Protest farce

But the significance of the editorial lies in its comments against the protests launched by the Left and the BJP. Attacking the Left for not reducing taxes in West Bengal and Kerala, it says, “the BJP can make a beginning instead of protesting on the streets by stopping the wheels and adding to the public misery. The party can walk the talk by asking its state government to reduce state levies on fuel and show the way”.

That has not stopped the BJP top brass from leading the protests, nor impelled BJP-run governments to follow Big Brother’s advice—not as yet anyway.

Flaying “Fanaa”

Gujarat may have banned Aamir Khan-starrer “Fanaa” because the actor’s stance on the rehabilitation of the Narmada Dam oustees was seen as anti-Gujarat, but Organiser provides another reason to justify Modi’s move.

A front page article, doubling as a film review, claims that the “the protagonist in the movie, Aamir Khan, unapologetically defends jehadi terrorism”.

It goes on to describe the several “fatuous events and scenes” in the film and insists that the “the idea behind the movie is evidently insidious, trying to make a case for Kashmir’s ‘freedom struggle’ “. Despite the film’s clear anti-terrorist ending, the Organiser article concludes: “One wonders why the BJP did not seek banning “Fanaa” all over the country when the theme was unambiguously anti-national?”

Private sector quotas

The Organiser’s standpoint against reservations for OBCs in higher education has been evident through its choice of articles over the last few weeks. In this issue too, writer B C Dutta attacks the UPA government for seeking to destroy “the last bastion of merit in the country” through OBC quotas in IITs and IIMs. Anticipating the imposition of quotas in the private sector, he says such “extended reservation not only threatens to stifle growth, but also violates the Fundamental Right of citizens to pursue any occupation, trade or business as ensured by Article 19(g) of the Constitution”.

Under the quota system, the private sector will be compelled to recruit workers without the requisite skills and efficiency. As a result, businesses will lose their competitive edge and “India’s exports would decline, depressing our economic strength and eventual destabilisation of India’s economy,” the article predicts.

Home truths about Mahajan

The Organiser has refrained from making any direct comment on the Mahajan family saga so far. But the Parivar’s viewpoint can be gauged from its decision to reprint columnist Swapan Dasgupta’s scathing attack against the BJP’s “deification of Mahajan” that appeared in a newspaper last week in the wake of the Rahul Mahajan episode.

Commenting on the eulogies to Pramod Mahajan after his tragic death, Dasgupta wrote: “That Pramod was a dynamic functionary, adept at networking and improvisation, was never in doubt. Every political party needs someone like him. Yet, it is a commentary on the intellectual bankruptcy that has afflicted the party that qualities of expediency, sometimes verging on skulduggery, were elevated into godly virtue. There were a lot of things about Mahajan and his political style that were morally and ethically suspect—and these were known to the party and RSS leadership. In deifying everything about the man, the party leadership wilfully put a seal of approval on everything Mahajan epitomised.”

The deification of Mahajan, Dasgupta added, was not “an act of innocent simple-mindedness” but was “symptomatic of a larger rot that is destroying the BJP”. By reprinting his column in full, the Organiser makes it clear that it subscribes to that view.

— Compiled by Manini Chatterjee