TIME - Exclusive Interviews with Narendra Modi: ‘We Are Natural Allies’

Two Interviews with Modi on TIME | www.TheGhouseDiary.com 

I am pleased to share the following two interviews of Prime Minister Narendra Modi with my own comments. 

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is one of the most difficult persons to understand, I connect with him, and I could have written this interview in his behalf, he speaks the right words in building  a cohesive India.  He has all the ingredients to make a great leader of India. Thanks to the great visionary Pandit Jawahar Lal Nehru to preserve and pass on a great stable  secular pluralistic democracy to us while other nations are stumbling. Now Modi can take this nation further.

 There is however a major disconnect between his words and actions, and his eerie silence towards negative forces that are tearing the cohesive fabric of India do not match his words. He had it right when he said, focus on prosperity and not religion, but he has not done anything to stop his team from focusing on religion. 

His dream, and the dream of every Indian to see a successful India will be short circuited, if the bus he is riding on has a few tires that have low air pressure causing the whole bus (nation) to slow down and reduce the chances of a safe journey, he has got to take the action.  He cannot ask those tires (Dalits, Muslims, Christians) to fill up themselves to be on par with the other tires of the bus, unless all the passengers come together to uplift the ones in ditches the journey will not be safe, secure and assured.  

If Modi can work on creating an India where no Indian is apprehensive of the fellow Indian, then he will become the second greatest leader in shaping India and I am with him, all I ask of him is to speak up to bring fruition to his own words.

Modi has the unprecedented power; all he has to do is speak up. Tell the Bhagwatis, Sadhvis and the others to shut up or take a hike, it will do it. But will he do it? I hope he does and realize his own dream and the dreams of a 1.27 Billion Indians.

He has to follow it up with the action to implement - that every Indian will have equal access to justice, education, employment, loans, housing, work, health care and retirement, and that every Indian is free to breath, eat, drink, wear and believe whatever the hell he or she wants to. 

Interviews at: http://mikeghouseforindia.blogspot.com/2015/05/time-exclusive-interviews-with-narendra.html


Mike Ghouse prays for Modi to bring his words and actions together. Mike Ghouse is a public speaker, thinker, writer and a commentator on Pluralism, Islam, India, Israel-Palestine, Politicsand other issues of the day. He is a human rights activist, and his book standing up for others will be out soon | He is producing a full feature film " Sacred"  and a documentary "Americans together" .  He is a frequent guest commentator on Fox News and syndicated Talk Radio shows and a writer at major news papers including Dallas Morning News and Huffington Post. All about him is listed in 63 links at www.MikeGhouse.net and his writings are at www.TheGhousediary.com - Mike is committed to building cohesive societies and offers pluralistic solutions on issues of the day.

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Godse; a new God is in the making in India

One of the most beautiful aspects of Hinduism is that it sees God in everything.  The creator and created are not two different things, but one and the same, as a result "respecting the otherness of others" becomes a way of life.  Indeed, that is how we at the Foundation for Pluralism have defined Pluralism - i.e., respecting the otherness of others for genuine co-existence.  God is about love and not hate. The Hindu greeting Namaste invokes the God in each other to come together to talk and act goodness.

However, when it comes to abuse and misuse, Hinduism is no exception, it is a business for the self appointed guardians of the religion. They are obviously looking for gains to be had and have hijacked the pristine Hindu faith, just as the self appointed guardians of other religions have done it.  They have mangled up the pristine religion whose purpose was to bring peace within an individual and with what surrounds him/her; people and the universe.


Now "Hindu Mahasabha"  a Hindu group within the family of political Hinduism called Sangh Parivar has decided to install the statues of the newly created God, Godse in temples across India. Godse is the killer of Mahatma Gandhi. Is that going too far? Let me be clear; its political Hinduism and it does not represent Hindus of the world. 

It is time for Moderate Hindus to speak up**(note below).

A Bollywood film called "Oh My God" - depicts a scene towards the end, where the men in God-Business were installing a statue of the hero as the new God of the helpless, assuming he was dead in the hospital. But the hero wakes up and runs to where they were having the installation ceremony and destroys the own God Statue of him, pulling the masks off the men who were going to mint money with the newly created God, ready to do business. A similar message was given in the film "PK" where people can be easily misled and duped.

Obviously, every religion has a majority that understands the beauty of its  faith, and goes about doing good to fellow beings and mind their own faith and family. However, there is a small group within each faith that is intolerant and hell bent on annihilating the other. They don't believe in dialogue, and instead resort to the primal instincts of animals, who settle their disputes by locking in their horns, tearing up the other with their fangs or bloodying the opponent with their paws.

We desperately need a Swami Vivekananda's avatar to teach the ideals of Vasudhaiva Kutumbukum; meaning the whole world in one family.  Ironically, we also need a Jesus to teach these stray men what love means, what love they neighbor means. 

Thank God, except the Naxalites in India,  the other minorities like Dalits, Muslims and Christians have not gone haywire and resorted to extremism despite the provocations and pressures on them to obey.  

I am not sure, if the majority of Hindus are ready for a New God, a God who killed Mahatma Gandhi. Godse is God to them because he saved the nation by killing Gandhi who was inclusive of Muslims, Dalits, Christians and others.

Hindu Mahasabha did not come into being to teach and preserve the values of Hinduism, but was founded to hate the other, particularly Christians and Muslims.  If they learn to love fellow humans including Christians and Muslims, then the organization will cease, as it will have no purpose to exist anymore. 

