RSS opposes caste-based census

24/05/2010 07:31:26 PTI

NAGPUR: RSS on Sunday said nationality should be the basis in the ongoing national census and not caste.

"The RSS is following the principles of late Dalit leader B R Ambedkar. Right from the beginning, RSS is in favour of a casteless society and any attempt to dilute it will hurt the sentiments of people," RSS general secretary Bhaiyyaji Joshi told reporters here.

RSS has been striving to build a casteless society, he said.

"There is no provision for identifying and separating illegal migrants in the country while preparing the National Population Register (NPR). This will prove to be a threat to the national security and integrity," he said.

According to him, preparation of a multi-utility identity card on the basis of NPR will be incorrect. "Therefore, RSS demands that identity cards be issued only after verification of nationality and the nationality provision should be the basis for NPR," Joshi said.

He said government should fix some criteria for giving reservation to other backward communities (OBCs). "There should not be any hurry and government should initiate a national debate on it. There needs to be a dialogue with various social groups in this regard," he said.

When his attention was drawn towards BJP's demand for inclusion of a provision of OBC category in the national census records to identify OBC population, Joshi evaded a direct reply saying it was for the BJP to decide.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had recently said that the Cabinet will shortly take a decision on whether caste-based census should be undertaken or not.

Karthik
25/05/2010 02:57:30 Kudos to RSS
I fully endorse Sri. Venugopal Ji's sugestions. RSS's stand is cent / cent correct. Vande Matarm

K.Venugopal
24/05/2010 08:04:10

Dissolve caste organisations and form Hindu Front.
The Hindus of various castes who are today benefiting from reservations are living in fool's paradise by imagining that caste census will give them a greater proportion of reservations. Muslims and Christians are also going to enroll themselves under various castes and then they, being more organized than the short-sighted Hindu caste leaders, will corner the major chunk of all reservations. On top of it they will also get special minority rights, which Hindus of no caste are going to get. So it is better for Hindus of all persuasions to reject caste census. Instead they have to be united as Hindus and demand special rights as the majority. What political, economic or social powers have the two largest Hindu castes of Kerala today - the Ezhavas and Nairs? If they unite under the Hindu banner, wouldn't they be running Kerala? Why is it we lack even this minimal common sense?

http://www.haindavakeralam.com/HKPage.aspx?PageID=11153&SKIN=B

Caste in the Census

10/05/2010 11:08:54 Organiser Editorial

The demand for a caste-based census is being strongly advanced by the prominent OBC parties, while it is being opposed by the Home Ministry as fraught with numerous hindrances.

The Parliament was repeatedly thrown to uproarious scenes by the senior leaders demanding an amendment in the format for the questionnaire for census enumeration. Within the ruling UPA , in the Congress Party itself there is no unanimity on the issue with the union cabinet divided down the middle supporting and opposing the caste-based census. Only the Home Ministry, which is overseeing the census work is clear that the demand is dangerous and difficult to accomplish.

The supporters of the caste-based census have their reasons. Their politics in the first place hinges on caste. But they woke up too late. The census exercise for 2011 is well in progress. It is now too late for the enumerators to go back and repeat the process all over again. A caste-based census will help the OBC parties have a better idea of the constituency profile for making their political moves. It will also give them more opportunities to make fresh caste based reservation demands. Afterall caste is a sensitive issue. People kill each other in the name of caste. Even parents resort to honour killings of their children to protect the caste purity. Caste is thicker than blood! Inter-caste marriages are still rare and with every passing day people are getting more and more caste conscious. This often undermines a collective Hindu personality. And the government policies, reservation benefits and economic interests have perpetuated the caste system. There is also political profit in the caste. The Congress Party recently announced its list of office bearers for Bihar prominently announcing the caste tag of each individual. Other parties are not far behind when it comes to finalising the candidates’ list and ministerial berth. The other day, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi claimed that the tainted union Communications Minister A Raja cannot be removed because he is a dalit. So even for taking action against corruption one has to consider caste. This is the travesty of our times.

For four decades after independence national leaders taught us to forget caste, religion, language and provincialism to develop a national psyche. India is one. Indians are one. Our only identity is that Indian nationality. But in the last two decades the politicians have revived casteism and now it has become a political agenda. There are many ways of listing the caste. A comprehensive survey by the National Commission of Backward Classes and or the state Commissions of Backward Classes could generate reasonably authentic data on castes. The Anthropological Survey has listed 65,000 castes. The Government of India has officially recognised 6000 castes and sub-castes under the OBC. Unlike the SC-ST category which has a uniform central list of 1885 notified castes, the OBC lists are different for the state and centre.

