======================================================================== You can post to GoaNet. Send in your views and comments to [EMAIL PROTECTED] ========================================================================
TitBits-015 ( Saffron Legitimacy in India's Governance??) Atal Behari Vajpayee has been projected as a liberal RSS swayamsevak, the mask of the RSS in the BJP government, who is responsible to have taken the RSS agenda right up to the governance of the country. And there seems to be no one else who will back Vajpayee in this liberalism or to walk in his foot steps when he ultimately calls it a day and sits back to enjoy the fruits of office as the ex-Prime minister of India. And it gives the sorry picture that he is not concerned about this state of affairs in the least bit and is happy to beat the stick of his resignation whenever the Parivar becomes more demanding of him. In such a case, I consider that Atal Behari Vajpayee is a Judas who is going to sell the secular soul of this country to the devils in the Parivar and it will be too late for him to find himself a tree tall enough to hang from. If Vajpayee is a true liberal and if he knows that to give in to the Parivar 's agenda is a mortal sin and will cost the country dearly, then he should do everything in his power, while he is the Prime Minister, to defeat the designs of the Parivar and save this nation from impending doom, continuously looking over his shoulder and reminding himself of the shadow of peril following immediately behind him in the number 2 slot, ready to pounce on his chair should it be vacated even for a precious little moment. Vajpayee owes it to the nation even at the cost of renouncing his loyalty to the RSS and the Parivar and waging an all out bloody war to save this country from internal disintegration. And if Vajpayee has the gal to do such a thing, there will never be a big enough book of the history of this nation to hold his name and for the posterity to remember that "This was a true son of this great nation, even bigger and taller in stature than the revered father of the nation Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi" for Gandhiji it was the terminating the colonial rule of India, while Vajpayee will have exorcised India of the Bigoted Casteist bone crushing oppressive rule of the Parivar for ever. Will Vajpayee be able to even consider such a move and be ready to go down the Mahatma way is a zillion dollar question. If so, the show will have ended where it all started. Cheers Floriano Read On:- GOA TAKE NOTE: Journalist Raju Nayak sums it up best when he says: "Parrikar's two years in power have seen a consolidation of all Hindu forces in Goa, and I am not referring only to the RSS and the VHP." Given Goa's cosmopolitan character, this development hardly augurs well for the State, he argues. Former Congress Chief Minister Luizinho Faleiro fears that such developments would polarise Goa's otherwise homogenous voter base. The last election, he says, saw the start of a "Gujarat-type polarisation of voters on communal lines in Goa". There has been open criticism for Mr Parrikar's overt courting of the Sangh Parivar. Earlier this month, he donned khaki shorts and 'topi' to publicly salute the RSS flag during its Dasara rally here. "His participation was in very bad taste. It will send wrong signals," said NGO Samata Andolan Convenor Datta Naik. "The RSS does not believe in secularism, equality, fraternity and scientific temper. One cannot and should not be the Chief Minister of a State and a RSS volunteer at the same time," he contends. Mr Parrikar's almost defiant display of his ideological moorings has given the saffron forces a legitimacy it lacked in this State and brought into the open a number of closet saffron sympathisers. The scions of three of Goa's largest business houses shared the dais with VHP leaders at their last conference here, a gesture unthinkable under a Congress dispensation. INDIA TAKE NOTE: 1. TitBits 014 And the healines scream "VHP ready for talks with PM over differences". "PM had a meeting with top brass of the RSS to solve the differences between VHP & BJP " (NT 2 Nov) How come? PM is the leader of a secular coalition government of India called the NDA. VHP and RSS are the branded communal organizations with ideologies which are against the secular constitution of India. Mr. Vajpayee is a Swayamsevak of the RSS. The PM is not. Should'nt the brother- sister talks to solve their differences be private and in no way connected to the Prime Minister of India?? Or has the press overlooked the relationship?? India's PM must not be seen hobnobbing with the fanatical organizations, in the open, even if he has professed to being its member (RSS) Likewise, Goa CM is following in the footsteps of the grandfather ???. Can it get more funny? 2. PROXY RULE BY THE RSS (NT. Between the lines by: Kuldip Nayar) BACK-SEAT driving, anyone WILL TELL YOU, IS DANGEROUS. It confuses the driver and can cause an accident. Even them, the worst that can happen is a few mangled bodies and the destruction of the vehicle. But back-seat driving in governance is a disaster. It can ruin the country because those who try to guide the rulers form outside have their own line to follow. They do not realize that they can make the ones in the gaddi go wrong. The RSS should face this fact when it seeks to have a defined role. Already it has its imprint on the working of the BJP. Whether ministers or party functionaries, they are conscious of what they are expected to do. Must they rub their noses on the ground every now and then to assure the RSS of their servility? The agreement that has emerged at the meeting between the Prime Minister and the RSS leaders reportedly says that decisions on all "national issues" would