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Related posts:-
http://jayasreesaranathan.blogspot.com/2008/04/peep-into-past-to-know-whether-castes.html
http://jayasreesaranathan.blogspot.com/2008/04/stop-this-fraud-against-brahmins.html
Thursday, May 21, 2009
Tamil Brahmins- article by Malarmannan
‘Poornamadah Poornamidam’ – the message of the Perfect!
Mr Cho Ramaswamy touched upon the famous prayer of the upanishads, "Poornamadah Poornamidam", in 'EngE Brahmanan' telecast yesterday.
I felt that he could have spoken more on this verse. He briefly harped on maya- tattwa and did not seem to convey what he wanted to say. This maya- tattwa, as an explanation for the nature of 'poorNam' of Brahman is something not heard. Perhaps Shankara bhashya explains the Pooranm verse from Maya-angle. I am not sure.
I just thought of giving some insights from what I have heard.
The verse is this:
Poornamadah Poornamidam
Poornaath Poornam Udachyathe
Poornasya Poornamaadaaya
Poornameva Vasishyathe.
Meaning: God is perfect (infinite). This Universe is also perfect (infinite). If perfection(infinity) is taken from anything perfect (infifinite) what remains is still perfect (infinite).
The PoorNam is explained by Mr Cho as 'muzhumai' in Tamil.
It is generally understood as Perfect and / or Infinity.
In explaining the concept of Infinity in Bheeja ganitha, the mathematician - astrologer, Bhaskara II, handles this PoorNam nature of Brahman as an example for Infinity.
Explaining the Infinite (khahara) he says that if we deduct or add Bhuta-gaNas, there is no change in the form of Achyutha who is Omnipresent. Likewise if we add or deduct to Khahara (Infinite) there is no change to it.
That is the nature PoorNam, the Full, the Perfect and the Infinite.
You add or deduct any amount from it, it does not change.
It remains as It is.
What is deducted is Poornam.
What is added is poornam.
What remains after any deduction or addition is Poornam.
And Poornam does not undergo any change!
What you take form Infinity is Infinity only. What remains also is Infinity.
This is the import.
This is best understood by comparing this analogy to akasha, the ether.
The aksha is Infinite. Any addition or deduction to it is infinite and what remains is infinite.
One may wonder - can we deduct or add akasha?
Yes.
Acharyas have given the example of 'Ghataakasha' versus 'Mahaakasha'.
'Ghataakasha' is the ether in a pot!
Mahaakasha' is the ether outside.
The ether in the pot, if deducted from or added to Mahaakasha, no change happens to Mahaakaasha.
What is there in the pot is ether and what remains outside also is ether.
Now if we apply the ether example to Poornam verse, we will know how Poornam it is!
This poornam verse is the way to answer one of the doubts on avataras.
Of the 10 avatars of Vishnu, those of Rama and Krishna are said to be Perfect.
That is, the Lord (Brahman) Himself is manifest in them completely.
The question then arises –
does it mean that Vaikuntham was empty / bereft of Bhagawan during the course of those avatars?
When Bhagawan was born as Rama or Krishna, does it mean Vaikuntham was without Him for the duration of avatars?
No, not at all – if we understand this Poornam verse.
Since He is Infinite or Poornam, wherever He was sighted, that was PoorNam only.
The PoorNam in the Vaikuntham and the Poornam as Rama on the earth do not make one of them get deducted from the other!
The PoorNam tattwa makes Him remain Poornam in the Vaikuntham or Paramapadam or Paar-kadal and also as Rama on the earth.
The logical extension of this explanation on PoorNam is that the idol or any form that is worshiped as Him will have Himself personified as Poornam in them
That means, as azhwars and nayanmaaras have said, He can be experienced as Infinite or PoorNam in our hearts if we choose to see Him that way. That is the spiritual import.
There is another question connected to this verse, if Poornam is translated as Perfection.
From Him, sprang the worlds.
If He is perfect, are the worlds also perfect?
The worlds have come from Him.
But they are not perfect.
How can we say that the worlds are perfect, when we see lots of imperfection everywhere, particularly evil having spread everywhere?
