A Muslim youth association demanded a Bharat Ratna for Veer Savarkar while celebrating his 135th birth anniversary on 28 May, Amar Ujala has reported. This program took place in Aligarh region of Uttar Pradesh.
As quoted by the report, the president of the association Mohammed Aamir Rashid stated that, ideological differences caused the previous governments to disregard Savarkar’s sacrifices. This included recounting the fact that Savarkar was sentenced not once but twice, to the dreaded cellular jail in Andaman & Nicobar islands. Besides this Rashid claimed that scores of other revolutionaries too weren’t remembered by the said governments.
He as a result accused certain leftist historians of criticising Savarkar, who as per him themselves didn’t have any role in Indian independence. He also accused them of not realising his sacrifices. Thus the association in its pursuit to demand Bharat Ratna for the Hindutva icon, sent 150 postcards to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Ram Nath Kovind.
As per a Patrikareport, Rashid who is also a RSS functionary, has himself sent a letter to the Central Government making this request.
Besides this, the association has also released a poster, which brings into question the practice of awarding the Bharat Ratna to members of the Gandhi family and supposedly to the sycophants of the Congress party.
This Muslim association isn’t the only organisation which has demanded more recognition for Savarkar.
It was reported how the Akhil Bharat Hindu Mahasabha (ABHM), prodded the Modi government to replace Gandhi’s picture with his, on the Indian currency notes. Besides this, they too had made the demand that a Bharat Ratna be awarded to him.
As reported by ANI, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who is currently touring Singapore has announced the launch of three Indian mobile payments app for international remittance in Singapore today.
The international launch of RuPay, BHIM and UPI based remittance app in Singapore, represents Digital India initiative and our renewed partnership: PM Narendra Modi at Istana #Singaporepic.twitter.com/HZxj2Tgt3a
While Prime Minister expressed his gratitude to his Singapore counterpart Lee Hsien Loong for his untiring efforts towards strengthening relations with India, Lee confirmed that the bilateral trade between the countries has more than doubled with Singapore being the second largest investor in India.
At the ‘Business, Innovation and Community Event’ the PM aimed at internationalization of the country’s digital payment platform. India’s RuPay digital payments system was linked up with Singapore’s 33-year old Network for Electronic Transfers (NETS).
RuPay users will be able to make payments at all the points where NETS will be accepted. The holders of Singapore NETS will be able to “make online purchases on the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) e-commerce merchant website, using 2.8 million RuPay point-of-sale terminals in India.”
Also, a new app-based rupee remittance mode of the SBI’s Singapore branch was launched at the event.
“In order to expand our remittance offering, we are launching rupee remittance to India through United Payment Interface (UPI),” SBI country head in Singapore, Soma Sankara Prasad, said today after the launch at the event where the digital platform was the main feature.
Addressing a big gathering of Indians the Prime Minister affirmed that his government’s focus is on financial inclusion and the digital revolution has been sweeping across India, improving governance and delivery of public services.
He said digital transactions witnessed 7000 percent growth and 99 percent of households in the country have bank accounts providing dignity and identity to the marginalized sections of the society.
Earlier in the day, Modi inaugurated the India-Singapore Enterprise and Innovation Exhibition at Marina Bay Sands Convention Centre. The Prime Minister also witnessed a dance and yoga presentation.
There is an interesting quote by GK Chesterton on Democracy, I once came across while writing one of my blogs. He wrote, and I quote “Have you noticed how continually in history democracy becomes despotism? People call it decay of democracy. It is simply its fulfillment.”
Ever since the Vedic times, when Sabha and Samiti would choose a king, the risk of the king eventually becoming too big for democracy riding over the mob he turned out to control, loomed large over the society. With a strong sense of numbers, comes a possible sense of entitlement kind of divine right to rule. Rome faced it in the person of Caesar. A successful military general, he was installed as the Emperor of Rome based on popular public sentiment and soon became despotic. We could sense the same when Rahul Gandhi goes to Berkeley and claims that as a dynastic inheritor, he has a right to be the Prime Minister of India. That he kept on losing one election after another did not matter to him. That he was being rejected by the people never dawned on him them. The idea of being rejected remains alien to him and his sycophants who ensured his rise to the topmost place in the Congress are happy with total ignorance and dismissal of public sentiments.
As we saw in the recently concluded Karnataka elections, his sense of entitlement, his irrational faith in his divine right to rule in spite of his pronounced incompetence, is brazen and appalling. The more one observes him, the more one is convinced that his politics is based on this singular, stupid belief that the loss of power of the dynasty to which he belongs is a minor and temporary aberration, an innocent mistake by the unwise people of this country and this needs to be corrected.
