Nepotism of 21st century

http://www.indianexpress.com/story/222685.html

This is an amazing editorial, and I really appreciate what you have written. I have mentioned the same on my blog a few days ago. Sonia Maino in no capacity is eligible to represent India at UN. She is neither a minister nor a bureaucrat nor MK Gandhi's heir. But what can you say when the puppet PM of this country is ready to break the protocol just to drop her off to the airport at 2 in the morning and Congress is ready to bend over to practice nepotism. This country is going to gallows. It is exactly what Dhritrashtr did and we all know what was the result.

A mythical bridge to voters

http://www.ibnlive.com/blogs/sagarikaghose/223/2540/a-mythical-bridge-to-voters.html

I do not agree with you Ms. Ghosh. Firstly Ram Setu is not a myth. Stop the insult. Now, the insult by communal nonsecular Congress and DMK will not go unnoticed. Earlier it was just Muslim appeasement (nonsecular) by the congress, which I was giving them a benefit of doubt about. But the anti-Hindu tirade and rhetoric by DMK and silence of Congress on it, has opened our eyes. For them secular is equal to being Anti-Hindu. They have systematically destroyed the history and culture of this nation. They have caused the partition, emergency, Kashmiri pandit's suffering, dynasty politics, and Anti-Sikh riots. They have made India a soft state and stooge of the US. And now this insult on Hindus, and believe you me, they will pay for this like they did after emergency. They will never come to power again.

Political Maps of India Throughout the Ages

The Myth of the Aryan Invasion

Scientific Verification of Vedic Knowledge and its proofs

Hindu Genocide: Largest in World History

Ayodhya: THE indisputable evidence of Shri Ram Mandir

23000 yrs old Evidence of Dwarka city found underwater

श्री राम सेतु / Shri Ram Setu evidence
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Aryavrat Yug (कृण्वन्तो विश्वमार्यम्।)

Ramayan Yug

Mahabharat Yug

2000 BCE - Indus-Valley Civilisation

Modern humans (Homo sapiens) settled in India tens of thousands of years ago, and the people of India have not changed much in appearance since then. At the end of the last ice age, they developed farming, due to changing climate. Eventually, they created one of the world's first civilizations along with Egypt and Sumeria. No other civilization at the time was as extensive in geographical area as the Indus-Valley Civilization. It flourished between 3300 BCE and 1300 BCE, at a time when India was in the bronze age.

Ships of the IVC sailed as far west as the Persian Gulf and Africa, and probably just as far east, as part of the earliest trading and sharing of ideas. Their cities were amongst the largest and most advanced of the world. Eventually, they began adopting foreign languages and religious practices, which combined with existing Indian ones, to form Vedism and Sanskrit. The Vedas, some of the earliest documents in human history, were composed during this era.


1000 BCE - The Mahajanapadas


When the cities around the Indus valley were slowly abandoned due to changing climate, the rest of India began to increase in importance, perticularily around the Ganges valley. Slowly, numerous tribes, minor kingdoms, chiefdoms and clans adopted Vedic practices across India, and incorporated it into their existing beliefs.

Sixteen kingdoms and republics, similar to the Greek city-states of the same period, rose across India, to become the most powerful states amongst many. They adopted new iron-age technology, and wrote great epics such as the Ramayan and Mahabharat. A great age of invention and philosophy took place across the great civilizations of the world, in India, Greece, China and Persia.

The Buddha and Mahavira founded Buddhism and Jainism in India. The Upanishads, one of the most revolutionary philosophical texts in human history, were written by Hindu philosophers. Panini became the first person to formalise a written language (Sanskrit) with grammar and rules. Even the game of chess was invented.


200 BCE - The Mauyan Dynasty


Inspired by the Persian Empire, the conquests of Alexander, and the revolutionary philosophy of Indian politician Chanakya, India's first emperor, Chandragupta Maurya, united the entire Indian subcontinent a century before the first Chinese emperor united China. He ruled one of the sixteen Mahajanapadas, called Magadha, which had risen to be the most powerful under previous dynasties, and expanded that power even further.

At its height, this empire controlled one third of the population of the planet, and was the richest and largest. It was ruled from Pataliputra, the modern day city of Patna, which was the largest city of the time. It controlled the largest army of the ancient world, and its rulers comissioned some of India's greatest monuments, which have long since collapsed. Its dynasties would continue to rule the Magadhan Empire for centuries, but none would match the Mauryas. Even the small independent kingdoms of the far south, defended by rugged terrain, agreed to pay tribute, and rulers in Sri Lanka adopted Buddhism.

Today, the edicts of Emperor Ashoka, grandson of Chandragupta, can still be read across India, where they were carved almost 2500 years ago. The Indian flag bears the dharma chakra of this ancient emperor, who gave the world the first treaty of human and animal rights, and engaged in massive civil engineering projects, such as road networks lined with trees and wells, and policed by soldiers.

