Some Don'ts regarding the Hindu Manifesto.

After the article (see here) in DNA published last year, which has been removed from the DNA site in a cowardly fashion, there has been a renewed discussion about Hindutva. As we have always maintained, Hindutva of the Sangh Parivar has been a somewhat flawed concept. Now we have the Hindutva notion of Shri Subramanian Swamy. In his talks he has been speaking about Hindu Values. In fact his point that those denying their Hindu ancestry must be disenfranchised drew a lot of fume and smoke from the bleeding heart Secularists. Shri Rajiv Malhotra has also been in news for his new book titled Being Different: An Indian Challenge to Western Universalism. Shri S N Balagangadhara has also been working on his research programmes: Comparative Science of Cultures, and Rethinking Religion in India.

In this context, we quote from an anecdote in which a traditional Brahamana was lamenting with his teacher that he was being looked down upon by his other Brahmin colleagues who obtained Secular English Education and were making more money. His teacher, a great wise man replied: "If they look down upon you, why don't you also look down upon them for having become 'Secularised'?" The questioner was totally stymied. The wise teacher continued: "Someone looks down upon you because you too look down upon yourself." The incident is narrated in this book.

So Shri Subramanian Swamy points out that we need not be defensive or apologetic about Hindutva. Shri Rajiv Malhotra points out that the West has been looking at us through its own glass, and we need not look at ourselves through their eyes. Rather, we can look at the West with Hindu eyes and form our own assessment. Shri Balagangadhara too emphasizes that if the West thinks about us in terms of Indology, then we too must form a subject called Westology and look at the West.

All these are bold and welcome suggestions. These remind us that we need to be Confident of our own being and heritage. This is a very very important point and must be the foundation on which we build our world view.

However, this post is to be about don'ts! So let us return to the topic.

There are many things in our tradition which we do not appreciate well yet and there are some whose current practices are somewhat questionable. The most commonly cited examples are casteism, and supposedly wasteful practices during Hindu Festivals. We do not know about others but Shri Swamy seems to be in favor of abolition of caste. His point is that caste is not a Hindu concept, rather a Portuguese concept and word. His view on Varna and Jati are not so well known to us, but he seems to have hinted that we should stop identifying ourselves with Varnas and rather identify ourselves with being a Hindu. This again is a commendable point but is somewhat inappropriately put.

We believe that Varna system came about as a consequence in Social life of the Spiritual Truths discovered by the Rishis of Sanatana Dharma. Thus, if there are any flaws in the current practices, the solution is not the abolition of the concept of Varna system, rather a rediscovery of the system. And once we energize the channels of dissemination for Spiritual Truths, necessary and appropriate Social Truths will be rediscovered as well. As Swami Vivekananda once pointed out: India's life line is in religion and philosophy, intensify her in these channels and the rest will take care of itself. Thus when any attempt to reform the Society is undertaken, the focus should be on regeneration from the fundamental principles of Sanatana Dharma.

As we have mentioned in one of our earlier posts that Sanatana Dharma is inherently universal. We need not do anything further to accommodate anyone. We are open to all, but those who wish to be away, we need not make any extra concessions to accommodate them. Rather, we must strengthen ourselves. The social evils of current practices in caste system can not be wished away by wishing away Varna. They can be properly and comprehensively handled only by the rediscovery of the healthy and vibrant Varna system which we will spontaneously rediscover. Until then we can exercise circumspection but surely must not resort to condemnation.

In summary, a few of the things we Hindus must guard against is:

1. Being apologetic about idol-worship.

2. Being apologetic about Varnashrama.

3. Being apologetic about Hindu Festivals. For example, Bali or sacrificial practices. Or for that matter, being apologetic about vegetarianism.

4. Being apologetic about defending our rights to be who and what we are.

...

Similarly we must also not fall prey to subversive ideas like

1. Non-discrimination as the highest principle in Social and Political life.

2. Mohandasian non-violence as the defining feature of Hinduism.

3. Equality before the law. (We will write more in some future post to explain our position on this.)

4. That Parliamentary Democracy is the best suited for us.

5. Infallibility of our current Constitution.

...

