Cry of Bewildered Omar Abdulla

   Omar Abdullah, the former Chief Minister of Jammu & Kashmir has expressed his extreme frustration in an article in a newspaper by declaring that he would not contest any election in future till the status quo ante of the state is restored. Can there be any consolation to his wishful thinking except pitying him? The unification of J & K with mainstream India has come after a long struggle of the people. The abrogation of Articles 35A and 370 have been received with unmitigated joy and delight by the people of the J&K except, of course, by some privileged families and extremists, who behave and dance like the slaves of their masters sitting outside somewhere else. 

    The entire article of Omar speaks of his puerile ravings and rantings and mirrors his inanities and absurdities bordering on insanities. Persons like him have been befooling the public with the active help and partnership of the powers that be in Delhi. Is it any small achievement that those refugees, who did not have the right to  become village pradhans in the erstwhile J&K state will now have equal rights like others and can contest any election from the post of Pradhan to membership of Parliament? India has seen many ministers and chief ministers in many states and even two Prime Ministers coming from among the refugees, who had to, unfortunately, flee from their home’s hearths, which existed in present Pakistan or Bangladesh. But those unfortunate who got settled in the J &K were deprived of even the full citizenship. What was their fault? The fault dear Brutus was not in their stars but in them that they were underlings of 35A and 370.

  Omar Abdullah is now wailing that he would not contest election in any of the Union territories as if the Heaven would fall if he does not fight any election. The Abdullah and Mufti families have treated the subjects of the state as their serfs. Some 25 years ago, I was invited to participate in a seminar at Jammu, where local speaker after speaker lamented that the generous monetary help received from Delhi was going down the drains. Most of the speakers were critical of the political leadership of the state, which was happy with the ongoing terrorism. These Muftis, Gilanees and Abdullahs had developed their vested interests in the continuance of the terrorism in the state and in order to remain ensconced in the power, they often used to blow hot and cold about their relationship with India. Now their bluffs have been finally called. Integration of the country has been achieved after losing the precious lives of thousands of people across the country, it cannot be allowed to be dissipated or diluted at the empty threats of the ilk of Abdullah.

  There is no gainsaying that there are some people sitting in other parts of the country who will vie with each other in extending their support to even senseless demands of these Johnnies because their loyalties lie somewhere else but in India. However,  they forget the hard fact that no government, howsoever friendly she may be to the sinister forces would be able to gather the courage to reverse the march of integration and restore the status quo ante in Jammu and Kashmir.

  

Karna's Wife: The Outcast's Queen is a Tribute to a Great Warrior

 Book Review

   In our area, there is an unwritten prohibition for not keeping the book Mahabharat in the home. The popular belief is that who keep Mahabharat in their house, they unwittingly invite quarrels and struggles in their own families. Superstition has no logic. So, people read it in bits and pieces. My acquaintance of Mahabharat was also through the commentary written on it by Chakravarthy Rajagopalachari in my university days. I have always felt this the book should be read as there is hardly any aspect of machination, deviousness, deception, fraud,  cheating, craftiness,  cruelty, cunningness, compassion, pity, valour, bravery, devotion, magnanimity, and sacrifice is left untouched in it.

    Contrary to the popular concepts and beliefs, I have found that two characters of it stood out taller than others and they were Karna and Duryodhana. While the first one was the victim of injustice through and through from beginning to the end, Duryodhana was always painted as an evil incarnate, which he was not.  

    During this Corvid period, I have read another book is ‘‘Karana’s Wife: The Outcaste’s Queen” by Kavita Kane, which brings a whiff of fresh air to the mythical mega story. It is such an engrossing novel that one finds it difficult to put it down before finishing it. One cannot but admire the linguistic clarity with small sentences, style, and message. The sequence of her presentation is superb, to say the least. Ms Kane can be put in the league of Amish Tripathi, another writer of mythical stories. She resigned from the job of the Assistant Editor in the Times of India to become a full-time writer. Thus, the loss of journalism is certainly a good gain for the literature.