I have always stood up for Hinduism against misunderstandings about it and will continue to do that, as I have done with all other faiths including Paganism and Atheism,  that is the right thing to do. I strongly believe in the idea of Vasudhaiva Kutumbukum expressed in Dharmic faiths, and the idea of the whole world is one big family born from the same couple taught in the Abrahamic faiths.  All of us need to genuinely believe and practice it.  http://standingupforothers.blogspot.com/2012/04/standing-with-hindus.html 

The way forward is to respect the otherness of others, accept the God given uniqueness of each one of the inhabitants of the land. Let every one eat, drink, wear, worship or believe whatever the hell they want to believe in the pursuit of life, liberty and happiness. If we can do that, then conflicts fade and solutions emerge.

Mike Ghouse is committed to a cohesive India, where all Indians can live without the fear of the others and offers pluralistic solutions on issues of the day.

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Hindu Mahasabha to install Godse statue in temples

Updated: Jan 29, 2015 07:24 PM 

http://m.thehindu.com/news/national/hindu-mahasabha-to-install-godse-statue-in-temple-premises-across-india/article6835093.ece/?secid=2780

Arvind Kejriwal; redefining Government of the people for the people by the people.

ARIVIND KEJRIWAL REDEFINING ABRAHAM LINCOLN'S VISION OF GOVERNMENT
URL- http://theghousediary.blogspot.com/2013/12/arvind-kejriwal-redefining-government.html

Arvind Kejriwal is redefining what Abraham Lincoln meant: Government of the people for the people by the people. There are a very few people out there who care less to be heads of the state, but doing the right thing. 
He has a bold message for Indian National Congress; inclusiveness without pragati will not cut it, and the message to the other extremity Narendra Modi, unnati without inclusiveness is not sustainable either.  

 

The voters of the state of New Delhi have defeated the incumbent Congress party giving them 8 seats in the assembly, gave 33 seats to the Bharatiya Janata Party, 2 short of forming the government and 28 seats to the brand new, less than a year new party. The party head Arvind Kejriwal was asked to form the government with the support from Congress's 8, giving it 36 seats majority in the house.

Kejriwal has refused to form the government, and said, becoming the governing party is not important but ensuring proper governance is the right thing. Instead of grabbing the power, he has done the right thing, asking the voters to decide if he should form the government! He reminds me of Nelson Mandela who walked away from power for another term.Arvind Kejriwal – redefining Government of the people for the people by the people.

He has a bold message for Indian National Congress; inclusiveness without pragati will not cut it, and the message to the other extremity Narendra Modi, unnati without inclusiveness is not sustainable either.   

When there is a lack of leadership, or leaders have no idea how to proceed, Arvind Kejriwal, the leader of the new Aam Aadmi Party has found the way, and he is just doing the right thing, asking the very people who elected him!  Indeed, Mr. Kejriwal is redefining what Government of the people means.

The only worry, I have about the Aam Aadmi Party is – how will they ensure the corrupt people from creeping in to their system?  As long as they are a Delhi based manageable party, they would be fine, but if they go national, do they have the time to place safeguards and checks and balances in place?

It does worry me, in a press conference in December 2001, General Pervaz Musharraf gave me 6-7 minutes in the midst of huge media crowd in Washington DC. My major question to him besides Cricket Diplomacy was – have you got a “what if plan”, should you not be there, do you have institutions built up to carry the democracy forward? His answer was typical Desi – Oh, yes, don’t worry, we have figured it out everything. 

I wish our damned politicians, particularly my fellow Republicans learn the lesson - to reflect the needs to the public rather than what they want. Arivind Kejriwal has redefined and clarified what it means to be Government of the People by the people for the people.

I will ask the same question to Arvind Kejriwal, what if you fell sick or become dear to God in an accident, is your system established to move forward on its own? Do you have enough people deeply oriented with your ideals to carry the mantle? A sustainable government should be based on a system and not individuals.

My recommendation for Kejriwal is to establish the party in Delhi, be a part of the opposition or form the governance if the Delhi voters say yes, but don't expand to other parts of the country yet, as you are likely to fall like all others.

IBN network has bestwoed the Indian of the year award to Arvind Kejriwal, a well-deserved award. Congratulations Mr. Kejriwal! The following  6 minutes video on YouTube is worth watching to understand a genuine democracy – of the people by the people for the people

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pQTZCG48cwo

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Mike Ghouse is a speaker, thinker and a writer on pluralism, politics, peace, Islam, Israel, India, interfaith, and cohesion at work place. He is committed to building a Cohesive America and offers pluralistic solutions on issues of the day at www.TheGhousediary.com. He believes in Standing up for others and a book with the same title is coming up. Mike has a strong presence on national and local TV, Radio and Print Media. He is a frequent guest onSean Hannity show on Fox TV, and a commentator on national radio networks, he contributes weekly to the Texas Faith Column at Dallas Morning News; fortnightly at Huffington post; and several other periodicals across the world. His personal site www.MikeGhouse.net indexes all his work through many links.
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India's unfinished social contract

Indeed, the story is same with most nations. Injustice will not go away, no matter how much we fake it, it builds up and is likely to erupt engulfing everyone into its flames, in the end everyone loses. The long term security of a nation hinges on justice and fairness (Dharma) to every Citizen. 

As Indian Americans, we gripe about our limits in the society, we do shout discrimination, we do scream when so many Indians were denied visas. We hate when a Guru, a student or a politician is denied a visa to the United States.  We have also carried huge discussions on Bobby Jindal and Nikki Haley, believing that because they converted to Christianity they made it… there is resentment.


