Culture matters

The editorial in the latest issue titled “Jammu and Kandhamal,” says: “As a metaphor of national unity we often refer to the geographic expanse of India from Kashmir to Kanyakumari and from Kutch to Cuttack. The nationalist fury that erupted in the Hindu agitation in the Amarnath Shrine Board land issue and the spontaneous protest over the gory murder of Swami Laxmanananda Saraswati and his ashram inmates in Kandhamal have demonstrated that fissiparous elements out to destroy the foundations of Indian nationhood cannot have a free run... Both the issues have their origin in the now familiar political paradigm of suppressing the Hindu sentiments. They came in the wake of a series of UPA programmes to reduce the status of the majority community to the fate that existed under the Mughals and the British.”

It concludes that “The liberal help from the local governments and special minority rights to run educational institutions and hospitals should not be misused for harvest of souls. Beyond sentiments there are some intrinsic values that bind us all. The proponents of globalisation claim that the new generation — the emerging global citizen — will deflect our idea of nationalism. The issues that will strike the new generation are not culture-centric but economy-centric where welfare and money-making aspects of life will dominate over the concerns of religion and national identity. Amarnath and Kandhamal have proved again that it is not so.”

CPM on the loose

A news item under the heading “CPM anarchy in Kerala: Cadres attack police station, release culprits” observes: “For the past two decades, jails in Kerala are under total hegemony of CPM. Most of the jail authorities and jailors are under the diktats of CPM prisoners. Drugs, quality food, liquor, TV, mobile phones and even girls are made available to CPM prisoners. Moreover CPM prisoners are housed in separate wards. They always carry weapons in jail premises. On several occasions especially in Kannur Jail, RSS workers have been the victim of CPM attacks. In 2005, all the RSS prisoners in Kannur Jail were shifted to Thiruvananthapuram Jail, following attacks on them. Immediately after CPM came to power, it wanted the RSS prisoners, involved in CPM-RSS clashes in Kannur, to be shifted back to Kannur, obviously with murderous intentions. But due to High Court intervention, as a result of RSS petition, the CPM ploy didn’t work.”