Why we should watch Dangal!

At the very start let me make three submissions.

I am not a movie buff at all.

I seriously think fellow Right Wingers need to be choosy about picking their fights.

And Aamir Khan rightly got slammed for cornering Modi government through “Rising Intolerance” comments.

I am not a Movie buff and yet I want to watch Dangal - because I am a sports buff!

We all know that Dangal is the story of a Commonwealth Gold Medal winner girl named Geeta Phogat.  That brings us to the contentious topic of discussion with fellow RW folks on choosing our fights.

Let me explain why it’s important that we do not go behind anybody and everybody who is overtly anti-Modi or anti-Hindu.

Let me for sake of comparison bring in example of another recent movie, ‘Bajirao Mastani’ into the discussion.

 Just like Dangal this was another movie which divided RW. In the end the movie was a mega success simply because of the grand portrayal of an all-conquering Hindu Warrior – Bajirao Peshwa. Well throughout the movie, without worrying about provoking Muslims, the Hindu symbolism was dished out with gay abandon. A Brahmin warrior, sporting Chandan Tilak and Pagri, is shown winning war after war and conquering parts of the India mostly belonging to Muslim rulers. And more...Bajirao is shown making disparaging remarks against Mughals - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_zI5j0STDsg . In another scene a Hyena bearded Nizam is made to agree to his demands by Bajirao by threatening complete annihilation https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GgSrf0pOpCw

So why did Bollywood, used to make heroes out of Muslim invaders switch strategy? And out of so many Hindu Kings who fought Muslim rulers why Sanjay Leela Bhansali chose Bajirao? Thereby hangs a tale.

The sole reason behind making a movie on Bajirao was not his bravery or war tactics but a fact that he fell in love with a Muslim dancer named Mastani! It's a fact that Bajirao‘s Live-In with Mastani had serious repercussions on his private and public life. His family never accepted Mastani as one of their own and was made to stay outside Pune limits. Bajirao‘s mother didn’t take this transgression lightly and never made any effort to hide her unhappiness about it. Also this Live-In created a permanent chasm between Bajirao and his advisors. Eventually he was a man with declining aura and diminished authority. Just like present times, even then Hindu-Muslim issue had successfully divided Hindu society.

Bingo…Bollywood had found its Secular King right in 17^th century. 200 years before Nehru made Secularism the fulcrum of Indian politics.

Bhansali wanted to project Bajirao as Secular leader, ostracized by his own Brahmin family for trying to win respect and acceptability for a Muslim dancer, who he loved.

What actually happened?

Instead Bajirao become a Hindu icon. A Hindu King, who expanded Maratha kingdom at the cost of brutal Muslim rulers. The image that Muslims were always braver than Hindus took a serious dent. And the Secularism angle was completely lost! And though it started as an exercise to project Secularism as an old Indian enduring social value, it ended reinforcing Hinduism-on-the-rise image; and only helped Hindu cause.

Now coming back to Dangal…And choosing fights! Let me say it again. Aamir Khan rightly got what he deserved for “Intolerance“ comment! And should be pilloried for it, whenever there’s an opportunity.  However, not watching Dangal is not the way to go. By doing that we may or may not punish Aamir Khan but surely will do injustice to Geeta and her younger sister Babita Phogat, and even bigger injustice to their father Mahavir Singh. He, against all odds, created two women champion wrestlers from an ultra-orthodox household and an unknown small Haryana village named Balali. 

I am sure you agree, we need more sport persons like Geeta and Babita Phogat. And there is no more powerful medium than Bollywood to highlight their glory. And no better movie maker than Aamir Khan to do the job!

I believe RW need to divert its attention to something which is really dangerous for the country. Shahrukh Khan making ‘Raees’ on life of dreaded Muslim gangster Abdul Latif and green-washing his sins with Islamic color (Who was Latif http://www.opindia.com/2016/12/the-story-of-abdul-latif-on-whose-life-srks-upcoming-movie-raees-is-based/ ) should worry us more. And we must concentrate on making sure Raees bombs at the box office.

Let us go all out and make sure not even one Hindu spends money on watching ‘Raees’.

Going after ‘Dangal’ will unnecessarily tire us and make battle weary.

Another point. Aamir Khan is a shrewd operator. He has done well to choose World Championship winner Geeta Phogat as Hero of Dangal. It’s going to be super-duper hit – it has already raked in 200 Cr over 7 days. 

We cannot stop it. No point being emotional and taking on an adversary who’s looking unbeatable for now.

Let us wait for a more opportune time.  Just as ‘Bajirao-Mastani’ made us proud, revived the memory of forgotten brave Hindu warrior Bajirao Peshwa, ‘Dangal’ will ensure Phogat sisters and their father is taken to every Indian home. And will inspire many more to excel in Sports in this country starved for Sports Heroes. 