These issues are not going to go away, they sit with us, not with all of us though, but if someone attacks those attitudes, whoever can speak out for us, we become fans of such person. When I attacked SenatorWilliams and Pastor Jeffress for their ignorant comments about Hindus, I got huge support. Similarly if a Hindu speaks out for Justice to others, he or she will be liked as well.


In the United States, resentment was building up in the 50’s with Rosa Park, Selma, Montgomery and other incidents, the black panthers came in to being, the situation would have exploded had it not been for the civil rights and equal opportunity acts led by Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.  Americans together quickly cured the explosive situation.


Injustice will not go away, no matter how much we fake it, it is likely to erupt, and engulf everyone into its flames, at the end, everyone loses. The long term security of a nation hinges on justice and fairness (dharma) to every Citizen. Indeed Satyameva Jayate.

As Indians, we have to consciously bring closure to many of the unfinished issues, our language has to be inclusive, whatever affects one Indian, should be felt by all, if not we are deficit in our humanity.

I am glad; we are a pluralistic democracy rather than an autocratic, monarchic or dictatorial system where critical issues take time to resolve through consensus, rather than imposition.  Because of the nature of our governance, we have piled up unresolved conflicts that will take time to heal. Among them are; Sikh Genocide, Babri Masjid-Ram JanamBhoomi, Kashmiri Pundits, Gujarat Genocide, misogyny,  and discrimination against the minorities as well as the majorities in schools and jobs. There are other issues, but my focus is social issues.
 

HISTORIC INDIA

The old wounds like the Somnath destruction, indiscriminate killing of Hindus have remained on the psyche of Hindu Indians. It was expressed during Gujarat, to show Muslims their place and to show Sikhs their place during the Sikh Genocide of 1984. We have allowed resentment to flourish towards each other, and the politicians have used us suckers very well. Yes, you and I both. We need to face things squarely and find sustainable solutions.


There is a need for a serious national dialogue where Muslim Indians disown those freaky kings who wreaked havoc on fellow Indian Hindus. Muslims need to continuously disown Aurangzeb and Ghazni.  I seriously doubt if there is any Indian today who is a descendent of them, or has inherited their loot. Today’s Muslims are not responsible for what  the kings did, indeed, most kings, whether Hindu, Muslim, Sikh, Budh or otherwise have made their business to annex the next land, rob the rich, steal from the temples and fill their coffers. Hindus on the other hand need freedom from that pain, and they need to realize that Muslims have nothing to do with what those kings did.We need a national declaration from Hindus and Muslims releasing each other from the past and together forge a new future, and constantly guard ourselves from falling into the old pit.


INDEPENDENT INDIA

Our constitution has flaws and we need to seriously make some amendments. The Jains, Sikhs, and Buddhists are categorized as Hindus. Even here on my Radio show in Dallas in 2002, a friend said Jainism was an offshoot of Hinduism and it was immediately objected to, it's happened a few times. We need to learn to recognize the sovereignty of each faith and tradition and honor them for their distinct belief.  If you don’t think, it is a problem, wait until this happens to you.


This is a real story, an American Christian said Salaam Alaikum to a Hindu, or Namaste to a Muslim –most of us smile, as we don’t see that as a problem. However my Hindu friend and the Muslim friend,  were quick to point out the biggest mistake of that’s man's life and spent time teaching them, fortunately neither were denigrating the other. Once I said Salaam to an Egyptian looking guy, he was ferocious and said, I am not a Muslim, no Salaam to me.

You may enjoy the following videos delivered to a gathering of 1200 Christians in Chicago bible Study class that I attended.  I sound like a preacher in it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eo3a8wX6SXQ . A benediction for Obama's inauguration is here and hope you like it as well - http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mike-ghouse/president-obamas-ideal-inaugural-benediction_b_2481579.html#es_share_ended


Most of us Indians meet and greet for a few minutes in a year, and want to keep it that way. Very few of us have a genuine interest in putting off sparks. If you do take the time, you will find what is going on in each Indian, the resentment towards fellow Indian is quietly simmering inside, and It needs to be addressed, not suppressed or do the typical Indian thing, “there is really no problem”.

We need to dig deeper and remove such sparks for the long term good of the nation and the each one of us. Hate towards the other eats us alive, we need Mukti from it.
 
What happened to Sikhs was not an instant reaction, there was some unfinished business brewing among communities that erupted and resulted in the Genocide, same goes with the Muslim Genocide in Gujarat. We cannot brush aside these issues, the sparks were there, we need to dig up and find solutions, if not, this will happen again.

Indian Muslims should not be criticized for Pakistan either, they chose to stick with India, and any accusation should be shameful and condemned by every one of the 1.2 Billion Indians. We all need to jump on those Idiots who point their fingers at fellow Indians who are Muslims.

Just because the Prime Minister is a Sikh, the President may be a woman or a Dalit, the injustices toward Sikhs, Women and Dalits do not stop. People are getting along on the surface, one more event like Indira Gandhi happens, then you can see all that hatred burst up into flames. If we are patriotic Indians, we need to feel the hurt of all Indians and fix the problems.

We should not dump these issues onto the next generation, we are conquering the space, we can conquer our prejudices too, that is the greater Jihad (inner struggle) Lord Krishna and Prophet Muhammad had called for. The nation is moving forward cautiously, but unless we bring closure to the issues, we may not feel the goodness in our hearts. The issues will not go away by burying our heads in the sand.

