1. FESTIVALS: Holi, the full-moon day of the month of Phagun – Phalgun
Poornima, falls on March 16 this year. Traditionally, a bonfire is lit in the
night and next morning sees the play of colours. In the area of Braj comprising Mathura, Vrindavan, Gokul and Barsana,
Holi
is a two-week-long festival. Here, the men of Nandgaon and women of
Barsana play 'latthmar Holi' in remembrance of the playful throw of colors by
Krishna on 'Gopis' and their resistance. The festival features play of colors,
folk songs called 'Hori', folk dances such as Raas-Lila, and staging various
aspects of Radha and Krishna's love."
2. Parliament is the Gangotri of
BHARATIYA democracy: Pranab: Rashtrapati
Pranab Mukherjee said that Parliament is the Gangotri of Bharatiya Democracy.
Rashtrapati said that the Parliament represents the will and the aspirations of
billion plus people of Bharat and is the link between the people and the
government. He was unveiling photographs of Presidents of Central Legislative
Assembly and portraits of former Speakers of Lok Sabha at Central Hall of
Parliament House on February 10.
Pranab said if Gangotri gets polluted, neither
Ganga nor any of its tributaries can stay unpolluted. It is incumbent upon all
parliamentarians that they maintain the highest standards of democracy and
parliamentary functioning.
Rashtrapatiji said the Parliament, like other
organs of the government, is not sovereign and “owes its origin and authority
to the Constitution”. The prime function of the Parliament is to enact
legislations to empower the people on every front - social, economic and
political, to exercise control over the Executive and making it accountable in
all respects. The validity of a law, whether Union or State, is tested by
judiciary as defined in the Constitution.
The Parliament functions through debate,
dissension and finally decision and not through disruption. In order to
strengthen the functioning of our Parliament and other democratic institutions,
it is important that all stakeholders – government, political parties, their
leaders and parliamentarians do some introspection and follow sound
parliamentary conventions and rules. Rashtrapatiji also said that our
Parliament has evolved well-developed processes and procedures.
Upa-Rashtrapati and Chairman Rajya Sabha,
Mohammad Hamid Ansari, Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh and Speaker, Lok
Sabha, Meira Kumar were present on the occasion.
3. Sarasanghachalakji attends ‘DHARMASOOYA’
yajna in Kerala: Rashritya Swyamsevak Sangh Sarasanghachalak Shri Mohan Bhagwat
participated in ‘DHARMASOOYA’ yajna at Palakkad in Kerala on February 6. Former
ISRO chief Dr G Madhavan Nair praised Dr. Bhagwat’s leaderrship skills.
‘Bhagwat is a great visionary of Bharat, only because of the vision and action,
the organisation which he belongs to can teach the new generation and the
society to preserve our nation.” ‘All our traditional knowledge is derived from
rishis. That consists of all the scientific and daily life knowledge. This type
of yajna and ritual will give us strength to preserve our traditional
Knowledge’ said Dr Madhavan Nair. RSS Chief Mohan Bhagwat in his brief speech
said, “Our rashtra needs a positive change. For this, great efforts have to be
made with selfless and pure mind.
4.
Create an Apple, a Mircosoft, a Google in Bharat: Narendra Modi: "Do whatever you can to make Bharat
innovative and to be competitive. Recently, Sathya Nadella became CEO of
Microsoft. Most of you must be dreaming to reach the heights of Nadella,"
said Narendra Modi, the BJP prime ministerial candidate addressing the ninth
convocation of SRM University near Chennai on February 9.
"My
advice to you is to create a similar enterprise here. Create Microsoft here.
Create an Apple. Create a Google here in Bharat. And then own it and manage
it," he added. Observing that knowledge would be the biggest bridge
between education and nation building, he said it is sad that no university in
Bharat has attained top global ranking status. "What is lacking we have to
identify and work upon it." Pointing out that skill development is the
need of the hour, he said "if there is no skill, there will not be
employment."
