ISRO Parliamentarians and Ancient Literature

The 27^th flight of Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV-C23) launched SPOT-7 a French earth observation satellite into a 655 km Sun Synchronous Orbit (SSO). Along with SPOT-7 there were four co-passenger satellites – AISAT from Germany, two from Canada and one from Singapore. The successful launch of all the satellites by Indian PSLV marks an important landmark in the march of ISRO after it entered the international market for satellite launch vehicles in 1999.  On 26-05-1999 the Vajpayee government, then in a visionary bold move used the PSLV-C2 to launch the DLR-TUBSAT satellite of Germany and thus commenced the journey of India as a major player in the international market of space launch vehicles. The saga continued with the tally of satellites launched by the PSLV of ISRO now touching 40. The Antrix corporation – the commercial arm of ISRO was established under yet another visionary leader – P.V.Narasimha Rao in 1992.     

It is not just the launch vehicles that ISRO is taking to the global community. The global outreach of Indian Remote Sensing (IRS) services has been growing in a steady phase for the last two decades. IRS data particularly from Resourcesat-1, Cartosat-1 and Cartosat-2 are penetrating into new territories. The down-linking of IRS data with Australia has made the IRS presence in a significant manner in the southern hemisphere for the first time. In Africa IRS data is a major player with Cartosat-1 and Resource-1 data. Euromap seeks IRS data in Europe.

Now the urgent need is to use the full potential of ISRO’s various services to the benefits of the Indian people at all levels.

ISRO’s remote sensing applications have a vital importance for the planning of sustainable development in India and conserving her national resources. IRS series satellites - Resourcesat, Cartosat, Oceansat etc provide vital data regarding natural resources like forest, river basins, ground water, ocean status etc. The ISRO communication itself states: ‘Some of the important projects carried out in the country include Groundwater Prospects Mapping under Drinking Water Mission, Forecasting Agricultural output using Space, Agrometeorology and Land based observations (FASAL), Forest Cover/Type Mapping, Grassland Mapping, Biodiversity Characterisation, Snow & Glacier Studies, Land Use/Cover mapping, Coastal Studies, Coral and Mangroves Studies, Wasteland Mapping etc.’

Each of these reports is available in the ISRO website comprehensive data rich reports with attractive info-graphics.  However our people-representatives in both parliament and state legislative assemblies seldom have the knowledge of these reports pertaining to their constituencies and the link of their constituencies with those of others. In this connection Yuva Bharathi editorial team proposes a scheme that is ancient and rooted in Indian tradition which can also synchronize itself with the needs of our people representatives to apply the IRS data for their constituency development.

Let every people’s representative be given a laptop or an application that has the five – geo-resource zones of each constituency and bordering constituencies. The five geo-resource zones are based on the ancient Tamil classification of land into five categories. These categories were originally intended as literary techniques and yet they do seem relevant when we think of developing people-centered usage of IRS data for sustainable development. The categories are given below with their traditional Tamil names in the brackets:

·         Forest and Forest related activities: (Kurunchi)

·         Grassland and grassland related activities: (Mullai)

·         Farmland and farmland related activities: (Marutham) 

·         Ocean and Ocean related activities.: (Neithal)

·         Desert and sparsely populated areas and activities related to them: (Palai)

Interesting enough ISRO has reports for each of these categories. The categories cannot be seen as pigeonhole classification with no inter-connectedness. Each of these zones has specialized communities associated closely with the defining natural resource of the zone. They have cultural and spiritual dimensions also. Thus the forest based Kurunchi has as its Deity Murugan whose consort is Valli the daughter of tribal chieftain. The grassland has as its Deity Vishnu as His most popular avatar is as cowherd which is the human-resource interlink for the grassland eco-system. The farms depend on rain and Indra the celestial lord of rains is the Deity of this zone Marutham. For Neithal it is the Vedic Deity Varuna. For the deserts the fierce Goddess is the Deity. The zones are interconnected: The children of the ocean have to supply the inner-land salt and the mainland has to support the coastal communities with raw materials for boat making as well as net making. Specialized occupational groups have to come in contact with each other. The Deities then form a family relation thus emphasizing the organic inter-connectedness of these zones. Murugan of Kurunchi is married to the daughter of Neithal: Varuna and Indra are Vedic deities sharing many commonalities. All these point out that the natural resource based classification of ancient Tamils also has in it the possibilities for all kinds of networks between them: cultural, resource-based, occupation-based, economical, socio-political etc. 