100 BCE


The Shunga dynasty were successors to the Maurya dynasty in the rule of the Magadhan Empire. They managed to rebuild a large area of the empire, which had collapsed under later Mauryan rulers, but ultimatly, could not match the huge Mauryan Empire. In the northwest, in Afghanistan, remnant Greek kings from the time of Alexander, created a kingdom which combined Greek, Persian and Indian civilization, spreading Indian philosophy and art, and combining it with Greek and Persian philosophy and art.


100 CE - Kushan Invasion


A century after the birth of the Christian religion in the middle east, which some suspect was influenced by the earlier Buddhist philosophy of India, one of the greatest empires of the ancient world once again rose in India. A tribe of nomads, from the area of Tibet and Turkestan in modern China, created an empire across Central Asia and India, adopting Indian culture, and allowing trade to flourish between east and west, along the silk route.

India was already the richest region of the planet at this time, according to the estimates of some economic historians, but trade via land with Persia and China, and via sea with the Roman Empire, flooded India with wealth, to the extent that some Roman Emperors were worried that their treasuries were being emptied by trade with India. Buddhism spread even further than before, establishing a foothold in the east, where it is still dominant.


400 CE - Gupta Period


After the fall of the Kushan Empire, another empire rose in Magadha, again ruling from Pataliputra, led by the Gupta dynasty. This is seen by many as a golden age for India. At a time when the people of Europe entered the dark ages, and rejected science and technology, after the fall of the Roman Empire, the Gupta Empire in India was making huge advancements in technology, fine arts, medicine, philosophy and science.

Aryabhata made new discoveries in astronomy, which wouldnt be matched until Europeans invented the telescope a thousand years later. Kalidasa composed great plays in Sanskrit, incorporating advanced themes, a thousand years before Shakesphere. In the south, great Sangham poets did likewise. The concept of zero was invented, allowing a new era of mathematics. Metallurgy and plastic surgery were perfected. Some of their greatest monuments still stand today, and were the prototype for temples across Eastern Asia. Their art influenced scupture in China.

Eventually, the Gupta dynasty would fall to the same nomadic tribes who destroyed the Roman Empire, when after a long struggle, the Huns distroyed it.

625 CE - Harsha


After the Huns had destroyed the Gupta dynasty, Pataliputra again lost its importance. The earlier fall of the Kushans had also left historically powerful cities like Mathura less important, although holy cities like Varanasi and Madurai would retain vast importance as pilgrimage centers. Regional empires began to replicate the greatness of past empires by constructing new capitals across India, and placing great importance on them, as only a handful of cities along the Ganges had once had. The emperor Harsha was the first to unite a large portion of India after the fall of the Guptas, and he made his capital in the city of Kannauj, which gained great importance for centuries after.

900 CE - Three Kingdoms


In medieval times, three kingdoms dominated India, and battled each other for centuries over the city of Kannauj, which had gained great economic importance and symbolic imporance as a capital, due to the reign of Harsha. The Pratihara dynasty ruled the north, the Rashtrakuta dynasty ruled the south, and the Pala dynasty ruled the east. They were some of the most powerful kingdoms in the world.

In India's northwestern neighbour, Persia, the armies of the Islamic Caliphate took power, and began to interact directly with India, influencing Indian architecture, and being influenced by advanced Indian mathematics, medicine, metallurgy and astronomy. They desired the wealth of India, and invaded the kingdom of Sindh, but did not dare to challenge the rich and powerful Pratiharas. Meanwhile, in the south, the small kingdoms of Chola and Chera, warred with each other in the safety of their hard terrain, developing new Indian martial arts like Kalaripayattu.

Eventually, the Chola kingdom won their wars in the south, and rose to become the greatest Indian dynasty since the Guptas. Traditionally, power in the south tended to lie in the Deccan, where the Satavahanas and Rashtrakutas had been based, but the Cholas were based around Tamil Nadu instead. For the first time, Indian civilization in the south became even richer and greater than the empires of the north, ruling from Sri Lanka to Bengal, and sending fleets over the sea to establish colonies in South East Asia, where Hinduism and Buddhism became the dominant religions.

It is also in this era, that many of the local languages of India were born. Most of the north of India, had spoken languages related to Sanskrit, and most of the south spoke ones related to Tamil, and all regions used Sanskrit for religious rites. Under various regional kingdoms, many of the regional dialects gained importance as languages in their own right. As well as Sanskrit, kingdoms began to write inscriptions in languages like Kannada, and Marathi. For example, the Rashtrakutas wrote their inscriptions in both Sanskrit and Kannada.

