Hindu Americans, like other minorities and new immigrants, were excited and involved with Obama for President as a candidate. They cheered him, canvassed for him, raised funds for his campaign and supported his election whole heartedly in many ways. During this election many more of our second generation became eligible to vote for the first time. And they voted for Obama.
At the same time, they also held very high hopes of him once he was elected to the highest office. One of the most significant aspects of our collective hopes was that his administration will be more inclusive than previous ones. It is therefore gratifying to note that, for the first time, Barack Obama in his Presidential inaugural speech included the word Hindu while listing the names of religious groups, thus explicitly recognizing the faith of a billion people on earth, and the faith of the vast majority of Indian Americans, now over 2 million strong in America. Also for the first time, a Hindu representative, Dr. Uma Mysorekar, President, Hindu Temple Society of North America, New York, was invited to the National Prayer Service /benediction following the Presidential Inauguration. These firsts are very significant events for the Hindu community in America.
Another major development during the first 100 days was the appointment to the President’s Council on Faith Based and Neighborhood Partnerships, of Anju Bhargava, President, Asian Indian Women in America and Founder, Indian Americans Building Communities. Bhargava’s appointment affords the Hindu community a voice on par in the religious and community development landscape of America. With unprecedented downturn in the economy brought about by the strongest recession since the 1930’s depression, many people have lost jobs and homes. This is the time when people turn to find solace in their faith. Hence, it is particularly important now that faith based organizations put extra efforts to serve their communities. Since the US population is so diverse with many faiths, ethnicities and languages, it is heartening to see that our President’s agenda includes representations from many diverse faiths in our society to help the people in these very difficult times. The faith based organizations should fully understand the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act and help redirect the dollars and the opportunities from this once in a lifetime government effort to empower and strengthen the communities they service.
Additionally, the Indian American community is pleased with the appointments of Preeta Bansal, Neal Katyal, Sonal Shah, Kalpen Modi, Rajiv Shah, Neera Tandon, Aneesh Chopra and Vivek Kundra to high level positions. Hindu American community has a very strong presence in the medical profession and we hope to see one serve as the Surgeon General in the future.
US relations with India are a matter of high interest to the Hindu American community. President Obama’s administration has made tremendous improvements in international relations. However, a lack of progress in defining solutions to the Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iraq/Iran problems, combined with the old political conundrums like CTBT have stymied progress in relations with India. And, India is the only country in the region that shares with USA the democratic principles of government. India desperately wants to maintain peaceful relations with its neighbors in spite of a barrage of terrorist activities directed towards its major cities including the capital New Delhi, business hub Mumbai, IT hub Bangalore, and the most sacred temples and cities like Varanasi. Immigration is another major concern to the Hindu American community. The economic recession has made foreign worker H1B visa holders unwelcome in America. This is short sighted and hopefully short lived. We hope the recent restriction will be lifted as economy pulls out of the recession.
The Hindu American community wishes President Barack Obama well in his endeavors and joins hands with him in taking our nation out of the current crisis onto a path of continued prosperity
Hindu Community’s Report on Barack Obama’s First 100 Days in Office
April 30th, 2009White House Appoints Sonal Shah Head of Social Innovation Office
April 18th, 2009It’s now official: Sonal Shah, former head of global development at Google.org, the search-engine company’s philanthropic arm, is head of the new White House Office of Social Innovation.
Shin Inouye, a White House spokesman, today confirmed Ms. Shah’s appointment—which has not been formally announced, although it is an open secret in nonprofit circles.
Mr. Inouye said the new office will fall under the Domestic Policy Council, a body that coordinates domestic policymaking in the White House and is headed by Melody Barnes. He said he could not give further details as the office “has not been rolled out yet.”
Members of President Obama’s transition team proposed creating an Office of Social Innovation to promote government efforts to help innovative nonprofit groups and social entrepreneurs expand successful approaches to tackling pressing social problems.
The office will no doubt be involved in the Social Innovation Funds pilot program that was just created by the Serve America Act, a national-service bill that will be signed by the president next week.
The funds, which will be administered by the Corporation for National and Community Service, will provide money for groups that are “developing innovative and effective solutions to national and local challenges.”
Ms. Shah was a member of the Obama transition project’s advisory board and co-chair of a transition group that made recommendations about technology and innovation, including “innovation and civil society.”
She is co-founder of Indicorps, a nonprofit group that offers fellowships to Indian-Americans working on development projects in India.
She has also held positions at Goldman, Sachs & Company, the Treasury Department, the Center for Global Development, and the Center for American Progress.
Jane Wales, director of the Program on Philanthropy and Social Innovation at the Aspen Institute, praised the new White House office today in a Chronicle online discussion.
“First and foremost it has the opportunity to encourage public-private partnerships aimed at addressing some of the toughest problems we face at home and abroad,” she said. In addition, “the office can take a careful look at U.S. government policies, including tax and regulatory policies, and determine which policies spur innovation, and whether
others might needlessly impede innovation.
“This is not an easy task,” she said. “But the office is led by a remarkably talented person, Sonal Shah. If anyone can do it, she can.”
Moral police hack Pink Chaddi on Net
April 14th, 2009The online group on the Facebook network that catapulted the Pink Chaddi Campaign to new heights has been hacked repeatedly in the past two weeks and renamed with racist and misogynist tones. Even after several complaints to Facebook administrators, not much has happened.
Hackers have vented their fury on the Facebook group which captured the world’s attention with an imaginative and subversive campaign which entailed a puckish sense of humour and a big point made to the moral police.
The famous Facebook group, Consortium of Pub-going, Loose and Forward Women, which had become the face of the real and virtual revolution against rightwing moral policing in the State, was bizarrely rechristened by hackers as “A good Bong is a dead one.”
Other names included the “Nathuram Godse Appreciation Society”, “Burn Graham Staines Society” and “Pro-aversion” society and featured pornographic pictures and lewd commentary.
The group encouraged women to send pink chaddis to the Sri Ram Sene to protest the infamous Mangalore pub attack and its threats against those celebrating Valentine’s Day.
In what was widely acknowledged as a successful campaign, the pink chaddi idea effectively took the wind off the saffron sails.
Campaign over, the group’s activities subsided. The recent hacking disrupted the site and the names of a staggering 59,000-odd members have vanished.
Despite a month of sending of emails to Facebook about the group being hacked continuously,
Nisha Susan, creator of the group, who also started the Pink Chaddi Campaign, has received no response from Facebook. “We got automatically generated emails from Facebook saying that they were looking into it, and then emails saying that Facebook could not be hacked,” she said.
Account disabled
A few days ago, her account was disabled by Facebook, because as the creator of the group she was seen as abusing her account.
“It does not take too many people to hack the group; it could even be one person,” said Ms. Susan, who is amused at the erratic content by the hackers.
For example, “A good Bong is a dead one” attacks many Bengali women in the group. Calling themselves the Ravana Sene, the hackers threaten: “You will never recover this group and life in India will get increasingly harder as groups like Sri Rama Sene see that it is more fun to be like Ravana Sene”, apart from obscenities.
The last time Ms. Susan was able to access it there were 135 administrators. “It means the trolls have taken over,” she says.
]\Meanwhile various other groups supporting the Pink Chaddi campaign and the Consortium have sprouted, created not only from India, but also by people from the U.K.
“I think the hackers might have been laid off, which is why they have so much time on their hands,” says Ms. Susan, who doesn’t think that there is a need to panic. “We can create another group,” she said simply.
New campaign
Soon another campaign initiated by her will kick off. “This is Indian Culture” campaign will have people posting videos of them doing what they think is Indian culture and will be hosted online.
The Hindu
RSS: A journey of 83 long years
March 22nd, 2009RSS: A journey of 83 long years
By Arun Anand
New Delhi, March 22 (IANS) The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), which has got a new chief in Mohan Bhagwat, has travelled a long way since it was born in a middle class house in Nagpur in 1925 to mould the Hindu way of thinking and influence the national struggle for independence.
The organisation has remained controversial all these decades. From 1947 to 2009, successive governments banned it thrice. Its critics term the RSS ideology of “Hindutva” communal, conservative and revivalist.
Here are some interesting facts about RSS, which believes in staying away from the media glare:
* RSS was founded by a former Congress worker, Kesava Rao Baliram Hedgewar (known commonly as Doctorji in RSS circles), on Sep 27, 1925 at his residence in Nagpur, where it is now headquartered. The objectives for setting up the RSS were to unite Hindus and to uplift them, leading to the birth of a Hindu rashtra (nation).
* The name RSS was selected officially April 17, 1926. That year the RSS started its daily meetings called “nitya shakha” where volunteers, known as “swayamsevaks”, met every day.
* The “shakha” continues to be the basic unit of the RSS organisational structure, which along with its allied organisations is widely referred to as the Sangh Parivar. “Shakha” is from where RSS gets its volunteers.
