THE ART OF BEING INTOLERANT OF INTOLERANCE

I admire Ameer. A super hero.  A superb film maker. The moment he hinted that the thought of emigrating had crossed his mind, or more precisely Kiran’s mind, I began a search for the land of honey and milk that he could emigrate to.

Europe, it had to be. But after the minor incident of 13/11 killing 130 and injuring 360 in Paris, and the French saying that since 2000 they had 16 terror attacks and incidents – 63 since 1973 - all of them by persons of a certain religious descent – politically incorrect to name the ‘descent’ here though the French did not hesitate to do that – and the small matter of terrorist attacks in Brussels and UK and elsewhere in Europe by the persons of same ‘descent,’ and the hunt in Belgium  for terrorist of same ‘d . . . – Europe option is foreclosed.

Then how about the land of total freedom, the US of A? But the would-be-President Donald Trump wants a registry for Muslims [An NBC reporter repeatedly asked Trump what the difference is between a registry for Muslims and the registry for Jews under Nazi Germany, to which Trump only replied, "You tell me."]

And immigration laws of US of A are tough. But US of A does give citizenship to people of eminence. They did to Einstein a mere university-teacher. And in 1986 they gave political asylum to Shin Sang-ok, a South Korean film producer and director. Surely they will grab the super-hero and the superb film-maker Ameer, far more eminent than Sang-ok that the Indian people haven’t even heard of.

The problem is if you were to ask Donald, or even the Indophile Hillary the other Presidential aspirant, about Ameer, they would commit blasphemy:  “Ameer, who?” they will ask and thus create a storm in the India-teacup like of which has not been seen since the time Maria Sharapova asked, “Sachin, who?”

And then it came to me. Why not Saudi Arabia? That land of extraordinary Wahhabi kindness and freedom.

Then Kiran could blissfully watch from behind her Niqāb (veil) men and women being executed for blasphemy and apostasy after the religious police had extracted ‘confession’ from them through severe torture.

And Ameer will have all sorts of freedom except that of making a film like PK that mocks the majority religion. The intolerant Indians not only did not ban or censor the movie, but they made it the highest-grossing Indian film of all time raking-in INR 7 billion. The Wahhabi, unfortunately, are not that tolerant of the mocking of their brand of religion.

But so what? Ameer may be intolerant of intolerance but certain type of intolerance is acceptable to him.

What is intriguing though is that on 11 November 2015 Ameer said on NDTV’s ‘Walk the Talk’ show that things were looking positive. He has not revealed what happened in just 12 days after that to make him change his mind and perceive that intolerance which is not in evidence.

BJP’s BIHAR DEBACLE

Modi and Shah are being hanged for losing Bihar. But no one is saying what they could have done to avert the debacle?

In my Post/Blog of 09 Nov I said, “No one foresaw that the Maha-Gath-Bandhan (MGB) partners’ individual vote-shares will coalesce into one big number. Nitish and Lalu managed to retain the loyalty of their supporters to the extent that even MSY and Asaduddin Owaisi failed to steal from Nitish-Lalu vote banks. In that scenario, what the BJP did, or did not do, was immaterial. One could argue that this or that would have made a difference. Perhaps yes. But only a marginal difference; the net result would have remained the same: a landslide for MGB.”

I stand by that statement.

UP election is in 2017. Now imagine that SP, BSP and Congress form an MGB. Let us assume that such an MGB is able to transfer their vote shares so that their votes coalesce into a big number, as they did for the Bihar MGB. The UP MGB will then have 66.85% of votes and win 332/403 seats, going by their 2012 results.  What can BJP do to steal the election from such an MGB?

Can it prevent formation of such an MGB?  By itself forming a coalition with either SP or BSP? But will either of them agree to such a coalition?

BJP can only hope that the bitter rivals SP and BSP will not come together – but they once did to form the govt in UP, 1993 to mid-1995. Nitish and Lalu, bitter enemies once, came together in Bihar, notwithstanding Nitin grabbing power from Lalu by denouncing Lalu’s ‘Jungle Raj,’ and Lalu saying of Nitin, “aisa koi saga nahin, jis ko usne thaga nahin.”

BJP should not make the mistake of assuming, hoping - just as it wrongly did in Bihar – that the UP MGB partners’ votes will not coalesce.

Can the people hanging Modi and Shah suggest a winning strategy in UP in the face of a Bihar like MGB? What can BJP do in the next one year to improve its chances of success against the possible UP MGB?

UP election is still more than 15 months away. And as Harold Wilson, former British PM said, “A week is a long time in politics.”

DIPAVALI: THE DEEPOTSAVA (दीपोत्सव)

DIPAVALI

तमसो मा ज्योतिर् गमय

 From the Darkness of Ignorance towards the Light of Spiritual Knowledge

Dipavali, a Sanskrit fusion word from dīpa (दीप, "light" or "lamp") and āvalī (आवली, "series, line, row”), means a "series of lights." It is also a festival of lights: Deepotsava (दीपोत्सव).

It is the celebration of the victory of the inner light of ‘Atma’ over spiritual darkness, knowledge over ignorance, right over wrong, good over evil; a celebration of the awareness of the oneness of all things, an awakening of compassion and tolerance.

In ancient times Dipavali perhaps marked the summer harvest in the Hindu calendar month of Kartika. But later many legends became associated with it. The best known is the one about Lord Rama returning to Ayodhya after vanquishing demon king Ravana. It was on the darkest of all nights, “Amavsya,” and to celebrate their return and to illuminate their path, villagers lit Diyas.

But ten other mythical/historical events happened on the Dipavali Day:

1. Goddess Lakshmi. The Goddess of wealth, incarnated on Dipavali from the churning of cosmic ocean of milk  (samudra-manthan) by the gods and the demons; also the day Lakshmi chose Vishnu as her husband and they were married.