   We all have been fed from our childhood that Karna, born out of wedlock Kunti and Sun-god were abandoned by his mother at birth. He was born with resplendent and radiant Kavach and Kundal, which made him invincible by his enemies. Karna was thrown in the river by his biological mother and was found flowing in the river by the Charioteer Adhirath, who brought him to his house. His wife Radha, who was childless till then was mighty pleased to find this supernatural child. Karna had so much respect for this foster mother that he always preferred to be called Radheya. Karna was wronged at every stage and he grew up with extreme insult and humiliation at every stage. It was Duryodhana, always described as a vile, crooked, mean, and overambitious person, who recognized his valour and gave honour and respect to Karna in the big crowd assembled in a theatre by making him the king Angadesh. Karna rightly deserved that honour and it immediately resulted in an inseverable life-long friendship between them. Thus, Duryodhana’s character was by far better than those of Guru Dronacharya, Kripacharya, Bhishma Pitamah, and even Sage Parasuram and Shrikrishna. How could a seer like Guru Dronacharya be so cruel as to refuse to teach and make a disciple to Karna or Eklavya based on their birth in the lower rung of the society?  It was the most contemptible, despicable, and irreligious act on the part of Guru Dronacharya.

   This book has, in a way, attempted to present the personality of Karna in the proper perspective through his second wife Urvi, who was the charming princess of Pukeya. She was the lone daughter of king Vahusha. She possessed the exceptional divine quality of healing to any wounded or injured person. Her mother Shubhra was the childhood friend of Kunti, the mother of Pandavas. Kunti was sure that Uri would marry Arjuna but in the teeth of opposition from all quarters, she garlanded the low-born Sutaputra Karna as her husband, although he was already married to Vrushali the daughter of a charioteer. Karna was then the king of Anga, courtesy Duryodhana.

   Karna had stopped attending the Swayamvaras after the taunts, insults and humiliations  from Draupadi  but this time he could not say no to the invitation extended by  King Vahusha of Pukeya because his daughter had prevailed upon her father to send an invite to Karna as she had been highly impressed with the courage, conviction and bravery and the archery of Karna in the rang mahal of Hastinapur, where the partiality of Guru Dronacharya towards Arjuna was reflected in the most abominable form. So, when Duryodhana conferred him the kingship of Angadesh without batting an eyelid, he rose sky-high in the eyes and the heart of Karna Evidently, Duryodhana was by far better connoisseur of talent and valour than Dronacharya and Bhishma Pitamah. However, he never got an appreciation for this sterling quality of extreme dedication and capacity to win friends. 

   In fact, Karna was defeated by deceit and duplicity. He was never judged fairly and impartially. This exemplary courage was found only in Urvi, who openly denounced Draupadi, Kunti, Bhishma Pitamah in their face for the injustice that they brazenly meted out to Karna, who stood tallest among all the heroes and warriors of Mahabharata. It was Urvi, who told Kunti in her face that blood of Kuruvamsha did not flow in the veins of any one of the successors. Bhishma Pitamah was the last person, who could have claimed to be in the line of Kurus. His stepmother Satyawati, was a Matsyagandha and had a child, Ved Vyas, who was born out of wedlock from Rishi Parashar, who made her a Yojangandha i.e. woman with far and wide fragrance before consummating with her in a boat while crossing the river. Satyawati had extracted a promise from King Shantanu before marrying him that only her son will inherit the kingdom. That was the occasion when Bhishma Pitamah, the eldest son of Shantanu born from the Goddess Ganga, vowed never to marry at all. She bore two sons- Chitrangad and Vichitraveerya. Chitrangad died young.  Bhishma kidnapped two daughters of Kashinaresh- Amba and Ambalika to marry his impotent half-brother Vichitravirya. After the sudden death of Vichitravirya, Satyawati wanted Bhishma to perform Niyoga with her two queens, which he stubbornly refused. Desperate for an heir to carry on the Kuru dynasty Satyawati sent for her illegitimate son- the Sage Ved Vyas to do Niyog with Amba and Ambalika. Ironically, none of the three sons conceived through the sage Ved Vyas- Dhritrashtra, Pandu, and Dasi Putra Vidura were of the Kuru blood. So Urvi told Draupadi that if she had accepted Karna as her son even before the war of Mahabharata started, there would not have been any Mahabharata.  Even otherwise her sons- Yudhisthir, Bhima, And Arjun and two from Madri - Nakul and Sahdev had no lineage of Kuru blood. 