* RSS calls these volunteers “swayamsevaks”. Anyone is free to come and join RSS meetings, which are generally held in neighbourhood parks. There is no official membership. Anyone who has come to a shakha even once is treated as a ’swayamsevak’
* According to RSS estimates, till the end of January 2009 there were 43,905 shakhas running in 30,015 places; weekly shakhas were being held in 4,964 places and monthly meetings took place in 4,507 locations all over India. There is no official count of its “swayamsevaks”.
* The first RSS chief was K.B. Hedgewar (1925-40). M.S. Golwalkar, also known as “Guruji (1940-73), was the second RSS chief followed by Balasaheb Deoras (1973-94), Rajendra Singh or “Rajju bhaiyya” (1994-2000) and K.S. Sudarshan (2000-09). Mohan Bhagwat is the sixth RSS chief.
* Within RSS circles, its chief is known as the “sarsanghchalak”. The term was coined in 1929. RSS chief is nominated by his predecessor. The general secretary is “sarkaryavah”. He is elected by an executive council for three years. These two are the most powerful positions in the RSS.
* RSS is exclusively for males. But it has a women’s wing, Rashtriya Sevika Samiti.
* When it was born, RSS was dominated by Maharashtrian Brahmins. Over the decades, it began to accept people from all segments of Hindu society.
* Till 1936, RSS was active only in Maharashtra. In the next decade or so, it established its presence in northern India through volunteers who decided to work full time for expanding the organisation. It now has a pan India presence.
* In 1948, RSS was banned in independent India for the first time following Mahatma Gandhi’s assassination. The government suspected that the RSS played an active role in the killing. The ban was lifted in 1949.
* RSS was banned twice later: during the ‘emergency’ rule of 1975 and after the demolition of the Babri mosque in 1992.
* In 1949, RSS set up its first frontal organisation – Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) to work among students. This was followed in 1952 by Vanvasi Kalayan Asharam to work among tribals. In 1952, it actively supported the formation of the Bharatiya Jan Sangh (BJS) by Shyama Prasad Mukharjee. BJS merged into the Janata Party in 1977 and was reborn as Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in 1980.
* In 1955, it started the Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh, now one of the biggest trade unions in the country.
* In 1963, RSS participated in the Republic Day parade in Delhi. Around 3,000 “swayamsevaks” took part.
* In 1964, the Viswa Hindu Parishad (VHP) was set up to unite Hindu religious leaders. It played a leading role in the campaign to build a temple for Hindu god Ram in Ayodhya that led to the razing of the Babri mosque and helped the BJP to grow dramatically.
* From 1998 to 2004, while the BJP ruled India, the RSS flirted with power, but with disastrous consequences for its organisational base. It tried to dictate BJP’s agenda, resulting in hiccups in their relations.
* After the BJP’s defeat in 2004, the RSS decided to maintain a safe distance from party politics. Mohan Bhagwat, the new RSS chief, was one of the strongest advocates of this line.
Church property: discussion
March 20th, 2009(see the following letter)
The Marxists are playing the game for RSS very well, it seems. Why do we need trusts for church property?
Who asked for that? Has it craeted any problem at all? Joseph Pulikkunnel might have asked for it. But who cares about him? When Christians were being murdered in Orissa, did he utter a word? I saw his interview in an RSS web site about the so called property.
What is wrong if the bishop controls the property of the church? After all it is church’s property and the bishops have every right to do that. Bishops are not hereditory and they administer it only with the help of others. Worldwide, it is the same. But what is special about it in Kerala? The claim that the pope owns the property is a blatant lie. The Pope never ever interfered in church property or its administration.
The opponents can say that the temples are administered by the Devaswom Boad and some old masjids by Waqf Board. The temples were there for hundreds of years. They were mostly established by the kings or land lords, not by the ordinary Hindus.
But the church property is the creation of the church members. If they have no objection for the bishop to administer it, who has?
Also, there is another clever move. the Devaswom Board administers only temples. It does not administer the huge wealth of NSS or SNDP, SN Trust etc.
The law commission want to control churches, colleges, hospitals etc. Virtually the church will be controlled by a trust appointed by the corrupt politician. We know the corruption and fight in Devaswom board.
When the church is controlled by the government, the church officials will not set up new churches or colleges. They cannot set up missions. So effectively conversion can be stopped. Sangh parivar will be thrilled.
How are these churches and colleges were built? With the sacrifices of the church members. Even the self financing colleges are doing a good thing for the community. If the Christians have not set up them, these students will go and study in other states. The mentality that it is ok to go to other states and no colleges should come up in Kerala is simply not acceptable.
The same Marxists suffocated all new industry. So there are no industry in Kerala. They interfere in education. Now the education standards in Kerala is worse than other states. No Keralite wins all India examinations. If some wins, they might have studied in other states.
We all know what the license raj had done to indian economy. When it was freed from the bureacracy, Indian economy surged. The Marxists are trying to suffocate and control the church now.
Who knows they may be sharing the agenda of the BJP and Sangh parivar to throttle Christian church.
Another thing, has the church got that much property? We can say that the churches, colleges and hospitals are property. Are they? Who will sell it? Are they sellabel things?
The colleges and hospitals serve all people. It may be administered by the church, but it is common property.
The church could not amass as much wealth as some living gods in such shoter periods. The Marxists too have huge wealth.
Now there is an election soon, the Marxists should be shown the right place.
(P Thomas, NY)
Church’s property: Laity leaders support Kerala panel
March 20th, 2009government-appointed panel for transparent audit and accounting of Church assets. The recommendation was made by the Kerala Law Reforms Commission headed by Justice V R Krishna Iyer.
Leaders of the church have expressed disapproval of ‘attempts’ by the state government to ‘exercise control’ over assets of the church. Resistance from church leaders is likely to increase in the coming days.
However, the recommendation found the support of some leaders of the laity, already antagonised by the absence of a law to govern what they claim are common assets of all members of the church. These laity leaders have now demanded that the government frame a civil law for administration of assets. The administration of assets of all communities, barring Christians, are overseen by civil laws. Laity leaders have termed this as discrimination.
A bill to constitute Christian charitable trusts and trust committees at parish, diocese/district and state levels for governing the resources and finances and for the management of properties of the churches had stirred a hornets’ nest in Kerala earlier this year. The Kerala Catholic Bishops Conference had said in this regard that what mattered was Canon Law and not laws framed by the state.
The wealth of the church, at present, is managed by bishops. There are claims by the laity that it is they who enjoy the benefits too. Under Canon Law, the Pope is technically the supreme administrator and steward of all the wealth. For administrative purposes, his representatives, namely the bishops, are the ones who control the wealth.
The Christian Action Council led by Mr Joseph Pullikkunnel and retired Justice K T Thomas argue that the Pope ‘owning wealth’ of the church in India violated national sovereignty. They also claimed that it violated the paramount authority of the state. They point to Article 26 of the Constitution, which gives the state the power to regulate financial matters of religious communities. The leaders said that ‘accumulation of wealth by priests’ was against the sovereignty of India.
The leaders say Canon Law — which deals with constitution of the church, its relationship with other bodies and matters of internal discipline — is being used to prevent the laity from seeking transparency in governance of church assets.
This, the leaders alleged, was worse than the Satyam scam, although the church is not a listed company with shares.
They alleged that Canon Law, more than twelve papal centuries old, defied laws of the Indian state. The church, the biggest landowner, has seen its coffers overflowing since Emperor Constantine, who blurred the distinction between church and state. The accumulation of wealth in ecclesiastical hands calls the need for a law, they said.
The bishop himself is for administering goods of the whole diocese or hold the goods in the trust in the name of the diocese. Though the bishop can hold and administer church property in his own name by an absolute and full legal title, he is only procurator by the sacred canons, the laity leaders said.
Chuch’s property: what is the motive?
March 20th, 2009Canonical papal control over Church properties in Kerala will be a new imperialism repugnant to the secular character and sovereign authority of ‘ We the People of India’, opined Justice (Rtd.) V R Krishna Iyer here.
Apparently with the approval of the ‘Christian High Command’ a pastoral letter is in circulation in chapels and other biblical institutions criticizing a few Bills of the Law Reforms Commission, Kerala which advocate hundred percent secular reforms in the Christian, Islamic and Hindu theological rituals, said the noted jurist, who is the Chairman of the Commission, in a statement.
Urging the Bishops to withdraw the pastoral letter, Justice Iyer said the vast properties of the Church in the State were the product of parishioner’s contributions and naturally the management of the estate must have democratic dimensions giving a voice to the Christian parishioners.
This was the basis of one Bill objected to by the Bishops who now enjoy the power over the properties and ultimately it is claimed that the Pope controls the Bishops on the basis of Canonical Law.
In India, law making is not left to Vatican but to the constitutional agencies under the authority of our sovereign suprema lex.
” Further, it was also relevant to note that the Christian Trust dimension recommended by the Commission was at the instance of many representations made by sincere Christians. That is why leading thinkers like Justice K.T. Thomas, former judge of the Supreme Court, and Dr M V Pylee, former Vice Chancellor of Cochin University, great Christians and believers, have fully supported the Commission’s recommendations,” Justice Iyer noted.
