A fantastic article by Francois Gautier–

Is there such a thing as 'Hindu terrorism', as the arrest of Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur for the recent Malegaon blasts may tend to prove? Well, I guess I was asked to write this column because I am one of that rare breed of foreign correspondents?a lover of Hindus! A born Frenchman, Catholic-educated and non-Hindu, I do hope I'll be given some credit for my opinions, which are not the product of my parents' ideas, my education or my atavism, but garnered from 25 years of reporting in South Asia (for Le Journal de Geneve and Le Figaro).

In the early 1980s, when I started freelancing in south India , doing photo features on kalaripayattu, the Ayyappa festival, or the Ayyanars, I slowly realised that the genius of this country lies in its Hindu ethos, in the true spirituality behind Hinduism. The average Hindu you meet in a million villages possesses this simple, innate spirituality and accepts your diversity, whether you are Christian or Muslim, Jain or Arab, French or Chinese. It is this Hinduness that makes the Indian Christian different from, say, a French Christian, or the Indian Muslim unlike a Saudi Muslim. I also learnt that Hindus not only believed that the divine could manifest itself at different times, under different names, using different scriptures (not to mention the wonderful avatar concept, the perfect answer to 21st century religious strife) but that they had also given refuge to persecuted minorities from across the world?Syrian Christians, Parsis, Jews, Armenians, and today, Tibetans. In 3,500 years of existence, Hindus have never militarily invaded another country, never tried to impose their religion on others by force or induced conversions.

You cannot find anybody less fundamentalist than a Hindu in the world and it saddens me when I see the Indian and western press equating terrorist groups like SIMI, which blow up innocent civilians, with ordinary, angry Hindus who burn churches without killing anybody. We know also that most of these communal incidents often involve persons from the same groups?often Dalits and tribals?some of who have converted to Christianity and others not.

However reprehensible the destruction of Babri Masjid, no Muslim was killed in the process; compare this to the 'vengeance' bombings of 1993 in Bombay , which wiped out hundreds of innocents, mostly Hindus. Yet the Babri Masjid destruction is often described by journalists as the more horrible act of the two. We also remember how Sharad Pawar, when he was chief minister of Maharashtra in 1993, lied about a bomb that was supposed to have gone off in a Muslim locality of Bombay .

I have never been politically correct, but have always written what I have discovered while reporting. Let me then be straightforward about this so-called Hindu terror. Hindus, since the first Arab invasions, have been at the receiving end of terrorism, whether it was by Timur, who killed 1,00,000 Hindus in a single day in 1399, or by the Portuguese Inquisition which crucified Brahmins in Goa . Today, Hindus are still being targeted: there were one million Hindus in the Kashmir valley in 1900; only a few hundred remain, the rest having fled in terror. Blasts after blasts have killed hundreds of innocent Hindus all over India in the last four years. Hindus, the overwhelming majority community of this country, are being made fun of, are despised, are deprived of the most basic facilities for one of their most sacred pilgrimages in Amarnath while their government heavily sponsors the Haj. They see their brothers and sisters converted to Christianity through inducements and financial traps, see a harmless 84-year-old swami and a sadhvi brutally murdered. Their gods are blasphemed.

So sometimes, enough is enough.At some point, after years or even centuries of submitting like sheep to slaughter, Hindus?whom the Mahatma once gently called cowards?erupt in uncontrolled fury. And it hurts badly. It happened in Gujarat . It happened in Jammu , then in Kandhamal, Mangalore, and Malegaon . It may happen again elsewhere. What should be understood is that this is a spontaneous revolution on the ground, by ordinary Hindus, without any planning from the political leadership. Therefore, the BJP, instead of acting embarrassed, should not disown those who choose other means to let their anguished voices be heard.

There are about a billion Hindus, one in every six persons on this planet. They form one of the most successful, law-abiding and integrated communities in the world today. Can you call them terrorists?

To know more about Francois Gautier click here

Sonia’s presence in Delhi is costing India dearly.

