NEW DELHI: Congress-leaning lawyers have raised the pitch for assignments from the government. A Congress convention, which brought together lawyers from Congress legal cells in the states, was set abuzz when populist voices were raised, with one directly asking for party-affiliated lawyers to be accommodated in various panels, and even in the judiciary.
Union law minister Veerappa Moily urged the AICC’s legal department headed by Abhishek Singhvi to create a national database of lawyers affiliated with Congress. ‘‘... we can form domain expertise using their experience; we can train them in different fields and ultimately bond them into mainstream of judiciary,’’ he said.
The call, with Congress chief Sonia Gandhi and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on the dais, led to murmurs in the gathering as it was interpreted that there will be a preference for lawyers affiliated with the Congress in the selection for judiciary.
The organizing body headed by Abhishek Singhvi demanded that an Alternative Disputes Redressal system be formed and named after Rajiv Gandhi. Government sources said there is an International Centre for ADR lying dysfunctional and the Prime Minister is unhappy about it. Sources said it could be renamed and made active.
DPCC chief J P Aggarwal got a thunderous applause when he said Congress needed to bring its lawyers on official panels and appointments. Aggarwal, speaking at a working session on ‘‘Human rights, common man and contemporary exigencies’’ chaired by home minister P Chidambaram, said it was found that lawyers who were with the Congress were ignored at the time of selection for various panels. ‘‘Why will they carry your flag?’’ he asked, making a forceful plea.
At the end of the day, Singhvi assured the meeting that the law minister agreed with the demand made by Aggarwal and steps would be taken in this direction in future.
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Already almost all govt departments are allegedly filled with corruption ranging from Police to CBI. Now another attempt by congress to even fill the judiciary on the criteria of political leanings rather than the actualy capability?
And if you hadnt notice 1 more name scheme after the Gandhi family apart from 500 odd which are already named after them.
Who is an "Internet Hindu?"Kanchan Gupta
Hindus who are proud to assert their identity and fly the Tricolour high have now found a new platform to have their say, the way they want it, without fear of being shouted down. Tired of being derided by pseudo-secularists in media who see nothing wrong with Muslim communalism and Christian fundamentalism but are swift to pounce upon Hindus for being ‘intolerant’, their cultural ethos crudely denigrated by the Left-liberal intelligentsia as antediluvian, Hindus have begun to harness technology to strike back with deadly effect.
They are bright, they are well-educated, they are not burdened with regional and caste biases, they are amazingly well-informed on national issues and world affairs, they are rooted in Indian culture, and they are politically alert. They hate being told they are wrong when they know they are right. They have a mind of their own and refuse to be led like sheep. Not surprisingly, they hold the Congress, the Left and regional parties in contempt, as they do journalists who cravenly ingratiate themselves with the establishment. For them, India matters — and matters more than anything else. Meet the ‘Internet Hindus’.
In recent days there has been a spate of articles disparaging the ‘Internet Hindus’, variously describing them as “loonies”, “fanatics”, “irrational”, “Hindu Taliban” and, by an enraged news channel anchor, “gutter snipes”. Much of the criticism has come from left-of-centre journalists who believe they have unfettered monopoly over media as their inalienable birth right. Exalted members of Delhi’s commentariat, who are indistinguishable from the city’s la-di-dah socialites, tend to turn up their noses every time they hear the phrase ‘Internet Hindus’ as they would at the suggestion of travelling by public transport. Others are given to contemptuously brushing aside ‘Internet Hindus’ as being irrelevant and describing their views as inconsequential. All this and more has neither dampened the spirit of ‘Internet Hindus’ nor blunted their assertive attitude.
Here are some statistics, culled from an ongoing online survey, which would help create a generic profile of ‘Internet Hindus’. The survey is open to all Hindus who use the Internet; the response has been overwhelming. Of those who have responded, 88.9 per cent have identified themselves as ‘Internet Hindus’, indicating they attach no shame to the term though their critics would want them to feel ashamed. Of the respondents, four per cent are aged 20 years and below; 55 per cent are aged 30 and below; 31 per cent are 40 and below; and, only 10 per cent are aged above 40. In brief, 90 per cent of them are young Indians.