He has no clue of responding to his failure in winning over people with positivism; his idea is to snatch this right from the people by discrediting the current government and discrediting the wisdom of the people who elected it. He does not hesitate to play the vilest of the cards for that purpose. He wants to get back to the throne even if he has to walk over dead bodies for it, as we saw in Madhya Pradesh, or his recent tweet on Tamil Nadu protests on Sterlite plant approved by his government and favoured by his allies. He is not committed to any cause. He has walked away in the past have left the cities and towns burning for his next foreign vacation as we saw in Mandsaur. His speech readers create riotous speeches for him, speeches that tend to divide the nation, words whose purpose is to divide the nation and somehow create a victory for him.
He does not understand what he speaks and does not care about the devastation his words precipitate in the lives of the people. His men tell him that it is all about the number, and they cunningly tell him, that there is no face, no name, no soul behind those numbers. When I say his men, I do not refer only to the party members, whose survival is linked to his success. The term, his men (and women), the vast ecosystem the family built over the decades, would also include the media houses who predicted a sweeping victory for Siddaramiahin Karnataka, the judiciary which opens at two at night to hear Congress petition, the writers who write Op-Eds celebrating Congress victory when it lost significantly settling to half the number of seats it previously held. During the campaign, they had celebrated his every vile move fragmenting society as Lingayat- Non-Lingayats, North-India- South Indian, as a political masterstroke; predicted a victory for the incumbent. Having proven wrong, this mendacious mandate came to them as a face-saver. They called it the dance of democracy.
Rahul Gandhi lost. Siddaramaiah lost the election, he lost the narrative. Indians are an inherently unified lot. Unless provoked by vested interests, we generally tend to believe that we are one people. My most popular posts on Twitter are those which underline our oneness, as people, as a nation.
Then came the moment of clinical and cynical exploitation of the ecosystem. Congress went to the Supreme Court for a midnight hearing. The 15 days timeline given by the Government, the constitutional representative of the central government was reduced by the Judiciary. The party with 104 seats backed out and Congress with 78 seats, staked claim to form the government with JD-S, which had 38 seats.
The media celebrated this as some great political moves of the prince. To anyone empathizing with the hapless citizen of Karnataka, this was nothing but a knife of betrayal in the back who tried hard to escape the tyranny of the past. The two parties who were rejected by them came together and imposed on them, the leader of the party which was rejected the most as the Chief Minister. This was hailed as great arithmetic. The media houses who had lost their role in cabinet fixing were enthused. They shouted from rooftops how this model will give a win to the dynastic despot, and thus to the Darbaris in 2019 election. Their contention, this coming together of opposition will be a certain defeat for Narendra Modi. Some even went overboard calling it a coalition of like-minded parties, a secular front.
This contention was so wrong. What is like-minded between a Yadav outfit and a Jatav outfit from UP, or a TMC and a Communist front in West Bengal. And by what logic and authority they call this set of parties secular and the other communal. They named the pretence of the coalition a dance of democracy and danced around it like cannibals dancing around the prey. This stealing of mandate, the coalition of crooks did enable them to form a government in Karnataka. But is it always about arithmetic? Is it always about numbers?
No, it is not. Democracy is not a number game. It depends on the number but calling it a number-game is disrespecting it. What separates democracy from mobocracy is a sense of morality. Do we want to be ruled by mobs? Mobocracy is the face of number supremacy which we see in Naxal Jan Adaalats and Talibani public stonings. In mobocracy, the largest number is heard.
In a democracy, the loneliest, the faintest voice is heard. So we have in Karnataka a CM who blatantly goes around telling his people that his accountability begins and ends at the doorsteps of the family of a matriarch of Italian descent who became an Indian after a decade-long deliberation and who ran one of the most corrupt governments India has ever seen by proxy. He is honestly admitting that he is not accountable to the people of his state who rejected him. If it was not so cruel, it would be very endearing. Is Kumaraswamy representative of his people, or is he the representative of the Family, a vassal to the dethroned Sultan of Delhi? What the so-called intellectuals call Dance of Democracy is nothing but the theatre of absurd. The government of Karnataka is an illustration of how your democratic choices could be made redundant if the crooks come together. For them, the people, their hearts and minds mean nothing.
BJP lost the Kairana Bypoll, much touted as a predictor of 2019. But then every election since 2014 has been an indicator of Narendra Modi’s popularity with the people of India, every election has been his test. For people finding solace in small victories, even the loss of a school monitor election by the son or daughter of a BJP leader in primary classes would also be a measure of Narendra Modi’s losing popularity. Some would even demand his resignation on the basis of that. These elections are again a coalition win. It is again a coalition win of parties who do not represent any uniformity of ideology or plan.