5. Dalai Lama considers himself 'son of Bharat': A total of
54 years I am having Bharatiya rice, chapati, tea. Now I consider myself as the
son of Bharat, son of the soil. "I am very happy," said the spiritual
leader who was in Guwahati to inaugurate a five-day Festival of Tibetan Art and
Culture and to deliver the First LBS Founders' commemorative lecture on 'A
Human Approach to Peace and the Individual'. He also addressed an Interfaith
Conclave on Peace and Religious Harmony. Following the invasion of Tibet by
China, the Dalai Lama had passed through Guwahati in 1959 after his escape from
his country via the Khenzimani Pass in Arunachal Pradesh with 80,000 Tibetans.
6. Bharat Ratna CNR Rao: Bharat's highly regarded scientist Professor CNR Rao, on Feb 4 joined
the pantheon of three other pre-eminent people from the field of science who
have been conferred the Bharat Ratna in the past - Nobel Laureate and physicist
CV Raman who was given the same award in 1954; civil engineer M. Visvesvarayya
in 1955 and most recently aeronautical engineer APJ Abdul Kalam in 1997. Rao is
former director of the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, and currently
works at the Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research in
Bangalore.
One of the most prolific chemists, who at age
79 still spends several hours every day in his laboratory and has published
over 1500 research papers on materials science, his latest craze was to work on
thin films of carbon called 'graphene'. He has been in the running for the
Nobel Prize for many years. Rao gets most animated when discussing science and
says "If you are not childlike, you cannot be a scientist."
An avid
educationist, he is responsible for unleashing the reforms seen in science
education in the last five years and was the driving force for the setting up
of the new high profile Indian Institute Science Education and Research.
7. Local Kashmiris work to preserve beloved culture: For 5,00,000 Kashmiri Hindus who were forced to flee their native land
in 1989 and later, preserving their culture has been quite difficult. About
4,500 families out of them call the United States home, including 70 in South
Florida.
In April 2013, Chandramukhi Ganju and her
husband Deepak Ganju formed ‘Preserve Our Heritage’, a nonprofit based in Miami
Shores doing business as Kashmiri Hindu Foundation. Preserve Our Heritage’s
mission is to promote and preserve Kashmiri culture and heritage through music,
dance, drama, art, cuisine, literature, history and the humanities. It aims to
showcase the “richness of Kashmiri culture and interact with other cultures.”
Former North Miami mayor Andra Pierre named
the third Sunday in November, ‘Kashmiri Hindu Heritage Day’ and the
organizations holds annual events at the North Miami Public Library. Chandramukhi
Ganju said the heritage day events have three purposes: to keep younger
Kashmiris abreast of their native language and culture, for members of
different cultures in the county to represent themselves and so the different
groups can learn about each other. To preserve her culture Ganju writes dramas
as well as recipes.
A social issue Kashmiri children, parents and
grandparents have to handle in the United States is adjusting to American
culture. Chandramukhi Ganju said “We are like cultural orphans. You don’t want
your child to feel alienated but at the same time it is important to preserve
our heritage.”
8. Yoga Has Healing Powers:
Study: In the minds of the 20 million or so devotees in the U.S., Yoga helps
people to relax, making the heart rate go down, which is great for those with
high blood pressure. Now, by a study of yoga that used biological measures to
assess results, led by Janice Kiecolt-Glaser, professor of psychiatry and
psychology at Ohio State University, and published in the Journal of Clinical
Oncology, it has been found that meditative sun salutations and downward dog
poses can reduce inflammation, the body's way of reacting to injury or
irritation. Researchers looked at 200 breast cancer survivors who had not
practiced yoga before. Half the group continued to ignore yoga, while the other
half received twice-weekly, 90-minute classes for 12 weeks, with take-home DVDs
and encouragement to practice at home. In the study it was found that the group
that had practiced yoga reported less fatigue and higher levels of vitality
three months after treatment had ended.
The study didn't rely only on self-reports.
Kiecolt-Glaser's husband and research partner, Ronald Glaser of the
university's department of molecular virology, immunology, and medical
genetics, went for stronger laboratory proof. He examined three cytokines,
proteins in the blood that are markers for inflammation. Blood tests before and
after the trial showed that, after three months of yoga practice, all three
markers for inflammation were lower by 10 to 15 percent. That part of the study
offered some rare biological evidence of the benefits of yoga in a large trial
that went beyond people's own reports of how they feel.
