Now the BJP wants to redefine Hindutva

When will the BJP stop pulling off lame stunts? I do not follow world politics as closely as Indian and to an extent US politics but I can safely say that very few parties across the world suffer delusions about themselves as much as the BJP does. It still cannot come out of its bad habits of doublespeak and opportunism. It has now changed the definition of Hindutva as per the mood of the nation.

In the post-poll analysis, BJP says that Hindutva stands for tolerance, it stands for inclusive growth, it stands for equality amongst men and women, it stands for humane treatment of animals, in fact, RSS ideologue Govindacharya adds that Hindutva also stands for protection of environment and working without hoping for material benefits.

Let us leave Indian politics aside from the time being and analyse Hindutva based on the above paragraph. The first thing that strikes us that it is quite liberal. Second thing that strikes us that it is moderately oriented towards the left. So basically, Hindutva, according to the new definition is a liberal, centre-left brand of politics and of life.

Now wait a minute, just wait a minute - "Liberal and Centre-Left", isn't there already a political party in India that occupies that space. Oh yes, I remember, It is the INDIAN NATIONAL CONGRESS! Now that is a major revelation. The Congress was practicing Hindutva all these years without our knowledge.

So if a major political party is already practicing it, why shadow it? Why not come up with a different political ideology, eh?

Anyway, we all know what the reality is! Before the elections Hindutva was an idea of a Hindu rashtra where people belonging to other religions better follow the Hindu way of life. It was an ideology where women need to be subdued, they dare not wear sleeveless and dare not visit pubs. It was an ideology which supported and trained armed violence against the non conformers. It abhorred conversions and changed the facts of history so that Hindus are glorified and Muslims are demonized.

Ravi Shankar Prasad, the haughty, self-righteous spokesperson of the BJP mentioned after tne National Executive meeting of the BJP that the BJP will remain a right-wing party. Obviously BJP does not want to learn from its past mistakes and is indulging in doublespeak. It still wants to sound attractive to the middle class by liberalizing Hindutva and yet it does not want to lose support of its bigoted cadres.

BJP may have taken a liberal tone but it still does explain why it has ties with the Bajrang Dal. The following url explains just how seeds of violent hatred are sown into the minds of young Hindus against Muslims and Christians by Bajrang Dal - http://tehelka.com/story_main42.asp?filename=Ne270609national_defence.asp

I rest my case.

Self-righteous media

I'm all for Free Press. That is a basic accessory to a functioning democracy. India, I am proud to say has traditionally had minimal interference by government on news agencies. The only exception being the Emergency declared by Indira Gandhi in the mid 70's. That too was not well received by the electorate and the Congress was voted out of power subsequently.

However, there has to be a certain decorum about how the media functions. It cannot just create controversies out of thin air. I am being very idealistic here because covering news is big business and the best sound bites are the controversial ones. However, over a period of time people will see through it and their faith will reduce in the media. That would indeed be sad.

I am writing this in the light of the recent controversy in the Indian T20 cricket team. The T20 World Cup is going on and all the media can focus on is "Dhoni vs. Sehwag" - the rift that may or may not be there. They ask stupid questions to Dhoni in the press conference and when he gets annoyed, they treat it as a personal affront. The whole media industry jumps in to castigate Dhoni as if he committed sacrilege. This self-righteougness is wrong on their part and they have to show some maturity. However, when anchors like Barkha Dutt are made chief editors of the most popular English News channel, 'maturity' is the last word that comes to mind.

In conclusion, one can only hope that the Indian Cricket Team does not get distracted by the media and retains the trophy. The media should not be allowed to hijack India's moment of glory.

Good teams bound to exit in World Cups with multiple groups

Not a lot of countries play cricket. Even in World Cups a maximum of 16 teams have played. This was in the 2007 50-50 world cup in the Windies.

I therefore question the logic of having 4 different groups in the league stage instead of the traditional 2 groups. This means that per group there are only 3-4 teams. This also means that one upset can ensure that a good team has no chance of coming back and the freaky team which caused the upset has a good chance of qualifying for the next stage.

If it were 2 groups and 6-8 teams, then teams have more matches to play and hence the chance to make a comeback increases after one bad day in the field. West Indies lost to Kenya in the 1996 50-50 World Cup and yet qualified for the semis because there were only 2 league groups then.

India and Pakistan in the 2007 50-50 World Cup, and Australia and Bangladesh in the 2009 20-20 World Cup paid the price for a bad day on the field. I'm glad in a way as I have never been a fan of the Aussie brand of cricket but the perils of multiple groups need to be pointed out.

Racist Indians

Modi-worshippers of Gujarat calling Muslims "paper dishes" (because of the cap they wear). North Indians calling all South Indians "madrasis". Political party MNS beating the hell out of poor North Indian migrants. Ethnic cleansing of Kashmiri Pandits from Kashmir. Dalits not being allowed to use the same water source as Brahmins or other upper castes. Community clashes between the Jat Sikhs and Dalit Sikhs in Punjab.

I will forgive you if you do not cringe in shame for the above examples. It is very commonplace in India and we do not like to look in the mirror and criticize ourselves.

However, your blood starts to boil when the white race calls us names, beats us up and even murders us all in the name of racial superiority. Unfortunately, only incidents like these makes us stand up as one to condemn such crimes. Pakistan bashing is another passion which makes us stand up as 'one' nation. However, when it comes to collective, inclusive growth, we want to promote only our community members' interests. When it comes to marriage, the traditional, orthodox households only want people from their community's sub-community to be their in-laws.

While the recent racial attacks on Indians in Australia are condemnable, we need to introspect. There are a lot of ethnicity-based crimes on Indians in India compared to outside it.