect that the poll outcome was determined well ahead of the polls.  If we look at the 200 mark of congress, it is more or less the same it was boasting of in the medias.  (one may say, they said it out of their estimation..  but no party can predict as close as this, amidst an anti-incumbancy situation).

So what are the ways, the polls could be manipulated or rigged?

Hacking of EVM Software:

This is one area, where we cannot reject it completely.  Being a software engineer myself, i am aware of how much if’s and else’ we can inject in to the software that runs in the EVMs.  ie, we can implant any amount of logic or possibilities in to it, so that the results are obtained in the way they wanted.  Let me quote the few possibilities that could be hacked in to the EVMs.

1. For every 10 votes in each party, one vote is transferred to the congress.

2. At the end of voting, just by pressing/holding a specific button, the final results are adjusted that a specific % of votes (say 5%) from other parties are transferred to the congress.

3. When the results are counted, point two can happen.

4. A passive secret minute wireless device integrated in to EVMs, known only to specific people, so that the results could be manipulated after the elections, while the EVM’s are stored in a central location.  The person can do this through remote, just outside that building, and that he need to break in to the building.  I believe, this is highly possible given the current technologies, and also due to the fact that the hacker can establish wireless connection to each of the EVM’s separately.

Or there can be a software that gets the data from all the EVM’s at a time, so that the hacker can adjust the data all at once from a remote location, then update them to the respective EVMs in a batch mode.  This is the most effective way of poll rigging.

EVMs with such manipulating software/wireless devices need not be used at all the locations.  Rather, a specific set of seats, where congress is strong but could not win might have been chosen, and such EVMS might have been delivered to those constituencies.  By this, the possibility of such fraud being detected would be less, as such manipulated EVMs would be distributed among regular ones, so that the parties could not detect it effectively.  I think its time consuming to verify all the EVMS, and that the parties might not be aware of such conspiracies and hence would not have thought of checking or may not know how to check.

Also, even the polling officers might not be knowing this, as the software is developed by not more than a team of 10 engineers.  Only those who developed the software know of its functioning, and only those who designed the hardware chips know of the wireless feature.

Since the software of the EVM’s could be updated at any time any where, through either data card, or through wireless (in case if its fitted), this thing could have been done at any time of the election process.  Even at the last minute.  It has to be noted again, that the time to reinstall the software might not take more than 10 minutes.

Rigging Elections:

Coming to the next possibility, the poll rigging has been another effective tool to manipulate the vote count.  Its a known fact and it happened in the past, that at the end of the polls (by 4-5 PM), the booth manager, if he is a supporter of the ruling party, facilitates the respective booth agents to fill the unpolled votes to their party.  The other party agents are either blackmailed, or subverted or threatened or thrown out of the room by using some false accusations.

But this could not be widely practiced, as it might expose the ruling party.  However, the congress being extra constitutional party enjoying full media support, such incidents are never reported.  When the congress could indulge in buying out votes in the parliament unmindful of the public reaction, its no wonder that it would fear for public reaction at the local booth level.

Particularly in Tamilnadu, the DMK has shown the way of how to do rigging without getting accounted for.

The Money Power:

I think, the BJP secured a self-goal, when it raised its pitch over bringing back swiss money.  This backfired, as a tiny part of the swiss money would have been channeled to power broke the elections.  Considering the fact that more than a two lakh crore rupees are stuffed in swiss bank, its natural for the corresponding secret account holders to divert a part of that to prevent BJP from coming to power, thus saving themselves from a government scrutiny.  No wonder, even the congress persons themeselves would have lot of money stashed in swiss bank, which they might have used.

Now coming to the role of money in influencing the voters, i could accept it as a factor but not a deciding factor in the results.  Because in the karnataka elections both ruling and opposition parties distributed money, and ultimately the BJP won through, inspite of congress distributing money.

Another possibility is to silence/bribe the BJP/opposition booth commitee members in key constituencies, to favor congress by being within BJP.  I believe, there are many such moles available in BJP.

And the last thing is the distribution of money to the voters.  In tamilnadu, it was taking place at an unprecendented scale, where for each constituency, around 50 crores were spent by DMK and the congress.  This could not be matched by ADMK.

Deliberate Error in Election result:

I dont know how far the possibility is, but i am NOT ruling out this option.  What if the person who announces the result in each constituency,  manipulates in favor of the ruling party.  Who is going to verify it or recount it?  The respective booth representative just notes down what is being announced.

However i am aware that this is not that much easy.

The power of beurocracy:

And finally, i am coming to the most important factor.  The absolute power of beurocracy, both in terms of governmental power and also in terms of their Unions.

In tamilnadu, its an open secret that the ADMK government was brought down last time, because of the conspiracies of the government servants.  Jayalalitha came down heavily on the government employees, when they attempted to blackmail the government.