This anomaly can be understood by a simple act that we do many times a day.
We eat food that is delicious, good, looks good, smells good and tastes good. We never take food that has some bad component even in a small measure.
But after sometime, that food comes out of the body as excreta.
Where was this excreta when we ate the food?
We ate only that was good in all respects.
But from where this undesirable component arise is the question.
It arose from the same good food, when it underwent further simplification!
At every level of simplification of the food component, some undesirable part was formed and left out.
In the same way, when Brahman is One and Only (Ekam Sat), it is Sat.
It is Sattwa.
It is Shuddha sattwa.
There was no imperfection in it like the delicious food we take.
But as it proceeds to further simplification, in the process of Creation,
the unwanted elements are formed.
Like in the churning of the Milky ocean, or in the churning of the core of earth as explained in the previous post, components are broken down as a process of simplification and with that comes degeneration.
So, the All Perfect Brahman has nothing imperfect in it.
But down the line, when simplification happens, the evil and imperfectness are generated in the process.
At this level of Creation, the Brahman is known as Purusha having two sides.
The day and night,
The light and darkness are like two sides of the coin.
Light has existence – whereas darkness owes its existence to absence of light.
Darkness has no existence of its own.
When light is not seen, then it is darkness!
Similarly Perfection ONLY has existence.
Imperfection owes its existence to Perfection.
Without Perfection, there can be no Imperfection.
But Perfection can exist without Imperfection.
When perfection is not perceived, imperfection is seen.
So there can not be anything imperfect with perfection.
This is said in a verse in Taittriya Upanishad which says that Brahman is perceived even in the excreta!
There is nothing un-Brahman in this world of all Brahman!
From Brahman, we get Brahman, add Brahman and deduct Brahman.
What remains in Brahman and what is taken out is Brahman.
When one gets this Knowledge, he is a Brahma gyanai, fit for attaining Moksha – Liberation!
****
Related posts:-
http://jayasreesaranathan.blogspot.com/2008/05/where-is-bhagawan-in-this-cosmic-chakra.html
http://jayasreesaranathan.blogspot.com/2008/05/cosmic-egg-nataraja-and-chakratthazhwar.html
http://jayasreesaranathan.blogspot.com/2008/05/shiva-vishnu-at-chidambaram-cosmic.html
The pulse of earth and Samudra manthan!
The core of earth pulses at a regular interval of 15 million years, pushing up magma to the surface. This information published in the recent issue of New Scientist is interesting from the point of view of the churning of the milky ocean.
The samundra manthan or the churning of the Milky ocean happens once every chathur yuga, according to Hindu Thought. It happens as the second avatara of Vishnu as Kurma in the Krutha mahayuga.
The recent findings published in New scientist has some close resemblance to Samudra manthan. The findings are in the area of Ice land. This part in the North reminds one of the Devas pulling the rope of the Serpent that is tied to the Meru.
The allegorical information form this is that Meru is the central core of the planet earth.
It is rotated to and fro by the underground forces / stress in the northern and southern hemisphere, the North signifying Devas and the South signifying asuras!.
As a result of this churning, materials (magma) are thrown up.
What comes out initially is poisonous gases (alahala visham) – the Jyeshta devi or Moodevi! Jyeshta means first-born.
Once that stops coming out, auspicious ones starts coming out one after the other.
Shreedevi signifying wealth and prosperity emerges out.
This correlates to the precious gems and minerals that are found in the solidified magma. Particularly, the most precious gems are found embedded in volcanic lava and the magma only. The very sources for sustenance for life, namely, the rich soil is the ultimate gift of this churning.
This is named as churning of the milky ocean, perhaps because, the precious objects are formed and pushed to the surface just as how cream is formed on the surface of the milk that is churned.
What interests me in this news item is the duration of the ‘pulse’ of this churning!
It is given as 15 million years.
But according to Hindu thought, the churning of the milky ocean takes place once in 4.32 million years (that is the duration of the Chathur maha yuga).
I am waiting for the day when a new version of this news report is made putting the pulse rate at 4 + million years!!