We welcome readers' comments and additions to these points.

Right and Wrong Reasons for why some one can or can not become PM.

In a recent article, its author asked a pertinent question: Can Rahul Gandhi become the Prime Minister of India? Then in an effort to show that RG can not, the author went on to ask six questions that he thought RG would not be able to answer satisfactorily. His questions are:


1. Can he articulate a philosophy of political and social change that is compelling enough to chart the policies of the Congress for the next 20 years?



2. Can he create a political strategy that is rooted not in the vote bank politics of the past — slicing and dicing communities and castes — but in appealing to the aspirations and energy of constituencies that have traditionally not even bothered to vote?



3. Does he have the intent and the ability to reform the party’s governance structures?



4. Can he win elections for the party?



5. Can he build and sustain coalitions?



6. Does he have the management ability to lead and govern a party as diverse as the Congress, or a country as complex as India?


A very formidable set of questions.


However, there is a catch. In our opinion, it is an exercise in futility. Rhetorically speaking, what made Jawahar a leader? Could he have answered the same questions correctly? That his answers failed is a foregone conclusion. Could RG's grand-mother Indira Gandhi have answered these same questions correctly? Could Rajiv Gandhi? Could V P Singh, H D Devegowda, I K Gujral, Chandrashekhar, P V Narasimha Rao, A B Vajpeyee and Manmohan Singh? If none of these could answer “correctly”, for correctness is the key, then your questions lose all significance. Any Tom, Dick and Harry can give some godforsaken answer to any set of difficult questions. And further their ability and inability seems to have no bearing on their becoming the PM. We agree that this is sad state of affairs, but we emphasize that this applies to all and not merely to RG.


Please remember that Jawahar's Socialistic vision after re-inforcement from Indira Gandhi brought India to an economic disaster in 1991. V P Singh divided the country along caste lines, Devegowda and I K Gujaral were absolutely useless with Gujaral doctrine making India a virtual back-side offerer to its neighbors. Vajpeyee sent his own minister escorting "terrorists" to Kandahar and the less said about Manmohan the better.


This means that when there is a country of One billion dumb-fu*ks (DF), any DF can become a PM. And Rahul Gandhi surely qualifies in that sense. He possibly is the biggest DF of them all.


Secondly, in India typical answers to these questions would look like, realistically speaking:


1. No party needs any policy, they try to bribe their way to power.


2. Slicing, Dicing makes 1. more efficient!


3. All parties are equally badly governed, so that will never be a differentiating factor.


4. Not leaders, Money and Manipulations win elections in India (and also elsewhere).


For example, Did Lalu win owing to his “brilliance”. His brilliance has been betrayed! He won on the basis of “vote bank” politics. Rahul Gandhi will inherit an efficient Money-Manipulation machinery, so he may trump Lalu, or for that matter owing to hiw weakness for Sonia, Lalu may join RG!


5. Same as 4.


Most recent example, Ajit Singh supporting accepting the bribe of ministerial berth.


6. One billion DFs are only too willing to become followers of anyone who they think (if they think at all) can lead them.


For example, Do you think Anna Hazare has an anti-corruption philosophy? Don’t you see how millions are “following him”? DFs need buzzwords to fool them. Didn’t Obama fool the American Public by parroting “Yes, We can”. Did he ever elaborate on “yes we can”? "Yes we can" what? A trillion dollar debt?


So, however sensible your questions may be, despite his inability to answer your questions, RG could still become PM. We emphasize that we neither support nor wish that RG should become India's PM. But nor should Pranav Mukherji, Advani or any other similar joker.


From the Hindu perspective, there is no candidate who deserves the chair! There is only one candidate who is the least bad and could be given a chance for want of any other better candidates. And that is Shri Narendra Modi. However Modi too is dangerously Socialist (he keeps talking about being pro-poor rather than being pro-fairness), Secular (he recently undertook his Sadbhavana mission wherein he was flirting with potential terrorists Islam.