This was confirmed by me at some of my friends circle where their parents are government servants.  But i could not speculate on how they could have done it.  There are many possibilities/opportunities, where they could do this at various levels, right from polling booth.

Is india Doomed for ever?

Now, let’s consider the situation of India.

• The President of India is a congress selected person.
• The unaccountable super PM is an italian lady.
• The PM of india is the nominated person, who is the most obedient to his italian masters.
• The Chief Election Commissioner is Navin Chawla, who is a Congress stooge.
• Many government positions now appointed with person of congress loyalty.

I am really concerned that using these high level circles, the congress could do anything in the future.  Let me speculate some of the possibilities.

1. The BJP governments at the state level would be brought down, using any means.  Now Navin Chawla being the CEC, the congress has full co-operation from him to do anything they want.  Earlier, when gopalswamy was the CEC, he was very strict, and even the communists were able to come back to power under him.  And now Navin Chawla took over, the results are clear in west bengal and kerala.  The communists should also think over.

2. The christian missionaries will continue to hold sway over india.  More amount of money will be pumped in to india unaudited.  More conversions will happen, and the hindu religious institutions will be targetted again.  Conversions will go on in full swing.  The demography would be altered in the next general election, where the missionaries will try to increase the christian population to 15 crore, while the muslim population will increase to 20%.   So combinedly, they will have 35% sway over voting.  Since the christian population is under the church control, and muslim population under the control of respective mosques,  in the name of minorityism and secularism, congress will buy back these vote banks, while splitting the already fractured hindu votebanks.

3.The temples will continue to be in government control, and left to its decay.  Now itself, most of the temples are without priests , or in a shabby condition where priests get a paltry sum of Rs. 500 per month.  In another 5 years, most of the remaining priests would leave away.  More importantlly, the next generation of priests is virtually absent, as almost all the chidren of the current priest family prefer other jobs.  The congress will never do anything to revive temples or Hinduism.

3. Rural areas would continue to be neglected.  More people would migrate to cities, and more slums to be created.  More infrastructure bottle neck at cities, and there would be two indias living.  one in urban with all facilities, and the other in rural continuing to be neglected.

4. The security of India is already compromised with china encircling us, and Nepal in Chaos.  It has to be seen, whether the congress, now free of communists pressure will act against the maoists or will continue a blind stand against them.

5. Afzal guru will not be hanged

6. Rajiv killer Nalini will be pardoned.

7. More looting of india by these men, and more money to be stashed in swiss bank by these people.  No drive against corruption, nor any nationalistic sentiments.  Indians would continue to de-indianised, and the cultural and spiritual base would continue to degrade/dwindle.

There are many more things that would happen.  But for one thing is sure.  India is doomed for ever, unless some thing drastic happens, and a nationalistic government gets to power.

Communalists Vs Secularists !!!!

Just got this image thru mail..  Excellent one..   People should know the true face of the leaders.. (NOT the media projected hyped one)

What the so called Communal Modi says:

When i introduce a new water scheme in Gujarat, I always think, how many gujaratis will derive benefit from this scheme. I never care about how many hindus are going to get benefit or how many muslims will avail benefit or never do calculations like the ratio of quantity of water available to hindus and muslims.

What the so called secular Manmohan says:

Minorities have special rights on all resources available in this country – particularly the muslim community.

My government will provide special care and attention to protect rights and interests of Muslim Community.

[My question:  Is manmohan, the prime minister of India or the prime minister of Muslim Community?]

A befitting rebuttal to Sister Prema, the Superior General of MoC!

A befitting rebuttal to Sister Prema, the Superior General of MoC!

The new Superior General of the Missionaries of Charity (MoC)Sr.Mary Prema made two revelations-that religious conversion-‘is God’s work. That-if she received divine inspiration she would go to Kandhamal.

The first one of describing conversions as God’s work is the usual cliché which comes handy to all those involved in conversion. Conversion is to Christianity what Jehad is to Islam.

Sr Prema further explained that, ‘Every human being has the right to believe. Each person is born with dignity. Religious conversion is God’s work’. The contradictions galore within the two sentences are glaring. If every person has the right to believe then where is the need to initiate that person to something new and strange and in something in which that person is not born in? Should one god be exorcised out of the person and another god be installed to uphold the dignity with which this person was born with? This is actually what conversion is all about. Why this rupturing of the person from what he/she was .So what Sr Prema really means is that every person has a right to be converted and hence the right of the person to believe is conditioned and restricted to only believing in the god in whom Sr Prema and her whole church believes in. This is what Sr Prema articulated when she so naively asserted that every person has a right to believe and every person is born with dignity. That this god is only 2000 years old and somehow seems to be always in the company of those who invade the land of others is another dimension which needs a longer treatise.

