Modi came to power with a bang. Riding on the support of the Corporate World, the RSS combine, the media blitz and the promises of sky; he managed to get 31% of votes and 262 seats in the Lok Sabha. This is the first time BJP managed a simple majority in lower house of Parliament. This also…
Hindu Nationalism
-
-
Can Compulsions Elicit Respect? Singing of National Anthem in Cinema Halls
Ram Puniyani Supreme Court Order on national Anthem (November 2016) has asked theatres to play the national anthem before a film show begins “for the love of the motherland”. This has yet again started the debate over the personal freedom and legal obligations in present times. This is in the backdrop of growing intolerance. The…
-
Fascism and the BJP
Subhendu Sarkar It becomes obligatory, at times, to cite an old cliché. The present socio-political scenario in India compels one to remember that history repeats itself and in doing so serves the role of a teacher― it throws a welcome light on the contemporary events and helps negotiate and overcome an otherwise baffling crisis. Indeed,…
-
Should RSS Volunteers be permitted to join Government Services?
Ram Puniyani An old controversy resurfaced lately. After the alleged denial of government jobs to candidates linked to the RSS, Minister of State in the PMO, Jitendra Singh, said last week that “the central government has not issued any such order (prohibiting government staff from joining RSS activities) recently”, and “if any old order exists,…
-
The Holy Cow
Subhendu Sarkar The cow is now the most important politico-religious icon in India. The self-proclaimed custodians of Hinduism and their political representatives in power are desperate to impose ban on cow-slaughter and beef-eating. As a result, there have been incidents of violence not only in a relatively unknown town like Dadri but also on the…
-
Intolerance Debate: Intolerance has Gone Up due to Sectarianism
Ram Puniyani Beginning with September 2015 we witnessed a flood of ‘returning’ honors by writers, scientists and artists. There are also various statements from academics, historians, artists and scientists showing their concern about the growing intolerance and erosion of our plural values. Those who returned the honors are amongst the outstanding contributors to literature,…
-
Re-Debating Secularism: A Secularist Responds to Minister Rajnath Singh
Ram Puniyani The celebration of Constitution day ( November 26 2015) marked the revival of the debate, rather questioning of the concept of secularism, yet again. Rajnath Singh, the home minister repeated the arguments which the RSS parivar has been raising time and over again. He said that the perverse use of the term secularism…
-
One Year of Modi Sarkar: Hate Speech Galore
Ram Puniyani The coming to power of Narendra Modi in a way gave an open license to all the affiliates of RSS combine to indulge in open hate speech against the religious minorities. The current agenda behind the hate speech is to consolidate the communal polarization of the society along lines of religion. The well…
-
Manufacturing and Undermining National Icons: RSS Style
Ram Puniyani Many a social and political processes related to projection of some icons and undermining of the others have intensified during last few years. Even during the last regime of NDA led BJP rule from 1998, Savakar’s portrait was unveiled in the Parliament. At one level the game of undermining some icons and projecting…
-
Ambedkar’s Ideology: Religion, Nationalism and Indian Constitution
Ram Puniyani In order to gain larger legitimacy, RSS has been making claims of sorts. One of that which was made few months back was that Gandhi was impressed by functioning of RSS. Now on the heels of that comes another distortion that Ambedkar believed in Sangh ideology (Feb 15, 2015). This was stated by…