Front Page
Vice-President Venkaiah Naidu travelled to Chicago to deliver the valedictory address at the World Hindu Congress, a “conference that has raised concerns of the promotion of a Hindu supremacist agenda,” The Hindu reports. Naidu, a former Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) volunteer, said it was his “responsibility” to attend the meeting, wherein he declared, “We Hindus do not merely tolerate, we unite ourselves with every religion.”
RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat, also speaking at the WHC, has already been criticised by the Opposition for his comments comparing Hindus and other religious groups with animals. Bhagwat said, “If a lion is alone, wild dogs can invade and destroy him.” Not everyone was pleased.
This is the sort of communal, khaki-shorts-IQ claptrap that will always hold India back. You cannot be a modern nation AND listen to Mohan Bhagwat at the same time. https://t.co/gvWtOJCF03
— Tunku Varadarajan (@tunkuv) September 9, 2018
Activist Madhu Kishwar saw nothing wrong, though.
1.Full day at #WorldHinduCongress in Chicago, haven't heard ONE WORD that could be called "hateful".Not even in speech of demonised Shri Mohan Bhagwat. Yet Christo-Islamists with group of Hindu hirelings have defamed it as a "Fascist" gathering. This insult needs fitting response
— MadhuPurnima Kishwar (@madhukishwar) September 8, 2018
Bhagwat boasted, “Hindus recognise even the right of pests to live and make their life.” Outside the conference venue, two women protesters were arrested after holding up placards that called the organisation fascist.
But Twitter was aflame Sunday because all participants to the WHC were gifted packages of one soft and one hard laddoo (sweets) with the accompanying message: Soft laddoos are “easily broken and swallowed” and “strong bonded” hard laddoos are what Hindus should aspire to be.
Meanwhile, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), concluded its National Executive meeting Sunday. Party president Amit Shah promised the BJP would be in power for the next 50 years after the 2019 elections. Thick with sarcasm, The Telegraph wrote, “Not even God himself can sink these Titanic Twins in the next 50 years,” referring to Shah and Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
According to The Indian Express, the BJP boasted its electoral success and “spoke in detail on the issue of internal security” — “urban maoism” being one of them. The Telegraph, however, reports, “Little attention had been paid to politically active issues like the rising fuel prices, the upper caste agitation against the SC/ST atrocities law, allegations of wrongdoing in the Rafale jet deal and the Kashmir dispute.”
In a special statement, the BJP also announced NRC would identify “infiltrators” who will be “stripped of citizenship rights and deported”, said a report by The Hindu.
Business Class
Should the depreciating rupee be a cause of worry? The Economic Affairs Secretary Subhash Chandra Garg doesn’t thinks so. In an interview to The Economic Times, Garg pegged the right value of rupee at 68-70 per US dollar. “There was no reason for further depreciation of the Indian currency and no extraordinary measures were needed as of now,” Garg assured through the interview. He also assured that there will not be any problem because of high crude oil prices as the government was working to ensure uninterrupted supply from Iran.
Tougher times ahead for on-leave ICICI Bank CEO Chanda Kochhar. Business Standard reports that Kochhar and her husband could be summoned soon to personally appear before market regulator SEBI “with regard to a probe into alleged regulatory lapses with regard to his business dealings.”
Point of View
In ‘Naya Pakistan’, there is no room for minorities. At least this is the signal the world has received from the resignation of economist Atif Rehman Mian from the Economic Advisory Council of Pakistan. He was eased out of the council as he is an Ahmadi. Pakistan does not recognize Ahmadis as Muslims. Two more overseas economists have resigned in protest. The Indian Express in its editorial writes, “For those in India who were encouraged by Mian’s appointment, seeing it as a possible beginning against the extremism and terrorism that radiates from Pakistan to its neighbours, the volte-face within days is a sobering reality check.”
The Government of India issued an advisory for media to refrain from using the word ‘Dalit’ for Scheduled Castes. D. Raja, national secretary of the Communist Party of India, in his column in The Hindu writes, “Such an advisory at a time when the term Dalit is empowering Dalits in their relentless fight against the increasing levels of atrocities against them, and at a time of heightened Dalit consciousness in the country, only signals the intent of the government to further marginalise the community, which is being asked to conform to the identity determined by the government.”