If conversion is God’s work then whose work is re-conversion? Sr Prema-the Superior General of the MoC and the whole armies of Christian missionaries involved in conversion has failed this god miserably-because their god has failed them. If conversion is God’s work he seems to be rather slow and inefficient. The Catholic Church has the biggest army of nuns and priests and the Christian evangelical churches have their own brand of evangelists, the Southern Baptists alone as a group has nearly 100,000 career missionaries in North India. Yet this God seem to be hardly having an impact. This god also seem to be scared-does not direct their efforts to the Islamic countries. Is He afraid of terrorists? It is the simple unarmed, poverty stricken tribals and passive Hindus that this God and his divine inspired missionaries target at. And yet not so easy given the enormous funds that flow and the armies at the disposal of this god he had to give divine inspiration to a Christian agency to massacre an unarmed poor swamiji whom he found a great hurdle to spread his kingdom.

Sr Prema has unwittingly exposed the bluff of the Congress and the UPA leaders. We are told that conversion is not taking place. Conversion takes different forms-globally, it is disguised as a military coup, violence and very often a deception of service and development is the sheen given to this violent conversion. Yes conversion is violence wrought on a person-to deprive the person of his/her dignity which according to Sr Prema every person is born with-to tear the person off his affinity, his religious heritage and made him/her an alien is a psychological bleeding to death. Christianity and conversion are two sides of the same coin. Where ever Christianity went it was bloodshed-destruction, and a hidden agenda of political power, economic aggrandizement, and pauperization of the victims. In the words of the Kenyatta (the Kenyan freedom fighter) ‘when the missionaries came they had the Bible and we had the land. They said, ‘Let us pray,’ We closed our eyes, when we opened them, they had our lands and we had the Bible’. This is true not only in Africa but all over the globe. Those countries which broke away from the stranglehold of Vatican became progressive-like Canada, Australia, England but those colonized by the catholic powers like Spain, Portugal Mexico, Argentina, Cuba, Italy are mired in military rule and church tyranny. Christianity today likes to be seen as a peace loving, compassionate religion of brotherhood. But far from it-the religion was born in blood and grew in bloodshed. Economic and political powers are its hidden agenda covered with service organizations, education institutions etc.

May be Sr Prema is too naïve to understand and she as all nuns and priests are ignorant of church history. These nuns and priests are brainwashed into this service and love of the poor mission. Many soon realize but then it is too late for them especially in India to be courageous to act and pull out. They become like voices in the wilderness and the church is too powerful an organization to fight against by ordinary innocent and truthful persons.

This brings me to Sr Prema’s pious wish-that she would visit Kandhamal if she receives ‘divine inspiration’ and she would definitely intervene. One wonder what intervention is she talking about-intervene for whom and with whom? Sr Prema would do a greater service if she visited the ex nun Jesme in Kerala and listened to her tale of sexual harassment within the convent-how she was betrayed by her own and even had to submit herself to priests to be stripped naked. This is nothing new and not a singular case, but happenings that have been on for ages-these sexual escapades –including rape and murder have been happenings within the confines of the convents and the church compound. Only when a nun is raped outside these confines then all hell breaks loose. Sr Prema could direct her divine inspired mission to empathize with Sr Jesmy and many like her and intervene with the church authorities. Sr Prema the Superior General of the MoC should be aware that nuns are on contraceptives, nuns have begotten children of bishops and priests-whole dioceses have been sold in the USA to pay the compensation for the sexual violation on alter boys by priests.

A Jesuit province in the USA has declared itself insolvent because it cannot garner the huge funds to pay the compensation to the sexual victims by its perpetrators-the priests. Be it in India or in other parts of the world all this pales into nothing-only Kandhamal occupies and covers the whole vision of the pious Christians and Sr Prema is no exception. I suggest that she first visit the Ashram of Swami Lakshmanada and soothe the terror stricken children in whose presence the 84 year Swamiji was brutally butchered. Three nuns who were with him were also killed. Will Sr Prema intervene with those murderers and see that justice is done?

One last request, Sr Prema and her MoC work for the poor, she asaserts-then why should the money meant for the poor of this country find its way to the confers of Rome? It is very difficult to divest conversion and money. Are the accounts of the MoC being audited? If not why? Why should the lands and the church properties be exempted from tax and auditing? This is something anti-national. Money cannot change its value simply because it is held in the hands of a particular community-All monies must be accounted for. Is it not strange that those working in Minority Education institutions and drawing the UGC pay scales are Income tax assesses but the priests and the nuns working in the same institutions are exempted from paying Income tax. They too draw the same salaries-if not more for less work-they too hold individual bank accounts and they too draw their pensions till their death-all from the taxpayers monies. Why should they be exempted from paying the Income tax? This is just one area to show that the workings of the poor of which Sr Prema and all missionaries are engaged and other service organizations are a big money spinning business.

