The “NRI Jaichands”

 LETTER TO INDIAN EXPRESS

Dear Sir,

Reference the M.I.T. academic Omar Khalidi’s  ” No longer just silent cheerleaders “  – (TNSE -15 NOV).

A google search of ‘Omar Khalidi and Justice Sachar Committee’, revealed a treasure trove of information on both aspects !! Some examples would be in order, if anything to highlight the mental make-up of this ‘so-called’ academic !!

In an Article in the weekly ‘Outlook’ of 13 Mar 2006 and entitled : ” The Two-Regiment Theory “, Balbir Punj wrote:

” The idea of ‘dividing’ the armed forces on communal lines was inspired by a book, ‘Khaki and Ethnic Violence in India’ by Omar Khalidi, a professor of Hyderabadi origin who teaches architectural history at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Excerpts from the book were part of IUML president G.M. Banatwala’s memorandum to the Sachar committee. Khalidi had also advocated, in an interview with The Times of India, a reorganisation of the districts in Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, West Bengal and Assam to create “compact Muslim zones” where their culture and rights could be “safeguarded”. In other words, he’s playing ‘Pied Piper’ Allama Iqbal to a future Jinnah (ironically, he even has a Muslim League president by his side). It’s no surprise then that he suggests increasing the Muslim presence in the forces—it stems from the same mindset of Islamist consolidation”.  Be that as it may, the Sachar Committee Report is itself in front of a Divison Bench of the Delhi High Court, on account of its ‘doctored facts’!!

In an Article entitled ” How many Muslims do you have, Govt asks armed forces “, published by the Indian Express of 12 Feb 2006, Shishir Gupta wrote :

” Quoting extracts from a book ‘ Khaki and the Ethnic Violence in India’ by Omar Khalidi, the Sachar Committee late last month asked the Army to confirm whether 700 Muslims deserted during ‘‘Operation Polo (Hyderabad operations)’’ in 1948. And whether then Leh-based III Division Commander V S Budhwar wanted Muslim villagers evicted from Turtok along the Line of Control (LoC) in Ladakh during Operation Vijay in 1999″. That the Sachar Committee was given short shrift by the Defence Ministry is another story!!

In an interview to a Muslim website – twocircles.net, on 28 Aug 2008, the ‘learned MIT professor’ stated: 

” Giving reference to his book ‘Khaki and the Ethnic Violence,’ Dr. Khalidi said that some institutions of the state actively discriminate against certain religious categories. For example, Indian armed forces to this day recruit people on the basis of “martial races” that exclude Muslims. There is a Sikh regiment, Rajput regiment, Maratha regiment, Gurkha regiment but not a Muslim regiment. Dr. Khalidi says: either abolish these regiments or create a Muslim regiment, Christian, Parsi as well.”

Our armed forces have always been exemplarily and demonstrably secular. Any further attempt to rub in ‘secularism’ might provoke a psychological backlash. The armed forces, the last bastion of unalloyed nationalism, have remained apolitical and secular through the thick and thin of India’s political and communal crises. So much for the ‘rantings’ of a Muslim academic.The ‘learned professor’ is ignorant of the FACT that whatever be the names of the Regiments- they are manned by Indians from all corners of the country and different religions. And, all these Regiments have a History of 200 years or more. Omar Khalidi wants these Regiments to FORGET THEIR HISTORY eh?

If more examples of the ‘LIES’ purveyed by this so-called MIT academic is needed by TNIE, this reader of your paper will be only too happy to oblige. On a different plane, it exposes the devious and treacherous mindset of this ‘Muslim’ academic. It also lays bare his ‘intellectual integrity ‘. That established, one doesn’t need to be endowed with that doyen of Baker Street’s ‘detective prowess’ to sigh aloud – ‘Elementary, Dear Watson’, to understand the ‘ tone and tenor ‘ of Khalidi’s Article !!