Let us take the case of Mullai – which is grassland and livestock based system. In the case of India with neglect of this eco-system the 80 percent of our grassland has become degraded while the demand as well as production of milk has been on the increase. The need for revitalizing this important national natural resource of 2 Mha in India can be done very effectively by satellite based technologies. ISRO uses IRS-LISS III for the grassland mapping and study. However there is a significant gap between such gathering of data and their availability with the local legislators and members of parliament. The government should make it mandatory that every member of the Parliament should take a session with ISRO extension officer in studying the data available with ISRO pertaining to the five geo-natural zones present in his or her constituency. Already writer Joe D Cruz has made a memorandum to the Prime Minister to study the problem of coastal communities based on the framework of this geo-cultural/resource based framework.  We ask both ISRO and people’s representatives to come together to make a strong people-science network in order to achieve unprecedented exploration of the potential of space technology to benefit the humanity.

Aravindan Neelakandan

YB-ET

Yuvabharati : Youth Icon : August 2014 

 

Charaiveti . . . Charaiveti ...

Charaiveti Suktam (From Aitareya Brahmana)

नानाश्रान्ताय श्रीरस्तीति रोहित शुश्रुम। पापो नृषद्वरो जन इन्द्र इच्चरत: सखा॥
Nanashrantha sreerastheethi rohitha shushruma
Paapo nrushadwaaro jana indra ichaarathah sakhaa
Charaiveti  Charaiveti                                     7-15-7

This particular Sukta is known as 'Charaiveti Sukta'. It is part of'Aitareya Brahmans' and consists of five Mantras. Vedic Mantras give a clear indication ofthe life and philosophy lived and preached by our ancient Rishis who are men of high spiritual realisation. They are known as Mantra Drishtas. Their sole objective was to guide humanity in the right direction with a view to enable them to achieve total fulfilment of life. These Mantras are not only prayers addressed to the Supreme God under various names, butthey are also meant to enlighten the path for the fulfilment of all round prosperity in this world, here and now. They clearly express a positive and optimistic view of life, affirmative and all embracing; they are a mine of inexhaustible and dynamic practical wisdom. 'Charaiveti sukta' which consists of five Mantras are glowing example of what has been stated above.

These suktas exhort us to wake up, be dynamic and keep moving forward. Charaiveti means move forward and still forward, because only those who wake up and move forward achieve success in life. Human life must be successful and the way to success is to constantly move forward in the right direction. It figuratively speaks about the temperament of different types of men by relating them to the fourYugas. When a man is inert, idle and virtually sleeping (though he may be literally awake), he is in the Kaliyuga. When he wakes up and become alert it is Dwapara Yuga for him.

When the same person stands up, with his senses alert he enters Treta Yuga. When the same person sets his foot forward and starts walking Krita Yuga begins. Each Yuga is seen in the same person during these different stages.' Krita Yuga' means Yuga created by his own effort. We can together create Krita Yuga, also known as Satya Yuga by our own effort. For that we have to wake up and keep constantly moving ahead. You are the Master of your own Destiny; you can make it or mar it. If you only sit down your fortunes also stagnate. When you stand up there is an up rise in your fortune. When you sleep your fortune will also sleep. Only one who goes about seeking gets the sweet fruit in life. They alone can show the paths to prosperity who move forward constantly.

Sun is the source of inspiration and energy for all because he never sits idle, takes rest or sleeps. Make sun your ideal and not only you will succeed in life you will also bring light and dynamism to all others. All the five Mantras give us a positive energy to achieve success not only individually but for the whole society.