In our opinion, the more important question to ask is: In a democracy, can there be a leader who loves his civilization so much that he doe not mind risking losing elections? Always remember that we need a leader who loves Hinduism very dearly. And we need to elect him.


Thus, Rahul Gandhi could become PM but we must ensure that he does not become PM. Advani could become PM but we must ensure that he does not. Similarly many others. We must ensure that Secular and Socialist forces bite the dust. At the very least we must ensure that the least Secular and Socialist leader is elected as PM. Shri Narendra Modi seems to be an OK choice. But Hindus need to find, support and elect someone much much better than Shri Modi. Until then, Modi is the lowest we must go. Anybody lower than Modi in his pro-Hindu stance, and he must be squarely rejected. And we must keep looking for someone more deserving than Modi.

What is the real stand of BJP?

In our previous article, we posed a question on Shri Subramanian Swamy which we had touched upon earlier (see here). Now we express our misgivings about the BJP. Last year, the current president of the BJP, Shri Nitin Gadkari is reported to have said:


We have moved from Ram Temple to Ram Rajya.



We need to ask the BJP, those who can not fulfil the promise of building a Ram Temple, how will they fufil the promise of building a Ram Rajya? The BJP under such leadership and guidance will meet the same fate it met under the guidance of Shri Pramod Mahajan. A defeat!

Shri Gadkari, you need to realize that Muslims will never vote for you, and so your efforts are in vain. And Hindus are losing faith in you, and you are happily sleeping!

On the Minority issue he said:

There are three ways to sort out the temple tangle by court, by law or by consensus, he told TOI. We would like it to be a collective endeavour and send out an appeal to each and every community and religion to lend a hand in construction of a temple. BJP is not an anti-minority outfit as generally perceived. We do not advocate any discrimination on the basis of religion or language nor have we exploited the minority like the Congress has in the past. The BJP is anti-terrorism and not anti-Muslim. They just practice a different mode of worship and that is all. So, why should we be against them.


Why can a party which talks about Hindutva, not take a stand on Islam? The truth and facts about Islam are well known. We, Hindus, must know it better than anyone else. Who are these politicians (whether Congress or otherwise) trying to fool? Instead of educating Hindus about the dangers of Secularism and Islam, the pseudo-Hindutva party is trying to sedate them into stupor!


He continued:

In fact, I would very much like Muslims to reach the top join IAS and IPS or become pilots, engineers the Congress has merely turned them into truck and bus drivers or thelewallahs, chaiwallahs or gatekeepers. The BJP wished that the benefits of good education must reach everyone, including Muslim women. We only oppose the attempts to appease terrorism . A mentality which makes Congress leaders refer to Osama-bin-Laden as Osamaji and term Swami Ramdev a thug in next breath.



Shri Gadkari, if you have access to an internet connection, please do a Google search on Major Nidal Hasan and read about the incident once. You might have a different thought about inducting Muslims into the Indian army in droves.


And the worst of all, Shri Gadkari associates the term Ram-Rajya with Mohandas. So does Gadkari also prefer the usage of Badshah Ram and Beghum Seeta, like the perverted Mohandas preferred? Shri Gadkari, if your promised Ram Rajya is that conceived by Mohandas, please implement it in your own party of psychophants. Hindus would like to have nothing to do with it. Shri Gadkari, before you attempt Ram Rajya, please establish a Chanakya-Raj for the Hindus! We guess, you would succeed in establishing Chanakya-Raj as much as you did in building the Ram Temple at Ayodhya.

These Hindutva Leaders are merely tying themselves into knots in trying to appease their target constituencies. And these constituencies are everything except Hindus! Instead of inspiring confidence in the Hindus, they merely inspire Hindus to surrender in the name of fake ideals.


We have copy-pasted the text from the Times of India article here. The original is here.