-jayasree
Related posts from this blog:-
http://jayasreesaranathan.blogspot.com/2008/08/samudra-mathan-in-atlantic-ocean.html
http://jayasreesaranathan.blogspot.com/2008/09/vishnu-at-thailand-airport_29.html
http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20227094.100-magma-pulses-may-reveal-earths-heartbeat.html?DCMP=NLC-nletter&nsref=mg20227094.100
Magma pulses may reveal Earth's 'heartbeat'
- 20 May 2009
- by Catherine Brahic
EARTH may have a heartbeat. Evidence from Hawaii and Iceland hints that the planet's core may be dispatching simultaneous plumes of magma towards the surface every 15 million years or so.
If the hypothesis is true, it would revolutionise our ideas of what's happening far below our feet. Independent scientists contacted by New Scientist were split, with some scornful and others intrigued.
Rolf Mjelde of the University of Bergen and Jan Inge Faleide of the University of Oslo, both in Norway, used seismological data to measure the thickness of Earth's crust between Iceland and Greenland (see map). Iceland is on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, where magma wells up to form fresh crust.
The measurements allowed Mjelde and Faleide to infer the past flow of magma in the plume generally thought to rise beneath Iceland. When this plume is strong, it thickens the crust that it forms at the surface. They found that the crust has thickened roughly every 15 million years, suggesting the plume pulses at around that frequency.
Regular pulsing of plumes is not a new idea, but when the pair compared their results with similar pulsing in Hawaii, which also sits on a plume, they found a surprising correlation. Data collected by Emily Van Ark and Jian Lin of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Massachusetts, suggests that Hawaii's plume pulses have coincided with Iceland's (Marine Geophysical Research, DOI: 10.1007/s11001-009-9066-0).
"These two are on very different parts of the Earth, so I don't think the synchrony could be related to something in the mantle," says Mjelde. "It must relate to the core somehow. I can't see any other possibility." This would mean that the Earth's core periodically heats up the overlying mantle, generating synchronised plumes that rise to the surface at widely separated spots.
The synchrony must relate to the core somehow. I can't see any other possibility
"If correct, it would be a significant alteration from our current thoughts," says Rhodri Davies of Imperial College London. Most geologists who believe that mantle plumes exist think that pulsing can be explained by processes in the mantle alone, such as magma build-up in regions of different viscosity. "A new way of thinking would be needed," agrees Mjelde. However, several geologists contacted by New Scientist said they could not explain how the enormous pulses of heat required could be generated in the core.
There could be other explanations for the synchronicity. More detailed measurements may reveal the timings of the two plumes' pulses are close but not synchronous. Furthermore, Mike Coffin of the National Oceanography Centre in Southampton, UK, points out that the mantle is not homogeneous, so plumes leaving the core at the same time might not reach the crust at the same time.
"I am sceptical that they are co-pulsing from the evidence presented," says Huw Davies of Cardiff University, UK. Still, the idea is "potentially very exciting", he adds.
Ranjani is my choice:)
Yesterday's performance by Ranjani in the Finals of Airtel Super singer contest will be remembered by many. The 'Mannavan vandaanadi' was a very good choice for the Final competition, supported well by the mridhangist. We can not deny that without the jathi sung by him, the song could not have made the impact that it had made yesterday.
Earlier her "antha sivagami maganidam' – rated as the best by the special judge Mr MS Vishwanathan, cleared whatever doubt any one could have had about her ability to convey the emotions through her voice.
It can be listened in this link:-
http://sachitaindia.blogspot.com/2009/05/airtel-super-singer-again.html
Right from the beginning Ranjani had been my favorite. I liked Raginishree too, for they two handled very difficult songs well. There was a time when I felt that there must be separate competitions for men and women, for, the songs of the female were very tough and required versatile skills, in pitch and breathe control in particular. I am happy that Ranjani is rising in spite of odds.
She and Ajeesh have shown tremendous improvement right from the beginning, which I felt Ravi and Renu failed to show.