Should we wait for the decay of democracy to happen, letting it denigrate into arithmetic of votes from the chemistry of the leader with his people? Should we rise up and ask questions from those who provoke us on rough rhetoric and send us down burning your own houses in fury? Karnataka government formation is nothing but a cynical crushing of public mandate by a coalition of crooks, who lack any accountability towards the people. It represents the return of rhetoric, which yielded great results with slogans like Gareebi Hatao for a leader like Indira Gandhi who imposed Emergency on India.
Congress scion who tore off the ordinance approved by the cabinet of an elected government trots slogans like ‘Save Democracy’, brings out impeachment against Chief Justice of India for an unfavourable judgement and then shouts ‘Save Judiciary’, represents the party that imposed Emergency on India and speaks about ‘Save Constitution.’ He believes in rhetoric as his route to power, so he lies blatantly from Sterlite to SC/ST reservations. Are we, as the people of India, still so gullible? Will we watch as mute spectators as democracy denigrate, degrades and rescinds into the dark and complex interpretations of mob rule which is called as politics of arithmetic by the sophisticated elites or will we rise to elect accountable leaders? It is time for us to rise. Left to its own, we know that Chesterton was not wrong.
Democracy devoid of morality and ideological anchor always runs the risk of turning into a despotic system. We must elect people on their ideology, politics and morality. There is no place for these abstract things in the politics of arithmetic. We tweet and we want the minister to respond and now we have a CM who says he is not accountable to the people of his state. If we let this theatre of absurd play at the national level, we will someday have a PM who will say that he is not accountable to the people of this nation. Will we vote on rhetoric and a plea of negativity, or will we ask those who seek a vote to clarify, define their ideological positions and vote on that basis? We, the people of India, will have to decide, for as Abraham Lincoln said- “Elections belong to the people. It’s their decision. If they decide to turn their backs to the fire and burn their behinds, then they will just have to sit on their blisters.” No nation which stood at the crossroads of the history knew that when it actually stood there. We only know that with the benefit of hindsight. By then, it is often too late. I would think we do stand at that defining point today. We need to elect a government which is aware of the historical sensibilities and future possibilities which our great nation stands for.
Two 1000-year-old bronze idols of Rajaraja Chola and his wife, Lokamadevi, which were stolen from Brihadeeshwarar temple at Thanjavur over 50 years ago were returned to Tamil Nadu on Thursday. The idols were retrieved from the Calico museum Sarabhai Foundation galleries in Ahmedabad. at Ahmedabad and would be installed at the Temple in the next few days.
AG Pon Manickavel, Inspector General who leads the idol wing of the Police, said while briefing newspersons in Chennai, “We registered a case (with regard to missing of the two idols from the Big Temple) just three months ago and retrieved it within 90 days. We would be installing these idols at his house.” He added that no one had been booked thus far but assured that the culprits will be arrested soon enough.
According to reports, the two idols are among the 13 presented by Kodumablur king named Poigainatha Kilavan Adhithan Sooryan who helped Raja Raja Chola while he built the temple, 1,000 years ago. The other 11 are said to be missing as well. A Police Officer, who is part of the investigating team said, “Most of the ancient icons were stolen and the officials suppressed the crime without bringing it to the notice of the police. Our investigation revealed that the ancient idols were replaced with non-antique idols.”
The idols are estimated to be worth over Rs. 150 crores. Tanjore Police’s idol wing had registered an FIR against unknown persons in March 2018. Following investigations, the team visited the Calico museum on Tuesday and the figurines were recovered.
We had earlier reported on the magnitude of the menace of Antiquities theft in India and how authorities had failed to preserve and protect India’s cultural heritage. Despite the success achieved by the Police on this particular occasion, smuggling of ancient artefacts remains an organized illegal trade on an industrial scale.
Human rights activist and minority leader are just some of the accolades Charanjit Singh received for his exceptional work in minority rights in Pakistan. Singh was gunned down in his shop in Scheme Chowk area, Peshawar on Tuesday.
Singh’s family hails from the Kurram tribal region but later migrated to Peshawar like most of the Sikhs in the country. Singh owned a store in the capital of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province for a long time.
The Superintendent of Police, Saddar Shaukat Khan told the local media that Singh died on spot. He further added, “an attacker shot Singh inside his shop and escaped”.
The murder has caused a significant amount of anxiety within the minority community in Pakistan. Most Sikhs in the country live in Mohalla Jogan Shah where an old Gurudwara is located.
Charanjit Singh was known to be a strong voice for religious harmony. He recently organized an Iftar party for the locals. It was his strong criticism of Taliban and their policies are what might have caused this death according to some.
In recent years, the number of targeted killing ok Sikhs has been on the rise, especially from militant groups like Taliban who force minorities to pay jiziya or a form of religious tax. Many members of the minority have also been kidnapped and killed.