A special vocabulary must be coded to understand the language of the Christians. Power is sugar coated and called service. Forgiveness is easily extended to those who hurt them-to show how compassionate they are. But they refuse to stop hurting others-they refuse to stop dehumanizing the tribals and the poor. Why don’t they leave the poor alone? If in spite of the enormous funds which have flowed and are flowing from abroad combined with the government’s Five Year Plans and a globally powerful God by their side the missionaries are not able to diminish poverty, to reduce hunger and assetlessness, then is it not time to pause take stock of what is fundamentally wrong? Who is swindling whom? Why are the poor kept in poverty? Why should the poor continue to be poor, why should backwardness be ever growing? Account for the work that has been so far carried on and stop the pauperization and the plunder of this country and its poor. Should we wait for Sr Prema and the likes of her for divine inspiration to be just logical and sensible?

Tailpiece-

Even the Pope has lost his ability to pray that he has now assigned the Archbishop of Gawhati to script prayers for him! The Catholic Church needs prayer scripters- for it is unable to turn the hearts and souls of its followers to that spirit within themselves and seek redemption and justice.

Dr Mrs Hilda Raja,

Vadodara

Kurai Onrum Illai.. by M.S subulakshmi

Happened to hear this song through my friend..  a everlasting favorite song..  whether its subbulakshmi’s voice, or the wordings or the ragams.. or her devotional involvement in this song, which gives that finest touch capturing the audience..  or is it all of them combined..  I dont know which attracts me..

I dont used to listen to bakthi songs that much.. either i am not much interested or for want of required knowledge to appreciate those..  but few of such devotional songs really attracts me..  this song is one of such..

My friend said this was the last concert sung by subbulakshmi along with her husband..  after this, her husband died, and she never did her concert thereafter..

I heard him praising about the deep devotion that the singer would exhibit in all her performance..  it was because of india’s great legacy of seeing arts like bharata natyam, music as a form of worship and bhakthi to the god rather than a recreational activity..

And there is an unknown history to such a great tradition..

On those days, the devadasis were a group of people, whose main duty is to serve god for the life time..  its they who have developed various forms of arts, like music, dance etc.  These arts were daily performed in temple as a service to the god..  and the very name, “Deva Dasi” means “Servant to God”..

M.S. Subbulakshmi hailed from such a devotional devadasi lineage..  I also heard that Latha Mangeshwar is also from such a lineage..  today, the devadasis were seen in entirely negative context..  but believe it.., before britishers came, they were among the higher strata of the society with large amounts of endowment and wealth, and were one of the chief invitees for many of the functions and festivals..

In the marriage customs of our community, inviting a devadasi to the marriage is one of the auspicious ritual in the past..  it was evident from our mangala vazthu song.. and even today, many of the older generations could recall such a custom in many other communities..  such a higher place they had in our society.. the britishers who were mostly christian, could not understand such a tradition, and in turn termed them as prostitutes.. and later the communists who occupied the intellectuals space, along with christian missionarie, spread a distorted negative history through text books and medias..  it was one of the most cruel injustice done to the devadasi community..

Today Luckily, many of our arts and tradition had been kept alive because the successive generations of devadasi lineage, eventhough they suffered so much of political and social vendetta..

As a honour to them, we need to correct the distorted version of history about their lineage..  .  for, its the numerous ancestors of this devadasi lineage, who had perfected the arts and dances to the peak through successive generations out of their unquestionable devotion to the god…

the following article enlightens us on how history (influenced by vested interests) done a greatest injustice to the devadasi community..

http://www.samarthbharat.com/devadasis.htm

www.samarthbharat.com/files/devadasihistory.pdf

How do we learn our History? – part – 2

In my Last post i had given a overview of the discussions that led me to write this rejoinder series. In continuation with that i plan to deal with each and every topic separately henceforth.

And in this post, i am focusing on caste system, which was often a hot discussion in various blogs.

The indian Caste System:

Sukumar had written a valuable post on Caste system in his blog, giving various citations and references. That was an enlightening one for me, as only through this, i came across historians like Nicholas Dirks, Chenbakavalli.  In his post, sukumar had concluded the following points.

• There was no discrimination in education based on caste as evident from dharampal’s book
• The present day caste system was british creation as found through Dirks’ writings.
• The britishers handed over monopoly of administration to Brahmins.
• The present day caste system is mostly a british creation, and the caste system before that is more of religious nature.

Also, the following references add wieightage to the above arguments. I am compiling these links from sukumar’s post and the discussions there and in other places.

• An article by Infinity Foundation on how caste system became rigid
• The Original Caste – by Nicholas Dirks
• The Invention of Caste – by Nicholas Dirks
• Chenbagalakshmi’s review of the book Castes of Mind
• The beautiful Tree – by Dharampal on Indian Education

What do we infer from the above?