9. For UK Hindus, River Soar is
their 'Ganga': Officials in the east Midlands city of
Leicester have designated a quiet, leafy spot on the River Soar where, instead
of travelling to Bharat, members of the city’s large community of Bharatiya
origin can scatter ashes of the deceased.
Residents of Leicester say it is often
difficult for people to go to Hardwar or Varanasi to scatter the ashes, due to the
cost and travel problems faced by older family members.
10. Open Doors: Visa-on-arrival
is great, follow up with comprehensive measures to boost tourism - The governments decision to clear visa-on-arrival and electronic travel
authorisation facilities for citizens of all countries barring eight is a
significant reform that augurs well for Indias tourism industry. The move marks
a welcome departure from the principle of strict reciprocity which guided the
Indian visa regime in the past. Hitherto India offered visaon-arrival to
tourists from only 11 countries. But the new policy will dramatically extend
the facility to 180 nations. With tourism creating the maximum number of jobs
for every rupee invested, a larger influx of foreign tourists on account of a
liberalised visa regime will boost inclusive growth.
Given its diverse landscape, rich history and
myriad religious traditions, theres no doubting Indias huge tourism potential.
However, the tourism industry is hamstrung by woeful infrastructure. In 2012,
around 6.5 million foreign tourists visited India. In comparison, a tiny
country such as Thailand received around 22.3 million visitors the same year.
The latter has emerged as a veritable Asian tourism giant on the back of
concerted efforts to create a conducive tourism ecosystem. Since the 1960s, the
Thai government has invested heavily on infrastructure, resulting in
improvements in road construction, power supply, banking, communications and
other government services that aid tourism.
In the same vein, tourism in India requires a
complete change in mindset. While measures such as tax concessions for the
tourism industry are welcome, implementing the time-honoured philosophy of
atithi devo bhava requires a comprehensive approach. Most of Indias historical
monuments and sites lie in a deplorable state of neglect. Roping in private
organisations for their refurbishment and upkeep Aga Khan Trusts work on
Humayuns Tomb is a great example can be a solution. Similarly, dedicated
tourist police units must not remain on paper alone. Infrastructure,
connectivity, safety and cleanliness are all important if India is to monetise
its natural tourism assets and bolster its foreign exchange reserves. -- Editorial, Times of India, 10 February 2014.
11.
BRO assures trouble-free Char Dham pilgrimage: In a meeting on February 8, DG Lt Gen AT
Parnaik ascertained Union Road Transport and Highways Minister Oscar Fernandes
and Uttarakhand Chief Minister Harish Rawat that all roads leading to the
pilgrimages would be operable by April 2014. The BRO (Border Roads
Organization) has been entrusted with the task of repair and reconstruction of
damaged roads leading to the famous Himalayan shrines of Badrinath, Kedarnath,
Yamunotri and Gangotri. “The BRO has been asked to submit its requirements to
the State Government by February 15. The State in-turns, if it deems necessary
will further forward a formal request to the centre, if it fails to give funds
from its own resources,” said an official from the Ministry of Roads.
12. ‘Kashmiri Kutumb Milan’-II, a concept to celebrate together the culture
and heritage of “Kashmiri Pandit”, was organised by KP Youths of Bangalore, on
2nd February 2014, at Bangalore. The event was associated with a noble cause
& organised in association with KMECT (Kashmiri Medical Emergency &
Charitable Trust.) to generate funds to help the Kashmiri people in medical
emergencies. It was inaugurated with Deep Prajavalan by Pt. B.L Kaul. Children’s
participation in the program was as grand as it could be. The variety of
presentations by young children added the kashmiri spice to the program and
made it chatpatta in real sense. The audience was still enjoying the songs,
dance, shlokas, bhajans by talented kids when yet another enthralling program
“Vohrvoudh” (birthday) celebration in Koshur (kashmiri) way was presented. Children of the community performed the
birthday pooja as per the tradition & Tahar (Yellow Rice) was prepared
& served as Naveedh. Audience was equally participative and this was highly
appreciated by one & all. A presentation on KMECT (Kashmiri Medical
Emergency & Charitable Trust) followed where Pt. Jatinder Kaw and Pt.