1050 CE - The Rajputs


The Cholas would eventually grow smaller due to the rise of other regional kingdoms, and elsewhere, the Rajput kingdoms, who had previously been part of the Pratiharas, found that they were under constant onslaught from new Central Asian, Turkic and Afghan warlords such as Mahmood of Ghazni. These warlords were again after the fabled wealth of India, and pillaged the north in much the same way as the Huns, Scythains, and other tribes had done before.

Buddhism declined across India as a result of the attacks which invading warlords made upon Buddhist monestaries and temples. Nalanda University, the greatest learning insitutute in the world, home to students from across India, China and the rest of Eastern Asia, fell to foreign looters and iconoclasts.

1280 CE - Warlords


Eventually, some warlords saw the profit that could be made by ruling within India itself, much as the Kushans had earlier realised. Despite stern resistence from various kingdoms, invaders managed to create a Sultanate based in Delhi, a former Rajput capital, which became the most important city in the north. These Delhi Sultans were often intolerant bigots, who did not respect the native people or their religions. Some controversy exists to this day about how many people in South Asia were forced to change religion by discrimination. But along with intolerant leaders, came liberal Sufi philosophers who were open to Persian, Hindu and Buddhist ideas, and believed in the equality of all religions.

1320 CE - The Delhi Sultanate


The Delhi Sultanate managed to briefly conquer a large area of India, via tribute and regional treaties, becoming the largest power in India since the Cholas. However, their reign was short lived, in part because of their loose hold on the Indian people, in part due to the rise of native kingdoms again, and in part because of the expansion of the massive Mongol hordes in Asia, who attacked India several times, but were bearly repelled by the Delhi Sultanate.

1400 CE - The Vijaynagar Empire


The kingdoms of India once again fragmented. The main powers of this era, were the declining Delhi Sultans, and the emperors of the Vijaynagara Empire, which was one of India's greatest kingdoms since the Cholas. When European sailors arrived in India for the first time since the days of the Roman Empire, they described the capital Vijaynagara as being stunningly rich. Eventually it fell in a war with the Deccan Sultanate, and its ruins may still be seen at Hampi. Vijaynagara was the largest city in the world at the time, just as other Indian cities such as Pataliputra had once been.

1630 CE - Mughal Empire


In time, one of the successors to the Mongol hordes, who had ruled Persia, invaded India. After numerous failures, he eventually succeeded in establishing Delhi as his capital, defeating the Delhi Sultanate. His name was Babur, and his Mughal dynasty would eventually become the largest Indian empire since the Magadhan Empire under the Mauryan dynasty 2000 years before. Indian art flourished under the tolerant rule of emperors such as Akbar, who abolished the intolerant laws of the Delhi Sultans.

All religions were equally patronised, and the rulers bore no real loyalty to any perticular faith, attending both Sufi and Hindu religious functions. After the tyranny of the warlords and Sultans, India returned to being a largely secular land. However, the last of the six great emperors, Aurangzeb, made the mistake of again becoming intolerant and partisan. He lost the loyalty of the local kings and people, and the Mughal Empire fragmented, allowing regional kingdoms to rise again, and European traders to make aggressive moves on the wealthy subcontinent.


1800 CE - Marathi Empire


One of the last great attempts to unite India came from the Maratha Empire, led by Shivaji and his successors. Fighting against the unpopular Aurangzeb, they played a part in the downfall of the Mughals, along with the rise of other regional powers such as Punjab and Mysore. However, European colonial powers divided each kingdom against one another, and invaded.

1860 CE - The British Raj


The map above shows how the British administered their Indian Empire. Surviving kingdoms were indirectly ruled by the British, and their Maharajas had little real power beyond capital ciites. Most provinces were directly ruled. A few more were indirect puppets of the British. Every Indian knows the story of the British Raj, the independence movement, and the last 60 years of modern history, so I will not cover it here.

I hope you enjoyed this tour of Indian history.

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References:

1. Gorah Pindu, http://www.desitorrents.com/forums/showthread.php?t=34271

2. Deepali, http://www.geocities.com/narenp/history/home.htm

Victorious Ram

What an article guys, check this out. Amazing....

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Tarun_Vijay_Victorious_Ram/articleshow/2382407.cms

The Ram Setu issue will change the intellectual discourse and polity's agenda in a much stronger way than Minakshipuram. To humiliate and convert Hindus has always been on the minds of the aliens and the alienated. And to emerge victorious is the swabhav , the essential virtue of Ram.

Ram built the bridge to rescue Sita and punish the wicked. Every prime minister comes to Ram Lila grounds in Delhi to shoot the first arrow on Dussehra day standing with Ram for a photo op. The Prime Minister and the Super one have done it last year and will do it again soon. With what conviction? Do they believe in what they do as a ritual? They have become a party to assaults on the faith of Ram.

