Backing the N-deal

Slamming the Communists for not appreciating the agreement, it points out that 8220;if President George Bush, whose domestic ratings are touching rock bottom, makes the Indo-US nuclear deal as his most important foreign policy success and manages to get support even from skeptical Democrats, because they don8217;t want to be seen as voting against India, it only proves India8217;s growing clout as a world power. This should make India proud.8217;8217; Echoing Prime Minister Manmohan Singh8217;s favourite line, the editorial concludes, 8220;American companies and the NRIs lobbied hard with hostile Congressmen to make the deal possible. The bottom line is enlightened national interest.8221;

Attack on Arundhati

The current issue has as many as three pieces attacking writer-activist Arundhati Roy for her alleged hypocrisy. Under the headline 8220;Goddess of Small Lies8221;, columnist Balbir Punj accuses her family of encroaching on adivasi land in Panchmarhi and goes on to launch a diatribe against the 8220;anti-national8221; positions she takes on most issues. 8220;Actually she is a typical 8216;secularist8217; having little contact with the nation8217;s ethos, history and civilizational mooring. She is a beneficiary of globalisation and still pretends to fight against it. To her, Hindutva is communal, but Islamic fundamentalism is secular; India8217;s democracy is atrocious but Naxalism is reformist.8221;

The second report elaborates on how a bungalow owned by Roy8217;s husband Pradip Kishen in the hill resort of Panchmarhi 8220;is at the centre of a row for the second time in three years8221;. In 2003, it was found to be set in a notified forest land and the case is pending in the Jabalpur court. Now, another complaint against Roy8217;s husband and three others has been lodged by a local tribal, Vijay Singh, accusing them of constructing a cement road without obtaining permission or paying adequate compensation. Mocking at Roy8217;s activism on behalf of displaced people, the report says, 8220;It is being said that her husband is trampling on the rights of hundreds of people who do not have an Arundhati Roy to speak for them.8221;

The third article slams Roy for allegedly declaring at a New York book reading that India is not a democracy. According to the article, she described the Indian Army as an 8220;occupation force8221; in Kashmir and the North-East, but 8220;had nothing to say against the jehadis in Kashmir and the Church-sponsored separatists in the North-East, whose hands are smeared with the blood of countless innocent men, women and children.8221;

Quota bashing

Keen to expand beyond its traditional upper-caste support base, the Sangh Parivar has not openly attacked the concept of reservations. The Organiser has published several articles in favour of 8220;merit8221;. But top Sangh leaders have been more circumspect. However, a report on the concluding session of the RSS Officers8217; Training Camp OTC quotes RSS sarsanghchalak KS Sudarshan decrying reservation as 8220;a tool of vote-bank politics8221;. Sudarshan reportedly said: 8220;The provision of reservation is good for time being, but today it has become a tool of vote-bank and power politics. A committee of neutral thinkers should be constituted to seriously study all the issues related to reservations.8221; But what exactly is meant by 8220;neutral thinkers8221; has not been elaborated upon.

Compiled by Manini Chatterjee