The second objection raised was to a bill recommending state grants for any Indian family below the poverty line and conforms to the family norm of not having more than two children.
No limitation whatever is put on the number of children nor is there any restraint on the rights of every child whatever be the number, which belongs to every Indian child Christian or non Christian.
The disqualification prescribed for violation of the family norm of not having more than two children prescribed by the Bill, was only for claiming grants and benefits allowed specially by the Bill for families conforming to the mentioned family norm, he pointed out.
The third Bill recommended is wholly out of humanitarian and compassionate considerations rooted on the basis of the humanist compassionate provisions of the Constitution (Article 51 A) that Euthanasia be given support by the State and not confined to any particular religion or community.
” You may agree or disagree but Euthanasia has nothing to do with Christian number of children is beyond the Commission’s comprehension. Family planning and Euthanasia are matters of national concern, not chapel or Church indoctrination. The Commission has taken a benignant view and it is improper and unfair to accuse it as propaganda of the Marxist Government interfering with Christian religion,” Justice Iyer pionted out.
Human rights denied to many Hindus worldwide
March 19th, 2009Hindu American Foundation’s Annual Report Welcomed by Members of U.S. Congress.
The Hindu American Foundation is a 501(c)(3), non-profit, non-partisan organization promoting the Hindu and American ideals of understanding, tolerance and pluralism.www.HAFsite.org.
Washington, D.C. – Hindus in several regions throughout the world face daily acts of persecution and even terror, according to the most recent human rights report released in Washington, D.C. today. Nine countries, where rights abuses are considered the most rampant, are listed in the 150-page report compiled and released annually by the Hindu American Foundation (HAF). A bipartisan chorus of ranking members of the U.S. Congress and leaders of prominent non-governmental organizations (NGO’s) immediately endorsed the report.
“As a staunch advocate for persecuted religious and ethnic minorities, I commend the Hindu American Foundation for its critical work monitoring, documenting and revealing human rights violations,” said Senator Frank R. Lautenberg (D-NJ) in a statement released to the Foundation. ”Our work to combat the abuses detailed in this report is
far from over and I will continue working with the Hindu American Foundation to protect basic human rights.”
Bangladesh and Pakistan saw the most egregious human rights abuses according to the report and garner specific censure. In Bangladesh, nearly 300 acts of murder, rape, kidnappings, temple destruction and land grabs targeting Hindus were recorded over the nine months of reporting available to the Foundation. The practice of enslaving
children as bonded laborers continues unabated in Pakistan, and forced conversions and systematic persecution of Hindus has caused the continued decline of their population from 30% to around 1% over fifty years.
“That the most fundamental human rights to life and liberty are denied to people globally solely because of their faith is as unacceptable as it is undeniable,” said Samir Kalra, Esq., member of the Foundation’s Executive Council and editor of this year’s report. “The annual HAF report bears witness to the plight of millions of Hindus and other minorities while encouraging dialogue on this issue that is too often ignored.”
As in year’s past, the Foundation distributed a preliminary version of the report, entitled Survey of Human Rights on the Hindus in South Asia and the Diaspora 2008, to congressional offices on Capitol Hill following up outreach efforts that continue throughout the year. The HAF Director of Public Policy, Ishani Chowdhury will follow up with legislators advocating that appropriations of humanitarian and military aid be conditioned on real improvements in the human rights situation in recipient countries. Pakistan, as the recipient of the most U.S. aid out of countries listed in the report, is set to receive over $1 billion in aid in 2009 alone.
“As the Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on Terrorism and co-chair of the House Caucus on India and Indian Americans, I have seen how the growth of radical Islam impacts the well-being of the Hindu population, and the threat to the peace-loving people of these nations,” said Representative Ed Royce (R-CA). “This report importantly documents the plight of persecuted Hindus throughout South Asia and reports like this are important in documenting these human rights abuses.”
Malaysia again came in for censure in the annual report for the continued detention of non-violent Hindu activists belonging to the Hindu Rights Action Force (HINDRAF) under draconian laws, and for the systematic treatment of Hindus as second-class citizens under Islamic laws. Saudi Arabia, Trinidad and Tobago and India’s state of Jammu
and Kashmir are among the regions included in the report. “Where violations prevail, a constant disregard for basic human rights often leaves the oppressed and persecuted to suffer in silence,” said Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH) after examining the report. “The Hindu American Foundation’s tireless advocacy to promote awareness and action on behalf of Hindu minorities across the globe serves as a leading example for those who value human rights and freedom.”
A Former Nun’s Memoirs Rock India’s Catholic Church
March 9th, 2009A Former Nun’s Memoirs Rock India’s Catholic Church
By Madhur Singh
After 26 years as a nun, Jesme Raphael gave up her robes and walked out of the Congregation of the Mother of Carmel, the Catholic order in Kerala, India, that had been her home for three decades. Two years later, Raphael, now 53, has come out with her memoirs, Amen: An Autobiography of A Nun, cataloging lurid details of bullying, sexual abuse and homosexuality in the oldest Catholic women’s order in the idyllic coastal state in southern India. Shocking as it is, the book is only the latest in a long series of accusations and scandals afflicting the Catholic Church in the state with the largest population of Christians in India.
“All the brothers here send you greetings. Greet one another with a holy kiss [1 Corinthians 16:20],” Raphael quotes a priest as telling her, after she confronted him with allegations that “he kissed almost everyone who went for one-on-one meetings.” In other episodes, she tells of a forced lesbian encounter, being forced to strip in front of a naked priest who then masturbated, and being accused of being mentally unstable on complaining to her superiors. (See pictures about young nuns in the U.S. who have taken their vows.)
Since the book’s release on January 30, publishers DC Books have already sold all 3,000 copies, and a re-print has been ordered. The Catholic church is miffed. “There is no dearth of anti-religion people in Kerala society,” says Dr Stephen Alathara, deputy secretary of the Kerala Catholic Bishops Council. “They are using this for their anti-social, anti-church activities.” In 1957, Kerala elected the world’s first democratically elected communist government, and it has been under communist rule since the last state elections in 2006.
A spokesperson for the Syro-Malabar order of the Catholic Church, Father Paul Thelakkat, adds that Raphael’s allegations stem from “some wounded feelings” which Raphael should have raised with the church instead of “maligning the life of religious nuns”. He goes on to add that Raphael’s allegations are “not especially serious”. “The church never claims there’s no sin within the church,” he says. “We’re not angels, we’re human beings of flesh and blood, so some omissions and failures can happen. But the church is perennially on a path of renewal and reformation, we’re trying to deal with these problems and such allegations.”
There has been no shortage of them in recent months. On February 11, Sister Josephine, a nun in the Daughters of Mary congregation in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala’s state capital, was found dead in her room in an apparent suicide. Members of the congregation said the 38-year-old nun had been under treatment for depression. After news of the incident spread, a crowd gathered around the house and shouted slogans alleging that harassment had led Sister Josephine to kill herself. The police had to intervene, and an inquiry into the case was later ordered. Six months earlier, on August 11 last year, 23-year-old Sister Anoopa Mary had been found hanging in her room in St Mary’s Convent in Kollam, north of the capital. In what was purportedly her suicide note, she had said she could no longer withstand the senior nuns’ harassment. Her father, a cook in the local Bishop’s house, charged that sexual exploitation had led his daughter to take her life. The convent has denied the allegations, though a court investigation is still ongoing.
See pictures of Pope Benedict XVI visiting America.
Read TIME’s cover story, “The Secret Life of Mother Theresa.”
Recently, there have been expulsions and other disciplinary action in response to other cases of misconduct within the Church. In June last year, a nun in a Christian hospital was expelled after a video of her having sex with a driver was circulated over mobile phones and the Internet. In October, Pope Benedict XVI had suspended a bishop in the coastal city of Cochin after his adoption of a 26-year-old woman as his daughter raised questions. The bishop has denied any wrongdoing, and said he adopted the woman out of fatherly love. But the church took him off all duties and instituted an inquiry.
“Such problems have been there in almost all convents [in Kerala],” says Joseph Pulikunnel, a veteran Syrian Catholic social reformer who edits Osanna, a magazine aimed at Kerala’s Catholic community. “The convents are closed to the public, we don’t know what is happening inside.” He says India’s Catholic church, which accounts for 70% of all denominations among India’s 25 million Christians, owns vast properties across the country, including over 30,000 educational institutes and 6,000 hospitals. In Kerala, the Church runs 60% of the private educational institutes. The state’s near 100% literacy — a singular case in a country where the average adult literacy rate is just about 60% — is thanks largely to the church’s zealous missionary activity. Yet, critics claim this gives the church a high degree of political and economic power. Church reform activists also say the affairs of the Catholic church — to which 60% of Kerala’s Christians belong — should be brought more directly under the control of Indian authorities to make its workings more transparent. As of now, church affairs are under the stewardship of the Pope. (See pictures of spiritual healing around the world.)