The educational profile of the respondents is awesome: 43 per cent are graduates (most of them from top-notch engineering, science and medical colleges); 46 per cent are post-graduates (a large number of them have MBA degrees from the best B-schools); and, 11 per cent have PhDs. It is understandable that none of them is unemployed. Those without jobs are still studying (17.3 per cent) and can be found in labs and classrooms of the best universities here and abroad. Of the 82.7 per cent who are employed, 3.1 per cent earn up to Rs 2 lakh a year; 18.4 per cent earn up to Rs 6 lakh a year; 34.7 per cent earn up to Rs 12 lakh a year; and, 26.5 per cent earn more than Rs 24 lakh a year. Nearly 60 per cent of them frequently travel abroad on work and holiday. Some 11 per cent have travelled abroad at least once.
Contrary to the impression that is being sought to be created by their critics, ‘Internet Hindus’ are open to ideas, believe in a plural, law-abiding society and swear by the Constitution. They are often appalled by the shenanigans of our politicians, including those of the BJP, and are ruthless in decrying politics of identity and cynical vote-bank policies. They have no gender prejudices and most of them think banning FTV is downright silly in this day and age. The ‘Internet Hindus’ will not countenance denigration of their faith or biased media coverage of events, but 91.9 per cent of them respect and accept other religions. Asked if India is meant only for Hindus, an overwhelming majority of them, responding to the survey, said, ‘Hell, no!’
So why do they infuriate pseudo-secularists in media and make Delhi’s commentariat see red? There are three possible explanations. First, the Net is beyond the control of those who control newspapers and news channels. While the print and audiovisual media have for long excluded contrarian opinion and denied space to those who disagree with absurd notions of ‘secularism’ or question the quality of reportage, the Net has provided space to the ‘other’ voice.
Real time blog posts now record the ‘other side’ of the day’s story (“The Prince was shouted down in Bihar, not feted by students!”), Twitter affords instant micro-blogging even as prime time news is being telecast (“That’s not true. I live in Bareilly. This is not how the riots began!”), and YouTube allows unedited amateur videos of events (the Meraj riots, the Islamist violence in Kashmir Valley) to be uploaded, giving the lie to edited and doctored versions shown by news channels.
Second, unlike carefully selected ‘Letters to the Editor’ in newspapers and ‘Feedback’ posted on news channel websites, the reactions of ‘Internet Hindus’, often savage and unflattering, cannot be thrown into the dustbin or deleted with a click of the mouse. English language media journalists, long used to fawning praise from readers and viewers, are horrified that someone can actually call them ‘dumb’ in public space and there’s nothing they can do about it. Third, the established elite, most of them middle-aged, are beginning to feel threatened. Here’s a new breed of Indians who have used merit and not ‘connections’ to make a mark in professional excellence, young men and women who are educated and articulate, and are willing to challenge conventional wisdom as preached by media ‘stars’ who have rarely, if ever, been questioned.
The elite who dominate newspapers and news channels are seen by ‘Internet Hindus’ as part of India’s past, not future. As one ‘Internet Hindu’ writes in his blog, “A large number of ex-elite can’t stomach fact that children of bankruptcy are better travelled, better read and dominate the Internet!” Harsh, but true.
We can describe the ‘Internet Hindus’ as the “lunatic fringe”, but that won’t change the fact that their tribe is growing by the day. Soon, those on the fringe will move to the centre and their critics will find themselves precariously perched on the fringe. The Right is gaining ground as is the access and reach of the Net; newspapers and news channels, the Left’s last refuge, no longer command absolute control over information flow. It would be unwise to ‘block’ the voice of ‘Internet Hindus’, as then their clamour to be heard will further increase and there is nothing we can do to silence them. The times they are a-changin’.
DAILY PIONEER LINK
Article on topic from the Daily Pioneer HERE.
Few days ago I came across an interesting term "Internet Hindus" while reading the newspaper. For better understanding of this post and the article later let me define broadly what "Internet Hindus" stands for.