People are not too naïve to forget what they said last year while inaugurating the biggest-ever project to demolish what millions believe Ram built. On Saturday, 2nd July 2005 (Madurai, Tamil Nadu), Mrs. Sonia Gandhi pushed the button to begin Ram Setu demolition and said, “Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh ji , Thiru. Karunanidhi ji , Governor SS Barnala ji , Thiru T.R. Baalu, Distinguished Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen, 'Today, we realise a 150-year-old dream... let me say how happy I am that the Sethusamudram project is being launched today. I congratulate and thank Thiru. T.R. Baalu and all those associated with this historic project. It is truly a day of satisfaction, a historic moment for Tamil Nadu and for the country.”( http://sethusamudram.gov.in/sji.htm ).

If Ram is so sacred that an affidavit has to be withdrawn, why invade His memory by destroying the bridge He built?

It’s part of an old game. Humiliate Hindus. Make them feel small and indefensible. Colour them as heathens and pagans, who worship stones and snakes. They have no sense of history. First they asked for proof of where Ram was born. Birth certificate or a midwife's testimony? A media house suggested building toilets at the janmabhumi temple to “end all the controversy and turn it into a public utility.” Another suggested a government hospital. None even raised a muffled murmur to rebuild temples destroyed in Kashmir. Hindus are used to it. Used to seeing their temples demolished, women raped, villages uprooted and mass conversions.

Those who feel hurt hearing voices of protest against the Setu demolition, feel quite comfortable to write on the Sallus and Shettys, as if nothing worth commenting happened at Doda or Rajouri. It's like eliminating the protecting walls and desecrating the courtyard before assaulting the sanctum sanctorum. The resistance power and the anger should never be allowed to accumulate. Take a step, slap and see how strong the victim frowns and clinches his fists, come back saying, oh sorry, I didn't know it was you! Spectators would clap at your decency. After a gap, take another step. Make the target fatigued and confused. Take the elite, the most cowardly Rai Bahadurs along. They are the malls of virtuous sermons and Pentagons of safety walls. “Oh I am also a Hindu, I do not believe in what this lunatic fringe says. They are against development; want to take back India to their bullock cart era.” They, who happily use the term Hindu rate of growth for a retarded economy -- and one magazine used the re-coined term Hindu rate of Internet, to depict a non-functional broadband regime -- in an era when Hindus are creating history in economy, technology and medical sciences; Hindu icons are demolished to follow up on the Pope's declaration that after Europe and Africa, now is the turn to convert Asia.

The agnostics and the atheists begin preaching to Hindus on how they should behave religiously. They have every right to hold on to their views. They can say, I do not believe in Ram and yet be a Hindu. None would announce a reward on their head. But do they also have a right to encroach upon the territory of the faithful?

Dredgers of the secular are not only working proudly to undo the Ram Setu (It is a matter of pride for Dredging Corporation of India Limited (DCI) to associate itself with the prestigious Sethusamudram Ship Channel Project (SSCP) -- http://dredge-india.nic.in/press-sethu1.htm ) they are invading the sacred areas of the Hindus academically too and that is exactly the title of a wonderful book ( http://www.invadingthesacred.com , Rupa ). The book exposes influential scholars who have disparaged the Bhagavad Gita as "a dishonest book"; declared Ganesha's trunk a "limp phallus"; classified the Hindu Devi as the "mother with a penis" and Shiva as "a notorious womaniser" who incites violence in India; pronounced Sri Ramakrishna a paedophile who sexually molested the young Swami Vivekananda; condemned Indian mothers as being less loving of their children than white women; and interpreted the bindi as a drop of menstrual fluid and the "ha" in sacred mantras as a woman's sound during orgasm.

Rajiv Malhotra, while discussing how American scholars and academicians show an extreme kind of Hindu phobia while writing on Hindu issues, writes that the way a Hindu prayer in the US Senate, for the first time in its history, was opposed should be an eye-opener. It’s noteworthy that the US Senate has a long history of opening with prayers from the Bible and as recognition of the contribution of Indian-Americans, a Hindu priest was invited for the first time, and he got heckled. Malhotra writes “the Hindu prayer was attacked as an abomination by hate-filled heckling that resulted from an organised mobilization by civic groups such as the American Family Association, attempting to demonise Hinduism as heathens, immoral and dangerously un-American.”

David Barton, one of the scholars informing the attackers, declared that Hinduism was "not a religion that has produced great things in the world," citing social conditions in India as proof of its primitiveness. The denigration of Hinduism influences the way Americans relate to Indians. Andrew Rotter, an American historian, in his book on the US foreign policy's tilt against India and towards Pakistan during the Nehru era, cites declassified documents revealing US presidents' and diplomats' suspicion of Hinduism. They regarded "Hindu India" as lacking morality and integrity, and its "grotesque images" reminded them of previous pagan faiths conquered by Christians, such as Native Americans. American ideas about India are intertwined with stereotypes about Hinduism.

