Vande Mataram or Afzal Guru? Venkaiah Naidu asks Indians

Agencies
December 8, 2017

New Delhi , Dec 8: "If not your mother, who would you salute, Afzal Guru," Vice President Venkaiah Naidu today asked, apparently questioning why there were objections to saying 'Vande Mataram', which meant salute to the motherland.

"Vande Mataram mane maa tujhe salam. Kya samasya hai? Agar maa ko salam nahi karenge to kya Afzal Guru ko salam karenge? (Vande Mataram means salute to mother. What is problem with it, if you don't salute your mother, who would you salute, Afzal Guru)," he asked.

Naidu was speaking at an event to release a book on former VHP chief late Ashok Singhal.

Vande Mataram means praising the mother, he further said while referring to the people who are seeking to define nationalism.

He said when someone says 'Bharat Mata ki jai' it is not only about some goddess in a photo.

"It is about all 125 crore people living in this country irrespective of their caste, colour, creed and religion. They all are Indians," Naidu said.

Mentioning the Supreme Court's 1995 verdict on Hindutva which says it is not a religion but a way of life, he said, "Hinduism is not a narrow concept, it is a broader cultural connotation of India."

Hinduism is the culture and tradition of India which has been passed on from various generations. There could be different ways of worship, but there is only one way of life that in Hinduism, he added.

Naidu attributed the non-violent nature of Indians to Hinduism saying "every Tom, Dick and Harry attacked India, ruled it, ruined and looted it, but India never attacked any country because of its culture."

Our culture teaches us Vasudev Kutumbkam, that means the world is one family, he said.

Speaking about Singhal, Naidu said he was one of the finest proponents of Hinduism and sacrificed 75 years of his life for the benefit of future generations.

Despite being a student of science and engineering, he chose to spend time on banks of Ganges and reflected on religion, society and culture, he said.

During freedom struggle, Singhal wanted Muslims to join in large number in non-cooperation movement, he claimed.

He was an exemplary individual who selflessly dedicated himself as a pracharak and served society for over six decades, Naidu added.

Speaking at the same event, RSS general secretary Suresh Bhaiyyaji Joshi said Singhal worked hard to realise the dream of building Ram Temple in Ayodhya.

"Now he might have gone but we should not forget his goal," he said.

Comments

FairMan
 - 
Friday, 8 Dec 2017

Who is he (Venkaiah Naidu); asking to sing,  He is a Chela of RSS - he is not acceptable to Vice President of India. 

What's the problem for these basterds if any one not sang what this chelas ordered.

Time is not faar the public get second Independece of secularism.

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Agencies
February 25,2020

New Delhi, Feb 25: Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Tuesday called a meeting to discuss the prevailing situation in the national capital after violence in Northeast Delhi over the amended citizenship law left four people dead.

Delhi's Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and representatives of different political parties were invited for the meeting.

Follow live updates of clashes among CAA protesters in Delhi here

The home minister has convened a meeting to discuss the current situation in Delhi, a Home Ministry official said.

The move came after the home minister reviewed the law and order situation in the national capital on Monday night as violence rocked Northeast Delhi.

Frenzied protesters torched houses, shops, vehicles and a petrol pump, besides hurling stones.

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Agencies
January 11,2020

New Delhi, Jan 11: The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear the curative petition of two death row convicts in 2012 Nirbhaya gang-rape case on January 14.

A five-judge Bench of Justices N V Ramana, Arun Mishra, R F Nariman, R Banumathi and Ashok Bhushan will hear the petition filed by Vinay Sharma and Mukesh.

The duo had moved a curative petition in the top court after a Delhi court issued a death warrant in their name and announced January 22 as the date of their execution.

Besides them, two other convicts named Pawan and Akshay are also slated to be executed on the same day at 7 am in Delhi's Tihar Jail premises.

They were convicted and sentenced to death for raping a 23-year-old woman on a moving bus in the national capital on the night of December 16, 2012.

The victim, who was later given the name Nirbhaya, died at a hospital in Singapore where she had been airlifted for medical treatment.

A curative petition is the last judicial resort available for redressal of grievances. It is decided by the judges in-chamber.

If it is rejected, they are legally bound to move a mercy petition. It is filed before the President who has the power to commute it to life imprisonment.

The court after issuing a black warrant in their name gave them two weeks' time to file both the curative and mercy petition.

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Agencies
February 23,2020

New Delhi, Feb 23: Hailing the role of first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru in shaping India a modern nation state, former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Saturday hit out at the Narendra Modi-led Central government, saying "nationalism" and the slogan of 'Bharat Mata Ki Jai' are being misused to construct a militant and purely emotional idea of India.

Speaking at the launch of a book on Jawaharlal Nehru's works and speeches, Singh said: "I am extremely happy that this book makes an effort to revisit Pandit Nehru. He had led this country in its volatile, formative days when we adopted democratic way of life, accommodating divergent social and political views."

The former Prime Minister said that Nehru, who was very proud of Indian heritage, "assimilated it", and harmonised them into the needs of a "new modern" India.

"A great visionary, Nehruji laid the foundation for shaping India as a modern nation state," he said.

Highlighting the works of the first Prime Minister, Singh said: "If India is recognized in the comity of nations as a vibrant democracy and, if it is considered as one of the important world powers, it was Nehru, who should be recognised as its main architect."

He said Nehru was not only a statesman of high international standing, but a great historian and literary figure too.

"With an inimitable style, and a multi-linguist, Nehru laid the foundation of the universities, academies and cultural institutions of Modern India. But for Nehru's leadership, Independent India would not have become what it is today," he said.

Taking an apparent dig at the BJP government, he said: "But unfortunately, a section of people who either do not have the patience to read history or would like to be deliberately guided by their prejudices, try their best to picture Nehru in a false light.

"But I am sure, history has a capacity to reject fake and false insinuations and put everything in proper perspective," he said.

He said the book "Who is Bharat Mata" is such an attempt to set the narrative in the right direction.

Singh said that selecting appropriate pieces from Nehruji's works, the book justifies its title "Who is Bharat Mata?"

"As this book contains a timely collection of writings by and on Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru- the leader, who shaped India and the Icon whose legacy is the subject of intense and often angry reaction today.

The book also comprises reminiscences and assessments of Nehru by some of his contemporaries and near contemporaries-among them, including Mahatma Gandhi, Bhagat Singh, Sardar Patel, Maulana Azad, Aruna Asaf Ali, Sheikh Abdullah, Ramdhari Singh Dinkar, Ali Sardar Jafri, Baldev Singh, Martin Luther King Jr, Richard Attenborough, Lee Kuan Yew and Atal Bihari Vajpayee.

"It is a book of particular relevance at a time when nationalism and the slogan of ‘Bharat Mata Ki Jai' are being misused to construct a militant and purely emotional idea of India that excludes millions of residents and citizens," Singh said attacking the BJP government.

The two time Prime Minister further said that in the pages of the carefully complied anthology-which also carries illuminating introductions by the authors Nehru emerges as a "remarkable man of ideas and action", who had an instinctive understanding of India's civilisational spirit and as a visionary with clear commitment to the promotion of scientific temper, who despite the compulsions of politics, remained a true democrat.

"His legacy continues to be of immense significance-perhaps more today than at any other time in our history," he said.

He also warned that "Nehru makes a very significant and time relevant remark on the dangers of leaderships falling into a trap and getting removed far away from the common people whom they are supposed to serve".

"In an atmosphere, when emotions are deliberately get provoked and the gullible are misled by false propaganda, misusing communication technology, this book makes a refreshing break through," Singh added.

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