We have moved from Ram temple to Ram Rajya: BJP


Manjari Mishra, TNN Jun 8, 2011, 07.08am IST



LUCKNOW: Ram Mandir is not an election issue; it represents our cultural identity. So we are now moving from Ram Mandir to Ram Rajya, the ultimate social order introduced by Prabhu Ram Chandra Ji himself and later invoked by Mahatma Gandhi. This was the cleverly drafted reply from BJP chief Nitin Gadkari when asked the obvious question: Will the party bank on the Ram temple issue in the coming elections?




The strategy shift coming in the election year, may prove to be a rude jolt to party hardliners in UP who were banking heavily on revival of Mandir wave to better electoral prospects, but Gadkari stands his ground. Armed with comparative development indices of different states and a slew of schemes for speeding up economic growth, the new-age saffron warrior is clearly not focusing on Ayodhya. He is looking well beyond.




There are three ways to sort out the temple tangle by court, by law or by consensus, he told TOI. We would like it to be a collective endeavour and send out an appeal to each and every community and religion to lend a hand in construction of a temple. BJP is not an anti-minority outfit as generally perceived. We do not advocate any discrimination on the basis of religion or language nor have we exploited the minority like the Congress has in the past. The BJP is anti-terrorism and not anti-Muslim. They just practice a different mode of worship and that is all. So, why should we be against them.




In fact, I would very much like Muslims to reach the top join IAS and IPS or become pilots, engineers the Congress has merely turned them into truck and bus drivers or thelewallahs, chaiwallahs or gatekeepers. The BJP wished that the benefits of good education must reach everyone, including Muslim women. We only oppose the attempts to appease terrorism . A mentality which makes Congress leaders refer to Osama-bin-Laden as Osamaji and term Swami Ramdev a thug in next breath.




Coming down to UP, Gadkari ruled out any alliance in the assembly elections. Tactfully hinting that here were murmurs within the state party unit for joining hands with the BSP which he had to eventually silence. No direct or indirect relationship with Mayawati, Mulayam Singh or Ajit Singh. There were mistakes in the past but that era is now over. I have made myself very clear on the score, he said.




He is convinced that a true democratic party like the BJP stood the best chance to capture the power this time. We are pitted against a mother-and-son party (Congress) a family enterprise ( Samajwadi Party) and a single leader outfit (BSP). Moreover, the common man can now compare the Rajnath government with Maya and Mulayams regime and note the vast difference, he pointed out.




The common man has had enough of the elephant and cycle ride. I am ready for a change and we can fill the void. However, instead of harping on negative things I would like to highlight the positive. A promise to deliver and a well charted out development agenda, he said, could do the trick. The vision document he plans for UP, would suggest a plethora of projects capable of changing the status of Uttar Pradesh which presents a most curious case of rich state and poor men.

What is the Real Stand of Subramanian Swamy?

We recently came across an article published by Frontline written by Shri Subramanian Swamy. In February 2000, in the opinion of S-Swamy, RSS was a fascist organization planning to destroy minorities. After paragraphs and paragraphs of vilification, S-Swamy concluded:

Of course, the good news is that the game plan can fail. I live on the hope that in India, no well-laid plan ever works. India, after all, is a functioning anarchy. That has been the undoing of every attempt to straitjacket its society. That is why we ar e still the longest continuing unbroken civilisation of over 10,000 years. The RSS is, luckily, our counter-culture. The vibrations of Mother India will, I hope, be its undoing.


Notice the language:

1. India is a functioning arachy and no well-laid plan ever works.

2. RSS is our counter-culture.

Among other things S-Swamy also said:

That, of course, is Hindutva justice: that is, the minorities can best look forward to liberation through mercy killing.

... the RSS is astute enough to know when to hunt with the hounds and when to run with the hares. They are smarter than the German fascists in this respect.

These are not minor allegations. Also notice that S-Swamy is not criticizing RSS for being less pro-Hindu, he is directly terming RSS a fascist organization. Swearolgy has been a well known Marxist trait. Whatever it might mean, Fascism is possibly not much worse than Secularism and Socialism that the Congress has been straight-jacketing us into, and the Anarchic-Libertarianism S-Swamy is seemingly idolizing.