The same hate-filled attitude we see among the Indian ruling elite and the secular academia who are invading the Hindu space with support of immense resources by cornering all the media space and hijacking the right to represent India. They are the ones who control listing and the de-listing business in elite clubs and discussion forums, publishing houses and channel regimes, countless columns and forming gate-keeper cartels to regulate entries to platforms of the influential words – spoken and printed. A prominent daily has begun columns by all the Leftists who daily spit venom against one particular ideology. I asked editors whether my rejoinder to one Leftist leader's half-truths would be published and they agreed. The piece, a dozen times promised as going to print (emails galore, next week, next Monday, I am in Paris, I am in Mussourie, will be done) was never used. So much for the objectivity of the secular hate-spreaders.

Nobody has ever opposed the Sethusamudram project. Hindu organisations welcomed the idea but asked for a route which was originally proposed by the five important Indian committees and the previous British ones. Building the Sethusamudram by destroying the Ram Setu is bad from the security and environmental angles, and above all, invades the Hindu faith, which should not require any certificate from secular clerks.

The first reaction of these seculars is to discard with contempt any proof or logic Hindus produce. But this is what NASA says about the bridge, “Exploring space with a camera by NASA's [193] Gemini XI, this photograph from an altitude of 410 miles encompasses all of India, an area of 1,250 000 square miles”... George M Low, then the deputy director, Manned Spacecraft Center, NASA, notes, “Bombay is on the west coast, directly left of the spacecraft's can-shaped antenna, New Delhi is just below the horizon near the upper left. Adam's Bridge between India and Ceylon, at the right, is clearly visible...” We can see the picture dramatically resembles the description given in Kalidasa's Raghuvamsham. Kalidasa wrote (sarga 13): “Rama, while returning from Sri Lanka in Pushpaka Vimaana told Sita: ‘Behold, Sita, My Setu of mountains dividing this frothy ocean is like the milky way dividing the sky into two parts’".

The Encyclopedia Britannica describes the bridge thus, “Adam's Bridge also called Rama's Bridge, chain of shoals, between the islands of Mannar, near northwestern Sri Lanka and Rameswaram, off the southeastern coast of India.”

Apart from such issues of heritage and belief, there are genuine concerns regarding security and the impact of tsunamis increasing in case the Ram Setu is destroyed. If the new channel is created through the present bridge of Ram, international ships would pass through it making a de facto international boundary between India and Sri Lanka, facilitating an increased alien presence, burdening our Navy to a great extent. The state presented all the half-truths and unverified “facts” to give an impression that while it is doing a great job to develop economy, these Hindus are monkeying around with reality. It never answered why it preferred the present route requiring destruction of Ram Setu? There is a difference between international boundary and the historic waters under UN conventions. The present waters status between India and Sri Lanka is the Historic Waters. The US Navy operational directive refusing to accept the sea between India and Sri Lanka as “historic” was made on June 23, 2005. The Prime Minister's Office sent some queries in March 2005 to N K Raghupathy, chief of the Tuticorin Port Trust. He sent answers to the PMO's queries on June 30, 2005 and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh with United Progressive Alliance Chairperson Sonia Gandhi inaugurated the project on July 2, 2005. Why were the queries sent to the TPT and not to an agency which had scientific authority to look into the geological and maritime aspects of the project? Why did the prime minister and the UPA chairperson rush to inaugurate the project without, prima facie, having the time to look into the answers given by the TPT chief?

Local fishermen, Hindus, Muslims and Christians alike, oppose the present route and are demanding alternative channels, which are available. They say the present channel would destroy marine life and corals. This will kill the trade in shankas (shells) that has a turnover in excess of Rs 150 crore (Rs 1.5 billion) per annum. Invaluable thorium deposits would be affected, which are too important for our nuclear fuel requirements.

Professor Tad Murthy, the world-renowned tsunami expert, who advised the Government of India on the tsunami warning system and edited the Tsunami Journal for over 20 years, has also warned that the present Sethusamudram route may result in tsunami waves hitting Kerala more fiercely. In a reply to a query regarding the Sethusamudram's impact, he wrote, 'During the Indian Ocean tsunami of December 26, 2004, the southern part of Kerala was generally spared from a major tsunami, mainly because the tsunami waves from Sumatra region travelling south of the Sri Lankan island, partially diffracted northward and affected the central part of the Kerala coast. Since the tsunami is a long gravity wave (similar to tides and storm surges) during the diffraction process, the rather wide turn it has to take spared the south Kerala coast. On the other hand, deepening the Sethu Canal might provide a more direct route for the tsunami and this could impact south Kerala.'