A note prepared by the Home Ministry listed a number of practical difficulties for the enumerators and also raised certain fundamental objections on the politician’s obsession with caste based census. "Operational difficulties", in carrying out caste-based census would overshadow the basic objective of the census itself, according to the Home Ministry.

The Ministry is right. The last caste-based census was done in 1931 under the British, and the national leaders afterwards opposed a caste census as divisive. There is no doubt the caste-based census could become misleading and can lead to double counting. Further, there is no religious sanction for the Christians and the Muslims to declare their caste though majority of them enjoy the benefits of caste reservation both at the state and central level. The biggest fear, expressed by the Home Ministry is that a caste census could result in "motivated returns through organised and surreptitious means to project higher numbers of a particular caste". If that happens the sanctity of the census will become suspect.

K.Venugopal
11/05/2010 05:52:20 Caste - NIL
Caste, whatever its merit in holding together the Hindu society may have been in the past, has today become a fissiparous tendency against Hindu identity. Strengthening caste would only ensure the invalidation of Hindu identity. At least the BJP should have been against caste census, which would only help to strengthen caste identities. I have personally decided to declare my nationality as Hindu, my religion as Advaita and caste as NIL.

http://www.haindavakeralam.com/HKPage.aspx?PageID=11047&SKIN=B

Non-Muslim women can’t marry Muslims: Alld HC

12/05/2010 14:41:28 PTI - http://www.zeenews.com/news625911.html

Allahabad: The Allahabad High Court has held that a Muslim man's marriage to a woman of another religion shall be considered void and against the tenets of Islam if he fails to get her converted to the religion before wedlock.

In its order, a division bench comprising Justices Vinod Prasad and Rajesh Chandra also ruled that remarriage of a Muslim man shall be held void if he abandons his first wife without divorcing her and fails to treat children born of the marriage in a fair and just manner.

The order was passed yesterday when the bench dismissed a writ petition of one Dilbar Habib Siddiqui, a resident of Allahabad, who had married a Hindu girl named Khushboo on December 29, last year.

Siddiqui had moved the court with the plea to quash the FIR lodged against him by Khushboo's mother Sunita Jaiswal alleging that he had kidnapped her daughter, a minor at that time, and had compelled her to marry him.

Refuting the charges levelled against him in the FIR, Siddiqui produced a copy of Khushboo's high school certificate to prove that she was a major at the time of marriage and her (Khushboo's) representations to higher authorities, upon learning about the FIR, that the marriage was a result of mutual consent.

While holding that having more than one wife is permissible under Islam, the court, however, took strong note of the fact that before tying the knot with Khushboo, Siddiqui had not disclosed to her that he was already married and was the father of three children.

His first wife had appeared before the court during the course of the hearing and alleged that Siddiqui had abandoned her and their three children, compelling them to "live like destitute".

The court noted that Siddiqui "albeit married, had deceived Khushboo Jaiswal, who did not intimate us that she was in the knowledge of the petitioner's first marriage".

"For a valid Muslim marriage, both the spouses have to be Muslim. In the present writ petition, this condition is not satisfied", the court remarked and quoted from a verse in the Holy Quran which says, "Do not marry unbelieving women until they believe... Nor marry your girls to unbelievers until they believe".

Besides, the petitioner's marriage to Khushboo without divorcing his first wife and not dealing with his three children in a fair and just manner was "against the tenets of the Holy Quran" and hence "cannot be legally sanctified", the court said.

The bench quoted the following verse from the holy book while making the above observation - "Marry woman of your choice, two, three or four; But if you fear that you shall not be able to deal justly (with them), then only one... that would be more suitable to prevent you from doing injustice".

Dismissing the petition, the court directed that investigations in the impugned FIR be conducted expeditiously and authorities of the Nari Niketan, where Khushboo is currently housed, hand her over to her parents.

Vijayalakshmi
13/05/2010 06:16:27 Ban marriage conversions
I endorse the views of Sri venugopal.

K.Venugopal
12/05/2010 23:28:03 Ban marriage conversions.
While we, as Indians, are free to abide by our own social and religious beliefs in matters pertaining to marriage, as codified in the Marriage Acts of different religions, the constitution also validates any marriage under Special Marriage Act. Furthermore, all Indians have the choice to be governed either by their respective religious Marriage Acts or the Special Marriage Act. This being so, the condition that a Hindu girl converts to Islam before being eligible to marry a Muslim would not be binding if the couple decides to marry under the Special Marriage Act. Therefore, since Islam does not permit inter-religious marriages, there should be a law prohibiting a Muslim man from marrying a Hindu girl except under the Special Marriage Act so that the Hindu girl does not have to convert. We should start a campaign for the passing of such a law.

http://www.haindavakeralam.com/HKPage.aspx?PageID=11063&SKIN=B

New British PM David Cameron, Extols 'Hindu way of life'

11/05/2010 12:51:30

David Cameron, leader of Conservative party has been elected as the new Prime Minister of United Kingdom today. Following PTI report highlights his views about India and Hinduism. For the whole world Indian way of life is ‘Hindu way of life’ .