The Q4 GDP numbers for Fiscal 2017-18 are out (Jan-Mar, 2018) and India’s economy is growing at a sizzling 7.7%.
For India’s partisan media and chattering classes, not to mention the pretend economists, this sterling achievement is no less than ONE TIGHT SLAP.
Yes, I said it.
There was a time, not so long ago, when India overhauled its entire taxation system with the Goods and Services Tax (GST). Understandably, as India’s $2 trillion Economy paused for the giant transition, there was a slowdown in one quarter. That would be the Q1 of Fiscal 2017-18, i.e., the period of April–June, 2017, when every business in the country was waiting and recalculating for the GST rollout on July 1.
Every sensible person understands this concept. We have all seen old, decrepit buildings being broken down in our cities and new gleaming ones being built in its place. And everyone understands that in the interim, you can’t live in the house while it’s under construction.
The same with the Indian economy. While the entire system for doing business in this country is being overhauled, there is going to be an interim shutdown.
But for our cheap, partisan media and its pretend economists, this interim was a golden opportunity to take potshots at the Modi government. While the opportunity was still there.
Here is M K Venu, one of the founding editors of The Wire, who pounced upon the moment to declare that India is in a state of “economic chaos.”
Anti-Hindu outlets like Al Jazeera were itching for a chance to humiliate the nation of kafirs. And our intellectuals like Paranjoy Guha Thakurta did not disappoint.
The likes of Kaushik Basu could not be far behind. Unlike M K Venu or Paranjoy, Kaushik Basu had a reputation as a world-renowned economist that he should have kept in mind. He could have tapped into his knowledge and appealed for some common sense. He could have appealed for people to wait and not go overboard with nonsensical criticism while GST is being implemented.
But the desire to humiliate Modi proved too much for him. Kaushik Basu jumped on the bandwagon.
The economic slump, economic chaos … the hyperbole from Modi baiters wouldn’t stop. Nitin Sethi of Scroll.in went as far as to talk about “epic economic problems.”
Who is this great economist that Nitin Sethi quotes? It is one Himanshu, an associate professor of economics at JNU. Here is how he describes India’s economic situation in Sept 2017.
Ha! The “data is clear” that India is in a state of economic collapse!
Wonder where is Prof. Himanshu of JNU these days? My guess is that he is still teaching his students, as usual, filling their minds with absolute rubbish. The fact that he spewed total garbage in Sept 2017 will not impact his reputation nor his career one bit. Because, chances, are, he will hide behind the ‘burqa of secularism’.
Then there was the flat out lying. Exhilarated by the echo chamber talk of economic slump/chaos/collapse, some in the media forgot to check even the most basic facts. A Nov 22 article by an Assistant Editor of the website of AajTak even went so far as to suggest that Modi government is withholding the disclosure of Q2 GDP figures in view of Gujarat elections. The Assistant Editor went on to claim that Q2 GDP numbers are generally released on Nov 1.
This is flat out lying: Q2 GDP numbers are always released on Nov 30. I am pretty sure the Assistant Editor in question still has a job. Because my guess is that he too is wearing the infamous burqa of secularism.
But ‘secularism’ cannot change facts. All these mighty experts, pretend economists and otherwise, are now hiding under a desk somewhere, hoping that we forget about the absolute garbage that they predicted six months ago. The Q4 GDP of 7.7% has come as a stinging slap on their faces and they know it.
More resounding is the clear upward trajectory as the Indian economy soars with its new GST wings.
There is now not even a shred of doubt that the so-called “economic slowdown/chaos/collapse” of Apr–June 2017 period was a tiny blip as businesses waited for the GST rollout. Every single prejudiced calculation, every jaundiced prediction and every outright lie of India’s liberals has been ruthlessly nailed by FACTS.
Perhaps these people did not realize that their dishonest propaganda would be exposed so soon. They thought this was the India of Jawaharlal Nehru, where it takes decades to move the needle. These people thought it would be years before their foolishness was exposed.
But this is Modi’s India. In Modi’s India, the whole taxation system is overhauled, but there is only a three-month pause before the economy is booming again.
Modi’s India has kept its status as World’s fastest growing economy. For how many years under Manmohan Singh did India enjoy this distinction? Dear economists of Sept 2017, tell us!!
In their embarrassment, the media is trying to bury the reporting of the India story. The partisan media and economists are not even opening their mouths on India’s Q4 GDP numbers.
This leaves it up to the common people, like us, to open our mouths. Let’s make it heard everywhere that India is the fastest growing economy on the planet. And that JNU professors don’t count. Reality does.
Goons have torched the houses of almost 15 Dalit families in Malikpur village in Bihar’s Raghopur. Raghopur is in Vaishali district in Bihar and is the constituency of RJD Supremo Lalu Yadav’s son, Tejaswi Yadav. According to reports, on Monday, some goons torched houses of Dalits in the village after a land dispute. The fire reportedly engulfed 15 houses and some shops too.