Renu's voice is good, sometimes resembling that of P.Susheela. But Susheela's songs were quite soulful – bringing out emotions casually and effortlessly. Such kind of transfer of emotions to the listener is found only in Ranjani so far.
Ravi is perfect – periya kumbidu for his talent!
But his voice quality hardly stirs us up as we go on to hear more from him.
And about Prasanna – the crowd puller, he scores well on this issue of 'connect' with the listener.
Who knows, he may win the show.
The majority of people who bother to sms their choice in this context are the ones who like the kind of music that Prasanna gives with his 'connecting' ability.
And he is not bad.
I think in today's Tamil cinema, he fits in the slot that is without any big name right at the moment.
He can become another Mano or Malaysia Vasudevan.
With his kind of determination and practice, he can definitely fill this spot if given a chance!
Wednesday, May 20, 2009
The disadvantaged Hindus, pampered Minorities
The disadvantaged Hindus, pampered Minorities
By RK Ohri, IPS (Retd.)
Barely 6l years after Independence once again the Indian nation stands at the crossroads of history. The ideal of evolving a common nationality by assimilating different religious identities into a national identity, that is the Indian identity, has remained a pipedream. The reasons for this abject failure to weld all citizens into Indians first and Indians last are many and varied. The most important reason for this monumental failure is that the post-Independence political leadership of India has remained a prisoner of the same grievance centric minority politics which had led to Partition of the country in 1947.
For the last six decades the same divisive ideology, nurtured in the garb of secularism, has remained the dominant theme of Indian polity. The situation was further exacerbated by the insertion of secularism in 1976 as an essential feature of Indian Constitution during the Emergency which gave a cross-eyed slant to the Indian polity.
History is an eloquent witness to the fact that the Hindu civilization has always been exceptionally tolerant and peaceful, both by scriptural tradition and ethical training. But during the last few decades the belligerence of the largest minority, namely the Muslims, has begun to bedevil the Indian state much in the same manner as it did in the pre-Partition era. Unfortunately the old mindset of minority-appeasement continued to dominate the Indian leadership even after India attained Independence. It was prominently reflected in the incorporation of Articles 29 and 30 in the Constitution which conferred certain extraordinary rights and privileges on minority communities thereby elevating them the status of some kind of 'super citizens' because no comparable rights were allowed to members of the majority community. These two discriminatory Articles, ostensibly incorporated for protecting the cultural and educational interests of minorities, fly in the face of the right to equality enshrined in the Constitution. They have been the source of promoting divisiveness between the majority and the minority communities thereby delivering a body blow to the ideal of unity and integrity of the Indian nation. This invidious constitutional provision has placed the Hindus at a serious disadvantage, not only vis a vis the minorities, but even in terms of the secular ideal professed by the Indian State. It is time that this wanton violation of the right to equality is debated at public fora in a bold bid to seek resolution of this gross discrimination embedded in the Constitution.
Presently the Indian political system is choc-a-bloc with unprincipled busy bodies who consider minority-centric vote-bank politics, deceptively woven into the fabric of secularism, as passport to power. In no other country the word secularism is misused in such a devious manner as it is in our country. Interestingly most politicians wearing secularism on their sleeves are either casteist leaders or leftover leftists of yesteryears who have lost their secular moorings. Indian political theatre has an overwhelming presence of unprincipled politicians who consider minority-centric vote-bank politics the easiest passport to power. They have no moral compunction in singing paeans to secularism while donning skull-caps for attending Iftar parties, or haranguing in caste-based congregations of Brahmins, Yadavs or Rajputs in a brazen bid to ride to political power. Surprise of surprises, most of them defend with great gusto the grant of religion specific dole called Haj subsidy, but oppose enactment of a common civil code as envisioned in Article 44 of the Constitution!