Contrast this with S-Swamy's DNA article on how to wipe out Islamic Terror. In that he has proposed his well-laid plan! Applying his own reasoning, his well-laid plan will not work! More over, he is seeking co-operation from India's counter-culture!

S-Swamy has to come out clean with his ideological time-line. Hindus must be vigilant before they choose their leaders. The way Vajpeyee turned out be Jawahar in disguise, S-Swamy could be much worse, an opportunist like Ajit Singh (Recently supported Congress and became minister of Civil Aviation).

Further, if the BJP and RSS hob-nob with S-Swamy without making S-Swamy coming clean on his real stand, Hindus need to become suspicious of them too.

In our opinion, S-Swamy owes an explanation to Hindus before he lectures them and seeks their support.

For the convenience of the readers, we have copy-pasted the text of the Frontline article below. The full article is here.

Frontline: Volume 17 - Issue 02, Jan. 22 - Feb. 04, 2000

OPINION

The RSS game plan

A disillusioned and dispirited RSS has set the ball rolling for mid-term general elections in which it hopes that the BJP will gain an absolute majority and implement the Hindutva agenda.

SUBRAMANIAN SWAMY


THE situation in India today is characterised and manifested by creeping fascism. Never before in our history have we been confronted by such an almost invisible phenomenon. India has seen a crawling imperialism (1750-1947) when foreign traders turned mercenary protectors, and then slowly became our masters. But that process took a century to consummate and another century to unwind. The Indian people have also experienced the Emergency (1975-77) that came upon the land in a flash and went out much the same way. Nevertheless we had got a taste of dictatorship of the modern state in that short period. We had felt it, hated it, but then the nation also revolted against it.


Today the creeping fascism of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) is coming upon us not as gradually as imperialism did, nor as suddenly as did the Emergency. Its spread is being calibrated adroitly by seven faceless men of the RSS, the RSS "high comma nd". We barely feel it. Some yesteryear civil libertyites such as Arun Shourie have been co-opted. Others are being wooed or chased.


But the RSS leaders are now in their late seventies, some not at all in good health, and so in a mood of frustration. Their glide to a total capture of Delhi's gaddi (throne) has been interrupted and put on 'hold'. Symbolically, the bhagwa dhwaj (saffron double triangle flag) does not yet flutter from the Red Fort; but the hated tricolour which no RSS office can hoist even on August 15, still does. The climb to total power is up a slippery slope. Having come so close, the RSS could lose it all in a sudden throw of the electoral dice. That is the frustration; so close yet so far. Last April, my tea party nearly put their goal out of reach. It was a close call.


So the RSS warhorses recently have chalked out a game plan: the "Final Solution". The Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) and the National Agenda for Governance, they concluded, cannot go on forever. It must be ended at some poi nt. Otherwise the danger is that the RSS may.


Between the 1998 and 1999 general elections, the BJP had for the first time in 15 years and after six general elections, hit a plateau in Lok Sabha seats won. Its tally was stuck at 182 seats. The tally of its "allied parties" - which do not believe in H indutva - rose in terms of numbers (18 to 24), as well in terms of seats won (80 to 120). This rang alarm bells in the RSS. For an organisation that has been banned three times in 15 years, the 1999 election results naturally, justifiably, caused neurosi s in the RSS. Under the compulsions of the coalition calculus, they have had to dilute their goals for the rewards of office. It was a trade-off: a BJP Prime Minister meant acquiring national and international legitimacy they never had before. It also me ant a conspiracy of silence of the intellectuals in the creeping advance of their Hindutva goals.


But then there is a downside to that trade-off: the RSS cadre is disillusioned and disspirited with the compromises and the stunting. India is nowhere the Hindu Rashtra that the high command had been promising, and on which they had been weaned and brain -washed. The cadres' patience is now wearing thin. They want to strike out on their own even at the cost of losing power. I have seen this mindset before. Between 1977 and 1980, in the undivided Janata Party, I had witnessed the agony in the cadre. At th at time the same trade-offs were pointed out to the disgruntled rank and file by the high command. But the welling of sentiment could not be capped. The seven (younger men then) had therefore to act. They had to abandon the compromises in order to keep t he Janata unity. They thus allowed the government to fall, and then went on their own to form the BJP.