The Dalit family are now reportedly homeless and they have not been offered any help or respite from the government. Properties of almost Rs 10 lakh have been destroyed in the fire and the houses were all owned by Dalits. Raghopur is reportedly a Yadav dominated region and atrocities on Dalits by politically powerful Yadavs have long been reported from this area.
Reports coming from Yadav pocket borough Raghopur which happens to be the constituency of our leader of opposition Sh. @yadavtejashwi is disturbing. Caste war brewing between Yadavs and Dalits. Thousands of Yadavs reportedly burnt homes belonging to people from Dalit samaj. pic.twitter.com/34sVqCt4xt
The Dalits affected by the incident have claimed that they are being harassed and targetted by Yadavs and even the district administration and political leaders are not doing anything about it.
After the news was reported in the media, JD(U) leader Ashok Choudhary reportedly reached Raghopur to take a cognisance of the situation under the orders of CM Nitish Kumar. He has met the victim families and has reportedly promised all possible help from the state government.
While the local RJD and JD(U) leaders have been busy in allegations and counter allegations on each other for politicising the matter, many are reportedly questioning Tejaswi Yadav‘s conspicuous silence on the issue. He has always been very vocal about Dalit issues and has time and again targetted the central government for being anti-Dalit. Yadav even held a celebratory event after yesterday’s RJD victory in Jokihat polls but he reportedly avoided giving specific answers on the Raghopur violence issue.
Yet another attempt by the family of the Congress magnate and former finance minister P Chidambaram to prevent the filing of a case against them came to zilch when Justice S Baskaran of the Madras High court refused to stay the prosecution launched by the Income Tax department against Nalini Chidambaram (the lawyer wife of Chidambaram, son Karti and daughter-in-law Srinidhi) under the Black Money (Undisclosed Foreign Income and Assets) and Imposition of Tax Act of 2015.
Justice S Baskaran rejected the plea for interim orders and simply adjourned the cases, filed by the family to repress the prosecution, to July 5 after ordering notice to IT officials.
On 11th may, the IT department had filed four charge sheets against them, adding to the long list of legal obligations to the Congress minister’s family.
The prosecution cases were filed after it had been found by the Income Tax department that Karti, his mother, and wife had purchased a property in London (5, Holben Close, Barton, Cambridge, UK). The IT Department found that the property was purchased for Rs 5.37 crore but this was not disclosed in their IT returns.
Along with this the department also alleged that Karti fell short of disclosing his overseas bank account with Metro bank in the UK and his investments in Nano Holdings LLC, USA. Besides he also failed to disclose investments made by Chess Global Advisory, a company co-owned by him, which amounted to an offence under the Black Money Act.
Vilifying the IT departments move, the three (Karti Chidambaram, his mother Nalini Chidambaram, and his wife) moved the high court seeking an interim order staying the prosecution proceedings and also to direct the department to provide a copy of the complaint to them.
The Chidambaram’s had, in their petition contested that the Principal Director of Income-tax was not a competent officer to launch the prosecution under the black money act, hence the complaint against them should be trashed.
Earlier this year, a massive political war broke out following Karti’s arrest without any prior summon directly from the Chennai airport. Karti was arrested in the INX media case in which it was alleged that he facilitated FDI approvals and helped ex-bosses of the INX media company when they faced tax issues, misusing his father’s position as the then, finance minister. Later he was granted bail.
A defiant Karti Chidambaram had then refuted the allegations levied on him in the INX Media alleged bribery case as “false” and “politically motivated”.
In the INX Media case, the CBI had registered an FIR on May 15 last year against alleged irregularities in the FIPB clearance to INX Media in 2007 when Chidambaram was finance minister.
While the day came hard on the Congress minister’s family, it, however, marked some relief for the minister himself as he was granted interim protection from arrest by the CBI, in the INX Media case, a day after the Delhi High Court extended him one in the Aircel-Maxis deal case.
This year has not started well for the Chidambaram’s, the Chennai and Delhi homes of former Union minister P Chidambaram were raided by a team of Enforcement Directorate earlier this year in connection with the money laundering investigation in the Aircel-Maxis money laundering case. The case is linked to an approval granted by Foreign Investment Promotion Board to Aircel-Maxis in 2006, during Chidambaram’s tenure as the finance minister.