Despite tall claims often made by politicians and orchestrated by the mainstream media, the fact remains that today India is anything but a secular democracy. The Indian political system fails to fulfil the two most important prerequisites of a secular democratic nation. First, the Indian Constitution falls short of the basic postulate of uniform application of all laws to its citizens, irrespective of their caste creed, religion or gender. Absence of a common civil code is a glaring example of non-application of uniform laws in the matter of marriage and inheritance. It is well known that the Muslim women, constituting nearly 7.5 per cent of the country's population, continue to be denied the right to equality because of strident opposition by the community's clerics and community leaders. The second pre-condition for a country's claim to be a democracy is the principle of equality before law. As mentioned above, Articles 29 and 30 of the Indian Constitution are a flagrant violation of the principle of equality before law. Even Article 370 conferring a special status on the state of Jammu & Kashmir is an aberration because it does not gel with the right to equality enshrined in the Constitution. For instance, under Article 370, no law enacted by the Indian Parliament is applicable to the state of Jammu & Kashmir, unless it is duly approved by the state legislature. Even the Governor of J&K state takes oath of his office under the separatist constitution of that state, while Governors of all other states take oath under the Indian Constitution. By allowing a federating state, and only one single state, to have a separate Constitution is a wanton violation of the principle of one nation, one country. It is antitheatical to the very idea of national unity.
As highlighted by K. Subrahmanyam in a very perceptive article, "No country can call itself democratic or secular unless it has a common civil law."1 Democracy implies that all citizens have equal rights and are to be treated equally under the rule of law. Allowing different personal laws is a negation of both secularism and democracy because it means that a person's religion determines the laws by which he or she is to be governed. For that reason India cannot be termed either as a secular state or a democracy. 2 Commitment to secularism entails that all social and political relationships will be governed by laws enacted democratically. It is unacceptable that "the laws will be beyond the competence of democratic governance for some sections on account of their having God's sanction". 3. He further pointed out that because of the first-past-the-post electoral system a person often gets elected even when he or she polls 30 per cent, or even less, of the total votes cast. The result is that Parliament seldom represents the true will of the majority of the electorate. This faulty system has robbed the majority of its due legal and constitutional rights and has perpetually enabled a minority, or a coalition of caste and communal vote-banks, to dominate the majority. Those who come to power on the strength of divisive politics and deviously cultivated vote-banks have therefore no interest in national unity. In the struggle for political power secularism and democracy are often used as slogans for seizing power.3
These are some of the glaring examples of the Indian state functioning in an anti-secular and communally partisan manner. Thus in 'our India' all essential attributes of secularism are more honoured in breach than in observance.
If we compare the theory and practice of democracy and secularism as practiced in India with the British parliamentary system, considered to be the role model for our country, we find that the two systems are poles apart. In the United Kingdom uniform civil and criminal laws are enacted and enforced for all citizens, irrespective of their religious beliefs, creed or gender, without making any exception. But not so in India. Unfortunately that ideal of uniform application of all laws to every citizens, the quintessential hallmark of secularism, is totally missing in the Indian system.
The recent decision of Government of India to send a 15-member delegation led by its Labour Minister, Oscar Fernandes, to Vatican to participate in the canonization of Sister Alphonsa by Pope Benedict XVI, exposes the ugly face of Indian secularism. Not to be left behind in the race for vote-banks, the CPM-supported Kerala government also sent a delegation headed by a minister to Vatican. Interestingly the same politicians had no qualms in filing a derogatory affidavit in the Supreme Court denying the existence of Sri Ram in a bid to destroy the Ram Sethu.
Interestingly the British commitment to secular ideal has not deterred the UK government from declaring itself a Christian nation. Upon ascending the throne, the monarch invariably assumes the title "defender of the faith", and all important state functions, including the coronation and inauguration of the Parliament session are accompanied by a Christian prayer, often led by the Archbishop of Canterbury himself.
In sharp contrast, in India's putrid political dispensation, sham-secularist politicians take sadistic pleasure in heaping scorn and calumny on the religious icons of the majority community, namely the Hindus. No wonder, the ideal of forging a common nationality has eluded the Indian nation. We have remained a nation divided against itself entirely due to serious flaws in our Constitution and weird machinations of self-serving politicians.
(The author can be contacted at rkohri@airtelmail.in)
Monday, May 18, 2009
Its a vote for the Economist, ManmohanSingh!
The Congress has clearly swept across the nation.
Various reasons for this are being analyzed.