2. Vishnu Rescued Lakshmi. Lord Vishnu, in his fifth incarnation as Vaman-avtaara, rescued Lakshmi from the prison of King Bali.

3. Krishna Killed Narakaasur. On the day preceding Diwali, Lord Krishna killed the demon king Narakaasur and rescued 16,000 women from his captivity.

4. The Return of the Pandavas. People loved the Pandavas and celebrated their return from exile by lighting diyas.

5. Coronation of Vikramaditya. One of the greatest Hindu Kings, Vikramaditya, was coroneted.

6. Yama and Nachiketa. Yama, the Lord of Death, taught Nachiketa Self-knowledge, the separation of soul (the supreme Self) from the body.

7. Special Day for the Buddhist. Emperor Asoka converted to Buddhism.

8. Special Day for the Arya Samaj. Maharshi Dayananda, one of the greatest reformers of Hinduism and the founder of Arya Semaj, attained nirvana.

9. Special Day for the Jains. Mahavir Tirthankar, the founder of modern Jainism, attained nirvana.

10. Special Day for the Sikhs. The third Sikh Guru Amar Das institutionalized Dipavali as the day when all Sikhs would gather to receive the Gurus blessings. Foundation stone of the Golden Temple at Amritsar was laid on Dipavali in 1577. In 1619, the sixth Sikh Guru Hargobind, who was held by the Mughal Emperor Jahengir, was released from the Gwalior fort along with 52 kings.

Dipavali is 2-3000 years old festival. Lord Yama and Nachiketa’s story is in the Katha Upanishad composed in 1st millennium BCE. Dipavali is mentioned in the Padma Purana and the Skanda Purana the Sanskrit scriptures that were completed in second half of 1st millennium AD but are believed to have been expanded from a core text from an earlier era. King Harsha in the 7^th century Sanskrit play Nagananda mentions Deepavali as Deepapratipadutsava, where lamps were lit and newly engaged brides and grooms were given gifts. Rajasekhara referred to Deepavali as Dipamalika in his 9^th century Kavyamimamsa, wherein he mentions the tradition of homes being whitewashed and oil lamps decorating homes, streets and markets in the night. The Persian traveller and historian Al Biruni, in his 11th century memoir on India, wrote that Deepavali was celebrated by Hindus on New Moon day of the month of Kartika.

Let the Dipavali be a festival of spiritual enlightenment, and awakening of compassion and tolerance.

No one foresaw that the Maha-Gath-Bandhan (MGB) partners’ individual vote-shares will coalesce into one big number. Nitish and Lalu managed to retain the loyalty of their supporters to the extent that even MSY and Asaduddin Owaisi failed to steal from Nitish-Lalu vote banks. In that scenario, what the BJP did, or did not do, was immaterial. One could argue that this or that would have made a difference. Perhaps yes. But only a marginal difference; the net result would have remained the same: a landslide for MGB.

All the exit polls and surveys - except AXIS-IBN Exit Poll which gave BJP/MGB 64/176 with which AXIS-IBN were so taken aback with that they withheld publishing the Poll – got it wrong.  All the Pundits got it wrong. Little surprise then that BJP strategist got it wrong too. My question is: what strategy could BJP have followed to negate the coalescing of caste and communal votes in favour of MGB?

Every party puts its best foot forward in elections. Modi and Shah were BJP’s best bet and no one should be surprised that they took the lead in electioneering. Out of about 850 BJP rallies, PM addressed about 22, Shah about 80 and Raj Nath Singh about 53. So, 700 rallies were addressed by other leaders from Bihar. It is wrong therefore to argue that the local leaders had little role in electioneering.

BJP with 53 MLAs emerged as the largest single party in terms of vote-share: 25%. But that is not significant because it contested 157 seats. What is significant is that BJP’s MLA tally in the 20 years, 1980-2000, was 21-41 seats. In coalition with JDU, in 2005, it won nearly as many seats (55) as now (53); and in 2010, it won 91. It could be argued that in 2015 it has won the number of seats that have been its share historically.

The hype about BJP going alone and winning a landslide was because of its performance in General Election 2014, when it won 22/40 MP seats on its own and 31/40 seats in coalition with its allies; and because the of the Modi magic. It is well known that electorate votes differently in Lok Sabha and Assembly and local-bodies election. So the fact that it has voted differently should come as no surprise. As for Modi magic, the response to him at his rallies shows that it has not waned. But it was not enough to change the electorate’s traditional voting pattern.

But after all is said and done it cannot but be argued that the election result is a set back to the BJP, to the Shah image as a strategist, and to the Modi image as a charmer who can charm the birds off the trees.

BREAST CANCER 1

My previous Blog continued.
Five photos: the White house bathed in pink; Delta Airlines cabin-crew dressed in pink; Toronto CN Tower; and another monument  – all to mark the Breast Cancer (BC) Awareness month, October, that came to an end yesterday, 31 October.

The criticism is that:

-- the Pink Ribbon begun 25 years ago - by American Charlotte Harley whose sister, daughter and granddaughter had breast cancer – to signify BC awareness, has become nothing more than feel good catch all marketing opportunity.
-- the incidence of BC has not reduced: 1.7 million new cases world-wide in 2012, that is, 12% of all new cancer cases and 25% of all cancers in women; that BC remains second most common cancer overall.
-- screening like Mammogram has led to over-diagnosis, false positive results, and over- treatment, that is, treating cancers that would never have become life threatening .
-- research funding for BC, $600 million a year in the US, and $31 m in UK, is minuscule
-- no significant research on BC prevention (vaccine) and metastasis prevention

In short, the time for ‘Awareness’ is over; time for ‘action’ is upon us.