BJP Chief Amit Shah in a scathing attack on former Finance Minister P Chidambaram on the filling of criminal cases against him and his family tweeted,
Under the Black Money Act, 4 charge sheets have been filed against P Chidambaram and his family for possessing and operating several illegal assets and accounts in foreign countries. IT estimates illegal assets held by UPA’s FM to be to the tune of 3 Bn dollars! #BlackMoneyOfPC
He further said, “This explains why despite Supreme Court’s orders Sonia Gandhi, former PM Dr. Manmohan Singh & then FM P Chidambaram dragged their feet on the formation of SIT, one of the first decisions taken by Modi govt, to fight Black Money! How could they indict their own selves?”
Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had too lashed out at the former union minister by tweeting,
To counter these allegations P Chidambaram blistered back by saying that the president of the richest political party in India is dreaming of billions of dollars! Bring the money back and put Rs 15 lakhs in the account of every Indian as you promised,” without naming BJP president Amit Shah.
The house of a BJP worker named Jahid was attacked by Samajwadi Party workers following their victory in the Noorpur assembly by-polls, Dainik Jagran has reported.
As per the report, to celebrate their party’s victory, a dozen or so SP workers took out a procession in the Islamnagar area. Thus it is being claimed that they started sloganeering when they arrived near Jahid’s house.
The report claims that they later started abusing and assaulting Jahid for not voting for the SP candidate. They are even accused of vandalising his house and robbing valuables.
An Amar Ujalareport has claimed that the SP supporters were loudly celebrating in the area which was objected to by Jahid. This brought on the said attack on the BJP booth president.
Seeing Jahid attacked, his family including his wife, son, daughter and daughter-in-law rushed to protect him but ended up getting assaulted as well. The son and wife are reported to have suffered serious injuries.
The report identifies the accused SP supporters as Salim, Abid, Saddiq, Zarif, Rahiz, Hasinu, Shahid and Ikrar – who are believed to be residents of the same locality.
Following the assault, a case was registered in a nearby police station, where scores of BJP workers reached to demand strong action against the accused. Senior police inspector Ramchandra Singh has confirmed the complaint and assured that the matter is being investigated.
The Bijnor police’s Twitter account has also confirmed the matter by stating that based on Jahid’s complaint, a case has been lodged in the matter:
प्रथम प्रकरण में कार स्वामी व ठेला स्वामी में आपसी सहमति से सुलह हो गई है। तथा द्वितीय प्रकरण में वादी श्री जाहिद की तहरीर पर मु0अ0सं0 178/18 धारा 147/336/452/504/427/354ब भादवि0 बनाम 06 नफर पंजी0 किया गया है। विधिक कार्यवाही की जा रही है।
This isn’t the only time Muslims associated with the BJP have borne the brunt for their “unconventional choices”.
We had reported how BJP leader Bukkal Nawab had been ostracised from Islam by Darul Uloom Deoband for worshipping Lord Hanuman at a temple in Lucknow. The logic given by a Muslim cleric for this snub was that Nawab had indulged in anti-Muslim activities.
Another such incident was reported about 25 Muslim families being denied entry in their local mosque because they had joined the BJP. These 25 families who amounted to 200 individuals had switched over to the Amit Shah led party from the CPM.
Soon after their switch, CPM leaders started issuing threats to the families and even mobilised Muslim religious leaders to deny them entry into the mosque.
Two years after the raids at the Asia Art Week in New York that rocked the industry in 2016, the fair that lasts for 10 days witnessed another successful edition of its business. Annual editions of the Art week attracts top Asian art dealers, numerous auction houses and prospective buyers who have an eye for appreciating beautiful works of art. The much-celebrated affair, however, has a dark past and a history of its participants associating themselves with international smugglers and people with a more than dubious reputation.
In 2016, after confiscation of properties by the Homeland Security, sales at the festival dropped to $130 million from $360 million the previous year. Homeland Security confiscated two items from Christie’s, one of the vendors, who had included the items under an auction titled, “The Lahiri Collection: Indian and Himalayan Art, Ancient and Modern.” Christie’s has also been linked to Subhash Kapoor, a notorious arts smuggler, who has been in Indian jails since 2012. But despite the confiscations and the link to a smuggler, Christie’s appears to have participated in 2018 as well.
Special agents from Homeland Security Investigations removing an object from East 67th Street in New York last March.Credit: Tina Fineberg for The New York Times
Christie’s was not the only dealer who was raided at the festival in 2016. Nancy Wiener Gallery was also raided by Federal Agents. A Kushan relief valued at $100,000, a limestone sculpture of Shiva and Parvati valued at $35,000 and a 10th Century Bronze Buddha worth $850,000 were seized under a court warrant. Another unnamed “East Coast Auction House” was raided when it planned to sell a “2nd Century Bodhisattva schist head from the Gandhara region”. The raids and seizures were made as part of the ‘Operation Hidden Idol’ which seeks to curb the flow of smuggled cultural products into New York. Manhattan District Attorney, Cyrus Vance Jr., has condemned the auctioning of smuggled cultural artefacts. He said, “Those who peddle historic relics with no consideration for how they were acquired are active participants in the laundering of stolen property.” He went on to add, “It is not only unethical but unlawful.”