Why this Kolavery Cauvery Di?

We Vidarbha-wasi must be staunchest followers of Mahatma Gandhi! (Of course a little gratitude shown here for the Ashram by Bapu at Pavnar, Wardha).Just like Bapu protested against British by keeping them in power, we Vidarbha-wasi (Vids) kept on agitating silently  by electing Congress for elections after elections. Though that also meant few 100 thousands of our farmers had to take their lives.
We Vids, never ever even squeaked when we found that after spending thousands of crores of rupees there's nothing in Ghosikhurd Dam, which can stop suicides! Instead the water has turned into big time mullah for contractors and quietly flown into western Maharashtra. And now a certain Mr Pawar will have to ease himself into the dam(n) to fill it up.We were again protesting (of course silently) like Bapu when power surplus Vidarbha was milked to run Sugar factories in farthest of corners of my beloved Maharashtra.
And hence This Language Jingoism by fellow brothers and sisters (can't afford to be branded as misogynist) down south and fight over trivial resource such as Cauvery water baffles me! Why are Dravidian folks fighting amongst each others? Who will fight the Aryans from North? Don't we need to be together to fight brutal imposition of Hindi on Dravidian land?
And talking of love for language of birth makes no sense to me.And are you aware how we Vids fought for our mother tongue? We simply stopped speaking in Marathi! So that our Hindi speaking brethren can feel at home!

बिहार में बहार है

बिहार मे बहार हॆ..
नितिसवा चाराचोर चे लाचार हॆ!
लोकसत्ता पे रोज हो रहा प्रहार हॆ
बिहार मे बहार हॆ!

अपहरण,रन्गदारि,लुटपाट,बलात्कार..
आपके लिये होन्गे अपराध ये
यहां तानाबाना हॆ,रोज का व्यवहार हॆ
बिहार मे बहार हॆ!

Jungle Book गर आपको हॆ पसंद
फिर Jungle Raj से नफरत क्यों?
शहाबुद्दीन से हमको बडा प्यार हॆ
बिहार मे बहार हॆ!

आप क्या जानो Prohibition का नशा?
आप क्या जानो तेजस्वी कि अय्याशिया..
चोरी कि शराब का कुछ ओर हि खुमार हॆ
बिहार मे बहार हॆ!

The Nationalism Debate! How Sonia plans to reverse the slide...

“Bhagat Singh dared the British Raj to send the executioners. BJP-RSS ideologue Savarkar begged for his own release” On 23rd March 2016 Official Congress party handle twitted this with ‘Traitor’ written across Veer Savarkar’s snap
https://twitter.com/INCIndia/status/712563913947160576?s=09
The grotesque language, the awful terminology for much revered Veer Savarkar was shocking! It created quite a stir online and must have rubbed millions of Indians the wrong way.

The first reactions were of disbelief. Is this some kind of gaffe? Or was it tweeted by a fake handle? But as I turned out it was an official Congress party reaction. Why was it issued? Why eulogize one freedom fighter and denigrate another one? Who’s equally revered. Insulting one of the  of the tallest freedom fighters who was even honored by Indira Gandhi herself (Issued a stamp in name of Veer Savarkar in 1970) seemed a serious misjudgment.  And a clarification was expected. But nothing of that sort happened. No clarification was issued.

On deeper inspection one would understand, it is part of Sonia’s survival strategy. With assembly elections in Assam, West Bengal and Punjab round the corner, Congress cannot allow the voting pattern status quo to exist.

Right from 2013 Assembly elections, till Bihar, Congress kept on losing ground. Either it was BJP or Regional players which emerged winners! If this continues unabated, Congress now runs a risk of being reduced to a fringe player. What has changed on the ground in since 2009? Is the grand old party, out of sync? Has the Gandhi Dynasty lost touch? Sonia Gandhi and her coterie had been into hard introspection for some time now! And through some unconventional thinking, Congress, in Delhi and Bihar elections, amply displayed that it can stop BJP if not with elections for itself. But supporting Kejriwal unofficially or tying up with Nitish did not require any ideological re-jig as such.

Here, on eve of Bengal and Assam what Congress was trying to was completely different. For the record, to stop Mamata it has decided to have a truck with Communists in Bengal. (Pl Refer this article by Swapan Dasgupta http://tinyurl.com/jhzp95w) Which also means, for now, Congress has decided to allow Yechury and company to set the narrative. Rahul Gandhi traveling to Pune to offer support to FTII students was a step in that direction. He standing shoulder to shoulder with JNU student leader Kanhaiya Kumar, after it was confirmed that anti India slogans were raised in his presence was another step. And by disparaging Veer Savarkar, Sonia has decided to take the punt!