   Thus, we find that Karna died due to six reasons, all were like blots of Adharmna. First was the curse of angry Brahmin, who was unknowingly killed by Karna, when he was making love with his wife in the form of deer and mother earth, who became unhappy because he has squeezed milk from her to give it to a girl, which had fallen from her hands. The second was the curse of Guru Parashuram that he would forget the incantation of Brahmastra when he needed it most. The third was the robbing of his Kavach and Kundal by Indra by deceit. The fourth was Kunti, who revealed the truth of his birth before the war, which crippled him from killing other brothers except for Arjuna as she had obtained a promise had that he would not kill anyone except him.  The fifth was the king Shalya, the reluctant Charioteer of Karna, who not only discouraged him at every step in the battlefield but also refused to help him to take out the chariot when it got stuck. To top it all, it was Krishna, who conspired to make sure that Karna was killed when he was labouring to take the chariot out from the earth.  

    Karna will, however, be remembered for eternity for his being an unparallel danveer (a donor), a matchless warrior and a devoted friend, a loyal son to his father Adhirath and mother Radha, and an honest husband, brother, and a family man. The writer has thus paid an excellent tribute to Karna through his wife Urvi, who despite all odds and oppositions preferred to be the wife an outcast in those days. 

O Christ! Forgive Justice Banumathi for Attributing Her Rise to Only Your Grace

Justice R Banumathi, who retired today as the Judge of the Supreme Court thanked Jesus Christ more than once in her farewell speech organized by the Supreme Court Bar Association for making her what she is. It was uncalled for her to have uttered that ‘though she is a Hindu, she believes in the gospel of Jesus Christ.’ As a retiring judge, she could have thanked God, which is an omnibus term instead of thanking Jesus Christ to make her faith and predilections known to one and all.

If she is a Hindu, which she claimed, she could have spoken about any of the symbols of her faith or not have spoken at all as it was immaterial on the occasion of her farewell. But the way she used the name of Jesus Christ, that too more than once, was no less than a sneering comment on the faith i.e. Hinduism.   This amounted to running down one religion and extolling the other. This was a very subtle and dexterous way of propagating one religion at the cost of others. If she had not said that she was a Hindu and had given all credit to Jesus Christ for her rise to the level of the judge of the Supreme Court, nobody would object to it. However, to say that she would not have come up to this level if Jesus Christ had not showered his grace on her. Being a Hindu how did that it was Jesus Christ helped and Lord Ram, Hanuman, Goddess Durga or Lord Shiva? What is all the more shocking was that the Secretary of the SCBA also invoked Jesus Christ while proposing his vote of thanks.

It is a common knowledge that Christian missionaries adopt all sorts of deceptive measures and means to convert Hindus because it is only, they, who are the easy prey or target. They (Christian Missionaries) do so in the name of providing service, giving education to poor people and different other types of inducements. It is also known that Justice Banumathi has embraced Christianity but the way she disclosed her identity is unbecoming the stature that she possesses. She will be known by her judgements, some of them are indeed very important, and not by her public announcement of the grace of Jesus Christ.

Three Cs (Communism, Christianity and China) are Causing Rift Between Nepal and India

  It is cliché to say that the Nepal-India relationship is very old. In fact, it is inseparable, and the credit goes to the people of both countries. If something turns wrong between India and Nepal, the palpitation of the hearts of the people on both sides automatically go up. Sometimes misunderstandings develop and then the responsibility falls on the governments to remove them, but officials are often found to be caught napping. Lately, some vested interests have become overactive to create differences where there are none and drive the wedge where there appear to be some. India, being the large country, in the area as well as in population, has the bigger responsibility to see that misunderstandings are nipped in the bud.

   The role of a section of Indian media has been quite reprehensible besides being highly irresponsible. Nepal is the only country, whose citizens can freely come, work, and settle down in India except in some states. They can apply in any government service except in a few All-India services. General Manekshaw, the hero of the 1971 Indo-Pak war, who belonged to the Gorkha regiment had once reported to having said that ‘if anybody says that he is not afraid of death then he is either a liar or a Gorkha’.  The Gorkha Brigade is proud of the Indian army.  Very large numbers of Gorkhas have settled down in different parts of India after their retirement from the army and their hearts beat or pulsate only for India.