The current situation for the RSS is also characterised by the same paradigm. The RSS has, according to reliable sources, made up its mind that the NDA has taken its cause about as far as it could. The trade-off is no more worth it. Therefore the groundw ork has to be laid clandestinely and in small doses for achieving an absolute majority for the BJP. In other words, in the not-too-distant future, I believe the RSS will call for a mid-term poll when it feels that the ground has been prepared. The RSS ju ggernaut is thus on the move, and the groundwork is already there for the discerning to see. For this to fructify, the RSS has drawn up a game plan which has three components.


THE first component of the game plan is to discredit the RSS' opponents but protect its converts. The First Information Report in the Bofors case is a classic instance of this strategem. In that FIR, Rajiv Gandhi's name figures in the list of accused (n ever mind the column). But those Cabinet Ministers who vetted and signed the deal, or had even held secret negotiations on the "financial parameters" with the Bofors company as representatives of Rajiv Gandhi, are prosecution witnesses. Naturally we can guess what they will say in the witness box. Then there is the case of Arun Nehru, whose hand has been in every cookie jar of every deal of that period. He is our swadeshi Quattrocchi, but then he has now bathed in the Ganga jal of the BJP. He too is a witness, not an accused. The motto is: "Join us and be free. Resist us and see you in court." By a series of such sham prosecutions and managed associate media leaks, the RSS expects to undermine the democratic Opposition in India. They hope to tak e full advantage of the factions of democratic parties as they did with the Janata Dal recently.


The second component of the RSS game plan is to shake public confidence in every institution that can circumscribe or act as a speed-breaker for the RSS juggernaut. The Law Minister has already initiated moves to emasculate the Supreme Court via the judi cial commission and by threatening political monitoring of judicial ethics. Just in case his ilk got too rebellious, he has threatened to amend the law (through an ordinance) to permit foreign lawyers to practise in Indian courts. Briefless Jaffna lawyer s are waiting to fill the vacuum.


The Human Resource Development (HRD) Minister has elevated an RSS activist to the post of a selector of teachers in the National Council for Educational Research and Training, a person who defends his credentials of valour by recording that he once had s hot dead a young Muslim girl to protect her honour and to end her misery while she was being gang-raped by Hindu youth during Partition. That, of course, is Hindutva justice: that is, the minorities can best look forward to liberation through mercy killi ng.


Christians are being targeted by the front organisations of the RSS in order to terrorise and ghetto-ise all minorities. Since Osama bin Laden is stalking the Hindustan peninsula with his millions of dollars and narcotics, for the wily and cautious RSS. Christians are an easy target because there are no Christian terrorists to retaliate. As the period of the Emergency clearly demonstrated, the RSS is astute enough to know when to hunt with the hounds and when to run with the hares. They are smarter than the German fascists in this respect.


The third component of the RSS game plan is to ready the blueprints for implementing the agenda. Of course they cannot implement it in the present Parliament, but it will be their USP (unique selling proposition) for the mid-term poll. They have already scripted the new history texts; they have sent into circulation amongst the faithful how the new Constitution of India should be structured.


ACCORDING to a draft circulated at the 1998 October conference of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), an RSS front organisation, the following measures are planned: The present bicameral Parliament would be replaced by a three-tier structure. At the apex will be a Guru Sabha of sadhus and sanyasis (read VHP activists) nominated by the President who is elected by a Lok Sabha constituted on a limited electoral college of primary and secondary school teachers, the rolls of which will be prepared by the HRD Ministry and not the Election Commission. All legislation and money bills will have to originate in the Guru Sabha and be passed by it before being sent to the Lok Sabha. The Guru Sabha will also be the judicial commission to nominate Supreme Court Judges, and impeach them. In between the Guru Sabha and the Lok Sabha, there will be a Raksha Sabha of serving armed forces chiefs and retired soldiers who can decide when to declare an Emergency. India would be, it seems, converted into a state w hich is a cross between the Taliban and the Vatican. It is for this scheme that they will seek a mandate in a mid-term poll.


