RSS ‘samvad' is a good move
It is the politicians who divide the society for their personal gains. The RSS-organised 'samvad' should also address issues like communal animosity, Wakf Act and Jihaad, among others.
P R Ravinder,Hyderabad
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Time of India
an hour ago
- Time of India
Revanth takes BC quota battle to Delhi, dharna at Jantar Mantar today
Hyderabad: In a high-stakes political battle, chief minister A Revanth Reddy is set to lead a dharna at Jantar Mantar in Delhi on Wednesday, demanding Presidential assent for two key bills that seek to raise BC reservations in the state to 42 per cent. Joined by his cabinet colleagues, Congress MPs, MLAs, MLCs, and hundreds of BC leaders, Revanth is taking the fight to the national capital, urging President Droupadi Murmu to approve the bills, which were sent to her by the Telangana governor three months ago. The state assembly had passed the two bills seeking 42% BC quota in education, employment, and local bodies. For the new quota to be implemented, it must receive Presidential assent and be included in the Ninth Schedule of the Constitution. You Can Also Check: Hyderabad AQI | Weather in Hyderabad | Bank Holidays in Hyderabad | Public Holidays in Hyderabad The protest has drawn wide support from the INDIA bloc parties. Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, leader of opposition in Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi, and senior leaders from the DMK, Samajwadi Party, Shiv Sena (UBT), Left parties, and NCP-SP are expected to stand in solidarity with Telangana's demand for enhanced BC reservations. On Tuesday, Telangana Congress MPs moved adjournment motions in both Houses of Parliament, demanding discussion on the bills. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like This is What Your Fingers Say About Your Personality Tips and Tricks Undo On Aug 7, CM Revanth will lead a delegation to Rashtrapati Bhavan to personally submit representations to the President, seeking assent not just for the two quota bills, but also for an ordinance to remove the 50% cap on reservations under the Telangana Panchayat Raj Act. Posters and banners have already flooded parts of Delhi near Telangana Bhavan. Ministers Ponnam Prabhakar, Komatireddy Venkat Reddy, Seethakka, and Vakiti Srihari have reached the national capital, with deputy CM Bhatti Vikramarka and irrigation minister N Uttam Kumar Reddy expected to join them ahead of the protest. Ponnam appealed to BJP MPs and Union ministers from Telangana to support the bills. "Stop using Muslim reservations as an excuse. BJP govts in Gujarat, Maharashtra, and Andhra Pradesh are giving reservations to backward Muslims too. The BJP and BRS should support the bills in the interest of BCs," he said. A special train carrying BC leaders of the Congress, led by AICC minder for Telangana, Meenakshi Natarajan, has already arrived in Delhi, while thousands of BC community members and association leaders are travelling on their own to join the agitation. With the high court directing the state to complete the panchayat election process by Sept 30, the Congress govt is under pressure to ensure that the quota policy is approved and in place before polls. Sources said the Jantar Mantar dharna is part of a three-pronged strategy to step up pressure on the Centre.
The Hindu
an hour ago
- The Hindu
‘Thank You, Gandhi' Reimagines the Mahatma as Moral Compass in Fractured India
Published : Aug 05, 2025 21:48 IST - 5 MINS READ In 1969, the Gandhi centenary year, Jainendra Kumar, the eminent Hindi writer, noting the possibility of Gandhi being forgotten, envisioned a future when he will be 'reinvented not as an individual, but as a non-personal, almost mythical presence' and hoped from that point in time 'a new era of human history will begin'. Presented in a form which is part interesting novel and part intense reflections, Thank You, Gandhi is essentially a set of conversations among two boyhood friends and with Gandhi 'the almost mythical presence' and above all with 'India's deceptive selfhood'. Thank You, Gandhi By Krishna Kumar Viking Pages: 210 Price: Rs.599 The two friends, Viresh Pratap Singh (nicknamed 'Munna') belonging to a minor royal household in Bundelkhand, and 'K,' the narrator, underwent their primary education under the Gandhian Nai Talim method infused with ideals of the national movement. Later, K went on to become an academic, and Munna joined the IAS to fulfil the 'dreams of nation-building along Gandhi and Nehru's vision of a modern yet kind, considerate nation which was also determined to alter its old self'. A gradual distortion Both Munna and K are witness to the gradual distortion of this vision. The landslide victory of an ardent admirer of Godse and a terror accused from Bhopal in the Lok Sabha election serves as a take-off point for anguished reflections on the distressing developments over the last decade. In this period, not only have the leaders of the national movement been vilified, but there have also been concerted efforts to destroy the vision of 'modern yet considerate nation' that inspired not only Munna and K but many, many more. This is most frighteningly evident in the officially sanctioned propagation of lies, the normalisation of violence, the apathy towards mob lynchings, and the heartlessness on full display during the COVID-19 pandemic. Munna himself succumbs to COVID-19 while helping its victims and leaves the task of editing and publishing his reflections on contemporary India with 'Gandhi as a moral compass' to K, who does it with his comments at places, thus continuing his conversation with his friend, who is physically no more. Also Read | RSS and Gandhi: Sangh Parivar's belated attempts to appropriate national heroes in quest for legitimacy Munna puts down his reflections in words, because 'We can't stretch Gandhi. He is no plastic figure. His metal and stone busts are mere selfie spots now. Words alone can protect him from predators.' In the age of visuals