• The age old myth that caste system denied education to lower castes was brokern now.  Yet, we did not question, why such false history is still being taught both in indian school and abroad?  Who was responsible for propogating this false hood?  In chenbagalakshmi book review it was clearly mention, as i have stated here in this comment. , that “early colonial historiography (19th Century) the most influential views on caste were those of the Missionary, who denounced caste as the most serious impediment to the spread of the Gospel”
• The Caste system was more of religious in nature, and there was both upward and downward mobility of the castes, till it was freezed by britishers who classified and categorized as per their administrative convenience.
  
• There was no clear definition of higher caste and lower caste in india, and these phrases are taken for granted.  In indian terms higher caste and lower caste is identified by personal discipline and societal culture..  While in the west, the higher caste and lower caste are defined by power and authority.   But, whenever any one quotes caste system, he imposes a power structure on indian caste system, which is not a correct way..  To cite a good example the brahmins were highere caste, but they could not even sell a grain of paddy, which is a sin..
  
• Caste system is deeply religious in nature, even in present days. For every persons, caste is primarily related to his gula deivam, profession and the culture that is associated with it.
  
• The most important point is that there is “NO Authenticated Documents” on caste system before britishers.. so its not right to say caste system discriminated for thousands of years..
  

Yet, the Caste system is deliberately wrongly interpreted and perceived..

Let’s see even after the above facts how the caste system was seen..

Sukumar acknowledges here that its britishers who gave monopoly of administration to brahmins.  But again he ends up in allegation that pre-british caste system was evil in his comments here in

Vamsi’s comment in the same post that even pre-British caste system was  discriminatory..

And subba in his comment in the same post, went on to defend further that since today’s politicians are also exploiting caste system, there is no wonder britishers did the same to us..

but the truth is that it was britishers who first created present day caste system for exploitation, and since the independance we got in 1947 was mere transfer of power, the present day politicians inherited the same legacy..

vamsi  had dragged this caste-evil concept again in the latest post.. and he mentioned that thousands of years of systematic social placement of certain sections of society below dignity by caste system..

and next sukumar comments there..  he mentions that venkat’s opinion that caste system is the strength of hinduism is unadulterated bullshit, and he asked substantiations for this..

but he hasnt specified yet on what basis he mentioned caste system as bullshit, and what are the substantiations he have?   Is substantiations and proofs expected only for the defendants of hinduism, and NOT for any one throwing allegations?

Is Caste system Most Evil thing in this world?

Next, let’s come to the argument of caste sytem as Most and worst kind of evil ever in the world history..  this allegation was repeatedly made in various forums,

Lets consider some events from the pages of History:

• The communism had so far killed more than 100 million people. (40 million in russia, 70 million in china).

• The inquisition as carried out by Christian missionaries for over 1000 eyars.. (Not to mention about Goa Inquisition)
  

• Genocide of Australian Aborigines by christians

• Nanking massacre by Japanese (Light hearted persons, kindly desist from reading this)

Some questions:

• Almost entire section of europe believed in racism till 19th century..  is it not worst discrimination?

• The Slave trade, that was once a thriving business was done by White people..  and when Lincoln took steps to abolish slavery, almost half of america opposed it..  wasnt that worst form of discrimination?

• The Australians, after exhausting the native aborigines to small regions, refused to recognize them till as late as 1990’s..  ie, they were as discriminatory and worst suppressors as late as 1990’s..  ie, till twenty years back..  and arent they worst discriminators in the world?

• Even today, saudi arabia never allows even a private photo of deities of other religions in its country, even though, a large number of such migrant workers contribute to their nation..  and this worst form of discrimination still happens, without any opposition..

• And not to mention the suppression & elimination of hindus in pakistan and bangladesh..  they are not even a news..

• And finally, the greatest genocide of our own Bengal People done for around 18 decades of Britisher subjugation..  Almost 30 million bengalis men, women and children died starving at the feets of bengal streets, because of the famine, artificially created by britishers..

And the list goes on..

Now I am asking, in what way the caste system is worst than these barbaric genocides and discriminations..

How many times, had those people declared communism as worst evil or have accused the britishers for their various atrocities, or declared catholic institutions as most discriminating one?

But when one points out these statistics, a defending reply comes as “The prime minister of australia have apologised”

even though the apology is without any compensation , and any corrective measures..   why is that our people are ignoring barbaric history of the world, and only self-denigrating our own institutions, which when compared to the above historic incidents is thousands of times better.

Is caste system, worst than the discrimination of the australians or the britishers or the communism?

How do I perceive the Caste system”

What are the positive observations of the caste system?  How do i perceive a caste system?  I am explaining below.

• There are thousands of caste system in India, which co-existed with each other peacefully..  barring the minor clashes..
  