In recent months, the church has been more forthcoming about the problems it faces. Sathyadeepam, Kerala’s Catholic weekly, released a report in January that said almost 20% of the region’s nuns — the church says there are about 45,000 — feel “insecure or unaccepted” in their convents. Cases of nuns speaking up like Raphael are still rare, but there may be an avalanche building up due to the changing social scenario. Earlier, girls from disadvantaged families embraced the vows, finding that life in a convent, while hard, saved them from the worst of deprivation. But once in an order, they found it difficult to complain or leave. “They simply had nowhere to go,” says Pulikunnel, “If they quit the convent, they’d be thrown out penniless, and their families wouldn’t take them back.”
But times have changed. Churches around the world have been coming to grips with legacies of quiet abuse, and Indian society, too, has evolved. There is no longer a stigma attached to giving up the robes and returning to the laity. There are plenty of well-paying jobs — nursing has proven particularly attractive for Kerala women as it is seen as a passport to a foreign job and big bucks — and many youngsters are not up for a lifetime of celibacy and a religious vocation. Although figures have not been collated, activists claim a steady decline in the number of young people taking the vows, or, like Raphael, renouncing their vows.
But to stem the rot that has set in, the church will first have to admit the real nature and extent of the problem. If Dr Alathara’s reaction is anything to go by, that candor is a long way off. When asked about the numerous allegations of sexual abuse in the church, he says, “[Alleging sexual abuse] is an old tool of hitting at the ecclesiastical society. It’s nothing new. It happened 2,000 years ago too.” Father Thelakkat’s reaction is somewhat similar — though he doesn’t deny Raphael’s allegations, he refuses to acknowledge their seriousness either: “The incidents may be true, but they are isolated cases.” Clearly, it’s time to connect the dots, and see the bigger picture.
The Bobby Jindal Racism
March 7th, 2009http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2009-03-04/the-bobby-jind
al-racism-puzzle
After the Louisiana governor’s speech was panned as “creepy” and “weird,” some suggested racism factored into the response. But Keshni Kashyap says if anyone’s not comfortable with Jindal’s roots, it’s Jindal himself.
On February 24, two skinny and bookish dark-hued men gave televised speeches, one after the other. The first man, favored from the start, generally got a thumbs up, but the second suffered a wide, cross-political panning. Some panned for substance, but mostly, it was an issue of style.
With President Obama peppering race issues with elegant introspection, Governor Jindal suddenly has to answer questions about something he has long glossed over.
During his State of the Union-like speech on the economy, President Barack Obama, as usual, came across as supremely comfortable. But in delivering the GOP response, Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal had a curious mien, one that has since been associated with fictional characters from 30 Rock’s Kenneth the Page to The Simpsons’ Mr. Burns.
For the duration of the speech, his shoulders were stiff, his head cocked to the right. He wore a forced smile that seemed to plead with the Republican-weary masses to enter the peculiar magic castle he was selling. “My own parents,” he said tonelessly, “came from a distant land.” People called the speech “deeply weird.”
Just for a moment, leave substance aside, if only because your aunt or grandfather may have voted for George because they wanted to have a beer with him. Jindal is not a man of average intelligence. He went to Brown. Like Bill Clinton, he was a Rhodes scholar. At the age of 24, he was appointed secretary of Louisiana’s Department of Health and
Hospitals. At 36, he became the youngest sitting governor in the US.
He is known to be a consummate wonk.
And, of course, he is Indian-American. It was only a matter of time before race came into the picture. Christopher Orr of the New Republic theorized that Americans can accept a nerdy black man, but not a nerdy Indian because Indians were never cool anyway. Ann Althouse of the University of Wisconsin Law School suggested yesterday that the
reaction to Jindal and his speech might be racist: “If there’s someone of a different race, and you just have this gut feeling that something’s not quite right, why are you so confident that it’s not coming from racism?”
But if we are uneasy with Bobby Jindal, it is not because we’re a nation of racists, it’s because we are observing a man who seems to be uneasy with his own race.
While it hasn’t stopped him from taking campaign money from South Asians-I attended an Indian-sponsored fund-raiser in Los Angeles some years ago when he was running for governor for the first time-Jindal has downplayed his ethnic background throughout his political life. He changed his Indian name during childhood and, against his father’s
wishes, he converted from Hinduism to Christianity.
When the New Orleans Times-Picayune tried to go to India to cover his Punjabi roots, his family did not cooperate. And on Sunday night, when Morley Safer asked Jindal if he experienced racial tension growing up in Baton Rouge, the governor responded, “Not at all. You know, this has been a great place to grow up. The great thing about the people of
Louisiana is that they accept you based on who you are.”
Safer pointed out this was hard to believe in a state where 40% of the population voted for Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke not so long ago.
“We were raised as Americans. We were raised as Louisianans,” said Jindal’s wife, Supriya, when Safer asked them both if they maintained Indian traditions in their home. “Not too many,” they both agreed.
“This at a time when the president calls himself Barack rather than Barry, and openly talks about his Kenyan roots,” said Manish Vij, the creator of Ultrabrown, a popular South Asian-American blog. Indeed, it’s hard to imagine Obama referring to himself as a Hawaiian and leaving it at that. Obama’s detailed excavation of his background is, in fact, what made him seem less exotic to Middle America. He sorted out his issues and, with nothing to hide, could move onto the job of governing.
A child of immigrants has a unique set of formative experiences: The desire to etch away pieces of yourself-your name and your context-is very strong, particularly if you are trying to win the trust of people in the rural parts of a Southern state. I grew up in Los Angeles in the 1980s and ’90s-a very different experience, I imagine, than living
in Baton Rouge in the ’70s-and I was not remotely interested in running for governor, or even class president. But if it had occurred to me to change my name to Marsha, quite frankly, I might have.
“By changing his name from Piyush to Bobby and by converting from Hinduism to Christianity, Jindal has repeatedly distanced himself from his Indian ethnicity and his family’s Hindu faith,” says Varun Soni, dean of religious life at the University of Southern California, and the first Hindu dean of a major American university. “But now that Jindal is being touted as the ‘Republican Obama,’ his identity as an Indian American may suddenly be politically advantageous.” Maybe this is why Jindal awkwardly wedged in the canned comment about his family “from a distant land,” and at least part of the reason he’s become the golden boy in a party of white Christian men.
So now the GOP wants to update his image, and, by association, their own. With President Obama peppering race issues with elegant introspection, Jindal suddenly has to answer questions about something he has long glossed over. Perhaps this is the disconnect-the weirdness-that people are sensing. There may be valid reasons why
Jindal has changed himself from Piyush into Bobby, but people can sense the ambivalence, and that ambivalence was on full display last week in his speech. In the Obama age, a brown man who cannot or will not articulate his relationship to his heritage (aside from vague platitudes about the American dream) makes Americans uneasy. Today, transparency is touted as a virtue. But Bobby Jindal creates confusion in the minds of Americans who watch him: They sense self-deception.
Keshni Kashyap is a writer who lives (mostly) in Los Angeles. Her first book, Tina’s Mouth, a graphic novel, will be published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt in 2010.
Convention/youth festival mafia
February 19th, 2009Hope bad weather and struggling economy is not affecting anyone.
Many months have passed, yet we do not have a clear picture of who spent and how the many checks received in connection with Houston FOKANA convention and Youth Festival in Chicago. Authorities (Mr. Sasi Nair and Mr. Aniyan George, who at that time controlled FOKANA, and there is confirmation that they received these checks), are not prepared to answer anything clearly on how they spent it. Should we have a right to know about this money? Ofcourse. FOMAA or FOKANA, they should let public know about the whereabouts of these accounts. Do you agree? We have already seen the underhand dealings behind Youth Festival & Houston Convention, thru Mr. MG Sreekumar’s disclosure. There are many hundred thousands involved in these transactions.
Houston Convention Committee, who conducted a memorable convention (Hats off to people of Houston!), will soon formally request these officials to provide them the accounts of Houston Convention, and will investigate into the hidden convention dealings -. The same people who are involved in this huge money dealings are preparing again to organize a Youth Festival or something. Yes, A convention/youth festival mafia is in our midst. Recognize them, they will be behind whatever happen here. Be aware of their tactics, we request, do not participate in the next Youth Festival or any of FOMAA or FOKANA Convention, do not donate any money, until we get 2 full year accounts that is crisp and clear, and that is formally published in the news media clearing all our doubts and acceptable to us. Let us show them American Malayalees have unity, and we are even capable of organizing a convention of their own in a major city of our choice, without charging a registration fee! Best Regards
Thomas John, North Carolina
Slumdog: Exploiting India
February 17th, 2009T P Sreenivasan
Slumdog Millionaire? I hate that film!” said a much decorated, liberal and well-travelled former submariner.