We are fully aware of Khalidi’s ‘ third group of politically conscious NRIs ‘. The damning and sordid expose of these ‘Jaichands’, residing in the U.S.A. have been lucidly brought out in the book – ” NGOs, ACTIVISTS and FOREIGN FUNDS: ANTI-NATION INDUSTRY “, ed Smt. Radha Rajan and Shri Krishen Kak. The caperings of the U.S. based ‘FOIL’ – Forum of Indian Leftists, ‘FOSA’- Friends of South Asia, ‘PROXSA’- Progressive South Asians, ‘M5R’- Five Years of Meticulous Research et al, to name a few, figure rather prominently in the ‘Rogue’s Gallery’ of the book !! One common thread connecting these ‘politically conscious NRIs’ is their ‘economy with the Truth’, and a total lack of ‘academic integrity’.

One example, out of many, would suffice for the moment. All these organizations raised much fire & brimstone over the fundings to India by the service organization – IDRF – India Development Relief Fund. This ‘noise’ was also picked up by the ‘secular Indian English media’, those days !! The ‘NRI leftists’ cry was IDRF was a ‘hate fund’ meant to service the Sangh Parivar and its affiliates. IDRF requested the authorities in the U.S.A. and U.K. to audit their funds and funding to India. The U.S. and U.K. authorities gave a ‘clean chit’ to the IDRF. These ‘mailicious clowns’, in the process, provided some humour also!! They accused the ‘Meeraj Medical Centre’ of being a RSS front organization. Investigations in the U.S.A. revealed that the organization was being funded by the ‘Presbyterian Church of North America’ !!

Let me now cite a few instances of their ‘academic skulduggery’. It is well known that in the American University system, novices with PhDs and with a few years experience are hired as ‘Assistant Professors’. After about six years, they get either promoted as ‘Associate Professor’ or leave the University System. But, many of these ‘politically active NRIs’, who are in academia, inflate their credentials to the ‘unsuspecting Indians in India’ by titling themselves as ‘ Professors’ which THEY ARE NOT!! Some names are in order to prove the point and highlight these ROGUES !! Angaana Chatterjee of the California Institute of Integral Studies, Dr. Biju Mathew of Rider University, N.J. (an NDTV favourite in the post Gujarat period), Dr. Usha Zacharias,  Raza Mir etc !! And then there is the strange case of ‘Graduate Assistant’ –
‘ Ra Ravishankar’, University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign who described himeself as an ‘academic’ !! In that case, it is time I elevated my daughter to the ‘hallowed’ title of ‘academic’, as she was also a Graduate Assistant during the course of her M.S.!!  That is the ‘intellectual integrity’ of these ‘politically active NRIs’ being eulogized by another ‘academic’!! A case of ‘Birds of the same flock – – -‘ ?

Much was made by the ‘secular Indian English media’ about the denial of a visa to visit the U.S.A. to Modi. The fact of the matter is that if  ‘ Modi doesn’t go to America – American firms, in droves, are lining up to meet Modi and invest in Gujarat’ !!

That bastion of Indian secularism – The People’s Daily of Chennai – in its sister publication ‘Businessline’ of 07 NOV 2009, published an Article entitled: ” Will Manmohan acknowledge the Modi model?”. TCA Srinivasa Raghavan wrote: ” What he [Manmohan Singh] needs to do (but won’t) is to tell the gathering that the Congress has adopted the Narendra Modi model of development because success anywhere is worth emulating. The Modi model consists, at its core, of ensuring that the Government works for the people and not against them. The success of Gujarat today is the result of just this one thing. The Modi government does its best not to get in the way and ensures that the bureaucracy and service-delivery employees of the Gujarat government pay attention to all the small things that make a difference to peoples’ lives.Thus, to give just one example, Mr Modi was told that cattle become more vulnerable to disease during the summer. So he has made sure that his veterinary department is not sitting in comfortable offices in the summer but is out in the countryside ensuring that the cattle are properly inoculated. There are hundreds of examples of this sort of thing that need replicating, instead of bleating that funds are needed and complaining that the delivery mechanism is inadequate or inefficient”. Any wonder then American firms are lining up in front of Modi? Why don’t these ‘ activist NRI’s ‘ stop the American companies from flocking to Gujarat? They ought to bring it to the notice of Hilary Clinton !!!

