drisyadrisya: Neighbours envy, Owners pride!

From the drisyadrisya दृश्यादृश्य blog, this article Neighbours envy, Owners pride! is about Narendra Modi's recent election victory in Gujarat. The author identifies two factors that led to Modi's victory: the Congress Party's playing the Hindutva card and the efforts of the ELM (English language media) to defame Modi.

The author notes:

As a Malayalee, having seen the devil and deep sea alternately ruin such a beautiful state, I have to admit.... I envy Gujaratis, I envy Modi. I have seen most youth complain about their state's government - and rightly so many times. But a majority of my Gujarati friends, seem so proud of their government. They put youtube videos showcasing Gujarats rapid development on their orkut..... I am sure, some of them, if not most, also hope that what Sardar Patel was denied will be made up by Modi - if not immediately, some day, may be after Advani !

I can sympathize with the author's point of view. As the author has seen his native Kerala ruined by the Communists, my husband has seen how the Communists have ruined his home state of West Bengal.

Even Modi's foes acknowledge that he's been successful at attracting foreign investment: the Wall Street Journal claims that Gujarat has received 25% of foreign investment in India. People from Gujarat describe Modi as a good administrator (albeit dogmatic) and a clean politician, rather an anomaly in India. Could it be these qualities that make Gujarat a good bet for investment?

Jihad in India: an interview with Moorthy Muthuswamy

Moorthy Muthuswamy

Terrorism in India has been a recurring theme on Mera Bharat Mahan. I have mapped terrorist attacks in India at Tagzania and have presented views of Sadanand Dhume and others about India's susceptability to terrorism. From FrontPage Magazine via Jihad Watch, here is an interview with Moorthy Muthuswamy, Ph.D., author of The Art of War on Terror: Triumphing over Political Islam and the Axis of Jihad.

Salient points from the interview:

• Terrorism is a humanitarian issue. According to Dr. Muthuswamy, "millions of Indian children are going hungry and getting malnourished due to economic bleeding imposed in the name of Islam."

• Political Islam is the enemy. It is based on the trilogy of the Qu'ran, Hadith (documented sayings and actions of Muhammad), and Sira (biography of Muhammad). Dr. Muthuswamy elaborates, "We are now further identifying the enemy: a political ideology of conquest that inspires terror, mosques as the nodes that spawn jihad and axis of jihad [Saudi Arabia, Iran, and Pakistan] as the main backer nations of the ideology and the nodes."

• Jihad has forced out non-Muslims in Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Kashmir. This pattern has been re-enacted in Muslim majority areas of India itself.

• "… Sonia Gandhi’s Congress party, according to Indian intelligence, has been infiltrated by jihadists. Due to the policies enacted by Manmohan Singh’s government, jihadi infiltration into Indian institutions is escalating, including its paramilitary forces.…"

• "It is a matter of time India is hit in a major way … Strikes on India’s nuclear reactors, oil refineries or call-center infrastructure, for instance, is bound to make devastating economic impact and make hundrends of milions more of its children go hungry, and destitute and set the stage for India’s ireversible destruction andeventual Islamization."

Dr. Muthuswamy notes that India has the right under international law to take pre-emptive strikes when faced with a "blatant and long-pattern of genocide by an enemy." Don't hold your breath for that to happen. Israel had the political will to bomb Saddam's nuclear reactor, as it expected that Saddam would unleash nuclear weapons on Israel (Col. Ilan Ramon, who perished in the Space Shuttle Discovery mission with Kalpana Chawla, was one of the pilots on the mission to take out Saddam's nuclear reactor). India's current leaders do not have that political will.

Sri Aurobindo on Hinduism

Found through Hindu Press International:


Sri Aurobindo

Hinduism gave itself no name, because it set itself no sectarian limits; it claimed no universal adhesion, asserted no sole infallible dogma, set up no single narrow path or gate of salvation; it was less a creed or cult than a continuously enlarging tradition of the Godward endeavor of the human spirit. An immense, many-sided and many staged provision for a spiritual self-building and self-finding, it had some right to speak of itself by the only name it knew, the eternal religion, Sanatana Dharma. Sri Aurobindo (1872-1950)

UPDATE: This item has been cross-posted at Savitri Era Open Forum.

Treating Kala-azar

Kala-azar, also known as "black fever," is a disease transmitted by sand flies. OneWorld Health, a non-profit pharmaceutical company, describes kala-azar as:

a deadly disease transmitted via the bite of an infected sand fly. Visceral leishmaniasis (VL) is the most dangerous of the three manifestations of disease caused by the Leishmania parasite. VL is associated with fever, weight loss, enlargement of the spleen and liver, and anemia. If left untreated, it is nearly always fatal.

This video is the first of 6 videos comprising the documentary Kill or Cure? Visceral leishmaniasis, which was presented on BBC TV in June 2007 (the other videos may be found at YouTube). OneWorld Health has been working with doctors in India to test Paromomycin Intramuscular (IM) injection as a treatment for kala-azar and with Hyderabad-based Gland Pharma to manufacture the injectables at cost to make the treatment affordable to victims and their families.

Mera Bharat Mahan commends the Principal Investigators and Gland Pharma for developing solutions for fighting kala-azar in India.

India’s Pernicious Politics of Backwardness

Arun Shourie

Economist, author, and disinvestment minister under the BJP Government Arun Shourie is among India's best thinkers. Most everything he writes is worthwhile reading.

This article India’s Pernicious Politics of Backwardness from the Asian Tribune is a review of his book Falling Over Backwards: An essay against Reservations and against Judicial Populism.

In his book, Shourie not only slams politicians for promoting reservations, but also faults the judicial system for legitimizing the aims of the politicians. Shourie claims that politicians and the courts have subverted Articles 15 and 16 of the Constitution of India, which refer to discrimination and equality of opportunity, respectively (the link is to a Word document; to quickly locate the referenced Articles, use View > Document Map and select "Right to Equality"). IMHO it seems that the clauses within Article 16 provide a means to enable caste-based reservations.

There is no one solution to casteism. I do favor promoting education and training among all so that they can compete on a level playing field. I also agree with Shourie's recommendation to make the individual not the group "the unit of State policy." In this case, it should be verified that an individual suffered discrimination in hiring on the basis of caste by examination of systematic hiring practices: if discrimination has been discovered, provide for remedies for the individual, rather than extend caste reservations.

Falling Over Backwards may be purchased through third-party sellers via Amazon.com