Maharaj Pajan enumerated journey traversed by the trust.
13. Konsam Himalaya Singh first from NE
becomes Lt. Gen in BHARATIYA Army: Major General Konsam Himalaya Singh of Manipur has become the first
Army officer from the North-East to become a Lieutenant General. Major General
Himalaya, who hails from Charangpat in Thoubal district, Manipur is an alumni
of Sainik School, Goalpara (Assam) and the National Defence Academy. He was
commissioned into the Second Battalion of The Rajput Regiment (KALI CHINDI) in
June 1978 and later commanded 27 RAJPUT.
The General
Officer is a graduate of the Defence Services Staff College, College of Defence
Management and the prestigious National Defence College. He was General Officer
Commanding (GOC) of 25 Infantry Division in J&K and was awarded with 'Ati
Vishisht Sewa Medal' in 2013.
14. UNIVERSITIES TO offer courses in spoken
Sanskrit: As per a new
proposal by the University Grants Commission (UGC), universities across the
country must foster centres offering certificate courses in spoken Sanskrit.
The objective behind the introduction of this course is to inculcate basic
knowledge related to the subject among students and teachers. Lack of awareness
about Sanskrit is thought to be one of the main reasons behind the diminishing
curiosity.
15. SHREE VISHWA NIKETAN: Pravas: Shri Saumitra Gokhale samyojak Vishwa Vibhag arrived Bharat for ABPS
baithak in March. Dr Ram Vaidya sahsamyojak would reach Bharat by end February.
Visitors: Shri Om K. Tondon & Smt. Ann Tondon – USA. Kalpana Vekaria – UK.
FOOD FOR THOUGHT: All people are basically nice. One should deal with every person by
believing in his goodness. Anger, jealousy, etc. are the offshoots of his past
experiences, which affect his behavior. Primarily every person is nice and
everyone is reliable. – Prof. Rajendra Singh (Rajju Bhaiyya), the fourth
Sarsanghchalak of RSS.
JAI SHREE RAM
i. Dinanath Batra:Here comes the book police
In his modest
office above a school in Naraina Vihar in southwest Delhi, Dinanath Batra is
wreathed in smiles. He’s been on the phone all morning, fielding questions from
journalists. “I feel 84 years young”, he says. The reason lies on the chequered
plastic cloth of the small coffee table in front of him—a mustard-yellow folder
with the words “Penguin Book India Pvt. Ltd” printed boldly on the front and
“Delhi Police” in the top left corner.
Batra is the
subject of renewed interest because Penguin Book India chose to settle a civil
suit he filed in 2011 against the publisher and the American scholar Wendy
Doniger over The Hindus: An Alternative History, deliberately conceived (the
title makes it clear) as a response to the prevailing narrative about Hinduism.
“Part of my agenda in writing an alternative history”, Doniger notes in her
preface, “is to show how much the groups that conventional wisdom says were
oppressed and silenced and played no part in the development of the
tradition—women, Pariahs (oppressed castes, sometimes called untouchables)—did
actually contribute to Hinduism.”
This lengthy
(over 700 pages), scholarly volume, more anvil than book, attracted protests in
March 2010 in New York when it was nominated for a prestigious literary award.
The protesters got in touch with Batra, he says, “to campaign to stop the book
in India”. He read the book and “felt instantly angry”. Doniger, an academic of
repute, was accused by Batra, and members of his group the Shiksha Bachao
Andolan Samiti, of having a “hateful mentality”.
A pamphlet
distributed by the group read: “On book’s jacket Lord Krishna is shown sitting
on buttocks of a naked woman surrounded by other naked women just to outrage
religious feelings of Hindus.” Doniger, 69 when she wrote the book, was accused
of being “jaundiced...her approach is that of a woman hungry for sex”. The
group is made up of volunteers: teachers, intellectuals, parents, essentially
anyone devoted to a particular ideal of a culturally appropriate education.