Vivekananda Kendra after two years of totally dedicated and country-wide hard work as mark of the 150th anniversary celebration of Swamiji is now entering upon the next phase.ln this context it is useful to remember that we never conducted a concluding function of the celebrations. It was a deliberate decision because we felt that Swamiji's work never concludes. It continues. It should continue. It should continue till Swamiji's vision of divinising humanity is achieved. He gave us the Mantra. 'Arise, awake and stop not till the goal is reached'. Is it not the same as the vedic suktas Charaiveti?

Swami Vivekananda was an ancient Rishi reborn as a modern Sanyasin to preach the same message. Only the idiom changes because the times have changed and the people understand the same fundamental Truth when expressed in the modern idioms. Swamiji was the tallest Rishi, who brought about a tremendous historic renaissance. He also wanted more and more Rishis to come up from the sacred soil of Bharat and preach the ancient Truth in the modem medium all over the world. He was confident that many more Rishis will come up to carry out this mission. He exhorted us 'Each one of you will have to become a Rishi to enlighten the world'. Eknath Ranade was a stalwart among such modern Rishis. During the centenary celebration of Swami Vivekananda he took up as life mission to establish the wonderful Rock Memorial to Swamiji and setting up Vivekananda Kendra as an efficient machinery to carry on the work forward. He gave us the motivation to work hard, move forward and achieve total success, 'Charaiveti,' 'Charaiveti'. Exceptthe Ultimate Reality everything else is on constant move. Movement is the law of life. The  river keeps on flowing, so it remains pure. If it stops moving, it becomes a pool of muddy water. The wind moves on, so the air we breathe is pure. The seed breaksoutofthe shell to become a plant. It grows and emerges out and gives us fruit. Man is no exception. From the time, the baby is bam, he grows and undergoes various stages of development and ultimately dies. But that is not the end. It is the beginning of a new life. The same is true of organisations too. Every organisation must remain a movement. Otherwise it stagnates. Movement means emerging into life. There is constant self renewal in life going on all over. If the process of self renewal stops, then it becomes fossilised .. Fossilisation is death-the end of the life. According to Sanathana dharma there are three concepts- Satya, Ritam ( ~ ), and Dharma. Satya is the absolute Truth, changeless and eternal. That is the seed from which all that exists comes into being. The entire cosmos with all its forms and names, all level of existence, past, present and the future are the expressions of Satya. The cosmic existence is relative. It is a mighty movement governed by the Ritam which is the cosmic law. The sun and moon, the stars and the planets, everything keeps on moving, strictly within the orbit, because ofthe Ritam governing them. 

Dharma is the manifestation of Satya, Ritam sustains all beings, living and non-living. Dharma is what sustains the world. It operates spontaneously in the animal world. The operation is instinctive to them. In the level of humanity it is conscious application. Dharma is consciously applied. So long as Dharma is observed, society keeps on functioning in a healthy way. If there is a lapse in the application of Dharma, society degenerates. lfthis goes unchecked society degenerates and may ultimately destroys itself. Then again the Divine intervention comes in the form of an Avatar and the movement goes on leading to the progress of the society. The wheels of Dharma are again set in motion. This is called 'Dharma Chakra Pravarthana'. All the renaissance movements that have occurred in our national life are initiated by Avatars as promised by Lord Krishna in Gita. Sri Ramakrishna was such an Avatar and Swami Vivekananda took up his vision which is now expressing itself in multifarious forms and ways. Vivekananda Kendra is part of this mighty, multilevel renaissance movement.