CULTURE TRADED
Dedicated galleries of Indian artefacts can be still found on the websites of these vendors. Most are clubbed under galleries titled ‘Indian, Himalayan and Southeast Asian works of Art.’ There is no indication that these artefacts are illegally or unethically occupied.
A FINE GILT-BRONZE FIGURE OF BUDDHA SHAKYAMUNI ON A LION THRONE TIBET, 14TH CENTURY (Source)
The Catalogue Note for the this idol asserts that the sculpture “epitomizes the qualities of Newar master artists working for Tibetan patrons in the fourteenth century.” Buddha Shakyamuni can be seen in the idol with his hands in a gesture of turning the Buddhist Wheel of Law and expounding Dharma.
A SILVER INLAID COPPER ALLOY FIGURE OF VAIROCANA, SWAT VALLEY, 8TH/9TH CENTURY (Source)
In Buddhism, Vairocana is seen as the embodiment of the Buddhist concept of emptiness and is considered a primordial Buddha. Vairocana is especially revered in Western Himalayan cultures. The idol below is described thus, “The present sculpture is outstanding for the size and completeness of its composition. The casting’s finer details are preserved in the delicate modelling of the thin scarf across Vairocana’s arms, and the rich spiralling tresses framing his broad shoulders. Armbands high on the biceps show three prominent jewels above chained swags. Vairocana’s plump cheeks and penetrating inset silver eyes complete the remarkable figure.
A PINK SANDSTONE BUST OF JINA PARSHVANATHA, INDIA, RAJASTHAN, 10TH/11TH CENTURY (Source)
Parshavanatha is the 23rd of the 24 Tirthankaras of Jainism. He is the earliest Jain Tirthankara regarded by historians as a historical figure. Jain sources place his existence between the 9th and 8th century BC while historians assert he may have existed between 8th and 7th century BC. Parshavanatha is among the Tirthankaras most revered by the Jains and he is easily distinguishable with the serpent hood over his head.
A BRASS ALLOY FIGURE OF VIGHNANTAKA, KASHMIR, 10TH/11TH CENTURY (Source)
Vighnantaka is one of the most wrathful deities in the Buddhist pantheon. The idol below is described thus, “Vighnantaka is one of the ‘Ten Wrathful Ones’ whose name literally means ‘The Destroyer of Obstacles’. He balances above a subordinate Ganapati, who serves the same function in Hinduism, but as tantric Buddhism asserted itself, became a symbol for those very obstacles that Vighnantaka subjugates.”
A STONE PLAQUE WITH SCENES FROM THE LIFE OF BUDDHA, NORTHEASTERN INDIA, PALA PERIOD, CIRCA 12TH CENTURY (Source)
The idol above is described thus, “Portable, intricately carved, and packed with stories about the life of Buddha, this particularly fine pyrophyllite stone plaque belongs to a small group that occupies a pivotal place within Buddhist art history and the spread of Buddhism throughout Asia. Originally carved during the Pala period in Northeast India (8th-12th centuries), these plaques have been discovered in remote repositories as far as Tibet, Myanmar, and Sri Lanka; some bearing inscriptions just as varied, including Newari, Tibetan, and Chinese”.
ANTIQUITY THEFT AND TERRORISM
A phenomenon that has been observed by law enforcement authorities is the fact that those legally trading in artefacts often have no clue that they have bought a smuggled product or simply do not care if their product has been acquired by the seller through dubious means. However, there is sufficient reason to believe that terrorist organizations are behind a lot of the smuggling. The United Nations passed a resolution recently which stated that terrorist organizations such as the ISIS and Al Qaeda have been generating revenue by trading in smuggled antiquities from Iraq and Syria. It noted with concern “that ISIL, ANF and other individuals, groups, undertakings and entities associated with Al-Qaida, are generating income from engaging directly or indirectly in the looting and smuggling of cultural heritage items from archaeological sites, museums, libraries, archives, and other sites in Iraq and Syria, which is being used to support their recruitment efforts and strengthen their operational capability to organize and carry out terrorist attacks”.