• The entire caste system of india has so evolved they are in mutual dependance with one another.  The brahminic preists depended on farmers, who in turn depended on the labour force, etc.. this kind of mutual dependance is another reason for our tolerance.
  
• Each caste is concerned with more of its culture, god, and its social structure and customs..  ie, the caste is internalised within itself, and every caste is mostly identified with its profession, which was a dharma to them..  ie, a farmer was as religious as his profession, as a brahmin would be to his profession..  similarly many other castes like vysyas, mudaliars etc..
  
• The religious tolerance and inclusiveness of Hinduism is largely because of the caste system..  since thousands of castes co-existed for thousands of years, there was an inherent evolution of mutual acceptance..
  
• The social cohesiveness, that was present within each community, provided moral and physical support for the people to survive through difficult times of islamic invasion and also british looting.  If we read the history of many of the migrants to countries like south africa, trinidad, malaysia, they all worked under difficult terrains and they survived only because of the community support they belong to.
  
• The caste system played a major role in prosperity of India..  if we see the trends, many of the prospering castes progressed through community support, rathen than individual effort.  We have many industrial clusters in india, which thrived based on community support.  Eg:  Nadars of sivakasi, annachis of tamilnadu, gounders of tirupur & namakkal,  the patels, the ramgadias of ludhiana, rajasthan who pioneered in engineering skills.  It was these numerous castes that provided the social capital of india.
  http://www.rediff.com/money/2003/apr/08inter.htm
• If we look at the past 50 years of indian history, the role of government is largely negative.  The government functioned only in metros, while the entire rural india was neglected.  Its the caste setup, and the associated social structure, that enabled them look after themselves.  Imagine, if all the castes started depending on the government similar to the metros, india would have collapsed much before..  but that’s happening now, with gross neglect and negative reaction  of our inbuilt social systems.

Important Points:

The most important points i would make is to observe the inherent character of each caste.  None of the caste or community in india has the religious command to destroy other religions, like what christianity have in form of believers and infidels, and islam having muslims and kafirs.  There is no concept of conversion, and hence there is no invasion of other cultures.

A brahmin is more focussed on his priestly duties and related community profession.  A farmer is more focussed on doing agriculture.  so as the vysya communities.  Most of the castes have their own temples for each sub-sect.  Most of the amman temples are non-brahminic.  Most of the ayyanar temples are non-brahminic. And the primary god of most of the non-brahminic castes are these amman temples and ayyanar temples.  And these non-brahminic temples are managed by their own community.

The caste system is so blended with even religions, that one particular caste can be a vaishnavit or shaivite, without compromising its core culture.  For example, my father’s family is a vaishnavite, and adore festivals at purattasi month..  while my mother’s family is shaivite adoring festivals at the tamil month of “Thai”.

The caste system is so diverse, and complex that any particular theory cannot fit for the whole system.  Particularly, the theory of Upper Caste and Lower Caste is highly ridiculous.  The most dominating castes who clash with dalits in tamilnadu are OBC and MBCs.  For example, devars, nayaks, vanniars are all MBC’s.

Secondly, the theory that brahmins suppressing all other castes has no rational reasoning.  The very inherent culture of brahmins is non-violent, and they do not have the capability to exert any physical violence to others..  Even today, a typical brahmin will approach a court of police when facing problems, whereas a typical OBC will retaliate with fervour.

Also, most of the caste clashes happen between MBC’s and SC’s.  But the resulting blame falls on brahmins. And because the entire intellectuals space had been occupied with anti-brahminism, it is the brahmins who faced the worst discrimination after independance.  But because of their intellectual capability, many of the brahmins migrated abroad, and prospered in life.

No caste is alone in any area:

When we take any particular village in india.  There would be atleast a dozen castes living in peace with each other.  If we look at the historical distribution of castes, we could see, that brahmins almost existed in most of the villages in india..  that means, the brahmins co-existed with common people, providing the intellectual service to the people.  The distribution of brahmin community among the general mass has one other purpose.  They were looking after temples in each area, and they were providing education to all sections of the people. (this is evident Dharampal’s book beautiful tree ) .  Their valuable contribution to the education of india for thousands of years, is completely forgotten.  And their valuable service to this humanity by preserving vedas orally for more than 5000 years has been never acknowledged.

But the general tendency among our intellectuals ar that “These are not important to me.  I would only accuse them even though there is no proof” ..

It is also to be noted, that because of anti-brahminism, the once co-existing brahmins, now are settling in towns, and existing as exclusive community.. its not only with them.. same for others too..

And what is the status of the majority of the brahmins today.. Please see the video below.

——————————————————————

The next part of this series is regarding the topic of karaneeyam vs revenue department.

How do we learn our history? – part-1

Few weeks back, i participated in a blog discussion on Building Bridges. Due to some obvious reasons, i was requested not to further comment in that post, and that i can post my views in my own blog.  Although, i thought of not further participating in that discussion, i just want to complete my thoughts that was not expressed there..

