January 24, 2012.
Statement of Dr. Subramanian Swamy,
President of the Janata Party.
The Congress Party-led UPA Government needs to be thoroughly condemned for the sneaky way they prevented Salman Rushdie from speaking through video link to the Jaipur LIT Fest gathering. To me it is no surprise that given the Fascist parentage of Ms Sonia Gandhi, and later her being weaned on the authoritarianism of the Soviet system, she at the first opportunity would undermine democratic freedoms especially when her position was threatened electorally.
But the writers, and intellectuals who assembled in Jaipur should now recognize that freedom of expression is not divisible. These affected people in Jaipur had kept their stony and loud silence when a Op-Ed article of mine in the DNA newspaper was targeted both nationally and internationally by the same forces to curry favour with wealthy Muslim fanatics.
The fight for democratic freedoms can succeed only when there is eternal vigilance and a commitment to defend even those with whom we do not agree. As of now there is a creeping Emergency type situation in the country and the catalyst for it is Ms Sonia Gandhi. We should no more pretend that it is not so.
( SUBRAMANIAN SWAMY )
Comments
This is unfortunate in our country that no one can raise voice against the government when things are not as per law. If someone raises voice, immediately the person or the organisation is branded as communal when they have Hindu names.If that perception is argued to be incorrect from the government side, then the question is as to why such a perception has come to the mind of the non political citizen. The present congress government has done more damage to our constitution (the latest being the Rajya Sabha episode and the earlier being the Baba Ramdev’s episode) than any other governments of India has ever done.
With all the above, we still boast ourselves of democracy (people of developed nations laugh at us). As Dr Swamy has written, now, it is an undeclared emergency but our beloved country has faced these kind of challenges many a times in our long history and therefore, people will give a fitting reply to this attitude.
It has always been my view that we get enamored of foreigners irrespective of their capabilities.We tend to discard great souls like the paramacharyal of Sri Kanchi and highlight people who hail from half breeds and graduate from Soho square. It is time we woke up to realities and asserted our Hindu origins. May Lord Nataraja help us to regain our culture and ancient way of life.D.Ganesh.
Yes, I concur with Dr.Swamy. Long ago say, 15 years ago,in the sidelines of a seminar,in Mumbai city, when private chats were going on during the lunch break, I recall hearing Prof. PG Mavlankar, a former independent MP highlighting incidents that were reminding us of emergency era . Aptly he remarked that an undeclared emergency was existing ,come what may we speak of freedoms from political platforms.I supplement my feeling again, as Arun Jaitly during the third week of Jan. 12 commented that all Central ministers are sounding like individual dictators now! The lady’s(Rajiv’s widow’s) silence is very disturbing and she will do every damage to the polity than Mrs Indira Gandhi did after her lies were bared by the free press of India,during the mid seventies.. The cronies of hers are mere puppets and they are satisfied with their loaves of bread and butter than their loyalty to constitution of India.
A personal request to the managing editor please : How to procure a copy of Era Sezhiyan’s work(compilation) of Justice Shah Report ,published in Chennai in 2011?.will be glad to receive the book supplier’s address ,tel no./fax ,e-mail for buying a copy !