There is sufficient evidence to believe that terrorist organizations are using the Dark Web to ply their illegal trade. Dark Web has long been known to be a hub of illegal activity online. It allows individuals to trade in wildlife, drugs, firearms, computer hacking tools and other illegal goods. Many also say that it festers with child pornography and is a haven for paedophiles. Now, with the rise in cryptocurrencies and identity masking software, it is believed that terrorist networks earn their revenue through bitcoins as well. Following the UN’s resolution, the FBI has also issued an advisory stating, “Purchasing an object looted and/ or sold by the Islamic State may provide financial support to a terrorist organization and could be prosecuted under 18 USC 233 A.” The Antiquities Coalition states, “In 2016 alone, $146,960,100 worth came into the United States, just in declared imports of arts, collector’s pieces, and antiques from the world’s ten nations with the most terrorist activity. All of these countries have a rich cultural heritage, which is under threat from looting and trafficking, and all also have ties to violent extremist organizations, many of which are already known to fund themselves through cultural racketeering.”
THE MAGNITUDE OF THE PROBLEM
Antiquities theft has long been a menace that Indian governments have grappled with without much success. Indian Tourism and Cultural Minister Mahesh Sharma admitted in 2014 that there had been 8 reported cases of theft from state protected monuments and museums across three states. Naman P. Ahuja, Associate Professor at the JNU, told the Diplomat, “Catching one person every eight to ten years is reflective not of the success, but of the failure of the present laws. Although the authorities have managed to arrest few of the smugglers, thousands of artworks have actually left India’s shores. So the larger question to ask is not how we can increase policing of our borders, but on why so many Indian art treasures continue to leave the country?”
The extent of the menace can be gauged from the fact that in 2016, close to 300 ancient stone and bronze idols, wooden artefacts and paintings worth hundreds of crores had been recovered by the Police from a single man. Between 2010-2014, there were 3000 unsolved cases of stolen cultural property. The problem is augmented by the fact that there are hundreds and thousands of ancient monuments in India that do not have proper security making them vulnerable to thievery. It’s estimated that 10,000 artefacts were stolen in the period between 2010-2016. Even as the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence compiled a list of artefacts seized, it asserted that India’s rich cultural heritage was under threat from international smuggling syndicates which are targeting ancient Temples in the country and various archaeological sites. Smugglers often specifically target poorly guarded Temples for their purpose.
FAILURE OF INDIAN AUTHORITIES
Prime Minister of Modi is the first Indian head of government to demand stolen Indian heritage from the U.S, Canada, Germany and other countries. The USA handed over 200 ancient artefacts to Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his visit to the States but only 11 have come back to India thus far. However, the new Antiquities Bill proposed by his government in 2017 appears rather weak when compared to global standards. Swarajya did a comparison of India’s Antiquities Bill 2017 and Pakistan’s KP Antiquities Bill 2016 and discovered that India’s proposed antiquity law pales in front of the latter.
The Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) tasked with the job of preservation and maintenance of cultural monuments and antiquities has been thoroughly incompetent at performing the duty it has been assigned. In 2013, the CAG slammed the ASI for neglect of world heritage sites and stated that the ASI does not even have a database of all the antiquities in its possession. Not only antiquities, even monuments go missing under the watchful eyes of the ASI. Even Temple administration and political leaders are responsible for missing antiquities at times. Recently, a Congress student wing leader in Karnataka was arrested for stealing and attempting to sell antiquated idols of Jain Tirthankaras. In December last year, Ramjanaki Temple in Uttar Pradesh had been stolen of priceless Ashtadhatu idols of Lord Ram, Sita and Laxman. Interpol has a dedicated database for art-related crimes. However, India neither contributes nor makes use of it.
THE IMMEDIATE NEED FOR RECOVERY AND PRESERVATION
Anuraag Saxena, a volunteer with India Pride Project, an organization that works towards tracking and reinstating India’s stolen-heritage, has been following the loss of India’s antiquities for a while. He rues the lack of constructive efforts by Indians towards recovering their ancient artefacts. He says, “When American symbols are attacked (like 9/11 attack on WTC), they hit back with all their might. When Indian symbols are attacked, we go and whine on Twitter.” He goes on to add, “Pandit Deendayal Upadhyay ji once said, ‘The basic cause of the problems facing Bharat is the neglect of Its National Identity’. Symbols of this identity are being destroyed right before our eyes.” He doesn’t mince his words against these auction houses as well. “I have one question for these auction houses – “How can you proudly sell what your grandfather stole from mine?” However, some have even tried to communalize the efforts at retrieving India’s lost artefacts by the government of India.
It’s time that we regard theft of Antiquities not merely as a cultural theft, which is a huge issue in itself, but also a civilizational threat and a threat to the very existence of our nation. Because it has become clear, and even the United Nations agrees with it, that terrorist organizations are funding their nefarious activities by trading in smuggled cultural artefacts. It is ironical perhaps and quite troubling that terrorist networks are using the cultural heritage of a people to wage war against their very cultural identity. And on a deeper level, we owe it to our ancestors that we return the memories of their tradition and their endeavours to those who would truly treasure them and worship them and not abandon them in the hands of those who would treat them as merely decorative pieces.