The story of Vivekananda Kendra is an excellent illustration of how the Vedic mantra can work wonders. After Swami Vivekananda visited Kanyakumari and sat in meditation on the rock, it was in deep slumber till the centenary celebrations started and Sree Devi was keeping vigil over it. Suddenly the sleep was disturbed and gradual awakening started creating a stir all around. The local people felt the stir. They started to move but it was slow and when hostile forces started opposing they felt helpless. Some even thought that Swamiji would not have swam and sat on the rock and a nominal memorial on the main land is sufficientto commemorate Swamiji's visit. Butthe stir within and the voice all around made them restless. A committee was formed to erect a memorial on the rock. One did not know how to go about the work. After that divine forces intervened and Man. Eknathji rushed to the spot with his rousing call to the people. People got up and sat to plan the future campaign with Man. Eknathji taking a bold initiative to achieve what seemed unachievable. People all over the country came forward with whole hearted support to the move. This was followed by the entire people standing up ready to take up the challenge, face all hurdles on the way and fulfil the objective. Thus came up the present magnificent Memorial with Swami Vivekananda symbolically standing up to his full stature setting the right foot forward and the movement began. After the earlier three stages or Yugas, the Satya Yuga was ushered in followed by a powerful movement in the name of Vivekananda Kendra.

The hostile forces have been thoroughly defeated. All the divine forces have come together. Next phase is Dharma samsthapana, an ideal state of society with spirituality as its central core, with the society well ordered on the basis of Sanathana Dharma-well organised, socially and economically strong, powerful and progressive, spreading the message of spirituality all around starting from Bharatto the world. Nothing less and nothing else is the mission entrusted to Vivekananda Kendra.

The workers of the Kendra could feel not only proud but also responsible to move further forward carrying the society with them and gradually establish the dream of Swami Vivekananda and Man. Eknathji in actual national life. Till that, there is no looking back, no rest midway. 'Charaiveti', is our mantra. 'Arise awake and stop nottill the goal is reached' is the call. Let us move forward.

P. Parameswaran

President

Vivekananda Kendra

A very disturbing emerging nexus

Exactly a year back a Sri Lankan Tamil Hindu journalist living in another country contacted the present writer. He had important information to share. The ruthless destruction of Sri Lankan Tamils by the Sri Lankan army and the silence of Indian state at this immense human tragedy had triggered a completely new set of dynamics he claimed. A section Sri Lankan Tamil youths feeling alienated, defeated, humiliated and above all feeling a terrible sense of betrayal by India were acquiring for the first time an intense sense of hatred towards India. In order to escape Singhalese persecution in the North Eastern province of Sri Lanka there are waves of conversion to Islam, the friend alleged. Prior to 2009 all conversion activities were banned in the Tamil provinces. However after the 2009 tragedy the floodgates of conversion were opened and pan-Islamist organizations were taking full advantage of the situation. Land a precious resource in the North-East provinces of Sri Lanka is being amassed by pan-Islamic organizations and Singhalese. So the Tamil population torn between these forces is rapidly declining.  Ultimately, that friend declared that by facilitating the decimation of Sri Lankan Tamils, the then Indian government had done an irreparable damage to Indian security. It has allowed a strong network of Jihad fire right under its legs which could be manipulated by Pakistan, China, Sri Lanka and other Pan-Islamic forces. 

This was in May 2013. Now the whole transcript of his communication looks like a prophetic warning. On the first of May 2014 the bombs went off in Chennai central railway station killing an innocent techie girl from Tamil Nadu and maiming 10 more for life. On the day of the bomb blast (Thurs day, May 1) Tamil Nadu ‘Q’ branch sleuths had arrested two associates of ISI operative Sakir Hussain from a hideout in Chennai. The police seized fake Indian currency to the tune of Rs 2.5 lakh from them. Police had arrested Hussain, 37, a Sri Lankan, on Tuesday just two days before the bomb blast. The arrested youths were identified as Siva Balan, 39, a Sri Lankan Tamil, and Mohammad Salim, 37, of Royapuram, Chennai. Siva Balan worked as a freelance journalist with a magazine in Chennai, while Salim was running a showroom in T Nagar. Police arrested them based on information given by Hussain.