On the ‘ visa denial to Modi ‘, well known and respected security analyst B.Raman wrote in the web portal rediff.com, on 21 Mar 2005 – ” Modi’s visa denial: Who did it? ” As Raman wrote: ” If Modi is guilty of violation of human rights of religious minorities, as alleged by the U.S.A., so were Narasimha Rao, Rajiv Gandhi, Indira Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru, D P Mishra, and Kamaraj. Why did the U.S.A., in its hypocrisy, choose to act against Modi, and never in the past against the others? There are several reasons for this. One of them is that the Christian influence on US policy-making and its political leadership was not as strong in the past as it is today. Another is that no Indian, whether living in India or in the US, would have ever thought of seeking the intervention of the US to teach a lesson to another Indian whom they disliked strongly”.

Raman continued: ” Who were the people who ganged up against Modi to humiliate him and teach him a lesson? Sections of the so-called secularists in India and the US, many of them Hindus, who cannot stand the sight of any party which seeks to articulate the feelings of Hindus and give them a sense of pride in their identity as Hindus. These secularists vie with one another in visiting Islamabad   and getting themselves photographed with President General Pervez Musharraf as a certificate of their secularism. Has any one of them ever condemned Musharraf for his murder of democracy or for the continuing massacre of Shias and Balochis under his rule? Never. For them, Musharraf, or for that matter a Muslim or a Christian can do no wrong. All the wrongs in this part of the world are done only by the Hindus. The Christian fundamentalist organisations in the US played an important role in ensuring the re-election of President Bush and he owes them a political debt. They have made it appear that their action in demanding that Modi be barred from entry into the US was motivated by their outrage at the plight of Muslims in Gujarat. The real reason is their anger at his alleged action to prevent foreign Christian missionaries from indulging in proselytisation. For the so-called secularists of India and of Indian origin in the US, Christian or Muslim fundamentalism is all right but Hindu assertiveness is a sin.

Raman concluded : ” If one Indian stabs another Indian in the back with the help of a foreign power, he is considered a progressive, a liberal, a secularist. Cry, the beloved country!” And, here is an ‘academic’, eulogising these ‘JAICHANDS’!!

Khalidi will of course NOT MENTION the ‘egg on their faces’ in the ‘ California Textbook Controversy ‘ of 2005 !!The State of California adopts new textbooks every six years. The
adoption of these textbooks is preceded by a well laid-out and lengthy process of review in which members of the resident communities in the State get a chance to participate. This
process was set in motion for the review of existing Social Studies textbooks of Class V1.

For several decades, Hindu Americans and Indian Americans have been dismayed at the slanted, erroneous and prejudiced description of their Heritage. This time – in 2005 – they approached the California Board of Education to highlight the errors. It is then that these ‘politically active NRIs’ aided and abetted by the ‘Eminent Historians’ in India and a Sanskrit Professor from Harvard University – Michael Witzel – decided to fish in troubled waters. They wanted ‘status quo’ maintained in respect of Hinduism !! Here is one example, from many, that young NRI children were taught from the textbook : “The Ancient South Asian World”, Oxford University Press (pp-87): ” The monkey King Hanuman loved Rama so much that it is said that he is present every time the Ramayana is told. So look around-see any monkeys?” The matter ended up in the Courts at Sacremento. These ‘politically active NRIs’ ended up with ‘ muck ‘ on their faces !! One group was thrown out of the Court !! And Khalidi praises these rogues.

As George Thundiparambil put it : ‘ Why are the Abrahamic religionists, Marxists and Nehruvian secularists collectively frightened of Hindu nationalism? Why is political power for the Hindus a dreaded nightmare for imperialist religionists and ideologies across the world? The answer is : A successful and powerful Hindu nation poses a religious, psychological and cultural challenge to the very existence of these ideologies and cultures, because the very rise of the Hindus is a success of all things natural that these enemies have been trying to exterminate.As if these enemies are afraid of the success of Nature itself!”

As for Khalidi’s reference to the U.S.I.C.R.F., it is only worthy of contempt and doesn’t deserve any comment. In any case Hilary Clinton has already thrown their latest ‘rubbish’ into the dustbin at the State Department.

Lastly, a more ‘ truthful ‘ depiction of these ‘ politically active NRIs ‘ would be:  “THE NRI JAICHANDS”.

And, what does one say about a newspaper that publishes such ‘seditious trash’?

JAI HO!!

VANDE MATARAM

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