We need to collectively apologize, forgive and restore justice to the victims of such genocides.

What makes sense is for Hindus to take the lead in bringing Justice to all, Muslims to stand up for Hindus, Jains to stand up for Dalits, and Sikhs to stand up for Christians…. Stand up for others, we can change India. You and I will die and be gone, but it is our duty to quit blaming others and find solutions. At least, let it begin with you and me.

Of course, had it not been for Hindus a whole lot more Sikhs, Muslims, Dalits and Christians would have been massacred out, had it not been for Muslims, a whole lot more Hindus would have been driven out of the valley. Thanks to the good ones among us for standing up for others. 

Right now, the GOI has denied Amnesty Int’l to investigate the atrocities of Sikh Genocides; we need Hindus, Muslims, Jains, Christians and Buddhist Indians to take this forward. We can take on one issue at a time. "Injustice to one is injustice to all" - Martin Luther King, Jr.

We need at least five committed individuals to initiate a committee at the Dallas Peace Center to take this forward comprising Hindu, Muslim, Jain, Christian, Dalit and Buddhist, and of course a Sikh Volunteer as well.  

URL-  http://mikeghouseforindia.blogspot.com/2013/02/indias-unfinished-social-contract.html


HONORING SIKHS - http://911unitydayusa.blogspot.com/2012/09/viii-annual-unityday-update-pictures.html
COMMEMORATING SIKH GENOCIDE - http://holocaustandgenocides.blogspot.com/2013/01/6th-annual-holocaust-and-genocides-sikh_23.html

Mike Ghouse is a former Board Member of Dallas Peace Center with a life time commitment to the center and its work. Please visit DallasPeaceCenter.org for details. 

 ....... Mike Ghouse is a speaker, thinker and a writer on pluralism, politics, peace, Islam, Israel, India, interfaith, and cohesion at work place. He is committed to building a Cohesive America and offers pluralistic solutions on issues of the day at www.TheGhousediary.com. He believes in Standing up for others and has done that throughout his life as an activist. Mike has a presence on national and local TV, Radio and Print Media. He is a frequent guest on Sean Hannity show on Fox TV, and a commentator on national radio networks, he contributes weekly to the Texas Faith Column at Dallas Morning News; fortnightly at Huffington post; and several other periodicals across the world. His personal site www.MikeGhouse.net indexes all his work through many links.

So what if Brenan is a Muslim? Part 2

I agree with you, it does not suit me to use the expletive, and I humbly acknowledge it.

My apologies to you and others who have expressed their dislike or not.

The note was in response to the calls, Sean Hannity announces my website and his text goes out to a million of his followers, many of whom are following me as well as chasing me. I was getting non-stop calls from all over the United States as if I am the Pope of Muslims. Nagging questions like, he (Brenan) is a Muslim in closet, he has connections to God knows, what are you going to do about it.... and did you know he is a Moslem?

My response to that question was the title of the topic, so I captioned the article to make the point. So what if he is? Actually Collin Powell had used the same phrase minus the expletive.

Now, to your other question, perhaps because you don't have the first knowledge of what I do (as a volunteer); Here is the elaboration of the response I wrote to my other Indian friends, with whom I connect fairly well and respect.

" (name) ______,  I was equally mad when a council man in Dallas pointed his finger at the other and said "You  people" to a Jewish man. I was outraged and wrote that in Dallas Morning News in 2005. When Bush did not sign the bill to allow the Wicca (another religious tradition) Veterans in Arlington Cemetery to have their own headstone, I went ballistic. When the state Senator Williams of Kentucky called the Governor names for participating in Bhoomi Puja in E-Town, I was jumped all over him and wrote in Huffington post, when the Pastor from Kansas called Jews, Christ Killers and staged rallies in front of the Holocaust Museum and a few synagogues and Texas Jewish post, I was there with the Jews protesting against the pastor.. . I have worked with the Dept of Justice to include Jain symbol in their symbols of religions, have held the rallies against the Gujarat massacre and held a program about Sikh and Bangladeshi Genocides…

Yes, we have condemned strongly against the plight of Hindu Pundits of Kashmir in our Holocaust and Genocides programs...wrote and generated calls to the Russian embassy in DC to pull back the ban they were working on banning Bhagvad Gita, challenged Moscow for usurping the Hare Krishna Temple land, condemned the desecration of temple in Trinidad, condemned and wrote to the Minister of Malaysia to punish those idiots who threw the head of a bull in the Temple in Kuala Lumpur... 15 years ago, I got threatening calls from a few right winger Catholics for defending the bishop in Lisbon who allowed a Hindu couple to get married in the church and they place Ganesh Icon on the altar, which got the bishop fired...and I got nasty calls from some of the idiots, they said, shame on you to defend the idol worshippers. It is easy to back off isn’t it, that is what most chickens do, thank God; I will not be pushed around when it comes to standing up for others.

Nanak, no one asked me to do this, Hindus did not ask, Jains did not ask, Christians did not ask, Jews did not ask... I did it because it is the right thing to do. It is not just them, when someone attacks a Muslim for his religion I will fiercely go after him, and I have gone after Sunnis in Bahrain for being brutal to their Shias, Armadas in Pakistan, Bangladeshi and Indonesia, even here...  We hold a lot of interfaith dialogues, no one pays me or asks me, but I always include all religions, Hinduism, your faith is never missed in my writings. Look at Dallas Morning news – 112 articles, Hindus, Jains, Sikhs, Islam, Judaism… are all weaved in each article.