Amidst the various talks to rationalise the Congress victory,
what catches my attention is the response from the corporates and the working class.
They have hailed the emergence of the UPA with less strings of alliance pulls attached.
The way the urbanites have solidly voted for the Congress and the near all
make me think that
it is Mr Manmohan Singh
who won the elections without even contesting it!
Think of the pre poll options put before the voters.
The choice was to be made from
Manmohan Singh,
Advani and
some x,y or z from the Third Front.
The voters have clearly looked at the possible outcome with each of them.
The entire working class accounting for nearly 2/3 s of the electorate faced this election
at a time of uncertainty about whether their job at hand is safe!
Surprisingly no great promises were made by any of these contenders promising this working class a safe passage through the global economic crisis.
With this background, the voter is left to assess for himself who can do something to reduce if not remove completely the uncertainty which is very real in his life.
Can Manmohan do something about it?
Yes, he can, provided his hands are not tied.
His hands were tied in his last tenure-
one side by Sonia Gandhi who was thought to be calling the shots in governance
and the other by the alliance partners.
But will she tie his hands when it comes to pushing the economy forward at the present critical juncture, is the question.
No, she will not.
If Manmohan is left free from the troubles of the alliance partners, he will certainly see his way through his economic wisdom.
His remark during the course of election that regional parties are obstacle to development had not missed the attention of this middle class.
This remark showed his exasperation.
Another pointer to his genuine efforts in taking the country forward in development is his firm stance on the nuclear deal.
The nuclear deal is not a poll- issue.
But the way Manmohan handled it was a feather in his cap!!
He didn’t mind losing the government in the process of sticking to his stance on nucler deal.
To recall his words in his speech in Parliament on
"I will let history judge. I will let posterity judge the value of what we have done through this agreement. It is another step in our journey to regain our due place in global councils."
His firmness in spite of the big hue and cry that saw the Left moving away from his party, is something that can be seen only in a professional.
This deal and the way he dealt with his detractors made the public - the working class in particular,
get a feel of his professionalism and commitment in his area of specialty.
The country has witnessed the Inner stuff that Manmohan is endowed with.
This Inner stuff is what is needed in the man who is to control the country’s financial health at this critical juncture of global crisis.
Here is the man who will stick to his stance in spite of the pulls and pushes, if it is about an agenda on development where deft thinking and execution are needed.
Added to this sole performance of his commitment to his ideals,
is the way he handled the Satyam crisis!
In my opinion, the way the satyam crisis has been handled with professionalism, had been taken well note of by everyone of the working class who formed the majority of the voters that had voted in this elections.
Even what an Obama could not do in the
Manmohan, the economist had done in
The Satyam crisis was deftly handled by the government, by chipping in,
in time with a board of directors who saw to it that the company was not allowed to fall.
Many jobs were lost during this time.
But the confidence of the public and the working class was not allowed to fall,
in managing the Satyam crisis.
This is really demonstrative of what it means to have a person like Manmohan singh at the helm.
He is perceived as ‘weak’ in politicking and other issues.
But when it comes to his area of specialization, he can swing into action,
that too in a very professional way.
Manmohan had a chance to demonstrate his ‘presence’ in the Satyam crisis
at a time the nation was preparing to go to the polls.
The writing on the wall is that if only Manmohan is given a free hand in running the economy and the development oriented issues of the nation,
it will be better for all these working populace.
Compare him with Advani.
Advani may be good and genuine.
But whom will he have with him to do the job that Manmohan is clearly slated to do?
Who is there in the Third Front to match the professionalism and economic acumen of Manmohan Singh?
None.
One may say that it is Sonia who is calling the shots and not Manmohan Singh.
She may be calling the shots in other areas of governance, but not in pushing the economy forward.
His hands are not tied by Sonia Gandhi when it comes to economic agenda..
This was demonstrated in going ahead with the nuclear deal.
Manmohan was ready to sacrifice his government for the deal.
And Sonia backed him!!!
She too didn’t mind losing the government on an issue that called for resoluteness for the sake of nation’s development.
Manmohana Singh will have full liberty to go by his judgment in economics based development model.
