Two of the V.V.Worst group to have come up in India in the recent years!

Although technically, Bajrang Dal (BD) was the first one to come into existence, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) is the first one to climb the ladder of worstness, quickly followed by Bajrang Dal.

The recent violent communal clashes in the states are in Orissa and Karnataka. And the most recent one, Vadodara, Gujarat which prompted me into writing this post. Gujarat has a bitter history of communal clashes in the last 2 decades, in 1993 & then again 2002. And at the centre  of it all were three parties, BD, VHP and ofcourse, Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP).

Although I won't stress on the obviousness of the futility of such violence, I would like to point out its political implications.

BJP today is close ally of BD and VHP. And although Congress is doing a less than mediocre job of their duties as the government in power, at least they are high in moral values. What I mean to say is, they have always promoted inter-communal harmony and the way forward as the mingling of people from all factions of the society. And one cannot ignore the fact that Orissa, Karnataka and Gujarat are all BJP ruled states. Unless the BJP takes some steps to prevent them from being branded as the hardcore extremist violence-oriented, minority-hating party, they won't last long on the political arena. Because no matter what their stand in these matters, Indians are normally peace-loving people who have accepted all people, no matter what their background, race, colour, religion throughout its history.

I say this because I sincerely believe that BJP has the capabilities (better than Congress) to bring this country into prosperity, and world power indeed. But not in the traditional sense as America is. No way, far from it. On the other hand, I would like India to be power in a sense such that brokers peace between warring countries, and supporting what is right no matter what the consequences.

But to do that, they would really have to break the cord of allegiance to BD and VHP, esp. VHP because of its highly eccentric view about the minority communities in India. Pravin Togadia is one of the worst person to be born in India, and worse still is he is the leader of a party. When you see this man speaking, the only thing that oozes from his mouth is hatred and vengeance. Something India has never harnessed in its long history even after being a victim of imperialism and ruling by foreign powers.

India has always been a tolerant state and will be. And sooner Pravin Togadia and his gang of violent rowdies understand this, the better we can come out of miseries and poverty and make this country a prosperous one.

Jai Hind!

Yankee hegemony finished? Really?

Today, a report in the Hindu quotes Hugo Chavez as saying,

Yankee Hegemony finished!

And in the same paper,on the same page just below the article I see the following,

Gilani backs Kayani's salvo against US operations.

Before you ask (in case there's any American reading this), Gilani is the new President of Pakistan and Kayani is the General of Pakistan's army. And the report said that Bush had approved the movement of US troops into Pakistan for "strategic operations", WITHOUT the approval of Islamabad. And the raison d'être? Strategically clearing the Pakistan militant outposts is the only way to win the war in Afghanistan.

Now clearly, has the hegemony really ended?

Technically, no. Since US still is a major power in the world today (economically and militarily-wise). But I would say today more countries support US because they are afraid of their over-developed trigger finger. And they like to prove it now and then by bombing a few nations every once-in-a-while. Guess it gives them some kind of assurance that 'Okay, we are still cool!'

But in a global scale, I would say the hegemony is actually coming to its end. Recent events if you see, the world is increasingly becoming a bi-polar partisan where on one side we see Russia (who is I believe morally correct even after Georgia invasion because it was Georgia which attached South Ossetia - which has big Russian population - in the first place) who now enjoys support of not only the Republic of China, but also other South American countries (see recent war games of Russia and Venezuela). And as far as we know, South American countries share excellent rapport between them. So, if they feel any threat from the Americans (which I believe they do, and the reason for their ties with Russia), it won't be long before we see the Latin America united under one banner, support loud and clear in favour of Russia.

On the other hand, we have US of A, who is backed today by Western and some countries in Eastern Europe.

So we are increasingly seeing this bi-polar divide in the world, and pretty fast at that. The new cold war has begun. The countries are choosing their loyalties, and it won't be long before those countries which are neutral now (like India) will be forced to choose which side they belong to.