I hope you will stand up for every one regardless of their religion, if you have stood up for a Jain, Sikh, Christian, Muslim, Hindu, Jew, Buddhist, Baha’i, Adivasi, Dalit…  please share, we need more people who do that to change the world.

Here are some of the links:

• Standing up for Hindus, there is a lot more to be added to this, some day:  http://standingupforothers.blogspot.com/2012/04/standing-with-hindus.html
• Standing up for Christians http://standingupforothers.blogspot.com/2012/01/standing-with-christians.html
• Standing up for Sikhs http://standingupforothers.blogspot.com/2012/08/standing-up-for-sikhs.html
• Standing up for Jews http://standingupforothers.blogspot.com/2012/02/standing-up-with-jews.html
• Standing up for Immigrants http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OrjU0KULv-Y
• Standing up for Gays and Lesbians http://standingupforothers.blogspot.com/2012/05/standing-up-for-gays-and-lesbians.html
• Standing up for Atheists http://standingupforothers.blogspot.com/2012/04/speaking-up-for-atheists.html
• Standing up for others http://standingupforothers.blogspot.com/2012/02/standing-up-for-others_05.html

After I finish compiling all others, I will compile what I have done for the oppressed among Muslims. Since it is my religion, I am doing at the end. 

Aren’t you and I taught in India, that you feed the guests first and eat in the end, did not your mother and my mother ate after all the family was fed?  I am doing nothing different than that, and I hope my fellow Muslims understand that.

Unless we stand up for others, why should anyone stand up for us?

Please share your experience of standing up for Jains, Sikhs, Muslims, Adivasis, Tribals, Dalits, Bahai, Jews, Christians and others... it is good to hear that.


The pope resigned today, and hopes the new one will be open to all faiths and not be biased against any. I was going to write about it in Dallas Morning News on Monday, but simply ran out of time. Some ten years ago, the Baptist convention in Atlanta had said bad things about Hinduism, I had written to their convention at that time, and I have faced off with their president from two years ago in defending Catholics on the national radio.

I request each one of us not to judge others without knowing or hearing the hearsay.

Thank you.

 Reference: http://republicanmoderates.blogspot.com/2013/02/so-fucking-what-if-john-brenan-is-muslim.html

  .... Mike Ghouse is a speaker, thinker and a writer on pluralism, politics, peace, Islam, Israel, India,interfaith, and cohesion at work place. He is committed to building a Cohesive America and offers pluralistic solutions on issues of the day at www.TheGhousediary.com. He believes in Standing up for others and has done that throughout his life as an activist. Mike has a presence on national and local TV, Radio and Print Media. He is a frequent guest on Sean Hannity show on Fox TV, and a commentator on national radio networks, he contributes weekly to the Texas Faith Column at Dallas Morning News; fortnightly at Huffington post; and several other periodicals across the world. His personal site www.MikeGhouse.net indexes all his work through many links.

Janambhoomi-Babri Ayodhya - The Battle for India India's soul - 3

AYODHYA, THE BATTLE FOR INDIA'S SOUL - 3
URL: http://mikeghouseforindia.blogspot.com/2012/12/ayodhya-battle-for-indias-soul-3.html

Thanks to Wall street Journal and Krishna Pokharel and Paul Beckett for writing the series on the topic, it is one of India's unfinished social business and needed to be addressed. The article follows my commentary.
 ......
 Here is Chapter 3 of the 6 on the Battle for India's soul. The authors Mr. Pokharel and Beckett have done a great job of storytelling,  I do hope, most of us Indians are reading this as objectively as it is written, first to understand the full complexity of it, then be ready to find a solution - that is both Hindus and Muslims can live with. Neither should be pushed around, historicity is not the issue; the issue is dealing with flared up emotions.

We are human, and one of the greatest telling in this story is the human spirit; no one wants to be pushed around, and no one wants to be cornered or dumped a decision on them.  Had the Planters of Ram Lallah consulted with Muslims, the outcome would have been different, as opposed to sneaking in the statue in to the Mosque, knowing well that was the wrong thing to do in the name of God.  Think about this, seriously think about this, if parties were called in to discuss with free choices, we probably would have found a solution long time back.  In national dialogues, people are called in to talk without conditions and it makes sense.

On the conversion front, it is a sour subject, it should not be.  We need to seriously think: Shouldn't we have complete freedom in what we drink, eat, wear or believe? What should be regulated is when we we steal, rape, lie,  murder, break the agreements or infringe upon each others right. Every Indian should be free to become a Hindu, Muslim, Christians, Atheist or whatever he or she chooses. Do you subscribe to this? Forget about others, do you subscribe to the idea of freedom?

Both Hindus and Muslims are agitated for lack of acceptable choice, of course, a few on both sides don't care about the other, it is their own feelings, a sense of security they care. Has that produced results? Justness is the only thing that binds and sustains a society in the long haul. We have to take the steps and decide, and hold on to the damned temptations to shove it on the other. We have to bring resolution to this, and cannot pass it on to the generation; lets' leave them to focus on prosperity and living their lives.

 As Patriotic Indians, who care about a better and peaceful India, not an India of harassing each other, we need to find an amicable solution, even if it takes a lot of pain and frustration. Once a decision is made with free and willing parties, the decision will last, and the next generation can focus on better things of life.

At this moment, if you feel like blaming one of the other, than you are the wrong person to be in the decision making process and need to let others do it for the sake of India and the future of next generation.