The Congress did the right thing by projecting Manmohan singh as its Prime ministerial candidate.
Instead if Rahul had been projected, he would have grabbed the votes of the youth,
but not excited the working class.
In that scenario, the Indian working class would have sided with Advani.
It is economics and the demands of time that had determined the voter behavior.
The working class had done their part to make him free from the alliance pulls.
The ‘weak’ Prime Minister had scored victory on his ‘strength’ of economics and professionalism.
He has to understand this message and people his ministry with professionals.
This is a vote for the professional in Manmohan Singh.
Hope he does not belie the expectations of this nation known for its intellectual capital!
Tamil nadu scenario.
As an aside,
I have to talk about the Tamil votes in this election.
I continue to believe that the majority in Tamilnadu wanted to vote for Ms Jayalalithaa.
Such a vote is not for the Third Front.
We all know that she will side with Congress first, and if Congress does badly, then only with BJP after the elections.
Whichever way it goes, there will be advantage to the masses here in Tamilnadu.
The non performing state government will be challenged in such a vote.
Till the day before the elections that was the situation.
But what happened on the polling day?
The entire Tamilnadu has not yet come out of the shock of the verdict reported.
What happened?
What happened?
Is it the ‘Thirumangalam Effect’ ?
In yesterday’s question time to Yogendra Yadav and Rajdeep in CNN-IBN,
a querist from Tamilnadu explained the rates given for the votes.
Yadav agreed that he was indeed getting thousands of calls on this Thirumangalam Effect enacted in all constituencies where the DMK candidates contested.
But Rajdeep chose to play this down.
It is for everyone to see and know how this Thirumangalam Effect was enacted.
But why no media is talking about it?
The DMK supremo is certainly incapable of retorting if cornered by the English TV media.
(We saw his awkward performance on his talks on LTTE Prabhakaran.)
It is doubtful if any from Tamil media can take up this issue.
But why not the English channels?
Why don’t they take these allegations seriously, do the ground survey and bring out the truth?
தமிழகத்தில் நடந்தது என்ன?
ஜனநாயகமா?
அல்லது
பணநாயகமா?
ஓட்டே உன் விலை என்ன?
என்ற கேள்வியில் ஆரம்பித்து,
என்னதான் நடந்தது என்று,
எல்லாருக்கும் விடை தெரிந்த,
ஆனால்
சொல்ல முடியாத,
சொல்ல பயப்படும்
செய்தி,
ஜனநாயகத்தின் ஆதாரத்தையே அசைத்து விடும் போல இருக்கிறதே!
The mail published in Dinamalar dated
It tells what everyone in Tamilnadu knows.
The writer belongs to Madurai.
Another food for thought from the same issue…
Kasab laughs…
From
http://blogs.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/clicklit/entry/kasab-se-why-is-that
Kasab Se, why is that man smiling?
It's rather bizarre. Kasab has been in such a good mood lately that the judge presiding over his trial has actually had to tell him to go slow on the happiness display. The TOI story on Monday's proceedings in the courtroom quotes judge Tahiliani as warning Kasab, "Don't laugh unnecessarily. Remain serious in court." Tahiliani was also forced to comment on Kasab smiling away all the time at the media galleries, and had to remind him to stop 'behaving like this'.
What is he so happy about? Is it that he finds the whole process of what he did having to be meticulously and painfully 'proved' afresh funny, even as he takes the legal option of pleading not guilty, seems to recall all of a sudden that he is actually a minor, and engages the time of the court in issues such as whether he be granted access to the nearby balcony in prison for him to stretch his legs a bit? He seems to be being looked after pretty well, and displays no physical or emotional signs of being under the weather. His 'displaying no remorse' has been much noticed, and is anyways old hat now. And anyway, if he was one of the 'displaying remorse' types, he really wouldn't have been handpicked for the bloodbath, would he?
Now, I am all for the sanctity of the law and all that, but honestly, what's with the guy having fun here? I am not for the Guantanamo Bay model, let me assert - lest the Human Rights lobby rips into me. But I find something fairly obscene in the very fact that we are required to figure in, among other things, the comfort levels of the accommodation of Ajmal Amir Kasab.
