Opinion Caste of mind
The BJP has supported including caste in the census,but the RSS is not impressed....
The BJP has supported including caste in the census,but the RSS is not impressed. An article by former Union minister Arif Mohammed Khan in the latest issue of its mouthpiece Organiser,asks whether that other bogey,communalism,will now reassert itself. If the caste census can make a comeback,will the long-dead idea of a separate electorate be revived? The birth-based caste system is the corrupted and perverted form of the ancient varnashram,that was based on gunas,that is,natural attributes and propensities of an individual. It means taking into account the merit and suitability of an individual to perform a given task. Later some powerful sections,in order to secure privileges for their own progeny,turned it into a rigid hereditary system. The whole constitutional scheme was designed to put an end to this, he says. The enthusiasm for a caste-based census can be explained as the manifestation of the same old mindset that seeks to make privileges hereditary, Khan says.
State of the disunion
An article by M.V. Kamath in the Organisers Independence Day edition predicts a bleak future for India. Discussing corruption,he includes the BJPs Reddy brothers,along with Madhu Koda and A. Raja,saying that lakhs of tonnes of iron ore were being not only illegally mined,but openly exported with the connivance of officials of various departments,including the police. And no one has asked how much money the mine overlords have made and where they have deposited their ill-gotten gains. They seem to have bribed the politicians in power as well.
Referring to the tussle between Maharashtra and Karanataka over Belgaum and the arrest of TDP chief Chandrababu Naidu,he says if a former chief minister let alone an ordinary non-Maharashtrian can be arrested on the grounds that he has entered Maharashtrian territory,then what is Indian unity all about? What kind of Great Power will we ever make?
Talking tough to Kashmir
With Kashmir on the boil,an article by M.D. Nalapat declares that it is time for the romance between state and separatists to end. The Kashmir virus is in danger of spreading across the whole country,unless it be dealt with firmly. The more concessions that are given,the quicker will be its descent into chaos. What is needed is to show that those destroying the tenor of life in the state will have to pay the financial price for doing so. The rest of India should not any more subsidise the ISIs agents in Kashmir, he says.
He goes into the genesis of the Kashmir problem,saying that unlike the Peoples Republic of China,which incorporated Xinjiang and Tibet into itself,Indias leaders of that period allowed the division of the subcontinent into Myanmar,Sri Lanka,Nepal,Bhutan,the Maldives and Pakistan.
Compiled by Manoj C.G.
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