Jai Hind

Mike Ghouse for India's Pluralistic ethos
http://MikeGhouseforIndia.Blogspot.com

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Ayodhya, the Battle for India’s Soul: Chapter Three

By Krishna Pokharel and Paul Beckett
Courtesy - http://blogs.wsj.com/indiarealtime/2012/12/05/ayodhya-the-battle-for-indias-soul-chapter-three/

Paul Beckett/The Wall Street Journal

A painting on a Muslim house in Meenakshipuram, Tamil Nadu. Click here to view related slideshow.

In the 1980s, the Ayodhya dispute escalated from a local issue to a national one. It fed, and was fed by, other points of tension in Indian politics and society that set Hindus and Muslims on a collision course over the span of the decade.

Each side came to feel that its religion and status in India was under threat – and both sides responded with political pressure and shows of force.
It started in 1981 in Meenakshipuram, an unremarkable village deep in the countryside of the southern state of Tamil Nadu, more than 2,000 kilometers from Ayodhya.

The village hit the national news when its low-caste Hindus – about 400 families, villagers say — converted, en masse, to Islam.

“We became Muslims to become equal,” said 65-year-old N. Hidayathullah, one of the converts, in an interview on the porch of his modest home, as a herd of goats wandered by.
The families had felt ill-treated by local upper-caste Hindus, he said. “Nobody told us to convert; it was our desire to be treated with respect,” he added.
**

Vishwa Hindu Parishad

Sadhus during the 1984 dharma sansad

At stake was more than belief: In India, how you worship defines your community, most likely your marriage and whom you vote for, your approach to life, and your identity.

In 1984, Hindu leaders responded to what they viewed as the threat of Islam emanating from the Meenakshipuram conversion.

About 500 sadhus — Hindu holy men — from across India gathered at Vigyan Bhavan, a government-owned conference center in New Delhi. They comprised a “dharma sansad,” or religious parliament.

The meeting was put together by the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, a conservative Hindu organization founded in the 1960s. The chief organizer was Ashok Singhal, then the VHP’s joint general secretary.

Krishna Pokharel/The Wall Street Journal

Ashok Singhal today

The son of a government official in Agra, home of the Taj Mahal, Mr. Singhal graduated with a degree in metallurgical engineering from Banaras Hindu University in 1950. Now 86 years old, he has worked to promote Hindu causes ever since. “Our culture is under siege,” he said in an interview at the VHP’s offices in New Delhi.

The religious parliament began with a song by a group of musicians. “This country’s soil is sacred,” they sang, according to a later account of the event published by the VHP. “Every girl is an image of a goddess, every boy is Ram.”

After a sadhu blew a conch shell, speeches began. Among the speakers was Karan Singh, a former minister in Prime Minister Indira Gandhi’s cabinet. At the time, he was an independent member of Parliament. Courtly and soft-spoken, he is the son of the last Maharaja of Jammu and Kashmir.

Mr. Singh was the founder of an organization to espouse the values of universal brotherhood and human welfare contained in the Vedas and Upanishads, Hindu sacred texts. He formed it in direct response to the events of Meenakshipuram, he said in an interview in the book-lined study of his Delhi mansion.

The mass conversion to Islam “was, first of all, a clear statement that the way Hinduism was functioning is not acceptable to a large number of people,” Mr. Singh said. At the time, the message was: “People are leaving because we are not following our principles.”

At the religious conference, Mr. Singh spoke about the need to reconnect individual life and politics with the tenets of Hinduism, and to rid society of the dowry system and the stigma of “untouchability” that relegated lower-caste Hindus to an underclass, according to the VHP’s account of the event. He also rued the fact that Hindu holy sites had been neglected.

Vishwa Hindu Parishad

Karan Singh, at the center, during 1984 dharma sansad

“We cannot even light a holy lamp” at Ram’s birthplace in Ayodhya, he told the sadhus. “How shameful a matter is it for 80% of this country’s residents who call themselves Hindus?”

The gathering issued a code of conduct for individuals, families and society. Its code for the country’s statesmen included the demand that three important holy sites be “given back to Hindu society.”

The Babri Masjid, the mosque in Ayodhya that many Hindus claimed was Lord Ram’s birthplace – “Ram Janmabhoomi” in Hindi — was top of the list.
Ram appealed to Hindus of all castes: one story recounted in the Ramayan, the text about his life, has him happily eating berries given to him by a lower-caste woman.

A few months after the religious parliament, the VHP followed up with a rally for devotees led by a motorized chariot. Hindu scripture says Ram rode a chariot into battle.

The rally started at Sitamarhi in Bihar in late September 1984. The district is believed by Hindus to be the place where Sita, Ram’s wife, emerged from the earth.

Vishwa Hindu Parishad

The 1984 rally from Sitamarhi to Ayodhya.

Thousands of the faithful joined the procession, which reached Ayodhya 12 days later. There, they descended to the banks of the Sarayu river, cupped its water in their palms and, according to several participants, took an oath.

The crowd totaled about 50,000 that day, according to Mr. Singhal of the VHP, who was among them. Similar oath-taking ceremonies were held at major rivers around the country.

The Hindus at the Sarayu that day wanted to go further than keeping a tiny statue of Ram inside the Babri Masjid. They wanted to build a house of worship where Ram sat: “We will give up everything to build Lord Ram’s temple at his birthplace,” they swore, according to several people who took part.

The organizers say they were surprised by the number of supporters. “People found that this is an agitation which will be successful,” Mr. Singhal said. “Such a large number of people came from small villages to witness and join the movement.”