About the post:

The summary of the posts is about removing hatred, and building bridges among people and communities.  The author quotes various books and sources, and highlights hs point on how the entire community is made to be hated.  And also, he prescribes some practical solutions on how to build bridges in simple ways, like establishing bonds with neighbours, caring for them, etc.

One of the key points the author highlights is that history is a great teacher, and we are poor students of it.  And the discussion got heated up, when one of the commenter venkat, highlighted it and made his views..

And my post revolves around this single topic of “Learning from History”

My Comment on the post as a whole:

In general, the core point that the author highlights is noble, and that he insists on humanity, devoid of all discrimination.

But, i feel, the author has been highly idealistic, that’s far away from the ground realities.  As he said, the history had been a great teacher, but he too failed as a student in this post.  Because, he completely ignored the history of the world, and bypassed important topics.

I do not understand How can we learn from the history by ignoring it. Let alone history… how can we understand anything by ignoring it?

These are questions that are never answered in any of the discussions..

Is Divisions Causing Violence:

Next coming to the other important  point the author dealt with is the divisions as “hindus vs muslims”, maharashtrians, tamilians etc.  He expressed his disgust that people were divided  based on numerous identities that is creating violence and hatred.

I should say, this is yet another idealism far away from the reality.  Without understanding how and why those divisions existed, and without understanding how these differences are causing violence, he has simply dejected over it.

If we want to get disgusted, there are virtually numerous things in this worlds.  Will it solve anything?  Will running away from all these issues solve the core problem?

We do not know the solution.. because we do not have the right understanding of the problem..

Overview of the discussions.

I am now focussing on the core aspect of the discussion..  ie, learning from our history.

Venkat started with his comment, that prior to coming of britishers, there were no such divisions as it existed today. and that concept of minorites and regional identities are british creation.

The post author “Abdul” acknowledged the fact that many of the today’s problems was british creation.

But, the discussion heated up when sukumar commented that caste system was the most discriminatory system in the world, and that vaishnavism and jainism killed each other.

The point he was about to highlight was that india was no greater than british, and in one way, he tried to absolve britishers of india’s current problems.

I will come to this point later on.

Then came vamsi commenting about caste system as systematic discrimination for thousands of years.

This is the point, where i intervened, and placed my counter points… rather sarcastically..

My core point is that there is no proper documented history of Caste system, and that its totally baseless, to attribute current problems of caste system as existing for thousands of years.  In short, this baseless allegations had no substantiation..  since sukumar, vamsi and others often ask for proof, and substantiation, even for histories well documented by the perpetuators, i just countered them asking for substantiation for their allegations against caste system.

I also made counter allegation about the plight of brahmins due to highly sensationalised and highly biased anti-brahminism, and that most of the brahmins migrated from southern districts of nagercoil and kanyakumari.

And came subba with his comments that what i said was false..  but he ignored my point that brahmins were cornered and discriminated by christians.  He further threw allegations about Hindutva, and organisations like RSS, that they were disturbing peace, and that all others were living peaceful.   Again a biased view.. but let me come to this later on..

He also had written a post in his blog commenting on Abdul’s post, but mostly alleging Hindu Organisations like VHP, BajrangDal etc.

Then vamsi further commented that that he was a brahmin, and he never faced any discrimination because he was a brahmin..  probably, he might have forgotten the naked discrimination of reservation, where when a brahmin student gets even high marks, he is denied a seat, just because, he was born in a brahmin family..

But logic here wont work..  only allegations work and most of the times, the discussion ends with allegations and counter allegations..

Ok..  let me come to the core important point he referred..  he mentioned about karanam in Andhra, and how NTR abolished, because of which brahmins suffered..

I replied that even that abolition of karanam itself is a discriminatory thing, ..

But again vamsi replied that why should tax payers money be used to fund a hereditary post..  and why is the revenue department for?

This is another important point to ponder on, which i would come later on..

And finally came sukumar, stating that i am repeating what is said earlier (which i did because of repeated allegations in the earlier comments), and requesting me to post my views in my own blog…  i really admire at the extreme politenes at which he handle issues, which i am trying to learn for long time, with little success…

FIne..  i stopped commenting after that, and hence writing this post as a reply to many of the comments there.

How do we Learn History?

Before i start my own points, let me dwell on how i approach this problem.

1. We cannot bring peace by ignoring problems.  Running away from issues, or disgusting on the issues will only further complicate, as we do not know how to respond when the same issue happens again..

The numerous bomb blasts is just one example..  will deal with it later on..

2. Every man is always associated with identities.  Its whether national, or regional or societal..  a man/woman always feel secured when living under the identity.  But, the core problem is how one uses the identity to establish himself.