Navy Captain H.Balakrishnan (Retd) has analysed the whole gamut of the SSCP and has produced a three-part paper on the subject ,which says in nutshell:

(A) Its not environmental friendly-: -Mariners call the Tamil Nadu coast from Rameswaram to Cuddalore as the 'cyclone coast'. Allied to the dangers posed by the cyclones to shipping, is the high siltation rates that occur in the Palk Straits. This would imply that maintenance dredging will have to be 'round the year' affair escalating the maintenance of the canal.

(B) No time saving- 'Time and Distance' calculation for a vessel's voyage from Kolkata/Chennai to Tuticorin circumnavigating Sri Lanka as also transiting through the SSCP is projected wrongly by govt. The SSCP is to have a dredged depth of 12 Metres. This permits vessels with a maximum draught of 10.7 M to pass through the channel. The underfoot clearance for the vessel is 1.3 M. This low underfoot clearance mandatorily entails the ship to precede at 'slow speeds of 6 to 8 Knots' through the Channel, on account of a phenomenon, termed as the 'Shallow Water Effect' by the mariners. On account of this fact, for a vessel on passage from Kolkata to Tuiticorin around Sri Lanka and through SSCP saves ONLY 1.75 hours by routing through the latter, for a speed combination 0f 12 and 6 knots!!
The project is backed by all those parties known for their atheism and anti-Hindutva stand. A new paper report said, ' Almost all political parties in Tamil Nadu, including the Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (MDMK), the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK), the Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK), the Congress and the two Left parties, back the project. The National Environmental Engineering Research Institute (NEERI), Nagpur, submitted a techno-economic feasibility study and an environmental impact assessment report of the project in July 2004. It also suggested an alignment for the canal. The canal will originate from the Tuticorin harbour in the south and run through the Gulf of Mannar, the Palk Bay and the Palk Strait in a north and northeast direction before joining the Bay of Bengal. In other words, the canal will be dredged through the shallow waters of Adam's Bridge and the Palk Bay. Its total length will be 152 km but it needs no dredging for 78 km in the Gulf of Mannar. The canal will be 300 m wide and 6 km long in the Adam's Bridge area, and another 68 km long in the Palk Bay and the Palk Strait area. Its depth will be 12 m, to enable ships with a draught of 10.7 m to pass through.'

But the prominent Hindus, Christians opposed it. Justice K T Thomas, a retired and a distinguished judge of the Supreme Court told me that taking up the project by hurting Hindu sentiments is not advisable. Justice V R Krishna Aiyar, another great jurist too opposed it and sent a strong letter to the Prime Minister. A memorandum with 35 lakh signatures opposing the present alignment of Sethusamudram was submitted to the preacher President Abdul Kalam, hoping he belongs to Rameshwaram and hence would stand with Ram, but he kept a studied silence. Several public interest petitions were filed in Madras High Court and the Supreme Court, and the present cyclone over Ram's existence came out of an answer to one such petition filed by Dr Swamy.

S. Badrinarayanan, former director of Geological Survey of India and a member of the National Institute of Ocean Technology (NIOT) says the Adam's Bridge was not a natural formation.

"Coral reefs are formed only on hard surfaces. But during the study we found that the formation at Adam's Bridge is nothing but boulders of coral reefs. When we drilled for investigation, we found that there was loose sand two to three metres below the reefs. Hard rocks were found several metres below the sand.

''Such a natural formation is impossible. Unless somebody has transported them and dumped them there, those reefs could not have come there. Some boulders were so light that they could float on water. Apparently, whoever has done it, has identified light (but strong) boulders to make it easy for transportation. Since they are strong, they can withstand a lot of weight. It should be preserved as a national monument," he opined.

Fishermen are angry too. A newspaper quoted 'C. Munisamy of Mukundarayapuram, about 7 km from Rameswaram, points out that fishermen put out to sea at different times of the day during "seasons" for various fish varieties. Other fishermen fear that if they fish during the unapproved timings, they may be arrested on the charge of smuggling. N. Kumar and, S. Ramesh of Mukundarayapuram, and K. Thomas Vas of Thracepuram voiced similar sentiments separately. According to them, they normally sail at night, drop anchor, spread their nets and go to sleep, and return with the catch in the morning. "We cannot be on the lookout for ships (when we are sleeping). If a ship collides with our boat, our boat will straightway descend into the sea," says Kumar. There are about 1,300 country boats in and around Thracepuram alone, and each supports eight fishermen. "We drop anchor in the waters where the ships would ply. If the Sethusamudram project is implemented the ships will slice our nets. When this happens, the entire fishing community will be destroyed. Can we take to any other job?" ask R. Raj, president, and F. Jeyapaul, vice-president, of the Country Boats Fishermen's Panchayat at Thracepuram. A few hundred fishermen's families at Dhanushkodi are worried that they would not only lose their livelihood but also be dispossessed of their houses. They point to the NEERI report, which says that maintenance per year will result in a spoil of 0.1 million cubic metres. This dredged material, which will be mostly silt and clay, will not be disposed of in the sea. "Instead, it will be used to reclaim degraded areas on the Pamban island, Ramnad and Mandapam coastal stretches," it says.