The RSS game plan also has proposals to bridle the electoral system. Adult suffrage is out, but furthermore, the electoral college for the Lok Sabha will not vote for candidates, but for parties under a List System. Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) will be used in all the constituencies. Perhaps it is then easier to rig the outcome. After all, in the 1999 general elections, the BJP and its allies won 34 out of the 45 Lok Sabha constituencies which had EVMs. On that ratio, the NDA should have won 405 se ats of the 544 Lok Sabha constituencies and not 292. EVMs have to be programmed by an engineer to tabulate the votes in its memory. It can easily be programmed to transfer votes of one candidate to another, or one party to another. The EVMs are entirely unsafeguarded today. I suspect it was rigged in the 1999 general elections.


The RSS game plan is thus ready. Only the D-Day for the blitzkrieg is to be determined. Since it appears that the RSS has already been generating momentum on religious fundamentalist issues (for example, Gujarat's Ram temple) and raised the fanatical emo tional temperature (chasing of Christian missionaries), my guess is that this campaign will be taken to a fever pitch by November 9, 2001 (the 1986 date for shilanyas) and then mid-term elections will be called.


Prime Minister Vajpayee will as usual waffle and wobble, but he will not resist. That is his nature; he is a mask for the RSS, as Commissar Govindacharya had once said. Of course, the good news is that the game plan can fail. I live on the hope that in India, no well-laid plan ever works. India, after all, is a functioning anarchy. That has been the undoing of every attempt to straitjacket its society. That is why we ar e still the longest continuing unbroken civilisation of over 10,000 years. The RSS is, luckily, our counter-culture. The vibrations of Mother India will, I hope, be its undoing.


Dr. Subramanian Swamy is a former Union Law Minister who is now president of the Janata Party.

On Debates needed towards building a Hindu-Manifesto

Wishing readers a Happy New Christian-Gregorian New Year 2012.

On a new year, let us try to contemplate on an agenda for Hindu-Manifesto-Debate:

In our humble opinion, we need to re-invigorate Participatory Debates, the tradition of "Shastrarth" (Knowledge Based Debates) with an aim towards Correct understanding of Social Principles within Sanatana Dharma. In light of the above, informed and high quality debates on relevant topics (not in any order) such as (including but not restricted to) must be organized:


1. The Nature and Structure of Our Governing Principles:

• a. Less Government (read More Freedom and more Responsibility) or Big Government (read Socialism)

• b. Affirmative Action (by Government in form of Reservations etc) or Education Based Wisdom inspired Charity by Individuals and Voluntarily Co-operating Groups

• c. Secularism or Hindu Universalism.

• d. Security, (De-)Centralization, Integrity, Standardization, Freedom.

• e. Fair Governance or Obsession with Minorities.

...


2. What kind of State should we have?:

• a. Monarchy, Democracy, Collection of Private Law Societies, Federation, etc.

• b. Even within Democracy: A Presidential-like System or Parliamentary-like System or

• c. A Republic (Constitutionally Limited) or a Mobocracy (Unlimited Democracy).

• d. Who gets to vote? Universal Adult Suffrage vs Deserved Suffrage.

...


3. The Nature of Law:

• a. Do we focus only on the Written Law or do we also take into cognizance Moral-Wisdom encompassing Oral Tradition.

• b. Exemplary punishment for Privileged Functionaries.

...


We need to educate the people about the importance of the need to have the structure and the law based on Universal Principles of Sanatana Dharma, the Truth Based Civilization. These will spontaneously and naturally lead to the writing of a New Constitution.

Many more topics could be added to these list(s) of topics. Readers' suggestions are welcome. Also readers are welcome to send their views on the topics themselves.