The post author abdul has written about rising above all identities..  but, even then, we cannot escape from the identity of human..  and this idealism, could not accomodate other living beings, because there is no explanation on the fact that there were lakhs (may be crores) of bulls/sheeps, butchered for the daily food of humans..  this is in sharp contrast to the true philosophical greatness of indian sages, where samy mahavir took care to not injure even an ant..  this is the true love towards all living beings, not the one exhibited by the pseudo secular journalists of india..  for them, only the lives they like or confirm to the ideals are equal..

3. How we perceive our history is very important, in understanding it..  If we have wrong perception, we end up in wrong understanding..

In one way, there is no accurate perception of history..  because, perception itself is a vague concept..  there can be only accurate data..  but not accurate interpretation, or accurate perception..

In this sense, i could say, that there can be only positive or negative perception of our history..

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So, having said the above, the next important questions is How do we learn our history?

I think, i had already written too much in this post..  i will continue with part-2 of this article later on..

Marc Faber Joke on american economic crisis..

I dont want to be sarcastic..  but i could not resisit laughing, on reading this joke, that i received in mail..

Please read on..

It was said that Marc Faber, concluded on his monthly bulletic (june 2008) as below.

Investment analyst and entrepreneur Dr. Marc Faber concluded his monthly
bulletin (June 2008) with the Following:

”The federal government is sending each of us a $600 rebate.

If we spend that money at Wall-Mart, the money goes to China.

If we spend it on gasoline it goes to the Arabs.

If we buy a computer it will go to India.

If we purchase fruit and vegetables it will go to Mexico,
Honduras and Guatemala.

If we purchase a good car it will go to Germany.

If we purchase useless crap it will go to Taiwan and none of it will
help the American economy.

The only way to keep that money here at home
is to spend it on prostitutes and beer, since these are the only
products still produced in US.

I’ve been doing my part.’

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Jokes Apart…

Let me get in to the core message that the above brings out..

I am not an economic expert.. infact, i do not know even the basics of accounts..  But, there is a  general sense in everything, that even an ordinary people could understand..  i am just basing myself out of that..

Now coming to the core points of Faber’s joke ..

He just points out, how volatile is the american economy due to unmindful consumerism..  to understand that let me get in to some basics of consumerism and globalisation, which were most fashionable till few months back..

The American Consumerism:

As per my understanding, the consumerism in america has been as short sighted, narrow minded, and extremely selfish..  their consumerism is like, “I dont care anything, as long as i get products cheaply and with quality”..  and there were numerous argument in support of that, in the name of globalisation..

There were talks like, if i get the same product cheaply from foreign country, i am getting benefitted and go with that..  a tendency that as long as individual gets benefitted, and as long as money is saved, everything is ok..  i get this product from china, and that product from mexico and get this service done in india..

This i feel, was the core of the american consumerism..

Unmasking the globalisation:

All the goals of globalisation policies were framed by american controlled IMF and World Bank, keeping in mind, only the money and nothing else.

Also, some of the so called think tanks (Arivu Jeevi’s) in america concluded that only spending will reverberate the economy of a nation..

The following was the result of such a tendency…

1. The savings of the individual declined.

2. The aggressive spending habits fuelled a side effect of “I am ok, if i get the things for me,..  dont care from where it comes”..   as a result, everyone started spending beyond their capability..

3. The entire american foreign pollicy was framed keeping the above in mind..  the dollar value was made high, and all other currencies made low.. so that most of the imports is always cheap in america..

If we just go by common sense, in a nation of 300 million, if all started saving, the net economy would be strong..  people need not go for loans, as they could spend from their savings during difficult times..

But on the other hand, if every one started spending, the result is negative..

So in saving oriented societies, the cumulative effect is positive..  small savings of each people accumulate to large national reserve…

In case of american consumerism, the cumulative effect is negative..  small debts of each people accumulate in to a massive national debt..

And who is going to work for repaying such large nationa debt?

Will the people, who were trained to only spend, for eight years, will be ready to start saving?

The collapse of local economy and Society:

One of the most side effects of globalisation is that many of the manufacturing industry in america is collapsed due to artificially lowered price of products from china..

The joke that i mentioned at the starting is about this concept..

Because its available cheaply elsewhere, america ignored its own industry, based on the principle of free market..

when a typical american spends for toys, shirts, and other utilities, the amount goes to china and india..

And even for doing service oriented works, its passed on to india..

but who is benefitted from that?

Its the americans who stand indebted and the chinese who stand most rich.. and indians who got their own share..

the result, that americans striking the door of the chinese ..

Some other blog posts on the same topic..

http://indiaequity.wordpress.com/2008/09/19/marc-faber-comment-on-us-economy/

http://izquierdaverde.wordpress.com/2008/10/13/marc-faber-says-global-slump-is-inevitable/