Internet Hindus are people socially active on blogs, forums, social networking websites, microblogging websites etc that are quite vocal about their views on Hinduism, Media, Politics and nation as a whole.
Now the question arises- How are Internet Hindus different from Normal Hindus? And why this term was coined to differentiate between the two?
The fact lies behind the bitter truth of Media controlling the people. (Check my article on it HERE.)
Media can act like a slow poision by showing the same kind of news and promoting the same kind of views again and again and affect the viewer's subconscious mind so that he develops a certain outlook and view point. Why this is done is a different question and there are various factors responsible for it - TRP wars, Political funding, Kickbacks, Parental organisations who fund the channels etc.
Media for the past few years have been promoting a certain kind of mindset and ideology which will be evident once you become a "Internet Hindu" as some frustrated journalists like to call it.
For example- I was a "normal" Hindu about 1 year back. I used to watch news channels extensively and was pretty much aware about the country and politics. Then I joined the "Jaago Re" community on Orkut since I wanted to get my Voter card made. There someone asked me to post an article in the "NDTV" community since he was BANNED from there (talk about freedom of expression!) and couldnt do that. Subsequently I joined the community and got to know some more facts. Later I joined the "Indian politics" community and finally "India" community.
After many months of long reading of various articles I got to know the completely different side of the picture. How the news articles are twisted, How the "Breaking news" are completely different from what happened, How the headlines are made misleading to gain TRP's etc.
Thus the Internet Hindu is aware about the media and then it is evident then he is critical about it and also critical about the views which the media tries to force on the viewer. It is dangerous for the media since the ideology they are promoting would suffer a setback along with the setback to their own selfish interest. So in a very clever move they are trying to ridicule these people by terming them as "Internet Hindus" who according to them dont represent the real Indians so that other "normal" hindus continue believing the media blindly and thus dont become "Internet" hindus.
1 thing that is important to mention here is that there is also lots of FALSE content doing the rounds of internet which may brainwash some people and would infact go against Internet Hindus and would question their credibility. It is easy to get brainwashed and be fooled by words without any authenticity. That is how terrorists are made.
And sadly some people want to portray us in the same light by coining a different term for us and claiming that we are brainwashed and different from actual Hindus. But most people like me have always relied on VALID SOURCES before believing in any news and forming opinions and thus all news posts in my blog are supplemented with valid links from newspapers.
The final question then is "How can one say media is biased and then provide valid links and rely on the same Media for believing news at the same time"?
The statement isnt contradictory and the answer is hard work , patience and using the mind. One should have the patience to read/follow the whole news rather than just read the Headline/breaking news part. Some channels, newspapers etc can promote a certain ideology but in a vast country like India there is always a way of knowing the truth and atleast some credible source (News channel, newspaper) cover the other side of story too.
And then its for your mind to compare the 2 sides and chose the correct one. If you find 20 news links to 1 side of the story you would find 1 news link that tells the other story and thats where "Internet Hindus" come and make the other side popular so that more people know both the sides much to the dislike of certain section of People and Media. Sadly for them-
Internet Hindus are here to stay!
Communal violence rocked Shimoga which is Karnataka chief minister B S Yedyurappa's constituency after a newspaper published an article authored by Tasleema Nasreen regarding the purdah system.One person was killed at Shimoga after the police opened fire to quell a mob which was protesting against the Bangladeshi author. Rioters resorted to violence on Monday after by setting ablaze several vehicles. They also pelted stones thus forcing the shut down of the entire town. The violence even spread to neighboruing Hassan which is still gripped by communal tension. Hassan is former PM Deve Gowda's constituency.
When reports last came in the situation in the two places was still tense. Curfew has been imposed in Shimoga while prohibitory orders are in place in Hassan. Security has been beefed up in the entire state as a precautionary measure.
A verrnacular daily had translated a write up by Taslima Nasreen regarding the purdah system. Some persons had opposed the article and resorted to violence.
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So much cries for the freedom of expression of " M.F. Hussain" But media remains silent on the issue of Taslima!
A person not belonging to Hinduism mocks it and it is termed as freedom of expression whereas a person following Islam says something against the religion and Media choose to remain silent!
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