Part of the dredged material will be disposed of in the area that stretches between the Kothandaraswamy temple at Kothandam and Dhanushkodi, the Land's End. (Much of the Dhanushkodi island was washed away in a cyclone in 1964.)

R. Munisamy, 50, deftly removing fish from his net on the sandy beach, says: "This will not bring us any benefit. Dumping of dredge will result in the creation of mounds on the beach. How can we relocate?" Santiago Fernandes of Vercode Fishermen's Association asks, "How can we predict what will happen when you try to interfere with nature by dumping the spoil at Dhanushkodi (or Pamban)? We need a sea to fish. If you are going to dump the spoil in the sea, how can we fish? When you artificially interfere with a natural formation, the fish wealth will be ruined. We are on a precipice, poised between life and death."

All agree that the Sethusamudram idea has a very important geo-political dimension. 'It would give India a firm grip on one of the world's most strategic and busiest sea-lanes. This would eventually give India very remarkable leverage in its relations with China, Japan and the US. All the oil supplies to Southeast and East Asia that originate in the Middle East are shipped from ports in the Red Sea or the Persian Gulf. The sea-lanes from here converge in the Arabian Sea and then pass through the Gulf of Mannar and curve off the western, southern and southeastern coast of Sri Lanka. This sea-lane then turns northeast through the Bay of Bengal towards the Malacca Strait. Eighty per cent of Japan's oil supplies and sixty per cent of China's oil supplies shipped on this sea-lane. Almost half of the world's container traffic passes through the choke points of this sea-lane and its branches in the Indian Ocean. The Sethusamudram Project will create an unavoidable by-pass that would inevitably divert this sea traffic through India's own maritime waters,' says a strategic expert in Daily Mirror , 6 October 2004.

K.M Panikkar, the architect of India's naval doctrine, argued in his works more than fifty years ago that New Delhi should recognise the significance of the Indian Ocean for the development of its commercial activities, trade and security ( The Strategic Problems of the Indian Ocean' and 'India and Indian Ocean - published in 1944-1945).Regretting the "unfortunate tendency to overlook the Sea in the discussion of India's defence problems", Panikkar remarked: "India never lost her independence till she lost the command of the sea in the first decade of the 16th century". Advocating that the "Indian Ocean must remain truly Indian", Panikkar suggested the Albuquerque-style security of India by firmly holding distant places like Singapore, Mauritius, Aden and Socotra, the arid island off the coast of Yemen.

Through the present alignment we're not only making Indian Ocean a playfield for foreign interventions but also denying our heritage and the quintessential character of our nation. It's not done. Ram will emerge victorious again against the demons. We do not need to re-produce what Gandhi or Max Mueller said about Ram to prove how great He was. And remember humiliated Hindus may strike back, sooner or later.

The author is the editor of Panchjanya, a Hindi weekly brought out by the RSS. The views expressed are his personal and all the credit goes to him. The text is from Times of India and all the credit for print of the article goes to them.

Indian Politics

The problem with current Indian politics as I see it:

Congress - Dynasty politics with misuse of Gandhi name, attitude of all credit should go to Sonia Maino, all err goes to subordinates, too much power given to one person who controls the decision and policies of the nation without being held responsible for it. Amazing strategy like mafia works. The party is too much insensitive to Hindu religion, takes it for granted (Shri Ram does not exist) and for ride (Godhra train massacre was an accident) whenever required as if people are fools. Does divisive politics on the basis of caste and religion, to keep country on toes and then give them sops like reservation to look good. Pseudo-secularist. In my view they are more communal than any other party in India.

Vision: Short-term, only keeping next poll in mind. I think this 5 year plan system was introduced because a govt. is suppose to last max. 5 yrs. Hence, no long term vision and planning done in the national interest. Keep Quotrochi and Anderson out of India. Although one good thing is the nuclear deal, but I don't know how beneficial is it to the nation.

BJP - Right wing, standing up for Hindus, as no one else does. But lack of leadership, no coordination within and with allies anymore, often accused of being communal although I think they are just perceived so because they oppose appeasement of any one particular community, that is why they wanted a uniform civil code for one unified India. But now acting hypocrite cause they do not have any direction they want to head in, no strategy.

