Opinion View from the RIGHT

The RSS mouthpiece further claims: “The statistics of ‘Love Jihad’ marriages in Kerala are staggering. According to the High Court,the police records showed 4000 conversions having taken place through love affairs in the last four years and 2,800 girls converted from other religions into Islam for love. In the four northern districts,1600 such conversions have taken place. The issue came to the attention of the High Court through an alleged case of coercive conversion,filed by an aggrieved parent. The Court,in its order,said the campuses should not be turned into venues for forced conversions though false love affairs”.

The RSS journal concludes its editorial: “Anti-conversion law is in place in some states. They need to be fortified. Local administrations should be sensitised about the issue. One of the best ways of dealing with the issue of religious conversions could be to fix a quarantine period of at least 10 years. A person wishing to change the religion should wait for that period from the date of first expressing the desire before being legally declared the converted… The social cost of religious conversions is very high,within the community and between communities. And the ultimate goal of the people who are prompting conversions is not spirituality but money,better living conditions,social status and political power. That’s when the number becomes crucial,not the man or his soul”.

Recession history

In a column titled “Will the global crisis deepen?” in the latest issue of the RSS mouthpiece,Bharat Jhunjhunwala writes: “The global economy is passing through a period of uncertainty. Agencies such as the World Bank and the IMF believe that the American economy will soon revive and pull forward the global economy with it. The experience of the Asian crisis gives hope to the optimists. The American economy was moving fast forward in the few years preceding 1997. American companies were making huge investments in manufacturing facilities in Thailand and other East Asian countries. The goods produced were being exported to America. Thailand was receiving huge amounts of foreign investments and also got access to the markets of the developed countries. This model of development of Thailand was dependent wholly on the American economy. The American economy started facing a downturn in 1998. There was a decline in demand for cars imported from Thailand. Correspondingly,American companies like General Motors slowed down their foreign investments. This reduction in inflow of dollars led to a steep devaluation in the Thai currency. This was the beginning of the Asian crisis”.

He adds: “But the crisis did not become deep. At nearly the same time,Internet revolution started in America. Companies like Microsoft and Cisco Systems started making huge profits. The share market of technology companies started booming. Once again global investors started putting their money in the American companies. This inflow of foreign money led to regeneration of domestic demand. American companies once again embarked on importing foreign goods and making foreign investments. The technological development of the Internet helped America come out of the recession. America had similarly come out of previous bouts of recession with the help of technological developments of nuclear reactors,jet airplanes and the like. This happy circumstance did not happen again,however.

The revival of the US economy due to the IT sector petered out in 2002. American economy again started to slip into recession”.