  Recently some incidents, which have taken place in cities like Varanasi, where some hoodlums got a Nepali citizen’s head forcibly tonsured and wrote ‘Shri Ram’ on his scalp have caused worries in both countries. It is good that the administration in Varanasi immediately swung into action and has rounded up the miscreants. The goondas took the plea that it was in reaction to the statement of the Nepali PM Oli that the original Ayodhya was in Nepal. These idiots do not know that there are three hundred Ramayanas and in many of them, Ayodhya has been described to be in some other places. If somebody claims to have more proximity with Lord Rama, let him/ her have it. What is objectionable in it?

   We believe that Lord Rama is everywhere and so long anybody does not damage the cause of other’s belief that Lord Ram was born in Ayodhya of India, why should anyone be violent? There are many, who believe that Lord Ram was born in Afghanistan/ Haryana/ Raipur/ Srilanka or even in Kampuchea, let them go by their faith, there is no need to be offended over it. After all, Hinduism is not a regimented sematic religion like Judaism, Christianity or Islam, where a believer cannot differ even a millimetre from what is written in their Book.

  Therefore, the irresponsible media and some people in India are playing spoilsport to cause a rift between the two countries. It must be publicly denounced and deprecated. Let me put my appreciation on record for Pandit Arjun Prasad Bastola, who feels deeply pained if any misunderstanding creeps up between India and Nepal. He is closely associated with world-famous Pashupatinath Temple of Kathmandu. He is like an unofficial ambassador, who tirelessly works for the peace between the two countries. He has been immensely sorry to learn that a section of media in India has gone haywire and it circulated the totally false news that the priests (Pujaris) of Pashupatinath Temple, who are traditionally from Karnataka, have been asked to leave Nepal. He feels unhappy that sometimes some diplomats in the Indian Embassy in Kathmandu behave in a manner which is unbecoming of them. The government of India must take note of it.  

   However, we must not put our heads in sands like an ostrich and have the false feeling of everything being hunky-dory between Nepal and India. There are three Cs (Communism, Christianity, and China), which have been working hard to sour the relations between the two and the people of both countries need to be cautious about them. The governments will do well to rope in some genuine persons, who can work in unison for the peace and prosperity of both countries.

Hindi Must be Declared the State Language of J& K and Ladakh

There is an almost an outcry from Jammu and Ladakh regions to declare Hindi as the State language. There is some opposition, of course, from the valley and the reason is obvious but that is totally misplaced. Hindi is compulsorily taught in all schools across all three regions. The dialects that are spoken in Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh are Dogri, Kashmiri and Ladakhi respectively. Ladakhi is considered to be close to Tibeti.  Hindi is understood by every inhabitant of the state. Therefore, in all fairness, Hindi should have been declared as the state language even before the abrogation of Article 35A and 370 from the Constitution of India.

There is, therefore, no justification to have the land and other records of both union territories in Urdu. Large scale land frauds have also been reported because of the Urdu script that has been used in the official records. Urdu can be certainly be retained as the second language. After all, Urdu is the second language in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Uttarakhand and West Bengal, where it is not read or written by even 0.5 per cent population of these states. Needless to say that an overwhelming majority of the people in both Union territories are very well-at- the ease with Hindi, written in Devanagari script. Forced imposition of Urdu on the people of the state is, thus, atrocious and like creating hindrance in the progress of the young generation, which is longing to amalgamate with the rest of the country.

Urdu maybe an elegant language, but it is fit only for Sher-o- Sharie. No higher education can be imparted in this language while, on the other hand, Hindi because of the vast vocabulary, derived from Sanskrit, has emerged as the robust medium of higher education, be it Science, Technology, Literature, Philosophy, Agriculture, Entertainment, Astronomy, Medical Science, Physics, Chemistry or Classics.  J&K and Ladakh have otherwise also strong umbilical cord relationship with Sanskrit.

Even the Constitution of India provides that the official language of the Union shall be Hindi in Devanagri script. (Article 343). Further Article 351 mandates that it shall be the duty of the Union to promote the spread of Hindi language by drawing wherever necessary or desirable, for its vocabulary, primarily on Sanskrit and secondarily on other languages.