Vision: Long term infrastructure development (started Delhi Metro, Highways, new AIIMS, put us on world map by going Nuclear, IT infrastructure, started Indo-US cooperation). Bold correct moves in national interest like anti terrorism laws, going nuclear, won us the kargil war. Weak wrong moves against national interest like dealing with IC-814 hijack, Gujarat riots. But now very dim vision as no one leader leading the party at present.

DMK - Too much self congratulatory and self centered view of Tamil nadu is different than rest of India. Anti-North and Anti-Hindi attitude which is very dangerous to one secular India view. We have to get away from this regional chauvinism if we want to progress. They are alright in using a foreign language English to fight and resist from using Hindi. No one is forcing the Hindi language and do you think Tamil language is so soft that it will not survive if you use Hindi instead of English. As per shastra, it was God Shiv who taught Maharishi Agastya, Tamil bhasha. It is a very great language in every one's eye. I would rather use a Indian language to bridge the language gap for communicating with some one from other state than using a foreign language like English. And I do not mind learning Tamil either.

Vision: An atheist leader is making insensitive statements on a religion because of foreign west cooked ideology of Aryans attacked Dravidians. Don't care if the ecology of the ocean will be destroyed, just wants the project to start to gain in next election.

Left parties - Just block the progress of the nation, enjoy the fruits of power without being held accountable as they support the govt. from the outside.

Vision: Anti-US and Pro-China. Did not even oppose China in Indo-China war. Do not oppose illegal immigration from Bangladesh for vote bank politics. Hold nation and govt. to ransom to implement the Marxist view and to oppose India going global and being friendly with the US. Frankly, I don't give two hoots of not being Non-Aligned, if it is in my country's long term national interest.

BSP - Came to power against all odds, despite media's little but negative coverage or no coverage at all.

Vision: Vision based on caste based politics, very corrupt leader, no development model, although brought people across the board together but still is based to propagate Ambedkar's ideology and promotes religious conversion.

I do not mean to offense anyone on the basis of caste, creed and religion. This is how I perceive current Indian politics. If you ask me, there is no party with a good long term development model and working to bring India together. But if I have to vote, as the next election would be like last US election "Who is worst than who" election. I would not vote for Congress as I am tired of Dynasty politics with appeasement policies and rise of terrorism. I would vote for anyone but them. I would have loved to vote for BJP, but they do not have any leader like Mr. Vajpayee left leading the party.

Self congratulatory Congress

http://www.indianexpress.com/story/217019.html

What is Singhvi talking about, in this self congratulatory statement of calling themselves a divine. Is he calling Sonia Maino a god? Congress is a corrupt party. I dont think BJP is communal, they are not spreading hatred or calling Prophet Mohd. a myth. It is congress which is calling the supreme Hindu divine God Ram, a myth. Congress is a anti-Hindu, communal party. We the people of India are not fools. Sonia saved the day, no way. We will never forget this and congress will pay for this blasphemy and insult on Hindus.

Sonia saves Ram......WHAT?!

It is too late now, the true colors of Congress are out. PM and Sonia have to appologize to the nation. Congress is an anti-Hindu and communal party. Sonia saves Ram, you are kidding me. She is the one who has hurt the feelings of millions of Hindus. She is too petty a person to save Shri Ram ji. She and other congress people are not even millionth of what Shri Ram ji stands for. Congress is anti-secular communal party and they will pay for this blasphemy in the next election like they did after emergency.

What I feared has happened!

I blogged and protested against calling our religious text and scriptures, a myth. And it has come back and bite us today. Shame on Director of ASI and the Congress government for playing with the feelings of Hindus.

http://www.hindustantimes.com/storypage/storypage.aspx?id=e1f3607e-6fb8-4345-8851-6b9e4585948a

http://www.hindustantimes.com/StoryPage/StoryPage.aspx?id=f496311a-594b-4980-bd36-3a90c169957a

The director of ASI should apologise for this blasphemy against Hindu religion. How dare he called Ramayan, a myth? Is he saying the very existence of Hindus and our nation is a myth?! Shame on him, and he should be hanged. Oh my god, I am ashamed to be an Indian today. If Ramayan is a myth, then so are Prophet Mohamed, and Christ. No one has seen them, may be they were stories cooked up too. But no, that can't be possible as that is not in the line with Congress government's appeasement policies and Anti-Hindu vendetta. And I do not mean any offense to any religion.

Discrimination or Democracy

http://www.ibnlive.com/news/centres-advice-deploy-muslims-in-muslim-areas/48131-3.html

This is a discrimination on the basis of religion by government. Congress is much more nonsecular and communal than the likes of always accused VHP. They are segregating the society on the basis of religion and caste, and polarising the society by playing divisive appeasement politics. How can they say that Muslims are better in Muslim dominated areas, this is out and out racism and will alienate a section even more? How can they democratically and scientifically support this ridiculous argument?

Is this Democracy or Discrimination, the line between the two is vanishing fast?!