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…
Hindutva
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Election Season and Return of Lord Ram
Ram Puniyani Lord Ram has served the BJP very well so far. It was the Ram temple issue around which seeds of the divisive politics were sown all over the country. The Rath yatra of Lal Krishna Advani precipitated deeper polarization and was followed by the trail of violence. The well planned Babri demolition further…
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Confusions around the term Hindutva
Ram Puniyani On October 25 (2016) the seven member Supreme Court Bench started hearing to revisit ‘Hindutva’ cases. These are group of cases where the use of term Hindutva-Hinduism to be used during elections is to be opined. One such case was that of Manohar Joshi who in his election speech said that if he…
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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…
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Annihilation of Caste – Revolution and Counter Revolution
Ram Puniyani Dalit activist and the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) member of parliament in the Lok Sabha, Udit Raj, in his recent article in the Indian Express titled”‘Where is The Indian Lincoln” highlights some pertinent questions and brings forth the issue of the caste related atrocities. But he goes on to hide things which…
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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,…
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Kandhamal: Long Wait for Justice
Ram Puniyani Today, nearly a decade later when we are remember with pain the horrific violence of Kandhmal in 2008, many issues related to the state of affairs of communal violence, state of minorities, the state of justice delivery system come to one’s mind. The incident Just to recall, Orissa witnessed unprecedented violence against the…
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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,…
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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…
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Did Ashoka’s embracing Buddhism and promoting Ahimsa Weaken India?
Ram Puniyani Past is used by communal politics for their present political agenda. In India on one hand we have the use of medieval history where the Muslim Kings are presented as ‘aggressors due to whom Hindu society had to suffer’, on the other now we are witnessing the distortion of ancient history being marshaled…