“It is poverty porn at its worst. The Mumbai marauders are supposed to have done their deed to hurt India, to challenge its success, to expose its soft underbelly. But this movie has done the job better”
He did not say it, but suggested that the movie was cinematic terror against India. But he had not seen the movie or read the novel. “What kind of diplomat is he, who does the job of a drain inspector? Isn’t he supposed to project India in a positive light?” he said of my
former colleague, Vikas Swarup.
I teased my friend, “You are like the Soviet citizens of yore, who used to say they hated Dr Zhivago though they had never read the novel.” We were both in Moscow in the seventies.
I too had not seen the movie or read the novel, Q&A, now christened Slumdog Millionaire with an eye on the bestseller list, and I too had heard horrible things about the shit pit, the blinding of children with acid and such other horrors of Dharavi slum that the movie presents graphically.
I had also heard that the movie was nominated for the Oscars and A R Rahman had already won the Golden Globe. But I said I would read the novel, see the movie and judge whether the artistic excellence of the film absolves it of its obscenity.
Having read the novel and seen the film, I cannot say that it has done more good than harm to India. This is not a matter of my wanting to shove the reality under the carpet. Vikas Swarup, or any other diplomat, cannot lie abroad for his country anymore.
But the film is exploitation of the novel, of Dharavi, of poverty, of Rahman, of India itself to titillate foreign audiences. It is the exploitation of the new curiosity about India’s success. The curiosity today is not about maharajas and snake charmers, magic or rope trick, but about the market and the malls, the computers and the cell phones.
The question is whether India is a boom or a bubble. It seeks to reassure the world, as Jamal says to an American tourist couple, when he rolls on the ground after a brutal beating by the police, ‘You want to see the real India? Here it is!’
Vikas Swarup can explain his novel away, as he has done, by saying that he merely held up a mirror to nature and made a hero of a boy from the slums in celebration of his keen eye and keener brain. Even the word ’slumdog’ was not his creation. He found a clever story line and wrote a readable novel, though replete with horrible scenes and
unpalatable descriptions of his country.
His book would have raised some eyebrows, but passed to obscurity, like some other creations of diplomatic wordsmiths. But he walked into a trap and sold his rights, without caring to insist that the movie should at least be faithful to his novel. The screenplay has very little to do with the novel itself, except the theme of a millionaire rising from a slum to win a fortune by sheer luck.
Even the questions in the book are different from those in the movie. So are the events that helped Jamal (not Ram Mohammad Thomas) to win his millions. Vikas Swarup, the Indian diplomat, became a willing instrument in the hands of his exploiters. ‘I am not a millionaire as yet,’ lamented Swarup in an interview!
Take the opening scenes of torture. An idiotic policeman carries out the orders of his cleverer and sympathetic boss in the expectation that Jamal would confess to even graver crimes at the end of it. But Jamal did not cheat. The reason he won was that ‘it was written.’
Torture is internationally banned and the director of the film knew that India had not joined the global consensus against torture. He also knew that India is obsessed with Amnesty International raising issues of human rights when they hear about torture. The police officer mentions Amnesty as the disaster, not the possible death of the victim of torture. The police man appears to enjoy torturing and even insulting the victim. He provokes Jamal by referring to Latika as the ‘bitch of the slum.’ The torture scenes do not add much to the story, but denigrates India even more than the slums do.
As though the depiction of squalor, crime and cruelty is not enough, the film challenges India’s success. In a relatively harmless scene, in which Jamal and Salim look with pride at the skyscrapers, which had come up where their slums flourished during their younger days, Salim says: ‘Today India is in the centre of the world.’
As I heave a sigh of relief that there is at least one line in praise of India, he goes on to say: ‘And I am in the centre of it.’ He then goes on to say that he is with a gangster. Well, the movie was taken before the revelations about Satyam. Who then are the gangsters in the centre of India as it emerges as the centre of the world?
Consider a question that Jamal could not answer. The quiz master asks what is written below the Ashoka lions on the Indian national crest.
Is it truth alone triumphs or lies alone triumph? You don’t need to be a rocket scientist to know that this is an insult, particularly as Jamal does not seem to know the answer.
The champions of the film, including my own sons, one, a journalism professor at Columbia University in New York and the other, a young manager and a music and movie enthusiast, say that Slumdog is a cinematographic wonder with excellent acting, soulful music, perfect direction and amazing photography.
‘Exuberant, exciting, gaudy, and gritty in a way that can only be called Dickensian, Slumdog Millionaire brings contemporary Mumbai to life from the seamy side up, and it does so with compassion and all-around cinematic excellence,’ exults Shashi Tharoor.
Many say that the film will do India proud if Rahman picks up three Oscars. In fact, the music is a redeeming feature of the movie. Even the redlight district scene comes to life with the melody of the anklets on dancing feet. But the celebrated song at the end of the
movie sounds like a parody of the national anthem with the use of the phrase, Jai ho!
It was not necessary to rake up the dirt in India to create a film to bring Oscars to India. India rejoiced at the Gandhi Oscars, but Slumdog Oscars, if any, will only highlight how India became a victim of exploitation.
Eminent writer Chitra Banerjee Divakurni claims that the movie is, after all, fiction and it should not hurt anyone. Could this not be dealt with by an inscription that any similarity with reality is pure coincidence? But the makers of the film took special care to shoot on
location and document every detail. The purpose was obviously to make the movie as authentic as possible and make an impact. The adverse reaction to the movie in India is precisely because of its authenticity.
The fact remains, however, that the novelist and the makers of the movie have brought to light the horrors of Dharavi. If the passion it has aroused could be directed towards a mass movement to combat the evils of the slum and to eliminate the slums altogether in stages, that would be an appropriate response to the movie.
If those involved in the movie would offer their profits from the film to that movement, they would elevate themselves from exploiters to benefactors.
T P Sreenivasan is a former ambassador of India to the United Nations, Vienna, and a former Governor for India at the International Atomic Energy Agency, Vienna. He is currently the Director General, Kerala International Centre, Thiruvananthapuram and a Member of the National Security Advisory Board.
Uncharitable giving
February 17th, 2009Priya Abraham in Washington Times
Before the terrorist attacks in Mumbai rattled the world last December, the state of Orissa in eastern India was enduring its own gruesome and drawn-out version of religious violence.
Following the murder of a hard-line Hindu swami on Aug. 23, extremist Hindus went on a rampage against Orissa’s minority Christians, burning homes and churches; battering people; and raping women, including a nun. The violence has left about 70 people dead and displaced 50,000 into refugee camps.
As of last month, thousands remained in such camps. The All India Christian Council, an advocacy and relief group, was still distributing emergency items such as blankets and clothing even as its workers tried to help families earn a living again.
While the four months of violence have finally died down, Orissa’s history of Hindu-on-Christian violence means it may easily revive. And while it might be easy to chalk up the latest attacks to India’s occasional convulsions in communal strife, Americans are missing a crucial piece of the Orissa puzzle: Much of the funding for Hindu extremism comes from the United States.
In India, Hindu nationalist groups aspire to Hindutva – the concept of a “pure” Hindu nation where Hindus have an unassailable dominion over minorities such as Muslims and Christians and in which the caste system is rigidly preserved. During 2002 riots in Gujarat state, the ideology found a deadly outlet with the well-planned retaliatory killing of some 2,000 Muslims.
The Hindutva groups fall under the umbrella organization of the Sangh Parivar, and include organizations such as the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) – which helped incite the latest violence in Orissa – and the national Bharatiya Janata Party.
Sangh Parivar groups have affiliates in the United States that operate as cultural or charitable groups and gather most of their funding support from U.S. diaspora Indians. Their funding, in turn, of Hindutva groups in India has helped to both fuel and prolong the harassment and attack of Christians in Orissa and other Indian states.
U.S. sources of funding for Hindu extremism is not a topic that attracts much press, but California-based anthropologist Angana Chatterji has been following the money for years. She has made 18 trips to Orissa since June 2002, gathered facts in dozens of its villages and has also convened a human-rights tribunal in the state.
According to Ms. Chatterji, there are four major Hindutva-affiliated groups in the United States that have funded numerous organizations across India. The U.S. groups register as charities with tax-exempt status and carry stated goals of providing development and welfare work for needy Indians. In reality, Ms. Chatterji says, the charities offer facades for vast political activities that include the education, conversion and indoctrination of Hindutva ideology in traditionally poor and often illiterate tribal and low-caste Indians.
One example is the Maryland-based India Development and Relief Fund, which according to its Web site, has raised $10 million since 1987. According to a 2002 study that Ms. Chatterji helped author, the IDRF’s tax-exempt application form upon its founding named several Sangh organizations in India that it would support.
One such organization, Sewa Bharati, is well-known for introducing the regular observance of Hindu festivals in villages where little existed, or for sending in Hindu teachers to counteract the perceived influence of local Muslims or Christians.
The 2002 report further noted that half of IDRF’s funds were going to Sangh-related groups whose main purpose was to convert and Hinduize the poor and marginalized. Less than one-fifth of its funds, in fact, were going to its stated aim of development work, and the IDRF’s political activity has been in direct violation of its tax-exempt status.