be after consultations between the government and the RSS and its non-political affiliates, including the aggressive Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) . This makes the Parivar an extra-constitutional authority. Things may not have yet reached the stage of Sanjay Gandhi's extra -constitutional rule during the emergency. But they are undoubtedly moving towards that direction. If the Parivar is allowed to have its way there will be a parallel authority working behind the scenes. If such an arrangement is accepted, it would mean that the real rulers will not be those whom the people elected but those who sit behind the walls in Delhi's Jhandewalan or at the headquarters in Nagpur where the RSS and its Parivar confabulate. Why don't they come out in the open and fight the elections so that the voters know who they are? There was a time when the BJP, on the PM's suggestion, was inclined to get rid of Mr. Narendra Modi. But the RSS had its way at the BJP's conclave at Goa. Although the PM does not meet him, the RSS has seen to it that Deputy Prime Minister, Mr. L.K. Advani receives him in Delhi and that their meeting is shown on the hapless Doordarshan. Mr. Advani has already announced Mr. Modi as the state's Chief minister after the election even before a single vote has been cast. Take another example. The VHP has announced that it will not accept the court verdict on the Ayodhya case. The BJP's opinion is contrary. My fear is that the RSS, without consulting which the VHP would not have made the statement, will come into the picture to see that the court decision is bypassed. If that happens it will be a sad day for the country. For, it will set a dangerous trend that will have far-reaching implications. In the coalition at the Centre, Home Finance, External Affairs, and Human Resource Development are with the BJP. Both the Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Minister are from the party. These are top positions. By wanting to guide governance from outside, the RSS, which has in its Parivar the bigoted VHP and the militant Bajrang Dal, may harass the ministers still further. They are already watching their steps, so much so they come out of their office to receive even a petty Sangh pracharak. Many BJP ministers say in private that they function in fear because they do not know if they will rub a Sangh Parivar member on the wrong side by mistake. Whatever the fa�ade, the RSS is not the party in power. The government and the BJP can act differently. The latter has the authority to advise or even issue fiats because both are the warp and woof of the same outfit. But how can a body, which masquerades as a cultural organization, become a politically interested lobby? And how will it fit into the system where authority goes with responsibility? No one has raised these pertinent questions in a big way- neither the politicians, nor the media. It is the BJP in Parliament or in the state legislature, which faces the music for the acts of omission and commission, and not the RSS and its Parivar. This is no 'communication gap' as the RSS spokesman said after his last meeting with the Prime Minister. What it boils down to is that the RSS is keen to rule without having any responsibility. It wants the shield to continue while it shoots from outside. In the case of Vajpayee, the RSS garb has always ill-fitted him. Its ideologue once described him as a mukhauta (mask), which hides the real face of the RSS. Mr. Vajpayee said a few days ago that there would never be a Gujarat again and that the murder of give Dalits in the Haryana village showed the arrogance of the upper caste, which masterminded the killing. There was a ring of honesty in what he said. The RSS Parivar seldom accosts Mr. Vajpayee directly because it knows that his liberal image has brought the BJP to the point where it has won governance at the Centre. But it is an open secret that the RSS is not completely comfortable with him because unlike the irreverence that the shows towards the Parivar. Only a few months ago there was a meeting at the Prime Minister's residence to iron out differences. The RSS dropped its insistence on Mr. Vajpayee consulting it regularly when he threatened to quit. If he has caved in now, it is because of his new thinking not to fight since he does not want to be PM after the tenure of current Lok Sabha. The tragedy with the non-BJP constituents- even the humiliated National Conference- is that they have become too greedy for power. They have got so used to ti that they cannot do without it any more. Railway Minister, Mr. Nitish Kumar, the Samata Party leader, has admitted this in a recent meeting held in Patna in conection with JP's birth centenary. He said that he for one should be written off because he could not wrest himself from the sinews of power. That is where his qualms of conscience ended. People like Mr. George Fernandes and Mr. Sharad Pawar do not go even that far. ---------------------------------------------------------- What's On In Goa (WOIG): Nov 05 onwards: Wendell Rodrigues Festival. Altinho, Panjim Nov 05 Bobbin lace-making training, Don Bosco's Panjim (till 17.11) Nov 06 Richard Stallman, free software guru, speaks Farmagudi 4 pm Nov 06 Bob Fitts, gospel music singer, Navelim grounds, 6 pm Nov 06 Fr Britto's health courses, Pilar. Till 10.11. Later Chicalim. Nov 06 ArtHouse, Calangute: Chaitali's acrylics on canvas till 19.11 Nov 07 Creative science, for children, Goa Sc Centre (till 16.11) Nov 17 Goan Engineers and Assoc meet, at Pickering, Canada. Nov 20 Fr Agnelo's 75th death anniversary, Pilar Dec 01 Two day conference, Goa Agenda. IT For Society. (Ends 2.12) Every Sunday: Music therapy sessions at Moira, 5 pm. 278, N.Portugal ----------------------------------------------------------