Britain's PM-to-be wants special ties with India
PTI

David Cameron, the man most likely to take over as the next Prime Minister of Britain, has promised to forge a "new special relationship" with India and support India's bid for a seat in the UN Security council.

Cameron, who made his first overseas visit as leader of the Conservative party to India in 2006, has been in close touch with the Indian community, extolling the 'Hindu way of life'.

He has often addressed large gatherings of Indian spiritual leader Morari Bapu in Britain.

At 43, he will join the ranks of Tony Blair who was also 43 when he became the Prime Minister in 1997. Blair was the youngest person to hold the apex office since Lord Liverpool in 1812, at the age of 42.

His party's manifesto says that the party will "work to establish a new special relationship with India, the world's largest democracy".

It also commits the party to "work towards greater stability in Afghanistan and Pakistan" and support India's bid for a seat in the UN Security Council.

Speaking at a recent 'Ram Katha' event addressed by Morari Bapu in Wembley, Cameron said the Hindus' commitment to hard work, family values and patriotism found resonance in the "British way of life".

He addressed a similar Morari Bapu event in Leicester some time ago.

Wembley has a large Hindu population, and in 2008 Britain's state-funded Hindu school was established in the London borough.

Britain's Hindus constitute the third largest religious group after Christianity and Islam.

Heaping praise on British Hindus, he said members of the community, "don't just contribute to our society. You shine a light on how we must live".

Cameron said: "Hindus are the most family-orientated community in Britain. You are more likely to stay married, keep your families together and especially look after your elderly".

"While maintaining their religious and cultural traditions, British Hindus have consistently shown, through their service, their patriotism, their contribution to our society, that they are truly British too".

Picking on research conducted by the respected Runnymede Trust titled "Connecting British Hindus", Cameron supported the growing demand that Hindus in Britain should be called "British Hindus" or "British Indians" and not "British Asians".

The Tory leader also stressed the importance of role models within the community.

Although there have been moves to remove barriers of race and ethnicity, more needed to be done to encourage minorities to take up careers in politics, law and the armed forces, Cameron said.

"I want to see more people from your and other minority communities playing their rightful role in helping to run our country to make it a better place for us all to live in.

"The Hindu community is a shining example of the can-do, will-do attitude we need in our country," he said.

K.Venugopal
11/05/2010 13:10:48 Politicians know the art of appeasing.
Being a politician in the hunt for votes, he would have equally extolled the 'Islamic way of life'.

Karthik
12/05/2010 20:58:59 Jeswins
India itself is a meaningless name and thus anyone wants to be proud by calling himself Indian First is suiciding himself. Hindustan is our identity. It is a country of those who are Hindus and those who were Hindus. With the issue over EVMs burning hot as a debate, anyone who comments on BJPs failure is premature. It is upto X ians whether to praise Mohanlal for wearing a cross or giving a virgin birth. Christian names and symbols are as alien to Bharat/Hindustan as the British PM is. But one should congratulate the British PM for atleast acknowledging Hindu (Bharathiya) way of life which Mother Teresa failed to do during her entire life.

jeswin
12/05/2010 23:17:48 No right to critisize Mother Theresa
How can you criticize Mother Theresa?
Did you know the good work she had done India?Even thousands of 'Matha Amithanandamayis' lives in India,Mother Theresa's name will stand seperate.All the blessings that India enjoying nowadays ,main part is because of her prayer for India.

K.Venugopal
13/05/2010 05:08:36 Poothana Theresa
It is tragic when people suffer due to poverty and the best of people have always come forward to contribute their mite towards poverty alleviation. Many have of course exploited the poor. Among the most "successful" exploiters of the poor has been Mother Theresa. It is well documented that all the poor people whom Mother Theresa saved from the streets were housed and provided with bare necessities while she built a financial empire out of their poverty. And she used that fund for her "harvesting of souls" activities. Her successor was not someone from the street but a person from a rich and elite family. You can't compare her with Mata Amritanandamayi, who has not exploited the poor but liberated many from poverty to the higher art of living. Mother Theresa is no mother. She is the modern avtar of Poothana who tried to poison Krishna. In Greek mythology there is a witch called Circe, who transformed her enemies into animals. This is what the so-called Mother Theresa did - transforming her enemy Hindus into Christians.

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