Sonia’s presence in Delhi is costing India dearly

François Gautier
First Published : 02 Dec 2008 02:37:00 AM IST
Last Updated : 02 Dec 2008 10:20:05 AM IST
In 1898, the French writer Emile Zola wrote an open letter to the then French president in the newspaper L’Aurore, titled j’accuse (‘I accuse’), where he accused the French government of anti- Semitism towards Captain Alfred Dreyfus, a Jewish officer unfairly condemned for treason.
Now it is time for the people of India to say openly that which many, including within the Congress, think secretly and may utter in the privacy of their chambers.
It is not about Manmohan Singh, it is not even about Shivraj Patil, the fall guy; it is about that one person, the Eminence Grise of India. She who pulls all the strings, She whose shadow looms menacingly over so many, She who holds no portfolio, is just a simple elected MP, like 540 others, but rules like an empress.
Sometimes, one’s very physical presence at the top is enough to move things, to influence the course of events. One word from Her, a glance, a frown, are enough to put the whole heavy, inert, unwilling machinery of India ’s bureaucracy and political system in full motion. Sometimes She need not say anything: in the true tradition of Bhakti, Her ministers, Her secretaries, interpret Her silences and rush to cater to Her western and Christian identity.
Nevertheless, she has said and acted enough so that one day she may stand accused on the pages of History for what she must have done to India .
I’accuse Sonia Gandhi as being responsible for the tragedy of Mumbai, having emasculated India’s intelligence agencies by stopping them from investigating terror attacks in the last four years, including the Mumbai train blasts. She has also neutralised the ATS by ordering them at all costs to ferret out ‘Hindu terrorism’, which if it exists, has wrought minuscule damage compared to what Islamic terror has done since 2004. Did the US send a warning to India that there may be an attack on Mumbai and that the Taj would be one of the targets? Were these ignored because the ATS was too busy chasing Hindu ‘terrorists’ on Sonia’s orders? I accuse Sonia and her government of having made the NSG the laughing stock of the world. How many times did the NSG (who took ten hours to reach Mumbai) claim that it had “sanitised the Taj and that the operation was over” and how many times did a bomb go off immediately after? For the last 20 years, the NSG has guarded VIPs and has become soft. See the comments of Israeli terror specialists, who said the NSG should have first sanitised the immediate surroundings of the places of conflict, kept the bystanders and press (who gave terrorists watching TV in the Taj rooms a perfect report of the security forces’ whereabouts) out of the place, gathered enough information about the position of the terrorists and hostages before taking action, instead of immediately engaging the terrorists, and ensuring the deaths of so many hostages.
I accuse Sonia of having let her Christian and Western background, in four years, divide India on religious and caste lines in a cynical and methodical manner.
I accuse Sonia of weakening India ’s spirit of sacrifice and courage, so that 20 terrorists (or less) held at ransom the financial capital of India for more than three days.
I accuse Sonia Gandhi of always pointing the finger at Pakistan , when terrorism in India is now mostly homegrown, even if it takes help, training, refuge and arms from Pakistan ; of not warning Indians of the grave dangers of Islamic terror for cynical election purposes.
I accuse Sonia of being an enemy of the Hindus, who always gave refuge to persecuted minorities, and who are the only people in the world to accept that God may manifest under different names, in different epochs, using different scriptures.
I accuse Sonia Gandhi of taking advantage of India ’s respect for women, its undue fascination with the Gandhi name, and its stupid mania for White Skin.
I’accuse Sonia of exploiting the Indian Press’ obsession with her. She hardly ever gave interview in 20 years, except scripted ones to NDTV, yet the Press always protects her, never blames her and keeps silent over her covert role.
I’accuse Sonia and her government of trying to make heroes of subservient and inefficient men to hide the humiliation of Mumbai 26/11. Before going to his death, Hemant Karkare, the ATS chief, was shown on television clumsily handling his helmet, as someone who uses it very rarely. Why did he die of bullet wounds in the chest when he was wearing a bullet-proof vest? Either Indian vests are inferior quality or he was not wearing one.
How did the terrorists who killed him and his fellow officer escape in the same vehicle used by the ATS chief ? Why did he and his officers go into Cama Hospital without ascertaining where the terrorists were? We honour his death, but these facts say a lot about the ATS’ battle-readiness.
Will someone in the Congress, someone who feels more Indian than faithful to Sonia, stand up and speak the truth? Who said, “Go after Hindu terrorists”? Who insisted on putting pressure on BJP governments in Karnataka or Orissa for so-called persecution of Christians, when Christians have always practised their faith in total freedom here, while their missionaries are converting hundreds of thousands of innocent tribals and Dalits with the billions of dollars given by gullible westerners? Who said, “Go soft on Islamic terrorism”? Who wants to do away with India’s nuclear deterrence in the face of Pakistani and Chinese nuclear threats, by pushing at all costs the one sided Indo-US nuclear deal, which makes no secret of its intention to denuclearise India militarily? I am sure Sonia Gandhi has good qualities: she probably was a good wife to Rajiv, a good daughter in law to Indira and by all accounts, she is a good mother to her children. One also hears first-hand reports about her concern for smaller people, her dignity in the suffering that befell her when her husband was blown to pieces, and her courtesy with visitors.
Nevertheless, she is a danger to India .
Her very presence, both physical and occult, open the doors to forces inimical to India . Even Indian Christians should understand that she is not a gift to them: her presence at the top has emboldened fanatics like John Dayal or Valson Thampu, who practise an orthodox Christianity prevalent in the West in the early 20th century, but no longer, to radicalise their flock. Indian Christians should recognise that they have a much better deal here than Christians or Hindus have in Pakistan , Bangladesh , Indonesia or Saudi Arabia .
Under Sonia’s rule, Indian Muslims, too, have been used as electoral pawns. They have been encouraged to shun the Sufi streak, a blend of the best of Islam and Vedanta, for a hard-line Sunni brand imported from Saudi Arabia , Pakistan and Afghanistan .
For the good of India, her civilisation, her immense spirituality and culture, Sonia Gandhi has to go and a government that thinks Indian, breathes nationalism and will protect its citizens must be voted to power.
— fgautier@auroville.org.in