In 2006, the IDRF disbursed $1.6 million in India, according to its tax records. Other Sangh-affiliated groups have raised similar sums, Ms. Chatterji says: Ekal Vidyalaya, which gave $2 million in 2006; and Sewa International USA, which allocated $284,000. Sewa International is the parent body to Sewa Bharati, the Hindu indoctrination group mentioned above. All told, such organizations form a complex and interconnected web through which U.S. funding travels.
In Orissa, the stakes for Hindu extremists are particularly high. Orissa is the country’s poorest state, with almost 40 percent living below the poverty line – double India’s national level. The majority of Orissa’s residents are low-caste Hindus or non-Hindu tribals who have little hope in the discriminatory caste system. Christians, Muslims, tribals and other downtrodden groups are the targets of Hindu extremists in Orissa.
Christian churches and groups that offer education, job training and ideas of a classless society understandably are appealing to many, to the anger of higher-caste Hindus who stand to lose their privileged status.
In most international religious conflicts, the United States can do little to curb the violence raging beyond its borders. But in India’s case, Ms. Chatterji notes, Washington can do something to help: investigate and reassess the charitable status of U.S. organizations whose funding is indirectly – or directly – enabling the bloodshed. The Hindu extremists’ 2008 campaign in Orissa was so well-orchestrated, the violence spread to five other states. For Christians still languishing in refugee camps, the next time could be chillingly worse.
Priya Abraham is director of communications at the Institute on Religion and Public Policy.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/feb/08/uncharitable-giving/
RSS set to enter FMCG market – with cow urine and dung products
February 14th, 2009New Delhi, Feb 14 (IANS) What’s common between a new brand of soft drinks, toothpowder, paper, distemper and furniture proposed to be launched by a Hindu organisation? All these products use cow dung and cow urine as raw material.
The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) is getting ready to promote a number of products using cow urine and cow dung.The RSS claims to have developed a few products already and hopes they will hit the market within six months.
One of their products – Gau Jal or the Cow Water – is projected as a healthy and medicinal replacement for the colas currently available in the market.
“We have recently sent it to a laboratory for testing and approval after testing it indigenously in our lab,” said Om Prakash, head of Haridwar-based RSS Cow Protection Department.
“It will definitely be a revolution as the acceptance of cow urine as a potent medicine is increasing day by day and once it is launched, its demand will definitely increase,” Prakash said.
“It has been proved that cow urine is effective in helping cure liver and stomach ailments, diabetes, and even cancer,” claimed Prakash.
The RSS also claims that effective and commercial utilization of cow urine and cow dung may well boost the rural economy and living standards of the 700 million odd rural population of India.
The RSS organised a workshop for its activists Thursday in New Delhi to impart training on how cow dung and cow urine can be used to bring a rural economic revolution.
“Consumer goods like mosquito repellents, phenyl, lotions, shampoos, etc could be made using cow urine,” Prakash told the activists during the workshop.
Prakash said a number of products such toothpowder, paper, distemper and furniture can be made using cow dung.
“The tiles made of cow dung are fire and water resistant and can even ward off radiation,” Prakash claimed.
All the manufacturing and quality tests were conducted by Kanpur based Kanpur Gaushala Society (KGS) and some of the products have been given a nod by certified laboratories, he said.
“A few products, including the Gau Jal are currently under test in Lucknow,” informed P. Toshniwal of the KGS.
As far as the availability of raw material (cow dung and cow urine) is concerned, Prakash said they are getting it in ample quantity.
“At present we are buying urine at Rs.5 per litre and dung at Rs.3 per kg. The supply is mainly from the rural outskirts of Kanpur and once the commercial production starts we will increase the rates,” Prakash said.
However, private companies will do the commercial production of the products. “As soon as we get the laboratory results and certificates we will select the companies that will produce them. As of now no selections have been made,” he added.
Sinister plan to Islamize Kerala?
February 9th, 2009SINISTER PLAN TO ISLAMIZE KERALA
Dr. Babu Suseelan
The greatest threat facing Kerala, the land of Parasuram, Sankaracharya, and Sri Narayana Guru today is Islamic expansionism. For centuries,
Muslims from the Middle East, the self-approved Islamic fanatics have been waging a Jihad war against Hindus in Kerala. Even before the Portuguese pirate Vasco De Gama reached Kozhikode, Arab Muslims have marched into Kerala for looting, sex escapade and coercive religious conversion. Most of the earlier.
Arab Muslims were small and fluid, appearing and disappearing, splintering, and reemerging in new Islamic disguises. They were successful in settling in Malabar and forcefully converting few Hindus by the sword. It was during the Islamic invasion of Hider Ali and Tip Sultan; Muslims were successful in forcefully converting large number of Hindus by the Islamic sword. They have destroyed most of the Hindu temples in Malabar, looted its wealth and slaughtered thousands of Hindus who have resisted fanatic Muslims.
Despite the growing ferocity and atrocity of the Jihadi violence against Hindus, the Marxist government in Kerala has created a separate Muslim majority district in Malabar. The Muslim majority district has enabled Muslims to gain political power and expand their influence. The Islamic population is expanding in all districts of Kerala. It is reported that within the next ten years, Hindus will become a minority in Kerala. In many ways, the most dangerous allies of Muslims in Kerala are the Marxists and the pseudo secular, anti national Congress party. It is the supporters and allies of fanatic Muslims who make it possible for Muslims to pose a serious threat to Hindus in Kerala. The Communists and the Congress party accept Jihadi expansionism, atrocity and belligerence. Democracy and traditional culture is weakened in Kerala by the steady increase of Islamic population.
NEW JIHADI THREATS, LAND GRAB, AND POPULATION EXPLOSION
Now reports have surfaced that the entire Muslim population from Maldives want to settle in Kerala. The Maldives will sink under water if the current pace of climate change keeps raising sea levels. The Maldives is an archipelago of almost 1,200 coral islands located south-South west of India. Most of the islands lie just 1.9 meters above the sea level. The U. N panel on climate change has forecast a rise in sea levels and the entire Maldives islands will be submerged under water.
Maldives wants to spend 1 billion a year to buy a new homeland for its Muslim population of 370,000. Maldives Muslims want to buy land in Kerala since Kerala has similar climate as Maldives. It is reported that the President of Maldives Noshed has already received welcome sign from the Muslim League and Marxist leaders from Kerala. Maldives Muslims already have been buying land in prime locations of Kerala. Already rich Arabs and Jihadi drug lords as well as illegal Islamic money traders have invested heavily in real estate in secure beach fronts, urban centers and rural areas of Kerala posing a serious security threat to the nation.
Hindus from South India and Sri Lanka were the earliest settlers in Maldives. During the Mayryan Empire, Asoka the great expanded his regime to Maldives islands. The islands were full of Hindu temples. Later, Maldives Hindus were converted to Mahayana and Vajrayana Buddhism. Islamic invaders during the 12th century have completely destroyed the entire Hindu Temples and Buddhist Pagodas, cultural institutions and forcefully converted the entire population into Islam. All temples were reconstructed as Mosques. Even today, many Mosques in Maldives face the Sun not in Mecca. During the 15th century the Portuguese, and the 16th century the Dutch, have invaded the islands. In 1887, Maldives became a British protectorate and military base. The Maldives got independence in 1965 and became an Islamic Sultanate.
Maldives Muslims have been illegally settling in Kerala with the connivance of Islamic political leaders and the Marxist government. The sudden Islamic population explosion in Kerala will have disastrous consequences for the economy, the environment, and the democratic system. Understanding of the threats and dangers posed by the sudden influx of Muslims from Maldives’ in Kerala and the dwindling resources is very important for our survival. Under the Marxist government, the quality of life has been eroding, and unemployment has been rising. If the Muslim migration from Maldives materializes, it may lead to the permanent destruction of Hindu culture in Kerala and the deterioration of quality of life. A rapid increase in the number of people will increase the prevailing levels of crime, pollution, and urban congestion. But a sharp increase in Islamic population will add to the intensity of the problem and in the cultural disintegration of Kerala.
Protest against Orissa incidents
February 3rd, 2009In a rare show of unity, various Christian churches joined together to voice their concern on the increasing violence in many parts of India, especially in Orissa.
The occasion was the visit of Mar Rafael Cheenath, Archbishop of Cuttack-Bhubaneswar and the head of the Catholic Church in the state.
Various church groups formed a network called ‘India Peace Initiative’ for the reception and also to work together in the coming days to show the unity and solidarity of Christians from India in the US.
The reception was held at the American Martyrs Catholic Church in Queens, New York, which was attended by representatives from all churches including Bishop TN Ninan of the CSI Church.
The archbishop had earlier visited Washington, DC and met with church leaders and federal officials.