dominating all kinds of communication, this faith in words is poignantly edifying. Gandhi is a moral compass because his experiments with truth 'could hardly be all about truth in the common sense of fidelity to facts'; these experiments led him to 'playful reversal'—from God is truth to Truth is God. He perceived 'truth as a symbol of the ideals he saw as ingredients of morality'. Such appreciation does not, however, imply endorsing all his perceptions. Thank You, Gandhi is not a sentimental eulogy but a probing conversation. Munna unhesitatingly notes Gandhi's failure in recognising the implications of the fact that 'Jati is the real structure and Varna an idea'. Ambedkar was obviously closer to reality on caste oppression. Similarly, Gandhi's comment that 'citizens of Hiroshima could have prayed for the bomber pilot before they perished' was 'vacuous'. Gandhi writing a letter to 'dear friend' Hitler 'tells us how ignorant he was and how innocent too. This he would have acknowledged had he lived long enough to visit Dachau or Auschwitz as a tourist.' Critical empathy What Munna concludes about Hind Swaraj would be completely applicable to Gandhi's perceptions and actions taken as a whole: 'It was a code, politically encrypted but essentially moral. It was a new version of old ideas from different philosophical sources, but also from traditions that were still alive in villages and small towns.' Approaching this 'whole' with critical empathy will likely lead to neither deification nor vilification but to a genuine gratitude. These reflections contain a trenchant critique of deliberate attempts being made by Hindu nationalist forces to destroy democratic institutions and norms of civilised behaviour. More importantly, it also underlines the genealogy of moral apathy leading to acceptance of or indifference to these attempts. Munna, a retired civil servant, reminds us: '...handling the ravages of the Union Carbide leak in Bhopal included muzzling the truth and editing of ghastly experiences of thousands of poor people so that everything could be neatly adjusted in the grand narrative of the government.' Therefore, '[i]t is hard to wake up when you are rolling down a gentle slope at a comfortable speed. That is how India was, Bhopal was, before Gujarat happened.' Also Read | Rereading Gandhi Munna's reflections are quite pessimistic. At the very end, K longs for his friend to hear him say, 'India is a great teacher my friend and it never fails to teach whoever tries to bend it.' Despite feeling closer to Munna, this reviewer would like to endorse K as 'where there is no hope, it is incumbent on us to invent it'. This book is indeed 'uncategorisable' (as mentioned in the blurb) for the library cataloguing system, but for anyone concerned with humanity's present and future, it undoubtedly belongs to the category of essential. Purushottam Agrawal is a historian of early modern bhakti poetry and a well-known public intellectual. He has engaged with Hindu nationalism for five decades. His recent books include Who is Bharat Mata? (Speaking Tiger), a collection of Nehru's writings and writings about him with a long introduction. He is currently writing a book on the Mahabharata.
Hindustan Times
an hour ago
- Hindustan Times
Tech to play major role in India's future progress: Ram Madhav
Senior RSS leader Ram Madhav has stressed the importance of technology and innovation for India to become a global power by 2047 and asserted that the type of nationalism unleashed by US President Donald Trump is here to stay and will be a new normal. Senior RSS functionary Ram Madhav (Centre) during the launch of his book in Lucknow on August 5. (HT photo) The RSS functionary was in the state capital on Tuesday evening for the launch of his latest book 'The New World: 21st-Century Global Order and India'. In this book, Madhav focuses on the changing world order, concerns of the global community, challenges posed by demographic and climate change. He has also listed out India's emerging role in the evolving balance of power within the global system. Prof MP Gupta, director, IIM Lucknow, unveiled the book. Addressing a gathering on the occasion, Madhav said: 'Artificial intelligence (AI) is crossing all boundaries today. Technology is overtaking the existence of humans. It will play a major role in the overall development and progress of a nation.' 'However, are we catching up with the technology,' Madhav asked the audience as he stressed the need for more research and development work. Further emphasising the importance of technology, he also talked about the recent India-Pakistan conflict. 'In this war, soldiers from both the sides never saw one another. The entire war was driven by technology,' the RSS leader said. Stressing the importance of R&D, he said: 'For India to become a Vishwa Guru, we need more R&D. However, carrying it out is not the sole responsibility of the government. We need to work on the ground. The R&D is the need of the hour.' 'No doubt the Centre is doing a lot to promote R&D, but the government alone cannot do everything. Companies must also come forward and contribute in the research work,' Madhav added. He also commented on companies having market capitalisation of several lakh crores but their expenditure on R&D was only few thousand crores. Commenting on the trade tariff imposed by the US President Donald Trump on India, the RSS leader pointed out that Trump's form of nationalism was here to stay and would increase in future. Talking about Trump's slogan MAGA (Make America Great Again), Madhav said: 'Now, every country will try to protect its interests first. India has to be ready for this change.' To drive home this point, he also pointed out that some European countries rejected European Union's directives to take immigrants as refugees. On the occasion, the RSS leader also applauded chief minister Yogi Adityanath's decision to carry out large scale upgradation of Industrial Training Institutes (ITI) across the state by roping in the industry giant Tata.