Already the other South Indian state Kerala had become the hub of Jihad activities. Jihad in Kashmir had been outsourced to Kerala and bomb blasts in various South Indian cities like Bangalore were traced to Jihad brains in Kerala. The clever and cunning channelizing of Tamil anger at the insensitive arrogant attitude of the then Indian government into a hatred for India herself by the masters of Jihad network had spoiled in its first manifestation the lives of Tamils. But what chills one’s spine is the realization that this is just the beginning of the long series of problems and loss of Indian lives India is going to pay as price for the insensitive foreign policy towards Sri Lankan Tamils evolved by Nehru initially and taken to its inhuman logical conclusion by the Nehruvian Indian state. A Balochistan activist once stated in the net, ‘If there is one nation that I love as much as my own Balochistan it is Bharath and if there is one nation that I hate as much as the worst oppressor of my people in Pakistan, it is India.’  A harsh statement but that is the hell spot where decades of Nehruvian Delhi-centric insensitive foreign policies have landed us. 

Instead of being seen as a cultural and spiritual torch bearer of the South Asian and South East Asian regions, India is being seen as a culturally uprooted expansionist mechanical state run by corrupt and inhuman politicians lacking empathy for the fellow Indian cultural brethren scattered across the globe. From Fiji to Ethiopia, from Sri Lanka to Bangladesh the same insensitiveness is repeated again and again.  And now we also know that the geo-strategic void created by the Nehruvian pseudo-secular anti-human foreign policies is being exploited by terrorist forces in South India. A situation worse than the one in Kashmir is being brewed by anti-Indian forces and is being abetted by extra territorial forces, along the long coastal South India. 

In such a situation we need a paradigm shift in the thinking and actions of India’s foreign policy based on cultural and spiritual empathy for Indian cultural descendants everywhere, strong political will to crush not only the functional but also the ideological-theological fountainheads of terrorism, intelligence to identify and destroy the emerging terror networks. One hopes that the new government will chart out this new path and ensure that the South India lives in its traditional real peace and harmony rather than sit in a pseudo-calm posture over the mouth of a volcano.

Aravindan Neelakandan

YB – ET

Yuvabharati : Youth Icon : June 2014

When Mother Kanyakumari spoke in Facebook….

Recently Sahitya Academy award winning novelist Joe D Cruz announced in facebook his support to a Prime Ministerial candidate of a political party. This led to a huge outcry. A publishing firm which markets itself as the publishing house for the downtrodden and marginalized, had taken up the translation of his novel, declared that it had decided to kill the book even before publishing. Condemnations came from the usual leftwing brigade – attacking the writer as fascist. Ironically earlier many of the leading leftwing eminences have signed a declaration forcefully asking people not to vote for the very same candidate Joe D Cruz had endorsed.

The incident had brought out a veritable can of worms. One of the members of the Sahitya Academy award selection committee admitted that after awarding Joe the national literary prize, when she came to know that Joe had leanings towards 'Hindutva' ideology, she in a typical inquisitor manner profiled him for his political beliefs. Other 'eminent intellectuals' were less charitable. They attacked him and abused him saying that he had sold himself to 'fascist forces'.  How a literary person can take a political stand other than the official leftwing stand, they ask. Making themselves laughable caricature of Stalinist commissars, they try to intimidate any lone brave voice that defies their dictates.

Joe D Cruz had answered each of these answers elaborately. It is important that every patriotic Indian understand the importance of his answer to these charges from the leftwing charlatans. First, he says that he is not only a novelist, but also the soul voice of a marginalized community. He had repeatedly pointed out that the coastal communities throughout India form an organic whole and they have strong cultural relations not only among themselves but also with the inland water body communities. Thus these communities have contributed to both Indian culture and spirituality in an immense way which has not been properly recorded by both British and modern Indian historians. The coastal communities have a great stake in a united India.

There are forces which work overnight to weaken, hide and sever these connections not without significant success, which is dangerous to the well being of the entire nation. Hence, a voice that asserts these priceless relations and the contributions of the coastal communities in the formation and evolution of Indian culture is a must. Those who are aiming to create conflicts rather than harmony and those who have vested interest in conflicts rather than unity, try to suppress that voice.  There has been only one platform which has recognized the importance of this voice, the writer from the coastal community contends.    