The meeting also passed a resolution asking the Indian and US governments to ensure the safety of the minorities and ‘treat terrorism against minorities at an equal footing with that of international terrorism and human right violations. The resolution also called upon the Govt to protect the lives and properties of Christians In India and to provide immediate relief and adequate compensation to the victims.’
NY State senator Frank Padavan, who attended the meeting noted that it was a sad occasion. During partition many were killed and displaced. But that is history now, he noted. The world is troubled by the attacks against Christians. Gandhi’s idea of peace is the solution. He prayed that such attacks will never happen again and all will return to sanity.
NY State Assemblyman Mark Weprin said violence or discrimination based on religion, skin color, sex etc are not acceptable. “At the kindergarten the children live in harmony with others. When did they learn to hate others,” he wondered. He said all people are god’s children and he opposed all forms of hate.
The meeting began with a Mass celebrated by the archbishop and several priests from the NY-tristate area.
Mar Cheenath commented the Christian community for coming together to protest the attacks in India. “It is high time that we work together. We are people with the common faith in Christ though we may have differences in many other areas,” he said.
Mar Cheenath recounted the horrific events in Orissa. He said the basic reason for all this lies in the move of Hindu fundamentalist groups to transform India as a Hindu Rashtra. In such a state Christians and Muslims will be only subservient to the majority community. With this aim they spread hatred against the minorities and many people believe in such a propaganda too.
The immediate cause cited for the attack on Christians in Kandhamal district was the murder of Swami Laxmananada Saraswati. The Maoists had warned the Swami thrice earlier to stop the hate campaign. This is historically correct. The swami had complained about this to the police.
Yet, when he was murdered there were no policemen.
The next two days, the officials and media confirmed that the attack was committed by the Maoists. But on the third day things changed. Around thousand people marched to small villages and attacked Christians and their institutions. “The attacks were well planned. It was not the fury of a mob at the murder of the swami. The brutality of the attacks too show this. They were not mere attacks but diabolic in its brutality. Why wasthere such brutality,” he asked.
A retired high police official was among those spread lies. “One allegation was that I ordered the murder of the swami and a meeting was held at the Veticola parish for this. They even published the minutes of the meeting.
When we contacted the persons who were alleged to have attended the meeting, they did not know anything about such a meeting.”
Only after the court intervened, the retired official stopped his propaganda.
He said his house was attacked when the problems began. He was not there as he had gone to attend the death anniversary of his brother.
Soon there were death threats against him.
He said police and the CRP men stood spectators when the mob attacked the people and set on fire the Christian institutions. When one church was being burned, 22 policemen were simply watching it.
When the nun, who was raped was being paraded half naked, 12 policemen were there. She ran to them for help and stood in the middle of the policemen.
But the mob pulled her away from there.
Just like in Gujarat, the excuse for the police was that they had no orders to protect the Christians.
Though there was an order of 144 to prevent people gathering together, the Hindutva groups took out a procession with the swami’s body and attacked all Christian institutions on then way. They were planning for statewide procession with the mud taken from the grave of the swami. Fearing more violence, he said he approached the Supreme Court as it was the only remedy available.
Currently people in the refugee camps are not going back fearing for their lives. They also fear forcible conversion to Hinduism. Moreover, they have no house or property left in their villages.
Bishop Ninan said the persecution is an opportunity given to the Christians to become true Christians. Instead of resisting the attacks, Christians should show the other cheek as the master taught and show the Christian spirit, he said.
George Abraham, one of the main organizers in his welcome speech expressed his concerns at the attacks on the helpless in India. Organizations like VHP and Bjarang Dal which spearheaded the attacks work freely in the US also, he said. They even try to intimidate the India media in the US against publishing items or advertisements against them. The propaganda that conversion is the cause of the attacks truly masquerades the true intention of these fundamentalists that is to continue subjugation of the lower castes and Dalits and practice a form of apartheid. The whole issue is a matter of human rights, he noted.
The attacks are not a law and order problem, but the attackers want to bring back the days of unsociability and caste system, Rev Nehmeiah Thompson, who represented the Tamil churches said.
If we don’t protest the attacks who will protest for us, asked Thomas T Oommen.
Attorney Stanley Kalthara, Fr Jose Kandathikudy, Fr John Thomas, Abraham Mammen, Rev Wilson Jose, Michel D’Sousa, KJ Gregory, Fr Jose Nedumakkal, Sabu Lukose, Joseph Barnard, Alex Vilanilam Victor Joseph and Rev. Bernard Malik spoke. Mary Philip and Abraham Thomas were the emcees.
Innocent Olahannan proposed a vote of thanks.
Asked what prompted the assembling of a new coalition, one of the organizers mentioned that the mainline Indian organizations who claim to represent all Indians, do not speak in defending the rights of the minorities in face of increasing onslaught by the Hindutva extremists.
‘Their silence is deafening. We need to come together and speak in unison to get our word across to the political establishment and to the American community at large about the growing injustice done to a hapless minority as in the case of Orissa.’
The Holocaust Furor and the US Bishops
January 31st, 2009Does the Roman Catholic Church believe that popes, in conducting the ordinary affairs of the church, can never make mistakes? Ask any Catholic bishop that question, and he will reply, “Of course not.”
That is a common misconception, the bishop will say; on the contrary, history attests that popes can prove all too human, and the idea that they are preserved by God from error applies only to very solemn pronouncements on very special questions of faith and morals.
Another common misconception, the bishop would also say, is that the church is an absolute monarchy, with popes as religious versions of Louis XIV declaring, “L’église c’est moi.” The bishops themselves, he would add, are not just papal branch managers but descendants of the apostles, each bishop, no less than the pope himself, recognized as a “vicar of Christ.”
Given that teaching, one would expect that at least one of 433 active or retired Catholic bishops in the United States might have voiced some misgivings or raised some questions about Pope Benedict XVI’s recent action in revoking the excommunication of four bishops — including one who has denied the Holocaust — of an ultratraditionalist schismatic group, the Society of St. Pius X.
As of Friday afternoon, Catholic News Service knew of not one who had done so.
To be sure, prominent bishops, primarily in Europe, and then the pope himself were quick to insist that the church rejected Holocaust denial and any form of anti-Semitism.
The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops distributed talking points explaining all the recondite details of church law involved in the 1988 excommunication of the schismatic leaders and exactly what the pope’s action last Saturday does and does not do regarding their present status, which remains at considerably less than full communion with the church and the pope.
The talking points repeat the church’s “authoritative teaching” that God has never abandoned the Jewish people and that all forms of anti-Semitic teaching, including charges of Jewish deicide, are “unacceptable from the standpoint of Catholic teaching today.”
These positions, solemnly taken in 1965 at the Second Vatican Council, are among the council’s declarations that led Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre to break with Rome and form the Society of St. Pius X, which the pope now seeks to bring back into good standing in the church.
On Friday, Archbishop Wilton D. Gregory of Atlanta, the current chairman of the United States bishops’ Committee for Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs, said Catholics were “embarrassed” by this episode and needed to reaffirm their bonds with Jews.
But no bishop, it appears, has added a public word of doubt about the wisdom of Pope Benedict’s action, or wondered out loud how it came about.
The pope’s action has provoked a crisis in Catholic-Jewish relations. But you don’t have to be Jewish to be outraged by Holocaust denial. Many Catholics are upset, and they are upset not only because Jews are upset.
The problem is more than Bishop Richard Williamson, the British-born, Holocaust-denying schismatic. He is a man who insists that on Sept. 11 the World Trade Center was brought down by explosives, not airplanes, and the Pentagon was hit by a guided missile, a man who declares trousers for women “an assault on woman’s womanhood” and that women should not attend universities, none of which is likely to make him a very effective missionary for Holocaust denial.
Further, the Society of St. Pius X itself has disowned his views on the Holocaust, if belatedly, and barred him from repeating them, although others of like mind remain in its ranks.
No, the further problem, for Catholics no less than for Jews, is puzzlement about the pope and his leadership. No one believes that he shares Bishop Williamson’s grotesque views about the Holocaust. But was he somehow uninformed about them? Or was he aware of them but inclined to minimize their significance? Or did he disregard how they might poison what he was trying to accomplish? None of the alternatives seem comforting.
Even Catholics who understand the priority that church leaders always give to healing any formal schism that can perpetuate itself are puzzling over the Vatican’s extraordinary solicitude for this relatively small ultratraditionalist sect.
They wonder whether proponents of liberation theology or women’s ordination need to enlist a few schismatic bishops, who might ordain further bishops, in order to get a similar hearing in Rome.
And of course there are Catholics who dread — and some who hope — that the accommodations made to the Society of St. Pius X augur a larger reversal of the work of Vatican II.
Surely Catholic bishops are aware of the corrosive effect that these kinds of nagging questions can have on the faith of their people. A few such questions have quite likely nagged at some bishops themselves. But so far none of them have chosen to discuss the matter out loud.
This silence would be understandable if the bishops’ only option were to engage in harsh criticism. But they have plenty of respectful, charitable alternatives, from merely acknowledging that the papal action was troubling or perplexing to indicating that they are requesting clarification of Rome’s procedures and the pope’s intentions.