Batra wants to go further, to create a national non-governmental commission to
examine and approve syllabi. He has already begun holding monthly meetings with
proposed committee members.
Batra, a
mild, affable man, tall and still upright, maintaining the posture of the
school headmaster he once was, does not seem unhinged by rage now. But he is
implacable in his belief that Doniger’s book is malevolent, has no place being
read or discussed in India. In his petition to the court, The Hindus is
described as “shallow, distorted...a haphazard presentation riddled with
heresies and factual inaccuracies”.
Doniger
herself is driven by a “Christian Missionary Zeal and hidden agenda to
denigrate Hindus and show their religion in poor light”, the petition said. The
Mint February 12, 2014
II. Why
Not Hindu India?
Germany, with its minority religions,
still calls itself Christian. Why not call India Hindu?
BY
MARIA WIRTH
Though
I have lived in India a long time, there are still issues here that I find hard
to understand. For example, why do so many educated Indians become agitated
when India is referred to as a Hindu country? The majority of Indians are
Hindus. India is special because of its ancient Hindu tradition. Westerners are
drawn to India because of Hinduism. Why then is there this resistance by many
Indians to acknowledge the Hindu roots of their country? Why do some people
even give the impression that an India which valued those roots would be
dangerous? Don’t they know better?
This attitude is strange for two reasons.
First, those educated Indians seem to have a problem only with “Hindu” India,
but not with “Muslim” or “Christian” countries. Germany, for example, is a
secular country, and only 59 percent of the population are registered with the
two big Christian churches (Protestant and Catholic). Nevertheless, the country
is bracketed under “Christian countries” and no one objects. Angela Merkel, the
Chancellor, stressed recently the Christian roots of Germany and urged the
population “to go back to Christian values.” In 2012 she postponed her trip to
the G-8 summit to make a public address on Katholikentag, “Catholics Day.” Two
major political parties carry Christian in their name, including Angela
Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union.
Germans are not agitated that Germany is
called a Christian country, though I actually would understand if they were.
After all, the history of the Church is appalling. The so-called success story
of Christianity depended greatly on tyranny. “Convert or die” were the options
given—not only some five hundred years ago to the indigenous population in
America, but also in Germany, 1,200 years ago, when the emperor Karl the Great
ordered the death sentence for refusal of baptism in his newly conquered
realms. This provoked his advisor Alkuin to comment: “One can force them to
baptism, but how to force them to believe?”
Those times, when one’s life was in danger for
dissenting with the dogmas of Christianity, are thankfully over. Today many in
the West do dissent and are leaving the Church in a steady stream. They are
disgusted with the less-than-holy behavior of Church officials and they also
can’t believe in the dogmas, for example that “Jesus is the only way” and that
God sends all those who don’t accept this to hell.
The second reason why I can’t understand the
resistance to associate India with Hinduism is that Hinduism is in a different category
from the Abrahamic religions. Its history, compared to Christianity and Islam,
was undoubtedly the least violent as it spread in ancient times by convincing
arguments and not by force. It is not a belief system that demands blind
acceptance of dogmas and the suspension of one’s intelligence. On the contrary,
Hinduism encourages using one’s intelligence to the hilt. It is an enquiry into
truth based on a refined character and intellect. It comprises a huge body of
ancient literature, not only regarding dharma and philosophy, but also
regarding music, architecture, dance, science, astronomy, economics, politics,
etc. If Germany or any other Western country had this kind of literary
treasure, it would be so proud and highlight its greatness on every occasion.
When I discovered the Upanishads, for example, I was stunned. Here was
expressed in clear terms what I intuitively had felt to be true, but could not
have expressed clearly. Brahman is not partial; it is the invisible,
indivisible essence in everything. Everyone gets again and again a chance to
discover the ultimate truth and is free to choose his way back to it. Helpful
hints are given but not imposed.