Secondly Joe D Cruz points out that it is no secret that China, Sri Lanka and Pakistan have been busy creating a naval barricade around India in Indian Ocean. Indian navy which once had supremacy in these waters has been highly controlled in its movements today. This is a dangerous situation. There is a constant violation of the human rights of Indian fishermen at these waters by the navies of these countries. While China has not yet attacked explicitly, it had boosted the aggressiveness of both Sri Lanka and Pakistan. More than 800 Indian fishermen have been killed by Sri Lankan navy in the last few years. Nehruvian policy makers sitting in the air-conditioned rooms of Delhi who share both chicken and a callous indifference to the loss of human lives with the aggressors have pitifully let down our fishermen. When a fisherman dies shot dead by an alien army, India looses a citizen who has a vast and intimate knowledge of the water frontier of India. Joe states emotionally when at last the China-Sri Lanka-Pakistan axis decides to attack India it will be the Indian fisherman from Rameshwaram who would face the first bullet in his chest. Our fishermen are the unpaid yet traditional coast guards of Mother India. So he wants a strong central government that can raise its voice against the brutal sustained inhuman killing of our fishermen. There is only one leader who has spoken explicitly for the plight of Indian fishermen drawing attention to the crimes Sri Lanka and Pakistan are committing against our fishermen, Joe D Cruz points out.

Thirdly, there is a disconnecting void between the growing technological needs as well as the infrastructural needs of the coastal community and the policy making as well as R & D. Starting from the use of satellite technology to identify the fish movements to the storage facility, to the prevention of sea erosion in the coastal villages to good roads connecting the coastal villages and the inland trade centers to effective sustainable practices for maintaining the fishing population – this is a vast area which has been left uncared for decades by policy makers except very occasional actions. Once again there is only one voice in the entire political spectrum that is speaking about these issues. When Swami Vivekananda spoke of new India arising from the humble huts of the hard working Indian population he spoke of the huts of fishermen and iron smiths and also small sideway  food vendors, he meant that the new India that arises should feel for the pain and striving of the marginalized and the downtrodden. Amidst rampant corruption, abject anarchy and degenerate dynasty rule there is only one choice for a person who himself has come up in life from a very humble beginnings – facing all sorts of barriers and humiliations. So such a leader who has evolved from poor beginnings to a world-noticing statesman naturally appeals as the best choice says Joe D Cruz.

Finally the reactions of the elite club of leftwing AC-room based seminar-sustained media-bred warriors of the proletariat have revealed their own real Stalinist fangs beneath their liberal masks. In facebook a fellow fisherman community leader reacted in an emotionally surcharged way to the statement of Joe D Cruz that captures the essence of it all: 'Coastal folks! Rejoice that time has dawned to reclaim our heritage whose roots go back to Bharatha himself … and it has been declared through the voice of Joe D Cruz… Celebrate boys and break a coconut for Mother Kanyakumari!'    

The morning Joe D Cruz decided to write on his facebook wall he feels he was but an instrument of a higher calling. It was the voice of Mother Kumari – the embodiment of Divine Feminine-long suppressed by alien power structures and vested political interests, which manifested in that facebook status. Now it is the duty of every patriotic Indian to heed to that voice and beyond electoral politics, build cultural, socio-economic and spiritual bridges with the long neglected coastal communities all over India. 

Aravindan Neelakandan
YB-ET

Yuva bharati : Youth Icon : May 2014

They die unsung – children of a lesser Goddess!

It was a British magazine 'The Guardian' which revealed that more 500 Indian workers have died in Qatar since 2012.  Qatar is on a fast-track building spree. It is hosting the world football tournament in 2022. So it is harnessing all the human labour it can to build infrastructure. Indian embassy in Doha has meekly confirmed to The Guardian the deaths of 237 Indians 2012 and 241 in 2013 and another 24 Indians in January 2014. It has been found by the reporters that at Doha's main hospital r more than 1,000 people, falling from heights, constructing the needed infrastructure for 2022 World Cup, had been admitted to the trauma unit of the facility in 2012. Ten per cent of these were disabled, and the resulting mortality rate was "significant." Suddenly the warning of International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) that up to 4,000 workers may die before a ball is kicked in 2022 without meaningful reform of the Kafala system, does not seem to be an empty rhetoric but a dire warning of the shape of things to come. 