It’s a safe bet that during the last week, private expressions of dismay or bewilderment have been flying from bishop to bishop and from bishops to Rome.
Still, that does not satisfy Jews. Nor does it assure millions of concerned Catholics that their questions and anxieties are shared by leaders determined to discuss them charitably, candidly, maturely, in a way suited to what the bishops themselves teach about the church and the papacy.
Who will speak up first?
Is Bobby Jindal running 2012 US presidential race?
January 24th, 2009Bobby Jindal, Indian American governor of Louisiana, has been chosen to keynote the National Republican Congressional Committee’s March fundraising dinner, fuelling speculation that he may emerge as the party’s presidential candidate in 2012.
“Bobby is a rising star and is a part of a new generation of leadership in our party,” NRCC chairman Pete Sessions noted in an e-mail to supporters.
“He has a budding record of success, having implemented sound, common-sense business practices since he took office in 2007 and started rebuilding his great state.”
The March 24 dinner will put Jindal in touch with big Washington donors as he puts his celebrity status to work for House Republicans. It’s an event where former president George W. Bush has delivered the keynote address every year since he became the chief executive in 2000.
Another indication that Republicans may be looking at him as a potential candidate was that he has been picked up over Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, who was defeated in the 2008 elections when she contested as party presidential candidate John McCain’ vice presidential running mate.
An NRCC spokesman said Palin had not been asked to keynote the dinner.
“A darling of social conservatives and an emerging generation of Washington Republicans, Jindal’s presence at such a high-profile dinner will set tongues wagging,” the Politico, focusing on presidential politics, said.
The first-term Louisiana governor knows something about House races, having been elected to two terms in Congress before moving to the executive’s office, it said.
“But it is Jindal’s attractiveness to conservatives as a presidential contender that makes his appearance notable.”
Jindal, for his part, has denied that he is in the running for the 2012 presidential elections saying he would concentrate on the development of Louisiana, which has been badly hit by the devastating hurricane Katrina a few years ago.
Jindal drew attention in December with a brief trip to keynote a conservative group’s dinner in Iowa, which traditionally kicks off both parties’ presidential nominating contests.
The party must rely on potential presidential candidates and prominent rising stars to compete with what has proven to be an overwhelming advantage for Democrats.
Other top party fundraisers who appeal to Republican donors include former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee and several members of Congress.
PM away, debate on who is next?
January 24th, 2009With Prime Minister Manmohan Singh undergoing a coronary bypass surgery, and he may well take a month to recuperate, a debate has started in the ruling Congress about the government’s leadership during the run-up to the April-May general elections – and beyond.
Though External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee, the seniormost cabinet minister who is widely seen as the number two in the government, will stand in for the prime minister in his absence, sources said he is unlikely to be the party’s prime ministerial candidate in the forthcoming elections.
“There is no question,” a senior leader, who did not wish to be identified, told IANS when asked if Mukherjee could be propped up for the top job should the Prime Minister take longer to recover.
“There are many others in the party who may not allow that to happen, besides (Congress president) Sonia Gandhi herself is very clear on her choice of Manmohan Singh,” the senior leader told IANS.
Mukherjee, who had a meeting with Gandhi, sought to play down his role in the government as “a natural routine thing” as the country could not be without a prime minister for a month.
Mukherjee said: ”I indeed met the Congress president. We discussed certain other things.
“It is premature to speculate. The prime minister is going for his treatment. We don’t know how long it will take, what will happen.”
Party leaders said Mukherjee has taken centrestage at the moment, but that is till Manmohan Singh returns.
Another senior leader, who also spoke on condition of anonymity due to the sensitive nature of the subject, said: “And then, there is P. Chidambaram, there is even Sheila Dixit, there are others… and then the allies of the UPA (United Progressive Alliance) would have to be factored in. It is not easy (to just make Mukherjee the prime minister).”
There is widespread speculation that if Manmohan Singh remains out of action for a longer time, the Congress president may have to go in for 38-year-old general secretary Rahul Gandhi. Sources claimed that the scion of the Gandhi family is himself reluctant to take on this role yet.
One minister, who also did not wish to go on record, said there was a thinking in the Congress not to push him into campaigning for the elections if his health did not permit it.
If the party won, it would have to take a call on whether Manmohan Singh would be fit enough to lead the government again. The opinion of Manmohan Singh and his family would have to be factored into any such decision.
It is all wait and watch, but it seems certain that the prime minister will not be there when the government presents a vote-on-account in parliament Feb 16 to seek approval for government expenditure pending the budget presentation after the general elections.
Manmohan Singh may not even be an active campaigner for the party during the general elections, party insiders say. “He has never been a prime campaigner for the party but his absence make it difficult for the Congress to present a prime ministerial face,” said one.
Abhaya case: let us discuss
January 7th, 2009(Justice Hema’s judgment: relevant parts)
1. CBI lawyer, Sr. Abhaya’s father’s lawyer, or the defense lawyers did not know all the facts surrounding the case. CBI lawyer and Sr. Abhaya’s father’s lawyer seem to be making the arguments more based on media reports than the case records. Defense lawyers are not allowed to access the case records or provided exact details of the charges. So they are also forced to fight the battle based on media reports. [Relevant section; 19]
2. Justice Hema takes a different approach than Justice Basant when faced with lack of information. It is notable that Justice Basant also stated that “So reckoned, I find no difficulty in coming to the conclusion that the directions in Jyothish and the mandates of Section 167(1), 167(3) and Rule 20 have not been specifically complied with”. However his judgment was to give CJM the benefit of the doubt while hearing bail request by Fr. Puthrikayil. Justice Hema decided to treat someone’s liberty with much higher care and studied the details of the case from the official records. [Relevant sections; 20 & 30]
3. CBI is basing their investigation on media reports than real facts in the case as recorded in the case diaries of previous investigations. [Relevant sections; 21, 27, 30 & 94]
4. Justice concludes that CBI created false allegations against ASP V.V. Augustine completely disregarding documented information from the case diaries. [Relevant sections; 23, 25, 57, 58, 59, 60 & 69]
5. Church did not try to manipulate the findings to make it look like suicide, on the contrary, it is the church and the nuns who argued against the suicide theory. This is against the popular belief that it is Sr. Abhaya’s father and Jomon Puthenpurayil behind the murder theory and claiming credit for CBI’s involvement. Also the allegation of inaction by the church and the nuns are unfounded and baseless. [Relevant sections; 32, 33, 34, 35 & 37]
6. CBI failed to investigate early leads. One has to wonder whether special interest groups against Arch Diocese of Kottayam, using Jomon, mislead and influenced CBI to only investigate the church though media propaganda. [Relevant sections; 36, 37, 91 & 92]
7. Are there other reasons for the disturbance in the kitchen? CBI lawyer did not even know where the struggle happened in work area or kitchen. [Relevant sections; 43, 44, 46 & 90]
8. None of the injuries on Sr. Abhaya are more than 0.3 cm deep or affected the skull. No blood was found in the scene or on the veil even though blood was oozing out of the head when the body was removed from the well. This contradicts an axe attack. [Relevant sections; 40, 41, 42 & 43]
9. CBI does not know what weapon was used to murder Sr. Abhaya. No fracture on the body indicating an attack with an axe. Wounds are not even deep to touch skull. Lots of mystery surrounding the axe. [Relevant sections; 47, 48, 49 & 50]
10. Brain finger printing clearly shows Fr. Puthrikayil and Sr. Sephy has no connection to the incident. [Relevant sections; 52 & 53]
11. Narco analysis CDs were clearly manipulated therefore not admissible as evidence. [Relevant sections; 54, 55 & 56]
12. Material objects associated with the case were not destroyed by Crime Branch, as claimed by CBI, rather destroyed by a routine process by Executive Magistrate. It is CBI’s own Varghese P. Thomas who failed to request the protection of the objects. He also failed to do any proper investigation. [Relevant sections; 61, 62, 63 & 64]
13. Justice Hema suspects territorial war between investigating agencies in this case and calls it unfortunate. [Relevant section; 62]
14. The medical report indicates more possibility for suicide than homicide. There is clear history of mental issues and suicidal tendencies in Sr. Abhaya’s family, including multiple attempts to commit suicide (by jumping in the well!) by her uncle. Is it possible that her family is pushing the murder theory to save families reputation? The doctors from outside Kerala gave lots of wait to why the veil was worn by Sr. Abhaya with a night gown, not knowing the rules for the convent, which requires junior nuns to not leave the room without a veil. [Relevant sections; 72, 73, 75 & 76]
15. The latest witnesses paraded by CBI are a joke (Adaka Raju the star witness!). [Relevant sections; 79, 80, 81, 82, 84 & 85]
16. Only purpose of virginity test on Sr. Sephy was to humiliate her, the nuns and the church. It has no relevance in this case. [Relevant sections; 87 & 88
full judgment in emalayalee
