HINDU BAITING, FISHING MUSLIM VOTES IS PARTY STRATEGY
By Shyam Khosla
No one should take Congress General Secretary, Digvijay Singh’s hugely controversial and embarrassing conspiracy theories as off the cuff remarks of a frustrated politician. His proximity to Sonia Gandhi and the Congress party’s flip flop on his disgusting outbursts are good enough reasons to take this congenital liar seriously. This column has more than once pointed out that he is an unofficial spokesman of the Congress President Sonia Gandhi and the “crown prince” Rahul Gandhi’s mentor. His ridiculous and scandalous statements are made on behalf of the boss to spread canards and test waters. Once the purpose of demonizing Hindu society, the RSS and its ideological family is served and Singh’s utterances prove counter-productive, the issue is rested. Official spokespersons of the party step in to make a feeble attempt to distance the party from its General Secretary but he is neither condemned nor reprimanded. Sanjay Nirupam committed the “indiscretion” of coming out strongly against him by pointing out that Singh’s absurd statement about Hindu “extremist” elements’ involvement in the killing of ATS Chief Hemant Karkare would help Pakistan and weaken India’s case against Pak-sponsored terrorism. A hidden hand moved and Sanjay was forced to soften his stand within 24 hours. There is absolutely no doubt that Singh had made that ridiculous statement with the tacit approval of his boss. And in the Congress party, boss is always right whatever the cost to the nation and its fight against terrorism.
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By Shyam Khosla
THE failure of the Constituent Assembly of Nepal to elect a new Prime Minister to fill in the vacancy caused by Prime Minister Madhav Nepal’s resignation and to make any substantial progress in writing the Republic’s constitution has plunged the country into a deep constitutional and political crisis.
Unfortunately, the entire political class is insensitive to public outrage over the leadership’s failure on all fronts and refuses to factor in compelling ground realities to resolve the crisis. It also lacks flexibility that is essential to hammer out a broad consensus on critical issues. Political outfits, particularly the Maoists, are in confrontational mode and have threatened “rebellion”. These tactics have stalled national reconciliation and undermined the fragile peace process set in motion in 2008. Instability that stares the nation in the face is worse than what the country went through in the year 2006 during the massive street protests against the misrule of the-then Monarch. The situation is so grave that it is causing deep concern to the discerning citizens of Nepal and its sympathizers in India and other parts of the world.
by Shyam Khosla
Warped and skewed Western and Marxist concepts and our intelligentsia’s propensity to be in perpetual denial are among the major causes of the confusion over our national identity. Many thinkers believe that several nations living in this vast land have now emerged, or are in the process of emerging, as a nation largely because our colonial masters brought them under the British rule. If one were to believe them, there would have been no entity called India in this part of the world if the British had not colonized it.
BIG GUNS IN MEDIA HAVE A LOT TO EXPLAIN
By Shyam Khosla
Media deserves full credit for exposing three major scams – Adarsh Housing Society in Mumbai, Commonwealth Games in Delhi and the worst of all, the dirt-cheap sale of second generation (2G) spectrums. But for the explosive disclosures by sections of the media, the looters of public funds would have gone scot free. Delayed action against those involved in these scams by the Prime Minister and the Congress President has besmirched India’s image. Resurgent India is now being perceived by the international community as a Republic of mega scams. The “clean” Prime Minister didn’t dare to move his little finger to bring the guilty in the 2G scam to justice till he was forced to act by the media’s dogged persistence and the BJP-led opposition’s determination not to allow the Parliament to function till the Government agreed to constitute a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) to enquire into the scam. Mark Tully has put it quite bluntly, “As a man of action, the PM’s image has been not only battered but (also) damaged. Still in the people’s mind he is a clean man”. The Supreme Court of India was constrained to ask as to why the Prime Minister took so long to respond to the complaints about the scam lodged by former Union Minister Dr Subramanian Swamy. The Prime Minister’s inability to act in the second generation spectrum scam has justified L K Advani’s description of Dr. Manmohan Singh as a “weak” Prime Minister. Dr. Singh looked the other way as the corrupt minister, bureaucrats and greedy big business looted the nation of the startling sum of RS 1.74 lakh crore.
The Press Council of India is a quasi judicial body established under the Press Council of India, Act, 1965, with the powers of a civil court to guide the press and the authorities on matters that may have a bearing on the freedom of the press and maintaining and improving the standards of newspaper and news agencies. The raison d’etre of this statutory body is rooted in the concept that in a democratic polity, the press needs to be simultaneously free and independent as well as responsible. The Council was first set up in 1966 on the recommendation of the first Press Commission. The Act was repealed in the era of censorship during the hated emergency in 1975 to abolish the Council with which the Government of the day was uncomfortable. The Parliament enacted another similar law in 1978 and the Council was re-established in the year 1979. (more…)