In my early days in India I thought every
Indian knew and valued his tradition. Slowly I realized I was wrong. The
British colonial masters had been successful in not only weaning away many of
the elite from their ancient tradition but even making them despise it. It
helped that the British-educated class could no longer read the original
Sanskrit texts and believed what the British told them. This lack of knowledge
and the brainwashing by the British education may be the reason why many
so-called “modern” Indians are against anything Hindu. They don’t realize the
difference between Western religions that have to be believed (or at least
professed) blindly, and which discourage, if not forbid, their adherents to
think on their own, and the multi-layered Hindu Dharma which gives freedom and
encourages using one’s intelligence.
Many of the Indian educated class do not
realize that those who dream of imposing Christianity or Islam on this vast
country will applaud them for denigrating Hindu Dharma, because this creates a
vacuum where Western ideas can easier gain a foothold. At the same time, many
Westerners, including staunch Christians, know the value of Hindu culture and
surreptitiously appropriate insights from the vast Indian knowledge system,
drop the original Hindu source and present it either as their own or make it
look as if these insights had already been known in the West. As the West
appropriates valuable and exclusive Hindu assets, what it leaves behind is
deemed inferior. Unwittingly, these Indians are helping what Rajiv Malhotra of
Infinity Foundation calls the digestion of Dharma civilization into Western
universalism. That which is being digested, a deer for example, in this case
Hindu Dharma, disappears whereas the digester (a tiger) becomes stronger.
If only missionaries denigrated Hindu Dharma,
it would not be so bad, as they clearly have an agenda which discerning Indians
would detect. But sadly, Indians with Hindu names assist them because they
wrongly believe Hinduism is inferior to Western religions. They belittle
everything Hindu instead of getting thorough knowledge. As a rule, they know
little about their tradition except what the British have told them, i.e., that
the major features are the caste system and idol worship. They don’t realize
that India would gain, not lose, if it solidly backed its profound and
all-inclusive Hindu tradition. The Dalai Lama said some time ago that, as a
youth in Lhasa, he had been deeply impressed by the richness of Indian thought.
“India has great potential to help the world,” he added. When will the
Westernized Indian elite realize it?
MARIA WIRTH, 63,
a freelance writer, has lived in India for the past 33 years. https://www.hinduismtoday.com
III. Give Stateless Indians Their Due
V Suryanarayan
The twelfth edition of the Pravasi Bharatiya
Divas (PBD) was held in New Delhi on January 7-9. Representatives from diverse
overseas Indian communities spread worldwide assembled in the national capital
where they interacted with one another and with the government. Prime minister
Manmohan Singh, minister for Overseas Indian Affairs (MOIA) Vayalar Ravi,
cabinet ministers and chief ministers from various states exhorted them to
avail of investment opportunities and be valuable partners in Bharat’s economic
development. The festival was capped with gala dinners and cultural
performances by renowned artistes.
But one section of the overseas Bharatiyas was
conspicuous by its absence. They were the stateless people of Bharatiya origin.
Most of them are descendants of the labourers who migrated to different parts
of the British Empire under the protective umbrella of the imperialists. They
provided the labour for the development of plantations, construction of roads
and ports and other activities which laid the foundation of the British Empire.
The sufferings undergone by the Bharatiya “coolies” under British Raj are
innumerable. For example, the verdant carpet of green in the central parts of
Sri Lanka, which has made it a veritable “island paradise”, was due to the
sweat and toil of Bharatiya Tamil workers. C V Velupillai, the Indian Tamil
poet, has described the workers’ lives as follows: “Here is but a row of tin
roofed lines, the very warehouse where serfdom thrives, with a scant space of
ten by twelve, there is the hearth, home drenched in soot and smoke, to eat and
sleep, to incubate and breed, to meet the master’s greed”.
As time went on the Bharatiya immigrants
became permanent settlers and citizens, and through sheer hard work and
perseverance moved up in life. Their descendants have made a niche for
themselves in their chosen professions. They include Nobel laureate V S
Naipaul, Shridath Ramphal, Anerood Jugnauth, Shivnarine Chanderpaul and Muttiah
Muralitharan. As former prime minister Vajpayee put it, “Few people who entered
foreign lands can claim such a testimony.” But unfortunately, sections of them
still remain stateless.
