The Confident People

Be confident, not just in yourself but in your country and your fellow citizens. 

Remember, it’s much easier to despair over what might seem an irrevocable erosion of our institutions and traditions which made this country great, than it is to see the progress we are making in preserving our institutions and traditions. 

Compounding our despair is the dominant media culture, especially the foreign media like CNN, Fox, NBC, which do not reflect our values and concerns. The media constantly pounds us with gloom and doom scenarios, which have a negative effect on our psyche. 

The truth is that when we look at our national policies and national priorities, it is not the people who are out of touch with reality; it is the political parties and their national level leadership. Political parties are simply unable to extricate themselves from the bondage they have placed themselves in, by building their power base on beggar vote constituencies. 

The across-the-board sycophancy is now failing as they have exploited the masses to the extreme and have not been able to steer mass quantities of money towards this beggar constituencies for the past few years. The socialists and the likes had sustained themselves for years on government grants and subsidies. These are now reduced to a trickle. 

Political parties now exist primarily off the donations of the rich, on political kickbacks and whatever contributions they can get from the public at large. Remember, the people in politics or their party groups do not work for a living in the traditional sense. They survive only by inventing crises or by fabricating some threat to the social fabric. That is why they appear to be more active and visible, while becoming more hysterical every day. They cannot provide for themselves so they hope that by making a nuisance of themselves they will get others to feed them. 

These people have made our country bankrupt, financially and morally. Reputed economists have pointed out that with the money we have spent on poverty reduction programs since the 1950s, we could have purchased the entire assets of every fortune 50 companies in the world and developed virtually every acre of land in our country. 

Yet, not only we have not eliminated poverty, but also many social problems are far worse than before. 

You know it and I know it. 

And more important, they know it too. Indians are no longer willing to burden the millions of rupees that are poured into programs that fail to accomplish any goal. We are weary of supporting a socialistic system that is anti-progressive, indicts tradition, promotes cultural disharmony and serves as a breeding ground for more anti social elements. 

Policies that are nothing more than threats for more violence and disharmony should we refuse to meet the financial demands of those who are representing thugs, murderers, arsonists and looters. They are making threats about instability of the nation, out of desperation and panic. 

First, they realize that government largesse in the form of development funds for social assistance is over, because the money is just not there. 

Second, the cold realization that, after 50 years of uninterrupted catering of their demands, their primary ideas and theories on social justice and economic fairness just does not work. They do not know what to do, except to shout and scream in an attempt to frighten and intimidate those who are now more educated and will no longer be controlled by these demons. 

 We are the future. 

We cannot give up what is right. We have to break this strangle hold that the socialists and the communalists have on our nation and our society. We have to be confident. 

Our nation has not run out of opportunities. Our children can live in an India that is better, safer, and more prosperous. Life is a never-ending battle and we have to fight the battle that we land into.

 

Social Discipline and Crime Control

Social Discipline and Crime: 

The issue of the lack of social discipline and the growing criminal tendencies cannot be ignored any longer. The growing criminal activity is a direct result of socio-economic-political factors and can be attributed to a succession of weak governments and an even weaker and inappropriate legal structure. 

Criminality is on the rise, simply because the mechanism of law and order and prosecution of crime is both inadequate and slow in its process. This problem can only be tackled by a complete overhaul of our legal system and its mechanisms. While legal luminaries in India could give much better advise on the changes required in our legal system, the basic requirement is making the courts more people friendly and efficient. 

It is strongly believed that a ‘jury’ system will not only ensure a fair trial for the accused, but will also ease the strain that is put upon the judges as they singularly tackle a ever increasing work load. 

A social code of conduct is required on an immediate basis that not only prescribes the way that the individuals should conduct themselves in public places, but would also emphasize the manner in which social groups have to conduct themselves as a whole. This code of conduct, strictly enforced, will definitely reduce the social crimes that afflict the majority of our people today. This will not, in any form or manner, impinge upon the individual’s right to privacy, but will help in streamlining social interaction amongst the people. 

Social code of conduct would cover the areas of noise pollution, cleanliness in the streets and in municipal wards, ease of removal of garbage, prohibit the misuse of public areas as open air urinals and latrines, prohibit the use of public areas as spittoons, and allow for a smooth and easier use of public facilities like footpaths and foot bridges. 

The removal of footpath vendors would be a prime concern towards a better and safer use of footpaths, as would be the redesigning of the pubic facilities for use by handicapped persons. Most of the social issues in our nation today can be attributed to a weak mechanism for prosecution of crime. Criminality has been glorified as a medium of social change, but this in fact has proven (by recent events in Maharashtra and Karnataka) to be precursor in organized crime involving all strata of society and the bureaucracy. 