It takes me back to the days when I began my journalistic career in J&K, when we released half a dozen militants so that the Union Home Minister of the day, Mufti sahib, could have his daughter back home safe and sound. No father should have to take such a call, agreed, but the eagerness which the Govt fell on its knees was an unpleasant sight to behold. It takes me back to a bizarre episode, the siege of the Hazratbal shrine that lasted a month, where militants holed up inside the shrine with hostages were able to last that long since they were supplied freshly cooked food from outside – on judicial orders. Which, among other things, specified details such as the calories that each meal should provide. It was black humour being played out amidst a crazy legal backdrop. It takes me back to the kid glove treatment that Masood Azhar used to be dealt in prison in J&K, where other prisoners, and even the odd jail guard, would address him as Peer sahib. He led a fairly distress-free life till the day we flew him off to Kandahar, since we couldn't stomach the possibility of hostage casualties.
And I still can't understand why it takes us this long to take a death sentence to a terrorist to its logical conclusion. Someone, somewhere, sooner or later may well find a "big" hostage to use as a bargain chip, and we may well fly Mohd Afzal off to safer pastures. We're quite, quite capable of doing it all over again, irrespective of either the BJP or the Congress being in power. Let's not delude ourselves by thinking it can't happen again.
Is it a national psyche thing with us? Do we have a fixation with treating our biggest headaches with kid gloves? We have made a fad out of people who should be doing hard labour in some remote prison "falling ill" and being admitted to the country's plushest hospital wards – that is, when the legal system does manage to come close to them. We suffer the most absolutely outrageous nonsense and abuse from people in critical power positions and then generally laugh it off by saying, politicians are like this only. When we do occasionally actually manage to catch molesters and rapists, someone or the other is instantly concerned whether the "future of the boy will be spoilt" if he is treated harshly.
Perhaps, sometime in his infancy, the poor baby's nanny didn't give him enough affection, so he developed behavioural problems. Couldn't really help it, could he?
In our political system, we tolerate, even encourage, the people who rave and rant the most, the ones who threaten to bring life to a standstill and break the bones of ordinary people walking past after a day at work, stop trains, set buses alight - for no bloody reason beyond proving that they can do it. In our families, we often give self-obsessed misfits amazing leeway in the name of 'keeping everyone together', and let people who don't give a damn for anyone else ride roughshod and get their way, while everyone else 'adjusts'. In our workplaces, we exhibit great tolerance for drama and theatrics, usually shying away from belling the problematic cats, and instead, often work to mollify the ones who can give us the greatest headache – just so we can "settle the issue".
Is there something here in our collective social reflexes that has a clue to why Kasab smiles as he watches the process of 'proving' that he actually was there, putting slugs into everyone he came across on 26/11? Does he expect someone to convincingly argue something along the lines that he is just a emotionally disturbed little boy who is being unfairly victimised by a grand conspiracy? Or does he hope that something will work out to get him out of there long before the sentencing – and the execution of the sentence – ever comes to its logical conclusion. I wouldn't know. But if there is any set of fundamentally very different reasons to have Kasab cheerful, I, for one, can't figure it out.
Aren't we, as a nation, falling into the trap of finding justifications for everything done, and of treating all categories of people who are a pain to the rest and quite proud of it – local goons and school bullies, workplace cacklers, family "rebels", arsonists, criminals, psychopaths, and mass murderers – with great attention, concern, even deference? We may well be a nation that takes great pride in its value system, but increasingly, we seem to be placing one value above all else. The ultimate, almost aspirational index of how much attention someone will command in many ways is increasingly, consistently, his nuisance value.
Meanwhile, I can't stand the theatrics. Maybe we'll see a soap opera on it all soon – it has the mandatory "K" anyways, which is usually all that is needed to justify a script. In the meantime, I wish someone would wipe the smile off the bugger's face. With apologies to Hobbes, but for someone who brought to us continual fear and the danger of violent death, do we need to be remorseful if his life is solitary, nasty, brutish - and short?