A day later, the chariot started rolling again. But its journey was interrupted when, on Oct. 31, 1984, Mrs. Gandhi, the prime minister and Jawaharlal Nehru’s daughter, was shot dead at her New Delhi home by two Sikh bodyguards.

Soon, Ayodhya would become a defining issue for the country’s new leader: Mrs. Gandhi’s 40-year-old son, Rajiv.
**
Rajiv Gandhi was a political beginner. Eschewing politics, he worked as a pilot for Indian Airlines and married an Italian, Sonia Maino.

Agence France-Presse/Getty

Click here for an overview of key players in chapter three.

He was elected as a member of Parliament in 1981, following the death of his younger brother, Sanjay, in a plane crash. Soon after Mr. Gandhi succeeded his mother, he called for national elections. His Congress party won the biggest Parliamentary majority in India’s electoral history.

Mr. Gandhi brought the promise of a new kind of Indian leader. He was young and interested in promoting technology. Within months, however, he was deeply embroiled in the historical tussle between Muslims and Hindus and the sense of victimhood that both sides felt.

The catalyst was a case brought by a Muslim woman called Shah Bano. She had been divorced by her husband several years before and was left destitute. She asked the Supreme Court to force her ex-husband to pay maintenance.

In the spring of 1985, the Supreme Court ruled in her favor, citing the provisions against destitution in Indian criminal law that applied to all Indians.

Prominent members of the Muslim clergy viewed the ruling as a threat to Islamic law, which had long governed their personal matters. It does not require the equivalent of alimony. But the justices had ordered a divorced man to pay maintenance.

At first, Rajiv Gandhi backed the verdict. Arif Mohammed Khan, a Muslim and minister in Mr. Gandhi’s government, made a long speech in Parliament in praise of the ruling.
In an interview, Mr. Khan said he did so at the prime minister’s request. Afterward, he received a note from Mr. Gandhi, he said, which congratulated him on a “wonderful performance” and a “great speech.”

But the Muslim clergy protested, heaping pressure on the prime minister. They demanded he counter the verdict through an act of Parliament. “The Muslim clergy found this as an opportunity to mobilize the Muslims and project themselves,” said Mr. Khan.
Mr. Gandhi succumbed and started preparations for a law that would effectively overturn the Supreme Court ruling.

But he also wanted to find a way to mollify Hindu outrage over the Muslim protests and to counter anticipated Hindu claims that Muslims were being appeased by the government, said Mr. Khan.

The prime minister, he said, found his answer in a court case in Faizabad, the city next to Ayodhya.

The case sought to have the lock removed on the main gate of the Babri Masjid, granting greater public access to the idol that had been sitting in seclusion under the central dome for almost four decades.

Mr. Gandhi’s calculation, Mr. Khan said, was that the Hindu focus on the Shah Bano case “will be redirected to Ayodhya.”

**

Krishna Pokharel/The Wall Street Journal

Umesh Chandra Pandey at his residence in Lucknow.

Umesh Chandra Pandey filed the petition to open the lock in late January 1986. He was a 30-year-old lawyer and occasional journalist who then lived in Faizabad.

His interest in the issue had begun three years earlier, when the editor of a local Hindi newspaper asked him to write a feature on the festival commemorating Ram’s birthday, Mr. Pandey and the editor said in interviews.

Mr. Pandey said he also heard leaders from the Vishwa Hindu Parishad claiming that there never had been an official order to lock the Babri Masjid gate.

“I thought, ‘If this is so, then how has this lock been put there?’” he said.

Adding drama and urgency, a prominent sadhu had threatened to set himself ablaze if the lock was not removed, according to Mr. Pandey and other accounts. Other sadhus threatened to get themselves arrested by trying to unlock the gate themselves, according to the VHP’s Mr. Singhal.

Mr. Pandey, a short man who speaks in emphatic phrases, said he spent a couple of weeks examining court papers. He came to the conclusion that there had never been a formal order putting the lock in place, he said. (Priests who cared for the idols in the building entered through a side gate.)

Soon after Mr. Pandey filed his petition, he found out that a copy had been sent to the state agency in charge of internal security, he said.

Paul Beckett/The Wall Street Journal

The petition also attracted the interest of Rajiv Gandhi and Arun Nehru, a cousin of Mr. Gandhi’s and a powerful adviser to the prime minister, according to Arif Mohammed Khan, the government minister at the time.

Mr. Gandhi and Mr. Nehru wanted to ensure that the petition succeeded so Hindus would feel assuaged, Mr. Khan said. The prime minister asked Mr. Nehru to coordinate the government’s participation in the case, including dealing with the state government of Uttar Pradesh, Mr. Khan said.
Other officials from the time say Mr. Nehru, the adviser, was the more influential in seizing on the issue and the prime minister acquiesced. Yet others say Mr. Gandhi was unaware of what was happening.

Either way, said Mr. Khan: “The buck stops at the door of the prime minister” as the head of the government.

When asked about the episode in a brief telephone conversation, Mr. Nehru responded: “That’s none of your damn business.”

The government ensured that two senior local officials appeared – unusually — before the judge, rather than submitting affidavits, Mr. Khan said. They testified that law and order could be maintained if the lock was removed, a key consideration in the judge’s deliberations.
Mushtaq Ahmad Siddiqui, one of the lawyers representing Muslims in their legal claims to the Babri Masjid site, said he also asked to be heard before the judge.