The idea of the constitution framers was to strengthen Hindi with the help of other languages like Panjabi, Bengali, Assamese, Gujarati, Marathi, Odia, Kannad, Telugu, Tamil, Nepali and Malayalam etc.; and dialects like Bhojpuri, Maithili, Awadhi, Bundelkhandi, Rajasthani, Chhattisgarhi, Kumauni, Garhwali, Dogri, and Ladakhi etc., so that it can emerge as the lingua franca for the cohesion of the country sooner than later.

Any delay in declaring Hindi as the state official language of the J& K and Ladakh will amount to huge injustice to the people. Now when both Union territories are being governed from Delhi, it is expected that the Union government will take immediate steps in this regard to replacing Urdu with Hindi otherwise, communal and fissiparous forces  with the support  from outside will do everything to sabotage a people’s friendly cause. 

Devil cannot Quote Scriptures, Vinay Dube Must be Sternly Dealt with

   You cannot expect the security forces, including the police, to wear the ‘rule of law’ on its sleeve to deal with such criminals, who care two hoots for the law and other human beings. Therefore, Yogi Adityanath government is fully justified in razing the house of that notorious outlaw Vinay Dube so as to nab him.  Law must serve as a deterrent for others also. Some will say that why to bulldoze his house to catch him? By asking such questions, one unwittingly provides a shield to the outlaws. Think of the sponsored anti CAA protests, was it possible to control in U.P. without adopting the unorthodox method of making the violent protesters pay for the damages caused to the properties? No, it was not possible at all. The primary responsibility of the government is to maintain law order and for that purpose, it may adopt all means at its command.

 There is no doubt that in Uttar Pradesh all political parties, without exception, have given protection to criminals on the basis of their religion and the caste. This is for the first time, that the criminals are facing the heat regardless of their caste or religion.   Hence, those who criticize the government for demolition of his house because he happens to be is a Brahmin, while no such steps have been taken against many other tough criminals belonging to other religions and castes, are totally wrong. Such critics are misguided, parochial and are bringing slur to the entire Brahmin community, which is known for being peace-loving and law-abiding.  Vinay Dube, a hardened criminal, has killed and committed more atrocities on Brahmins than others. The Killing of eight Police personnel deserves no soft approach, particularly from Brahmins. It, is a well-known fact, that some twenty years ago when Vinay had hardly past his teens, had killed a Brahmin, holding the post of a  Minister of State Uttar Pradesh in the broad daylight, that too, in the police station. He was acquitted from the court of law because all prosecution witnesses turned hostile. Can a daredevil goonda, who got eight policemen, including a deputy SP rank officer, be shown any leniency in the name of law? Obviously, the reply would be an emphatic NO.

   Some twenty years ago, I had asked a retired Sessions judge from Panjab, who was then practising in the Delhi High Court, that how come most of the terrorists in the early eighties were getting acquitted by the trial courts? What he told was shocking but correct to the last millimetre. The inherent weaknesses of the criminal justice delivery system are that it is exceedingly difficult to bring criminals to book and dispense justice. Witnesses do not come forward to depose against the criminals for fear of their and their family members being annihilated.

However, the modus operandi of the late  KPS Gill, who had the full support of the then Chief Minister Sardar Beant Singh and the steely resolve of the then Prime Minister PV Narsimha Rao, helped restore the law and order in the state. Many people had started saying that Panjab had gone out of the hand, but due to the trio of KPS Gill, Beant Singh and PV Narasimha Rao, Panjab became one of the most peaceful states of India.  

 The condition in J & K was much worse, happily, that is also fast coming back to normalcy thanks to the out of the box methods being adopted by the security forces in dealing with dreaded Pakistani funded terrorists.

 The case of Vinay Dube is different from other terrorist activities only in the sense that while at other places, terrorism was/is sponsored but here he has become a terror unto himself, which cannot sustain for very long. He will, doubtless, be crushed sooner than later by the State government. The police of Uttar Pradesh has been getting laurels for its most humanitarian handling during the Coronavirus but it will have to refurbish and clean itself from the departmental rats and moles who are found to be in cahoots with criminals and pass on the information to them before the raids are conducted to their premises.