The estimated number of members of the
Bharatiya diaspora, according to the Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs
(MOIA), is approximately 25 million. It would be simplistic and naïve to assume
that the problems these people face and what the future holds for them are
identical. Their problems are intertwined with the nature of their migration,
their social and economic status, their educational attainments, the numerical
size of the community and the majority-minority syndrome in the countries they
have settled in.
In terms of legal status, the Bharatiya
diaspora can be divided into four groups. Firstly, people of Bharatiya origin who have taken citizenship
of the countries in which they have settled. Secondly, Bharatiya citizens, who
have gone abroad for work and retain their Bharatiya passports. They are
non-resident Bharatiyas. Thirdly, Overseas Indian citizens (OIC). The scheme was
introduced in response to the demand for “dual citizenship” from developed
countries. The scheme was launched in the PBD in Hyderabad in 2006. Under this
scheme, persons of Bharatiya origin who were citizens of Bharat on January 26,
1950, or thereafter and have acquired citizenship of foreign countries can
apply for OIC. The OIC does not confer any political rights in Bharat. People
living in Pakistan and Bangladesh are not entitled for OIC. Latest statistics
of OICs are not available. But according to the MOIA, as on May 31, 2013, 13.25
lakh OIC registration booklets and visa stickers have been issued.
The fourth category is the stateless persons
of Bharatiya origin. They have not been granted citizenship of the countries
they live in nor have they taken Bharatiya citizenship. Most of them, for
example, in Myanmar and in Malaysia, are second- or third-generation settlers
and by any yardstick should have been granted citizenship. The host
governments, to say the least, are callous and adopt a discriminatory policy
towards them. What’s worse, the government of Bharat seems to be adopting a
hands-off policy towards them.
According to the Singhvi Committee Report on
the Bharatiya Diaspora, the maximum number of stateless persons reside in
Myanmar (400,000), followed by Kuwait (2,95,000), Malaysia (50,000, Hindu
Rights Action Force maintains this is an underestimated figure), Italy (71,500)
Jamaica (61,500) and lower numbers in Japan, Jordan, Kenya, Lebanon, Libya and
the Philippines.
It should be pointed out that the problem of
the stateless people vitiated Bharat-Sri Lanka relations in the years soon
after independence. The two governments later maintained that the
Sirimavo-Shastri Pact of 1964 and Sirimavo–Indira Gandhi Pact of 1974 would
solve the problem once and for all. But when the agreements expired in October
1981, it was realised that the problem of statelessness still continued. It is
to the credit of Tamil leader Thondaman that he was able to pressurise
recalcitrant Sinhalese leaders to grant citizenship to the stateless people of
Bharatiya origin in 1988. However, the problem of Bharatiya passport-holders
and their natural increase, yet to be repatriated to Bharat, continued. At last
they were also granted Sri Lankan citizenship by prime minister Ranil
Wikramasinghe.
The stateless people of Bharatiya origin in
Myanmar deserve special mention. Most of them are rice cultivators and continue
to reside there under the work permit system. They were retained by the Burmese
government because it was keen to expand rice production, one of the mainstays
of Burmese economy. When former Bharatiya ambassador T P Sreenivasan visited
them a few years ago he found they were “totally impoverished”. Ironically,
they did not even have rice to eat, as the procurement authorities “lifted
their produce wholly”. They had to eat low-quality rice which the state did not
want to procure for export. What were more saddening, efforts made by
Sreenivasan to make South Block take interest in the subject turned out to be a
futile exercise. Has the position of these people improved during the last few years? South Block should issue
a clarification.
Let us hope the PBD in future devotes some
time at least to analyse the problems faced by stateless people of Bharatiya
origin. It will be a welcome step if a committee of experts is appointed to
analyse the problem in depth and make recommendations for a solution.
Simultaneously, New Delhi should impress upon the host governments the
necessity to confer citizenship on stateless people of Barratiya origin without
any delay.
(Prof V Suryanarayan is former
senior professor, the Centre for South and Southeast Asian Studies, University
of Madras. The New Indian Express, Feb 10, 2014)
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