“You may, there is no hurry,” he said the judge responded. “The matter is continuing for 36 years – you will be allowed sufficient time.” He was referring to the fact that litigation over the site had begun in 1950.

On the afternoon of Feb. 1, 1986, the judge ruled there had been no official order that placed the lock on the mosque’s gate. He ordered the lock opened “forthwith,” according to witnesses. The judge is now deceased.

Within 30 minutes, a senior police officer in Ayodhya broke the lock. A camera crew from Doordarshan, the government-run television channel, was there. The event was broadcast to the nation.

Mr. Pandey, the man who filed the petition, said he couldn’t sleep that night. The next morning, he went to the site.

“I was without words,” he said. “But I was thankful to God that I was able to look and to offer my prayer.”

The gate opening was the first that millions of Hindus had heard of Ayodhya and the battle over Ram’s birthplace. It energized them en masse because Ram was a role model. 

Grandmothers told their grandsons to aspire to be like him: obedient to their parents, faithful to their family, honest in their dealings.

Mani Shankar Aiyer

Rajiv Gandhi, right, in an undated photo with Mani Shankar Aiyer.

Rajiv Gandhi received the news during a visit to the Maldives, according to Mani Shankar Aiyar, his speechwriter at the time.

In the hours before a state banquet, the prime minister was putting the finishing touches on his formal dress and on his speech when he received a telephone call, Mr. Aiyar said in an interview. Mr. Gandhi was told the lock was opened, Mr. Aiyar said.

The lock opening quickly took on a mystical aspect. Mr. Pandey claimed that on the afternoon of the decision, a monkey sat on the roof of the Faizabad court house. A monkey was symbolic because Hanuman, the Hindu monkey god, was a loyal friend of Ram.

The animal, unusually for a monkey, sat still for more than 30 minutes, Mr. Pandey said. Then, when the judge issued his order, the monkey walked to the flagpole on the courthouse roof and touched the Indian flag, according to Mr. Pandey. “I don’t think this can happen without the Almighty’s permission,” he added.
**
The lock opening shocked Muslim elders and lawyers who had been following the Ayodhya dispute because they saw in it a threat to their mosque and to their religion. They gathered the next day in an orphanage in Delhi.

“Today, it appears we have become second-class citizens,” said one elder, close to tears, according to two people who were there.

The leaders worried that the next step would be the Babri Masjid’s destruction.
On Feb. 3, 1986, two days after the lock was opened, a small group of Muslim lawyers petitioned the high court in Lucknow, the capital of Uttar Pradesh, to order that nothing more happen to the site, according to two of the lawyers.

The judge issued a notice that the “status quo” be maintained.

Zafaryab Jilani

Zafaryab Jilani in the mid-1980s

Zafaryab Jilani, one of the lawyers, was then just shy of his 36^th birthday. The lock opening would vault him to the forefront of the Muslim movement seeking to retain the Babri Masjid site for Islam.
Born in a town close to Lucknow, Mr. Jilani pursued his legal studies at Aligarh Muslim University.

There, he gained his first experience in organizing protests. He said he was part of a small group that, in 1970, led students in opposing government plans to commemorate the 50^th anniversary of the school’s incorporation by an act of Parliament.
The students were angry about previous government measures that stopped Muslims from being the sole administrators of the university. Faced with the protests, the government scrapped the golden jubilee festivities and, ultimately, undid the administrative changes.
After the Babri Masjid lock opening, Mr. Jilani started organizing protests again.

He and a handful of associates called meetings of prominent local Muslims; it included one gathering of about 200 in a hall in Lucknow, Mr. Jilani said in an interview.

They created the Babri Masjid Action Committee to organize public strikes and demonstrations– and to push back against what the leaders viewed as Hindu aggression.
On Feb. 7, 1986, Mr. Jilani said he and about eight others met the then-chief minister of Uttar Pradesh, Vir Bahadur Singh. The chief minister denied any involvement in the lock opening, Mr. Jilani said.

“I haven’t done it. Whatever has been done, it is at the behest of some other leaders, top leaders,” Mr. Jilani said the chief minister told them. Mr. Singh died a few years later.
A week after that meeting, the new committee held its first event: a “Black Day,” or state-wide public strike, Mr. Jilani said. Later, tens of thousands protested in Lucknow and other cities.
**
In May 1986, the government used its huge majority in Parliament to push through a law that effectively reversed the Shah Bano ruling and made it clear Muslim personal law would prevail.

Mr. Gandhi’s supporters say the prime minister was only trying to clarify that matters of Muslim personal law would be governed by Islam, as they had been for decades.

The law’s passage cemented the idea among many Hindus that the government was kowtowing to Muslims. Muslim leaders, on the other hand, were angry about the lock opening. The prime minister’s plan to do something to mollify both sides had gone awry.
Arif Mohammed Khan, the minister who had supported the Shah Bano ruling, resigned from the government. He recalled that Mr. Gandhi said to him at the time: “The situation is such that I am feeling very helpless.”

And, as Mr. Gandhi’s grandfather, Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, had feared in 1950, the new prominence of the Babri Masjid dispute complicated the delicate political equation in the late 1980s in Kashmir, the Himalayan region fought over by India and Pakistan.

Militants who favored a separate country of Kashmir used the opening of the lock on the mosque to rebuke Indian Muslims who favored embracing India’s secularism and democracy.

The militants said, according to Mr. Jilani: “Your government is not sincere with you, how do you expect that government to be sincere with us?”

Tomorrow: The last chances at a settlement slip away.