Kafala system is actually a kind of adaptation. With adaption looked down traditionally in Islamic world, it has come to mean a form of slavery. It ties workers to their employers. Thus Kafala is the Islamic equivalent of indentured labourer system. It places the worker somewhere between a complete slave and a sponsored labourer. Poor Indians and Nepalis seeking livelihood, haunted by unemployment and spiraling prices and escalating bills to be paid for the bare minimum standard of living including education for the children, come to Gulf countries with dreams of a better future. They come ready to toil and sweat. However their willingness to work hard and their extreme financial needs have made them a great human pool of exploitation by the forces that run the Kafala system.  Kafala system is a big pipe which pumps in cheap labor from India, Pakistan, Nepal and Lanka.  Those who are brought through this system are worse than slaves They live entirely at the mercy of the touts and if they survive all these it is a miracle.

During the British colonialism India's poverty was caused by colonial exploitation. The famines created by the British were then used to export Indians to British colonies all over the world to work as indentured labourers. Today with the present political system exploiting India with the same ruthlessness, our people are selling themselves for a dream of a better life – for the enjoyment and entertainment of the Western and Arabian world. The wealth that has been stolen from Indian masses by the political establishment is a huge one. Usually this stolen wealth finds its way into foreign banks. In other words we are in the same situation our forefathers were before independence. The net result is such ugly phenomenon of Indian workers dying for the entertainment of the world. Indian lives have become so cheap thanks to the callous attitude of our government and more deeply thanks to the corrupt Indian polity.

Exploiting this deep malaise certain fake messiahs have arisen in the political field. Anti-national to the core, fascist in their attitude and mob anarchy as their methodology they want to further weaken the democracy of this already wounded nation. Corruption is of course a major disease that is ruining this nation. However such a ruthless corruption of fellow Indians is the result of the lack of patriotism. If a political party hobnobs with anti national forces like the Jehadists and Maoists, if a political party cannot even pay respect to the bodies of the CRPF jawans martyred in the Naxal terror attacks then that party can only capitalize on corruption but cannot root out corruption. Meanwhile Indian fishermen continue to get killed and jailed in the Indian Ocean. Italian marines who killed our fishermen are promised no capital punishment and that they would not be charged under piracy. 

It is anyone's guess that there are substantial number of Indian Muslims in those workers who died in Qatar. The marines who killed the Indian fishermen were Catholics like the fishermen themselves. Yet in both cases their religion did not matter much to their more affluent co-religionists who are from Arabia and Europe. Major Archbishop Mar George Alencherry, an Indian, who was then ordained Cardinal by then Pope even spoke of using Catholic influence in Kerala politics to secure not justice for the slain Catholic fishermen but secure the safety of the killer marines of Italy. In other words, alien religions work as savior of alien people at their service. Indians are ultimately brown skinned heathens left alone as children of a lesser Goddess in the world dominated by Abrahamic religions. Religion is soft-power used by colonial and to-be colonial Arabia and the West.

It is in such a situation that we Indians should forget all our differences to bring in a leadership to the nation that is dynamic, determined, which can provide an all inclusive development model and which is fiercely Indian. We need someone as a Prime Minister who will guard the catholic fishermen from the alien killers and who will bring justice to Indian workers who toil in Qatar under the Kafala system.  We need a leader who stands by the words of Swami Vivekananda – to shun all sectarianism and worship only Mother India and her children as Divine. Today India needs a leader who stands by this true secularism which is defined simply as India first – always and ever. 

Aravindan Neelakandan

YB-ET

Yuvabharati : Youth Icon : April 2014