News&Views Feb 2010 Politics-India Shiv sena

News&Views Feb 2010

India

Shiv Sena behaving like J&K separatists, says BJP chief Gadkari
Times of India (see link below)

I am happy about this news . Finally BJP shows some sign of waking up. RSS and BJP have declared regularly that they are for all Indians and "Sarva dharm saman bhava" (to have equal glance on all communities). The word dharm here in the Indian context should be taken to mean communities, language groups, religious groups etc. Philosophy that all Indians should have the same basic rights, any where in India, is ancient and indisputable for Indians. It has been like this in India since time immemorial.

One can understand that this inclusion should also address the concern that in any locality by and large people have employment and a minimal standard of life. Local political parties or community based organizations like shiv sena should of course have all rights to raise such concerns occasionally. One can also understand their concern that government should not show any support or association to Pakistani army, elites and ruling class, since they are supporting terrorist activities in India.

But MSN or Shiv Sena are not just raising these concerns. They are also intimidating practically every one in Mumbai and surrounding regions by their behavior, specially North Indians and Muslims. This is not a new phenomena. Some years back their target for intimidation were South Indians, later it was Gujaratis for some time.

How can a party like BJP (or its philosophical mentor RSS) which has ideology like "sarva dharm saman bhav" (have equal glance on all religions) tolerate such a behavior from one of the members of its political group NDA? Parties which are nationalistic and not feudal in nature should make sure that in any region of the country, this philosophy is followed by and large and should associate generally as less as possible with any organization not following such principles.

But how many parties are there in India which are nationalistic in basic ideology and are not managed in feudal style. Even Congress management is family oriented and feudal. Communist, some left oriented parties and BJP are essentially the only parties which have cadre based management. The left oriented parties including CPM are also basically feudal in the sense that their top leaders, once they are chosen in top positions, continue to be in those positions for decades. Also both congress and leftists groups talk about secularism and national ideals but when it comes to day to day work, the very first thing they do is associate with groups raising communal and religious passions.

Many have wondered how much the recent rise of MSN has to do with election calculations of Congress or NCP bosses? The current phase of aggressiveness and intimidating behavior by Shiv Sena and MSN in Mumbai is also seen by most as mainly due to the encouragement by Congress and NCP which are ruling in the state. Silence and inaction by Congress and NCP Government on this intimidation is indeed deafening.

In this situation, only party from which one could expect some reaction was BJP. But it seems to be lost in its own internal troubles. Silence by BJP on this issue was suffocating. Now its chief has made comment and in quite right direction. Though the behavior of Shiv sena or MSN can not be equated with terrorism of Pakistani influenced separatists in J&K. Their demands and intimidation is quite similar to enforcement of article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir etc. BJP chief Gadkari has indeed made right comment. I hope BJP now gets courage and comes out of its self created shell and makes more such right comments and takes right paths. So do I wish for other parties.

Just now we should concentrate more on providing a minimal life style to every one in India rather than getting lost in these peripheral issues. India is a country full of resources. Making sure that every working person in India has a minimal life style for him self and his family is not such a difficult task and can be achieved in less than 10 years or so. BJP and Congress should come out with clear plans to achieve this with in a decade, rather than just talking about whole nation being one etc. That will automatically take care of concerns raised by parties like MSN and Shiv Sena and other communal and cast based politicking organizations and leave practically no scope for them to have an intimidating behavior.

Here is the link from Times of India of the news.

war over Mumbai

Pictures of Mumbai taken from internet sources