People at risk but hundreds of crores to protect netas.

NEW DELHI/MUMBAI: While they seem unable to protect ordinary people from terrorist attacks, politicians, cutting across party lines, spend hundreds of crores of tax-payers' money to protect themselves. Some of them may be at genuine risk, but there are numerous politicians who surround themselves with gun-toting commandos to flaunt their `status' and end up harassing ordinary people by blocking traffic and pushing vehicles off the road. Over Rs 250 crore is spent on VIP protection — including VIPs like Deve Gowda, Amar Singh, Ram Vilas Paswan, Sajjan Kumar, B L Joshi, R L Bhatia, Sharad Yadav, Rameshwar Thakur, E Ahmad, Murli Manohar Joshi, Brij Bhushan Sharan and Pramod Tiwari. Most of these worthies are said to be facing little real risk. It's also questionable whether lakhs of rupees should be spent on the protection of some others, like Sajjan Kumar, who have murder cases against them. The explosion of VIP security has led to a ridiculous situation in which commandos meant for anti-terror operations have been diverted to protect politicians. The NSG, set up in 1984 for anti-hijack and anti-terror operations, has two wings--the Special Action Group (SAG), comprising army personnel on deputation, and the Special Rangers Group (SRG), comprising personnel from the ITBP, CISF, CRPF, BSF and SSB. More than half of SRG has been diverted to VIP security. This is in addition to the Special Protection Group (SPG) that is exclusively meant for providing security to the PM, former PMs and members of the Gandhi family. Interestingly, the SPG budget for 2008-09 is Rs 180 crore, up from Rs 117 crore the previous year, while the 2008-09 budget for NSG, which is meant to protect over a billion people from terror, is Rs 158 crore, down from Rs 159 crore crore the previous year. It's not only the SPG and NSG that protect our netas. In addition to them, every state diverts a sizeable number of policemen for VIP security. In Delhi, where the number of self-important politicians is highest, as many as 14,200 policemen have been deployed on round-the-clock VIP security duty. VIP security is broken up into five levels — SPG for those at the top of the heap, followed by the Z-plus, Z, Y and X categories. Z-plus security is provided by NSG `black cats' consisting of six personal security officers, two head constables, 12 constables, one escort and one pilot vehicle. Thirty politicians like L K Advani, Mayawati, Narendra Modi, Jayalalithaa, Murli Manohar Joshi, Amar Singh and Paswan are provided this cover. The pyramid gets wider at the lower level of security — 68 VIPs get Z category protection, 243 get Y category and 81 X category. Of course, all of them get to flash red lights on their cars and flaunt their status, generally viewed as a nuisance by the aam admi . So intrusive is their security that the Delhi high court was recently provoked into saying, ``Politicians are not national assets that need to be protected.''

Article reproduced from http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/3786239.cms?TOI_mostemailed