To understand how Congress has evolved over decades let us look back. “Bhaiyya,Kangress Hinduoka party hai!!”. (Congress is a party of Hindus) In Hindi heartland till recently one can often hear this kind of boastful blabber emanating from a motley crowd at a small tea stall, or at an Up-market Restaurant or even at a Marriage gathering. More often than not, the person who’s declaring this will be a Local Congress Leader!

Congress’ ability to Run with the hare and Hunt with the hounds was unbeatable. Its ability to keep National Minority community leaders (While keeping the Muslim community underdeveloped) along with Local Hindu leaders happy is unparalleled. Its ability to speak in conflicting voices and lure voters has been one of the most vital cogs in electoral machinery.

But with middle class growing in numbers, slowly things changed. BJP was gaining vote share steadily. In 1999, for first time it was able to run a coalition government successfully, for full term. Notwithstanding the good governance record of Atal Bihari’s government and against run of the play Sonia Gandhi was able to regain power in 2004.But, then again in 2014, BJP riding on Modi’s aggressive Hindu Nationalist appeal intertwined with Business friendly image came back with a thumping majority. And did happen because a sizable Dalit vote and some Muslim vote (8%) trusted Modi. And all this resulted in Congress being reduced to historic low of 44 seats. It didn’t stop at that. BJP won Haryana, Maharashtra, Jharkhand, and formed government in alliance with PDP in Jammu and Kashmir.

Remarkably Sonia was able to stop Modi’s victory march in Delhi and Bihar. By doing the unthinkable! By allowing regional players, Kejriwal and Nitish to take the lead and creating a common secular front to take on Modi. In a way that was 2004 redux. In 2004, after defeating Vajpayee, when whole Congress was at her feet, requesting to take over the reins she surprised everybody and appointed Manmohan Singh the PM. This kind of radical thinking makes Sonia a special adversary.

True to his mandate Narendra Modi continues to redefine Nationalism and Cultural ethos of this country. Which of course means, waging an Ideological war against Congress’ idea of India. The idea, that you can shout “Bharat ki barbaadi tak jung rahegi” and you will be mollycoddled. The idea, that you can live off subsidies provided by Tax Payers and yet assault values and icons dear to him. By arresting Kanahaiya and Umar Khalid, government made sure every political party has to take position on JNU episode specifically and on Nationalism largely.

Yechury reacted by saying these students were not anti-nationals and this is fascist regime. But it did throw Congress into confusion and caused lot of embarrassment.  (http://tinyurl.com/hkck6nr ) And obviously owing to its history it could not reject the ‘Bharat mata ki Jai’ slogan but it made sure that it is used as an opportunity to assuage Muslim vote bank. Take a look at some of the utterances by its leaders.

Shashi Tharoor “We can’t force anyone to say Bharat Mata ki jay”
Manish Tewari “Netaji said Jai Hind, Bhagat Singh said Inqlab Zindabad and Hindustan Zindabad. BJP says except Bharat Mata ki Jai everything else Anti-National”
Mani Shankar Aiyar “So if a thief says Bharat Mata ki Jay, he becomes a saint?”
Minority cell chairman Khurshid Ahmed Saiyed “The Congress has been saying Jai Hind from 1925; it was the favourite slogan of Subas Chandra Bose but Bharat Mata Ki Jai is the slogan of the RSS. We don’t like the way they (RSS) are trying to use it against us,”

Look at these Congress utterances in unison with Fatwa issued by Darool Uloom Deoband against the slogan and statements by AIMIM leaders (listed below) and a pattern emerges.

Assauddin Owaisi “I won’t say Bharat Mata ki jay even if a knife is put to my throat”

Waris Pathan “I will not chant Bharat Mata ki jay”

Sonia feels that by seconding AIMIM on this issue it can win back Muslim vote. As Owaisi’s party has a minimal presence. By slighting “Bharat mata ki Jay” Congress is cunningly exploiting Muslim discomfort for it. And hopes to convert in votes in Assam and Bengal, where Muslim population is a sizable 31 and 26%.

But why attack Savarkar? Well simply because he pioneered the concept modern Hindutva! And he along with many Hindu Right ideologues he was a strong subscriber to the idea of Nation as a Mother. However this visionary had some rather strong views on minority’s love for India, which may be embarrassing to the ruling party. By linking ‘Bharat mata ki Jai’ to Savarkar, Sonia will corner Modi. BJP spoke persons will be asked uncomfortable questions by Secular media. Every attempt will be made to force BJP to disown Savarkar. Failing which, every opportunity will be used to paint BJP as narrow minded Hindu, Hindi, Hindustani party.

Watch out Dangerous curve ahead!

Choice for Indian Voters

Choice for Indian Voters: Govt run from Shadows or a truly democratic set-up
http://www.dnaindia.com/analysis/standpoint-choice-for-indian-voters-government-run-from-shadows-or-a-truly-democratic-setup-1978283