Crime prosecution figures are as varied as the groups that poll these figures. But, the perception amongst the general population is that much of the criminal activity is unchallenged by the government; thereby reinforcing in the mind of both the people and the criminals that the rule of the law is weak and impotent. The suggestions for improving the current situation is as follows: 

 a) The deployment on a crisis basis of Citizens Identity Cards. 

b) Upgrading of the police and law enforcement departments with modern machinery to track and investigate crime and persons associated with criminal activities. 

c) Sharing of criminal files amongst city, state and central law enforcement agencies on a real time basis to ensure a free flow of information for prevention of crime. 

d) A stronger and affirmative legal structure that allows for a faster prosecution of criminals. 

e) A hard labor based punishment policy for criminals that allow the society to utilize the physical and mental talents of convicted criminals. 

f) A provision under law to appropriate and sell assets of economic and serious crime offenders, in order to confiscate illegal earning and return them to the government treasury, which in turn will self-finance the criminal prosecution efforts. 

g) The restoration of the death penalty for heinous crimes. It has been proved in societies around the globe and over periods of time that a successful and strong nation is always the result of the strength of character and discipline among its individual citizens.

 

 

Is the Hindu Samaj Dead ?

 

April 2009

 The Hindu Samaj: Dead and Gone? 

Today as the nation enters the 2nd phase of the 2009 general elections, we are faced with a growing gap between democracy and on the ground politics. While the elections are being held to allow the people to vote into the Parliament their own chosen candidate; the reality is that each section of the people is pushing into the electoral field their choice of candidate based on caste, creed and religion. 

Political speeches are aimed at and focused prominently upon the caste factor or the religious affinity of the electorate towards its candidates. Hindu and Muslim politicians are focusing on their religious vote banks to get to the seat of power; while using words like democratic process and secularism to try and get the fringe votes from those voters who are either ignorant or totally unconcerned about the value of their each single vote. 

The deep divides in the Hindu Samaj of our country is confusing. Hindus are either unaware of the danger to the Hindu Samaj (Polity) from both the Christians & Muslims; or the Hindus do not care if India again becomes a country ruled either by the Muslims (as it was by the Mughals) or by the Westerners (as it was by the British). Hindus are today divided in thought, speech and action. 

The Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) is dormant. The VHP has not undertaken any effort to spread the Hindu philosophy or culture to the young of India. The leadership of the VHP must understand that if they do not modify their efforts to attract the attention of the youngsters, the VHP will be soon totally redundant and will vanish into history. Those of the VHP who think that this cannot happen must remember that the ‘Abhinav Bharat’ movement started by Veer Savarkar is today non-existent. Organizations die when they are not flexible towards changing times and change in attitudes. 

The other ‘Hindutva’ organization, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is in utter confusion. All Indians know that L.K. Advani is focused on becoming the Prime Minister of India after the 2009 elections. Most Indian people know that Advani will fail miserably in this self-seeking goal. BJP seems to be divided into camps; each having their own agenda. Advani is pushing himself as the strong leader, the ‘Loh Purush’ of India, the man of vision and resolve, with Rajnath Singh hanging desperately to his coat-tails. The others of the BJP are mostly busy criticizing the Congress (Sonia Miano Gandhi) party and their former allies. It is apparent to the entire nation that the BJP comes across as a party of people who complain and whine. 

The only sane and stable person in the BJP is Narendra Modi, whose speeches are focused on development and economic growth. Modi is a man who has delivered growth to the people of Gujarat; so his speeches carry the strength of authenticity and pride. But one Modi cannot make an entire BJP, not at least in the current election. 

The third ‘Hindutva’ organization is the Shiv Sena. Regardless of the fact that the Shiv Sena has not been able to achieve a national victory in any election; this is the single party who under the leadership of Balasaheb Thakrey has always maintained a singular political agenda and a strong focus on Hindu Pride. However, the party has never been able to expand beyond the confines of Maharashtra

The issue in a nut-shell is that Hindu Rashtra (Polity) is a divided community. Hindus are focused on caste and regionalism rather than on being only ‘Hindus’. Given this divide, the Hindu political vote in the city casts his ballot on the basis of foreign political philosophy (Communism; as can be seen in Bengal and Kerala) or on the basis of secularism (those who vote for Congress). Other Hindus are so divided on the basis of caste that they either have their own regional parties or they are outside the electoral process because they are totally disgusted with the current politics. 

If India has to survive as a strong democracy, where every person has equal rights and equal freedom of thought, speech & action; then India must be reinforced by Hindustan. The Hindu community must be persuaded to unite under one political philosophy and under one political organization so that the dangers that our nation faces will be tackled correctly and comprehensively. 

It should be the duty (dharma) of each Hindu to be an active part of the Indian political process. Whether as a tutor spreading the knowledge of Hinduism & Hindutva or as a student absorbing this knowledge, each Hindu has to take on the right to question the Government of India; constantly and daily on every issue. It is only when the Government is answerable on a daily basis to over 700 million of its Hindu population; that is when we will have a government that functions for the people. 

Let us all Hindus unite to form a nation – united under one philosophy and one flag that will provide India with a Government “Of the people; By the people & For the People”.